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One of the strongest Trainers in Pokémon GO you can face is the leader of Team Rocket — Giovanni. This elusive criminal leader takes over various events in the game, taking control of Legendary Pokémon to gain sinister power. In November 2025, you can complete Special Research to challenge Giovanni, whose team only appears when you manage to track him down. Giovanni can only appear if you have access to the "Psychic Spectacular: Taken Over" Special Research tasks available for your Trainer. The Team Rocket leader appears this way once every season of Pokémon GO's event schedule, using a new Legendary each time to change up the challenge his team poses. By getting a Super Rocket Radar through research, you'll be able to find Giovanni right away to face him. Team Rocket Boss Giovanni Lineup & Counters (November 2025) Similar Pokémon But With New Strategies The team that Giovanni has for November 2025 is the same as it was since the last "Taken Over" event, where his team gained Shadow Incarnate Forme Tornadus as its Legendary. This means that former counters you may have used on the Team Rocket boss will still work, but new updates to Pokémon GO may have changed what the best ones are. Just as the rest of the Team Rocket trainers do, Giovanni uses Shadow variants of every Pokémon on his team. These are stronger versions of normal Pokémon, with higher stats and health for you to overcome using members of your team. Mega Evolutions and Shadow Pokémon of your own tend to work best against Giovanni, so make sure you have some powerful members of your roster waiting to head into battle. When facing Giovanni, the battle is divided into three waves. For the first and third waves, Giovanni will always use the same Pokémon, but for the second, he picks one from three potential options on his team. The following table goes over each of Giovanni's Pokémon, their typing and weaknesses, as well as which Pokémon would work best as counters against them: Many of the Pokémon from the best counters here either have Shadow or Mega forms you can use to give yourself a better chance against Giovanni. Much like the battle against Giovanni's October 2025 team, the counters you pick should cover the most type weaknesses of the Team Rocket leader's Pokémon, without opening up risk of them being countered back. A great example team for facing Giovanni might be: Zekrom Swampert Lucario Lucario is an excellent Pokémon to throw out at the start of the Giovanni fight, as it can easily defeat Shadow Persian without risk. Lucario's secondary Steel-typing may be risky to use if Giovanni decides to have Nidoking or Rhyperior in the fight, but if he uses Kangaskhan, Lucario's Fighting-type attacks will make the first two phases easy. Likewise, Swampert is the perfect pick against Giovanni's Ground-types, with Water-type moves that will wash either one away fast. Finally, having a solid Electric type like Zekrom will match a Legendary against a Legendary, with Zekrom's Electric-type attacks dealing super-effective damage to defeat Tornadus without any issue. Rewards For Beating Rocket Boss Giovanni (November 2025) Add An Exciting Pokémon And Several Strong Items To Your Collection Like many battles against Shadow Pokémon, the biggest reward at the end of the Giovanni battle is an opportunity to catch his Incarnate Forme Tornadus, now free from his control. This Flying-type Legendary in Pokémon GO can make an excellent addition to anyone's roster, with strong stats for raids and defending Gyms against other trainers. If you lose to Giovanni, you do not have to complete his Special Research again to build another Super Rocket Radar from scratch. You can challenge the Team Rocket boss as many times as you would like, but your Super Radar goes away after you win. You instantly also get 5,000 Stardust for beating Giovanni, alongside three Item Bundles randomly determined as part of your rewards. Each Item Bundle has a chance to include: 4x Revive 4x Max Revive 4x Hyper Potion 4x Max Potion 1x Unova Stone Any of the Item Bundles can stack too, so you might get 12 Hyper Potions, Max Revives, or 3 Unova Stones if you're lucky. If you want to defeat Giovanni for these rewards, but aren't sure if you can do his Special Research, check the Special Research tab in your menus to see if it is unfinished.
