Pokemon Go Warns Cheaters That Their Pokemon Will Start "Misbehaving"

Pokemon Go has issued a new and vaguely ominous threat to cheaters. In a post made today on Reddit, the verified Niantic employee "NianticGeorge" made an official announcement on behalf of his employer.

"With the announcement of Raid Battles and the new battle features, we are staying true on our commitment to ensuring that Pokémon GO continues to be a fun and fair experience for all Trainers," he wrote in a brief post. "Starting today, Pokémon caught using third-party services that circumvent normal gameplay will appear marked with a slash in the inventory and may not behave as expected."

NianticGeorge declined to elaborate on how these Pokemon will "misbehave," but early speculation is that they will either "refuse" to join gyms or will use weak attacks when attacking.

This marks Niantic's latest step in battling spoofers and cheaters, which has become a huge problem in Pokemon Go. Countless gyms were filled with Pokemon obtained by players that used GPS spoofing to hop around the globe and grab countless rare and/or powerful Pokemon. Many of these accounts were also tied to automated programs that would automatically move to retake a gym the second an opposing team defeated their Pokemon.

Niantic has used a combination of legal threats and tweaks to fight back against cheating. After shutting down most third party trackers, Pokemon Go also randomized encounters so that players couldn't track and spoof their way to the most powerful Pokemon.

The game's developers have also used more mischievous methods to fight cheating. Recently, some players discovered that their accounts could no longer see anything but common Pokemon like Pidgey and Rattata after game developers flagged their accounts for cheating.

We'll likely find out what Pokemon Go's new anticheat tool does in the coming days. In the meantime, check out the rest of our recent Pokemon Go coverage below.

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