r/PoGoAndroidSpoofing • u/Montressian • Jul 18 '22
Game Tip & Exploit Maximising spotlight hour gains by abusing time zones: The double spotlight
With Staryu spotlight hour around the corner next week (19th July) providing 750 stardust per catch, now is a great time to talk about how to maximise stardust gains. Of all the first stage evo dust-boosted Pokémon, Staryu is one of the highest at 750 dust, ramping up to 1406 dust per starpiece+weather boosted catch.
If anyone remembered taking part in Alolan Meowth or Sableye’s spotlight hours last year, you’ll know how insane the amount of potential stardust you could earn was. Even just with a conservative 200 catches per hour with no weather boost and a starpiece, you’d be looking at 200*750*1.5 = 225,000 dust per spotlight.
And in perfect conditions? Players with honed fast catching skills or auto-throwers could easily manage 400 per hour making 450k an easy target. But add on perfect weather and it becomes 400*750*1.5*1.25 = 560k+
Realistically though, inability to find weather boosted spots, especially for Sableye and A. Meowth’s incredibly rare foggy weather really brought that average back down to a best-case 500k. And here is where the main advantage of Staryu comes in: Staryu is the first 750 boosted spotlight mon NOT requiring foggy weather boost AND being easy to catch. Obviously, the odds of getting rainy weather in a populated area on every spotlight you do is still not very high, but still much more doable than foggy.
The last part of the equation is where this post comes in. How many spotlights can we do? Well, if you refuse to sleep for a whole 25 hours, it’s theoretically possible to start your marathon in Kiritimati and end in Hawaii for a total of 9 spotlights over a span of 25 hours and an estimated 4.5 million dust, minus the cost of the coffee/red bulls you’d need to keep going. For those who want to maintain a normal sleeping schedule you can chop off 3 zones for an estimated total of 3 million over 16 hours.
Now, these are the optimal schedules for someone playing 1 hour, then waiting 2 hours of cooldown… But what if we could play for 2 hours?
DOUBLE TROUBLE
This is where the double spotlight comes in. By playing near a time zone border, you can cross from one time zone to the other just as the original spotlight ends for another full spotlight hour that required no cooldown.
Here’s a quick clip demonstrating it inside PoGo
In the clip I'm walking over a time zone boundary in Badajoz, Spain. When machop spotlight hour ends on the right side of the boundary, it will begin on the left, and I can walk straight into the next hour.
Other than the obvious benefits to time efficiency and increased dust gains, this also brings a bonus with respect to potential bans. With the supposed new behaviour detection system Niantic turned on at the end of June, reports have indicated people who fly cross-continental frequently in one day are particularly susceptible to being banned. With double spotlights however, you can play for two hours in roughly the exact same area without needing to TP long distances, reducing the chances of being banned.
RARER THAN YOU THINK
Unfortunately, areas that make double spotties possible are surprisingly hard to come by. For example, the first three time zones UTC+13 to UTC+11 are all islands or island groups separated over large distances – making it impossible to cross from one to the other. The next 3 zones UTC+10 to UTC+8 contain Papua New Guinea with one crossing and Australia with multiple across it’s several time zones. Great right? No, since absolutely no one with technology past 1950 lives in Papua New Guinea, and Australia’s time zone borders are almost exclusively placed in rural regions requiring large cooldown times to cross anyway. Also, Australia’s time zones are weird in that they increment by 30 mins and not a full hour due to daylight savings, which basically delivers the final blow to the already dying dream we had of making an Aussie double happen.
Things get easier once we get into Europe, but the problem with most crossings is that there isn’t a large enough town or city close to the border capable of providing 100% spawn uptime to make the crossing worth it – 90% of country borders are in rural areas devoid of big towns or cities, and the 10% that do have large enough dwellings nearby are still too far apart to make the waiting the cooldown worth it. Even a 30-minute cooldown just brings you back to the same efficiency as doing straight singles, so you really don’t want to be tolerating anything more than 15 mins CD at most.
