Pokémon Go may be a phenomenon, but the real-world Pokémon catching app isn’t without its drawbacks. For instance, the game requires you to do a lot of walking. Like, with your actual legs and stuff. Ugh! You have to trudge all over to find Pokémon and hatch eggs, and the game is very insistent that you actually walk. Pokémon Go uses GPS rather than a pedometer, so you can’t fool the game by running on a treadmill, or leaving your phone on a vibrating washing machine. The game also registers your speed, so getting around in a car or bus doesn’t count – you actually have to be outside walking somewhere on your own two feet.
Or do you? Since its release, inventive gamers have been coming up with ways to get around Pokémon Go‘s draconian walking requirements, because that’s the American way, dammit. And hey, considering some Pokémon Go players are getting robbed or tripping over corpses, maybe a little less walking is a a good thing.
First off, one modern obsession meets another, as Redditor Hyperion995 strapped his phone to a droid to avoid having to stomp around. Hyperion had a few technical issues with his setup, but if you could find the ideal combination of droid and phone, there’s no reason this wouldn’t work.
Looking for a less technical way to hatch your Pokémon eggs? Look no further than man’s best friend.
When you're too lazy to hatch your own eggs in #PokemonGo pic.twitter.com/fWAPaaeqcM
— Pokémon GO News (@PokemonGoNews) July 12, 2016
A Roomba will also work in a pinch.
Is money no object in your quest for Poké glory? Well, folks all over the country are offering to chauffeur Pokémon Go players around town to find the best critters, usually for around $30 an hour. Hell, slip them an extra 10-spot and I bet they’d be willing to drive around a parking lot slowly so you can hatch some eggs.
Most of these workarounds are all in good fun – sure, they relieve you of having to get all that gross exercise, but they don’t fundamentally break the game. Of course, there are people who are outright hacking Pokémon Go. Recently, a demonstration of a mysterious Pokémon Go cheat tool that let you jump around town without moving, and gain unlimited Pokécoins, popped up on Twitch. The stream has since been taken down, but the description and link to the cheat tool still exists. Obviously, use it at your own risk.
Y’know, sometimes I start to feel a little down about my generation, but we really are an inventive, enterprising bunch – as long as you threaten us with walking.