The Dark/Psychic-type Inkay made its Pokémon Go debut during the Psychic Spectacular event in 2021. It most recently returned in 2024 during the game’s Halloween event, but evolving it into Malamar hasn’t become any more clear.
Fans who’ve played Gen VI will know this species is a bit odd. It not only has a rare typing, but also lives up to its title of the Revolving Pokémon with its unique evolution method, which might confuse players who haven’t yet encountered the Kalos native. If you’ve caught an Inkay during its most recent increased-spawn week, you’ll need to think a bit outside the box in order to evolve it.
In the mainline Pokémon games, players would need to level up Inkay to level 30 and then hold their Nintendo 3DS or Switch systems upside down at the end of the battle to evolve the creature into Malamar. As weird as it might sound, this fits the two Pokémon’s designs perfectly since Malamar is the larger upside-down version of the baby squid-like creature—something you might not realize until after you’ve learned about their evolution.
And just like with many other mechanics, Niantic has replicated this to an extent in Pokémon Go.
How to evolve Inkay into Malamar in Pokémon Go
After you capture an Inkay in Pokémon Go, you will also need to acquire 50 Inkay Candy before you can evolve it. There are a variety of way to get more species-specific candy, including the following methods:
- Catch more Inkay
- Trade Inkay with another player
- Set Inkay as your buddy and walk 3km
- Use Rare Candy
To evolve Inkay into Malamar in Pokémon Go, hold your mobile device upside down, which should register fairly easily. Then the option to evolve Inkay will become available, and all you need to do is initiate the evolution from there.
Don’t feel bad if you couldn’t figure out this random evolution method on your own. Inkay arguably has one of the most bizarre evolution requirements in the franchise. After all, who would ever think to flip their mobile device or gaming system upside down to evolve a Pokémon?
