Pokemon GO Cliff counters and lineup Crown Clash Taken Over (May 2025)

The Pokemon GO Cliff counters for May 2025 will help you take down this GO Rocket boss after his lineup changes with the start of the Crown Clash Taken Over event on May 14, 2025. He now has Shadow Gible as the lead, which can be encountered in its shiny form for the first time after you beat it.

Cliff's Crown Clash team contains creatures that don't share too many weaknesses. However, some patterns can be drawn. Based on that, here are the best components for the Pokemon GO Cliff May 2025 lineup:

• Two Fairy-type with Fairy moves
• One Electric-type with Electric-type moves

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Best team and strategy to beat Cliff in Pokemon GO (May 2025)

Sportskeeda Gaming's pick of the best team to counter Cliff in Pokemon GO is as follows:

Mega Gardevoir with Charm, Triple Axel, and Dazzling Gleam

Lead with Mega Gardevoir and Charm down Shadow Gible. Try to get off one Triple Axel before Gible faints. If Cliff sends out Skarmory after this, quickly switch into Magnezone. Anything else he uses can be easily handled by Mega Gardevoir.

Magnezone with Volt Switch, Mirror Shot, and Wild Charge

Magnezone can farm down Skarmory by using shields. At this stage, get Cliff's shields out of the way using Mirror Shot. DO NOT use Wild Charge while shields are up.

Xerneas with Geomancy, Moonblast, and Close Combat

Close out the battle with Xerneas. Gible, Annihilape, Honchkrow, Tyranitar, and Machamp are all weak to Fairy damage. Most of them will get one shot by a high-level Xerneas' Moonblast. Zacian with Quick Attack, Play Rough, and Wild Charge is also an equally good option.

We discuss more about Cliff's counters and Pokemon lineup below.

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Pokemon GO Cliff May 2025 (Crown Clash Taken Over) team

Pokemon GO Cliff May 2025 team (Image via TPC)

The following is the Pokemon GO Cliff May 2025:

Phase 1	Phase 2	Phase 3
Shadow Gible	Shadow Annihilape	Shadow Machamp
	Shadow Honchkrow	Shadow Tyranitar
	Shadow Skarmory	Shadow Luxray

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How to beat the Pokemon GO Cliff team in Pokemon GO

Lead with Mega Gardevoir and try to get a Triple Axel off as early as possible. This will not only get the first shield from Cliff but also give you an Attack boost. After that a combination of a Fairy- and an Electric-type creature will easily knock out the rest of Cliff's team. As always, try to eke out the two shields as quickly as possible and switch to type counters when necessary.

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Best counters against Pokemon GO Cliff

If you don't have the required creatures to make the best team against Cliff, use the following lists as metrics to build your own team:

Best Fairy-type counters against Cliff's May 2025 team: Effective against Gible, Annihilape, Honchkrow, Tyranitar, Machamp, and Luxray

Pokemon	Fast Move	Charged Move(s)
Mega/Shadow/Regular Gardevoir	Charm	Dazzling Gleam and Triple Axel
Incarnate Forme Enamorus	Fairy Wind	Dazzling Gleam
Tapu Lele	Astonish	Nature's Madness
Zacian	Quick Attack	Play Rough and Wild Charge
Xerneas	Geomancy	Moonblast and Thunder
Togekiss	Charm	Dazzling Gleam and Flamethrower
Sylveon	Charm	Moonblast and Thunder
Hatterene	Charm	Dazzling Gleam
Primarna	Charm	Disarming Voice and Hydro Cannon

Best Electric-type counters against Cliff's May 2025 team: Effective against Annihilape, Honchkrow, Tyranitar, Machamp, and Skarmory

Pokemon	Fast Move	Charged Move
Shadow Magnezone	Spark	Wild Charge
Shadow/Regular Raikou	Thunder Shock	Wild Charge
Xurkitree	Thunder Shock	Power Whip
Zekrom	Charge Beam	Fusion Bolt
Shadow Electivire	Thunder Shock	Wild Charge
Shadow Zapdos	Thunder Shock	Thunderbolt

Shiny Shadow Gible is one of the most chase-worthy creatures to be added as part of the Crown Clash event, so Cliff is a TGR leader you'd want to farm.

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In other news, Azelf raids, Mesprit raids, and Uxie raids are also available right now.

You can also check out the other GO Rocket Leader guides:

• Giovanni: How to beat, weaknesses, and counters
• Sierra: How to beat, weaknesses, and counters
• Arlo: How to beat, weaknesses, and counters