How to Beat Cliff in Pokemon GO (April 2026): Best Counters and Lineup

Team GO Rocket Leaders are the main pillars of GO Rocket. If you found the grunts challenging, then the leaders might be a bit too much. Sierra, Arlo, and Cliff in Pokemon GO are the Rocket Leaders you’ll face if you want to make your way to the boss, Giovanni.

Defeating Cliff isn’t an easy feat, as his shadow Pokemon can almost one-shot your team. To help you out, we have made a complete guide on how you can beat Cliff in Pokemon GO.

Updated with new information on April 1, 2026.

Pokemon GO Cliff Lineup in April 2026

Cliff in Pokemon GO uses three different Pokemon across the three phases. Similar to Trainer Battles you need to beat them all to defeat him. His Phase 1 Pokemon will be the same during every encounter, but he’ll use any one of the three Pokemon in Phase 2 and Phase 3. Here’s a list of the Pokemon that Cliff uses in his April 2026 lineup:

Phase	Pokemon 1	Pokemon 2	Pokemon 3
1	Shadow Magikarp	Nil	Nil
2	Shadow Honchkrow	Shadow Skarmory	Shadow Annihilape
3	Shadow Tyranitar	Shadow Machamp	Shadow Luxray

Cliff’s lineup changes whenever there’s a new Team GO Rocket Takeover event. He follows the same lineup in April 2026 that was introduced during the Precious Pals event.

How to Easily Beat Cliff in Pokemon GO

To defeat Cliff, you need to note his lineup’s weaknesses and resistances and make a strategy based on it. You can do so by learning about type matchups from our Pokemon Type Chart. Make sure that you bring your best team that can counter his entire lineup.

Shadow Magikarp will be the first Pokemon that Cliff uses in his lineup. The second and the third Pokemon are randomly chosen from the pool of three we’ve mentioned. To help you, we have listed some points that you must keep in mind when challenging him:

• Similar to GO Battle matches, Cliff uses two shields to block your first two moves. Try making him use them as quickly as you can.
• Start with a Pokemon that has a high Fast Move damage during the first round, and a low energy cost Charged Attack. This way, you can spam charged moves to break shield quickly.
• Now, swap out, and bring out your ace Pokemon.
• After using a Charge Attack or switching out, Cliff follows a 3-second cooldown. Use this trick to avoid taking damage and prevent your Pokemon from being knocked out.

Cliff Phase 1: Shadow Magikarp Counters

Shadow Magikarp is a pure Water type Pokemon that Cliff brings out first against you. It is weak against Electric and Grass moves and resistant to Water, Fire, Ice, and Steel attacks. But it is the easiest one to defeat, and you can bring any Pokemon you like. Consider bringing in any of the best counters we have listed below:

Pokemon	Fast Move	Charged Move
Regieliki	Lock on	Thunder Cage
Mega Sceptile	Fury Cutter	Leaf Blade
Mega Lucario	Counter / Force Palm	Aura Sphere / Power‑Up Punch
Therian Thundurus	Volt Switch	Wildbolt Storm
Electivire	Thunder Shock	Wild Charge

Bringing a good Electric, Fighting, or Grass-type Pokemon is the main strategy to clear this phase easily.

Pro Tip:

Using a Pokemon with a low-cost Charged Attack is highly recommended to destroy Cliff’s shields. You can even consider relying only on Fast Moves to defeat Shadow Magikarp and exhaust shields in the next phase.

Cliff Phase 2: Shadow Honchkrow / Shadow Skarmory/ Shadow Annihilape Counters

Now we will follow the same strategy for all the Pokemon that Cliff uses in Phase 2. Try to bring your best Pokemon matching their weaknesses, while also generating a lot of energy.

Shadow Honchkrow Counters

Shadow Honchkrow is a Dark and Flying-type Pokemon. This makes it weaker to Rock, Electric, Ice, and Fairy moves and strong against Ghost, Grass, Dark, Ground, and Psychic moves. Here are the best possible counters for it:

Pokemon	Fast Move	Charged Move
White Kyurem	Ice Fang	Ice Burn
Black Kyurem	Dragon Tail	Freeze Shock
Mega or Non-Mega Gardevoir	Charm	Triple Axel
Shadow or Non-Shadow Mamoswine	Powder Snow	Avalanche
Rhyperior	Smack Down	Rock Wrecker

Shadow Annihilape Counters

Shadow Annihilape is a Fighting/Ghost-type Pokemon, making it weak against Ghost, Psychic, Fairy, and Flying moves. Aditionally, it is resistant against Poison, Rock, Bug, Normal, and Fighting.

Pokemon	Fast Move	Charged Move
Mega Rayquaza	Air Slash	Dragon Ascent
Necrozma	Shadow Claw	Moongeist Beam
Shadow or Non-Shadow Mewtwo	Psycho Cut	Psystrike
Mega Gengar	Shadow Claw	Shadow Punch
Mega Gardevoir	Confusion	Triple Axle

Shadow Skarmory Counters

Shadow Skarmory can be a bit difficult to deal with due to its less weaknesses and more resistances. This pokemon is weak against Electric and Fire-type moves, and resistant to Normal, Psychic, Steel, Fairy, Bug, Grass, Ground, Dragon, Poison, and Flying.

