Pokémon Go Leader counters: Arlo, Cliff, Sierra counters and strategies in Pokémon Go
How to defeat the three Team Go Rocket Leaders during the Rocket takeover event.
The Team GO Rocket takeover event is back, which means the Team Go Rocket Leaders Arlo, Cliff and Sierra are invading PokéStops in Pokémon Go with a whole new line-up of Shadow Pokémon.
It's up to you to hunt down Arlo, Cliff and Sierra by collecting Mysterious Components and a Rocket Radar in Pokémon Go, which will also help as part of the October 2023 Showdown in the Shadows quest.
Defeating each of these leaders will give you the chance to encounter a rare Shadow Pokémon! As of October 2023, Sierra has Sableye, Arlo has Bellsprout and Cliff has Dratini. All three of these can be shiny, meaning you can get your hands on an ultra-rare shiny Shadow Pokémon!
Facing all three is also the route to a battle against the formidable Giovanni himself -- and his even more formidable Shadow Regigigas - if you take them down as part of the Team GO Rocket quest.
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Team Go Rocket Leaders and strategies explained in Pokémon Go
With each Team GO Rocket takeover event comes a quest that gives you a chance to take down Giovanni and catch a legendary Shadow Pokémon. As of October 2023, the latest quest is Showdown in the Shadows, which earns you a Super Rocket Radar, which is effectively your ticket to take on the head of Team GO Rocket, Giovanni. But, to do that, you first need to defeat his three Team GO Rocket leaders, as part of the aforementioned quest.
This requires you collect six Mysterious Components from Grunts, which you combine into a Rocket Radar that reveals the location of a Team GO Rocket Leader. The choice given to you is random, so if you are after a specific Leader, keep checking until the one you need appears.
These will be tough battles, so a brute force strategy will not always work. Instead, consider the following strategies:
- Since you need to lean on countering with types, it's best to go in with a prepared team with strong counters.
- A Leader's line-up will be somewhat unique for that encounter - it's made of a small selection of creatures, so you can't exactly be sure which Pokémon you'll be facing. You might have to face them once to learn their line-up, then change yours to counter it.
- Leaders will always use their two shields for your first two Charged moves, which will be followed by a two-second delay before they can attack. This same delay occurs when you switch Pokémon. Ideally, this means your lead Pokémon must be strong enough to survive long enough to deliver two Charged moves, and do so as fast as possible, so you can then dealing out damage properly. For example, Melmetal is a good candidate for this.
- You can face a Leader as many times as you like, so don't worry if you lose the first time!
Ultimately, victory depends on your ability to create a team that takes advantage of as many of the Team GO Rocket Leader's team's weaknesses as possible, so having a wide roster of Pokémon available will help you form flexible teams.
Below the video, you'll find the current possible lineups for each Team Go Rocket Leader during the Team GO Rocket takeover event.
Arlo counters and line-up in Pokémon Go
Below you'll find the current line up for Arlo in Pokémon Go, as of October 2023.
Remember - the first Pokémon is always the same, and is the one you'll be given the chance to catch if you win. The rest are randomly selected from a pool of three:
| First Pokémon | Second Pokémon | Third Pokémon |
|---|---|---|
| Bellsprout | Alakazam | Snorlax |
| Sharpedo | Scizor | |
| Mismagius | Magnezone |
Arlo's lineup is currently the easiest to prepare for, because, if you choose right, you may find that you don't even need to scout ahead. A strong team of Fighting, Fire and either Ghost or Dark-type Pokémon could bring you a quick victory!
Ideally speaking, this means the likes of Giratina or Tyranitar; Lucario, Machamp or Terrakion; and Reshiram or Mega Charizard.
When it comes to Arlo's second Pokémon, both Alakazam and Mismagius share a weakness to Dark-type Pokémon. Strong Dark-type counters, include Hydreigon, Yveltal and Guzzlord. Be aware that while Ghost types will be able to lay the smack down (not the Smack Down, that's a Fighting type move), Mismagius may cause issues for you, hence the suggestion of Brutal Swing Tyranitar. Meanwhile, Alakazam and Sharpedo share a weakness to Bug-type Pokémon, making Pheromosa, Yanmega and Genesect good counter choies.
Due to Alakazam being the centre of this type overlap, we recommend choosing either a Dark or Bug-type Pokémon as your scouting counter for Arlo's second Pokémon. This way there's a good chance you'll enter this part of the battle with a Pokémon who can deal strong damage against their opponent. If your choice backfires, you can then easily switch to the other type when you go re-do the battle.
A similar type overall occurs with Alro's third Pokémon, which both Scizor and Magnezone being weak to Fire-types. You'll want to have a Fire-type like Reshiram, Entei or Moltres when facing Scizor, because their attacks will be super effective against it.
Magnezone, alongside Snorlax, is weak to Fighting-type attacks. In fact, like Aipom, Fighting-types are Snorlax's only weakness. Due to this, you can easily bring the counter you used against Aiom back into the battle - if its not knocked out that is.
Again, like with Arlo's second choice, we reocmmend choosing either a Fire or Fighting-type when scouting for this choice, because there's also a chance it will line up perfectly. If you do find yourself facing Magnezone, however, and having problems defeating the magnet, then trying using a Ground-type Pokémon. Attacks of this type from Pokémon like Garchomp, Rhyperior or Therian Landrous will all be super effective.
