How to beat Cliff in Pokemon GO October 2023

In Pokémon GO, players earn Mysterious Components by defeating Team GO Rocket Grunts at occupied Pokéstops. Once you acquire six of them, you construct the Rocket Radar which leads you to one Team Go Rocket Leaders.

Unlike the weaker Grunts, the Team GO Rocket Leaders are much tougher to defeat. There are three Team GO Rocket Leaders: Cliff, Arlo, and Sierra, each wielding their own team of powerful shadow Pokémon.

Here we’ll show you how to defeat Cliff, detailing his current team for October 2023 and the best way to counter it.

Cliff’s Team (October 2023)

Cliff’s lineup changes frequently, and recently changed as part of the Team Go Rocket Takeover event. His current lineup in Pokémon GO is as follows:

Aerodactyl
Slowking/ Gallade / Cradily
Tyranitar / Mamoswine / Dusknoir

Cliff’s lineup changes every time there’s a Team Go Rocket Takeover, and he will always send out his Pokémon in this order.

how to beat cliff pokemon go — Players can catch Cliff’s Shadow Aerodactyl upon defeating him | Image: Pokémon GO/The Pokemon Company/Niantic

Aerodactyl is a Flying and Rock-type Pokémon, which means it’s weak to Water, Electric, Rock, Ice, Steel-type attacks. This gives the player plenty of solid choices to take on Aerodactyl, but ideally a Pokemon that can burn shields quickly and still be around for later in the fight would be best:

Tyranitar – Smack Down (Fast Move), Stone Edge (Charged Move)
Lucario – Counter (Fast Move), Flash Cannon (Charged Move)
Raikou – Thundershock (Fast Move), Wild Charge (Charged Move)

Pokemon #2: Slowking/Gallade/Cradily

This is where the battle starts to get tougher, as the second Pokémon can be one of Slowking, Gallade or Cradily. Here are some of the best Pokémon to take on each of them: