How to Beat Cliff in Pokémon GO (December 2024)

Team Rocket didn’t originally have much in the way of administrators. Back in the Red and Blue days, it was pretty much just Giovanni and a bunch of grunts (and Jessie and James, of course). These days, Giovanni keeps a much more rigidly-defined hierarchy in his organization, and that comes with dangerously competent trainers like Cliff. Here’s how to beat Cliff in Pokémon GO for November 2021.

Part of what makes fighting Cliff so difficult is the extremely wide berth of Pokémon he has at his disposal. While the first phase of his fight will always be against his sidekick Shadow Grimer, the second and third phases have diverse squads of three Pokémon each he can draw from. To make an ideal team, you’re going to need some wide type coverage.

How to Beat Cliff in Pokémon GO (December 2024)

Here are the Pokémon that make up Cliff’s roster:

• Phase One: Shadow Grimer
• Phase Two: Shadow Venusaur, Shadow Crobat, or Shadow Machamp
• Phase Three: Shadow Tyranitar, Shadow Charizard, or Shadow Arcanine

Grimer isn’t a particularly tough customer, but even so, I’d advise packing a strong Psychic type like Mewtwo or Alakazam to oppose it, and the reason is that there’s a good chance it’ll need to pull double duty in phase two.

For phase two, you’re going to want to keep your Psychic type in the fight if Cliff sends out Venusaur or Machamp, as it can keep exploiting weaknesses on those particular Pokémon. If he sends out Crobat, you’ll want a good Rock type like Tyranitar. In fact, you should just make sure a Rock type is on your team no matter what, and I’ll explain why in a moment.

For phase three, all three Pokémon have a weakness to Water type moves, so your third should be a strong Water type like Kyogre or Blastoise. However, in the event Cliff throws out Arcanine, the Water type may not work, as Arcanine may know Thunder Fang. In this case, this is where that Rock type can return to the fray to exploit Arcanine’s weaknesses without putting itself at risk.