Malamar #687: The Upside-Down Hypnotist That Landed a Mega

An upside-down squid that makes you obey without leaving you any memory of it. Malamar (Sepiatroce in French) manipulates its victims with hypnotic powers that the Pokédex calls the strongest of any Pokémon. And since Pokémon Legends: Z-A, it can also Mega Evolve.

Contents

• Who is Malamar?
• Type and abilities
• Mega Malamar, the surprise of Pokémon Legends: Z-A
• Evolution: the famous upside-down console trick
• Atrocious cuttlefish, supervillain and greenish-brown Shiny
• Malamar Fact Sheet
• Frequently Asked Questions

Who is Malamar?

Listed as #687 in the National Pokédex, Malamar is the sixth generation's "Overturning Pokémon." It stands 1.5 meters tall, weighs 47 kilos and looks like an upside-down squid, head down, with its tentacles serving as hair.

Its dark purple body carries six yellow lights on both the front and the back, plus a glowing band that wraps around almost the entire upper half of its body. Each of its sides extends into a long pink tentacle tipped with a scythe-shaped fin.

Those scythes aren't just for show: Pokémon Ultra Moon warns that the tips of its tentacles are as sharp as a razor. Pokémon Y spells out the rest of the routine — it hypnotizes its prey, wraps it up, then finishes it off with its digestive fluids.

But the real story is the hypnosis. Pokémon Scarlet notes that its victims retain no memory at all of being enslaved, and Pokémon Shield claims these powers could have changed the course of history. Suddenly, its category makes perfect sense.

Type and abilities

Malamar keeps the Dark and Psychic types measuring Inkay, along with the same quirk: it is immune to Psychic while being a Psychic type itself.

Its weakness chart is short but sharp. Bug deals it four times the damage, Fairy twice the damage, and not a single type is resisted: the remaining fifteen all deal normal damage.

Its Abilities don't change either: Suction Cups or Contrary as standard Abilities, with Infiltrator as its hidden Ability. Contrary is the strategists' favorite, since it turns every stat drop it takes into a boost.

Mega Malamar, the surprise of Pokémon Legends: Z-A

It's the big news of Pokémon Legends: Z-A. Malamar can now Mega Evolve if it holds a Malamarite, a Mega Stone you can buy from Quasartico Inc. for 240 Mega Shards — and it does nothing if the Trainer doesn't have a Key Stone.

The reveal was carefully staged: a teaser on September 4, 2025, a promotional campaign titled "My Friend Malamar," then the official announcement on September 10.

The result is frankly unsettling. Its body stretches out, slims down and starts to shimmer in rainbow colors, from purple to dark blue by way of red, orange and green. The tentacles on its head intertwine into a mass that looks like a brain, its shoulders form a raised collar, and it no longer walks: it levitates.

The official site describes a creature that sticks its tentacles into its brain to stimulate it and instantly supercharge its psychic powers. Its Pokédex entry is chilling: using its multicolored lights, it rewrites its opponents' memories and restructures their personalities.

The numbers follow suit: 2.9 meters and 69.8 kilos, Contrary as its only Ability, unchanged types, and a base stat total that climbs from 482 to 582 points — a total no other Pokémon shares, across every form. Most of the gain goes to Special Defense, which jumps from 75 to 120.

✨ Want to spoil a Dark-type Pokémon fan? Our Pokémon gift ideas don't need hypnosis to win anyone over.

Evolution: the famous upside-down console trick

There's only one way in, and it has stayed unique across the entire series: level Inkay up to level 30 while physically holding the console upside down at the moment of evolution, screen facing down.

On Nintendo Switch and Switch 2, the trick requires handheld mode, with the Joy-Con attached and no other controller connected, since it's their orientation that the game reads. No item, no stone, no trade is involved: just this one move.

The direct consequence: Malamar can't be found anywhere in the wild in Pokémon X and Pokémon Y. You absolutely have to evolve one — and it's at level 42 that it learns Topsy-Turvy, which reverses all of the target's stat changes.

Atrocious cuttlefish, supervillain and greenish-brown Shiny

Its French name doesn't bother with subtlety: sepia, the cuttlefish, plus "atroce" (atrocious). The English name prefers to blend "malicious" and "calamari," and the Japanese name adds nero, Italian for black.

Its upside-down posture comes from an observation by its designer, Hitoshi Ariga : in picture books, squid are almost always drawn upside down. Its look and its use of hypnosis also call to mind the alien supervillains of Japanese tokusatsu shows.

Its powers make it a ready-made antagonist. Pokémon Ultra Sun notes that people with bad intentions often try to harness its hypnotic powers, and the anime couldn't resist: a Malamar with sinister plans drives the plot of episodes XY019 and XY054.

As a Shiny, its blue-violet coloring turns greenish-brown and the spikes on its shoulders go from pink to red. A subtle variant, but one that fans hunt down as a display figure as well as in Pokémon plush.

Malamar Fact Sheet

Frequently Asked Questions

• How do you get Malamar?
  Only by evolving an Inkay. It has to reach level 30, and the console has to be turned upside down at the moment it levels up. On Nintendo Switch and Switch 2, you need to be in handheld mode with the Joy-Con attached and no other controller connected. Malamar can't be found in the wild in Pokémon X and Pokémon Y.
• Does Malamar have a Mega Evolution?
  Yes. Since Pokémon Legends: Z-A, it can Mega Evolve into Mega Malamar by holding a Malamarite, a Mega Stone you can buy from Quasartico Inc. for 240 Mega Shards. This Mega stands 2.9 meters tall and weighs 69.8 kilos, remains Dark and Psychic type, has Contrary as its only Ability and totals 582 base stat points.
• What are Malamar's Abilities?
  Suction Cups or Contrary as standard Abilities, and Infiltrator as its hidden Ability, exactly like Inkay. Suction Cups protects it from moves and items that force it to switch out, Contrary reverses stat changes, and Infiltrator lets its attacks get past the opponent's barriers and substitutes. Mega Malamar, for its part, only has Contrary.
• What are Malamar's weaknesses?
  As a Dark and Psychic type, it takes four times the damage from Bug attacks and twice the damage from Fairy attacks. It's completely immune to Psychic, and the other fifteen types deal normal damage to it: it has no resistances at all. Its Mega Evolution keeps exactly the same type profile.
• What is Malamar's signature move?
  Topsy-Turvy, learned at level 42, which reverses all of the target's stat changes. It was Inkay and Malamar's signature move until the eighth generation, when Grapploct learned it too and ended the exclusivity.
• Does Malamar have a Gigantamax form or a regional form?
  No. It does appear in Pokémon Sword and Shield, the games where the Gigantamax phenomenon exists, but it isn't one of the Pokémon that can use it. It has no regional form either: its only alternate form is Mega Malamar, introduced in Pokémon Legends: Z-A.

In short

Between a Pokédex that credits it with hypnotic coups d'état and a Mega Evolution with a rainbow-swollen brain, Malamar has built the career of the perfect villain. Just never let it look at you for too long.