How to beat Giovanni in Pokémon GO (August 2024)

Giovanni is the closest thing Pokémon GO has to a final boss. He comes armed with a strong team of Pokémon, which you will need the perfect counters in order to defeat. Our guide will help you be prepared for the next time you face Giovanni in Pokémon GO.

There are several Pokémon that Giovanni could use in each of his three slots. We will break down the counters for each opportunity. You might have to fight him once to see what he has, then rematch with the best options for who is on his team.

Giovanni's lineup last changed on August 8th, we have updated this guide to reflect this so you can prepare your team for his latest lineup.

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Perhaps the hardest part of beating Giovanni in Pokémon GO is finding him. The only way to encounter Giovanni is through a Team GO Rocket Special Research quests. The latest of these has just released as part of Adventure Week: Taken Over.

These Special Research quests will see you battling grunts, then defeating each of Cliff, Sierra and Arlo. This will grant you a Super Rocket Radar. Once you equip the Radar, you can locate and fight Giovanni.

You can't get a Super Rocket Radar any other way than via the Special Research quests for Team Rocket.

Giovanni is one of the toughest fights in Pokémon GO. He has very strong Shadow Pokémon. You'll need to choose specific counters that target the weaknesses of his team.

Luckily, Giovanni always starts with the same signature Pokémon. Then, he will choose from a random pool of three for his second 'Mon. Finally, the current legendary Pokémon will be his final pick. This is will be Shadow Cresselia. It has been things like Shadow Kyogre or Shadow Mewtwo in the past.

Shadow Persian is a Normal-type Pokémon. This makes it weak to Fighting-type attacks. You'll want to avoid using Ghost-type Pokémon as these won't be effective here.

Here are some of the best Fighting-type Pokémon to go against Giovanni's Shadow Persian.

For the second Pokémon, Giovanni will use any one of Honchkrow, Kangaskhan and Kingdra. If you have to fight him more than once, this Pokémon won't change. If you completely back out of an encounter, and encounter him a different time it could result in a different one of these three being used.

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

Here are some of the best Shadow Honchkrow counters:

Shadow Kingdra is a Water and Dragon-type Pokémon. That gives it a weakness to Fairy and Dragon-type attacks.

Here are some of the best Shadow Kingdra counters in Pokémon GO:

Shadow Kangaskhan can be awkward take down. This is because it only has one weakness, which is to to Fighting-type attacks. Then it has one 2x resistance to Ghost-type attacks. This can make it difficult to build a team that covers multiple Pokémon in Giovanni's line-up if one of them is Shadow Kangaskhan, it does at least share a weakness with Shadow Persian.

Here are some of the best Shadow Kangaskhan counters:

The third stage of a battle with Giovanni in Pokémon GO will always be against a legendary Pokémon. This is the Pokémon you will be able to catch if you win the battle.

From August 8, Giovanni will have Shadow Cresselia as his final Pokémon. Groudon will no longer be the final encounter for Giovanni.

This will be a very useful Pokémon for PvP, so if you are a big battler, this could well be worth catching. As a Raid Attacker however, Cresselia isn't the best Pokémon to use.

Cresselia is a pure Psychic-type and therefore is best countered by powerful Bug, Ghost or Dark-type Pokémon.

Sometimes, it can be hard to pick an especially strong team to fight Giovanni in Pokémon GO as there can be such different types between all of his potential Pokémon.

However, his current team has a few Pokémon that share types and you can have a pretty good shot at winning the battle first time no matter what his second Pokémon ends up being. Both Persian and Kangaskhan share a fighting type weakness, and two of the three second Pokémon have shared counters too.

One of the best teams to fight Giovanni in Pokémon GO is currently Terrakion, Zekrom and Dawn Wings Necrozma. Terrakion is a great fighting type Pokémon, with the best stats in the game for a non-mega. He will blast through Persian and hangaskhan. Dawn Wings Necrozma will counter Shadow Cresselia, but also is strong enough to perform well against other Pokémon.

Then, Zekrom, ideally with two Charged moves, is a great choice. It counters several of the Pokémon that Giovanni can have, with both Dragon and Electric-type moves in its locker.

Don't forget that Windy Weather can increase the IVs of the Shadow Cresselia you encounter.

This team should give you a great chance at beating Giovanni in Pokémon GO. You can always tweak your team if needed after seeing what Pokémon he has.

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