The Pokémon Company Lays Down The Law On Cheaters

Good.

Doubt it'll stop the cheaters as a whole, but still: Nice to have it enforced.

EDIT: And yes, I've gone against cheaters. Hundreds of times. Even in first gen.
With being able to battle randomly online: I've encountered the most in Black and White and Black 2 and White 2.

It's despicable really... There are other games that allow the same competitive battling while shortcutting the process of raising and battling.
Considering the limitations on pokemon (how their battles work mostly), there really shouldn't be a reason to shortcut that. So: Go play other games, cheaters. Those other games are obviously less grand and terribly awful in their designs in comparison to pokemon, but if that's how you want to play your games, and that's how you want to ruin other people's fun - then that's all you honestly deserve.

So just quit it and have fun.
Let efforts show where effort is made.

Never good to cheat. Never good to pirate. Never good to steal. Always good to see fair play.

Finally, they really need to do something about this!

I wish they would find a way to keep these "illegal" Pokemon out of online battles as well. And I mean any form of cheating. It would make the metagame interesting again.

I'll competed in a few tourneys myself now and you know when you see a shiny half legendary (the ones not banned but still pretty damn strong) you know for a fact they've been hacked

I remember it being an issue in gen4 GTS, especially with highly prized Pokemon like shiny and legendary ones (or both at the same time in some cases). I got hacked shiny versions of dialga and palkia, both at level 1 (this was after the release of heart gold and soul silver, where you got access to one of these at level 1, so didn't seem too far fetched at that time)

Cheating in any game should not be allowed, and they deserve their punishment. But the fact the hacker can corrupt their competitors trainer is a bit dodgy to say the least.

I rarely play White/White 2 online because of cheaters. Same goes for other online games like MKDS.

@Chris720 I would be so annoyed if that happened to me. I've been playing Pokemon since the beginning, and I've only once not completed the pokedex. (Gen 3 in case you wondered)

IMO the only game where it's fine to cheat is GTA
Good to know the chances of getting my behind whooped in an unfair battle will be lowered

I honestly sometimes I hack pokemon,for fun,but i never use this hacked pokemon in the main story or online so will this afectme as well or this happens only if i trie to use them online?

Good. My brother still plays Pokemon, and he has caught every Pokemon in existence without cheating.
The only Pokemon my brother doesn't have are the upcoming ones in X and Y.

Blast those Lance Armstrongs of Pokemon tournaments. How do they live with themselves lol

Great I hate online cheaters

Yes! Yes! A thousand times yes! I can get back to online batting if this is available.

Try out the GTS and see how many people are asking for a lv. 9 or lower Zekrom.

Well, what's fun about just winning without hard work, anyway? Games are not only for winning, but to have fun.

At this point, I think it would be fair to BRICK a 3DS/DS for the use of hack- e-mon. (or other hacks for that matter)

I thought this was already the case.

I've faced atleast 17 people in the last 6 years online who use movesets that you would never see without a Innuendo event or using (insert modifier program).

Cheaters ruined the online experience for the last few games, hands down. Glad to see a serious effort, and I hope it works out well.

I wonder if this means no importing Pokemon from the previous games? I personally don't mind since I plan to start from scratch.

@Rensch

So true, only a few people want a "normal" Pokémon, so that also takes the fun out of trading online.

I didn't know you could hack your DS game with your smart phone to get "illegal Pokemon". I did learn something about Pokemon today.

I go against haxorz all the time in B2W2, made me rage and decide to skip the tourney. I just hope there's no save file saboteurs.

I just hope someone doesn't trade me an illegal pokemon and the game bans me from it! D: With my luck, that's exactly what will happen

Don't just stop at hacked Pokemon.
Shut down the morons asking for Lv.9 legendaries on GTS, or at least let us search for users looking for a specific Pokemon.

@CrissCross87 I'm sure it'll still have transference, but 'illegal' pokémon will probably either be unable to be transferred, or will cause the aforementioned ill effects if used.

Funny, considering that a vast majority of these "bulked up pokemon" actually belong to the japanese players. Then when you manage to get lucky enough to beat them, they decided to rage quit, which I think needs much more stricter penalties on then the one currently in place. Sure you can rage quit and get temperarily banned for x amount of time, but onces allowed back on they will do it again. I think a good idea would be 3 or 4 rage quits would result in a permenant banning, OR display both players battle records - including wins, losses and even a rage quit counter then GIVE THE PLAYER THE OPTION TO ACCEPT OR DENY ANY BATTLES INSTEAD BATTLING THE FIRST RAGE QUITTER THAT POPS UP. But I guess we'll start small and this is a step in the right direction, so I'll take this as a good thing.

I remember using a 'device' to shortcut training Pokes; hacked egg moves and nature but I did everything else (including the breeding) myself. It takes time to get what you'd like. However, online put me off Pokémon for months. When I went back, I didn't bother with the 'device' as I kinda preferred the legitimacy. It was more fun.

Haven't done training in ages; and with X & Y coming soon, I should get back to it. I hope X & Y will tell me which of my Pokémon are illegal so I can raise legit ones again.

Is it illegal if we used the AR card thingy to just be able to catch Pokémon? Nothing gets changed except being able to capture and acquire them?

Squid hackers as long they hack Xbox live I 'm happy but cheating in Pokémon thats just not being a gamer

@haniwa I hate that! All the people who do that are beyond stupid; there is currently no legal way to obtain a Reshiram or Zekrom under lv.50, as of right now.

well i guess some people can forget getting the impossible pokemons so nintendo better make it heck of alot easier to catch them all

The amount of cheaters in Pokemon is TOO DAMN HIGH!

