[Guide] Pokémon Go - Avoid Softbans by Calculating Cooldown!

[Serebii]

It's relatively common knowledge that years ago when the game first came out you could break a softban by spinning Pokéstops 40+ times. Sadly, in more recent years that is no longer the case, and it's just easier overall to avoid being placed into a situation where you've been softbanned to begin with.

Through time and research, the spoofing community have discovered that certain actions place you on a small "cooldown" period when you teleport, spoof, or otherwise move from the position you did said action. What this means is during this period, you are unable to participate in other actions that would trigger another cooldown period until it has expired. If you're facing Pokémon that flee after a single Poké Ball has been thrown, Pokéstops giving you a "try again later" error, or you are being kicked from Gyms when attempting to raid or battle, then you are on cooldown.


The time you need to wait in between actions can be calculated based on the distance you travel or move in between actions:




Distance Traveled
Cooldown Period


1 km
< 1 min



2 km
1 min



3 km
2 min



5 km
3 min



7 km
5 min


9 km
< 7 min



10 km
7 min



12 km
8 min


18 km
10 min


26 km
15 min


42 km
20 min


65 km
22 min


76 km
25 min



81 km
26 min



100 km
35 min


220 km
40 min



250 km
45 min


350 km
52 min


375 km
54 min


460 km
62 min


500 km
65 min



565 km
70 min


700 km
78 min


800 km
84 min


900 km
92 min


1000 km
99 min


1100 km
107 min


1200 km
115 min


1300 km
117 min


1350 km
2 hours





So with using the above chart as an example, if you caught a Pokémon at Point A, then spoofed or flew away 100 km to catch another Pokémon, you would need to wait about 35 minutes before you would be able to do so without being locked out of performing another action.

★★★★★★★★★★

The following actions WILL trigger a cooldown:




[*=center]Catching a wild Pokémon
[*=center]Dropping a Poké Ball on the encounter screen
[*=center]A wild Pokémon fleeing from battle
[*=center]Feeding a wild Pokémon a berry
[*=center]Using a Gotcha or Virtual Go Plus to spin Pokéstops or catch Pokémon
[*=center]Spinning Pokéstops
[*=center]Placing a Pokémon in a gym
[*=center]Feeding treats to a Pokémon defending a gym (While within range of the gym. Remote feeding does not have this effect.)
[*=center]Battling in Gyms



★★★★★★★★★★

The following actions WILL NOT trigger a cooldown:




[*=center]Teleporting/Spoofing to another location
[*=center]Walking/Autowalking
[*=center]Encountering wild Pokémon
[*=center]Remote feeding Pokémon defending a gym
[*=center]Obtaining a Raid Pass from a gym with an active raid
[*=center]Using a Lure on a Pokéstop
[*=center]Claiming weekly rewards (Adventure Sync, Research Breakthrough, etc)
[*=center]Catching reward Pokémon from quests and research
[*=center]Sending gifts to friends
[*=center]Opening gifts from friends
[*=center]Transferring Pokémon
[*=center]Transferring Pokémon to Pokémon Home or to LGPE
[*=center]Trading Pokémon
[*=center]Powering Up a Pokémon
[*=center]Evolving Pokémon
[*=center]Taking Snapshots of a Pokémon
[*=center]Photobomb Encounters
[*=center]Swapping your buddy
[*=center]Feeding your buddy
[*=center]Playing with your buddy
[*=center]Gaining buddy candies
[*=center]Using items on a Pokémon (Potions, evolution items, rare candies, TMs, etc)
[*=center]Using Lucky Eggs, Incense or Star Pieces
[*=center]Discarding items from your bag
[*=center]PvP (Player vs. Player) battles
[*=center]Team Rocket Battles
[*=center]Team Leader Battles
[*=center]Using the shop to purchase Coins or other premium items



★★★★★★★★★★


By knowing what actions cause cooldown and for how long, you are more easily able to avoid being softbanned and ultimately, locking yourself out of playing the game. Some people use the above rules to "snipe" Shiny Pokémon, 100% IV Pokémon, or other desirable specimens by teleporting or spoofing to their target and waiting on the encounter screen for their cooldown to expire before attempting to make the catch.

[Serebii]

Niantic is (supposedly) rolling out a new anti-cheat system. If there ends up being any changes to cooldowns or what triggers them I'll amend them in the guide above. Gonna take a few days to really see what they've done, if anything.

[Synth Salazzle]

So real talk, I didn't know spoofing was still viable, or that you even COULD do it. Nothing on bluestacks seems to work which was my plan. But I can't even get the APK going so I decided to just play legit, do you have any tips for any newbie spoofers? I legit got no idea what I am doing

[Kibba]

I used to use Pokemon Go++ but I was spoofing and walking so much that I wasted hours and hours playing the game.

Now that I have so many responsibilities I can just play a little. Maybe I'll start playing Go again soon
I'll have this guide in my head! Thanks Rokon :cupcake:

[Serebii]

So real talk, I didn't know spoofing was still viable, or that you even COULD do it. Nothing on bluestacks seems to work which was my plan. But I can't even get the APK going so I decided to just play legit, do you have any tips for any newbie spoofers? I legit got no idea what I am doing

Spoofing via an emulator is a bad idea, as Niantic can detect it extremely easily. Basic theory is that every emulator uses the same mac address, so it's easy to just swoop everyone up and ban them all at once.

