Pokemon Go is wildly popular for its unique concept of placing Pokemon in the real world around you. This does come with the limitations of the real world and you may run into the fact that a Pokemon simply will not appear in a location that you can access. If you don’t live in the United States, kiss finding a Tauros goodbye. If you don’t live in Europe, get used to never seeing a Mr. Mime. Don’t live in the tropics? Sorry, you don’t get to have a Corsola.
These regional exclusive Pokemon can be a frustration for collectors as well as fans of the Pokemon locked behind regions. And while some may spend the money to travel to these places, others don’t have that luxury, which is where spoofing a GPS location comes in.
Spoofing a GPS Location
Spoofing is a technical term in computer networking that basically means you replace a trusted source of information with your own source and convince the network that you are trusted instead. This can apply to a wide range of things on the internet and has the capacity to be used for some terrible deeds. Luckily, this form is far from malicious and is far less technical than other forms of spoofing.
GPS or location spoofing is replacing data for your GPS location with your own data so your device can think it is anywhere in the world. This is perfect for Pokemon Go’s regional exclusives since now you don’t have to travel halfway across the world just for a Lunatone.
Problems with Spoofing with an IOS Device
Before beginning, it's important to know that Spoofing with an IOS device is borderline impossible due to the restrictions and checks Apple places on location data. In order to Spoof a GPS location on IOS devices, the only option is to jailbreak the device which will not allow you to receive system updates and void your device’s warranty. Basically, it's a bad idea if you use your iPhone for anything other than Pokemon Go so this method won't be covered in detail here. Instead, the method gone over will be far simpler and only for Android devices.
Requirements to spoof location
To start you need a few things: a Pokemon Go account, a VPN, a GPS Spoofing app, and BlueStacks, a powerful and accurate Android emulator.
How to Spoof a GPS on Android
1. The first step is to get a VPN. If you already have one that's good, you will probably be able to use it. If not, it's not a bad investment. A VPN or Virtual Private Network is useful to have for protecting your personal data from companies and accessing content that is not available in your country or region (which is exactly what we need it for here).
Top VPNs which support this kind of GPS spoofing are Nord VPN, Express VPN, and Surfshark. Surfshark is especially good for this as it has inbuilt GPS spoofing while the other ones may need the assistance of a GPS spoofing app.
2. To set up your VPN for location spoofing, you will need to enter what is known as ‘Developer Mode’ on your phone. This is done by going to the ‘About Phone’ section of your settings and tapping the build number of the phone seven times. New options should now appear in the settings one of which titled ‘Developer Settings.’ Enter this menu and select the ‘Allow Mock Locations’ option and select your VPN as your mock location app.
By doing this you have effectively gotten your device to hand over location control to your VPN and using the VPN’s app, you can set your location to wherever you like. This works for most apps and websites but the developers of Pokemon Go, Niantic, knew people would try this and therefore the game has extra checks for GPS location. If you only do this step, you will most likely get an error as Pokemon Go refuses to run when Mock Locations are turned on.
3. To fix this you must download and install the Mock Mock Locations module (found here) which is, funnily enough, another spoof that makes your device think Mock Locations are turned off.
At this point you can set your location to wherever you like on your VPN app and open Pokemon Go to see your character magically warped across the world!
BlueStacks fixing errors
Some may find that even these steps do not work on their devices. But there is another solution! BlueStacks is an Android emulator which will simulate an Android device on your computer. Using this allows you to change settings that are even deeper than the Developer Settings we changed before.
By using BlueStacks, you can edit ‘System Location’ information which will allow Pokemon Go to run as previously outlined but only on the BlueStacks emulator. By signing in to your Pokemon Go account on the emulator, you will be able to properly spoof your location there rather than on an actual device.
As with all emulators, ensure to only use BlueStacks if you own an Android device. Doing so without owning a device that runs the operating system that BlueStacks emulates is against copyright law.
Using other GPS Spoofing Apps
If you don’t use the Surfshark VPN or you simply want more control over your location data, using an extra spoofing app will help. There are lots of options but some suggestions include Mock GPS With Joystick, Fake GPS Go Location Spoofer, and Fake GPS Location. Others are named similarly and can be found easily through an internet search.
These apps, unlike the VPN, will most likely be free and will allow finer control over your location.
Using a separate app for the spoofing is simple. Follow the steps above however when you select your Mock Locations App, select the GPS spoofing app of your choice instead of the VPN app.
Then, within your VPNs app, select a server that is nearby the location you want to be in.
In the GPS spoofing app, select a location nearby the server you selected in the VPN app. Now you can open Pokemon Go and have far finer control over your location, as well as even joystick controls with certain apps.
How your Spoofing works in other Apps
Once this is set up, you may notice it affects other apps like Google Maps or Facebook Messenger. This is the power of a VPN. Using this method not only allows you to catch rare Pokemon from across the world, but simultaneously protects your location data from big companies trying to collect information on who you are and where you live. This privacy is rare in this era of technology and even if you don’t mind not having it, the rare Pokemon is enough of a plus.
Conclusion
It may take some setup and a lot of tapping around on your screen but once your spoof is working you won’t know life without it. You can point and laugh at the people spending thousands to travel to France or Hawaii just to capture one Pokemon. And not only that, you will be safe from the watchful eyes of gigantic tech companies trying to harvest your information. You’ll be safe in your little bubble that you can proudly say you made yourself and catch Pokemon to your heart's desire. Now you can really Catch ‘Em All.
