Where to get a Metal Coat

Pokémon Legends: Z-A is home to many strange and wonderful Pokémon, and many of these Pokémon evolve through unique methods. Some evolve using items like Evolution Stones, others via trading, and one even evolves by turning your console upside down. 

One of the oldest unique methods of evolution is to trade a Pokémon while it’s holding a Metal Coat. This can be used to evolve Scyther into Scizor, or Onix into Steelix, both of whom have a Mega Evolution in Legends: Z-A. Unfortunately, getting your hands on a Metal Coat to evolve these Pokémon is a little more frustrating than you might be expecting. 

We’ve put together this guide detailing where you can get a Metal Coat in Pokémon Legends: Z-A, but be warned that it’s likely going to be quite some time before you can grab one. 

There are four ways to get a Metal Coat in Pokémon Legends: Z-A, but all of them are very late in the game, and only one of them is before the credits roll. 

The earliest you can get your hands on a Metal Coat is through a late-game side quest, which is Side Mission #101, Steadfast as Steel. This mission is unlocked after you receive the main quest to achieve Rank A in the Z-A Royale during the main story, by talking to a Rust Syndicate grunt on Bleu Street. 

During this mission, you need to defeat a host of Steel-type Pokémon in a trainer battle – a Steelix, a Scizor, a Mawile, and an Excadrill – and upon your victory, you’ll be rewarded with a Metal Coat. 

Another Metal Coat can be obtained in the post-game Side Mission A Feather From Skarmory, which has you scouring the terrifying Wild Zone 17 to find a feather blade dropped from a Skarmory. Finding it and returning it to the quest giver will reward you with a Metal Coat. 

Metal Coats can also be obtained from the Infinite Z-A Royale as a reward from a Reward Match, though the chances of getting one are quite low. 

That said, if you’re in the post-game you can also just head to Racine Construction, and head inside to talk to the man standing on the left in the large warehouse section, near Canari’s room. He will sell you a Metal Coat for 4980 Poké Dollars. 

Metal Coats cannot be found in an item ball or random sparkling spot in the overworld, and there are no Pokémon that hold it in the wild. 

Unfortunately, Scizor and Steelix do not have regular wild spawns in the overworld, and seemingly cannot spawn as special Alpha spawns alongside other Pokémon. One is available during the story, however, during a post-game main story quest, where one Alpha Steelix will spawn in Main Story Quest #40: The One That Gives. If you knock it out, it will not respawn. 

Other than this one instance, if you want a Scizor or Steelix, you have to obtain one via trade evolution after obtaining a Metal Coat through the methods above.