Hacked Pokemon plague Scarlet & Violet surprise trades despite promised crackdown
Despite The Pokemon Company’s warning against using “illegally modified data,” Scarlet & Violet’s surprise trades are riddled with hacked Pokemon, items, and Shinies.
On November 11, 2022, The Pokemon Company issued a statement on their official Japanese website, explaining actions being taken against hacked Pokemon. “We have confirmed that some users are playing the ‘Pokemon’ series and ‘Pokémon HOME’ using illegally modified data,” TPCi stated, followed by a list of repercussions for offenders.
Players caught using hacked Pokemon face the following penalties: restriction of online play for all Pokemon titles, restricted use of trading features in Pokemon HOME, or an indefinite suspension from Pokemon HOME.
However, it seems this warning is not being heeded as players frequently encounter bots trading hacked Pokemon while using Pokemon Scarlet & Violet’s Surprise Trade feature.
The Pokemon CompanyHacked Pokemon run rampant in Pokemon
A video of a trainer encountering a trading bot was posted to Reddit by user MayorLardo. While surprise trading an Iron Thorns, their trade partner’s name appeared on the screen: zacian.net.
Players with URLs for names are rarely real people, and after receiving a perfect Shiny Froakie holding a Master Ball, it was confirmed this was a hacked Pokemon from a bot trainer. “Already? Why?” Lardo captioned the post wondering why they were running into bot trades so early in the game’s lifespan.
And this annoyance was echoed throughout the comments. “When I was doing the story I got a shiny ditto from Italy from the same zacian.net,” one user commented. Another stated, “I got a shiny Lucario in a wonder trade yesterday, checked the OT saw it was hacked… and released it, thinking I did my part in reducing the scourge of hacked mons, but I feel like its a losing battle when they churn out hundreds/thousands of the poor things.”
While many trainers shared the sentiment that these generated Pokemon weren’t welcome, others didn’t see why there was so much fuss. “What do you mean already? You get free masterballs. What’s the problem?”
Another trainer claimed they deliberately started Wonder Trading when they saw bots were active in Sword & Shield. They would take the items and release the Pokemon, resulting in around 15 Master Balls and 20 Ability Patches.
While this can be alarming for players who are leery of being banned, it shouldn’t stop trainers from Surprise Trading. Many of these Pokemon are “Generated” or “Cloned,” which aren’t illegal. And if players are traded a “Hacked” Pokemon, all they need to do is release it, and they should be fine.