Ive spent hours breeding and EV training a team on gen V and it really annoys me people that go against what makes these games fun by cheating.

I think some people here are perhaps a little naive about how you can manipulate the random number generator to get good Pokémon. Nothing external is applied to the game, all you're doing is using maths and timing to work out when to get those perfect stat/shiny Pokémon, rather than endless breeding and hoping for the best. It's a bit confusing to get your head round (I can't figure it, I still have to spend hours breeding competitive Pokémon properly ) but it's a legitimate way of getting almost any competitively viable Pokémon you want.

What this means is that those 'hacked' teams of strong, shiny Pokémon that people are complaining about aren't necessarily hacked, and almost certainly aren't going away. In fact as the competitive scene grows you'll probably see more RNG'd teams.

I'd also like to point out that a lot of the limitations on how they police Pokémon at present stem from the limitations of the DS hardware - if you're playing multiplayer for example the system can't tell who disconnected, that sort of thing. Just upgrading to the 3DS should sort a lot of those.

@Chris720 Hackers certainly can't corrupt the save files of the people they're battling against, that's a complete lie.

Nintendo is simply using scare tactics to steer people away from using hacked Pokemon, because they don't actually have a way of detecting whether a Pokemon is hacked or not (unless the hacker bungled and made an obvious mistake, that is). 99% of Pokemon used in official Nintendo tournaments are hacked, and indistinguishable from legitimately obtained Pokemon.

What happens if I trade for an illegitimate pokemon but don't know it's a hacked one.

Stopped hacking since Generation 2...(I wanted Celebi, shaddap, lol)
So yeah...hated going online and found myself losing against "baby" Pokemon despite me having some really good EV trained Pokemon.

I'm sick of seeing shiny Latios and Latias online. Sick of seeing whole shiny teams, really. AndbI'm especially sick of having my carefully EV trained (and sometimes IV trained) pokes beaten down by buffed up hacked pokemon. Crack down on the hackers!

wait... could that shiny dioxys being offered on the GTS in my soulsilver game that I got for giving them a delibird have been fake?!

...i'm so gullible

@Caramel I agree, as much as I hate to admit it, really, I do.... my current record is 15 wins and 241 losses.... (-_-) my wins would be abit higher but you know, rage quitter are also part of he problem

I admit I did use special sites to download shiny legendaries, but those were just for the entry I couldn't possibly get any other way - I couldn't bring myself to take them into my team. I find it absolutely low of cheaters to use illegal Pokès for easy win, and considering they risk their opponents data sa well, they very well deserve it!

@Haxonberik @Caramel

You do realize if it wasn't for hacking, you probably wouldn't know about EVs and IVs, right?

To add to this, if it wasn't for hacking, how many of us would know that Reshiram and Zekrom cannot be obtained shiny in-game in any legit way currently? The same thing also applies for most event pokémon, minus the ones who are meant to be shiny, like the shiny beasts that get you Zoroark in B1 and W1.

Face it, people; a lot of what we know today is because of folks who hack the game. Hacking is here to stay, and there will always be some hacks that find their way into official tourneys like the VGC. May as well catch up to the times. I know I did. I hack my 'mons whenever possible.

@monferno_aqw I'm not saying I'm against hacking, I'm against cheaters that skip the training part of the game and come up with over powered 'mon. You can hack the game to discover things, but not necessarily exploit hacks on competitive playing.

It's pretty sad to hear that Pokemon has been destroyed by players. My brother has legitimately collected every Pokemon in existence. Step up.
I'm glad Nintendo is taking the whole AR card cheater rage kids seriously this time around. If you really want the legitimate Pokemon, you need to buy the GBA games, the DS Gold and Silver remakes, every DS Pokemon game, and have a DS with a GBA slot to transfer them to DS.

One thing people don't seem to realize or take time to learn about, is that RNG'ing exists, and is definitely not cheating. If you call RNG'ing cheating, then you are essentially calling all walkthroughs, online guides and such, cheating. Just because someone has full teams of shiny pseudo legendaries (like me) doesn't mean we are cheating. It just means we took the time to learn RNG'ing or, reset out games multiple times just to get the pokemon shiny. At my college, nearly everyone calls me a cheater because of my all shiny teams. People need to be educated more to actually detect a true cheater. And calling all Japanese players with these sort of pokemon, doesn't mean they are cheaters. Don't forget they have had (not with BW2 though) the game way longer than us. I will say that, most players with 1000+ wins dc after I beat them, though. The majority of dc'ing 1000+ win players are Japanese.

@Rumbler Raising a pokemon to level 100 is generally a waste, because level 50 will suffice. Exceptions go to pokemon that learn moves special to your certain move set. Such as jellicent and water spout.

I'm going to be 100% honest with you lot, if you go to ANY organised Pokemon tournament, I can guarantee you that most, if not all, of the high-end players would have hacked to get their Pokemon. If you watch a popular YouTuber who does competitive Pokemon, their Pokemon are 99% likely to be hacked.

And guess what? This won't change anything. In the hacking programs you can make your Pokemon look 100% legal, down to the route, region and time the Pokemon hatched, and hidden authorisation codes not available on the Pokemon's status page, with the maximum stats possible. Game Freak already have barriers at physical tournaments, and the people who carefully hack their Pokemon always get through.

All this is going to effect are the idiots who hack shiny Zekroms with 999 in all their stats. Its not going to effect the people who have hacked perfect IVs and EVs, which is possible in the main game.

