The hardcore Pokémon Go players out there know that once you reach level 20 in the augmented reality mobile game, the difficulty curve starts getting much steeper. How steep? Well, to go from level 19 to 20 requires 25,000 experience points. To go from 20 to 21 requires twice as much — the first time the game doubles the requirement — and the number increases dramatically every few levels. In fact, one player was so curious about the level progression that they used a software bot to churn through as much XP as possible until the game hit its end.

The player, who goes by "_problemz" on Reddit, says he or she only cheated at Pokémon Go out of curiosity and discovered the game stops letting you progress at level 40. The requirement to jump from level 39 is 5 million XP, and the total cumulative XP required is a mind-boggling 20 million points. There's no concrete proof except a collection of screenshots confirming 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.

Using a bot and 131 lucky eggs, one user reached the max 'Pokémon Go' level of 40

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?

Pokémon Go Advanced Tips