What are the best cheats for Pokémon Go that’ll help you get ahead faster and easier than ever? These!
If you can’t win, cheat. Hell, cheat anyway. That’s how the saying goes. Whether you choose to apply that saying to Pokémon Go is up to you. If you prefer to earn your rewards honestly, through hard work and determination, then stop here and go check out my Pokémon Go tips and tricks instead. Otherwise, if all you want to do is win at all costs, let’s get ready to hack and cheat our way to the top!
Note: I’m avoiding the flat-out, full-on, will-almost-certainly-get-you-banned-eventually, cheats like bots and GPS spoofing. Still, some or all of the cheats below could get you in trouble. If your risk tolerance is low, then stay away. I got to level 35 and completed my NA Pokedex before I learned about any of this stuff, and had fun doing it. These are just shortcuts for those interested in experimenting with them.
1. Find out exactly which Pokémon to evolve
It’s always best to evolve the best Pokémon possible. “Best” being defined as having the highest stats (IV) and ideal movesets. Movesets are determined at random when you evolve, so there’s nothing you can do about that. Which Pokémon you evolve, though, is entirely in your control. And the better the Pokémon you evolve, the higher the CP (Combat Power) and HP (Hit Points) it’ll have.
Pokémon Go includes a built-in appraisal system but it’s not very granular. The best you can get is:
- Valor (red): “Amazes me!”
- Mystic (blue): “A wonder!”
- Instinct (yellow): “Battle with the best of them!”
That tells you your Pokémon has stats in the 80% to 100% range. But that’s a big range. If you pay attention to how many stats are called out, Attack, Defense, and Stamina (HP), and add in:
- Valor (red): “Blown away!”
- Mystic (blue): “Exceeds my calculations!”
- Instinct (yellow): “Best I’ve seen!”
You can narrow it down further. But even with that brain gym you won’t get an exact number. For an exact number, you’ll need a third-party IV app. Now, not everyone is into stats, not in Baseball and not in Pokémon, but if you are, they’re available to you, and they’ll make sure your every Pokémon you evolve is a monster.
Note: Never use any app that asks for your Pokémon or Google login in order to work. There are enough really good apps that don’t, both for phones and on the web, that risking your credentials and potentially getting data stolen is never necessary.
That way, you can evolve the 100% Magikarp into Gyrados and not the 82% one. (And pray to the random number generator it doesn’t stick you with Twister as its charge move!)
4. Bulk evolve faster with a flick
The basic formula for leveling up as fast as possible is well known by now: Catch a ton of Pidgey, Caterpie, and Weedle, drop a Magic Egg, and evolve as many as you can before the Egg expires. That gives you a 30 min. to max out your XP. Given the evolution animation takes 20 seconds, assuming you’re a precision tapping machine, you can hit up to 90 evolutions.
Some people believe, though, that if you force quit the Pokémon Go app and then relaunch it — which also finishes the evolution for you — you can squeeze in some extra evolutions.
Personally, I find it a lot more work for what is, in my ham-fingered case, little game. But if tap and swipe that a surgeon, you might just set yourself some new bulk evolution records.
Note: Some people try using multiple phones to make the bulk evolution process even faster. It’s unclear if it works or still works if it once did, but it is clear it’s a violation of the Terms of Service and could have consequences.
3. Power up your Pokémon beyond the legal limits
Pokémon have levels, just like trainers. Every time you POWER UP a Pokémon you raise its level by 0.5. Pokémon Go official caps the power level of your Pokémon at 1.5 higher than the level of your trainer. So, if you’re at level 30, you can power up your Pokémon to level 31.5. There’s a way to go just a little bit — 0.5 — higher though.
- Wait until you’re at exactly level + 1 on your Pokémon (0.5 under the cap).
- Tap POWER UP with two fingers instead of just one.
- Tap YES on the “Do you want to power up” confirmation dialog.
You’re basically doing two power ups at once. Some people say you only need to tap the confirmation with two fingers, others both. Some claim you can do three fingers for a triple power up as well. I’ve only been able to get the double to work consistently, but experiment as you like.
