"Pokemon Go" players can now use automatic bots to spoof their GPS, thereby playing the game while users stay indoors. A number of "Pokemon Go" bots are currently available, which offer free trials and an automation tool priced at only a few dollars. Each of these generally work in the same manner by forwarding artificial data to "Pokemon Go" servers and simulating a player who can play for endless hours.
ArsTechnica revealed that the user will initially provide coordinates as a starting point and their "Pokemon Go" account details to for authentication purposes. Next, the bot will start to look for nearby Pokemon and simulate a walk to the closest creature by sending spoofed GPS coordinates to the "Pokemon Go" server at the right time. Once the bot is near a Pokemon, it can use a simple API call to catch the character, and then immediately move on to the next target.
The "Pokemon Go" bots can also do other activities, like trading duplicate Pokemon for resources, gathering new Pokeballs at Pokestops, evolving Pokemon, incubating and hatching eggs and prioritizing Pokemon to catch. Users can set which Pokemon to ignore depending on their current needs and stats.
Based on tests, a "Pokemon Go" bot can earn an average of 50,000 experience points every hour, allowing the user to reach level 15 in less than a day, just by operating in the background. The bot can continue playing nonstop and reach the higher levels of the game in just a few days.
Daily Dot explained that "Pokemon Go" uses GPS location tracking to move players around the virtual game world. However, the GPS can be tricked by enabling Mock Locations in the Android developer options menu and selecting an app to spoof.
Game developer Niantic Games has released some tools that will hopefully stop the "Pokemon Go" bots. Some players may be spawned in the middle of a blank space and find an error stating that their GPS data is unavailable. Fooling the app will require players to change their GPS data without the operating system. This can be done by rooting the device.
Over time, the availability of "Pokemon Go" bots will impact the game, specifically by having the cheaters complete their collection much quicker than their regular counterparts. On the contrary, they are also depriving themselves of exercise and the fun that the "Pokemon Go" creators intended in the first place.