Pokemon Go’s Steeled Resolve event is officially underway, shining the spotlight on various steel types like the debuting Orthworm. That isn’t the only special Pokemon you can encounter in the mobile game right now, however. The event also brings back the elusive shiny Meltan.
This shiny mythical Pokemon only appears during special events, making it rare even among shiny Pokemon. However, finding one involves persistence and a particular item called the Mystery Box, which you can only obtain through some convoluted means. Here’s a full breakdown on how to get the Mystery Box and catch shiny Meltan before the Steeled Resolve event ends.
How To Catch Meltan
Unlike most Pokemon, Meltan doesn’t normally spawn in the wild. Rather, the mythical Pokemon will only appear after you’ve opened the Mystery Box–a special item that you’ll receive after you’ve linked your Pokemon Go account to Pokemon Home (or Pokemon: Let’s Go, Pikachu or Let’s Go, Eevee for Nintendo Switch).
After you’ve obtained the Mystery Box, you’ll find it stored among the other trainer boost items in your inventory. Open the box and Meltan will spawn around your character on the world map for 60 minutes. Once that time has elapsed, however, Meltan will no longer appear, and you’ll need to wait a set number of days before you can open the box again and catch more Meltan.
How To Get The Mystery Box
As mentioned, you can obtain the Mystery Box in one of two ways, the easiest of which is to transfer a Pokemon from Go to Pokemon Home.
After you’ve connected Pokemon Go to the same Nintendo Account linked to Pokemon Home, tap the Poke Ball icon on the bottom of the screen to bring up the menu and open Settings in the top right-hand corner. From there, tap on Pokemon Home and select Send to open the Go Transporter. Choose the Pokemon you’d like to send over and select Transport to finish the move.
You can also obtain the Mystery Box by transferring a Pokemon from Go to one of the Let’s Go games for Nintendo Switch.
How To Find Shiny Meltan
While you can catch Meltan any time you open the Mystery Box, shiny Meltan only appears during special events, so you won’t want to miss your chance to catch one.
Unfortunately, there are no tricks to increase your odds of finding a shiny Meltan beyond good, old-fashioned perseverance. Your best bet to get one is to open the Mystery Box as many times as you can during the Steeled Resolve event and catch every Meltan you encounter. The Mystery Box has a reduced cooldown timer during this event, allowing you to open it more times than usual. Be persistent and you should eventually find a shiny Meltan.
How To Evolve Meltan Into Melmetal
Another unique aspect about Meltan is how they evolve. Unlike other Pokemon, Meltan can only evolve in Pokemon Go, and they require a whopping 400 Meltan candies to do so, which means you’ll need to catch a lot of them if you want to get a Melmetal.
Fortunately, there are a couple of ways to expedite the process. First, be sure to use a Pinap Berry each time you try to catch a Meltan. If you successfully capture one, you’ll earn six Meltan candies as a reward rather than the usual three. You can also convert any Rare Candies you have into Meltan candies, which should help reduce the number of Meltan you need to catch.
The Steeled Resolve event is scheduled to end on May 4, so you have until then to catch a shiny Meltan. You can read more in our Pokemon Go April 2026 events roundup.