Pokémon GO Mystery Box

You get a Mystery Box by sending a Pokémon out of Pokémon GO. That's the whole mechanic. The usual route is Pokémon HOME, a free app on your phone; the box drops into your Item Bag the moment the transfer is sent.

1. Make a free Nintendo Account at accounts.nintendo.com. Under-16s (under-13 in some regions) need a child account managed by a parent or guardian. Pick the account carefully — HOME's Nintendo Account link becomes effectively permanent once you buy Premium or sync a Switch.
2. Install Pokémon HOME from the App Store or Google Play and sign in with that account. The free Basic plan is fine; Premium is not required for GO transfers.
3. Link it in Pokémon GO — Poké Ball → Settings → Connected Devices and Services → Pokémon HOME → Sign in. This link has to be made in the HOME mobile app; the Switch version can't link Pokémon GO.
4. Send a junk Pokémon. Tap Send, pick something you will never want back, confirm the Transport. Your box arrives immediately.
5. Open HOME and receive it. This does not affect the box you just got — it decides whether you get the next one. Pokémon left in transit block all future sends.

Worth knowing if you snipe: sending a Pokémon to HOME is not a cooldown action. You can pick up a box mid-session without costing yourself a cooldown window.

There are two routes to the same box, and both are valid. If you own a Nintendo Switch, sending a Pokémon to Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu! or Eevee! gets you a Mystery Box exactly as it always has. If you don't own one — and most people don't — the free Pokémon HOME app on your phone does the same job, which is the part a lot of guides still get wrong.

Get Pokémon HOME (free)

The Basic plan is enough — HOME Premium is not required for Pokémon GO transfers.

Two things people mix up. The GO ↔ HOME link must be set up in the HOME mobile app — the Switch version of HOME can't link Pokémon GO — and the send is always started inside Pokémon GO. Once sent, you can take delivery in either the mobile or the Switch version, as long as both use the same Nintendo Account.

The one free-plan catch worth knowing: HOME Basic holds 30 Pokémon in a single box. Fill it up and you can't receive, which means you can't send, which means no new Mystery Box. Release or move things out to keep the loop turning.

Every guide tells you to use Pinap Berries and stops there. Here's the actual arithmetic — drag the catch count to match the sort of hour you have.

Meltan caught in the hour65

Trainers who stay in the app for the full 60 minutes report roughly 55–80. Dipping in and out costs you spawns outright — they keep coming and despawn uncaught.

Berry on every catchNo berry — 3 candyPinap — 6 candySilver Pinap — 7 candy

Steel-type Mega activeNoneBase or High level — +1Max level — +2

Meltan Candy you already have

Transfer the spares to the Professor

1

Mystery Box

Today

done in a single box

6 candy per catch + 1 for transferring the spare × 65 catches = 455 Meltan Candy a box, against the 400 a Melmetal costs.

Two numbers the internet keeps repeating are wrong. “4 candy, 7 with a Pinap” can't be right — a Pinap doubles, and 4 × 2 is 8, not 7. Those are the catch-plus-transfer figures (3+1 and 6+1) relabelled as per-catch. And weather boost does not give bonus candy — Niantic's own weather page lists extra Stardust, stronger moves and more frequent spawns, and nothing about candy.

Buddy walking is a trap worth naming: at 1 candy per 20 km, walking a Meltan to 400 candy is 8,000 km. Treat it as a rounding error, not a plan.

One bonus that is real: Meltan is a Mythical, so every catch drops a guaranteed 3 Meltan Candy XL if you're Trainer Level 31 or above. At a typical 65-catch hour that's about 195 — so two boxes clear the 296 Candy XL it takes to push a Melmetal from level 40 to 50. No other Mythical is close to that cheap to farm XL on, which is why Melmetal is the standard answer to “power up a Pokémon to level 50”. Berries don't affect Candy XL.

• Stock up first. Meltan has a low catch rate and never flees, so it won't run — but it will happily eat five balls. Bag space for balls and Pinaps is the real constraint.
• Silver Pinaps beat Pinaps twice over — 7 candy instead of 6, and 1.8× the catch rate, so fewer balls per Meltan too. Use them if you have the stock.
• Don't leave the app. Spawns arrive continuously for the full hour and uncaught Meltan despawn. Idle minutes are lost candy — this is the single biggest difference between a 30-catch hour and a 70-catch one.
• Walking doesn't help. The spawn rate is identical standing still, so sit down somewhere comfortable.
• Transfer as you go. Every spare Meltan is one more candy, and you only need to keep one.