What PKMN needs is an easier way to make a competitive team. Imagine a Battle Frontier Building that let you build a 'Digital Team' of perfect Pokemon, with your set moves and stats and stuff. Would be super useful to Gamefreak me thinks

I dont like the thought of my game being corrupted due to random match up with someone cheating. Thats a strong concern considering how much time goes into these games. If nintedolife staff get a chance to interview gamefreak please ask them to elaborate and what safegaurds will be in place to prevent an innocent bystander from corrupting game.

@Caramel
well, a certain amount of those (like what im doing) are legit from the shiny charm, like what i'm currently trying to achieve before x and y come out, as my friend HAS caught a shiny latios with one, and he got his pokedex filled legit
I doubt i will use any of these legendary shinies
but still, at least some people have decency to grind every day
away and away

@3Daniel That is completely a lie made by Nintendo/TPCi.
There is no way for an AR hacked game to mess up yours just by battling with it. Even trading with it won't. Unless, you trade a custom pokemon that was added into the game via AR. When I mean custom, I mean such as a fake pokemon like adding something like sylveon into a 5th gen game. Only then, will a hacked game even have a chance of bricking your game. Nintendo always has fake warnings, such as using a flash card on a 3DS can brick it, while this is not true at all (I'm not endorsing flash card use, I don't recommend using one at all)
The only time an AR can mess up your game is if you use it very stupidly. Even them, it'll only mess up your save file at most.

I know of the smartphone app, and I also know the more intelligent cheaters use a cheating device like Action Replay because you can make Pokemon that are realistically nearly impossible but indiscernible from normal Pokemon that way.

While I don't cheat, I completely understand why people would cheat, and that's because of the horse manure mechanic that is IVs that is 1000x worse then tripping in Smash Bros. Brawl. They remove IVs or make it so you can raise IVs after catching/hatching a Pokemon, and then maybe Pokemon can be reasonably competitive outside of online simulators.

Also, if Nintendo thinks they are fooling anyone with their scare tactics they are sorely mistaken. People have been cheating to get Pokemon since Gen 1 and there have yet been any negative consequences. It's also sad to see how they are using lies and avoiding the real issue of why people cheat in Pokemon in the 1st place, because the IV mechanic is beyond unreasonable. If they want to fix the massive hacking issue they should fix/remove IVs.

All thiese comments make my head spin. I don't know Pokemon lingo at all. My 1st Pokexperience will be X & Y because my son really wants us to play together. You guyys make the game sound more complicated than it should, For the record, all cheaters/hackers are super lame. This policy will change nothing though.

If they wanted to stop cheaters, they wouldn't make it nearly-impossible to get good Pokémon.

@XD375

Another person who understands the source of the problem. They advertise the game as something that should be played competitively, but IVs make fair competitive play almost impossible.

I don't see any issue with these so called "cheaters". They aren't using any impossible stat combinations for Pokemon, and they are used only for competitive play. Most people set up organized battles through Smogon, and no one uses them to cheat their way through the main game, and if they do, then that is their decision. In no way is anyone hacking the Pokemon game, as the app used for this just sets up an alternative IP adress for the DS system to get the Pokemon from. It's not like you are messing with the games coding or system files and making illegal "super" Pokemon. This is the only was people can play competitively, and quite honestly, I think it's great to see these people do this. If Gamefreak is really considered about these so called "hackers", then they should make a mode of online play separate from the main game where you can pick your own Pokemon team. These competitive players are making the game better, and I just can't see how they are considered cheaters.

I used the phone app to get a mew with all legit moves it would normally know. It has a bad nature, poor stat distribution and horrible IV's. It also has the right ability. I did it because I've always wanted a mew and I wasn't sure when the next event for one would happen. When another one becomes available through an actual wi-fi event I will release the one I created. I don't battle with it nor am I interested in official battles. They tend to be teams of the very same Pokemon anyway and I feel like competitive battling has been ruined because of things like Smogon.

@Arcamenel
If it weren't for smogon and the sorts, this game would be even more luck based than it is even with these "cheaters"

@Yorumi

What you call "silly", competitive players call "fair". People want to play a game where you lost based on a decision you made, not battles that are potentially determined before the battle started because 1 person got luckier then the other when it came to IVs. IVs in no way improve the game, they just add randomness for no reason and can very much decide whether a Pokemon knocks out a Pokemon with an attack on a turn it needed to or survived an attack with a few HP. Makes Pokemon unique? EVs and Natures already do that. Hidden Power? You could easily put something in the game they just lets you choose hidden power's element (and it would be by default base power 70), or better yet, actually give special attackers outside of Uber a wide variety of good and power attacks like physical attackers have.

Can you imagine a game like Starcraft 2 where every time you made a biological unit their speed, attack, and defense where varied by plus or minus 5 points? Yeah, that would be realistic, as not all creatures of the same species are identical, but it would be unfair as heck.

@Yorumi Pokemon always has been a math game, just with a bit of chess included.
Pokemon damage calculations have a lot of deviation in it, up to 30%.

Wow, so much going on in the world of Pokemon that I have been unaware of... What saddens me is that there are actually people who cheat... at Pokemon... What's the fun in that?

@Yorumi Yes, but in most esports the variation comes down to the player and his skill, not luck. in a common FPS the team's difference vs other teams is based on the players' skill and how he/she plays, not a random in game value. That's how a lot of games have it so no two players are exactly alike. In some games such as Source Engine games, most randomness is eliminated in competitive by turning off things like damage spread and critical hits.

