As always, taking the time to find and battle Team GO Rocket is a great way for Pokemon GO trainers to earn some encounters with valuable Shadow Pokemon. This can be useful for quests or tasks on occasion but can also just be valuable for building up a versatile collection. That usually means challenging all of the Team GO Rocket leaders as well, including Cliff.
This month, Cliff is bringing a pretty familiar lineup, so trainers who battled the boss in recent weeks will find that some of the same counter strategies will go a long way. Before entering the battle, take some time to study these counters for each of the possible challengers and spend any resources (including Elite TMs) needed to get them ready for an epic battle.
Cliff's September 2022 Lineup
- Bulbasaur
- Crobat, Venusaur, or Omastar
- Tyranitar, Swampert, or Torterra
Bulbasaur Counters
As usual, Cliff likes to kick off the fight with Bulbasaur. This familiar Gen 1 starter is going to be weak to Fire-, Psychic-, Ice-, and Flying-types. That should give players a lot of flexibility in their counter roster selection.
- Darmanitan - Incinerate/Overheat
- Mewtwo - Confusion/Psystrike
- Blaziken - Fire Spin/Blast Burn
- Moltres - Fire Spin/Sky Attack
- Espeon - Confusion/Psychic
Crobat Counters
Crobat is a Flying-/Poison-type, which means trainers will have the best luck if they stick to Electric-, Ice-, Psychic-, and Rock-type counters.
- Mewtwo - Confusion/Psystrike
- Exeggutor - Extrasensory/Psychic
- Glaceon - Ice Shard/Ice Blast
- Zapdos - Thunder Shock/Thunder Bolt
- Raikou - Thunder Shock/Wild Charge
Venusaur Counters
Bulbasaur's final evolution also has a chance to appear in the second slot for Cliff. When that comes up, keep those same weaknesses in mind: Fire-, Ice-, Psychic-, and Flying-type.
- Darmanitan - Incinerate/Overheat
- Mewtwo - Confusion/Psystrike
- Blaziken - Fire Spin/Blast Burn
- Moltres - Fire Spin/Sky Attack
- Espeon - Confusion/Psychic
Omastar Counters
This Rock-/Water-type may throw players off who built a roster all around Poison-type counters. If Omastar appears, trainers will need a Ground-, Electric-, Fighting, or Grass-type to properly counter it.
- Zarude - Vine Whip/Power Whip
- Sceptile - Bullet Seed/Leaf Blade
- Rhyperior - Mud-Slap/Earthquake
- Groudon - Mud Shot/Earthquake
- Torterra - Razor Leaf/Frenzy Plant
Tyranitar Counters
Tyranitar has been a popular Pokemon GO metagame choice since the earliest days of the mobile AR Battle Raid scene, so many trainers have a lot of practice countering this Rock-/Dark-type. The best strategy is to stick to Bug-, Fairy-, Fighting-, Grass-, Ground-, Steel-, or Water-types.
- Blaziken - Counter/Focus Blast
- Kyogre - Waterfall/Surf
- Lucario - Counter/Aura Sphere
- Machamp - Counter/Dynamic Punch
- Conkeldurr - Counter/Dynamic Punch
Swampert Counters
This gets even trickier of Swampert makes an appearance. As a Water-/Ground-type Pokemon, Swampert's only real weakness is going to be Grass-moves.
- Zarude - Vine Whip/Power Whip
- Tangrowth - Vine Whip/Power Whip
- Bellossom Bullet Seed/Leaf Blade
- Torterra - Razor Leaf/Frenzy Plant
- Leafeon - Razor Leaf/Leaf Blade
Torterra Counters
As a Grass-/Ground-type, Torterra has a number of weaknesses that players can rely on. That pairing makes it weak to Ice-, Bug-, Fire-, and Flying-types.
Mamoswine - Powder Snow/Avalanche
- Jynx - Frost Breath/Ice Punch
- Glaceon Frost Breath/Icy Wind
- Lapras - Frost Breath/Ice Beam
- Mewtwo - Confusion/Ice Beam
That should be just about everything trainers need to prepare for the September 2022 fight against Cliff. The fight can be pretty tricky to plan for due to the random element of the second and third lineup slots, but players may need to treat their first attempt as a learning opportunity and then immediately re-enter the fight with a better-customized counter roster in place.
Pokemon GO is available now on mobile devices.