Mysterious slate puzzle solution in Pokémon Pokopia

As you dig up artifacts in Pokémon Pokopia, you’ll find mysterious slates which don’t have an explicitly stated use, but do have something to do with… Unown? These are part of a larger puzzle with a great reward, if you find them all and place them in their correct positions. There are 27 mysterious slates to find in total, and you’ll need to slot them into the right spots to complete a mural on the wall.

Below we explain what to do with mysterious slates, how to find more, and what you get for collecting them all in Pokémon Pokopia.

What to do with the mysterious slates in Pokémon Pokopia

Withered Wasteland is hiding a mysterious shrine that’s the home for these slates. To find it, you’ll want to break down the sandstone walls northeast of the Pokémon Center:

The initial blocks at this spot are different from the rest. When you use Rock Smash on it, you’ll get to an expanded part of the town. You can also climb up and around the cliffs to access this abandoned area, but you’ll likely want to connect the two parts of town anyway. After doing so, on the left you’ll see some jagged rocks (the kind you’re usually encouraged to break to find new areas). Break it, and you’ll find a very clean path downward into some ruins.

You can also access these ruins through a path through an underground maze, but the above method is a much faster way to get to it.

Inside, you’ll find a huge display of Unown carved into the walls. You’ll want to place your mysterious slates into this indented wall.

Where to find mysterious slates in Pokémon Pokopia

To find more mysterious slates, you’ll just need to dig up the glowing golden spots on the ground using Rock Smash. Given that you can get a lot of different items from these spots (relics, fossils, CDs, and even dolls for Drifloon), you may not find these slates as fast as you want to. The pool is pretty diluted, but don’t give up!

Notably, we didn’t get any doubles until after we got one of each, so at least you won’t be sitting on piles of the same slates while you’re seeking out one specific final slate.

Mysterious slate puzzle solution in Pokémon Pokopia

To figure out where each slate goes, you can place the block down and look at the back of it, where it’ll show you the corresponding Unown slot it goes in. To view the back, you can either spit out the block and take a look, or you can have Ditto “hold” the block and rotate the camera, so you can see the back of it.

You can also hold ZL and then press left or right on the D-pad to rotate the block, allowing you to match it to the correct Unown easier.

Image: Koei Tecmo, Game Freak/Nintendo, The Pokémon Company via Polygon

Under the spoiler warning image below, we show what the completed mural looks like, if you need more help placing your tiles. Note that this does spoil the reveal of a Pokémon, so consider yourself warned.

Graphic: Julia Lee/Polygon | Source images: Koei Tecmo, Game Freak/Nintendo, The Pokémon Company via Polygon

Here’s what the finished mural looks like:

Image: Koei Tecmo, Game Freak/Nintendo, The Pokémon Company via Polygon

You’ll know if you put the slate into the correct spot because it’ll sparkle and make some “shining” sounds.

Mysterious slate puzzle reward in Pokémon Pokopia

Given that you could see what the full mural looks like above, you might have a guess as to what the reward is: Mew! After assembling all the slates into their correct slots, a pink portal will open up. Interact with the portal, and you’ll befriend Mew, who will now roam around. Mew will initially start with no home, so make sure to assign it a house or habitat.

Legendary Pokémon increase Environment Levels at greater rates than other Pokémon. Once we put Mew in a furnished home, our Environment Level gauge went from around 60% full (at level 9) to 100%, boosting us to Environment Level 10. Useful!

If you’re starting out in Pokémon Pokopia, we have guides to help you spruce up your island. We have both a Pokédex and Habitat Dex to assist in figuring out what can spawn where, and what you need to build to summon your favorite creatures. If you’re feeling overwhelmed, you can also check out our beginner’s guide for some early tips and tricks to help smooth out your journey.

We also have walkthroughs for the important requests that progress the story: “Yawn up a Storm!,” “Brighten Things Up!,” “Time to Party!,” and “Build the Huge Building!” If you’re looking to play with friends, know that there are restrictions for the regular Pokopia multiplayer and for the GameShare version.