Team GO Leader Cliff returns to unchanged line-up from March 2025.
You earn rewards for defeating all the three Leaders, Cliff, Arlo and Sierra, in April 2025, but the main incentive is a showdown with Team GO Boss Giovanni. To be able to face him you first have to defeat all three, with Cliff providing a tough test. He remains the brute force of Team GO Rocket and his team matches that, featuring a number of Fighting- and Ground-type Pokémon.
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Cliff's Lineup & Counters (April 2025)
No Changes For April 2025
Cliff's line-up last changed in February as part of the Fashion Week event, but has stayed the same for April 2025. This means that he will continue to lead every battle with Generation 1 Ground-type Cubone. His second and third Pokémon will always be one out of three, but this will change for every separate battle.
His second Pokémon could be Cubone's evolved form, Ground-type Marowak, Fighting-type Machoke, or Fighting- and Ghost-type Annihilape. He will then finish the battle with one of Poison- and Flying- type Crobat, Rock- and Dark-type Tyranitar or Fighting-type Machamp.
Wave |
Pokémon and Type |
Weakness |
Best Counters |
|---|---|---|---|
1 |
(Shadow) Cubone - Ground |
Grass, Ice, Water |
|
2 |
(Shadow) Machoke - Fighting |
Fairy, Flying, Psychic |
|
2 |
(Shadow) Marowak - Ground |
Grass, Ice, Water |
|
2 |
(Shadow) Annihilape - Fighting and Ghost |
Fairy, Flying, Ghost and Psychic |
|
3 |
(Shadow) Crobat - Poison and Flying |
Electric, Ice, Psychic, Rock |
|
3 |
(Shadow) Tyranitar - Rock and Dark |
Fighting, Bug, Fairy, Grass, Ground, Steel, Water |
|
3 |
(Shadow) Machamp - Fighting |
Fairy, Flying, Psychic |
|
From my experience against Cliff's current line-up, the best team to counter it is Mamoswine, Xerneas and Mewtwo. Due to featuring a lot of Fighting-type or Ground-type Pokémon, you only need a couple of types of your own to be super-effective against his whole team. It is best to always start against Cliff with an Ice-type as it is super effective against his opening Pokémon Cubone, which can quickly be beaten by Mamoswine. It is also super-effective against Marowak and Crobat if he decides to use them.
Picking one of the best Fairy-types will be super-effective against the remaining potential Pokémon that Cliff can use. Xerneas remains the strongest of them, but Togekiss can also do a job if required. Whichever one you choose has a type advantage over Machoke, Annihilape, Tyranitar and Machamp.
Due to the strength of his team, it is best to select a third Pokémon, that can be switched in if needed to finish him off.
You can use a second Fairy-type or instead opt for a Psychic-type for your final Pokémon. Mewtwo is the best possible Psychic Pokémon and can be switched in to dominate the majority of Cliff's team, being super-effective against Machoke, Annihilape, Crobat and Machamp.
Rewards For Beating Cliff (April 2025)
A Shadow Encounter Awaits
Once you have defeated Team GO Leader Cliff, you receive a host of different rewards, from Pokémon encounters to items and rare eggs, making it worthwhile for you to try to defeat him in April 2025.
Your first reward will be an encounter with Shadow Cubone, his first Pokémon that he uses in battle.
More important than the encounter, if you have space in your egg storage, you will receive the strange red 12km egg. Once you have walked the required distance with it, it can hatch into some of the rarest Pokémon on offer, with those available changing depending on the in game Pokémon GO season.
Pokémon GO: Stunning Styles Event Guide
The Stunning Styles event features a host of bonuses for trainers to make the event worthwhile in Pokémon GO, including the debut of Paldean Tauros.
In addition, you will also receive several items to add to your in-game bag. These are chosen at random, but will be out of, an Unova Stone, 4x Max Potions, 4x Max Revives, 4x Hyper Potions, 4x Revives. While most of these can commonly be found at PokéStops, the Unova Stone rarely appears regularly in Pokémon GO. It can evolve certain Pokémon from the Unova region, so it can be a worthwhile item to get. Cliff's line-up remains unchanged and can be easily defeated by using Ice- and Fairy-types in Pokémon GO.
