Promo Codes

How Do Promo Codes Work?

Promo codes are short strings of characters like you'd expect any normal promo code to be. Just like most online promo codes some are unlimited use, some expire at a certain date, and some never expire, but have a limited amount of people that can redeem them. They're always single use per person, but can range from 1 person use, to millions of people use, to being completely unlimited the amount of people who can use them. You type in the code, hit okay/redeem/whatever and the game gives you items for free just like you just spun a pokestop and got them.

What Do You Get For Redeeming A Promo Code?

What you can get from passcodes ranges a lot. It could be just common everyday items (think one normal pokestop spin worth of stuff), to an entire load out of gear (In ingress this is 20-40 weapons, 20-40 resonators, 10-20 shields, etc. This probably can translate into pogo like 20-40 ultra balls, 20-40 max potions, and 10-20 of each berry. Something like that).

It's also used for special events. Not like any event we've seen so far, but [like real world events.] By attending this special event you sometimes get a card with a special code you can redeem [special medals] that can only be obtained through these events. Sometimes at these special events you can also buy merch packs may have a loadout code, or other super rare codes.

Quick aside: If they can fix the iOS promo code problem, This I think is how Niantic should implement legendaries. At check-in at the event each trainer gets a one time use promo code card that can trigger the spawning of the event's legendary. Any trainer that redeems this code, who doesn't physically check in gets flagged as a potential cheater for follow-up inspection

Where Do Promo Codes Come From? How Do We Get Them?

In addition to what I mentioned in the previous answer (being handed out on physical cards at real world events) They mostly come from their social network pages. Sometimes partially hidden in pictures they share, sometimes completely encoded some way, sometimes sent out as PMs to users to reward users who interact in the community socially, like people who post fan art, or pictures of them playing at community events, or respond to the "What was your favorite AR picture this weekend" kind of posts. Other times they're just out completely in the open as like a signature to their posts. [In ingress they also have a partnership with Hint Water where you would get passcodes under the cap like a My Coke Rewards kind of thing]. The contents of those passcodes were always small, and they were normal items, never premium items. They were essentially a pokestop spin worth of random gear in a code.

What Happens If I Try To Redeem A Promo Code With Full Inventory?

It will give you an error saying your inventory is full, and much like a pokestop spin, it will error before consuming the code. So you can still trash some of your unneeded gear, get at least one empty slot, and redeem the code again for the gear. If the code is worth more than one item it will work just like a pokestop spin, it will allow you to go over the inventory cap, but you won't be able to spin pokestops or redeem any more codes until you're back below the inventory cap.

What Countries Will Get Promo Codes?

There is not any country restriction for passcode redemption. The closest thing to a restriction is not being in a region where they are being physically given out. But as I mentioned in the 3rd answer above, a majority of codes are given out online, the sponsorship partner codes are a minority and are never anything game changing that you'll really be missing out on.

What If I'm An iPhone User? Why Is It only Android devices?

Apple has strict rules about/against Promo Codes. Presumably to prevent app devs to use them to circumvent apple's 30%(?) tax on all IAPs. When Niantic released Ingress on android it had passcode redemption on it from day one. A year later when Ingress launched on iOS they couldn't add that passcode feature because of apple's restrictions. Months later after trying to get apple to approve the passcode redemption feature they managed to get apple to allow them to add passcode redemption outside the app on their website/intel map. It's a safe bet that this negotiation process has already started with Apple for PoGo and they'll get a solution for iOS users before anything important is used with Promo Codes.

Are There Any Promo Codes Yet?

Not that we're aware of. If you discover one be sure to share it with us.

Can You Be Banned By Trying To Brute Force Promo Codes By Guessing Randomly?

n ingress I've never seen anyone banned, but there is a cooldown. If you try and fail to guess codes you'll stop being able to even try to redeem any for a while. This also applies to successfully redeeming passcodes. If you just start bulk redeeming a bunch of passcodes (even valid ones) it will eventually stop you from trying, giving a cooldown error, and you won't be able to redeem any other codes for a while.