Prove your protective nature to unlock the Guardian of the Seas.

There are a handful of fun secrets in New Pokémon Snap, but arguably the most exciting one is finding Lugia. It isn't the most straightforward thing in the world, but once you know what to do, it's not too difficult. Here's everything you need to know about Lugia in New Pokémon Snap, including its location, how to get to it, and how to awaken it for the best pictures.

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New Pokémon Snap Lugia Location

If you just want to know where Lugia is located, but want to figure out how to find it yourself, just know that it is found in the Lental Seafloor area of the map in the Undersea level.

New Pokémon Snap How to unlock Lugia

You must first have completed three things in order to unlock Lugia:

  • Complete the glowing Cystabloom quest in the Lental Seafloor, which unlocks Pink Illumina Orbs.
  • Get the Undersea level to Research Level 3.
  • Clear the Clawitzer cave in the Undersea level.
    • Near the start of the Undersea level, hit the Clawitzer with an Illumina Orb before it shoots at the rocks in the cave. This will make its blast strong enough to destroy the rocks in your path and reveal an opening. DO NOT speed up to get to the cave faster, as this will put you ahead of the Clawitzer.

Once you've done all of that, there are some specific steps you'll need to follow to find Lugia.

New Pokémon Snap How to find Lugia and wake it up

  1. Scan the cave area that the Clawitzer cleared to head in that direction.

  2. Keep going down into these dark depths for a while until you see a Cystabloom on a ledge. Look just down and to the right where some sun is hitting a rock, and eventually, a Lanturn will appear.Throw an Illumina Orb at this Lanturn.

  3. As you continue down you'll see one pink and one blue Frillish floating near each other on the left. A Wailord will swim past you and then you'll see that the two Frillish have caught the same Lanturn from before. Throw an Illumina Orb at the Lanturn to free it.

  4. If you have helped Lanturn out both times previously, it will happily wait for you and lead you to a cave on the side. Scan the cave on the right to follow Lanturn. This will lead you to a sleeping Lugia just on the right.

  5. To wake Lugia, you'll need to throw Illumina Orbs at the two Cystablooms on either side of it. One is in front and one is behind it on a ledge above next to a Magikarp.

  6. Once that's done, hurl Fluffuits at Lugia until it awakes and swims out of the small cave.

  7. Now take pictures like crazy!

With Lugia awoken, it will swim around the rest of the level. Light up the Cystabloom in the center of the ruins to get some beautiful pink lighting.

Guardian of the Sea

Now that you've found Lugia, it's time to share your favorite Lugia pictures with others. If you have a Nintendo Switch Online account, you can even upload your favorites to the Your Space section of New Pokémon Snap for others to see.