Pokemon Go Leader Cliff counters and team (October 2023)

Unless you've got a stacked collection, you'll want to know the best Pokemon Go Cliff counters before you take the big man on. Leader Cliff is a brute, with a team of Pokemon matching his raw strength and brawn, which makes the right strategy backed up with the right Pokemon essential to taking him down.

Read on to learn how to build your team to defeat Cliff's own. Like the rest of the Team Go Rocket Leaders, Cliff changes up his team slightly with each new Rocket-focused event. Because some of his Pokemon stick around, though, some of the best counters will last for years at a time.

Cliff's team in Pokemon GO (October 2023)

For 2023, Cliff has opted to use Aerodactyl as his starter and battle reward. Fight through that and you'll have to contend with either Slowking, Gallade, or Cradily. When he's backed into a corner, Cliff will rely on Tyranitar, Mamoswime, or Dusknoir to clutch the win.

Counters for Cliff's first Pokemon

Aerodactyl

Aerodactyl won't take much of a beating from Ground-type moves, and it'll struggle to deal much damage to Ground-type Pokemon. That's your opening. For a backup, come at it with Electric-type Pokemon to punch through its Steel shell. Ice works, too. Just reconsider Flying-type ones like Charizard and Moltres.

Counters for Cliff's second Pokemon

Slowking

Being a dual Water/Psychic-type Pokemon, Slowking neutralises a few common weaknesses between the two, and its bulk makes it tricky to push through without some strong Charged Attacks.

To deal with it, try Bug/Dark-type creatures like Gengar and Tryanitar, or powerful Ghost-type attackers like Zekrom.

Gallade

Gallade brings high attack to the fight, but it won't be using many moves to upset the types you'll want to bring to this fight.

Those Flying-type moves used against Gardevoir will work wonders, but its potential Flying-type moves will hurt your Bug attackers. In their place, powerful Ghost-type Pokemon like Giratina or Xurkitree will work.

Cradily

We don't know what it is about fossils that the Go Rocket leaders like so much this time, but here's another. Cradily is a bulky Pokemon with a powerful fast move, so you'll want to burst it down with Charged Attacks, specifically Bug and Ice-type attacks.

Counters for Cliff's third Pokemon

Tyranitar

Shadow Tyranitar is weak to Fighting, Fairy, Ground, Bug, Steel, Water and Grass-type moves. Here's a list of Pokémon and their moves that counter Tyranitar.

Tyranitar is especially weak to Fighting-type Pokémon, making a bunch of classic raid bosses perfect Pokémon GO Cliff counters. Lucario stands out as a way to burn Cliff's shields.

Despite being shielded, Power-up Punches will buff your Counter and shred through Tyranitar's defences in no time. Tyranitar has a lot of other weaknesses, but we'd target Fighting-types for the added damage boost.

Mamoswine

Mamoswine is a slow attacker that'll crunch right through any of the Electric-type Pokemon you brought along for the ride. It won't take kindly to Fighting, Fire, or Grass-types, so look there for counters.

Prime candidates would be the ever-reliable Metagross and Hydreigon, but Reshiram, Terrakion, and Kartana can stand up to it.

Dusknoir

Dusknoir will fall over with a single use of Earthquake in most cases. If you're bringing a Tyranitar, Hydreigon, or Darkrai with that especially potent charged attack, you'll be laughing away with your Shadow Aerodactyl as soon as you see Cliff pull this one out.

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How do I battle Cliff in Pokemon Go?

To encounter any Team Rocket Leader, you have to defeat six Rocket Grunts. Grunts can be found by interacting with black PokeStops or hot air balloons floating above you on the map.

• Check out: How to get Kecleon in Pokemon Go

Defeat six of them to earn Mysterious Components, then combine them into a Rocket Radar. The radar will lead you to one of the elusive Rocket Leaders.

For more Pokemon Go guides, we have the same for each of the Team Go Rocket leaders, so check out our Sierra counters, Arlo counters, and the best Giovanni counters, too. He's coming back with a new shadow legendary Pokemon you'll want to grab before he disappears.