Banned today!

Well, after the last ban wave in which i have lost my 37 lev main acc i made new one. I am heavy botting, sniping, sometimes useing high speed to collect pokeballs...
Surprisingly it is well, have not been banned. It's lev 30, useing bot mostly in Pier 39 San Francisco.

 

Been slacking have you?
Most of my accounts are 33-34 after being created after the last ban wave. Bike speed all the way and sniping too.

 

iMO we are banned because of API changed to 0.57.3 and PF is still 0.57.2 - as soon as i realized that there is 0.57.3 i stopped bot yesterday.. obviously too late i quess

PS never used any other bot on my acc. botted only in my city. nice and slowly. lvl 27 since august.. never sniped or anything

 

Yeah, i just don't really care anymore. Last time i was super careful, got banned anyway so... Do whatever you can, what will be will be

 

We already suffered ban-waves during Api changes, I don't know why people keep using bot during Pokemon Go updates. Come on, just stop a few days. Use the Fake Gps programs and stay calm for a few days.

All my accounts are working. I stopped when I heard there was an update.

 

Yeah.. i realized too late

 

My concern is they are now able to catch botting behaviors more easily. I haven't changed any of my behaviors since the first ban wave. I never got caught prior to the wave. These bot were banned without the presence of a massive wave. I lost another one last night before I took them offline.

 

NEVER ever use a bot since when they announce an update. It has to be the 1st rule for us. Wait for a bot-update and even after the update is better to wait a little... that's the moment when I prefer to start new accounts than continue botting with the high-level accounts. Then when you'll know its safe... (it doesn't exist the 100% safe anyway)

 

I just started my bot back up, I've only botted in UK LONDON and NYC. Also botted in my home state and caught them on my phone as well. I have not been banned I use the default timer also the past 4 days I've just ran farmer till it timed out on it's own. I take account for all travel times. I don't have a set schedule I bot at I work at all different hours and take a random day off from pf, I also take account to time zones with travel times. I might be wrong, but I feel like it has a lot to do with the level of the account and length of creation of the account. Im level 26 just stopped the bot in London while reading these forums. I'll update if I become banned.

 

banned too, again

Only botted in SF near pier 39, sometimes during the day, sometimes at night, maybe on the weekends a day or too. This was my third bot account with pokefarmer that got banned, each created after a ban wave and each banned shortly after they reach level 30. but I have also botted on my main account, level 32, here and there but never very long. usually late at night when i am too lazy to go for a run. and My main account has gone through each ban wave without a ban.

Each bot, i never ran it longer than 6 hours or so. usually kept them around SF which is a few hours drive away from where i live and where i have played pokemon too. basically my bots i have set up how i have played on my main. The only difference from my main account and my bot accounts is the fact i've spent money on my main ($10 once) and that was during the halloween event.

Never used my bot out of state, never jumped locations, never ran it for copious amounts of hours in a short span... really curious if they are just setting up SQL to find accounts that have spent no money, have no team, have fought no battles, etc.

 

addition thoughts on ban waves

it would be great to get a warning that we might be using an out of date version.

 

Despite the suggestion, I don't think it has anything to do with using an out of date version. Many of us had no bans and were actively using it. My mobile device did not even get the recent update pushed to it until this morning.

I think that, with the exception of the 1.70 trap, those impacted are a result of a pattern of non-human behavior. It also appears that Niantic is more closely monitoring accounts after they reach level 30 based on the fact that, not all, but the majority of accounts banned at > level 30.

I tend to see people running their bots too long (should only run 2-4 hours a day at maximum), setting too high of a speed (should stick to walking the majority of the time, fast jog at most for short bursts) teleporting to snipe, teleporting to another country using the same IP address as your real home/local, etc.

The safest bet is slow and steady. Mimic real user behavior. 99% of real people are not botting 6-8 hours a day every day, the are also not botting throughout the night till morning of their home time (where their IP is located)..

Sharing account age and level along with usage behaviors will help us better identify trends. But mostly, bot safe, don't take risks and don't get to greedy wanting to much in a short period of time. Use the bot to slowly and naturally level up your account over time.

 

I personally think 6 hours is too long of a period of time to bot. 2-4 hours max, ideally spread out throughout the day in multiple sessions.

I don't think money is a factor, but I do agree that you should occasionally use your account on your mobile for things you can't do with the bot like customizing character, picking team, battling gym, etc.

 

My husband, daughter and I all started new accounts at the same time after the last ban wave. I bot mine and hers, he does his only. All were on for similar amounts of time with similar settings, got over level 30 in that time, went to a few different countries. The only differences were he occasionally went on his account on his phone as well (when logged off pf), picked a team (I think), and he started botting again after the gen 2 update. I waited a week after that update because I was afraid of getting banned again. Well he got banned again this time, our accounts survived. So blaming how you run your guy is not the easy answer it seems.

 

Agreed, that is why discussing usage patterns is important to try and understand what may be triggering. A couple of things that seem to stand out more than not is accounts over level 30 are higher risk, time spent botting each day on average ( > 2-4 hours) is higher risk, teleporting to snipe and/or country hopping is higher risk, etc.

So for example, for his account that was banned, how many hours per day did he bot on average compared to you and your daughters account?

 

I logged in with the accounts, chose a team, and fought a few gyms. Still 3 of the last 6 were banned over the last 2 days.

 

How many hours a day on average do you bot?

6 accounts? Do you bot all from the same IP?