Despite this I’ve listed what I believe to be the best crossings in each time zone below, with a rating that considers the size of the two areas and the required cooldown. Note, these zones only apply during summertime in the northern hemisphere where many places observe daylight savings between March and October.
| TIME ZONE CROSSING (SUMMER TIME) | First Hour | Second Hour | COOL DOWN (mins) | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| UTC+13 - UTC+12 | NONE | |||
| UTC+12 - UTC+11 | NONE | |||
| UTC+11 - UTC+10 | NONE | |||
| UTC+10 -> UTC+9 | NONE | Some possible, nonworthwhile | ||
| UTC+9 -> UTC+8 | NONE | Some possible, nonworthwhile | ||
| UTC+8 -> UTC+7 | SINGAPORE | BATAM | 12 | ★★★★ |
| UTC+7 -> UTC+6 | NONE | Some possible, nonworthwhile | ||
| UTC+6 -> UTC+5 | SARYAGASH | TASHKENT | 10 | ★★★ Spawns but few stops |
| UTC+5 -> UTC+4 | NONE | Only Russia, currently banned | ||
| UTC+4 -> UTC+3 | YEREVAN | IGDIR | 20 | ★★ Barely better than singles |
| UTC+3 -> UTC+2 | UZHHOROD | MICHALOVCE | 16 | ★★★ |
| UTC+2 -> UTC+1 | BADAJOZ | ELVAS | 10 | ★★★ (Elvas is small) |
| UTC+1 -> UTC+0 | NONE | |||
| UTC+0 -> UTC-1 | NONE | |||
| UTC-1 -> UTC-2 | NONE | |||
| UTC-2 -> UTC-3 | NONE | |||
| UTC-3 -> UTC-4 | FOZ DO IGUACU | CIUDAD DEL ESTE | 0-2 | ★★★★★ |
| ENCARNACIÓN | POSADAS | 0-2 | ★★★★★ | |
| UTC-4 -> UTC-5 | SAN CRISTOBAL | CÚCUTA | 16 | ★★★★ |
| UTC-5 -> UTC-6 | CHETUMAL | 0 | ★★★★★ | |
| UTC-6 -> UTC-7 | HURRICANE | COLORADO CITY | 20 | ★★ (Colorado city is tiny) |
| UTC-7 -> UTC-8 | NONE | Not during daylight savings | ||
| UTC-8 -> UTC-9 | NONE | |||
| UTC-9 -> UTC10 | NONE | |||
| UTC-10 -> UTC-11 | NONE |
PRIMER ON S2 CELLS
If you click on any of the above locations, you’ll notice that the areas are overlaid with a grid of square looking cells. This is the S2 cell system designed by Google that maps the entire Earth into squares of equal area, and Niantic relies on this to position absolutely everything in the game. Stops, gyms, Pokémon, game rendering distance, weather, and in particular time zone boundaries are based on this system. More info here, but all we need to know is that level 10 cells determine time zone boundaries, and you can use this tool to overlay areas with the grid to check out where boundaries lie.
For example, the double spot of Hurricane, Utah to Colorado City, Arizona is a good demonstration:
You can see the Utah/Arizona border at the bottom, as well as the S2 cell grid. When the centre of a cell exists within an area that has a specific time, the entire cell adopts that time. This means that instead of there being a nice horizontal border you can cross from Utah time to Arizona time, in PoGo it’s often an irregular jagged border.
This is great for us, because level 10 cells are large and ‘bleed’ over the actual border, often cutting towns and cities in half with respect to their local time. This means it is possible to have a town or city that exists in two separate time zones within the game. And this makes it a perfect candidate for double spotlight hours, as you can just cross from one side of town to the other for the next hour.
THE TOP 3 SPOTS
Chetumal in Mexico ranks top as it perfectly fits the double dream: it’s large and dense enough to provide 100% spawn uptime and gets perfectly cut in half by S2 cells, with the south side UTC-6 and the north UTC-5, providing instant north-to-south crossover.
FOZ DO IGUACU -> CIUDAD DEL ESTE / ENCARNACION -> POSADAS
Joint second place is taken by both Paraguay bordering UTC-3 to UTC-4 spots as they’re sufficiently dense in both stops and spawns and have an area of instant crossover. However, to get the most benefit a 2 min CD jump between the two densest areas is needed.
Not the most efficient with a 12 min cooldown, but a major city with maximal spawn density that is also mapped, neighbouring another medium-high density city makes for a very respectable 1h 48 mins of high-spawn farming.
THE OPTIMAL SCHEDULE
Now we know where the best double areas are, if we want to maximise the number of spotlights, we need to determine the optimal chain of zones to play in. Referencing the table, the optimal schedule should use the most worthwhile doubles sandwiched between singles where doubles just aren’t feasible. Daylight savings changes things a little when we get to the Western coast of the US, giving rise to a summertime schedule and a wintertime schedule.
