Pokémon Sword and Shield Ban Hammers - what you need to know!

Recently there has been a ton of internet hype regarding the newly announced Nintendo / GameFreak bans in Pokémon Sword and Shield. We have seen everything from claims of hacked / illegal mon getting people banned to .com Pokémon causing end users getting banned as well. After doing a megaton of research on all these claims we are finally ready to report the findings.

Claim #1 All Dot Com Pokémon will get you banned
Mostly False -This one is really a matter of perspective. Lately it seems that the people with the biggest voices on this matter are the ones with popular videogame websites. They feel that if you did not catch it yourself or get it from an event or a friend who caught it in game then it is illegal... Try telling that to Nintendo's legitimacy checking server, you know the one that's sending out the bans and has final authority on who plays and who gets banned. Just because someone has a nickname on a Pokémon with a .com attached to it does not make it hacked or illegal/illegitimate or whatever fancy word you want to put on it. This is a general statement that has perpetuated on many forums and is generally not within the means of what Big N has stated. While some genners do send out Pokémon nicknamed and OT with their domain (we do), this does not make them illegal or part of the ban wave whatsoever. Nintendo has stated numerous times, hacked mon (IE shiny locked / "Unreleased") being distributed will more than likely get you and the sender put into time out if not banned permanently. The current wave of bans has not been confirmed to be a permeant thing. Some users that were banned for hosting hacked raids were able to get their accounts back again after a 2-month timeout. so, to say that this ban wave is permanent is pure speculation if it does happen to you.

Claim #2 Buying Pokémon will get you banned
Mostly False - If you absolutely must purchase Pokémon from a genner please always make sure it is from a verified source. We know that some Pokémon in the game is not easily obtainable for certain people due to a variance of situations, yet some people would love the opportunity to obtain them and use them online. OR you got bunk mon in a trade and wish it had your OT on it. Whatever your situation may be, please be sure that the person you chose to work with is good at what they do, and they do not have a history of getting people banned from their games. This rumor is mostly perpetuated by poke-elitists who feel that the only way you should play the game is by using in game only methods. While that is typically the preferred method this is not always the case for everyone playing these games that they are able to abide by. Nintendo has known about this ever since Gen 1 and has done nothing to stop genners / game sharks or other software from making their own Pokémon until recently. Your best bet has been and always will be to stay away from "Unreleased" or shiny locked mon.

Claim #3 All genned mon are hacked & Illegal
Mostly False - If a genner makes a mon that is clearly hacked and cannot be caught using in game methods then this would be an impossible combination and Sword & Shield already placed blocks on them from being traded and used online. Hacking a Pokémon makes its values completely outside of the scope of what is possible. Using PKHeX properly will NEVER result in a ban. Just changing a few values and making copies of Pokémon will NEVER get you banned. Regardless of what your favorite YouTuber or forum says, making unreleased / shiny locked mon will result in a ban.

So now you got to ask yourself... How are people getting banned?

There are a few factors here and as you read them, ask yourself "Do I meet these bannable criteria":
     1. Using modified game save data / injecting hacked raids / altering dens (simply using PKHex does not qualify as modifying the save)
     2. Sending out surprise trade mon with unobtainable ribbons & memories
     3. Forcing a mon into an egg with no egg group
     4. Forcing eggs to hold items
     5. Transmitting trap mon (shiny locked that can be traded)
     6. Editing OT on event mon
     7. Performing or receiving a Pokémon home drop with "unreleased" Pokémon
     8. This is a big one.. Receiving actual gen 8 hacked mon from a Nintendo DS

Let us visit #8 for a second. I know I have told many people repeatedly that hacked mon in Sword and Shield do not exist. This is true. These are Gen 7 mon hacked using a sun / moon save using PKHeX to think it is a gen 8 mon via the .species modifier in batch commands and then sent via 3DS transfer to home. For a hot minute this was an alternate means to getting the god egg / missingno as it is species #900 it used to be easily injectable. It is also an early hack people used to unlock Melmetal and the shiny dogs in game. PKHeX for a gen 8 save file will not allow the kind of strenuous modification that the 3DS hack would do.

---Proof is in the pudding---

We run 7 switches 24/7 to power several services we host for our discord community. All of which have game save files that have not been altered. Instead, they are snapshots of the games at various points in the game and then loaded repeatedly to provide shiny dens with the absolute best values. While some may see this as hacking, thus far Nintendo / Gamefreak has not seen it that way, and our raid server remains intact, online, and fully functional. If you visit our discord community you will be able to join the raids, as of now we have 240 shiny dens! Check out the raid calendar to see what mon are running now!

Considering the current Pokémon ban wave, we have also shut down our surprise trade services where yes, we do send out Dot Com Pokémon. All the mon we had sent out were caught in game using an account that was started in game as SWOSH-X.com so the OT is legit SWOSH-X.com then the mon was nicknamed in game and finally sent out after being copied. For the time being, our surprise trade switch has been repurposed to host a selection of raids from our shield week 1 & week 2 schedule. The mon that gets sent out into battle and online is in fact one of my SWOSH-X.com mon that people are fearing will get them banned from a surprise trade. This service will continue to run alongside the other 240 shiny dens we host for our discord server.

Q: If .com Pokémon get people banned how are we still in operation?

A: It is because what we are doing with our games is NOT illegal as we have followed the rules.

While we can't speak for and refuse to do so for other people. Everything we do here 100% will never get anyone banned.

UPDATE #1 - 1/29/2021

New information has been discovered on the current bans we now give you banning reason #9. Using a CFW switch to alter game save data before and after using Pokémon Home

Taking a deeper dive on #9, Pokémon Home is another means that Nintendo uses to look and check your game save data. Through Pokémon Home they can look inside your game save file. This is the same mechanic used to pass Pokémon to and from your save into Home. If one minute you had said 10 Rare Candies and the next day you suddenly had 999 Rare Candies this would raise a red flag. Furthermore, if you have any increased number of items well above what you could normally obtain in the game this service will check values in their database.

The disclaimer on the Pokémon website, Pokémon Home for both the Nintendo Switch and mobile platforms as well as for Sword and Shield games clearly states they are unable to respond to inquiries regarding the specifics of any infractions. It is amazing that some YouTubers have made claims that a Nintendo rep had given them insider specific information as to how bans are being dished out because that seems like it could end that person's job due to every statement being sent out through Nintendo has to go through an extensive legal team to validate before being issued to the public. Leaking information to a YouTuber is a violation of their work policies when handling the press. How do we know that? Because EVERY major corporation has a standard press release policy in play. it is how they prevent leaks and cover their assets.