When Will Pokemon GO Battles Be Available?

When will Pokemon GO battles be available? Niantic Labs has disabled Pokemon GO Battles until further notice due to a devastating trainer-discovered exploit during combat.

Some trainers have allegedly been using this glitch to use Charged Moves more frequently in competitive content. Somehow, they've discovered a way to continue building energy toward a Charged Move while the move is occurring. This means that instead of taking five or six Quick Moves to build a Charged Move, they only need two or three.

The result is clear. Those who abuse the exploit can pack in more damage than those who can't. Essentially, battles against these trainers become unwinnable and hinder the advance of others looking to hit top rank. It's blatant cheating at its core.

The glitch only works for certain Pokemon such as Melmetal. It's unclear whether this has to do with the Pokemon, its typing, or the movesets themselves.

When Will Pokemon GO Battles Be Available

There is no official word on when Niantic plans to bring the GO Battle League back online. The swiftness with which they took the feature down certainly shows the severity of the glitch and how seriously they're taking it. Hopefully, this energy will translate into fixing the bug and restoring function.

While Niantic has yet to comment on any details surrounding the source of the exploit, other outlets have zeroed in on a possible lead—a video posted by Youtuber JRskatr a day before trainer battles were taken down.

In his video, JRskatr shows an issue he encountered during a match with another trainer using Melmetal. He explains the concept of counting moves—e.g. five Thundershocks equals one Rockslide—and launches right into the screen capture of the battle. We can see that his opponent is using Charged Moves at a much more frequent rate than is normally allowed by the game.

The offending trainer has since been banned.