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How to catch Meltan in ‘Pokémon Go’ and ‘Pokémon: Let’s Go!’

Let's Go, Meltan! How to catch Pokémon Go's exclusive pocket monster

New Discovery: Rare Footage of Meltan in the Wild!

The Pokémon Company has unveiled the first original pocket monster for Pokémon Go, Meltan. The curious looking mythical Pokémon has a body made of liquid metal that sort of resembles Ditto, but atop his head is a brass nut. It’s definitely a strange looking Pokémon, but we’re anxious to see the Hex Nut Pokémon in action. That’s right, a Hex Nut Pokémon, which is an entirely new species in the Pokémon universe.

Meltan will be available when Pokémon: Let’s Go, Pikachu and Let’s Go, Eevee launch on November 16. You need to have Pokemon Go and a copy of Let’s Go in order to snag him. Here’s the process for acquiring Meltan.

How to catch Meltan

Meltan Research Update from Professor Oak and Professor Willow

The first step to catching Meltan is to transfer a generation one Pokémon to Pokémon: Let’s Go. It has to be one of the original 151 since it only supports gen one monsters and Meltan (so far). After the transfer is complete, a mystery box will be deposited into your items in Pokémon Go.

Open the mystery box and Meltan will appear. Don’t worry — it can only be caught by the person who opened the box. It’s unclear how challenging it will be to catch Meltan, but you’ll see it on the field map after the box is opened. Lob some Pokéballs and secure this shiny new Pokémon.

How to get Meltan in ‘Pokémon: Let’s Go!’

Meltan can’t be caught in Pokémon: Let’s Go so you have to catch and then transfer him from Pokémon: Go. Once secured, transfer Meltan to your game so it can join you on your epic quest to be the very best! Keep in mind that once Meltan is transferred, you cannot send it back to Pokémon Go.

The mystery box will lock after you open it the first time, but you will be able to try again after some time passes. We don’t know how long you’ll have to wait between unlocks, but once it lapses, you can transfer another Pokémon to your Let’s Go game and unlock the box again.

Read Pokémon Go could be a game for everyone — but it isn’t there yet

Theoretically, this means you can catch an endless amount of Meltans and build a Hex Nut army. Or better yet, if the end of the new trailer “New Discovery: Rare Footage of Meltan in the Wild!” is suggesting what we think it is, you might be able to evolve Meltan if you collect enough of them. But we won’t know for sure until its arrival with Pokemon: Let’s Go, Pikachu and Let’s Go, Eevee.

Other ways you can acquire the funny little Hex Nut Pokemon is by gift or trade. You can also get the mystery box by sending a generation one Pokémon to a friend instead of yourself.

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Steven Petite
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Steven is a writer from Northeast Ohio currently based in Louisiana. He writes about video games and books, and consumes…
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