Pokemon Go: How to defeat Arlo (October 2020)

Arlo along with his fellow Team GO Rocket leaders are back causing trouble in Pokemon Go. This time he’s unavoidable if you want to catch Shadow Mewtwo. Here are the counters you’ll need to beat Arlo’s October 2020 lineup.

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Team GO Rocket leaders are tough. Tough to the point where if you don’t prepare ahead of the battle, they could end up crushing your team.

They aren’t like the normal Grunts which are often a walk in the park. Despite their overall difficulty, if you have the right Pokemon, they can be beaten with relative ease.

Arlo October 2020 counters

Here’s the Pokemon Arlo can send out as part of his October 2020 lineup:

• 1st Pokemon:
  • Growlithe
• 2nd Pokemon:
  • Blastoise
  • Charizard
  • Steelix
• 3rd Pokemon:
  • Dragonite
  • Salamence
  • Scizor

Growlithe

Growlithe is the only Pokemon that you’ll definitely come across when facing Arlo. The rest have a one in three chance of being selected.

Ground, rock and water are the types of attacks Growlithe is weak to. A rock or water-type ‘mon is a better choice though, due to the iconic puppy Pokemon’s fire-attacks being weak against them.7

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This naturally leaves plenty of counters and you should therefore focus on Arlo’s stronger choices when deciding your team. If you lose the first battle, you’ll then get the big advantage of knowing his Pokemon ahead of time, should you choose to rematch.

One Pokemon that isn’t considered in this matchup, which may well be the best is Giratina. That’s because Giratina’s fast charging Dragon Claw means you can use up Arlo’s Protect Shields early. Additionally, the Gen 4 legend also has the bulk and typing to resist Growlithe’s fire attacks.

Blastoise

As many of you know, Blastoise is a pure water-type Pokemon, meaning it is weak to electric and grass attacks. The Kanto starter isn’t as strong as its reputation suggests, despite its Shadow form, so any strong grass-type Pokemon will work here.

Charizard

We all know how effective Charizard is, especially in the hands of a Team GO Rocket leader. In this instance though, it’s perfect to come up against as its counter overlaps with that of Growlithe.

Water is the obvious choice but Charizard is actually doubly weak to rock-type attacks due to its dual fire and flying-typing. As a result Aerodactyl, Darmanitan, Landorus, Rampardos and Terrakion all fit the bill nicely.

These are specialists however, so think twice before using them outside of there preferred matchups. Rampardos also has poor defense, so be prepared for it not to last long, although it will hit hard while it’s alive.

Steelix

While rock attacks are clearly best to deal with Charizard, selecting a strong water-type Pokemon such as Kyogre or Swampert may be a safer option. That’s because it will give you coverage against Steelix too.

Alternatively, Steelix is weak against fighting, fire and ground. If you’re going into the battle blind, you might want to think twice about rock-type attacks because they’re only 39.1% effective against Steelix. The same can be said for the electric and poison, which will almost certainly result in Steelix dominating you.

Dragonite

We all know how powerful pseudo-legendary dragon-types can be and Dragonite is the OG of these. While Dragonite may be incredibly strong,  it is weak to fellow dragon-type attacks, in addition to fairy, ice and rock.

We can rule out using dragon-types here, as we want to avoid taking extra damage from Dragonite’s dragon-based moves. Ice attacks are most ideal due to it being doubly effective, the only problem is finding strong enough Pokemon.

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Mewtwo with Ice Beam is certainly an option if you have one available and Ice Shard/Ice Beam Lapras is another. If you don’t have either of these, then a strong fairy-type will almost certainly get the job done. Then there is Dialga which despite being a dragon-type itself, isn’t weak to the moves because of its additional steel typing.

Salamence

Salamence has the same weaknesses as Dragonite but has a variety of Fast Moves it can use. This can be problematic because you won’t know what it’ll use until you go into battle.

It has access to Bite, Dragon Tail and Fire Fang. These attacks are effective against psychic, ghost, dragon, grass, ice, bug and steel. So, if you want to play your selection safe, you’ll need a Pokemon that avoids all of these weaknesses.

A few examples of these are Regice, Suicune, Togekiss and Tyranitar. Make sure Suicune is using Ice Fang for a Fast Move, should you choose to use the Johto beast. Another option is the ever-formidable Giratina, just hope Salamence isn’t using Dragon Tail, though.

Scizor

While there is some overlap between Dragonite and Salamence, Scizor is entirely different. It has only one weakness and that is a double one: fire.

Unless Arlo selects Steelix, this fight can be somewhat awkward for the likes of Charizard and Entei as they aren’t effective against his other choices. Fortunately, there is an alternative and that’s Dialga. While Scizor is resistant to Dialga’s dragon attacks, the Temporal Pokemon is also resistant to most of Scizor’s. Unfortunately, you may have to commit to a fire-type when going into the battle blind.

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For the first battle, we’d recommend leading with Giratina. From there you’ll need to select two strong Pokemon with water attacks, dragon attacks or fire attacks.