Team GO Rocket Guides
Current Rocket Leaders Lineups
Rocket Leader Tips
- The first Shadow Pokemon in a Rocket Leader's lineup is always catchable, and frequently can be shiny.
- Since the first Pokemon in a given leader's lineup is frequently easy to take down, it's often best to just take them down with Fast Moves and farm energy for the second and/or third Pokemon in their lineup.
- While not as strong as Giovanni, many of the Rocket Leaders' Shadow Pokemon hit extremely hard, meaning strong coverage moves can pose a real threat.
- When using a Charged Move or Switching, the rocket leaders will stop attacking for a moment. Abusing this time can make encounters substantially easier, and makes Pokemon with a high energy-generating Fast Move and a low energy cost Charged Move extremely valuable to taking down tough Shadow Pokemon.
Note on Example Counters: Our recommended options will primarily focus on Pokemon that have current utility in the Master League, and generally won't feature Shadow Pokemon in order to not potentially double up on the same basic species (Dragonite + Shadow Dragonite, for example), though many of the Shadow variants of the Pokemon on these lists generally perform just as well as their normal counterparts.
First Pokemon
- Fast Moves: Sucker Punch, Poison Sting, Sand Attack
- Charge Moves: Grass knot, Seed Bomb, Brick Break, Payback, Trailblaze
Shadow Cacnea is not a particularly hard Pokemon to fight, as Dark and Grass both have a number of very prominent weaknesses. Fire, Flying, and Ice are all important types, and the double weakness to Bug can still work wonders despite the type's somewhat underwhelming utility. Regardless, this isn't a hard Pokemon to take down, though Shadow Cacturne isn;t exactly a priority for PvP or PvE metas, so it's probably best to look for a different leader during this rotation.
Example Counters
Second Pokemon
- Fast Moves: Fire Spin, Air Slash
- Charge Moves: Dragon Claw, Fire Blast, Overheat
While it can potentially hit pretty hard, and can pose a genuine threat with Dragon Claw spam, it's also not extremely hard to take down due to its plethora of weaknesses. Just about anything that throws rocks and isn't weak to Fire can make quick work of Charizard, while Rock and Water Types or basically anything that resists Fire can also flat-line it pretty well.
Example Counters
- Fast Moves: Confusion, Zen Headbutt
- Charge Moves: Psychic, Future Sight, Focus Blast, Ice Punch, Thunder Punch, Shadow Ball
Shadow Hypno has the potential to be a threat, as literally no Pokemon in the game can resist its entire Charged Move arsenal. With the right moveset, Shadow Hypno can threaten a number of its would-be counters, but there is definitely some silver-lining. Since Shadow Cacnea is a non-threat of a Pokemon, it's definitely safe to drop a shield on Hypno if you don't manage to flat-line it in time. And even if not, some bulkier Pokemon can power through it without breaking a sweat regardless of moveset, so it's not actually as threatening as it seems.
Example Counters
- Fast Moves: Astonish, Mud Slap
- Charge Moves: Shadow Punch, Dynamic Punch, Earth Power, Poltergeist
Shadow Golurk isn't a huge threat, and may be the easiest of the second-slot trio, depending on your team. While Ghost and Ground are both pervasive types that can be extremely threatening to a number of great Pokemon, they're still pretty easy to get around with counters that also help out with common Pokemon used in raids and/or the Master League.
Example Counters
Third Pokemon
- Fast Moves: Dragon Tail, Steel Wing, Dragon Breath
- Charge Moves: Hurricane, Outrage, Hyper Beam, Dragon Claw, Superpower
If you happen to roll poorly on movesets, then Dragonite can definitely be the final boss of this encounter. In particular, a mix of Dragon Tail and Dragon Claw can lead to rapid charged move spam with high power and good neutral coverage to back it up. However, most of its other moves aren't extremely threatening.
Example Counters
- Fast Moves: Dragon Tail, Fire Fang, Bite
- Charged Moves: Draco Meteor, Hydro Pump, Fire Blast
Shadow Slaamence hits hard, and has better coverage than Dragonite, but it's ultimately less of a threat in most cases.
Example Counters
- Fast Moves: Bullet Punch, Fury Cutter
- Charged Moves: X-Scissor, Iron Head, Night Slash, Trailblaze
Shadow Scizor has a great typing that can help it resist a lot of common power-house Pokemon, and can be a potential issue for many teams... unless you have anything with a single Fire Type move to burn it to the ground. in all seriousness, Shadow Scizor's great typing isn't quite as important as it seems due to its relatively low stats and laundry list of important types that it at least takes neutral damage from, so it's not particularly threatening.
