Finding rare beasts in Pokémon GO is often a matter of trial and error, as you only have a very narrow view of the world around you and can't "see" where monsters are expected to spawn.
However, a group of fans have used the game's API to create a site which shows the locations of nearby monsters and even goes as far as to display how much time remains before they "despawn" and vanish from the map.
Pokévision.com is surprisingly slick for a fan-made effort, although at the time of writing the servers are under a lot of strain. You simply input your current location and a map showing nearby Pokémon is displayed, along with a timer showing how much longer they will be available for capture.
We tested it and found it was a little inconsistent, often failing to show every available Pokémon in locations where we then captured several different breeds, but there are numerous reports online that people have used the site to obtain rare and elusive monsters.
This of course brings up an ethical argument - is using this kind of site cheating? Given that you can quickly capture some of the most powerful beasts in the game it's tempting to say it is, but there are counter arguments which claim that the game's ropey server performance has forced players to take matters into their own hands after losing legitimate high-level captures due to crashes or restarts.
There's a good chance that Niantic will shut down this site or render it useless by changing the API, but for the time being it's there for players to use or ignore. Let us know what you think by posting a comment below.
[source eurogamer.net]
Comments 49
It's all about the $$$.
You should let users decide whether there is an ethical argument here for themselves rather than gouging them into having such a debate.
@TeeJay But all the ad ££££££!
(I realize Nintendo Life is most likely based in Great Britain, so I avoided using $, €, or ¥.)
Well, if the game offers an API which allows things like that then I guess it will be OK for Niantic to develop such maps. Else they would have created an API which offers less functionality.
Have found issues with this unfortunately. I was standing next to a Golbat that wasn't there according to that site, and that site said there was a Krabby down the road when there wasn't.
@TheWPCTraveler Exactly. I had to bite my lip about what I wrote. This site had standards. Now if Pokemon Go farts it's a news story. I'm trying to think when this started happening, it feels like it's only been in the last few months.
Worked for me when I tested it. Made me realize my area sucks for pokemon lol need to venture out San Francisco and have a grand adventure I suppose
This is just not right. The game is about going out to different places to see what appears. It takes all the fun out of the game. Although the recent Pokémon tracking bug partially ruins the experience, so I can see why people would want to use this.
@Serebii Same here, I've found it's not 100%
My kids and myself have used it with great success. Our backyard and then .2 miles away at the end street are spawn points. We keep the site up and check regularly. I was running down the street last night to catch a Snorlax.
@InternetBowser There is literally no news besides Pokemon GO. NX is far from ready for reveal, and there aren't many games coming out this year. They do write other articles, but there's just so little going on that they use Pokemon GO as filler, and I'm alright with that.
@SLIGEACH_EIRE Actually I care, Serebii is one of the best if not the best Pokemon site I've ever seen. Even if you don't like Pokemon and therefore a lack of interest in articles to do with it, you still seem to go ahead and comment something. Please in the future don't comment things such as "Nobody Cares" because as I've just said, I care. @Serebii basically confirmed the website could be pretty broken, which in my eyes. I see as useful and I care.
@DoctorOverbuild I gave up on him, don't know why the other mods are letting him do whatever.
What is Pokemon
@Megumi_Sagano Shame really.
I find it slightly amusing that those that are tired of seeing Pokemon Go articles, screaming, "CLICKBAIT" and "OMG ADREVENUEZ" yet, they click on through to the the article anyway. If it's that much of a problem, then I'd think you'd use the contact form to complain instead of giving them more ad revenue clicks. Also, I can count almost a dozen articles just in the past 24 hours that wasn't Go related. So what does that tell me? When there's other news to report, they'll report it. Right now, Go is the biggest thing that Nintendo really has going right now, so the content on the site would naturally skew towards Pokemon Go. And hey if it brings more eyeballs to this site from those that may be looking for Pokemon Go news, more power to NL.
Being that this is really the only Nintendo focused site I go to, and I am interested in Pokemon Go news, it doesn't bother me much. You know what I do when there's a article that doesn't interest me? I don't click on it. Really folks, it's that simple. Besides, the guys here have to keep the lights on somehow.
I can't help but think that a) this is cheating (you couldn't do this in the main series) and b) sites like this put an even greater load on the servers (more so than alleged hackers). I'd advise people not to use it, play fairly and be patient with a game that is technically still in a pre-release/post beta-testing phase. It still hasn't been officially launched by Ninty yet!
@Sir_JBizzle I don't know about the others, but I click through for the comments.
I'll have to stop here, though, meta discussions aren't really my forte.
@TheWPCTraveler I have to admit, the comments are an interesting beast. Sometimes this comments are better than the content itself.
@SLIGEACH_EIRE I was unaware we had any past dealings. Are you sure that opinion is based on my actual personality and not the exaggerated view of me that some have in some corners of the internet?
@Serebii I've had plenty of dealings with you in the past and you know who I am.
@Serebii @SLIGEACH_EIRE Yeah I'd too like an example of this.
@DoctorOverbuild I've realised who it is. We've butted horns so to speak on another forum. Long history
@Serebii Oh well that's a shame. I think you're awesome. Been a fan of your site for years now.
This will take all the fun out of the game and cause people's interest to spike and then drop off completely.
Looking at the site it seems to not report where I live — which from my son I know has quite a few Pokemon.
