The Starmie Doll is one of the dolls introduced with Bubbly Basin, the underwater town added in the first part of the Pokémon Pokopia Expansion Pass. Like every other doll, it unlocks a dedicated Dream Island stocked with resources you can bring back to develop your town. The catch is that this doll is hidden as an obscured treasure, so you can’t spot it on the ground the way you can with most others.
Quick answer: Complete Frillish’s treasure hunt during the “Build the beautiful building” Important Request, then use a Dowsing Machine to dig up the Starmie Doll from a pile of Star-spotted Rock blocks near the mine cart tracks inside the underwater cave.
What you need before the hunt
The story path is the most reliable way to get your first Starmie Doll, and it has a couple of hard requirements. You need a Dowsing Machine equipped, since the doll stays invisible until you pick it up, and you need Frillish available to lead you to the right stretch of cave.
Frillish only joins you once the questline is unlocked. To reach that point, raise the Bubbly Basin environment level to three by adding homes, fulfilling Pokémon requests, and generally beautifying the area. After that, talk to Popplio to close out their first request, then take on the follow-up task of gathering Pokémon for a construction project. When Popplio offers hints about which Pokémon to help, choose “The floaty pink one” to begin tracking down Frillish.
Note: The doll technically exists in the cave before Frillish is available, but going in early means digging blind. Waiting for Frillish also ticks off a required story step along the way, so there’s no reason to rush ahead.
Finding the Starmie Doll with Frillish
The cave sits near the upper northwest corner of Bubbly Basin. Frillish walks you into the general area, but the exact spot is on you and your Dowsing Machine to pin down. Keep the machine active the whole time so it can start reacting as you close in.
You’ll know it worked when the Starmie Doll is added to your inventory as a picked-up treasure, which also advances Frillish’s request and moves Popplio’s construction task forward. If the Dowsing Machine goes quiet, backtrack toward the rail tracks and sweep the Star-spotted Rock blocks again, since the doll is directly beneath that specific pile rather than in the open.
Other ways to get a Starmie Doll
Once you’ve collected your first doll, three more options open up for grabbing extras to decorate with. The PC route usually unlocks on its own after that initial find, most likely tied to your Palette Town Environment Level rather than anything in Bubbly Basin.
| Method | Cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| PC shop | 300 Life Coins | Can be bought only once, then it goes out of stock permanently. |
| Glowing blocks | Free (daily) | Smash the glowing blocks that appear each day. It’s random, so you may get CDs, Mysterious Slates, or other items instead. |
| 3D Printer | 5 Rare Pokémetal | Requires photographing a Starmie Doll first, either your own or one on a friend’s Cloud Island or town. |
Because the glowing blocks are pure luck of the draw, they’re a poor choice for your very first doll. Treat them as a bonus source for spares. The 3D Printer is the most dependable way to duplicate the doll, provided you have one to photograph.
The Starmie Doll Dream Island
Placing and interacting with the Starmie Doll lets you travel to its own Dream Island. This one leans heavily on water, with far more sea than solid ground. Expect underwater buildings and caves to swim through, plus scattered items, furniture you can pick up or pull from Poké Balls, possible recipes, and habitat information if you haven’t finished every Bubbly Basin habitat.
Each doll’s island spawns three resources more often than the rest. For the Starmie Doll, those are Grubby Pearl, Sea Grapes, and Small Coral, all handy for further developing Bubbly Basin. There’s also a chance to meet and recruit Phione here, though that spawn comes down to random chance and isn’t guaranteed.
Keep in mind you can only pick one Dream Island per day. Once you’ve chosen the Starmie Doll’s island, though, you can return to it as many times as you like for the rest of that day, so it’s worth stocking up on those underwater materials in a single session.
