While Pokémon Go might be a fun-to-play, casual open-world game, there is a story and quite a few boss battles in the game for those in its community that enjoy a challenge.
That being as it may, Giovanni is the final boss of Team Go Rocket and is one of the toughest opponents to beat in Pokemon Go. This guide will take you through how to find him, how to challenge him, and eventually how to beat him, along with how to counter and defend against all of his Pokemon.
How to find Giovanni in Pokemon Go?
Giovanni is the final boss of Team Go Rocket in Pokemon Go, and that means that you can't just go and find him randomly in the world. To be able to find Giovanni you need to fulfill a certain set of conditions and defeat certain members of Team Go Rocket. This can be divided into six total steps.
- First, you have to complete the mission set known as A Troubling Situation. All in all, this requires you to evolve two Pokemon, power up five Pokemon using Stardust, catch two Shadow Pokemon, defeat three Team Go Rocket grunts, purify three Shadow Pokemon, and finally, purify a fire/water/grass type Shadow Pokemon.
- After completing the above steps, you will unlock the Looming in the Shadows special research missions.
- When you've unlocked Looming in the Shadows, you will have to defeat three Team Go Rocket minions/grunts and six different PokeStops to be able to acquire six of the "Mysterious Components". These will then help you unlock the Team Rocket Radar.
- With the newly built Team Rocket Radar, you can now hunt down and defeat all three of the Team Go Rocket Leaders. Once they have been defeated at three individual PokeStops, they will drop the Super Team Rocket Radar
- When you have the Super Team Rocket Radar, you can use it to track down Giovanni on PokeStops. You will run into a few clones pretending to be him first, before running into the real Giovanni himself.
Before you can actually go about beating Giovanni, it is important to research him and know which Pokemon he will be using.
What is Giovanni’s Pokemon team?
Giovanni is a variable boss in Pokemon Go, which means that depending on when you encounter him, his team of Pokemon can change. Despite this, it is always his second Pokemon that changes.
Giovanni's team can be from any one of the following options.
- Persian, Nidoking, Shadow Latios
- Persian, Rhyperior, Shadow Latios
- Persian, Machamp, Shadow Latios
While the teams seem similar, the problem lies with the second phase of Pokemon always changing. It is impossible to predict which Pokemon he will choose, which means that having an all-encompassing team absolutely necessary.That was the easy bit. Now comes the real challenge of defeating him.
How to beat Giovanni in Pokemon Go?
Now that you have found Giovanni and found out what Pokemon he could potentially use against you, it's time that you prepare to beat him. To do this, you have to learn what Pokemon can counter his Pokemon's attacks, and what your ideal team should be.
First Pokemon
Persian is a cat-type Pokemon and is the evolution of the famous Meowth from the Pokemon TV show. Other than this, Persian is Normal-type Pokemon that is weak to Fighting-type Pokemon. This means that quite a few Pokemon can counter Persian as long as they have Fighting-type attacks likeCounter and Dynamic Punch.
Here is a list of Pokemon that can counter Persian, along with the ideal moves that they should have equipped.
- Lucario (Counter and Aura Sphere)
- Hariyama (Counter and Dynamic Punch)
- Machamp(Counter and Dynamic Punch)
- Breloom (Counter and Dynamic Punch)
- Conkeldurr(Counter and Dynamic Punch)
Second Pokemon
This phase is the trickiest part of fighting Giovanni, mainly because of how players are unable to predict what Pokemon he will bring to battle. The trick here is to account for all the Pokemon that he could potentially bring.
Nidoking
Nidoking has been a challenging Pokemon to fight and tame, given that he is a hybrid between the Poison and Ground types. And while that does imply that Nidoking is weak against attacks from Psychic and Water-type Pokemons, in Pokemon Go, it depends entirely on the attacks that Giovanni's Nidoking has.
For that reason, we recommend bringing these Pokemon to fight Nidoking:
- Kyogre
- Mewtwo
- Glaceon
- Swampert
Rhyperior
This Pokemon is a hybrid of the Ground and Rock types, and because of that is easily damaged by Water-type Pokemon and Grass-type Pokemon. Additionally, this also means that any and all Grass and Water-type Pokemon take significantly lower damage against Rhyperior.
This means that the ideal Pokemon to fight him are:
- Kyogre
- Swampert
- Feraligatr
- Zarude
Machamp
This Pokemon is a fan favorite from the Pokemon show, and inside Pokemon Go. Easily enough though, he is a Fighting-type Pokemon who is immune to Fairy and Flying types of Pokemon. This means that the safest options to use against Machamp are Psychic-type Pokemon consisting of the following:
- Mewtwo
- Togekiss
- Gardevoir
- Metagross
- Alakazam
Third Pokemon
While phase two of fighting Giovanni is definitely the trickiest to deal with, it's actually phase 3 that is the hardest battle of them all. Giovanni's Shadow Latios is a force to be reckoned with.
Shadow Latios is a Dragon/Psychic type Pokemon with the ability to use attacks from both types. That being said, if Pokemon lore has taught us anything, it's that the best counter to a Dragon-type Pokemon is another Dragon-type Pokemon. That's why our recommendations for the final phase of the Giovanni fight include:
- Dragonite
- Dialga
- Palkia
- Giratina
- Sylveon
What team should I use to fight Giovanni?
In summary, there are two ideal team setups that should make beating Giovanni in Pokemon Go a breeze.
- Giratina, Lucario, and Mewtwo
or
- Kyogre, Dialga, and Sylveon
Good luck trainers, and do your best. Giovanni should tremble before you with your newfound knowledge.
