Poliwrath has become key to easily beating Giovanni and Team Rocket in Pokémon Go

Time to square up.

James sending Poliwrath into battle in the Pokémon anime.
Image via The Pokémon Company

With Team Rocket always causing trouble in Pokémon Go, players have been looking for a reliable sidekick that can take the criminal organization down including their big bad boss, Giovanni, and they’ve finally found one today.

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One player has shared their go-to Pokémon for beating Team Rocket’s leaders and Giovanni in a Reddit thread on the topic on July 10—Poliwrath. The first generation Water/Fighting-type Pokémon is known for throwing punches with its gloved fists, which is exactly what you’ll want it doing against Team Rocket.

Poliwrath can take advantage of two punching moves, Power-Up Punch and Dynamic Punch, to get the job done, the strategy-minded Pokemon player said. The idea is to use Power-Up Punch to burn the shield and maximize your attack power.

From there, you can build up Dynamic Punch or another charge move.

That should be enough to handle most of Team Rocket. The only exception is when you’re facing Pokémon that resist Fighting-type attacks. This includes Flying, Poison, Psychic, Bug, Ghost, and Fairy types.

Related: All Pokémon Go Rocket Grunt counters and lineups

This simple and handy Poliwrath guide has come at the perfect time too, with the July Community Day featuring Poliwag on July 30. The special event will give players a chance to catch more Poliwag and collect tons of Candy to evolve them into Poliwhirl and Poliwrath.

So, if you’ve been struggling with Giovanni and his leaders, this month’s Community Day should be a huge help in getting your hands on a Poliwrath that can blow the whole team away and carry you to some easy wins—and, even better, easy rewards.

Author
Image of Karli Iwamasa
Karli Iwamasa
Karli is a freelance writer and editor for Dot Esports based in the Bay Area. She mostly writes about Pokémon with a focus on competitive VGC but also enjoys VALORANT.