Pokemon GO: How to Beat Cliff (December 2021)

Even with 2021 coming to a close soon, Team GO Rocket is still causing trouble in Pokemon GO. The start of December also marks a change in the teams of Team GO Rocket's leaders, being Cliff, Arlo, and Sierra.

With new teams of Shadow Pokemon, Pokemon GO players need to be prepared for any battles with the Team GO Rocket leaders. New teams mean new weaknesses and resistances that can catch unaware players off guard. Luckily, all of the new teams have been already documented.

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Cliff will use three Pokemon in the battle against him like any other trainer. What makes him and the other Team GO Rocket leaders unique though is in how his second and third Pokemon each have the option of being three different Pokemon. Which Pokemon Cliff sends out is random, but if players lose to him and rematch him within the same encounter, his Pokemon will remain the same as the initial battle.

Cliff's First Pokemon - Grimer

The first Pokemon Cliff will send out is his Grimer. It is a pure Poison-type Pokemon, making it only weak to Ground and Psychic-type moves. Grimer also resists damage from Fighting, Poison, Bug, Grass, and Fairy-type moves. While being Cliff's weakest Pokemon, the most powerful counters against Grimer are:

Cliff's Second Pokemon - Venusaur, Crobat, or Machamp

The next Pokemon Cliff sends out introduces a high spike in difficulty compared to his Grimer. He has the option to send out either Venusaur, Crobat, or Machamp.

Venusaur is a dual Grass and Poison-type Pokemon that is weak to Flying, Fire, Psychic, and Ice-type moves. It also resists damage from Fighting, Water, Electric, Fairy, and Grass-type moves. With this in mind, the best counters to use against Venusaur are:

Crobat is a dual Poison and Flying-type Pokemon, making it weak to damage from Rock, Electric, Psychic, and Ice-type moves. For resistances, it can hold up against Ground, Poison, Fairy, Fighting, Bug, and Grass-type moves. The best counters for it are:

Machamp is a pure Fighting-type Pokemon that is weak to Flying, Psychic, and Fairy-type moves. It resists damage from Rock, Bug, and Dark-type moves. Because of this, the best counters in this case are:

Cliff's Final Pokemon - Tyranitar, Charizard, or Arcanine

Cliff's last Pokemon once again has the option of being three different Pokemon. This time the choices are between Tyranitar, Charizard, and Arcanine. All three can provide quite the challenge and take down multiple members of players' parties.

Tyranitar is a dual Rock and Dark-type Pokemon that is weak to Fighting, Ground, Bug, Steel, Water, Grass, and Fairy-type moves. It also resists damage from Normal, Flying, Poison, Ghost, Fire, Dark, and Psychic-type moves. Its Fighting-type weakness is its most important, as Fighting-type moves deal 256% damage onto Tyranitar compared to its other weaknesses that deal 160% damage. With this in mind, the best counters for Tyranitar are:

Charizard is a dual Fire and Flying-type Pokemon that is weak to Rock, Water, and Electric-type moves. Defensively, it resists damage from Ground, Fighting, Steel, Fire, Fairy, Bug, and Grass-type moves. Like Tyranitar, Charizard has a more important weakness compared to its other weaknesses. In this case, it is its Rock-type weakness. Because of this, the best counters against Charizard are:

Finally, Arcanine is a pure Fire-type Pokemon, making it weak to Ground, Rock, and Water-type moves. It also resists Bug, Steel, Fire, Grass, Ice, and Fairy-type moves. The best counters to use against it are:

Pokemon GO is available now for Android and iOS devices.

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