Pokemon Go has had an enormous problem with cheaters since its very inception, and recently Niantic has been taking extreme measures to punish cheaters and to prevent people from even thinking about cheating. Cheating can take a few different forms in Pokemon Go, from third-party applications that let you walk around in-game without actually moving, to bots that play the game for you.

Niantic recently started issuing shadow bans to cheaters that prevented them from seeing rare/uncommon Pokemon in the same areas that normal, hard-working Pokemon Trainers would see them and now, they’re taking an extra step in an attempt to rid the Pokemon Go community of cheaters altogether.

Niantic recently announced via Reddit that they will be branding cheaters with a black mark from now on. What this means specifically is that if players catch Pokemon using any kind of third-party application, those Pokemon will receive a slash next to their name. Pokemon with this mark will “not behave as expected”, and we can assume that they will be fairly useless. So, while it’s still possible to cheat in Pokemon Go, it will eventually not be worth it, and it will ruin your overall gameplay experience going forward. Niantic is purging all the cheaters and we applaud them for it.