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'Pokemon Go' Hacks For Catching Pokemon, Hatching Eggs, & More

by Jenn Rose

For as long as video games have existed, players have been looking for hacks, cheats, and other ways to master the challenges with minimal effort, and "Pokemon Go" is no different. So it's not surprising that in the week since the app's release, there have been numerous "Pokemon Go" hacks for catching Pokemon shared online. I mean really, who's going to walk five miles to hatch an imaginary egg when you don't have to? According to the Mirror, a player who goes by Rusty Cage (maybe his parents are Soundgarden fans?) discovered that beating the high-tech game takes a low-tech solution: while riding in a car doesn't trick the app into thinking a player is walking, since it's too fast, placing the phone on a record turntable will do the trick.

Polygon has reported that some players are attaching their phones to drones to log those extra miles and catch far-flung Pokemon without actually leaving the house. Kind of ruins the point of the game, maybe, but to each their own, I suppose. For players who don't want to outright cheat on "Pokemon Go," the fan account @PokeWire on Twitter offers tips and tricks players may not have figured out on their own, such as spinning and then quickly exiting a PokeStop to add all of the items to a players bag without having to tap each one, or tapping the Poke Ball to pick it back up after a missed throw.

But what about if you keep missing? It can be tricky to throw that Poke Ball straight, particularly if you have a small screen. Blogger Brian McEvoy figured out a way to use some cardboard and Post-it Notes to make a finger guide that guarantees a straight throw every time. And there's even a trick to get your favorite Pokemon, also via Polygon. When users first play the game, they're given the option of either Charmander, Squirtle, or Bulbasaur as a starter. That's nice and all, but what about Pikachu? It turns out that if players ignore the first three Pokemon and just walk around without choosing one, they'll disappear and respawn. Ignore them four times, and Pikachu will appear as a starter option.

International Business Times urges players not to blow off duplicate Pokemon, though. The more Pokemon a player catches, the sooner they'll level up and get into a gym. And don't forget that Pokemon can also be evolved into other species by feeding them candy. One more sneaky bit of advice: "Pokemon Go" was built by Niantic Labs, and it's basically just a retread of their earlier, less popular game, Ingress. Ingress also tasked users with walking around and visiting predetermined locations, but there were no cartoon monsters, so it didn't do too well. But they reused the Ingress map for "Pokemon Go," and repurposed Ingress "portals" as PokeStops. So players in search of a PokeStop can simply sign up for Ingress, then pull up the portal map to see where the closest one is. No more wandering around aimlessly! Happy hunting.