With Team Go Rocket, you never know what to expect. The various grunts, leaders, and even the big boss himself have long been a part of trainers’ journeys in Pokémon Go with content that updates frequently to provide new challenges.
The leaders specifically pose a varied threat in the evil organization’s ranks as Cliff, Arlo, and Sierra each have different Pokémon on their team and require careful planning for players looking to stop the Rockets in their tracks, even as their teams rotate.
How to find Team Go Rocket Leader Arlo in Pokémon Go
While dealing with Go Rocket Grunts, players will receive items called Mysterious Components that piece together to make a tracker. This tracker is called the Rocket Radar and can be used to locate the Rocket leaders, though you will need six of the Mysterious Components to craft it.
Once you obtain the Rocket Radar, it can be equipped from your bag and will lead you to the Rocket leaders, as well as allow them to spawn in balloons that hover over the player’s location.
Though each of the three leaders is a significant challenge to overcome, successfully stopping their schemes allows players to save a Shadow Pokémon from their clutches—one that can even be Shiny, if players are lucky.
Here’s everything you need to know about Team Go Rocket leader Arlo’s current team in Pokémon Go.
How to beat Arlo in Pokémon Go
First Pokémon
Bellsprout
For this Team Rocket takeover occurring alongside the Halloween event, Arlo will first confront players with a Shadow Bellsprout. While not as daunting as the Shadow Pokémon that the other Team Go Rocket leaders have in their possession, simply being a Shadow Pokémon makes Bellsprout a considerable threat to players that opt to not take it down quickly.
Fortunately, players can make quick work of Shadow Bellsprout by exploiting its myriad of weaknesses: Fire, Flying, Ice, and Psychic. The most efficient option is to bring a Fire-type Pokémon with Fire-type attacks like Charizard, Chandelure, or Camerupt, as they serve as incredibly viable choices for not just taking down Shadow Bellsprout, but other potential members of Arlo’s team.
Successfully defeating Arlo will earn players a chance to catch a Shadow Bellsprout of their own—with a low chance that it appears in its Shiny coloration. Don’t fret if you miss your chance to add this Shadow Pokémon to your collection, as it oftentimes appears in the clutches of Team Go Rocket grunts that use Grass or Poison-type Pokémon, though won’t be able to be Shiny.
Second Pokémon
The jump in power between Arlo’s first and second Pokémon is considerable. Players may have breezed past the first Shadow Pokémon in Arlo’s clutches, but now they’ll be forced to face one of three powerful Pokémon, all of which are notable across the series for their potential to take down even the strongest opponents.
Sharpedo
Just like the other Team Go Rocket leaders, Arlo’s team past his first Pokémon remains the same, just in a slightly different order—so Sharpedo is yet again a ferocious face that players should expect to see. Just like before, the best options here are Fighting and Electric-type Pokémon such as Hariyama, Magnezone, Electivire, Machamp, or Gallade. It’s best to avoid bringing Grass or Fairy-type Pokémon, as Sharpedo does have access to the Charge Attack Poison Fang, which will deal super-effective damage to these types.
Mismagius
Arlo is celebrating the spooky season with Mismagius, a Pokémon that has become a centerpiece of his team over the last several months. While not the strongest Ghost-type Pokémon, it does have access to a handful of coverage options like Magical Lead, Dark Pulse, and Dazzling Gleam, giving it a few ways to overpower opponents that don’t actively exploit its weaknesses.
Since Mismagius is a Ghost-type Pokémon with mainly Ghost-type attacks, Dark-type Pokémon and attacks are the only decent options to fight it head-on. Pokémon that are part Dark-type and resist Fairy-type attacks, like Houndoom and Bisharp, are great options here, but they are not common Pokémon. Thus, any Dark-type with strong attack can be used instead.
Alakazam
Alakazam is considered one of the textbook definitions of “glass cannon” within the Pokémon series. Though its offensive prowess has remained one of the highest of all Psychic-type Pokémon for nearly 30 years, it is incredibly fragile and subject to defeat from just one or two super-effective attacks from opponents.
Pokémon Go slightly remedies this issue by giving Alakazam access to Fire, Ghost, and Fighting-type attacks, giving it counters to all the types that are super effective against it. Therefore, players are going to have to take the gamble with their Bug, Ghost, and Dark-type Pokémon and hope that Alakazam’s Charge Attack isn’t one that can deal more damage to them than they can to it.
Third Pokémon
Unlike Sierra and Cliff, Arlo has completely reorganized his team for this Go Rocket takeover, meaning none of the Pokémon in his third slot have consistently made an appearance in his party in the past. While two of these Pokémon can be rather simple to take down if players bring the correct Pokémon, one is a defensive and offensive menace that players should hope not to face off against—especially this far into the fight.
Scizor
Speaking of glass cannons, Scizor makes an appearance as an option for Arlo’s final Pokémon slot. This Bug/Steel-type Pokémon, while having access to some of the most powerful moves of both of these types, will fall easily to nearly any incoming Fire-type attack. Players should bring a Pokémon with Fire-type Fast Attacks to quickly take Scizor down, such as Arcanine, Charizard, Darmanitan, Pyroar, or Magmortar.
Magnezone
Cliff has another Steel-type Pokémon that has a glaring weakness on his team in the form of Magnezone. As a Steel/Electric-type Pokémon, Magnezone struggles immensely to deal with Ground-type Pokémon, both in dealing damage to them and surviving attacks. Nearly any Ground-type Pokémon with access to moves like Earthquake or Earth Power can get the job done here, such as Garchomp, Krookodile, Swampert, Seismitoad, Nidoking, and Nidoqueen.
Snorlax
If players struggled with any other aspect of Arlo’s team, good luck with the raid boss sitting as yet another option in his third slot: Snorlax. Shadow Snorlax takes normal Snorlax’s offense and defense and amplifies them immensely, so regardless of what players bring into this final fight, they’re going to have a very difficult time.
Due to Snorlax’s newly-buffed offense in this corrupted state, players should avoid using most Fighting-type Pokémon that aren’t tanky, as they will take considerable damage—with the only decent options being Terrakion or Hariyama. Instead, bring Steel-type Pokémon that can soak up almost all of the damage Snorlax deals, like Metagross, Melmetal, Aggron, Dialga, Heatran, or Solgaleo.
But Snorlax, of course, has answers to Steel-types in the form of Earthquake and Superpower. Ultimately, if players find themselves staring opposite Arlo’s Shadow Snorlax, they may need to try new strategies and restart the battle.
