Meltan and Melmetal are Pokémon species in Nintendo and Game Freak's Pokémon franchise. Meltan is a small, metallic Steel-type Mythical Pokémon, while Melmetal is its much larger evolution. Both Pokémon were first introduced, and could only be obtained, through the mobile gamePokémon Go. Revealed in September 2018, Meltan is both the first Pokémon exclusively obtainable in Pokémon Go and the first Mythical Pokémon to evolve.
Design and characteristics
Meltan is a small Pokémon measuring tall. Its head is shaped like a hexagonal yellowish nut, with single, round, black eye within it. Its body is a fluid, grey blob of liquid steel, and it has a single red coloured tail-like protrusion which resembles an electrical cord. According to its description at the Pokemon.com website, Meltan is a curious Pokémon which has the ability to utilise its metallic limbs to corrode and absorb metal, generating electricity in the process which it uses as an energy source and for combat, firing the electricity from its eye. Meltan can be evolved in Pokémon Go, making it the first evolvable Mythical Pokémon. Its evolution, Melmetal, is significantly more massive, with a vaguely humanoid shape and a height of around. Although Melmetal retains Meltan's greyish liquid metal body and hexagonal nut head, Melmetal's design also features several other hexagonal nuts in place of its limbs and joints. Its Pokemon.com description noted that "Melmetal was worshiped in ancient times as a Pokémon with the power to create metal".. Melmetal also has a Gigantamax form in Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield, but it is not obtainable without third party software, as of March 2020.
Meltan first appeared in Pokémon Go following the global Chikorita "Community Day" event on 22 September 2018, with players in the Asia Pacific region being the first to encounter them in-game. Meltan's name was shown as "???", and capturing it would result in it transforming into Ditto or Chikorita. Several days later on 25 September, The Pokémon Company released a trailer introducing the Pokémon as Meltan, and confirmed that the Pokémon would link Go to the games on the Nintendo Switch. Junichi Masuda in an interview with Eurogamer noted that the reveal method was planned by TPC and Niantic in order to give players a strong first impression of Meltan being cute. A second trailer, released in October, revealed that Meltan could only be captured in Go and can be obtained by transferring a Pokémon from Go to the Let's Go games. Later in October, a trailer revealed Meltan's evolution, Melmetal, which can only be obtained by evolving Meltan in Go. In November, following the release of the Let's Go games, Go launched a "Special Research Quest" which allowed players to capture Meltan without playing the Let's Go games. Meltan can also be transferred into Pokémon Sword and Shield through Pokémon Home as of February 2020.
Other media
Meltan is featured in the Pokémonanime series, with a Meltan joining the team of protagonist Ash Ketchum, and evolved together with its fellow hordes into a Melmetal.
Reception
Before its initial appearance, data miners had previously discovered Meltan's model, labelled as "Kecleon" while being designated "Pokémon 891". When Meltan was initially "revealed", many players assumed that Meltan was a placeholder and was accidentally revealed through a glitch. Prior to its name being made public, players gave it nut-related nicknames such as "Nutto". Emma Schaeffer of Electronic Gaming Monthly commented on the release method, noting that the unexpected addition when many players were looking at their screens, combined with Niantic's past glitch history, caused it to become much more popular than other Pokémon revealed in the normal manner. Within hours of the release of the Let's Go! games, Meltan became a trending topic on social media for Pokémon players.