One useful side effect of the exclusivity: opening a Mystery Box counts toward research tasks that ask you to use an Incense.

Yes, but not for the reason most pages give. Meltan is a pure Steel type, so Snow weather boosts it — and a weather-boosted encounter comes in five levels higher with a 4/4/4 IV floor and 25% more Stardust. It does not give you more Meltan, and it does not give you more candy.

So snow is worth chasing for exactly one reason: the Meltan you keep. If you're going to spend 400 candy on a Melmetal, opening the box somewhere it's snowing means the one you evolve starts higher and can't roll below 4/4/4. Chase whichever hemisphere is in winter, or go high — the weather in game follows real weather where you are.

So we track it. The board below is built from our own scanners' live in-game weather where we have coverage, topped up with a forecast check on snow-prone places worldwide every half hour:

If you teleport to reach snow, mind the cooldown first — acting too soon after a long jump is the classic soft-ban, and you don't want to burn box minutes on it. Our hotspots page and the live 100% IV coordinates feed are the fast way to find somewhere worth standing.

No — not as of August 2026. And this is the part worth being precise about, because it changes how you play: shiny Meltan isn't a rare roll you can grind for. Outside an announced window the chance is zero, not small. Niantic's own Help Center has an “Event-Limited Shiny Pokémon” section naming Meltan alongside Smeargle and Unown as species that can't be encountered in their shiny variants outside specific events — and every event announcement says you “will be able toencounter Shiny Meltan”, never the “increased chance” wording used for shinies that are always live.

So don't burn boxes hunting one on an ordinary day. There have been eight windows in seven years, most recently 28 April – 4 May 2026 (Steeled Resolve) — and none at all in 2025, so they're unpredictable rather than annual:

• 28 April – 4 May 2026 (Steeled Resolve)
• 28 June – 3 July 2024 (8th Anniversary Party)
• 21–29 March 2023 (Let's GO!)
• 16–30 June 2022 (TCG Crossover)
• 6–15 July 2021 (5th Anniversary)
• 17–23 November 2020 (Pokémon HOME event)
• 24 April – 5 May 2019
• 5 February – 4 March 2019

Niantic has never published a rate. The only proper measurement is The Silph Road's February 2019 study — about 1 in 60 across 7,850 encounters — while reports from the 2026 window cluster nearer 1 in 64. The “1 in 125” figure most guides print has no study behind it. Either way those odds only exist inside a window, so save your boxes for one: we track what's live on the events page, and you can tick shiny Meltan off in the shiny checklist when you land one.

Every transfer to HOME costs GO Transporter Energy. You hold at most 10,000, it refills at 60 per hour (about seven days from empty), and you can top it up with PokéCoins at 1 coin per 10 energy.

Which is the whole argument for sending rubbish. A low-CP common costs 10 energy — you could farm a box every three days forever and never notice. A shiny Legendary costs the full 10,000, a week of recharging, and it is gone for good: GO to HOME is one-way. Nothing comes back. Lucky and Purified Pokémon also lose those statuses on arrival.

• The Send button does nothing. Plenty of Pokémon simply can't be sent: your Buddy, anything defending a Gym, anything favourited, Mega-Evolved, Shadow, costumed, Spinda, Pokémon caught in special balls, and Gigantamax Pokémon. Un-favourite first — that's the usual culprit.
• No new box after transferring. Your last transfer is probably still unreceived in HOME. Open HOME, take delivery, then send again. You can send up to 25 at a time, and all of them must be received before the next send.
• The box won't open. Check that an Incense, Daily Adventure Incense or Coin Bag isn't already running — they lock each other out.
• It says days remaining. The 3-day clock runs from when you last opened a box, and the game counts it down for you on the box itself.
• Nothing spawns after opening. Make sure your phone is set to automatic date and time — Pokémon GO rejects manual clocks, and it fails quietly.
• HOME says the box is full. The free Basic plan holds 30 Pokémon. Clear space or you can't receive, and if you can't receive you can't send.