I think I live in Pallet Town, right near Route 1.... all I find is Pidgey and Rattata.
@Sir_JBizzle Tell'em Bizzle. Bonus points for a well written piece that didn't use dude or bros. And extra credit for Kermit.
I can't wait until they do an article on Pokémon Go dating. Which I know they will just to stop me constantly posting about it.
http://www.cnet.com/news/gotta-catch-lamour-pokemon-go-gets-a-dating-site-pokedates/
Tried it. What's near me? A Weedle. Just a Weedle. Which is likely accurate, given what I've found here. sigh
@DoctorOverbuild @Serebii Seconded; obviously I don't know him personally but the work he does for Pokemon is brilliant. (and nothing I have seen of him suggests he's not a nice person in real life either!)
Can't load the website. It says it's offline. Well!
@SLIGEACH_EIRE
@SLIGEACH_EIRE Given that you instigated the argument (followed by name-calling), you're pretty hard pressed to accuse anyone of being smart-alec or retaliatory.
From what I've seen, it can't account for player level, which was outright stated to be a factor in what pokemon can appear for you.
Most inconsistencies could theoretically be explained by that, as I'd take a guess it gets assigned a level when it does the scan, or generates one on its own or something.
It would explain why my mom (lvl 4) could see a paras I (lvl 16) could not, and it took 3 scans to find.
How it pulls the spawn time is beyond me though.
@Serebii The website does mention that pokémon who are spawned through the use of lures/incense will not appear on their map, so perhaps that explains the inconsistencies?
@SLIGEACH_EIRE Could you clarify the sentiment behind your post at #22: straight up or tongue in cheek? 'Cos at face value it looks like an unprovoked breach of community rules.
Dang it, now that so many people are seeing this via news sites, it never works any more because the site is overloaded with traffic. Way to ruin a good thing.
@crystalorbie I think the game will spawn the same Pokemon, just at varying CP. I'm 21 and even if I find a rare Pokemon, a level 5 buddy sees it also. The difference is that I'll get it at 1500cp and they'll get theirs at 200cp. It's happened to me numerous times.
@Jayvir Nah, I've been aware of that for awhile, (and it works in reverse too, I've gotten 10 cp pokemon when I outlevel my friends by 3 or 4 levels and they get 340 cp from that same pokemon) but I mean the actual pokemon you can find do seem to be different if your levels are too different. I've found golbat (rare at the time/place I found it) and my friends found rapidash in that same spot.
Granted, this was back last week when the servers were far more unstable, so maybe that accounts for that?
I don't care enough about the Gen 1 Pokemon to actively hunt for any of them.
But if the Gen 3 Pokemon are released and there still isn't a way to reasonably raise Pokemon of your choice instead of just dealing with whatever you have a lot of Candies for then I'm going Ralts hunting with this.
For a lot of people in my area the in game radar has just not been working, as the Pokemon are all permanently frozen at three steps or are not appearing at all. the PokeVision has really helped us.
@SLIGEACH_EIRE please respect the other users. Famous or not, "past enemies" or not, they all have the right to post on articles.
If you countinue being toxic in the comments, we will have to ban you.
@Kit Playing fairly would be not using any money for Items since not everyone has money to buy them. I think the site is fine if people want to use it. I'm sure the people who use it will stop playing completely once they catch them all. (well maybe some of them.)
@Lylard I'm not sure I follow your logic so you're saying using the official in-game shop and spending PokeCoins (which can be earned in game - or even free using Google Opinion Rewards) is cheating, but using a 3rd party web application that gives away the location of 'hidden' in-game PKMN when the point of the game is to find them yourself isn't cheating?!! (Despite being against the games Terms of Service).
You make no sense LOL X-D
Eh? I think I understand. With more money to burn, even rural players could have a massive advantage with incense, lures (even 1 stop would suffice) and pokeballs to make use of them (200 pokeballs whenever you want definitely outweighs the slow rate of great, and later ultra ball gains)
Even if you know about these advantages, and even using the google surveys, you are hopelessly outclassed by people with moderate to large amounts of disposable income.
Even if it is part of the game by design, it screams unfair and poor balance.
Meanwhile, everyone who can play has internet access, and literally the only thing stopping anyone from using the site is not knowing about it. And those who do know have equal access to it. (er, connection speeds aside, of course, but that applies equally to everything else discussed anyways I suppose...)
Even if it against the ToS, it does seem more fair to players overall. (especially with the currently bugged state of the nearby radar)
That said, I do understand if people feel differently.
Can you really call it cheating to find the best Pokémon when it's a complete lottery what CP they are? Been with people catching the same Pokémon at the same time and I've gotten CP10 while they've had over 100. Surely it doesn't matter if you're catching a rare Pokémon if it's low level. This site is just useful for completing the Pokedex.
Its not cheating if the freaking game is broken. I swear, I am so done with the poke finder/radar thingy not working. The footprints haven't appeared in weeks.
The Pokevision site is often down for maintenance.
@chiefeagle02 it's down often but it DOES work, which is more than what the official Pokémon GO app does.
@Serebii I know this is late but I'd like to point out that the site does work now, it's down for maintenence due to popularity often but Pokémon will load up, they just take a while due to GO servers.
I used it earlier today and all the Pokémon listed on the site I found (had to drive quick to get the eevee I wanted)
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