Pokemon GO Rocket Guide: Team Leader Line-ups & Best Counters (January 2025)

Conquering Team GO Rocket Leaders in Pokémon GO: A January 2025 Guide

Defeating Pokémon GO's Team GO Rocket Leaders – Sierra, Arlo, and Cliff – is crucial for research tasks and acquiring powerful Shadow Pokémon. Their constantly evolving teams, however, present a challenge. This guide provides updated January 2025 team compositions and effective counter strategies for each leader.

Locating Team GO Rocket Leaders

Unlike Grunts, Leaders require strategic effort to find. First, defeat six Rocket Grunts to obtain six Mysterious Components. Combine these to craft a Rocket Radar. Grunts appear randomly at PokéStops, and a hot air balloon containing a Grunt spawns every six hours, following you for 20 minutes. With the Rocket Radar equipped, Leaders replace Grunts at darkened PokéStops and in the balloons.

Sierra's January 2025 Team and Counters

Sierra's January 2025 lineup is diverse, featuring Dark, Psychic, and Bug/Poison types.

First Pokémon	Second Pokémon	Third Pokémon
Skorupi (Bug/Poison)	Sableye (Dark/Ghost)	Houndoom (Dark/Fire)
	Steelix (Ground/Steel)	Nidoqueen (Ground/Poison)
	Milotic (Water)	Gardevoir (Fairy/Psychic)

Effective counters include:

Pokémon	Moves
Terrakion	Smack Down, Rock Slide
Gengar	Shadow Claw, Shadow Ball
Excadrill	Metal Claw, Iron Head

Arlo's January 2025 Team and Counters

Arlo's team for January 2025 features a mix of Flying, Psychic, and Poison types.

First Pokémon	Second Pokémon	Third Pokémon
Alolan Grimer (Poison/Dark)	Hypno (Psychic)	Metagross (Psychic/Steel)
	Charizard (Flying/Fire)	Scizor (Bug/Steel)
	Gyarados (Flying/Water)	Snorlax (Normal)

Prepare for Flying, Psychic, and Poison types with counters such as:

Pokémon	Moves
Tyranitar	Bite, Brutal Swing
Blaziken	Fire Spin, Blast Burn
Excadrill	Mud Slap, Drill Run

Cliff's January 2025 Team and Counters

Cliff's January 2025 team includes several Dark-type Pokémon, along with Ground, Flying, and Poison types.

First Pokémon	Second Pokémon	Third Pokémon
Cubone (Ground)	Venusaur (Grass/Poison)	Tyranitar (Dark/Rock)
	Marowak (Ground)	Obstagoon (Dark/Normal)
	Aerodactyl (Flying/Rock)	Crobat (Flying/Poison)

Strong counters include:

Pokémon	Moves
Mamoswine	Powder Snow, Avalanche
Lucario	Force Palm, Aura Sphere
Blaziken	Counter, Blast Burn

This guide will be updated as Team GO Rocket Leader lineups change. Pokémon GO is available now on mobile devices. Last updated 1/14/2025.