Team GO Rocket Guides
Current Rocket Leaders Lineups
General Strategy
- Giovanni will always shield the first two Charged Moves you use, so make sure they’re cheap since that energy’s getting wasted anyway.
- Resisting is much more important than dealing Super Effective damage, but you should try to do both! Like in normal PvP, having high bulk is generally more helpful than being a glass cannon. It’s hard to race down the leaders, so Pokémon with high survivability are super helpful
- Make full use of Stun Time after passive actions! You get 4 turns after Charged Moves (from you or them), switches, or a Pokémon fainting, which is equivalent to multiple Fast Moves in many cases. Giovanni's Pokemon hit hard, so any time that they’re not smacking you is super valuable! If you can pull it off, Charged Move->4 turns of Fast Moves->Charged Move->4 turns of Fast Moves->Repeat until they’re fainted is a super effective way of taking Giovanni down!
- As a followup to this, consider not leading with your actual first-mon counter! If you want to use a given Pokemon vs Giovanni’s lead Pokemon, then put that Pokemon second. Get 4 turns of free damage (and energy) off with whatever you lead with, then switch into what you actually want to use.
- Giovanni's Pokemon tend to hit hard. Unbelievably hard. Resisting is barely enough, and that means that you will want to shield Charged Moves, basically every single time, if you want your Pokémon to survive.
The most important thing is this, though: don’t be afraid to fail a few times on your way to success! Not giving life lessons here, just for the rocket bosses for now. Because resisting is so important, getting to see what Pokémon they have (and what moves they’re running) can allow you to pick better counters for next time! The Rocket Leaders are, hands down, the most difficult piece of solo endgame content in the game, so definitely don’t feel bad if it takes a few tries.
An Explanation of Stun Time
You may notice that after
- You use a charged move
- They use a charged move
- A Pokémon switches in (be it manually or after fainting)
The AI (Rocket grunts, team leaders, and Rocket leaders) have a short period in which they don't take any actions. We'll be referring to this as Stun Time, and it lasts exactly 4 turns, as previously mentioned.
Turns are the 0.5-second-long intervals into which PvP is broken.
On the 5th turn, the opponent will start their next action (be it a fast move or a charged move). However, if you fire off a charged move on that 5th turn, Stun Time resets, and you don’t take any fast move damage.
You can test this yourself against the team leaders, who perform mechanically identically (especially at Master League, where they also shield your first two moves).
Defeating Giovanni - First Pokémon
Shadow Persian
- Fast Moves: Faint Attack, Scratch
- Charged Moves: Foul Play, Play Rough, Power Gem, Payback
Persian's mono-Normal, which means it's exclusively weak to Fighting. This means that Play Rough is particularly dangerous if you're looking to take it down, but far more important to that is the fact that no one Pokemon in the game is capable of resisting all of Persian's moves. This fact combined with the extremely high offensive power of Giovanni's Pokemon can genuinely make Persian a fairly threatening Pokemon despite its middling reputation, to the point where it's not a horrible idea to scout its moves and choose your opening Pokemon to resist it as best you can.
Example Counters
Defeating Giovanni - Second Pokémon
Shadow Rhyperior
- Fast Moves: Mud Slap, Smack Down
- Charged Moves: Surf, Earthquake, Stone Edge, Skull Bash, Superpower, Breaking Swipe
Shadow Rhyperior is a behemoth of a Pokemon, sporting tremendous bulk, high damage output, and incredibly unpredictable coverage that no one Pokemon can fully resist. These facts make Shadow Rhyperior a particularly threatening Pokemon to face for anyone who's unprepared. Its saving grace is its double-weaknesses to Grass and Water, though neither does a great job of resisting most of Shadow Rhyperior's moves. Add to this the fact that its Fast Moves are both slow and hard-hitting, and the best strategy here may be to bring a Pokemon capbale of quick-spamming Charged moves to rack up some Stun Time, and/or scouting its moves before making a serious effort, as the counters that put in the most work can greatly vary with moveset!
Example Counters
Shadow Nidoking
- Fast Moves: Iron Tail, Poison Jab, Double Kick
- Charged Moves: Earthquake, Megahorn, Sludge Wave, Earthpower, Sand Tomb
Shadow Nidoking has great coverage and power behind it, potentially posing a pretty large threat to many teams. However, its greatest strength is arguably the variance in its moveset, which is a bit betrayed by the fact that much of Shadow Nidoking's moveset can be walled out by some of the big-name Pokemon in the Master League regardless of the combination. Some combos are obviously more threatening than others, but once you know what you're dealing with, Shadow Nidoking isn't horribly difficult to deal with if you bring at least one Pokemon to counter its given moveset.
Example Counters
Shadow Garchomp
- Fast Moves: Dragon Tail, Mud Shot
- Charged Moves: Outrage, Earthquake, Fire Blast, Sand Tomb
Shadow Garchomp is an absolute bruiser of a Pokemon, hitting like a truck and tearing through many of its would-be counters thanks to its powerful Charged Moves and high energy-generating Fast Moves. The one saving grace for this land-shark terror is the fact that its coverage is pretty thin, meaning it is possible to wall it out given the right counters, though anything but the right counters could very well drop pretty quickly to this terror.
Example Counters
Defeating Giovanni - Third Pokémon
Shadow Groudon
- Fast Moves: Dragon Tail, Mud Shot
- Charged Moves: Earthquake, Solar Beam, Fire Blast
Here it is; the one you're here for! Groudon is well known as a power-house Pokemon in the Master League, but here it's lost a few of its most important tools; Precipice Blades and Fire Punch. Without them, Shadow Garchomp is substantially less threatening than it could be, in part due to the high energy cost of all of its Charged Moves, but don't count it out! This is still a Pokemon with two Fast Moves that focus on energy generation, and it's still a titanic Legendary Pokemon that could end your Giovanni run quickly if not prepared for!
