Team Rocket leaders are difficult encounters that change rosters every few months in Pokémon Go. If you’re looking to fight against Cliff, you’ll need to use a different strategy occasionally, as he’ll use different Pokémon to challenge you.
The Pokémon you can expect to see from Cliff varies. You’ll want to prepare your team accordingly to make sure you know what Pokémon you’ll want to bring. We can help, especially if you want to then take down Giovanni in Pokémon Go. Cliff is a required battle before you can track down the Team Rocket overlord, and he’s not a pushover either. We can help you find and beat Cliff, bringing you one step closer to defeating Team Rocket.
How to find Cliff in Pokémon Go
You won’t be able to find Cliff immediately. You have to focus on tracking down and defeating the Team Rocket grunts that have taken over PokéStops or the ones that appear in Team Rocket Balloons. Each time you defeat them, they drop a Mysterious Component item. You’ll need to collect six of them in Pokémon Go, which immediately combine to become a Team Rocket Radar. You can use this to track down Cliff at a captured PokéStop, or you might encounter one of the two other Team Rocket leaders, Arlo or Sierra.
When you find Cliff, he’ll use three Pokémon against you. These Pokémon change every month, but there’s a pattern to them.
All Cliff Pokémon counters in Pokémon Go
How to beat Cliff’s first Pokémon
The first Pokémon Cliff will use against you is Machop, which remains the same every time you encounter Cliff. Machop is a Fighting-type Pokémon, making it weak against Fairy, Flying, and Psychic-type attacks. You should be able to use nearly any Pokémon against it, as the first Pokémon a Team Rocket leader uses is typically the easiest. A Flying or Psychic-type Pokémon would be your bet, though.
How to beat Cliff’s second Pokémon
For the second choice, Cliff will use one of three options against you. These are the three Pokémon Cliff might use against you in Pokémon Go.
| Cliff second Pokémon | All Pokémon weaknesses |
|---|---|
| Aerodactyl | Electric, Ice, Rock, Steel, and Water-type moves |
| Gallade | Fairy, Flying, and Ghost-type moves |
| Kingdra | Dragon and Fairy-type moves |
Aerodactyl is the toughest Pokémon Cliff uses. Gallade and Kingdra are also tough, but Aerodactyl is more challenging. Given the variety of weaknesses of these three, using a Pokémon that can use Fairy-type attacks might be a good idea, especially if they can also use Electric, Ice, Rock, Steel, or Water-type moves to counter Aerodactyl.
Some of the best Pokémon for this portion of the battle are Gardevoir, Dragonite, Togekiss, Tapu Lele, Tapo Bulu, Granbull, or Garchomp.
How to beat Cliff’s third Pokémon
Similar to the second Pokémon, there is one of three Pokémon Cliff can use. This will be the toughest Pokémon on his team. These are three Cliff might use against you.
| Cliff third Pokémon | All Pokémon weaknesses |
|---|---|
| Cradily | Bug, Fighting, Ice, and Steel-type moves |
| Crobat | Electric, Ice, Psychic, and Rock-type moves |
| Tyrantiar | Bug, Fairy, Fighting, Grass, Ground, Steel, and Water-type moves |
Although the third Pokémon a Team Rocket leader uses is tough, these are some easier options. Cradily and Crobat are weak to Ice-type moves, but Cradily and Tyranitar are weak to Fighting and Steel-type moves. You can try to focus on the weaknesses of Cradily and Tyranitar, but it’s likely better to restructure your team for Cradily and Crobat, as Tyranitar has far more weaknesses than those two. It’s easier to defeat.
When facing off against Cliff’s final choice, the best Pokémon to use are Lucario, Conkeldurr, Mamoswine, Rampardos, Gallade, Magnezone, or Metagross.
You’ll also have a chance to catch a shadow Machop after defeating Cliff in Pokémon Go. There’s also a chance it can appear as a Shiny version.
