Angry Pokemon Scarlet & Violet players slam “dotcom mons” ruining trades
Game FreakSurprise Trades in Pokemon Scarlet & Violet are, in theory, a lot of fun. They allow you to send off a Pokemon of your choice to a complete stranger, getting a random ‘mon back in return. This could be a rare Shiny, a new Starter, or a level 2 Lechonk — it’s a lucky dip of sorts.
While the concept is great on paper, Pokemon Scarlet & Violet fans have been growing increasingly frustrated in recent months, with a reported uptick in “genned” Pokemon being sent to them via Surprise Trades.
These are artificially generated, hacked Pokemon with ridiculous stats and usually an odd name. They’re banned by Nintendo and can lead to serious repercussions if players are found using them — especially in official tournament settings.
A Pokemon player shared their anger with the community online, noting how they used to take the time to send out cool Pokemon on Surprise Trade with the hopes of making someone’s day but that the influx of hacked creatures is just “sad to see.”
Other players felt their pain, sharing their own frustrations with the Surprise Trade experience in Scarlet & Violet. Some players noted that they used to send out duplicate Shinies or low-level, fully evolved Starters from Pokemon Go, but that it no longer felt worthwhile.
One Pokemon fan shared, “I used to send out any duplicate Shinies I got, hoping it might be some kid who gets excited. I don’t anymore because of this exact reason.”
Some players debated how Nintendo and Game Freak could cut down on this issue, with one person suggesting that all names ending in “. com” were banned. It is possible we could see this – other Pokemon games like Pokemon Go have been shown to listen to similar community suggestions.
Another agreed, “It’d be so easy. Shadowban all the website renamed mons… meaning the bots keep trading, but mons go nowhere, instantly deleted. Or just make them trade with themselves”, before slamming the lack of a solution to the problem as lazy.
Many commented that they didn’t even hang onto any suspicious Shinies or rares that they obtained through Surprise Trade, sharing that they released them into the wild.
Surprise Trades and other similar features are a solid way to bolster a community in a game, and Pokemon players in this thread all seemed to have lost their motivation to use the feature thanks to genned Pokemon with strange website names and unrealistic stats.
While there haven’t been any official announcements on the matter, fans would likely want to see an improved Surprise Trade system with measures implemented to block genned Pokemon. It’s possible that we could see this in a future update or even in an upcoming title like Pokemon Legends Z-A.