Cliff counters and line-up in Pokémon Go
Below you'll find the current line up for Cliff in Pokémon Go, as of October 2023.
Remember - the first Pokémon is always the same, and is the one you'll be given the chance to catch if you win. The rest are randomly selected from a pool of three:
| First Pokémon | Second Pokémon | Third Pokémon |
|---|---|---|
| Dratini | Gallade | Tyranitar |
| Cradily | Mamoswine | |
| Slowking | Dusknoir |
While it's a good idea to scout ahead to enure your team properly counters Cliff's, if your team contains a selection of Pokemon from the Water, Steel, Bug, Ghost or Fighting-types then you made find yourself with a quick victory.
For Dratini, we recommend choosing an Ice-type Pokémon. There are lots of great options here, so simply pick whichever is strongest -- Kyurem, for example. If you really want to show off and bring out the big guns, Mega Rayquaza is excellent, but beware the likes of Mamoswine coming in as backup.
When it comes to entering the battle with Cliff's second Pokémon, we recommend choosing either a Ghost or Bug-type Pokémon due to how Slowking and Gallade are both weak to Ghost. Cradily and, again, Slowking are weak to Bug-type. Choosing one of these two types therefore gives you a good chance of having the right counter for the Pokémon you're facing. (Though your Steel-type will still be useful if you're facing Cradily.)
For Bug-types, we recommend either Pheromosa, Yanmega or Genesect, while our Dark-type recommendations include Tyranitar, Hydreigon, Yveltal and Guzzlord. Obiviously, if you loose the battle, you can select the perfect counter for the Pokémon he chose.
For Cliff's third Pokémon, Tyranitar and Mamoswine are weak to both Steel or Fighting-type Pokémon. Again, this give you the chance to reuse your first Pokémon or simply include a second Steel-type Pokémon. We do highly recommend susing a Lucario, however, as it is a Fighting and Steel-type Pokémon, so you can have the best of both worlds. Keep in mind that Fighting-type attacks are super effective against Tyranitar!
Dusknoir, however, is only weak to Ghost and Dark-type Pokémon. Since Dusknoir is a Ghost-type itself, it will have a natural advantage against other Ghost Pokémon, so we recommend choosing a Dark-type Pokémon if you need to defeat it.
Sierra counters and line-up in Pokémon Go
Below you'll find the current line up for Sierra in Pokémon Go, as of October 2023.
Remember - the first Pokémon is always the same, and is the one you'll be given the chance to catch if you win. The rest are randomly selected from a pool of three:
| First Pokémon | Second Pokémon | Third Pokémon |
|---|---|---|
| Sableye | Skarmory | Houndoom |
| Gardevoir | Gyarados | |
| Muk | Kingdra |
Sierra continues her tradition of being a tough Team Go Rocket leader to defeat - but given how excellent Sabelye is in Go Battle League, this isn't much of a complaint; we'll happily take the opportunity to go looking for a perfect Pokémon.
Sabeleye is famously only weak to Fairy types, which means that your best counters is, of course, Mega Gardevoir. Beyond that, Xerneas, Xuriktree and Mega Diancie ar your next best-options, but each with further diminishing returns.
Sierra's second Pokémon is where things start to get tricky, due to the range of options she has at her disposal.
Skarmory is weak to Fire and Elecric, Muk is weak to Ground and Psychic, and Gardevoir is weak to Ghost, Poison and Steel. That is a huge number of weaknesses to plan for, so if you find yourself coming up in a poor match-up, simply make a mental not of what she chose, and retry with a more optimal team.
Moving on to her third slot, Gyarados is double-weak to Electric are weak to Rock. Houndoom is weak to Fighting, Ground, Rock and Water. Kingdra, meanwhile, is weak to Dragon and Fairy. Rock is clearly a good option here, which means the likes of Mega Diancie, Rampardos and Rhyperior.
The trick here is to pick a selection of Pokémon with a range of strengths to overcome these weaknesses. Remember, losing the first time just means you have more information going into the rematch!
It's the the Season of Timeless Travels in Pokémon Go, so make sure you complete the Timeless Travels quest! The Winter Holiday event has returned. During it, take the time to try out Routes, Gift Exchange and Party Play while you're hunting down rare Pokémon, fighting in the Go Battle League or competing in PokéStop Showcases.
Team Go Rocket Leader rewards in Pokémon Go
Defeating a Team Go Rocket Leader will grant you 1,000 Stardust, a red 'strange' 12km egg (if you have an open space in your Egg inventory) and one of the following items:
- Max Revive
- Revive
- Max Potion
- Unova Stone
- Sinnoh Stone
Thank you to skewtr from reddit with the help with this information.
You will also have the opportunity to catch one of the Team GO Rocket Leader's Shadow Pokémon. Beat Sierra to catch Sableye, Arlo for Bellsprout and Cliff for Dratini.
Best of all, there's a chance that these Shadow Pokémon could be shiny!
To catch these Shadow Pokémon, you'll receive a base number of 5 Premier Balls. Bonus Pokéballs will be rewarded depending on several factors, including:
- How many of your Pokémon survive the Trainer Battle
- Your Purify Pokémon (Purifier) medal rank
- Your Defeat Team Rocket (Hero) medal rank
Good luck hunting down those evil Team GO Rocket leaders!