Pokémon enthusiasts have a chance to acquire exclusive shiny Pokémon through Pokémon Home, but one of these offers comes with a notable catch. In addition to the ongoing shiny giveaway featuring shiny Enamorus and shiny Manaphy—awarded to players who successfully complete the Pokédex for Pokémon Legends: Arceus and Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, respectively—players who finish the base game along with the Isle of Armor and Crown Tundra DLC Pokédexes for Pokémon Sword and Shield are eligible to receive a shiny Keldeo. Meanwhile, completing the Pokédex for Let’s Go, Pikachu! and Let’s Go, Eevee! grants players a shiny Meltan. Yet, the shiny Meltan may not hold the value many players anticipate.
To claim these shiny Pokémon, players must connect to Pokémon Home and verify their completion of the respective Pokédexes in the Games tab.
Meltan’s introduction to the Pokémon franchise was initially through the mobile game Pokémon GO before it appeared in the core series titles. Despite being classified as one of Generation 7’s Mythical Pokémon, Meltan was never made available in Pokémon Sun and Moon or Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, marking its first official entry in the mainline series with Let’s Go, Pikachu! and Let’s Go, Eevee!. Its evolution, Melmetal, has proven even more elusive largely due to a challenging evolution requirement.
Shiny Meltan: A Valuable Reward with Limitations
Meltan’s Evolution: A Pokémon GO Requirement
As Meltan was first introduced in Pokémon GO, it is designed to interact primarily with this mobile game. To obtain Meltan in the mainline series, players initially had to capture the Pokémon in Pokémon GO and then transfer it to Let’s Go, Pikachu! or Let’s Go, Eevee! via the GO Park. However, players who transferred a Meltan and did not evolve it in Pokémon GO faced a significant limitation, as Melmetal requires 400 Candy to evolve, only achievable within Pokémon GO.
This limitation poses a substantial obstacle for fans who wish to evolve the shiny Meltan obtained through the Pokémon Home event into a shiny Melmetal. Since transfers from other games to Pokémon GO are one-way only, the shiny Meltan derived from completing the Let’s Go Pokédex will remain a Meltan until a new evolution method is introduced.
While shiny Melmetal can still be obtained, it necessitates that players first catch and evolve a shiny Meltan in Pokémon GO before transferring it back to the mainline titles.
The Need for Alternative Meltan Evolution Methods in Future Titles
Despite the current constraints on evolving shiny Meltan, there is always hope that upcoming generations of Pokémon games will provide a new evolution mechanism. Although Pokémon GO remains immensely popular, relying solely on this mobile title limits player accessibility to certain Pokémon, as future shutdowns of the game could permanently lock players out of acquiring Melmetal.
The Pokémon franchise has a history of revising outdated evolution methods. For instance, Milotic previously required a Beauty condition to evolve from Feebas, but this was changed to a trade evolution involving a Prism Scale in Generation 5. Additionally, recent titles like Pokémon Scarlet and Violet showcase various evolutionary methods that may need reevaluation to align with subsequent gameplay innovations. Therefore, it is plausible that Meltan will also attain a new method for evolution in the future.
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