A desperate trainer asks the community of Pokémon GO why his last three shinies have fled. Players explain that it’s due to GPS drift and how to avoid it.
What’s it about? In Pokémon GO, you can encounter monsters in their shiny form in the wild with a bit of luck. Outside of events, these types of encounters are rare and highly sought after. You feel even worse when such a rare Pokémon flees.
On reddit, a trainer shows that three of his shiny encounters have fled, even though he used the best balls and berries for them. The community clarifies to him that GPS drift is likely to blame. But what is that actually?
The community explains why shinies flee – GPS issues
This is the situation: On reddit trainer pokiedokie24 writes: “I encountered three shinies this week and they all ran away. Should I report this? Or am I just (un)lucky?”
To this, pokiedokie24 shares three screenshots. A shiny Chansey that fled on March 10, a shiny Turtwig that fled on March 15, and a shiny Swablu that fled on March 16.
To make sure the player isn’t making a mistake, the community asks if he also used the golden razz berry and ultra balls for the catching attempt. The affected trainer writes, “Yes, for all of them. And they all fled after the first catching attempt.”.
These are the reasons: Trainers in the comments ask where the player is playing.
- “Are you playing in a car?”
- “Do you work high up in a skyscraper?”
So user Kellen1030 asks: “Do you work on a high floor in your office? When you are very high up in a building, it can negatively affect the GPS and make the game think that you are spoofing.”
The player admits that he works on the highest floor of an office building.
Spoofing is prohibited in Pokémon GO and is somewhat detected by the game. Someone who behaves suspiciously as a spoofer by switching locations quickly receives an initial penalty of about 15 minutes. As a result, the affected player cannot spin stops or gyms, and every Pokémon flees after the first throw.
GPS drift shows similar behavior to spoofing, and you might be mistakenly recognized as a spoofer.
The problem in this case is that the connection far up in the player’s office building is so poor that the GPS location is not accurately reported. This leads to “GPS drift”. Your avatar runs wildly around the map, sometimes several hundred meters away from your actual location. Only when the connection is good again will your avatar be displayed at the correct place in the game.
This way, rare shinies can slip away from you.
What can you do about it? If you get the error “GPS signal not found” or encounter other connection issues while playing, you should restart your game at a stable connection before attempting to catch a Pokémon.
In this case, the trainer should best leave the building and catch the Pokémon outside with a good connection if the connection is also poor on the lower floors.
Have you also had problems with GPS drift and have solutions on how to fix it? Then share your experiences here on MeinMMO in the comments and share any tips with other trainers in our community.
Your opinion also matters to Niantic. In February, the big Johto tour received a lot of criticism. Now the developers are asking for your opinion on the Johto tour, and trainers are responding with clear words.