@Yorumi Yes, and those games are designed differently because in their competitive, there is way more in prizes involved, so all luck aspects are removed, and the game becomes purely skill based and psychological. The reason people RNG is because they want to reduce that luck aspect. If you want to reduce the luck aspect of IVs when you battle, take the initiative to learn how to RNG.

Finally, random matchup in Black 2 is filled with hackers. I remember one time i fought someone with smeargle who is banned online and it had dark void. Even with my ev trained shiny(legit ones) team i lost. And shiny legends aren't hard to get or starters. I have a shiny regigigas that is legit. The person i got it from soft reseted for it. I did that to get a shiny chickorita. It doesn't take long, so i don't see why people would hack them.

@Yorumi
Seriously, learn how to RNG. Not only can you get perfect IVs and the hidden power you want, it's completely legit seeing as RNG'ing isn't modifying the game at all, it's just using the RNG in pokemon to your advantage.
Also, netbattle is so 2008.
The only thing the hack checks need is egg move legality. I saw an ultra ball dark pulse hydreigon (back when it was only an egg move)
And fix dc'ing of course, especially in tournaments such as the Japan Nationals qualifier and international challenges where CP is involved. That extra 8 CP can secure someone a worlds invite.

@Yorumi
RNG abuse is cheating? Explain how.
Also, you don't seem to know who you're talking to.

@Yorumi
And if game freak didn't want RNG abuse to exist, they would've fixed it in the 5th Gen so it would be nearly impossible to do.

Yeah sure, i see Nintendo dropping region lock soon people. Really why they should, they must control things easier, things are already ef'd up as they are in hackers and crackers's world.

I don't have any issues with people cheating in general, as long as whatever they do does not affect other players. It is their game and, in my opinion, they are free to enjoy it however they please.

However, obviously this becomes a problem when players bring their hacked (or heavily RNGed Pokemon) online. Even if you do not battle competitively, the extreme amount of hacking can still affect casual players in other areas, (such as the GTS). It is disappointing seeing an otherwise enjoyable trading element of the game almost broken due to the hacking.

Whether or not you consider RNG to be cheating, (I personally enjoy RNGing because I like the convoluted mathematical and programming component of the process. For me trying to manipulate the numbers in the right way is part of the fun, and you do not end up with something that could not occur in the game naturally anyways), the act of RNGing for things such as perfect IVs and good natures does have larger consequences. From my experience, it raises the standard of competitive battles so that if you do not have a perfect Pokemon, you are unable to compete. It also floods the GTS with strong/shiny Pokemon, which may take advantage of players who do not understand what RNGing is.

Anyways, long story short, do whatever you want, but keep it to yourself lol. Also, I was under the impression that hacked Pokemon were already disqualified from tournaments?

Good. Anyone who is able to beat me is a cheater. Use that as a barometer.

@Klinny
Hacked pokemon in your team get you disqualified from the event, but you are free to participate in any other event, also, if you are a junior or senior, the judges will let you switch out the hacked pokemon instead of being disqualified.

@SonataAndante
No, there aren't any external cheating devices that are 3DS compatible, but there still exists sendpkm and other methods.

@Raikoo
Ahh okay, thank you! I wasn't aware that they were so lenient about it :/

But what if you battle a friend who modified his/her Pokemon? Then "infected" Pokemon are transferred to your 3DS like a virus, and you go online and get your account banned despite you never knowingly broke the rules? I'm kinda glad I never got sucked into this Pokemon craze. It was the bane of my existance, graduating high school in '99 and later discovering that half of the GBC titles available at stores were pokecrap. No thanks. I'm genuinely surprised that the fad lasted this long.

@Yorumi I talked to a game freak employee at worlds 2011, and I asked him what game freak's view on RNG abuse. He said that game freak doesn't care about RNG abuse at all and they don't consider it cheating at all, they consider it CLEVER that someone has figured out the system and how to manipulate how it works.
http://puu.sh/3qEwo.jpg
Even if it is how the game was intended to be played, game freak clearly shows it doesn't have a problem with RNG abuse.
also, looks like I got the date wrong, if anyone wants me to retake, I will. (26 isn't 29...)

I hate cheating, but they need to make a way to make top 31 IVs easier to get or make a training system or somethin.

i dont care as much about cheating in battles, as much as being a troll in the GTS
wanted: an any level, any gender bidoof
offering: a level 1 mewtwo

"I promise! My Pikachu's got all his documents!"

I won't lie I cheated before when I was like 10 to get Arceus but it really does ruin games and I never consider cheating or exploits whenever I play games, it takes out the fun and the time you put into a game.

I feel sorry for Cheaters honestly. It's as though they have such little belief in their own skill that they'll resort to dishonest means just to be better than to actually properly train and take advantage of EV training. God I hate cheaters.

Hasn't this been their policy for a while (at least since gen. 4)? Hacked Pokemon have never been allowed in official tournaments (they're ability to actually catch them nonwithstanding). Call me when they have a way to keep obviously illegitimate pokes off the GTS.

I went up against someone in an official tournament who had a Kyogre who knew Dark Void that absolutely destroyed me. It was only when I mentioned how much I hated the attack to a much more knowledgeable friend did she inform me that only Darkrai could learn it...

I really hope Nintendo can step up detection of hacked Pokemon in the future.

@KamenRiderClive
When did you play? 2006?

I don't really have much issue with people who use RNGing or even programs like Pokesav, as they usually just create Pokemon they would have already gotten in the first place, just much faster.