Honestly? Less than it used to be. Melmetal has slid a long way down the Master League rankings and now reads as a niche, anti-meta pick rather than a staple — you can check where it lands in our max CP rankings and best attackers lists. Double Iron Bash is still a genuinely nasty move.

The better reasons to build one are that it's a Pokédex entry no coordinate feed can hand you — Meltan has no wild spawns, no raids and no eggs, so the box is the only repeatable source — and that it's the cheapest Mythical in the game to farm Candy XL on. Mark it off in the Living Dex tracker when you get there.

How do you get a Mystery Box in Pokémon GO?

Send any Pokémon from Pokémon GO to Pokémon HOME (or to Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu!/Eevee! on Switch). The Mystery Box lands in your Item Bag the moment the transfer is sent. You need a free Nintendo Account and the free Pokémon HOME mobile app — no Nintendo Switch and no paid HOME plan.

How long does the Mystery Box last?

60 minutes of Meltan spawns from the moment you open it. It was 30 minutes originally; the duration was doubled during 2020 and the longer window was made permanent.

How long is the Mystery Box cooldown?

3 days, counted from when you open the box — not from when you receive it. It launched on a 7-day cooldown in 2018 and was permanently cut to 3 days in April 2019. Some events temporarily reduce it further; the Steeled Resolve event in April 2026 dropped it to 24 hours.

Do you need a Nintendo Switch to get the Mystery Box?

No. Either route works: sending a Pokémon to Pokémon: Let's Go on a Nintendo Switch gets you a box, and so does sending one to the free Pokémon HOME app on your phone. If you don't own a Switch, HOME on its free Basic plan is all you need — a lot of guides still list the Switch as a requirement.

Can Meltan be shiny in Pokémon GO?

Only during announced events, and the chance outside one is zero rather than merely low. Niantic's own Help Center lists Meltan — alongside Smeargle and Unown — as a Pokémon that "can't be encountered in their Shiny variants outside of specific events", so opening more boxes on an ordinary day cannot produce one. The most recent window was 28 April – 4 May 2026 (Steeled Resolve); there was no window at all in 2025, so treat them as unpredictable rather than annual. Separately, a guaranteed Shiny Meltan has been available in Pokémon HOME since February 2025 for registering a complete Let's Go Kanto Pokédex — but that one lives in HOME and transfers only run one way, so it can never reach Pokémon GO.

How much candy does it take to evolve Meltan into Melmetal?

400 Meltan Candy. A Meltan gives 3 candy on catch, 6 with a Pinap Berry, 7 with a Silver Pinap, plus 1 more for transferring the spare to the Professor — so a full hour of catching with berries usually covers it in a single box.

Does weather boost give extra Meltan Candy?

No. This is the most repeated myth about the Mystery Box. Snow does boost Meltan — it is a pure Steel type — but a weather boost gives extra Stardust, a higher encounter level and a 4/4/4 IV floor. It never adds candy. A snow-boosted Meltan caught with a Pinap is 6 candy, exactly like any other.

Can you use Incense while the Mystery Box is active?

No — the Mystery Box, Incense, Daily Adventure Incense and the Coin Bag are mutually exclusive. If one is running you cannot start another. On the upside, opening a Mystery Box counts toward research tasks that ask you to use an Incense.

Do Lure Modules affect the Mystery Box?

No. Lures attract Pokémon to a PokéStop and never spawn Meltan. Mystery Box spawns also do not care whether you walk or stand still — the rate is the same either way.

Why is my Mystery Box not working or greyed out?

Almost always one of four things: the Pokémon you sent to HOME is still sitting unreceived (you must open HOME and take delivery before you can send again), the 3-day cooldown has not actually elapsed, an Incense or Coin Bag is already running, or your device is not set to automatic date and time. Free HOME plans also cap you at 30 Pokémon in one box — a full box blocks the whole loop.

How many Mystery Boxes do you need for a Melmetal?

Usually one. At around 65 catches in the hour with a Pinap Berry on every one and the spares transferred, that is roughly 455 candy against the 400 a Melmetal costs. Skip the berries and it takes two or three boxes, which is 3 to 6 days.

Can you trade Meltan in Pokémon GO?

Yes — Meltan and Melmetal are unusual among Mythicals in being tradeable. It is a special trade and costs Legendary-tier Stardust (up to 1,000,000 for a Pokémon neither trainer has registered), so it is rarely a practical way to get one.