How to find and beat Cliff in Pokémon Go (October 2024)

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 Galarian Zigzagoon, which remains the same every time you encounter Cliff. Galarian Zigzagoon is a Dark and Normal-type Pokémon, and it is weak against Bug, Fighting, or Fairy-type attacks. You want to avoid using Ghost, Psychic, or Dark-type moves against it. 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 Fighting-type Pokémon would be your best option, 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.

Aerodactyl is the toughest Pokémon Cliff uses, but thankfully, these three Pokémon all share a similar weakness: Ice-type attacks. For this battle, focusing on Ice-type moves would be your best choice, as Venusaur is the most contrasting Pokémon of the three, and easily the toughest. They don’t share too many other weaknesses, save for Aerodactyl and Marowak being weak to Water-type moves.

Some of the best Pokémon for this portion of the battle are Empoleon, Mamoswine, Galarian Darmanitan, Glialie, Weavile, Primarina, and Feraligatr.

How to beat Cliff’s third Pokémon

Similar to the second Pokémon, there is one of three Pokémon Cliff can use for his third option. This will be the toughest Pokémon on his team. These are three Cliff might use against you.

Although the third Pokémon a Team Rocket leader uses is tough, these are some easier options. Obstagoon and Tyranitar are weak to Bug, Fighting, and Fairy-type moves. Crobat is not weak to these attacks, but you can use Electric, Ice, Psychic, or Rock-type moves against it. You can try to focus on the weaknesses of Obstagoon and Tyranitar as your main opponents, as you can likely use the Pokémon you used from the second encounter to counter Crobat.

When facing off against Cliff’s final choice, the best Pokémon to use are Lucario, Conkeldurr, Mamoswine, Rampardos, Machamp, Magnezone, or Annihilape.

You’ll have a chance to catch a shadow Galarian Zigzagoon after defeating Cliff in Pokémon Go. There’s also a chance it can appear as a Shiny version.