Pokemon Let's Go May Already Have a Hacking Problem

Not even a day and players are already hacking into Pokemon Let's Go Pikachu & Eevee. The internet never ceases to amaze me.

Pokemon Let's Go appears vulnerable to save file edits, or Hex editing which lets some players alter their Pokemon's species, values, gender, and moves. Hacker @mattyoukhana highlighted the lax in security by showing how he edited his save data to bring a Mew into the Pokemon GO park which blacklisted Mew (since it's a pre-order bonus).

"My save data was ripped from my game and moved onto my computer where I made the edit. The original Pokemon was a Shiny Ivysaur, I modified to become Mew (you can see remnants of bad editing such as it having a Gender, Mew is Genderless," @mattyoukhana told us in a message.

What's more there appears to be a lack of online hack checks in Pokemon Let's Go Pikachu & Eevee as Matt later traded the Mew online for a Machop with a random player. While there's no global trading in Pokemon Let's Go, the password system allows it to be easily bypassed so players can randomly get paired up with someone online not in their friends group.

It's hard to say what this reveal will do for Pokemon Let's Go. Early hackers could face a ban from online services for trading hacked Pokemon, but there's also not a heavy emphasis on online play with the Let's Go games. Global Trading isn't available, and online interactions are mostly limited to friends or with Pokemon Go on mobile. Still, if you want to be a Pokemon Master we recommend you do so legitimately.

For more on Pokemon Let's Go, check out our Pokemon Let's Go Pikachu & Eevee review, or our Pokemon Let's Go starter guide for more info.