Pokemon Go player dumbfounded as GPS glitch makes every Pokemon uncatchable
A Pokemon Go player ran into an unfortunate glitch involving their GPS that made every Pokemon they encountered uncatchable- even a low-level Spearow.
There is little that is more frustrating than a Pokemon breaking out of a Pokeball and running away. And unless you’re hunting in a Safari Zone, this happens far more often in Pokemon Go than in other Pokemon titles.
That’s because every Pokemon has a base percent chance to break out as well as flee. Even the most common Bidoof and Pidove could run away from an encounter if the player is unlucky enough.
However, Niantic has programmed Pokemon Go so that if a player is moving too fast – like while riding in a car or on a bike – Pokemon become impossible to catch. But sometimes this results in errors that cause some players to be “soft banned” even while walking.
Pokemon Go player can’t catch a break
Reddit user Formanz shared their misfortune with the community on r/pokemongo. A series of screenshots showed 11 failed encounters in the span of 10 minutes.
Predictably, users went to the comments to suggest the player might be driving or spoofing, but formanz shut down these claims.
“Info for newcomers so same comments won’t be necessary: I was walking on my foot to vote on our Czech regional elections (probably 200 meters – 600′). Never thought of using my phone while driving – super irresponsible! I am not a cheater, just a guy who wants to catch ’em all and plays 20 minutes a day.”
Since it’s highly unlikely that formanz failed all of these Pokemon legitimately, players shared another theory. Multiple players claimed that the issue could be a common GPS glitch that makes the game think the player is moving faster than they are.
This often happens after a player reaches a destination after having traveled by car/train as it can take several minutes for the game to regulate. Formanz did state that they don’t play in cars, but will sometimes open the game while on a train or a bus.
Luckily, the issue resolved itself after several minutes, but formanz will never get those 11 encounters back. It would have been a real shame had one of them been a Shiny.
