To drive away cheaters from Pokémon GO Niantic employs various strategies. Ban waves and anti-cheat functions aim to stop cheaters.
Niantic is on its way to significantly reduce one of the biggest problems in Pokémon GO. The studio behind Pokémon GO has targeted those cheaters who gain advantages in the game through unfair means. The “fair” players are often annoyed by cheaters and have expressed their frustration on Facebook and other social networks.
The problem is also known to the Pokémon GO developers, who are now finding ways to ruin the cheating for these fraudsters. With ban waves, anti-cheat functions, and specific job postings, Niantic fights on the side of fair players.
Jobs for the hunt for cheaters?
A job posting on the Niantic website now gives trainers in the Pokémon GO community hope. They are looking for a Machine Learning Engineer. People in this profession can teach systems to analyze and utilize the vast amounts of data from games like Pokémon GO or Ingress. This allows the systems to recognize certain patterns and classify actions accordingly.
The job posting does not explicitly set “detecting cheaters” as a goal. However, some users on Reddit write that machine learning is one of the best tools to recognize cheaters and their behavioral patterns. Often, hacks or bots behave in the same ways and can therefore stand out to such a system.
Niantic is looking for an expert with a Ph.D. for this position. If it succeeds in uncovering the patterns of various cheaters in Pokémon GO, we can soon expect “fairer” times where cheaters are automatically sorted out of the game.
Soft ban self-fix – no longer possible
In Pokémon GO, there is a soft ban that, unlike a “real ban”, is only viewed as a warning. Affected players are temporarily unable to catch Pokémon or collect items. Previously, players who received a soft ban could deactivate it themselves. This was done by going to a PokéStop and spinning the emblem 40 times.
As some trainers report on Reddit, this soft ban solution is now no longer available. Those who spin a PokéStop 40 times with a soft ban remain temporarily banned and must wait for the restriction to expire. Whether this self-unlocking option has now been permanently removed from the game is unclear.
Ban waves becoming more frequent
With large ban waves, the developers simultaneously target many cheaters. In April, a ban wave was active that particularly focused on bots. This was already the third wave against cheaters this year.
If Niantic sticks to this pattern, cheaters are likely to be regularly excluded from the game.
Measures against snipers
Snipers are a specific group of cheaters. Niantic is already aware of them and continues to act against them. A few days ago, the developers built in a new feature that should make it significantly harder for snipers to “play”. The system now checks not only the trainer’s location after they have caught a Pokémon, but also where the encounter with the wild Pokémon took place. Snipers will face problems if they teleport to a completely different location in the game for the encounter with a wild Pokémon.
During the data mining of the latest Pokémon GO update, game experts found further hints against cheaters in the code. Encounters with wild Pokémon can apparently soon be blocked by an anti-cheat function.
Fun, fair times are coming
In a few days, summer will begin in Germany. The warm temperatures will likely attract many trainers back outdoors, who paused Pokémon GO over the winter. Wandering through the streets with friends and catching wild Pokémon could become one of the main activities of the warm season.
Anyone still cheating should seriously consider if now is the time to stop this cheating. With the new features, Niantic apparently wants to take a strong stance against cheaters.
The beginning of summer would be a good time for a fire event in Pokémon GO
