Stuck staring at a trapped Onix and wondering how to get him out? You are not alone. Pokémon Pokopia is deliberately open-ended, which means players regularly stumble onto the cave before they have the tools to do anything useful. The good news is that freeing Onix is very doable once you understand the chain of quests that leads there, and the payoff is significant: a Bulldoze Pokémon that becomes essential for rebuilding Pokémon Centers throughout the game.
What Is a Bulldoze Pokémon in Pokopia?
Before jumping into the rescue steps, it helps to understand why you even need a Bulldoze Pokémon in the first place. In Pokémon Pokopia, certain Pokémon carry a Speciality stat that grants unique environmental abilities. The Bulldoze Speciality allows a Pokémon to destroy buildings and clear rubble, which is the only way to demolish the wreckage blocking each area's Pokémon Center so it can be rebuilt.
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A Bulldoze Pokémon is required in every zone to progress the main story. Without one, rebuilding the Pokémon Center, and therefore unlocking the next area, is impossible.
Onix is the first Pokémon in the game that carries this Speciality, making his rescue one of the most critical early milestones. As you unlock new zones later in the game, additional Bulldoze Pokémon will appear and won't require the same extended quest chain to recruit.
How to Unlock the Path to Onix
Reaching Onix requires completing several prerequisite steps. Here is the full sequence:
Step 1: Set Up the Punching Bag for Hitmonchan
To even reach the cave where Onix is trapped, you first need the Rock Smash move. Getting it means attracting Hitmonchan to your area. Head to the ruins near the Pokémon Center in Withered Wasteland and locate the punching bag sitting beside a bench. Place it to trigger Hitmonchan's arrival. Once he shows up, learn his Rock Smash move and then complete his exploration request.
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The punching bag is found in the ruins area close to the Pokémon Center in Withered Wasteland. If you are having trouble spotting it, look for the bench nearby as a landmark.
Step 2: Break the Wall for Squirtle
After completing Hitmonchan's exploration request, Squirtle will ask you to smash a stone wall blocking access to a beach. Use Rock Smash to bring it down. Squirtle will run ahead toward the cave on the other side but will stop at the entrance, too nervous to go further inside.
Step 3: Find Onix Inside the Cave
Head into the cave yourself and take the left turn. You will encounter more breakable blocks along the way. Smash through them to reach Onix, who is trapped behind a second set of rocks. Note that some gaps in the cave are filled with unbreakable blocks. If you try to crawl through those, the game will automatically switch you to Ditto form to navigate them.
Speak to Onix and he will ask for your help escaping.
Rock Smash clears cave path
How to Actually Free Onix: The Humidity Quest Chain
Here is where things get more involved. Rock Smash alone is not powerful enough to break the rocks trapping Onix. The solution requires raising the humidity in the area to weaken those specific rocks first. This triggers a multi-step quest chain.
Step 4: Talk to Professor Tangrowth
After speaking with Onix, go find Professor Tangrowth. If he currently has any outstanding quests for you, those need to be finished before he will engage with the Onix situation. Wrap those up and then bring the problem to his attention.
Tangrowth will then call a meeting with Squirtle, Bulbasaur, and Charmander to discuss the situation. The group concludes that increasing the water supply in the area is necessary, which means recruiting Slowpoke.
Step 5: Create a Habitat for Slowpoke
To attract Slowpoke, you need to have already opened up the south coast of Withered Wasteland for Professor Tangrowth. Once that is done, place four patches of grass beside the sea in that area to create a suitable habitat. Then wait for Slowpoke to appear and speak with him.
Slowpoke habitat on south coast
Step 6: Build a Path for Slowpoke
Getting Slowpoke to Professor Tangrowth's location requires a bit of environmental work on your part:
- Build steps so Slowpoke can climb over any blocks in his path.
- Use Water Gun to water the ground along his route, which increases his movement speed.
Once Slowpoke makes it back to the Professor, the next phase of the quest begins.
Step 7: Raise the Humidity
With Slowpoke at the Pokémon Center, the team will identify that humidity levels in the area need to go up to properly weaken the rocks around Onix. This triggers the Yawn Up A Storm quest. Follow each request from the Pokémon involved to push the humidity meter to the required level.
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Do not skip any of the Pokémon requests during the humidity quest chain. Each one contributes to the humidity level, and missing steps will prevent the rocks from weakening enough to break.
Once the humidity target is reached, head back to the cave. The rocks around Onix will now be weak enough to smash with Rock Smash, freeing him at last.
Why Freeing Onix Is Worth the Effort
The quest chain to rescue Onix is one of the longer early-game sequences in Pokémon Pokopia, but the reward justifies every step. With Onix on your team, you gain access to the Bulldoze Speciality that clears the Pokémon Center rubble in Withered Wasteland, unlocking the hub features tied to it and pushing the main story forward. Every subsequent area in the game follows the same pattern, so understanding how Bulldoze Pokémon work now will save you confusion later.
For more Pokémon Pokopia, check GAMESGG guides below:
How to Get Eevee & All Eeveelotions
How to Rebuild the Pokemon Center