Best Pokémon Go cheats and hacks for May 2020

Best Pokémon Go cheats and hacks for May 2020

if you can't win, cheat. Hell, cheat anyway. That's how the saying goes, right? Whether you choose to apply that saying to Pokémon Go is up to you. Some people prefer to earn their rewards honestly, through hard work and determination. If that's you, I commend your for that; stop here and go check out my Pokémon Go tips and tricks instead. But, if you'd rather get your rewards however possible, here's how people are hacking and cheating their way to the top!

Warning: Stuff that can and should get your account banned

There are some cheats and hacks that are expressly against the Pokémon Go terms of service (ToS). People do them, and they seem to work, which is frustrating, so more people start doing them, and it creates a vicious cycle. They can also get you banned. Bans sometimes come in waves every month or so, but now they've also been joined by "slashing," which puts a line across illegitimately gained Pokémon and makes them useless in Gym and Raid Battles.

GO HACK

Before investing any time in this kind of cheating, consider you might end up losing your account completely.

1. Spoofing: Some people fake their GPS location so that they can go to where a 100% Dragonite or Tyranitar is and scoop it up immediately, drop onto any Gym and take it down and build it back up at any time, and otherwise travel the world at a whim. Pokémon Go is cracking down on this by randomizing stats on the server-side for any player under level 25, so it's currently tough to detect the IV of a Pokémon. On the Android side, spoofing is also being detected and locked out of the game. It's obviously something Pokémon Go cares about deeply and wants to prevent.
   
   Pokémon Go has begun locking out teleporting, soft-banning people who previously jumped to engage but returned to catch Pokémon, and slashing out illegitimately obtained Pokémon, so they're useless in battle anyway.
2. Botting: Botting is like spoofing but automated. With an army of fake characters and a bunch of scripts, botters travel the PokéScape, collecting as many high-level Pokémon as possible. It's financed by online maps with ads and donation buttons, and by people who buy accounts online. Again, recent changes might make this harder and less useful than it was in the past. That includes shadowbans, which are preventing bot accounts (including those used for maps) from seeing anything other than common Pokémon, and slashing out illegitimately obtained Pokémon, so they're useless in battle anyway.
3. Multi-accounting: Some people who don't bot or spoof still cheat by using multiple accounts. When they take down a Gym, they quickly fill it up with the accounts of their friends, families, and teammates — sometimes even if those people have long since stopped playing. Though "bubblestrat" — a way to quickly power a Gym up — is no longer useful since the big Gym update, filling up all the slots in a Gym still locks other legitimate players out.
4. Shaving/cycling: Those who can't or simply don't want to take over new Gyms will sometimes switch to a second account for another team, knock a teammate's Pokémon off a Gym owned by their own team, and then replace it with their own Pokémon from that team. It's cannibalistic and doesn't help grow their own team and creates significant resentment as well. Pokémon Go has implemented a cool down timer to help combat this problem by preventing players from taking back a cleared spot for several minutes after the attack has ceased.
5. Auto-IV checkers: Pokémon Go isn't just shadow-banning bots that abuse the API, they're banning accounts that have granted access to third-party apps like IV-checkers that abuse the API as well. Changing your Google password and revoking account access to these apps can help avoid and reverse the ban. Fortunately, Pokémon Go has simplified the appraisal system, so you no longer benefit from using an IV checker. Instead, just rely on the in-game appraisal!

Most online forums are filled up with people complaining about all of these practices and more. If you want to be a part of your local community, you can easily find yourself "blacklisted" among them for cheating. Even if co-op play isn't your goal, it's still best to avoid these cheats because the next time the banhammer comes, it could come down on anyone engaging in them.