How to beat Cliff in Pokémon GO (May 2025)

Team GO Rocket Leader Cliff is one of the three Team GO Rocket bosses in the game. The Rocket bosses are a real challenge in Pokémon GO. You'll need a strong team of the best counters in order to beat Cliff in Pokémon GO. Here's the latest information to take on Cliff in May 2025.

We've gathered all the information you need about his most recent line-ups, their weaknesses and the best counters you can use to take them down.

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In order to find Cliff in Pokémon GO, or any of the other Team GO Rocket Leaders, you need a special item to help you track them down. That item is the Rocket Radar.

You can get a Rocket Radar in a few ways:

Once you have a Rocket Radar, pressing on it will bring up a map of nearby Team GO Rocket Leader hideouts. Leaders will also appear in Hot Balloons once your Radar is active too.

You cannot see which Leader is in a Stop or Balloon until you click on it. So, to find the Team GO Rocket Leader you want, you might have to check several.

Here is the current line up for Cliff in Pokémon GO as of May 2025. There are three phases.

Pokémon GO reshuffle the Team GO Rocket Leader lineups whenever there is a Team GO Rocket Takeover event in the game. This has just changed as of May 2025, so this should be the team Cliff has for some time.

In order to beat Cliff in Pokémon GO, you'll need to have a Super Rocket Radar, locate Cliff at a PokéStop or a Team GO Rocket Balloon, and defeat their Pokémon.

Shadow Pokémon do a lot of damage, and Cliff's Pokémon are a lot higher CP than normal Pokémon. You'll need a finely tuned team of strong counters in order to take Cliff down.

In addition, Cliff can have a range of Pokémon, with a different set every time you fight him. Ideally, you want Pokémon that can cover multiple potential Pokémon in Cliff's lineup. Here are all the Pokémon you might face and the best counters to take them on.

For the first Pokémon, this will always be the same Pokémon no matter how many times you take on Cliff. This is also the Pokémon that you will encounter after the battle, with a 1/256 chance of being shiny.

Shadow Gible is a Dragon-type Pokémon. That gives it a weakness to Ice, Dragon and Fairy-type attacks. Here are the best Shadow Gible counters in Pokémon GO:

The Shadow Gible 100% IV Hundo CP is 250 CP or 413 CP if weather boosted.

Shadow Honchkrow is a Flying and Dark-type Pokémon. That gives it a weakness to Electric, Ice, Rock and Fairy-type attacks. Here are the best Shadow Honchkrow counters in Pokémon GO:

Shadow Annihilape is a Fighting and Ghost-type Pokémon. That gives it a weakness to Flying, Psychic, Ghost and Fairy-type attacks. Here are the best Shadow Annihilape counters in Pokémon GO:

Shadow Skarmory is a Flying and Steel-type Pokémon. That gives it a weakness to Fire and Electric-type attacks. Here are the best Shadow Skarmory counters:

Shadow Luxray is an Electric-type Pokémon. That gives it a single weakness to Ground-type attacks. Here are the best Shadow Luxray counters in Pokémon GO:

Shadow Machamp is a Fighting-type Pokémon. That gives it a weakness to Flying, Psychic and Fairy-type attacks. Here are the best Shadow Machamp counters in Pokémon GO:

Shadow Tyranitar is a Rock and Dark-type Pokémon. It has a LOT of weaknesses. Shadow Tyranitar is double weak to Fighting-type attacks, and then also has a weakness to Water, Grass, Ground, Bug, Steel and Fairy-type attacks.

Here are the best Shadow Tyranitar counters in Pokémon GO:

With so many different Pokémon to prepare for, and lots of different combinations it can be hard to find an ideal catch all team. You want to start your battle with a broad team that covers as many of Cliff's potential Pokémon as possible in Pokémon GO.

Helping this is the fact that several Pokémon share weaknesses, including Shadow Gible and Shadow Honchkrow. This means you can pick one Pokémon that covers both of these. This makes building a flexible team to take on Cliff a bit easier. Of course, the beauty of taking on Cliff in Pokémon GO is that if you lose, you can keep your Super Rocket Radar or battle Cliff again. Then, you can adjust your team accordingly.

Here is the best initial team to use when fighting Cliff in Pokémon GO in May 2025:

Now, not all Trainers will have White Kyurem. However, if you do, they make a great counter to a lot of the Pokémon that Cliff currently has in his arsenal.

This should cover most of the Pokémon that Cliff can throw at you in Pokémon GO at the moment. Stay tuned to esports.gg for the latest esports news and more Pokémon GO guides.