Pokemon GO Rocket Guide: Team Leader Line-ups & Best Counters (January 2025)

Conquering Pokémon GO's Team GO Rocket Leaders: Sierra, Arlo, and Cliff

Whether you're focused on research or bolstering your Shadow Pokémon collection, defeating Team GO Rocket Leaders in Pokémon GO can be challenging. Their powerful Shadow Pokémon and ever-shifting lineups make predicting their strategies difficult. This guide provides comprehensive information on each leader, including their current teams (as of January 2025) and effective counter-Pokémon.

Locating Team GO Rocket Leaders

Unlike Grunts, encountering Team GO Rocket Leaders requires a strategic approach. You must first defeat six Rocket Grunts. Each defeated Grunt yields a Mysterious Component. Six components combine to create a Rocket Radar. Grunts appear randomly at PokéStops, and a hot air balloon containing a Grunt spawns every six hours, following you for 20 minutes before disappearing. Once you possess a Rocket Radar, Leaders will replace Grunts at darkened PokéStops and within hot air balloons.

Sierra's January 2025 Team & Counters

Sierra's team presents a varied challenge. Expect Dark, Psychic, and Bug/Poison types.

First Pokémon	Second Pokémon	Third Pokémon
Skorupi Bug/Poison	Sableye Dark/Ghost	Houndoom Dark/Fire
	Steelix Ground/Steel	Nidoqueen Ground/Poison
	Milotic Water	Gardevoir Fairy/Psychic

Effective counters include:

Pokémon	Moves
Terrakion	Smack Down Rock Slide
Gengar	Shadow Claw Shadow Ball
Excadrill	Metal Claw Iron Head

Arlo's January 2025 Team & Counters

Arlo's team for January 2025 features a mix of Flying, Psychic, and Poison types.

First Pokémon	Second Pokémon	Third Pokémon
Alolan Grimer Poison/Dark	Hypno Psychic	Metagross Psychic/Steel
	Charizard Flying/Fire	Scizor Bug/Steel
	Gyarados Flying/Water	Snorlax Normal

Recommended counters:

Pokémon	Moves
Tyranitar	Bite Brutal Swing
Blaziken	Fire Spin Blast Burn
Excadrill	Mud Slap Drill Run

Cliff's January 2025 Team & Counters

Cliff's January 2025 team includes a significant number of Dark-type Pokémon, along with Ground, Flying, and Poison types.

First Pokémon	Second Pokémon	Third Pokémon
Cubone Ground	Venusaur Grass/Poison	Tyranitar Dark/Rock
	Marowak Ground	Obstagoon Dark/Normal
	Aerodactyl Flying/Rock	Crobat Flying/Poison

Top counters:

Pokémon	Moves
Mamoswine	Powder Snow Avalanche
Lucario	Force Palm Aura Sphere
Blaziken	Counter Blast Burn

This guide will be updated as Team GO Rocket Leader lineups change. Pokémon GO is available now on mobile devices. This article was last updated on 1/14/2025.