Pokemon Go cheats: How cheats work for those looking to gain an unfair advantage

Pokemon Go cheats aren't fair for anybody and entirely take all enjoyment out of the game, which is why we strongly advise against using them. There's an immense satisfaction that comes when finding a new rare Pokemon for your Pokedex in Pokemon Go, but if you cheat to get it? You've taken the fun out of it and surely you may as well play a core Pokemon game at that point.

With all that said, we've got a list of the most popular Pokemon Go cheats here for educational purposes. Learn how they work and how to potentially spot a cheater with things like spoofing, botting, auto-IV checks, and more. There are also some methods that you may not consider cheating at first, but are forbidden by Niantic.

Pokemon Go cheats: Spoofing

Spoofing in Pokemon Go is making the game think you're in a different location to where you actually are. Since Pokemon Go is based on your real world position, you can spoof your location to move wherever you want and catch rare Pokemon, even if they've spawned thousands of miles away. Niantic have started to crack down on this, so do it at your own peril; we wouldn't recommend it!

Pokemon Go cheats: Botting

Botting is like spoofing but even worse, because it's essentially automatic spoofing. You don't get to choose which Pokemon the bot account catches, instead it will just roam around catching rare and powerful Pokemon all over the world. This is for the laziest players out there, and just like spoofing, you stand a very high chance of being banned if you do this. If you're still tempted, make a spare account and give it a go!

Pokemon Go cheats: Auto-IV checkers

The combat power of any Pokemon in Pokemon Go is dependent on their IV, which stands for Individual Values. A 100% IV Pokemon is the best possible, but there's no way of checking the exact IV without a third party program - all you can do is appraise your Pokemon through your team leader, which gives a vague answer at best. Manual IV checkers aren't banned, but they require you to check each and every single Pokemon you catch with a screenshot. Instead, some players opt to use automatic IV checkers but unfortunately, these are banned because they link directly to your account. It can save a lot of time, but is it worth it when you risk your account being banned?

Pokemon Go cheats: Multi-accounting

This isn't technically cheating because it doesn't directly connect to the game, but Niantic still forbids it. Multi-accounting is as you'd expect; having multiple accounts on the go at once. Some will use accounts on different teams to clear gyms before quickly logging into their main accounts and filling the gyms up, while others will access the accounts of friends and family at the same time to fill up new gyms. Either way, it's banned, but not quite as harmful as some other cheats and exploits.

Just as you're not allowed to have multiple accounts on the go at once, you also can't share your account with other people so they can catch Pokemon in different places. This is hard for Niantic to detect as long as you don't use the account simultaneously and give it enough time before logging in when there's a long distance between the previous person, but make sure you're careful when doing it. Sometimes you've got a pal out in a different region and you just need that Relicanth or Corsola...

These are the main cheats and exploits available in Pokemon Go, but there's also plenty of tips and tricks you can use that are well within the rules. Follow any of the links below to get started!