Hacking in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet has become a major concern for players, especially after the disqualification of several VGC competitors from the World Championships. The question on everyone’s mind is: How can you tell if a traded Pokémon is “legit” or not? Unfortunately, the answer is not as simple as it seems.
According to a Reddit thread on October 9th, as long as a Pokémon is tradeable, it is considered “legal” to use online. However, this does not guarantee that the Pokémon is not hacked. The World Championships incident showed that players were penalized for using hacked Pokémon, even after participating in several rounds of the tournament.
The main issue lies in the fact that the Gen IX games do not always have the ability to detect hacked Pokémon. This means that even if you acquire your Pokémon legitimately, someone could trade you a hacked Pokémon without your knowledge, especially if it appears to have a legal build and moveset. If there was a reliable way for players to check for hacked Pokémon, some of the disqualifications at Worlds could have been avoided.
However, there are certain red flags to watch out for when determining if a traded Pokémon is hacked or not. For instance, if someone randomly trades you a Shiny Legendary with perfect IVs, it is likely too good to be true. Similarly, if a Pokémon has a suspicious nickname or Original Trainer name, it should raise suspicions. Trust your instincts and if something feels off about a traded Pokémon, it is possible that it is hacked.
Ultimately, the best way to ensure your Pokémon are legit is to only use ones that you have caught yourself. Competitive players like former champion Wolfe Glick are taking this approach to avoid accidentally using hacked Pokémon.
It is disheartening to see that players are now hesitant to trade Pokémon, which is a core feature of the franchise, due to the fear of receiving hacked Pokémon without any easy way to verify their legitimacy. It would be beneficial if the games could improve their ability to detect hacked Pokémon and allow players to perform their own checks on suspicious Pokémon received through trades.
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Source: DOTESPORTS
