The best counters for Arlo in Pokemon GO (September 2021)

According to Niantic, Giovanni is currently missing in Pokemon GO, meaning his Team GO Rocket Leaders will likely step into the void of his absence.

Arlo, one of Team GO Rocket's leading trinity, is one of Giovanni's most capable lieutenants along with Cliff and Sierra. Much like his comrades, Arlo changes the Shadow Pokemon he uses in battle over time, preventing Pokemon GO trainers from easily countering him too often.

However, Arlo's team is still very beatable, and if players use the right Pokemon and moves to counter him, they can win handily before he changes teams again.

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Pokemon GO: Countering Arlo's current team

Arlo's team is somewhat randomized, making counters slightly more difficult to pull off (Image via Niantic).

Although Arlo has a set team, his choice of Pokemon is still somewhat randomized. Each of his Pokemon, except the first, has its own pick percentage. This means some will be seen more than others.

These options can be found below:

First Pokemon

• Venonat (100%)

Second Pokemon

• Manectric (54%)
• Ursaring (25%)
• Crobat (21%)

Third Pokemon

• Scizor (60%)
• Magnezone (21%)
• Vileplume (19%)

Since Arlo changes up his Pokemon GO team in this manner, countering his specific picks can be difficult. However, players can always back out of a fight and re-challenge him if the matchups aren't as desirable as they could be.

Regardless, there are plenty of counters for his entire team, and some of these can be found below:

Countering Arlo's Venonat

• Venonat is as fragile as it is non-threatening in Pokemon GO, and can easily be dispatched by most Pokemon choices. However, using Psychic, Ground, and Flying-type Pokemon moves against this initial opponent should remove it from the fight quickly.

Countering Arlo's Second Pokemon

• The brunt of difficulty of currently facing Arlo in Pokemon GO is found here, where he sports three fairly diverse Pokemon with regards to elemental types. Manectric can be beaten handily by Ground-type moves used by Pokemon such as Donphan, Landorus, Groudon, Garchomp, Excadrill, and Rhyperior.
• Ursaring, being a Normal-type Pokemon, only has one weakness in Fighting-type moves. Hammering away at it with attacks like Dynamic Punch, Counter, Close Combat, and Focus Blast should beat it with some health to spare. Some great Pokemon picks to wield these Fighting-type moves are Lucario, Conkledurr, Machamp, Hariyama, Breloom and Blaziken.
• As a Flying/Poison-type Pokemon, Crobat can be a nuisance. However, it has a total of four weaknesses including Electric, Ice, Psychic, and Rock-type moves and Pokemon. This allows Pokemon GO players a lot of freedom in taking it down. Crobat has a ton of counters, but some top picks include Zekrom, Mewtwo, Manectric, Rampardos, Ampharos, Rhyperior, Galarian Darmanitan, Mamoswine and Abomasnow.

Countering Arlo's Third Pokemon

• All three of Arlo's potential third Pokemon choices have one thing in common: They are weak to Fire-type moves and Pokemon. Bringing a powerful Fire-type Pokemon like Reshiram, Charizard, Arcanine, Heatran, Darmanitan, or Magmortar can seal Arlo's fate. Moves such as Fire Spin, Blast Burn, Fire Fang, Overheat, and Flamethrower should devastate Arlo's third slot Pokemon.

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