Is my Pokémon hacked?

This thread will help you determine whether your Pokemon are hacked. It is designed to be a comprehensive list of ways that you might detect illegal traits on your Pokemon. If you have anything to add, any updates to make or any errors to point out, please leave a comment or contact a staff member.

This question is a member of thecommon repeat question list.This means that any new questions which could be resolved using the contents of this thread will be closed. However, if, after reading the guide below, your issue is not resolved, then you may post a new question indicating this.

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DISCLAIMER: It is impossible to differentiate a well-made hacked Pokemon from a legitimate Pokemon. Though your Pokemon may ‘pass’ each of the checks on this list, there remains the possibility that it was created by a careful hacker using a sophisticated save file editor. The only way to guarantee you will not get a hacked Pokemon is by trading only with people you know and trust, i.e. by avoiding services like the GTS. We cannot give you final confirmation of whether your Pokemon is legit if it passes all the checks.

IMPORTANT: An ‘illegitimate’ Pokemon is not the same as an ‘illegal’ Pokemon. An illegitimate Pokemon is a Pokemon that was obtained dishonestly, but not all Pokemon that are obtained dishonestly have traits that would render them illegal. Hack checkers, including those used by transfer facilities and at competitions, are not magic and cannot pick up illegitimate Pokemon if they have no illegal features. Checkers are noted to have flaws and to pick up false positives. Do not rely on them to determine your Pokemon’s legitimacy.

Many people investigating hacked Pokemon wonder whether hacked Pokemon will damage their save file.It is extremely unlikely that receiving a Pokemon that was hacked by somebody else will damage your save file, especially in modern games. Poor/sinister editing technique may rarely cause them to crash the game (example), but hacked Pokemon seldom corrupt save files. The process of editing save files to create hacked Pokemon more commonly causes damage. It is also unlikely that using hacked (but legal) Pokemon will cause your account to be banned from online games, as hacks are very difficult to prove in this case. However, you shouldnottake Pokemon with blatantly illegal traits (i.e. available only through hacks) into online matches.

For the purposes of this thread,a hacked Pokemon is defined as one that was created or edited using external software, or changed from being exposed to it. The list below will help you detect Pokemon with illegal traits that could only have been created through hacking, or breeding hacked Pokemon. It willnottell you whether a Pokemon that passes all the checks is hacked (see disclaimer above).

Ways of identifying hacked Pokemon are listed in bold, and explanation is provided in dot points.

Common sense

Location or method of capture

Event Pokemon

Poke Ball

Shiny

First-met level

Current level

Origin mark

Illegal pairings of independently-legal traits

Ribbons

ID, OT and nickname

IVs and other stats

Moves

Ability

Language