How to beat Arlo in Pokémon GO (January 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 January 2025.

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

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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 Super Rocket Radar.

You can get a Super Rocket Radar in a few ways:

Once you have a Super 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.

Here is the current line up for Arlo in Pokémon GO as of January 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 shuffle just happened as of January 15, so this will be the Arlo line-up for some time.

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.

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 Alolan Grimer is a Dark and Poison-type Pokémon. That makes it weak to Ground-type attacks.

Here are the best Shadow Alolan Grimer counters in Pokémon GO:

The Shadow Alolan Grimer 100% IV Hundo CP is 309 CP or 510 CP if weather boosted.

In the second slot, Arlo can have any of Shadow Gyarados, Shadow Dugtrio or Shadow Slowbro in Pokémon GO as of January 2025.

Shadow Gyarados is 2x weak to Electric-type Pokémon, and also weak to Rock-type moves. It has a 2x resistance to Ground, as well as a resistance to Fighting, Fire, Steel, Bug, Water and Grass-type moves.

Here are the best Shadow Gyarados Counters in Pokémon GO:

Shadow Dugtrio is weak to Water, Grass and Ice-type moves in Pokémon GO.

Here are the best Shadow Dugtrio counters in Pokémon GO:

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:

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

Shadow Metagross is a Steel and Psychic-type Pokémon. That makes it weak to Fire, Ground, Ghost and Dark-type attacks.

Here are the best Shadow Metagross counters in Pokémon GO:

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 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:

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 Alolan Grimer, Shadow Alolan Muk and Shadow Metagross sharing a weakness to Ground-type attacks. 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:

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.