How to beat Arlo in Pokémon GO (May 2025)

Team GO Rocket Leader Arlo 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 Arlo in Pokémon GO in May 2025.

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

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How to find Arlo in Pokémon GO

In order to find Arlo 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:

• Defeating 6 Team GO Rocket Grunts to collect enough Mysterious Components to build one.
• Purchasing a Rocket Radar directly in the in game shop, or as part of a box.
• As a reward for completing Timed and Special Research quest lines.

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 Leader you want, you might have to check several.

Leader Arlo lineup – May 2025

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

• Phase 1: Shadow Horsea
• Phase 2: Shadow Steelix or Shadow Crobat or Shadow Slowbro
• Phase 3: Shadow Alakazam or Shadow Scizor or Shadow Alolan Muk

Pokémon GO reshuffle the Team GO Rocket Leader lineups whenever there is a Team GO Rocket Takeover event in the game. This shuffle just happened as of May 14, so this will be the Arlo line-up for some time.

How to beat Arlo in Pokémon GO (May 2025)

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

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

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

Best Arlo counters in Pokémon GO (May 2025):

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

Shadow Horsea Counters

Shadow Horsea is a Water-type Pokémon. That makes it weak to Grass and Electric-type attacks.

Here are the best Shadow Horsea counters in Pokémon GO:

The Shadow Horsea 100% IV Hundo CP is 238 CP or 392 CP if weather boosted.

Arlo Pokémon GO Counters Phase Two (May 2025):

In the second slot, Arlo can have any of Shadow Steelix , Shadow Crobat or Shadow Slowbro in Pokémon GO as of May 2025.

Shadow Steelix Counters

Shadow Steelix is a Steel and Ground-type and therefore has a weakness to Fire, Water, Fighting and Ground-type attacks in Pokémon GO.

Here are the best Shadow Steelix Counters in Pokémon GO:

Shadow Crobat Counters

Shadow Crobat is weak to Electric, Ice, Psychic and Rock-type moves in Pokémon GO.

Here are the best Shadow Crobat counters in Pokémon GO:

Shadow Slowbro Counters

Shadow Slowbro is a Water and Psychic-type Pokémon. That gives it a weakness to Electric, Grass, Bug, Ghost and Dark-type attacks.

Here are the best Shadow Slowbro counters in Pokémon GO:

Arlo Pokémon GO Counters Phrase Three (May 2025):

In the third and final slot, Arlo can have any of Shadow Alakazam, Shadow Scizor and Shadow Alolan Muk in Pokémon GO. This is the most challenging and powerful phase of Arlo’s team.

Shadow Alakazam Counters

Shadow Alakazam is a Psychic-type Pokémon. That makes it weak to Bug, Ghost and Dark-type attacks.

Here are the best Shadow Alakazam counters in Pokémon GO:

Shadow Scizor Counters

Shadow Scizor has just one weakness, a 2x weakness to Fire-type moves. It double resists Grass and Poison-type attacks, as well as resisting Bug, Dragon, Fairy, Ice, Normal, Steel and Psychic-types.

Shadow Alolan Muk Counters

Shadow Alolan Muk is really hard to take down. It has one weakness, which is to to Ground-type attacks. Here are the best Shadow Alolan Muk counters:

What is the best team to beat Arlo in Pokémon GO? (May 2025)

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 Arlo’s potential Pokémon as possible in Pokémon GO.

This is helped by Shadow Horsea and Shadow Slowbro sharing weaknesses, as well as Shadow Steelix and Shadow Alolan Muk. This helps you build a team that has broad coverage. The beauty of taking on Arlo in Pokémon GO is that if you lose, you can keep your Super Rocket Radar or battle Arlo again.

Here is the best initial team to use when fighting Arlo in Pokémon GO:

• Kartana
• White Kyurem
• Therian Landorus

This should cover most of the Pokémon that Arlo 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.