Catching Meloetta in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet is hilariously convoluted

The method to catch Meloetta in the Pokémon Scarlet and Violet’s Indigo Disk expansion doesn’t seem real.

The first time I saw the process was on TikTok, and according to that video, you have to go a specific spot, twirl around for ten seconds, and then pull out your camera and use the sepia filter to find the Pokémon. It’s so specific that I thought a content creator was trying to take advantage of unsuspecting players; it reminded me of hearing old rumors about Mew hiding under a truck.

But then I saw another similar video... and another. It wasn’t some sort of collective joke. I checked it myself and the convoluted process is very much real.

I — and likely many other fans — delighted in the process. In a world where everything can be crowdsourced and datamined, it’s hard to find a genuine sense of surprise in a Pokémon game anymore. As a kid, I puzzled on how to catch the Regis for weeks. In this case, it took a few days for players to find and tell others about the process. And while this is arguably a short period of time, it feels like an eternity in the scheme of internet video game discoveries. So with that, we’ll explain how to catch Meloetta in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet.

How to catch Meloetta in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet: The Indigo Disk

You can catch Meloetta in The Indigo Disk DLC for Pokémon Scarlet and Violet. To play The Indigo Disk, make sure you have previously purchased the DLC and completed the mainline story for The Teal Mask. If you’ve finished The Teal Mask, the nice part is you can go catch Meloetta early on in The Indigo Disk mainline story.

You can go catch Meloetta immediately after you unlock the Terrarium at the Blueberry Academy. Once you’re there, go to the Coastal Biome. You’re going to want to head in a region in the southwest part of the biome by a waterfall. You can see the exact location below:

Image: Game Freak, The Pokémon Company/Nintendo via Polygon

You’ll need to locate the exact spot to find Meloetta in the general area. To find the right spot, walk around the area until the background music dies down and you see a breeze swirl around your character. The breeze appears in multiple locations here, so it’s especially important to listen carefully for when the music dies down. Luckily there is a plant in the right spot so you can walk from plant to plant until you find the one where the music dies down. You can see an image of the spot below.

Image: Game Freak, The Pokémon Company/Nintendo via Polygon

Once you find the right spot, you need to spin for roughly ten seconds or more. You can make your Pokémon trainer spin by twirling the left control stick continuously. It’s not the same as just turning around regularly and will have a special animation shown below.

Image: Game Freak, The Pokémon Company/Nintendo via Polygon

After you finish spinning, press down on the D-pad to pull out your Rotom Phone and camera. Use the left and/or right arrows on the D-pad to change the camera to the Sepia filter. The Sepia filter adds a brownish tint to the camera, and you can check which filter you’re using on the top right of the screen.

Use your camera, with the Sepia filter, to look around until you find Meloetta. You will know the steps worked once you start hearing a new song playing with a flute-like instrument.

Image: Game Freak, The Pokémon Company/Nintendo via Polygon

So that’s how you catch Meloetta in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet: The Indigo Disk! If you need help on how to catch any other Pokémon or help completing the Blueberry Pokédex, we’ve got you covered with guides.