With April coming to a close, Giovanni is available to fight once more, but you’ll need to be prepared.
Developer Niantic routinely update with new , allowing players to work through new research tasks or take part in seasonal events. This has also included the villains, Team Go Rocket, who have their own line of research and rewards.
You need to put in some work to find boss Giovanni though, as he will only appear once you’ve finished the ‘Special Research’ that is tasked to you. April’s task involves the Silent Schemes storyline, where you will need to progress through 18 different tasks before even getting to meet the crime lord.
These include purifying Pokémon, defeating Team Go Rocket grunts that have invaded, and also defeating the different leaders. Once you’ve completed the tasks you’ll earn a Super Rocket Radar, which will point you towards Giovanni.
How to beat Giovanni’s Persian
The main issue that appears to be hindering players is the Persian in Giovanni’s party. Persian is a normal type pokémon, meaning that you’ll want to go in with a strong fighting-type pokémon like Lucario or Machamp.
Using fast moves will let you get the upper hand here, as this is just phase one of the fight.
As Pokémon Go’s battles only involve three instead of the usual six in the party, this might throw a spanner in the works as you plan.
How to beat Giovanni – phase two
Next, Giovanni might have:
- Honchkrow
- Gyarados
- Rhyperior
These three don’t all have one counter, with only Honchkrow and Gyarados sharing any kind of weakness. Here you’ll want to consider bringing either an electric-type or rock-type pokémon to the battle.
Rhyperior is weak against water and grass, making pokémon like Swampert or Torterra prime choices to include in your squad.
How to beat Giovanni – phase three
The last step is Shadow Latios, which is weak to a wide range of types, including bug, dark, dragon, fairy, ghost, and ice pokémon.
Legendary pokémon might be the way forward here – if you have them – as Dialga, Palkia, and Rayquaza are direct counters. As a word of warning, though, bringing in a dragon pokémon to this fight might set you up for failure, so it might be best to use Gengar, who can use ghost moves.
Once you’ve beaten Giovanni, you’ll also have the chance to catch Shadow Latias, which will only be available from this quest line until Niantic updates the Team Go Rocket research tasks again. Previous rewards included other legendary pokémon, like .
If you lose, you’ll be able to go toe-to-toe with him again with a fresh party, if the first time didn’t work. However, Shadow Latios will not be around forever and with April coming to an end, it might be time to rush through those research tasks you still need to do.
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