Pokémon loves weird evolution methods, and Inkay has always had one of the strangest. Pokémon Scarlet and Violet The Indigo Disk keeps things true to Inkay and Malamar but with a twist that a lot of players will find infuriating.
That’s right, if you are having trouble evolving your Inkay into Malamar, your thought process based on previous games is probably right. You just need to make a few pretty simple adjustments and you will have your topsyturvy squid once more.
Pokémon Scarlet and Violet The Indigo Disk: How to evolve Inkay into Malamar
Pokémon Scarlet and Violet The Indigo Disk is the first time Inkay has been available in a Pokémon game on the Nintendo Switch. That means it is also the first time Game Freak has had to adjust its usual evolution method to a non-3DS console.
Previously, you would simply need to level up your Inkay to level 30 and then physically flip your 3DS upside down when it is leveling up to trigger the evolution. This was the only method to evolve Inkay into Malamar, and it still applies to the Switch—with a few extra steps.
You still need to reach level 30 and level up your Inkay in battle—it has to be in a battle and not through the use of Rare Candy or EXP Candy, to achieve this evolution. However, you also need to have your Switch out of its dock and hold it upside down with no external controllers powered on while doing so. Make sure you double-check all of your controllers are off before trying to ensure the evolution will work, otherwise, you will need to try again.