What’s basically happening is, if you’re at 1.0 higher than your level, you’re sneaking in a full 1.0 more before the level gets capped. Essentially, you’re sneaking in an extra 0.5 levels. The total cap remains the same, so you’re really just stealing from the future. But, if you’re desperate to max out your CP to make sure you’re still on top of a Gym, this is a way to do it.
Note: If you use a third-party app to analyze IV, you may get an error from a Pokémon powered up this way. That’s the cost of cheating, yo.
4. BubbleStrat your Gym to Level 10
Pokémon Go has messed around with how prestiging a Gym works. At the beginning, it was easier to build up a Gym then to tear it down. Last fall, that was inverted and it became way easier to tear a Gym down than to build it up. By year’s end, though, the scales had been balanced and now it’s roughly the same either way. But there’s a way to make prestiging much, much easier. It’s called BubbleStrat. Yes, seriously.
The gist is this: Place a level 2 Pokémon on a Gym with around 20 CP and a slow attack, like Krabby. Then use a Level 1 Pokémon with a damaging fast attack, like Diglett, to kill it before it can do any damage. Flee. Repeat. And level the Gym up to 10 fast.
Done successfully, you gain maximize prestige and XP and minimize resource usage per fight. In other words, get 1000 prestige and 100 XP per fight, without having to use any Revives or Potions at the end — or at least almost none.
There are variations with Magikarp and now, with Ditto as well. For example, plant a 20 CP Ditto and use a 10 CP Meowth to kill it before it finishes its first transform.
There have been enough tweaks to Gym mechanics and CP formula over the last few months that ‘Stratting isn’t as straight forward as it used to be, but the method still works and remains crazy fast for anyone who wants to put the time in getting the perfect pairings. You can find a lot of help for that, including a cheat sheet and a calculator at GamePress.
Advanced cheaters will sometimes have a friend from an opposing team knock out the level 2 Pokemon when they’re done — or do it themselves with a Terms-of-Service-violating second account — to free up the slot for a real defender with high CP.
5. Dodge the driving lockouts
Pokémon Go does everything it can to prevent people from playing while driving and that’s a very good thing. Unfortunately, it also prevents people from playing while being passengers in cars, buses, trains, and other forms of transportation.
There are different levels of lockout. The first is the 10 KM/H limit for egg hatching and Buddy candy walking. Go over that limit and Pokémon Go radically lowers the amount of distance it logs. The second is the 35 KM/H limit for spinning PokéStops, seeing Nearby and Sightings on your radar, and triggering spawns in your vicinity. Go over that limit and you log almost no distance, can’t spin any stops, and can’t see or spawn any Pokémon.
It’s all absolutely for the best but there are also a couple ways around it. They don’t always work but when they do, you’ll rack up mega mileage and sometimes still get in a few spins and spawns.
- Got the egg screen on Pokémon Go. Hit the Home button so you return to the Home screen. Don’t launch any other apps but don’t let the screen go off either. Drive a short distance, something under 10 minutes. Then open Pokémon Go again and you might see some amazing distance gains. (I’ve had little to no luck with this but numerous people have sworn it works.)
- If you have an Apple Watch, start a Pokémon Go workout. Next, find some form of slow transportation. Whether that’s an Uber/taxi or bus in traffic or a ferry, doesn’t matter. Slower the better, though. While the workout is running, pat your watch hand lightly up and down while you’re moving. You should get decent results, depending on your speed.
- Drop an Incense. Currently, Incense seems immune to the speed lock that affects everything else in Pokémon Go. So, even if you’re a passenger in a high speed car, bus, or train on the highway, a Pokémon should still spawn for you every few minutes. Almost all of them will be common but you may get a rare Pokémon once or twice.
Your most cherished cheats?
If you’ve tried out any of these Pokémon cheats, let me know how they worked for you. If you have other cheats, tell me all about them. If you have any other questions, drop them in the comments!