I would recommend getting a decent cheapie android phone or tablet (with GPS and gyro and at least 4GB of ram) and try out PGSharp. It's probably the easiest method to spoof with right now and it's generally the safest, as long as you obey cooldown rules and aren't teleporting around to do events in more than one timezone.

That said, "safe" is relative as well. I would not recommend spoofing on your main account, and would instead suggest you do so on a side or shell, and slowly trade anything of interest to your main instead. This way if you do get a strike, it's easy enough to just abandon the spoofed account and work your way back up with a new one while leaving your real account intact.

[Synth Salazzle]

Spoofing via an emulator is a bad idea, as Niantic can detect it extremely easily. Basic theory is that every emulator uses the same mac address, so it's easy to just swoop everyone up and ban them all at once.

I would recommend getting a decent cheapie android phone or tablet (with GPS and gyro and at least 4GB of ram) and try out PGSharp. It's probably the easiest method to spoof with right now and it's generally the safest, as long as you obey cooldown rules and aren't teleporting around to do events in more than one timezone.

That said, "safe" is relative as well. I would not recommend spoofing on your main account, and would instead suggest you do so on a side or shell, and slowly trade anything of interest to your main instead. This way if you do get a strike, it's easy enough to just abandon the spoofed account and work your way back up with a new one while leaving your real account intact.

That might be viable, do I need to do anything to the phone like root it or anything? I don't know crap about phones which is why I was hoping for an emulator. Is there any specific cheaper phones you'd recommend?

I do plan to keep my main legit at least so that's a positive.

[Serebii]

That might be viable, do I need to do anything to the phone like root it or anything? I don't know crap about phones which is why I was hoping for an emulator. Is there any specific cheaper phones you'd recommend?

I do plan to keep my main legit at least so that's a positive.

PGSharp works on its own without rooting, and that's why it's one of the easier and more accessible methods. It only works on Android, however, there is no working version of PGSharp for iOS if you decide to go that route.

If you're able to, you could try picking up a refurbished Pixel 3a from somewhere. It plays the game just fine despite being a bit older. Alternatively, try looking at some older model flagships as they might be relatively cheap compared to something newer as well. Just know that Niantic just recently dropped 32-bit support, as well as dropped support for Android 6.

[Synth Salazzle]

PGSharp works on its own without rooting, and that's why it's one of the easier and more accessible methods. It only works on Android, however, there is no working version of PGSharp for iOS if you decide to go that route.

If you're able to, you could try picking up a refurbished Pixel 3a from somewhere. It plays the game just fine despite being a bit older. Alternatively, try looking at some older model flagships as they might be relatively cheap compared to something newer as well. Just know that Niantic just recently dropped 32-bit support, as well as dropped support for Android 6.

My only phone is an android so an android based method would work best for me (Or PC but I fully understand why bluestacks is a bad idea with a matching mac address for so many players.) The only reason I am even interested in spoofing is I don't pay for a service on it I just use wifi and that's becoming boring and limited. Will I need to log out of my main for this? Is it a bad idea to use the same phone I played with my main on?

[Serebii]

My only phone is an android so an android based method would work best for me (Or PC but I fully understand why bluestacks is a bad idea with a matching mac address for so many players.) The only reason I am even interested in spoofing is I don't pay for a service on it I just use wifi and that's becoming boring and limited. Will I need to log out of my main for this? Is it a bad idea to use the same phone I played with my main on?

Having multiple accounts on one phone is fine, although it'll be a bit difficult to transfer any notable catches to yourself. In addition, because PGSharp is a modified client (if you go this route, anyway), you would need to avoid logging your main into it at all since should Niantic ever throw down a warning or ban hammer after detecting the app, just logging in once is enough to fall under that blanket.

It really is easiest and safest to try and get a cheap secondary phone to spoof on if at all possible.

[DarkSkies]

My only phone is an android so an android based method would work best for me (Or PC but I fully understand why bluestacks is a bad idea with a matching mac address for so many players.) The only reason I am even interested in spoofing is I don't pay for a service on it I just use wifi and that's becoming boring and limited. Will I need to log out of my main for this? Is it a bad idea to use the same phone I played with my main on?

I don't know how it is actually but back like 2 years ago roughly I played with many accounts on same devices (I even got a cheap iphone just por spoofing and advantages of coordinates), used my main but taking care of cooldowns. In all the time playing I got shadowbans and 2 accounts banned (lvl 40 when that was the max, it hurt but tbh I used to bot and they were the only affected). Something many said and I noticed back then, it's also about how much activity and money you put in your account.

My main was shadowbanned a couple of times, spoofing in more than one device but also was an active and ofc I was always buying coins (I have a problem with games and money...). Until today my account which I sold a lot of time ago it's still alive and I'm happy the buyer it's playing and having fun, the legacy continues <3

So I would say that as long as you spoof with calm, take care of your times, don't jump continuously (spend a good time in other country or wherever you wanna go) shouldn't be any problem. About using multiple accounts on one device I never had a problem in the past (especially when Xiaomi was having their dual apps on the mobiles and ppl was experimenting with that to play), but I don't know if Niantic has updated their security measures. So in this point I agree with Rokon to test with shells first.