Many players are finding themselves fighting more members of Team GO Rocket than usual duringPokemon GO’s current event. This event additionally has updated parties for both the grunts and admins ofTeam GO Rocketthat can catch some players off guard.
Players who’ve only fought grunts of Team GO Rocket inPokemon GOmay think that the admins won’t be much of a challenge either, but they have a big storm coming. The admins of Team GO Rocket pull no punches and have plenty of powerful Pokemon to back them up.
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One of these admins is Arlo, a dangerous trainer with a specialty in steel-type Pokemon. However, Arlo is willing to use Pokemon outside of his specialty to give type variety to his team.
Like with any other battle, Arlo has a party of three Pokemon. However, there are multiple possibilities for the Pokemon that appear in his second and third party slots. The Pokemon that can appear in his party are:
While his party will change up with different encounters, the party will stay the same if players lose to him and rematch him within the same encounter. This makes planning around his team much easier.
Players should note that they shouldn’t use their Protect Shields right away if they think they can tank through an opponent’s charge move or if their Pokemon is low on health anyway. Players should also attempt to force Arlo to waste his Protect Shields as soon as possible so that charge moves later in the battle aren’t blocked.
Pineco is apure bug-type, making it weak to flying, rock, and fire-type moves. It has a high defense, so players should try to whittle its health down as fast as possible so that it does not waste too much of the player’s time and party’s health. However, the fight will start to get tricky after Pineco is defeated.
Charizard is adual fire and flying-type, making it weak to rock, water, and electric type moves. If players used a rock-type Pokemon or a Pokemon with rock-type moves to take down Pineco, they should stick with it to try and take down Charizard as well.
Another possibility for the second slot is Steelix. It is a dual rock and steel-type, making it weak to fighting, ground, fire, and water-type moves. If players already know that Steelix is coming due to already fighting Arlo in the encounter, using afire-type Pokemonto deal with Pineco, then sticking with it for Steelix is the best plan. Minimizing the amount of switching that needs to be done helps save time and health in the fight.
The trouble really comes if Arlo has Blastoise. Since Blastoise has no shared weaknesses with Pineco, a switch might be necessary to take advantage of type-effectiveness. This could be the time where a switch is necessary so that players have access to eithergrass or electric-type movesto take down this beast of a Pokemon quickly.
When it comes to the third slot, the first possibility is Scizor. This dual bug and steel-type Pokemon is only weak to fire-type moves. If players have gotten the lineup of Pineco, Steelix, and Scizor, they succeeded in getting the best possible lineup involving Scizor due to all of them having a shared weakness to fire. However, this is unlikely.
Scizor is a very dangerous Pokemon with even neutral-damage attacks being capable of causing massive amounts of damage. If players haven’t used their protect shields yet, this fight is the time to use them.
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Salamence is another possibility for the final slot with weaknesses against rock, ice, dragon, and fairy-type moves. A lucky lineup with Salamence would be with Pineco and Charizard due to the shared weakness against rock-types, but that lineup is still rare like the above one.
Being apseudo-legendary Pokemon, Salamence is dangerous to deal with. Like with Scizor, any protect shields that haven’t been used should be used against this Pokemon. With massive amounts of CP and health, players should take advantage of its weaknesses and any charge attacks to take it down before it takes them down.
Finally, Arlo has the chance to haveDragonite. Like with Salamence, it is a pseudo-legendary with a weakness against rock, ice, dragon, and fairy-type moves. The same strategy with dealing with Salamence applies to Dragonite. However, Dragonite has slightly less DPS than Salamence, making it easier to deal with overall.
Overall, the best strategy when going in blind is to have a team consisting of Pokemon that knowfire and rock-type moves. Some of the best fast moves for this include:
Meanwhile, some of the best charge moves for this battle include:
When forming a party against Arlo, there is absolutely no shame in using legendary Pokemon for the fight. This battle will prove to be very difficult for players who aren’t prepared. Some players may even want to lose on purpose during the encounter at first just to gauge what Pokemon to expect in the fight so a proper counterparty can be formed.
Considering type weaknesses, thesefire-type Pokemonare recommended in general for this fight:
For a rock-type Pokemon, these possible party members are recommended:
If players are unfortunate enough to encounter Arlo while he has Blastoise in his party, these Pokemon are recommended to have as backup so that Blastoise doesn’t completely destroy the party:
After defeating Arlo, players will get the chance to rescue either a Shadow Pineco or a Shadow Mawile. Pineco evolves into the dual bug and steel-type, Forretress, which is only weak to fire moves. Mawile is a dual steel and fairy-type that can’t evolve. However, with Mega Evolutions on the way inPokemon GO, it will soon get the ability to Mega Evolve into Mega Mawile. This makes both of these Pokemon great potential teammates if players can purify them.
Pokemon GOis available now on the App Store and Google Play.
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