Pokémon Go player uses a bot to reach the game's maximum level

Pokemon Go hardcore players out there know that once you reach level 20 in augmented reality mobile game, the difficulty curve starts to get steeper. How steep? Well, to go from level 19-20 requires 25,000 experience points. To go 20-21 requires twice as much - the first time a double game requirements - and the number is increasing dramatically every few levels. In fact, the players are so intrigued with the development level of the bot software they are using to churn through as much XP as possible until the end of the hit game.

The player, who goes by "_problemz" at Reddit, said he only cheated on Pokémon Go curious and found the game stops to let you advance in level 40. Requirements to jump from level 39 is 5 million XP, and XP Total cumulative needed is mind -boggling 20 million points. There is no concrete evidence except the collection of screenshots confirm the feat:

Beyond ogling at that insanely powerful Dragonite, it's worth noting the bot-using player is against cheating other Pokémon Go players. "I didn't fight in gyms. And I won't do it. I don't want to take anyone the fun of this game," the user wrote on Reddit. "If you do PVP (no matter which game), play legit or don't play." Apparently, the user has requested that developer Niantic delete the account.

As for how the process worked, that remains a mystery. Some commenters suggested a bot, which can be found openly on code repositories like GitHub, could do the trick if it was designed or modified to check in at pokéstops and catch pokémon, both of which net small amounts of XP, for a long enough period of time. The user says they also relied on 131 lucky eggs, a majority of which were purchased from the in-game store. Lucky eggs are in-game items that double the amount of XP earned over a 30-minute period. Doing a little table napkin math suggests the bot was running for more than 65 hours while the lucky eggs were active.

If this is any way discouraging to any aspirational pokémasters out there, just know through hard work, one player from New York City has become the very best — or at the best he ever could. Nick Johnson, a 28-year-old resident of Brooklyn, said last week he caught every pokémon available in the US. In the process, he accumulated 142 unique creatures, logged hundreds of hours of playtime, and walked more than 95 miles since the game's release. By the end of it, he was level 31 and had even lost more than 10 pounds. Who needs bots when you have the perseverance of Ash Ketchum?