Pokemonfans can earn a new pair of shiny mons throughPokemon Home, but one of these mons comes with a slight downside. To add to the ongoing shiny giveaway that seesshiny Enamorus and shiny Manaphyoffered to players who complete the Pokedex forPokemon Legends: ArceusandPokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, respectively, players who complete the base game and Isle of Armor and Crown Tundra DLC Pokedexes forPokemon Sword and Shieldcan earn a shiny Keldeo, and those who complete theLet’s Go Pikachu and EeveePokedex can receive a shiny Meltan. However, this shiny Meltan may not be as desirable as it seems.
Players will need to connect toPokemon Homeand confirm their completion of these Pokedexes within the Games tab to claim these shinies.
Meltan is already a bit of an outlier for thePokemonseries, having debuted in the spin-offPokemon GObefore it ever became available in the mainline games. Although it is one of the Mythical Pokemon for Gen 7, Meltan was never available inPokemon Sun and MoonorPokemon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, debuting inLet’s Go Pikachu and Eevee. Its evolution, Melmetal, has remained even more elusive—despite receiving a Gigantamax form inPokemon Sword and Shield—due to an annoying evolution caveat.
Shiny Meltan is a Nice Reward, But Can Never Reach its Full Potential
Meltan Can Only Evolve into Melmetal in Pokemon GO
Given its debut inPokemon GO, it’s not surprising that Meltan’s gimmick revolves around the mobile title.To get Meltan in the mainline series, players originally had to have one inPokemon GOand then transfer it toLet’s Go PikachuorLet’s Go Eeveevia the GO Park. However, players who transferred a Meltan to one of these titles before evolving it were unfortunately out of luck, since Melmetal can only be obtained by evolving Meltan with 400 Candy inPokemon GO.
This stipulation throws a major curveball in the plans of fans hoping to evolve the shiny Meltan received from thisPokemon Homeevent into a shiny Melmetal. Players can’t transfer mons from outside games intoPokemon GO—it’s only a one-way street. So, theshiny Meltan earned by completing theLet’s GoPokedexis destined to remain a Meltan until a new method for evolving it into Melmetal outside ofPokemon GOis made available.
Shiny Melmetal is still possible to obtain but requires players to catch and evolve a shiny Meltan inPokemon GObefore transferring it.
Future Pokemon Games Need an Alternative Way to Evolve Meltan
While players may not be able to evolve this shiny Meltan at the moment, there’s always hope that a future generation ofPokemongames will offer a new method for its evolution. For as strong asPokemon GOcontinues to be, relying on a mobile title as the only way to obtain a certain critter is not a great way to future-proof the Pokedex, as the potential shutdown of the mobile game would end up locking players out from ever obtaining a Melmetal again. As such, it’s likely thatMeltan will receive a new evolution methodat some point.
ThePokemonseries is no stranger to reworking outdated evolution methods for mons that need them. For example, Milotic used to evolve from Feebas based on its Beauty condition prior to Gen 5, when the stat was eliminated and the evolution method changed to a trade evolution when holding a Prism Scale.Pokemon Scarlet and Violetalso feature several evolution methodsthat may need reworking to account for mechanical changes in future generations, so it’s not hard to imagine Meltan gaining a new evolution method in the future as well.
