Have You Noticed the Weird New Pokemon Appearing in Pokemon Go?

If you noticed a weird looking Pokemon running around Pokemon Go after this September’s Community Day event, then you weren’t alone. For around 30 minutes after the event, a never-before-seen little monster with a sort of golden nut head could be found in the wild and captured. If you did capture it, though, the unnamed Pokemon would turn into a Ditto or some other Pokemon. What did it all mean? Well now the Pokemon has a name, Meltan and here’s everything we know so far:

Meltan is a totally new species of Pokemon

In a trailer released by the Pokemon company, Professor Willow can be seen discussing all the Dittos that have been caught that were masquerading as this new, strange Pokemon with Professor Oak. Professor Oak goes on to tell us that the Pokemon in question fits the description of an ancient, mythical monster that he’s read about called Meltan. But, apart from a name, more research will need to be conducted by Professor Willow to discover more about the Pokemon.

So far, Meltan has been classified as a Hex Nut Pokemon – which explains why it appears to have a hexagon for a head. Meltan is a pure Steel-type Pokemon and as well as a hexagonal head, has a fluid, amorphous body that is made of liquid metal (that looks similar to the body of a ditto). We don’t know what moves Meltan can do yet, but the official Pokemon website states that this new Pokemon can generate electricity and will use this as a source of energy and as an attack in battle, where it can shoot electricity from its eye. Meltan is also able to use its arms and legs to absorb and corrode other metals.

Overall the new Meltan looks very like a Ditto, and it’s unlikely to be a coincidence that users were able to catch a Meltan that switched back to a Ditto when caught. The body of a Meltan is exactly like a Ditto, just in a different colour and, of course, the metal nut on its head differs it from our favourite pink shape-changer.

It’s also important to note that Meltan has been described as a Mythical Pokemon. This will put Meltan in the same kind of category of Pokemon as Celebi and Mew, so it’s likely to be rare. The fact that it can absorb energy and focus it through its eye, makes it probable that Meltan will be a very powerful Pokemon too, so don’t be fooled by its small, cute and oddball appearance.

A thread on the Silph Road subreddit, has suggested that Meltan might be a 7^th generation Pokemon rather than an 8^th. It also claims that the Pokemon will be number 808 rather than 891, as this would follow on from Zeraora, which was the final new Pokemon featured in Ultra Moon and Ultra Sun.

How do you catch a Meltan?

Any Meltan that was caught during the event instantly turned into a Ditto, so nobody has an actual Meltan yet. Your Ditto will not be able to return to its Meltan form once caught, either. Nor is it clear whether catching one of these Dittos will help you in your quest to catch a Meltan. Since the event ended, these Meltan-Dittos have started to spawn sporadically in the wild, so if you can catch one then do it. Just don’t spend days trying to catch 100-odd of them until we know more.

It’s important to note that the trailer mentioned that research needed to be done, so it may be that Meltan will be obtained only after completing a special research quest, such as the one needed to obtain a Celebi. These storyline quests require players to do specific steps – such as the 8 steps in the ‘Ripple in Time’ quest to obtain Celebi – these included hatching a certain amount of eggs, catching a certain amount of Pokemon and taking part in raids. Once you had completed all steps, Celebi would appear to you in the wild and you could catch it.

We have no actual confirmation about where or when Meltan will be released but it is rumoured that Meltan will be the new Pokemon to be featured in the upcoming Let’s Go, Pikachu and Let’s Go, Eevee games, for the Switch. It may be that Meltan is exclusive to the Let’s Go games and Pokemon Go is just a means to introduce and induce some hype for the game. Or, it might be available to catch in the wild of both games. We will need to wait for Niantic and the Pokemon Company to release more information in the coming weeks. Either way, this is a very new and exciting way for a new Pokemon to be introduced and Pokemon fans across the globe will be desperate to add Meltan to their collections.