I do however hate it when people use illegal move combinations such as a Gyarados with Acrobatics and holding a Flying Gem. As someone else pointed out, this seems to be most common with Japanese players (or at the very least Japanese Pokemon), which makes me wonder if Japanese players are bigger cheaters than US or EU players.

It's quite the brouhaha down here. Let me get something straight.

@Azikira @SkywardLink98 @3Daniel There's a lot of ignorance about how these devices work so let me clear this up. Using cheats cannot transmit any harm to another file. The way these devices work is by patching RAM addresses temporarily. It looks for the location entered in the cheat code and replaces it with new code put into RAM. RAM is no-volatile and only affects the save file if you save (and only corrupts if you royally mess up and save).

They can't track anyone down because cheats don't change anything about the Pokemon. If they truly hacked stats up past the limit, the Pokemon's header checksum will detect if it's illegal (impossible stats) and re-writes it to something else. It's a fail-safe from development that acts as glitch and hack protection. If you've ever heard or had a Bad Egg in Gen III, that's what happened.

Point is, they say those things to deter the general public from cheating. That's fine, but it's made to sound worse than it actually is. In no way can you get corruption/banned if you do not use cheats yourself.

@Stark_Nebula my point is by nintendo saying that by battling someone who is cheating in xy my save can be corrupted i will hold off on my purchase till i get official clarification. Because while what everyone is saying about past games and it not neing true may not be the case for xy.

@Great_Gonzalez I have an awesome shiny suicune, which I got from a Gamestop event. If you see shiny suicunes, just remember that they can be legit.

@3Daniel I understand that and agree, but take it with a grain of salt. Even if they were to implement cheat flags, softblocks and checksums, you could once again use cheats to modify the memory in addresses XYZ to be off. "Give them an inch and they'll take a mile." Nintendo won't say it's safe because it would not deter anyone from cheating. Not to mention, if the system is perfect, they'd detect a fake Pokemon and prevent trading.

@XD375 @DarkKirby (#64) I disagree. I see the issue as too difficult to obtain truly good Pokemon. If it were easier, than a lot of people wouldn't need cheat devices to get powerful Pokemon. If they made an easy to assess IV chart and EV acquisition weren't such a pain, than who would really need Action Replays and whatnot?

@lilpieri The issue is pertinent to online more so than just with the game. It sucks the fun out of it. If everyone had an even playing field, than it's fine. But if someone has a cheat device and the other doesn't, than that person is underprivileged. The people who cheat only care about victory, while others just want to play for fun.

I've never cheated in a pokemon game, except the time I tested out the gen 4 mimic glitch to get my flareon to learn flare blitz, which it can't learn. I never used that flareon, though. It was just to see if it could work. I'm glad they are trying to stop the cheaters. It's not cool when the opponent's salamence randomly uses aeroblast.

I haven't played pokemon in over 6 years... Hopefully cheating won't be a problem in pokemon x and y, because I'm planning on getting back into the series.

Best way to do tournaments is for them to give you a team.

I don't like hacking, but I can understand why it happens. If you have fun grinding your mons then power to you; but the senseless hours of breeding/mass catching for good IV's? Good lord Game Freak Why?!

@MadAdam81
Best way? Then what happens to the creativity and individuality that isn't allowed by giving pre-created teams?

Its Fair Dat You Cant Cheat From Now On,Stops Hackers And Other People From Intruding Game Systems And Cheating.

A friend of mine traded me two Pokémon Eggs which were apparently bred from "Bad Egg" Pokémon (My first clue was one of the Eggs being in a Safari Ball), and they ended up scrambling my PC boxes...uh...pardon the pun.

I wonder, how exactly does an illegal pokemon is classified? I know that the game forbids you to enter wifi if you have more than 252 evs and moves that you arent supposed to have, so what is the problem? O.o

Also another thing. They SHOULD CORRECT OR BAN the silly people who asks silly trades, like level 9 or under legendary pokemon. They just bloat the searches.

Awesome news.

Awesome news.

This makes me feel better about losing every online battle I've had on Black 2... They must all been cheating

All these cheaters give people that RNG and get their Pokemon legitimately a bad name. I've been accused of cheating multiple times for entering tournaments with a shiny Bold 31/17/31/31/31/31 Cresselia from my Pearl, when it's perfectly legit :/

Super strong pokemon I am totally against. But I have no problem with people using such devices to obtain pokemon that are extremely rare or event pokemon. That stuff might fly in Japan, but in the rest of the world, event pokemon should only be wifi.

Does cheating here mean using Pokémon like Spiritomb with Wonder Guard ability or something like using pokesav to create Pokémon with legal max stats?

The training process gets very boring fast and I only EV trained 7 pokemon in White. I got some Pokémon with pokesav from my friend and have had some really fun multiplayer battles after that.

@MonHanKatsumi
I know exactly how you feel. Whenever I play seriously with a RNGed team at a place like college, I always get accused of pokesav'ing my pokemon. Nearly all the pokemon I use are RNGed shiny, nearly flawless (31 in all but one stat, such as attack in a special attacker, only exception is when I have a certain hidden power)
I've only been accused of cheating in one tournament, but the guy called over a volunteer and the volunteer clearly didn't know what he was doing, and it held up the event by 20+ minutes. My opponent called it "a blatant completely hacked team of shinies."
I hate the mentality that quite a bit of people go by, which is if they lose to a team of shinies, it's hacked.

