Team Rocket is a constant nuisance in Pokémon GO, with their leaders representing challenges that yield great rewards due to their difficulty. No one embodies that more than Giovanni, the criminal mastermind of Team Rocket whose Pokémon are the strongest, especially a stolen Legendary under his command. For November 2026, you have to assemble a team of perfect counters to overcome Giovanni’s team.
Finding Giovanni is almost as hard as battling him, as you need to assemble the Super Rocket Radar to track down the criminal leader. Completing Special Research and defeating other Team Rocket members will help you find Giovanni, after going through a couple of decoys first. After October 2026 changed Giovanni’s team, Pokémon GO players will have had time to adjust to his challenge for the new month.
Team Rocket Boss Giovanni Lineup & Counters (November 2026)
Choose Pokémon That Best Fit Against Any Match-Up
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Like any other encounter with Team Rocket, Giovanni uses exclusively Shadow Pokémon during the battle, with Shadow Pokémon being stronger variants of what you’d normally fight. Shadow Pokémon in Pokémon GO have higher health and deal more damage, making them just as dangerous as a Mega Evolution or Legendary in some cases. Since Giovanni has a Shadow version of a Legendary Pokémon already, the battle can be tougher than you’d expect.
Multiple events in November 2026 could give you new Pokémon to catch and train for an eventual confrontation with Giovanni. Check out the “Into the Wild” or “Dynamax Trails” this month to see if any new team members catch your eye.
Giovanni’s battle follows a specific structure, consisting of three waves with three different Pokémon for you to face. Similarly, players are only allowed to use three Pokémon for the battle as well, limiting your counters for each match-up. Giovanni’s first and third wave Pokémon are always the same, but his second wave could be one of three possible choices, which are picked at random.
For November 2026, Giovanni uses the following Pokémon, whose weaknesses and best counters are also listed in the table below:
Shadow Rhyperior (Rock/Ground-type)
Ground, Water, Ice, Steel, Grass, Fighting
Shadow Zekrom (Electric/Dragon-type)
- Mega Garchomp
- Black/White Kyurem
- (Shadow) Garchomp
- (Shadow) Haxorus
- Mega Dragonite
You should have at least one Fighting-type for this battle, as that will let you at least deal with Giovanni’s first Pokémon easily. However, this type of Pokémon also could help deal with Giovanni’s Kangaskhan, who is arguably the best Pokémon he has in the second wave. Other types like strong Ice-types in Pokémon GO could help in this battle, as well as Fairy, Psychic, or Water-types as alternate choices.
A great example of a team (that’s easier to build) that could help you counter almost every Pokémon on Giovanni’s team is:
Following Giovanni’s example could help you counter his team, with a Rhyperior of your own being the perfect counter to neutralize Shadow Zekrom’s Electric-type attacks. Although the Dragon-type moves from Zekrom are still deadly, Rhyperior and Lucario’s defensive types could help them resist attacks long enough to take the Legendary down. At the same time, an Alakazam beats Giovanni’s Machamp, while Lucario defeats Giovanni’s own Rhyperior.
Rewards For Beating Rocket Leader Giovanni (November 2026)
Catch Your Own Legendary While Gathering Other Useful Battle Items
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When you take down Giovanni with whatever team you use, you are rewarded with 5,000 Stardust immediately to spend how you please. Yet, the biggest reward from the Giovanni battle is a chance to catch his Shadow Zekrom for yourself, through a free encounter that takes place after the fight. Players may have already caught Shadow Zekrom last month, but they have a chance of getting more Candy for the Pokémon to make one stronger by doing so again.
Players also get three different item bundles for defeating Giovanni, which can stack together to give players a large collection of the same reward. These three random drops mainly consist of strong battle items, making Raid battles or Gym defenses much easier. The item bundles for taking down Giovanni include:
Incoming events for the game may create more opportunities to use these items, including similar battles with Team Rocket in the future. It’s unclear whether another “Taken Over” event will change Giovanni’s team this month, but if it does, the Legendary Pokémon could change in these rewards. For now, November 2026 might be the last chance to get Shadow Zekrom in Pokémon GO, as long as you beat Giovanni using the right team.
Pokemon GO
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