Softbans: What they are and how to avoid them

I'm aware that there are faster ways to change countries and snipe pokemon but this guide is for people that want to entirely avoid using bots and getting softbans that could potentially flag their accounts.

What are softbans?
Soft bans are temporary bans that prevent you from catching pokemon or collecting items from pokestops.


What we know about softbans:
1. Teleporting farther than ~1.7KM from your current location will result in a softban.
2. Softbans vary in length depending on how far your character teleported. For example if you teleport 2KM away you will receive a ban anywhere from 30 seconds to 2 minutes while teleporting thousands of KM at a time will result in a ban lasting 4 to 8 hours.
3. When you teleport your location doesn't update until you move, interact with a pokestop, or capture a pokemon. We can use this to our advantage later in this guide


How can you tell if you've been soft banned?
1. Every pokemon you attempt to capture flees instantly.
2. You're unable to collect items from Pokestops.


How to avoid softbans:
1. If you plan on changing your location to another country so you can catch different pokemon you should stay logged out for 6-8 hours before logging in with your new coords.
2. If you want to play pokemon on your phone later in the same day you should set your location in Nox/SythePoke to whatever city you're in. After signing off of your computer you should wait at least 15-30 minutes before signing in on your phone.
3. Don't teleport farther than 1.5/KM at a time.


How to snipe pokemon using Nox/SythePoke without getting softbanned:
1. Save your current coords in a notepad file as "Location A"
2. Go to pokesnipers.com and copy the coords of the rare pokemon that you want to catch. These coords will be "Location B"
3. Click the Virtual Location button (default shortcut ctrl+3) and teleport to "Location B". It's important that you keep this window open.
4. After you teleport DO NOT move at all or interact with any pokestops around you. Wait for the pokemon to appear (it may take around 5-8 seconds) and click it to start the encounter.
5. Before attempting to capture it, teleport back to your original location "Location A"
6. Now you can capture that dragonite on the other side of the world without getting softbanned. Good luck!

 

Great guide! I will get this tweeted out hopefully! Thanks @Killswitch

Update: Tweet is pending

 

Couple things to add :

- You can remove any softban by spinning a pokestop 40~ ish times, some bots have the feature to remove it automatically
- The best way to snipe (semi-automatic) is to use PokeSniper v2 : http://bit.ly/2a4pr1d , it basically warps to the location, catches the pokemon and back at an extremely high speed so you don't get softbanned

Hope this helps

 

Or you could use QuickSpin .

Nice thread.

 

Using VPN helps with the IP ban.

 

thanks for the information man.

 

Definitely answered a lot of questions I've had, thanks!

 

Really useful thanks!

 

Does sniping still work after patches/bans?

 

Anyone tried yet? Still too scared to do this on my main.

 

I snipe on my main, still yet to be banned.

 

I'm about to give it a try. Will update later.

 

Think i'ma try to rush my character lvl before i start sniping

 

One day later, no problems with my account so far.