Well, I think cheats just to speed up the process are fine, like 999 Rare Candies, fast EV training or fast egg hatch, because these can get really boring

@Orel I have not played PokéMon in a while, but I remember there being a downside to using Rare Candies over levelling up normally.
Anyways, I hope X and Y can tell the difference between a legitimate PokéMon and an illegal one when transferring from past games. That way cheaters can't carry over their hacked 'Mon from any of the DS games.

That's good that they do this. I can understand (to a degree) if you were to use a cheat to get an event Pokemon you missed out on. But not to artificially inflate their stats. Doing that just to win shows that you have no back bone.

I never use hackmon. I may have used codes to encounter Audino's though. I did it for faster levelling up. That isn't hacking is it? Audino's are available in the wild.

@SonataAndante THIS. I have only hacked for EVs, moves, and levels. I breed for IVs and shinies (if so desired) and all my movesets are legal. I do this so I can enjoy the game in friendly tournament play and in-game without a lot of grinding, which isn't fun and feels like a waste of time to me. While I understand many people have faced cheaters that have ruined the online game for them, some of us do things within the rules. I cheat "legally". Take that as you will. 9 out of 10 I won't be able to do this in Gen 6, but thankfully Nintendo and Game Freak have decided to make EVs a lot easier to track and gain so I probably won't have to worry about it.

I don't think people would cheat if EV training wasn't such a tedious process. It might be fun the first few times, but after some 1000+ hours, it becomes something you'd want to skip. If all they are doing is skipping training, and using legit stats/ moves I don't have a problem. Not everyone has time to train entire teams. Though Ive never heard of Rgn or what not. The only service I'm familiar with is Pokegen.

I have used these Fake GTS systems before but only to get event pokemon that were only available in places I'd never be able to go. And since I generally play my Pokemon games solo and never participate in Tornaments I doubt anybody would smite me for it. And before you say "Well that's what the GTS is for" I'll point out that for things like event Pokemon, they always ask for something unreasonable, like another event Pokemon I couldn't get.

@StarDust The series has been going for about 17 years now. I'm not sure the term "fad" is applicable.

@allav866 The Rare Candy thing is just the fact that you do not gain EVs when leveling up with them. It doesn't really matter, since you can always EV train them when they're at a good level, and in BW on, at level 100.

Finally I had enough of level 1 legendaries on the GTS

@Skotski at least in in B and W I only found trainers who made their pokemon shiny. Never found out of place movesets or rediculous stats.

@miiandmario ah.... Now they actually serve a legitmet service. While they are action replay pokemon everything else is legit. People make them so they can EV train them correctly.

@Great_Gonzalez That's not totally true. They could be RNG'ed. I feel the ones on GTS are more likely to be hacked (for the sole reason that if you work for a shiny, you wouldn't give it up).

@SCAR392 That's pretty good. That makes 2 of us. Did you help him out any?

@Bulby I've personally been to 3 regionals in the last three years, and every single one had incidents where hacking was found. I don't know specifically if they were messy or clean hacks, but they were DQ'ed on spot. They had machines that looked like a prototype DS that they put your card in (not sure how online would be monitored). Then there are the people who get others to RNG for them, as most of my competitors have. As long as their stats and moves are legitimate, I mostly don't have a problem with it.

@Stark_Nebula Simple solution: Don't go on Smogon to find a competitive match if you don't create your own team with the aid of generators such as PokeGEN or PokeSAV. The competitive battlers are so anal about everything they do that they make the legitimacy of their Pokemon as real as possible and they never abuse things such as illegal EVs or move sets. I play competitive battles and I can tell you right now, if you are on those sites such as Smogon or PO looking for a casual match then you're in the wrong place. These "hackers" (which is funny that they're called so because they're not hacking at all) are nothing more then people that like to play against a select few amount of people that truly understand the game mechanics to their fullest and just don't have the time to legitimately raise their 48+ competitive Pokemon to battle in the ever changing competitive meta game. The only thing that I agree with in this article are the people in tournaments using illegal Pokemon because a lot of the times they have stats such as 252 EVs in every stat, which is just unfair.

@Jukilum Pokemon still exists yes; I'm not denying that. But at the height of the Pokemon craze in 2000, 50% of retails space for Game Boy Color was devoted to Pokemon titles, and that's not counting the TV shows, trading cards, etc... Pokemon today is nowhere near as popular as it was in 2000, but it still has a loyal fan base. When I use the term "fad," I was referring to the fact that the market at the time was grossly oversaturated and seemingly everyone who owned a Game Boy Color was obsessed except for me. Then again, I was 18-19 and most of the Pokefans at that time were 11-12 years old. The sad part of the whole ordeal was that while I was primarily interested in great platformers like Kirby Tilt n' Tumble, Wario Land II & III, etc, Nintendo was spending the majority of their R&D budget trying to keep up with the hype and demand for new Pokemon games. As for older teens such as myself who originally bought the system to experience the great 1st party classic franchises Nintendo was known for; we were basically ignored and it sucked. Nintendo was lucky that Pokemon didn't cause a market crash in the handheld sector. Game selection was much more balanced in the GBA years, but I never forgot how Pokemon kind of ruined Game Boy Color for me.

@JayceJa That's not totally true. I can raise a team in about 2 hours, which isn't much (I don't breed for IVs though, so that kind of does play a role). Though there are sometimes I wish I could speed up an already quick process (if pokerus gave 4x EVs instead of 2x, that would change a lot).

Wait... WAT. I admit, I have never battled with people online, nor entered a tournament. But isn't that much?.... I admit, I cheated, aka used an action reply code but for pokemon I couldn't be able to get but was from other the older games. For example, Miltank, the Weather pokemon and magmar. Even events that have passed! Like the Arceus event. I wasn't able to play SS til this year due to finally finding it and getting a job. What about needing a fire stone but not having anything left? I think you should still be able to do that. I think one should still be able to do that. Or still use small things in pokemon.

