Trading in Pokémon Go has been swiftly disabled after a massive bug was discovered last night. The bug, which was posted to Reddit, meant that players can get lucky Pokémon with every trade that they do. Reddit user AndKrem discovered the bug when he traded 100 Pokémon with his friend. All 100 of the Pokémon he traded became “lucky”. Lucky Pokémon are stronger than regular Pokémon. All lucky Pokémon have higher base stats and are easier to level up than their regular counterparts. As such, lucky Pokémon are sought after by players who covet the strongest possible Pokémon for battles.
Players are normally able to get lucky Pokémon when they trade with a “lucky friend.” Having a lucky friend allows the next Pokémon traded between the pair to be turned into lucky versions. The feature then expires after the trade, or at least that is how it’s supposed to work. In AndKrem’s case, the lucky friend status never disappeared after the trade. It remained in place for at least 100 trades allowing them to get 100 lucky Pokémon.
It’s not clear if other players were able to abuse the glitch after it was shared on Reddit. Niantic, the developer of Pokémon Go, was quick to shut down trading for all players in order to respond to the issue. At the time of writing, trades have been turned off in the game for the last 13 hours. Niantic appears to have taken quick action to nip the glitch in the bud.
This led to players complaining about Niantic being quick to respond to an issue that benefits them while being slow to respond to other problems raised in the official Pokémon Go subreddit. Players are still waiting for an update from Niantic and it isn’t clear when trades will be reopened again.