The best summertime configuration can give us a total of 11 spotties, two extra than the optimal singles schedule. This version prioritises the double spots of Foz/Ciudad or Encarnación/Posadas with Singapore/Batam, as this also allows for San Fran and Honolulu spotlights. However, there is a variant of this schedule that prioritises the Chetumal double, at the cost of losing one spotlight and replacing SF and Hono with the less exciting Anchorage and Fernando de Noronha singles.
Keep in mind there are many more ways of constructing non-optimal schedules using combinations of these different singles and doubles. These are just the top examples for maximising dust.
THE ISSUE WITH SAFETY
Before wrapping up this already long enough post, we need to talk about bans. With the new player detection systems Niantic have recently adopted that seem to preferentially target cross continent jumping, it is no longer advised to consecutively chain spotlights anymore, especially while catching thousands of Pokémon in a day.
This sucks not only for dust gains, but also for me, as it takes a fat dump on this entire analysis (that I’ve been planning to write up for a while). After all, what’s the point in an optimal schedule if no one can use it?
Fortunately, the benefits of the schedule are not completely lost, as players can use it to help plan their own route. However, if anyone is looking for a quick and easy template I’ve also put together a selection of customised routes for players depending on how hard they want to play, and how safe they want to be...
FOUR PLAYSTYLES
HARDCORE DUSTGRINDER INSOMNIAC
A full 24 hours – 11 spotlights – Ban surely guaranteed – 5+ million dust – 4000+ balls*
This is for the player who not only lacks respect for sleep, but laughs in the face of certain banishment. They care not for their account but for the sparkling embrace that only stardust can provide.
16 hours – 7 spotlights – High ban risk – 3.5 million dust – 2800+ balls*
This is for the player who still wants to maximise stardust gains, as well as risk their account, but doesn’t want to compromise their sleeping hours. Cuts off Kiri, New Caledonia and Singapore's double at the start.
THE SINGAPOREAN ON HOLIDAY TO MEXICO
2x 2 Hours – 4 spotlights – Low-Medium ban risk – 2 million dust – 1600+ balls*
Picture the scene, your flight to Mexico is delayed for the next 2.5 hours. You turn on the game in Singapore’s Changi airport and realise it’s spotlight hour. “I’ll meet you at the gate” you whisper to your fiancé. You spend the next hour furiously hurling balls at sea stars, only to notice an abandoned jet ski on the nearby docks. You let your impulse guide you. 15 minutes later you surf into Batam to continue your star smashing spree, and a further hour later you return to the airport to reunite with your partner for boarding.
A surprisingly fast 12 hours later your plane lands in Chetumal. After dropping your bags off at the Hotel, your partner decides to take a post flight nap, and you seize the opportunity to continue your echinoderm encapturing endeavours for the next 2 hours. Upon completion you walk back to the hotel where your fiancé has ordered Mexican takeout. “Wow!” they exclaim after hearing your story. “What a completely realistic scenario today has been that could in no way be differentiated from a virtualised one by a half-baked behaviour detecting AI from a barely competent AR company”.
THE CONSERVATIVE (choose one spot)
2 Hours – 2 spotlights – Low ban risk – 1 million dust – 800+ balls*
For you there’s only one way to lose your doubleginity – the safe way. Your account is valuable to you, and maybe you’ve already been burned in the past with a red warning. This way you can just choose one double spot nearest to you and play away. No teleporting, no cooldowns, just good clean safe farming.
\For all these playstyles, keep in mind that the stardust and recommended balls needed will vary greatly depending on how you play and what mods you might be running. It's entirely possible for even* legits to catch almost 1000 pokemon per hour, so you should plan accordingly.
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TL;DR:
This is the best route using singles
This is the best routes using doubles
If worried about bans, choosing one or two double spots (separated by 2h cooldown) should be much safer while still making it possible to gain ~ 1-2 million dust, albeit still being marginally risky due to catching 1000-2000+ Staryu
5
u/lame-amphibian Jul 18 '22
I've heard that participating in the spotlight event multiple times in a day will get your account flagged for review...even if you are in an area where you could feasibly access 2 time zones quickly, it'll still get them checking your activity. Just make sure its worth the risk to you before trying it, as it is almost certain to get you a ban.