There's a line between cheating, such as illegal move-sets, Wonder Guard Spiritomb, save game overwriting, and Pokemon with inflated stats is clearly harmful to any competitive event.

But using PokeSav/Gen to make event pokemon, some of which are needed to even breed rare egg moves, and perfect IVs for breeding or just general use harms nothing. But I suspect move people with my mindset will just use the simulators to battle.

I stopped playing pokemon when I found out I couldn't get Celibi, Jirachi, or Deoxys legally. I would of done Event pokemon hacks if I knew about them.

No,i hate grinding i don't use wondertomb or what ever i just want 252 es without 10 hours of grinding

I don't know, anyone who has tried IV breeding and all that stuff knows how much of a pain it is to get the right stuff. I've never hacked (depending on how you view RNG abuse that is) but breeding the Pokemon with the stats you need it to have for competitive battling is almost impossible without hacking, so I understand why people do it. I pretty much just decided to stop playing the actual games at some point after BW and used Pokemon Online just to battle online so I wouldn't have to spend hours (or days) trying to breed one Pokemon.

People who cheat for illegal movesets however should be banned. I don't care if people hack for shiny versions of Pokemon (that's a different story if they're trading it), but that stuff really shouldn't be allowed in tournaments.

I do like the fact that they are hitting the cheating on the head, but for it to effect the person you are fighting against is kinda of a turn off for me, I might not want to do random battles if that can happen.

Man this is Hilarious! "genetically enhanced" pokemons!
heh! kudos to Gamefreak for providing Olympic Style Drug Testing!

Once a cheater always a cheater is all I can say. Nothing can stop those who know how to hack the games to stop not even when their save file get corrupted.

I say days before the tournament they shall check everyone's team to make sure its not hacked and if so disqualify them. ~ That would sure scare them all

in all the battles on black and white, all japanese pokemon are ALWAYS level 100. Hackers? after reading this, my friend quit pokegen.

i always go in with roughly lv 90 pokemon and get my whupped.

Is Nintendo able to do anything about action replays because those can be used to hack the game a lot too.

I met a person back in 2011 who gave me a shiny Zoroark he caught in Pinweel Forest. Is this Pokemon considered a "cheat" Pokemon??? I haven't cheated on my Black and Black 2 Versions and I don't want to risk my Pokemon X file when I get it... : I am not sure if this guy cheated to get it or not. Will there be a warning or something that tells you which ones are cheat Pokemon??

will your game be messed up even if you don't bring cheated pokemon to wifi battles? Because the only reason i cheated a pokemon is because i wanted to see how long it would take for it to listen to me with 1 badge. (if you were wondering how many turns it took, lets just say this was the part that ticked me of the most.... "Go Starmie! Starmie began to nap (few turns later) Starmie woke up! Starmie began to nap

Also, i always keep "Legal Mode" on so it stops or warns me if i did something that would make the pokemon illegal. Ex: Putting whirlwind on Skarmory Whirlwind is a egg move for skarmory. You must mark Skarmoy as "Hatched" to keep it legal

Honestly, I believe that pokemon trainers should have a right to cheat, as long as they keep there cheated pokemon "legal" and not overly cheated. I also believe that we should be able to cheat pokemon, just not use them in WI-fi battles, because that just isn't fair. I do admit to cheating, and I have an action replay, but I only use it to HELP me catch pokemon with a plain old poke balls. I love poke balls. Plus, I use it to get certain items in the game. Cheaters aren't bad people, they just what to enhance their gaming experience.

Mixed feelings. On the one hand, I'm glad that tournaments won't have to worry about hacked pokemon (as much), but on the other... sometimes it's fun to just use hacked pokemon for your own use. I've proudly gotten to around ~640 pokemon in my pokedex, all legit, but I know there are some things I'll simply never get legally--such as a shiny Rayquaza I can name after one of my original characters. So in cases like that, I like to hack one just for my own in-game fun usage... but now it sounds like such things can endanger my entire game? Lame... unless it's just the generic "messing with your game can break it" message, in which case not much has really changed...

I'll just come out and say it. I have no issues with people who hack pokemon, PROVIDED the created pokemon is 100% possible. 31 IVs in everything? Sure, go ahead. Obscure breeding moves (did you know Rattata gets Flame Wheel via breeding?)? Why not. Premade EV spread? Fine by me. Magikarp with Hyper Beam and 999 in all stats? Absolutely not, and screw you for doing it (unless it's for purely personal use, then it's just whatever, it's your game to derp your way through, just as long as you keep it well away from me).

I'll admit it, I've hacked for pokemon that are competitively up to snuff. I tried doing it the legit way, believe me I tried. If you haven't tried breeding for competitive, you really won't understand just how time consuming and oftentimes frustrating it is; I'll try to paint the picture for you.
Even if you have guaranteed IVs for 3 stats (I dunno how to do that, I'll be honest), if you want perfect for the other 3 (or imperfect as the case may be - an exact value all the same), it's a 1/32768 chance. For a comparison, the chance of a shiny is 1/8192. Combine that with getting the nature right (1/2 with a Ditto/female pokemon holding an Everstone, provided she has the right nature to begin with - otherwise it's a 1/25 chance), Ability (for dual-ability pokemon, 4/5 chance if both parents have the desired ability, otherwise 1/2), Hidden Power sometimes (I don't even KNOW how to do the IVs on that, I just know you need exact IVs or maybe a couple possibilities for any given type if you want max power, oftentimes requiring pokemon to have just UNDER perfect IVs) and then EV training to exact numbers (you have 2 points of wiggle room out of 510, that's it), is it any wonder some people might want to find another way?

