How to Beat Cliff in Pokemon GO February 2021

Here's how to beat Cliff in Pokemon GO this February 2021.

Pokemon GO executive Cliff has returned with a new team and a new challenge for trainers liberating captured PokeStops. As part of the leadership of Team GO Rocket, Cliff is no pushover, and can easily become frustrating to battle.

The best tips we have are to make sure your Pokemon are powered-up, of course, and do the best you can to bring down his shields early using Pokemon with a swift charged move build-up. Both of these are crucial with the new increased level cap.

Most importantly, however, trainers should be deeply investing in maintaining their type-advantage over Cliff's team. Below, we've outlined the best choices for such a strategy.

How to Beat Cliff in Pokemon GO February 2021

Cliff has significantly changed his lineup this month. Instead of Omanyte—like the months prior—he will start with Aerodactyl. His second Pokemon will be Cradily, Gallade, and Slowking and his third choice will be Dusknoir, Mamoswine, or Tyranitar. As usual, the counters to his choices somewhat overlap. We've marked these Pokemon with "*" for trainer convenience.

First: Aerodactyl

Aerodactyl is a powerful prehistoric rock and flying-type. This makes it particularly weak to ice, water, steel, electric, and other rock-types. Therefore, its best counters include:

• Mamoswine (Powder Snow + Avalanche)*
• Greninja (Bubble + Surf)
• Aerodactyl (Rock Throw + Rock Slide)
• Swampert (Water Gun + Hydro Pump)

Second: Cradily, Gallade, Slowking

Cradily is another prehistoric Pokemon—this time a grass and rock-type. Its weaknesses include fighting, ice, bug, and steel. Fortunately, there is quite a bit of overlap with this choice, so its best counters are:

• Mamoswine (Powder Snow + Avalanche)*
• Lucario (Counter + Aura Sphere)*
• Aggron (Iron Tail + Heavy Slam)
• Metagross (Bullet Punch + Meteor Mash)

Gallade, the masculine Sinnoh counterpart to Gardevoir, is a psychic and fighting-type with vulnerabilities to fairy, flying, and ghost-types. Again, there is a bit of overlap here, so it's counter choices could be:

• Lucario (Counter + Aura Sphere)*
• Gengar (Lick + Shadow Ball)*
• Chandelure (Hex + Shadow Ball)*
• Mewtwo (Psycho Cut + Shadow Ball)

Slowking is a potential evolution of Slowpoke, obtained via the King's Rock evolutionary item. It is a psychic and water-type, making it vulnerable to ghost, dark, grass, bug, and electric types. It's most effective counter picks are:

• Gengar (Lick/Shadow Claw + Shadow Ball)*
• Chandelure (Hex + Shadow Ball)*
• Darkrai (Snarl + Dark Pulse/Shadow Ball)*
• Cofagrigus (Astonish + Shadow Ball)

Third: Dusknoir, Mamoswine, Tyranitar

Dusknoir is the pure-ghost Sinnoh evolution of Hoenn's Dusclops. It has weaknesses to dark and other ghost-types, making its best counter choices:

• Gengar (Lick/Shadow Claw + Shadow Ball)*
• Chandelure (Hex + Shadow Ball)*
• Darkrai (Snarl + Dark Pulse/Shadow Ball)*
• Weavile (Snarl + Foul Play)

Cliff's Mamoswine is an ice and ground-type with weaknesses to fire, water, grass, fighting, and steel types. Including the obvious choice, its most efficient counters are:

• Lucario (Counter + Aura Sphere)*
• Aggron (Iron Tail + Heavy Slam)*
• Walrein (Waterfall + Water Pulse)
• Conkeldurr (Counter + Dynamic Punch)

Tyranitar is one of the more popular battle choices nowadays as a powerful rock and dark-type. However, all that power has one significant downfall: fighting-types. The best counters for Tyranitar include:

• Lucario (Counter + Aura Sphere)*
• Conkeldurr (Counter + Dynamic Punch)*
• Breloom (Counter + Dynamic Punch)
• Machamp (Counter + Dynamic Punch)

Obviously, any trainers' first choice should be Lucario. It appears in almost every list of effective counters and is rapidly rising to be the most utilized fighting-type in Pokemon GO. A good second choice could be Chandelure or Gengar due to their constant relevance. Finally, the best third choice should be Aggron, or Mamoswine as a way to flesh out the team.