For Pokemon GO players that have been using cheats to gain an advantage, Niantic may be about to end your fun.
There have been reports on Reddit that players who used bot programs to farm Pokemon and gain an advantage are unable to play on their accounts. The belief is that Niantic is beginning to send out bans to players who violate Pokemon GO’s terms of service by using the bots. In response, many bots are closing down.
One of the bots that shut down is NecroBot, one of the more popular bots used. On their GitHub page, the following was posted:
“Due to legal action being started against other bot creators/devs (we did not receive a letter yet) the Project development will be stopped. All Source Files / Downloads will be removed. We now have to say Good Bye to the awesome Community. Over 100k Members on Discord and 500k Downloads a day! The Discord Community will remain open for Discussions. It was fun, we had a nice time. Thank you for the Donaions [sic], all Devs will be getting their share by today.”
Noor “Necronomicon” Farhani, developer of NecroBot, spoke to Polygon about the closing. He says that other bots have done the same. One of the bots, PokeMobBot, cites a DMCA takedown on its GitHub page. HaxtonBot’s GitHub is still intact, but a notice on the bottom states, “Project is currently inactive. No further comments to be made.”
The closing of bots is a relief to folks who play Pokemon GO within the rules. Bots allow players the ability to level up their accounts at an insane rate, farming Pokemon and resources much quicker than legitimate players could.
Niantic has not issued a statement regarding player bans or going after bots. That is not a surprise, as they’re known for not communicating very well with the community. After Pokemon tracking sites like Pokevision were shut down late last month, Niantic waited a few days before releasing a statement via their blog.
For those who do get banned, Niantic does allow for players to visit this page on their site to file an appeal.
