Pokémon Go players find cheeky solution to lowered spawn radius

Pokémon Go players are using a cheeky solution to avoid Niantic’s reversal of the expanded spawn radius in the game.

A silent update seemingly increased the spawn radius of Pokémon in a surprise change earlier this week, but one that was welcomed, only for Niantic to reverse the change that it said was “unintended.”

Players were understandably left furious by the reversal, with the removal of what was a popular change to the game leaving fans scratching their heads and hoping that Niantic would change its ways.

That seems unlikely, though some sneaky Pokémon Go players have found a loophole that should allow them to benefit from the increased spawn radius for a little while longer.

A June 27 Reddit post advised players to toggle off the Auto Update settings on Pokémon Go, which would keep the app running at update 275.0 instead of the more recent 275.1.

Such an exploit will only work until the update is complete across all app stores, which will then force the update to be installed before opening the app, though it is not clear how long that will take.

If you’re too late and have already updated to version 275.1, you can revert if you are using Android by uninstalling Pokémon Go and then reinstalling the 275.0 through the APK.

Many players even recommend having the Auto Update setting constantly set to off due to the regularity of bugs and problems when a new update is rolled out through Niantic, giving the player control of when they move to the latest version.

Few are optimistic that such an exploit will be long-lasting, however, expressing their belief that a forced update will quickly be pushed through by Niantic.