You’ve likely noticed something strange in recent months if you’ve been playing Shield. It’s like you jump into a raid with three strangers online. Then, there’s a brief pause before everyone in your party suddenly has an animation of sparkles coming from them. Everyone in your group is using a shiny.
You might also do a Surprise Trade to get a shiny in an exclusive Pokeball. You get excited at first but then you realize your Pokemon was named by a website selling hacked Pokemon, or a Twitch stream where someone hacks Pokemon. This is how I got mine, but I changed the name to something more relevant. Their original name can still be seen at the top.
Although I don’t like betting, there is a good chance that a lot of these Pokemon are hacked, especially those in trades. Online battles are filled with shiny, hacked Pokemon that have perfect stats and move and ability combinations that aren’t usually available.
Nintendo of Japan has just released a statement warning of a major ban. People who discovered that they had hacked Pokemon or “altering their saved data” would be expelled. Online features are no longer available. No more raids with other people. No more Dynamax adventures with people. No more trading. Period.
This applies to Pokemon Sword & Shield, but also Pokemon Home.
Hacked Pokemon have been around for as long as Pokemon has existed. There were Game Sharks, which allowed people to tell hack devices what they wanted, and then be given the device.
Things are now even easier. Hacking is a very glorified way to describe what people do. Here’s a look at what most people who sell Pokemon for cash look like.
If you’ve ever heard of hack Pokemon, and thought someone would put some effort into hacking the Gibsons, you are wrong. They are simply clicking on the things they want, and a program does it all for them. Stats? Best. Ball? Let’s play Sports Ball. Shiny? Yes.
These companies are able to produce perfect stat shinies and other Pokemon in a matter of minutes. This makes it possible to create a multiplayer game that is almost impossible to play without hacking Pokemon. It also encourages more people to purchase hacked Pokemon. This is a business that sells both a solution and the problem. It’s like an antivirus program that puts a virus in your computer.
The bans are inevitable because Nintendo doesn’t like their games being broken. The ban will be indefinite and there will not be any refunds.
This is something that people will argue, but hacking Pokemon is like running around in a laser tag arena with your baseball bat. You could argue that the children you hit had baseball bats and would have been able to defend the attack.
This probably makes me sound like a shiny hater. I’m not. Actually, I’m a huge fan of shinies. Let me actually set up camp quickly so you can see my team.