Do you teleport to snipe or country hop?

 

Both accounts NOT banned.

-both were around lvl28
-stayed within city of IP
-used 7kph most of the time (used 10kph when I was exploring and forgot to change back)
-radius varies between 50-400 (only used 50m when the 6hr lure event was on)
-4-6hrs daily
-transfer immediately
-auto transfer/evolve threshold is 90 IV
-wait until items are full before transfer

-actually train/beat gyms outside when able
-catch a few outside when bored

EDIT: Never mind. One of my two accounts were banned.
Kinda confused since they both use the same settings...For the one that was banned...I did use the bot when it was still 0.57.2 API. PF didnt ask for update and I didnt know a new API was out. That's the only difference that I can think of.

 

Before I started to bot/spoof, I played 6 ~ 12 hours per day, frequently for consecutive days.
Moreover, there are people who leave the real app on all days just to hatch eggs,
so playing time per day is likely not a primary factor, just a minor one (however never taking breaks would look very suspicious indeed).

It is what is accomplished during play that mostly like the primary factor.
For example, even I occasionally run two 5-6 hour bot sessions within a 24 hour period, I have never ever reached the catching / spinning softban limits because I always set my bot to walking/jogging speed ( 2.8 m/s or less, which is 10 kmh or less ).

Additionally, I only play one account, so I have no issue of IP sharing wutsoever. (*)
What if this account gets banned you say? Well, I'll just quit playing. Frankly I am no diehard fan of pokemons, and it has been more than half year since I started playing PoGo -- staying in a nest for a whole day, chasing rare pokemons on foot, spoofing, botting, sniping -- I've experienced it all except PvP and trading. As a player leaning toward collecting (I've got most catching gold medals except the tiny rattata and the new dark and unown ones, but I've not yet obtained gold on gym battles and training), PvP isn't something really appealing to me, especially when Niantic can't even solve the annoying "invisible" bug in gym battle even now. Also as a botter/spoofer/sniper, trading is quite pointless to me.

So, I still bot/play just to see how far I can ride on the PoGo bandwagon until get kicked out of it. Otherwise, this game has become a grind to me already (Lv 35+).

Oops, I digressed too much. To sum up what I do/don't do:

Dos:
1. I snipe, but only within my local country boundary ( a small island country, so mostly within 300 km radius);
2. I spoof when bot is waiting for new API update, or when I feel like to play "by hand but not on foot;"
- I do train/attack gyms when spoofing;
3. I bot for more than 6 hours per day quite frequently, often for consecutive days;
4. I bot for jogging speed most of the time; (10 kmh)
5. I set up walking path in respect to the real map in the bot I use, although occasionally I let the bot go loose by only setting coverage radius;
6. If I run two bot sessions in one day, there is always a multi-hour break in-between;
7. Botted oversea with VPN/proxy providing local IPs to catch regionals ------ and lapras;

Don'ts:
1. Never be the first bunch to test new APIs; It is the only reason my only account got away with any ban caused by API mistakes/updates to this point of time (Kinda strange to pay to be a lab mouse, doesn't it? Get the API right before releasing it, and also shut the old one in time, plz.);
2. Never be too greedy to catch so many and result in limit softbans; greed is a good thing, but do manage it properly;
3. Never snipe oversea;
4. Never have multiple accounts simultaneously;
5. Never use bot to train/attack gyms ( Because I want to enjoy the fight by hand, don't really care about free poke coins that much );
6. Never fire up the real app just to see the result of botting; When I start the real app, I always actually play for quite sometime;
7. Never do auto-evolve or mass-evolve+transfer for many pokemons each time (never done it for more than 10 each time).


My account is currently active at the time of this post. How long will it last? Don't know, don't care.



*IP sharing
- Simply running multiple instances of PokemonGo on a single IP would not raise a flag. I've personally seen a mom tethering her phone for her two kids to play the game.
However, if multiple accounts traveling at largely apart locations are sharing the same IP? That just looks extremely suspicious and can be easy targets.

 

Given the PokeMon Go app does not function when your phone is in sleep mode, I think the likelihood of anyone actively playing the game (with the exception of the use of a PokeMon Go Plus) for 6-12+ hours a day on a regular basis seems suspect is my point, if not just for battery life on their phone alone. I would have thought your 6-12 hours is spread out in several small 1-2 hour sessions with large breaks inbetween as opposed to what we have with the bot running for as long as people allow it with only minor breaks every 40-50 minutes. My point is, those are the exception and not the rule which makes them standout much more as suspect.

Keep in mind time is only a partial factor, it can also be calculated as how much experience collected a day, how much distance traveled a day, how many pokemon caught a day, how many pokestops spun a day, etc. All metrics to consider legitimate vs. bot play. Any aggregated over days/weeks/months of play, not just a small sampling of time.

Wait, you don't use PokeFarmer?!?

With the exception of the trap in 1.70, I've seen no evidence that API has been a factor in any PokeFarmer bans. My mobile app did not get an update pushed until this morning, so it has been running the previous version for the last few weeks. Quite the opposite, my experience has been that devs actually shut down PokeFarmer when there is a forced API change, not allowing anyone to bot till they update the code.

Agreed, slow and steady! That said, while it is awesome you have not been banned, I'm actually very surprised based on the usage behavior you've indicated. Running the bot for 12 hours a day at 10km seems to contradict your "never be too greedy" recommendation hahaha