If you’re powerful enough to defeat him, you’ll receive some great rewards, including the opportunity to capture a legendary Shadow Pokémon, such as Shadow Mewtwo.
Along with Leaders Arlo, Cliff and Sierra, you’ll be facing him as part of the latest special Research story-line Ultra Beast Protection Efforts from November 2022, so now’s a good time to brush up on Giovanni counters.
On this page:
Now that you have the Super Rocket Radar, you can use it to hunt down the leader of Team Go Rocket himself - Giovanni.
The Super Rocket Radar works in a very similar fashion to the Rocket Radars you create by collecting Mysterious Components.
Access your Bag via the main menu and then scroll down till you find the Super Rocket Radar in your inventory. Here you can equip and unequip the Super Rocket Radar whenever you like.
The Super Rocket Radar, however, doesn’t just display the location of Giovanni’s hideout. A number of Grunts disguised as Giovanni will also appear on the radar, all hoping to prevent you from finding their boss.
You’ll have to work your way through these disguised Grunts, until you find the actual PokéStop Giovanni is hiding out in.
Giovanni’s choice of legendary Shadow Pokémon and second party member rotate every month, meaning you will often find yourself battling different Pokémon.
In November 2022, Giovanni was updated with the following line-up:
Persian will always come up first and is weak against fighting, so having a Lucario, Conkeldurr or Machamp are your best bets here.
Since Giovanni’s second choice can be one of three Pokémon, you may need to scout ahead to ensure your team can defeat it. Unlike most Giovanni encounters, there is little crossover between the three possible outcomes of the second Pokémon.
If you are lucky with your fighting-type opener, that’ll be good to take on Steelix. Otherwise, fire, water and ground types work well against - consider the likes of Entei, Kyogre or Garchomp respectively.
If it’s Honchkrow, you’ll want to roll out a strong Fairy, Electric, Ice or Rock type - such as Togekiss, Raikou, Articuno or Tyranitar respectively.
Finally, there’s the mighty Mewtwo. We have a dedicated Mewtwo counters page to help with this, but in short, you’re looking at Ghost, Dark or Bug types - so bring Gengar, Tyranitar, another Mewtwo, and if you’ve been playing Community Day events this year, a powered up Chandelure or Hydreigon will do the trick.
In summary - it’s possible a Mamoswine and a Tyranitar might cover the possiblities for the second and third encounters, but it really depends on what you are up against. Best of luck!
That should cover you for this encounter. In terms of best practices, as with the Leaders Arlo, Cliff and Sierra, when it comes to building a team to fight Giovanni, try to use a Pokémon that will have an advantage over two Pokémon in his team. This will allow you to the use the same Pokémon twice, keeping your choice for the Legendary Shadow Pokémon safe from harm until it’s needed.
It’s also important to remember that, like the previous Team Go Rocket Leaders, Giovanni has two Protect Shields at his disposal - this means a debut Pokémon that has two quick Charged moves and will withstand some damage will set you up nicely for the remaining encounters.
However, these are mostly locked beyond Team Go Rocket quest rewards, which only roll out every few months, alongside a refresh for Giovanni, his Shadow Legendary, and each Team Leader’s lineup.
Super Rocket Radars also drop occasionally in other quests and events - so they might be worth saving until a month where the Shadow Pokémon reward available is one you want to stock up on, such as Shadow Mewtwo.
The Season of Mythical Wishes continues with the Winter Holiday event, which has brought Mega Glalie to Pokémon Go. Don’t forget to partake in the new Go Battle League season.
Elsewhere, be sure to use Daily Adventure Incense for the chance of encountering Galarian Articuno, Galarian Zapdos and Galarian Moltres.
Best of all, however, you’ll be given the opportunity to catch a Legendary Shadow Pokémon.
Every month brings a new Shadow Legendary Pokémon. This means that, if there’s a particular Shadow Legendary Pokémon you want to add to your collection, then you must complete the Team Go Rocket Special Research quest for that month.
Completing The Take-Over Continues in January 2020, for example, would reward you with Shadow Moltres, but, if you completed the same story-line in another month, you’ll find yourself facing a different Shadow Legendary Pokémon.
Here are the Shadow Legendary Pokémon Giovanni has had in his team:
Giovanni Shadow Legendary Pokémon so far:
Shadow Articuno - November 2019 and March 2021 Shadow Zapdos - December 2019, April and June 2021 Shadow Moltres- January 2020 and May 2021 Shadow Raikou - February 2020 Shadow Entei - March to July 2020 Shadow Suicune - July 2020 (as part of the Go Fest Battle celebrations) and from July to October 2020 Shadow Mewtwo - October 2020 Shadow Ho-Oh - June 2021 Shadow Lugia - November 2021 Shadow Latias - April 2022 Shadow Latios - July 2022 Shadow Mewtwo - November 2022
Defeating Giovanni will also help you level up the Ultra Hero medal, which records how many times you’ve defeated the boss of Team Go Rocket. Thanks to Chrales from Twitter, we know what this clothing looks like: As you level up the Ultra Hero medal, you’ll unlock a variety of Giovanni themed clothing for your avatar to wear. Here are the clothing items and medal ranks each piece unlocks at:
Shoes - Silver Badge Level (Defeat Giovanni 5 times) Pants - Silver Badge Level (Defeat Giovanni 5 times) Shirt - Gold Badge Level (Defeat Giovanni 20 times) Gloves - Gold Badge Level (Defeat Giovanni 20 times)
