How to evolve Inkay in Pokémon Legends Z-A

If you're looking to evolve Inkay in Pokémon Legends: Z-A and fill out the Pokédex with Malamar, you're going to need do some rather strange things with your Nintendo Switch. The adorable jellyfish Pokémon isn't evolved simply by leveling them up in Pokémon Legends: Z-A. In fact, getting Malamar involves fulfilling a very unique method for evolving Inkay.

To help with filling out your Pokédex, here's how to evolve Inkay in Pokémon Legends: Z-A.

Need more Lumiose City? Then visit our Pokémon Legends: Z-A walkthrough.

How to evolve Inkay in Pokémon Legends: Z-A

To evolve Inkay into Malamar in Pokémon Legends: Z-A, you're first going to need an Inkay that is Level 30 or above. Fortunately, Inkay is easily found inside of Wild Zone 11 (and most Inkay's here happen to be above Level 30 already), though they can also be found in the Sewers area of Lumiose City.

Once you have a Level 30 or higher Inkay, you need to add them to your party of Pokémon. Then, while roaming Lumiose City, turn your entire Nintendo Switch Console upside down (pictured below) and open the menu using 'X'.

With your console upside down and the menu open, carefully navigate over to Inkay (turns out that using a Nintendo Switch upside down is harder than it looks). Select Inkay and the 'Evolve' option should appear; select that and confirm you want to evolve Inkay. No Rare Candy of EXP Candy necessary!

Only once Inkay begins their evolution can you turn the console the right way round again. Before you know it, you'll have a Malamar!

To summarise, here's how to evolve Inkay in Pokémon Legends: Z-A:

• Catch Inkay in Wild Zone 11, and make sure they are Level 30 or above.
• Put Inkay in your party.
• While exploring Lumiose City, turn your Nintendo Switch console upside down and open the menu using 'X'.
• Select Inkay and select 'Evolve', then confirm.
• Once Inkay begins evolving, you can flip your console.

It's also worth noting that this evolution method needs to be done in handheld mode with both Joy-Cons attached to your Nintendo Switch console. All additional Switch Pro controllers or third-party controllers will need to be disconnected for this to work too.

If this doesn't work for you, try doing a few things around Lumiose City with Inkay in your party (i.e. battling, collecting Mega Shards, Side Missions) and try again. While my first Inkay evolution was plain sailing, my second Inkay evolution didn't quite want to play ball but exploring for a while and trying again seemed to fix whatever the issue was.

Good luck evolving Inkay in Pokémon Legends: Z-A.