Paint Guide — Smearguru & Mosslax
Two of the most useful NPCs in Bleak Beach and most players barely interact with them. Here's everything on Mosslax's daily buff table, how to make and buy every paint color, recoloring items, paint balloons, and the house painting trick Smearguru never tells you about.
Mosslax's daily offering table
Once you clear Bleak Beach (the second area, roughly 7–10 hours in), Mosslax sticks around on your island permanently. In front of him is a small table — leave an ingredient or cooked dish there once per day and he'll give you a buff that lasts until 5am the next morning. Raw ingredients work, but cooked food makes the effect noticeably stronger. There are six buff types depending on the flavor of what you offer.
All six Mosslax buff types
Generic (Leppa Berry or wheat): faster friendship and environment level gains. Bitter (seaweed is easiest): higher chance of finding rare items while exploring. Dry (Chesto Berry or cave mushrooms): increased chance of Pokémon dropping rare feathers. Sour (tomatoes): better shop stock — more useful items appear for sale. Spicy (bean or carrot): higher Pokémon spawn rate in habitats. Sweet (potato): better chance of digging up ancient artifacts like mysterious slates and fossils. Cook the ingredient instead of offering it raw and the effect gets a meaningful boost.
Who is Smearguru and why you should talk to him immediately
Smearguru is a Smeargle NPC you meet in Bleak Beach. As soon as you see him, start his quest chain — don't put it off. Completing his quests unlocks the ability to make paint, which opens up item recoloring, house customization, and paint balloons. The game doesn't make a huge deal of him but he's one of the more useful NPCs in the whole game.
How to make paint
You need a Pokémon with the Crush specialty. Early on the easiest option is Onix (or Graler if you have it — check your Pokédex's specialty filter to find whoever you've attracted). Show your Crush Pokémon a berry and select "Make me some paint." The berry type determines the color. Different berries give different base colors, and some colors have a small chance of dropping white or black paint as a bonus.
Paint color chart — berry to color
Leppa Berry → Red. Chesto Berry → Blue. Lum Berry → Green. Aspear Berry → Yellow. Pecha Berry → Pink. Rawst Berry → Cyan. White and Black are low-chance bonus drops from several berries (Leppa/Chesto/Rawst can give White; Aspear/Pecha/Lum can give Black). The eight base colors can be mixed in pairs to craft the secondary colors — gray needs Blue + White, lime green needs Green + Yellow, orange needs Red + Yellow, and so on.
| Color | Berry needed |
|---|---|
 Red |  Leppa Berry |
 Blue |  Chesto Berry |
 Green |  Lum Berry |
 Yellow |  Aspear Berry |
 Pink |  Pecha Berry |
 Cyan |  Rawst Berry |
 White | Leppa BerryLow chanceChesto BerryRawst Berry |
 Black | Aspear BerryLow chancePecha BerryLum Berry |
Pokémon with Crush specialty
Any of these will work for making paint. Early game, Geodude and Onix are the easiest to attract. Pawmi, Pawmo, and Pawmot show up in Bleak Beach so they're your go-to once you're there.
Onix
Smooth Tall Grass
Steelix
Clink-clang Iron Construction
Conkeldurr
Construction-site Generator
Pawmi
Breezy Flower Bed
Pawmo
Tantalizing Restaurant
Pawmot
Café Space
Dugtrio
Tree-shaded Red Tall Grass
Geodude
Tall Grass
Graveler
Mossy Boulder
Golem
Mossy Boulder
Tyranitar
Mossy Rest Spot
Tyrantrum
Despot Fossil Display
Metagross
Floating / Elevated Area
You can also just buy paint
If you get Pallet Town (the multiplayer island) to level 5, its shop starts selling paint directly. Level 5 is a grind. You need to attract a variety of Pokémon, build houses, keep them happy — it takes a while. But once you're there you can buy any color including the rarer ones. Unlocking it in Pallet Town also unlocks it in your other Pokémon Centers, so you can restock from anywhere.
Recoloring items with Smearguru
After completing Smearguru's quests, go to him and select "Paint something for me." Items that can be recolored show a small paintbrush icon in your inventory. Not everything is paintable, but blocks, furniture, and a decent range of decorative items are. Pick the item, pick the color, done — it's instant.
Paint balloons
Paint balloons are craftable at a workbench using two paints mixed together. They produce the secondary colors (gray, lime green, orange, plum, etc.) that you can't get directly from berries. Throw a balloon at an item and it recolors automatically — no need to go through Smearguru. Useful for quickly recoloring things in the field without running back to him.
Smearguru can paint your whole house
The game doesn't tell you this one. Have Smearguru follow you, then walk up to a house (needs to be a certain size — small starter huts don't qualify). He'll react and offer to paint it. You can set the roof color, wall color, door color, and trim separately. Takes a moment, then the whole house changes. If you're playing with friends it's a good way to make your builds look different from each other.