Pokemon Go player tried to get 1 million XP in a day, Niantic thought he’s using cheats


Getting massive amounts of XP in a short amount of time is not very easy in Pokemon Go when you are not cheating. However, a player named Jimmy Derocher who has been working on creating an innovative plan to earn as much XP as possible without cheating for the last couple of weeks was finally successful in his quest.

Derocher was able to receive one million XP in the course of a weekend. A lot of other players alleged that Derocher was actually cheating in the game, but he proved all of them wrong.

Image: Facebook/Jimmy Derocher
Image: Facebook/Jimmy Derocher

Derocher created an event named ’24hr 10-Lure Pokemon Go Marathon‘ in Austin, Texas this past weekend

“We place[d] in-game lures on 10 Pokestops in a 0.2 mile loop, which we [planned to] walk over and over. People casually call it ‘Jimmy’s loop.’”

He created this event to prove everyone who was accusing him of cheating wrong. His target was to achieve one million XP in a single day. He also decided to livestream the entire process on Twitch in order to legitimate his claims. The event received a lot of coverage on social media sites, and hundreds of people were waiting for it on Twitch. A lot of other people also were prepared to join the event in person to see if Derocher’s plan really worked out.

After the event started, things were going good for Derocher. He was successful in collecting a good amount of XP via Pokemon captures, tactical evolutions of Pokemon, and by visiting Pokestops. However, after 12 hours went by, things started changing drastically.
Image: Facebook/Jimmy Derocher
Image: Facebook/Jimmy Derocher

Every Pokemon Derocher spotted started running away from him, regardless of what Pokeball he used or what actions he took. This same thing went on for hours and he was left stranded after earning nearly 600,000 XP without using any cheats. He actually triggered the recently implemented anti-cheat measures set in Pokemon Go.

“Niantic Labs recently implemented an anti-botting policy becoming more well-known to players as a ‘soft-ban’. More or less, the policy is a 24 hour ‘cheating prevention’ tool which stops you from getting more XP than should be possible.”

Pokemon Go had already faced a lot of cheating issues since its launch including people generating unlimited Pokecoins. Previously, several cheaters resorted to using third-party software to cheat in the game. Therefore, Niantic has now decided to go hard at those cheaters and even terminate the accounts of players that showed ‘clear signs of cheating.’
Image: cnet.com
Image: cnet.com

Derocher, however, knew that there could be a turn of events in his attempt. He even tried to contact Niantic to see if they would allow him to get the XP he earn rightfully.

“In a sense I was trying to prove to Niantic that their limit was actually hurting players who play efficiently. I’m a bit of a hardcore gamer and I play somewhat efficiently, but the point is that I shouldn’t be hitting a 24 hr ban limit in just over half that time,” he added. “Bots are far more efficient than humans are, and I think the effective soft ban was put in haphazardly…hurting a lot more players than I think they expected.”

Although he was handed the soft ban, he made enough money during his livestream which he plants to donate to a good cause.

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“I logged 25 miles using the app Charity Miles, and we’ll be able to donate $50-60 to charity thanks to stream donations. [But] we easily could’ve seen 1.5x that mileage and 5-10x the charity donations given…a full stream.”

“I was still able to spin Pokestops [after getting softbanned]…I [also got] 25 XP from a mon running away,” he said. “People laughed on stream because I continued to play for over an hour and a half getting something like 25k experience.”

“Games are meant to be played, and in my opinion played well.”

Well played mate.

Source: Kotaku