If you want to go the standard route and train/breed to perfection manually, that's your decision, and more power to you if you can pull it off. I mean it - if you can actually do it, then you have my genuine respect, as that's not something that most people can do. What you have to understand, though, is that there are people who enjoy Pokemon strictly for the STRATEGY aspect of it, and strategy usually does not entail having imperfections that could potentially cost you matches. It's not like the anime, where just doing enough training and having a strong enough bond with your pokemon can help you win any matchup, no matter how unlikely. Like it or not, Pokemon is a game of numbers, and if your numbers are lower, then more often than not you WILL lose.

@Great_Gonzalez actually, no. This is where most people show their ignorance of the meta game. It is completely possible to get flawless shiny legendary pokemon without hacking or cheating. I've done it. All it takes is a superior understanding of the game's number generator and a little patience. I'm really tired of people who don't know what a hack looks like accusing me of hacking.

@Raikoo this. So much this. I swear, rnging isn't even hard. A ten year old with Internet and a computer could learn it in a matter of weeks. And yet, every time someone sees my massive shiny collection, it's always assumed I hacked. Good thing there is literally no difference code-wise between "rng" and "really lucky".

Its good that there now doing something about the hackers. but I must know if I get a hacked pokemon from the GTS and I breed that said pokemon would the egg be considered hacked too?

I want to see how well they can stop pokemon from being sent into a game by using a differnt DNS as a GTS back door by crating .pkm files with sites like
http://www.pokedit.com/editor/#pokemon%2F9%2F8
and uploading them to a game in such ways as http://www.pokegts.us/5thGen_Upload.aspx
with pokemon from 4th gen to 5th gen I am sure someone out there is working on making the Y and X back door.

Think of it like this when a Pokemon is sent over by a fake GTS and not crated by a AR does that said Pokemon mess up the game file due to no code is being injected by some other device such as a AR.

Pokemon crated in that means can look 100% legit + if they were to make it look like it was their Pokemon they would have to use a AR code to get their secert ID to make it look like it was theirs and not crated by other means.

Pokemon that are blocked from WI-FI that I know of are any Pokemon over 510 EV or know moves they should not know only 2 things that I know is blocked from WI-FI but a Pokemon with say idk 252 EV towards its best stat then 252 EV to something like idk Speed to something lets say 6EV to something like attack or even 3 EV added to 2 other stats would look ligit and from what I know a Pokemon with 31 IV on all stats is possible by breeding and getting the nature you want is possible to by breeding and same goes with shinys you can breed a shiny takes a little work but can be done.

Just saying the GTS is a big back door that any hacker can use even in X and Y I think the coding is the same or less they made it route to another DNS but even so that can be bypassed every program has a back door.

AR may not work with the 3DS due to it can be patched but the GTS is the backdoor to a AR only differents is its free just internet fees about it really but other then that no going to the store and buying a AR for $20 USD due to all you need to do it is a Domain that can act as a GTS or just use one that is all ready made and just send Pokemon to your game over fake GTS.

I can assure you all only badly made hacks will be blocked from the Pokemon Bank when it comes out in Dec 27th.

Programs are like Humans in every way non of them are perfect and there is all ways a way to break them.

What exactly constitutes an "illegal" pokemon?
Are RNG abused pokemon illegal? what about clones of legal pokemon?
How is nintendo going to check a pokemon's legality? will it be fine as long as they dont have incorrect abilities or stats?

@epsilon526
This I'd like to know too. As long as the Pokémon I face off against has legal stats that would be possibly to get trough normal training, I have no problem with "cheartes".

@Zeldismatic
Thumbs up for you too!

Ok this is getting ridiculous. I feel it is completely and totally justifiable to hack pokemon, but. It not for official competitive matches. I don't mind if some has a fake perfect IV shiny Zekrom, I don't care because I think its beautiful, and stupid for Nintendo to program the game to have certain shinies if they're never released. I really hate that pokemon restricts certain pokemon for only event releases so only a handful of people have it in the world. It's stupid and evil and I hope everyone hacks pokemon so hey can finally play with the pokemon they've always wanted. I've always wanted a Mew, or Deoxys, or now Genesect or Keldeo or Meloetta, and I think its wrong of pokemon to program this creatures just to see that most of the world won't even get a remote chance of it. Did you know the first time they released Mew, only 20 people in the whole world got one? How corrupt and evil is that? Every damn kid wants a Mew and I think its wrong to keep these pokemon hidden away and never seen or played with. I'm best friends with my Shiny Blue Mew I created on my Soul Silver game to follow me around. Sure I give it perfect IVs but who cares, IVs are pointless devices, it doesn't have any unnatural moves and it's stats are legit, so leave us hackers alone. Were not trying to be Team Rocket and just steal pokemon. Jesus it's a game, lighten up.

@PokeJustice

I'm actually with you. I can't tell you how many times I've wanted to get a certain team together but because of restrictions, I couldn't. I gen Pokemon so that I can finally just experience what it's like to raise certain pokemon or see what affect on the in-game that an ability has or see what a move looks like in the current game. I don't condone using generated pokemon in competitive battling but when you're just playing through by yourself, I don't see the harm.

If youre into cheating for self gain competitively, you have a great chance to run for congress XD