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Giovanni’s team had a refresh in Pokémon Go following the arrival of the early 2026 "Precious Pals: Taken Over" event.
As it stands in January 2025, following an update rolled out on Jan. 23, Giovanni’s team sees several possibilities, including a finale against Thundurus, the latest legendary to see the Shadow treatment.
For those who want to catch Shadow Thundurus, try to get it done sooner rather than later, as there will likely be another Team Rocket refresh in coming months that’ll swap out the legendary for a new one.
However, know that whenever you face Giovanni, he’s a tough opponent to battle, and this page will list out his current team and counters if you’re having trouble.
Team Go Rocket boss Giovanni is typically only available to battle while completing Team Go Rocket Special Research. We get a new set of this type of research every few months, typically with a new Shadow legendary Pokémon as a reward at the very end.
From mid-January 2026, this quest is "Precious Pals: Taken Over."
As part of the quest, after beating all three Team Go Rocket leaders, you’ll get a Super Rocket Radar, allowing you to hunt down Giovanni.
Just like the leaders, Giovanni will appear in Team Go Rocket balloons or at taken over PokéStops with the Super Rocket Radar equipped. He won’t often be in the first that you encounter — there will be decoy grunts along the way — but keep trying and Giovanni will appear.
Once you find him and use the radar, you can battle him as many times as it takes to beat him — as long as you’re within distance of the PokéStop — which is great, because he is typically a pretty tough battle.
Currently, Giovanni will have the following team:
You’ll kind of notice that if you bring a fighting-type, a grass-type, and a ground-type Pokémon, you should be mostly set to counter Giovanni this time around due to some nicely shared counters across his team. Not too shabby! For Thundurus, you'll want ice- or rock-type moves. We list some options for you below.
Because there are fewer potential party options for Giovanni than there are for the Rocket leaders, he’s actually easier to plan against, even if his Pokémon are much stronger. You will need to bring the strongest Pokémon you have, in addition to your A-game in order to take him down.
For Persian, bring a fighting-type Pokémon, such as:
If he uses Kangaskhan during the second encounter, consider fighting-types such as:
(Yes, these are the same Pokémon from the recommended list for Persian. You can bring two if Persian ends up taking one of them out.)
If he uses Rhyperior during the second encounter, consider grass-types such as:
If he uses Nidoking as his second Pokémon, you can use water-, grass-, or ground-types like:
For the final encounter against Thundurus, we recommend using an ice- or rock-type Pokémon, such as:
As with fighting the leaders, Giovanni will block the first two charged attacks with shields. As such, you’ll ideally want a fighting-type that can chip away at Persian’s health, while also having charged moves to destroy these two shields as fast as possible. From there, it’s a case of switching to the counters which suit the line-up that follows.
After defeating Giovanni, you will get to catch whichever Shadow legendary appears in the final encounter. It’s a guaranteed catch, so don’t forget to use a Pinap Berry to score some extra candy.
Finally, know that winning against Giovanni is an efficient way of earning Shadow Shards for Purified Gems, with each battle rewarding four Shards — enough to make one Gem.
Correction (Sept. 16): The wrong typing was listed for Kangaskhan in a previous version of this guide. This has been fixed.
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