Pokemon GOis filled with plenty of challenges that players can take on for themselves in order to earn a variety of valuable rewards. One of these challenges is facing the various leaders ofTeam GO Rocketin order to defeat them and rescue their Shadow Pokemon. There are three leaders that players can face with one of them being Cliff.
Like all of Team GO Rocket’s leaders, Cliff can provide quite the challenge for any unpreparedPokemon GOplayer. Luckily, all of his Pokemon have known weaknesses that can be exploited to make the battle go much more smoothly.
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As with any other trainer battle, Cliff will send out three Pokemon that players will have to take down. However, while his first party member will always remain the same, his second and third Pokemon will be selected from two sets of three Pokemon. This means that unless players are rematching Cliff within the same encounter, there is no way to know for sure what Cliff will use for the later parts of the battle.
Cliff’s First Pokemon - Seedot
Starting off the battle, Cliff’s first Pokemon will always be the pure Grass-type, Seedot. This Pokemon is weak to Fire, Flying, Poison, Bug, andIce-type moves, but also resists damage from Water, Grass, Electric, and Ground-type moves. Out of all of Cliff’s Pokemon, Seedot is the weakest. Players that just want to get this Pokemon out of the way as soon as possible are recommended to use:
Reshiram- Fire Fang and Overheat
Chandelure- Fire Spin and Overheat
Unovan Darmanitan- Fire Fang and Overheat
Yveltal- Gust and Hurricane
Cliff’s Second Pokemon - Hariyama, Poliwrath, or Kingler
Moving forward, Cliff’s second Pokemon has the possibility to be either Hariyama, Poliwrath, or Kingler. All of these Pokemon will provide a huge spike in difficulty in comparison to the fight with Seedot, making it all the more important to play against their weaknesses.
Hariyama is a pure Fighting-type Pokemon, making it weak to Fairy, Flying, andPsychic-type moves. It also resists damage from Bug, Rock, and Dark-type moves. Luckily, there are plenty of powerful Pokemon that also serve as perfect counters against Hariyama such as:
Staraptor- Wing Attack and Brave Bird
Ho-Oh- Extrasensory and Brave Bird
Granbull- Charm and Play Rough
Galarian Slowbro- Confusion and Psychic
Blaziken- Counter and Brave Bird
Another Pokemon that Cliff can use second is Poliwrath. This Pokemon is a dual Water and Fighting-type, making it vulnerable to Fairy, Flying, Psychic, Electric, andGrass-type moves. It additionally resists damage from Steel, Water, Bug, Rock, Ice, Dark, and Fire-type moves. With this in mind, some Pokemon recommended to use against Poliwrath are:
Attack Form Deoxys- Zen Headbutt and Zap Cannon
Mewtwo- Confusion and Psystrike
Therian Thundurus- Thunder Shock and Thunderbolt
Alakazam- Confusion and Psychic
Electivire- Thunder Shock and Wild Charge
The last Pokemon Cliff could use as his second party member is Kingler. It is a pureWater-type Pokemon, so it is weak to Grass and Electric-type moves. Additionally, it resists damage from Steel, Water, Ice, and Fire-type moves. In order to prevent it from taking too much health from the players' own Pokemon before it’s defeated, players are recommended to use:
Zekrom- Charge Beam and Wild Charge
Roserade- Razor Leaf and Solar Beam
Cliff’s Third Pokemon - Torterra, Sharpedo, and Tyranitar
Finishing the battle up, there are still three more possible Pokemon that players have the chance to battle before defeating Cliff. All of these Pokemon can provide quite the problem, so players shouldn’t hold anything back in order to achieve victory.
The first of the final Pokemon pool that Cliff can use is Torterra. This Pokemon is a dual Grass and Ground-type, making it vulnerable to Ice, Fire, Flying, andBug-type moves. It also resists damage from Rock, Ground, and Electric-type moves. Because of this, the best counters to use against Torterra are:
Galarian Darmanitan- Ice Fang and Avalanche
Mamoswine- Powder Snow and Avalanche
Weavile- Ice Shard and Avalanche
Glaceon- Frost Breath and Avalanche
Articuno- Frost Breath and Ice Beam
Up next is Sharpedo, a dual Water and Dark-type Pokemon that carries a lot of weaknesses and resistances. For weaknesses, Sharpedo is vulnerable to Fairy, Bug, Electric, Grass, andFighting-type moves. It meanwhile also resists damage from Ghost, Steel, Water, Ice, Dark, Fire, and Psychic-type moves. With this in mind, some highly recommended Pokemon to use against Sharpedo are:
Machamp- Counter and Dynamic Punch
Raikou- Volt Switch and Wild Charge
Sirfetch’d- Counter and Close Combat
Finally, the last Pokemon of Cliff’s to cover isthe fearsome Tyranitar. This Pokemon is a dual Rock and Dark-type, making it weak to Fighting, Fairy, Ground, Bug, Steel, Water, and Grass-type moves. It also heavily resists damage from Dark, Normal, Poison, Ghost, Flying, Fire, and Psychic-type moves. Out of all its weaknesses, its Fighting-type weakness hits it the hardest. Because of this, the recommended counters to use against Tyranitar are:
Lucario- Counter and Aura Sphere
Conkeldurr- Counter and Dynamic Punch
Breloom- Counter and Dynamic Punch
Blaziken- Counter and Focus Blast
Pokemon GOis available on Android and iOS.