Pokemon	Fast Move	Charged Move
Mega Charizard Y	Fire Spin	Blast Burn
Xurkitree	Thunder Shock	Discharge
Reshiram	Fire Fang	Fusion Flare
Zekrom	Charge Beam	Fusion Bolt
Shadow or Non-Shadow Heatran	Fire Spin	Flamethrower

Normal Pokemon and Mega Evolutions have higher defense compared to shadow Pokemon. However, Shadow Pokemon deal bonus Shadow damage. That’s why you need to be strategic about the Pokemon you want to use.

Cliff Phase 3: Shadow Tyranitar, Shadow Machamp and Shadow Luxray Counters

The strategy for Phase 3 will be the same as Phase 2. Make sure that you stick to the Pokemon that match its weaknesses or can counter them using similar moves.

Shadow Tyranitar Counters

Shadow Tyranitar is a Rock/Dark-type Pokemon making it weak to Bug, Fairy, Fighting, Grass, Ground, Steel, and Water-type attacks. Below, we have listed the best Pokemon that can counter it.

Counter Pokemon	Fast Move	Charged Move(s)
Non-Mega or Mega Lucario	Counter / Force Palm	Aura Sphere / Power‑Up Punch
Shadow or Non-Shadow Machamp	Counter	Close Combat / Dynamic Punch
Conkeldurr	Counter	Dynamic Punch
Mega Pinsir	Fury Cutter	X-Scissor
Terrakion	Double Kick	Sacred Sword

Shadow Machamp Counters

Shadow Machamp is a fighting type that makes it extremely vulnerable to Psychic, Fairy, and Flying-type moves, and resistant to Dark, Bug, and Rock moves. Focus on Pokemon that can maintain consistent damage output while dealing super-effective damage.

Pokemon	Fast Move	Charged Move
Mega Rayquaza	Air Slash	Dragon Ascent
Shadow or Non-shadow Mewtwo	Psycho Cut	Psystrike
Mega Gardevoir	Charm	Dazzling Gleam
Crowned Sword Zacian	Air Slash	Behemoth Blade
Mega Salamence	Dragon Tail	Fly

Shadow Luxray Counters

Luxray is an Electric-type Pokémon. This makes it weak against only Ground-type moves, and resist Flying, Electric, and Steel.

Pokemon	Fast Move	Charged Move
Primal Groudon	Mud Shot	Precipice Blades
Mega Garchomp	Mud Shot	Earth Power
Therian Form Landorus	Mud Shot	Sandsear Storm
Mega Swampert	Mud Shot	Earthquake
Shadow or Non-Shadow Excadrill	Mud Shot	Scorching Sands

Where to Find Cliff in Pokemon GO

Finding Cliff in Pokemon GO is easier than it may seem. First, you need to collect six Mysterious Components. You can find them by defeating the regular GO Rocket Grunts that you can find. Each grunt, when defeated, gives you one component. Once you have all six, they’ll automatically combine to form a Rocket Radar.

After activating the Radar, check the mini map for the nearby PokeStops or wait for Team GO Rocket balloons. Unlike Giovanni, who uses decoys to hide, Cliff can be easily found with a 1/3 chance of encounter rate.

After defeating Cliff in Pokemon GO, your Rocket Radar will disappear, but if you win, then the item will be retained in your inventory. Remember that you won’t get any extra Mysterious Components if you already have one Rocket Radar in your bag. However, you can stack more than one Rocket Radar from different research.

Best Pokemon GO Team to Beat Cliff

The best that you can use to defeat Cliff in Pokemon GO comprises Regieliki, Primal Groudon, and Mewtwo. You can get these Pokemon by defeating Raid Bosses.

Regieliki or any other Pokemon can counter Shadow Magikarp, as Magikarp does little to no damage. You can even use Regieliki for Phase 2, which is filled with Flying Pokemon. Stack up your Charged attacks from Phase 1 and spam them in Phase 2 and 3 strategically. You can counter Skarmory and Honchkrow with your Regieliki. It can deal super-effective damage to both of them with its electric moves and almost one-hit KO. Annihilape is like a glass cannon, so almost any neutral hard-hitting move works on it.

For the final phase, Primal Groudon will be your saviour, as it can do super-effective damage to Tyranitar and Luxray, while resisting their moves. We have Mewtwo in our team to counter Machamp, with its Psychic moves. Mewtwo can also be a flexible option, with its variable moveset, which you can TM according to your needs.

All Pokemon GO Cliff Bosses Difficulty Ranked

Cliff in Team GO Rocket has had a variety of lineups ever since the debut of Team GO Rocket. Swampert was the most difficult one, and Magikarp was the easiest of all. After looking at the stats, moveset, and other factors of Cliff’s past lineups, we have made a list of Pokemon, ranked based on difficulty from toughest to easiest.

• Swampert (Toughest)
• Dusknoir
• Machamp
• Gyarados
• Regice
• Articuno
• Cradily
• Mamoswine
• Infernape
• Camerupt
• Charizard
• Luxray
• Arcanine
• Crobat
• Tyranitar
• Torterra
• Sharpedo
• Aerodactyl
• Magikarp (Easiest)

Once you have defeated Cliff in Pokemon GO, a selection of reward bundles, including the chance to encounter his Phase 1 Shadow Pokemon will be given. Here’s a list of all the rewards and items you can get:

• 1,000 Stardust
• A chance to catch Shadow Magikarp (with a 1/64 shiny rate)
• Two random reward bundles from:
  • 4 Revives
  • 2 Max Revives
  • 4 Hyper Potions
  • 2 Max Potions
  • 1 Unova Stone
  • 1 Strange Egg (12km)

That’s everything you needed to know to beat Leader Cliff in Pokemon GO. Were you able to defeat him on the first go? Let us know in the comments.