How to beat Sierra in Pokemon Go (April 2024): Best counters & weaknesses

❘ Updated: 2024-03-20T15:38:53

Niantic/The Pokemon Company

Sierra is one of the most challenging Team Go Rocket Leaders in Pokemon Go, so here’s all you need to know about her complete lineup for April 2024, including strategies, weaknesses, and best counters to beat her powerful Shadow team.

After Pokemon Go players get the Rocket Radar, they can face one of the Team Go Rocket Leaders: Cliff, Arlo, or Sierra. These three villainous NPCs change their Pokemon every few months to throw trainers off-guard, so knowing their lineup beforehand is crucial to making quick work of them.

Here are all the details about Leader Sierra’s April 2024 lineup of Shadow Pokemon, starting from the World of Wonders: Taken Over event, with details on her weaknesses and the best Pokemon Go team to win the battle.

How to beat Sierra in Pokemon Go
How to beat Sierra’s Trapinch in Pokemon Go
How to counter Sierra’s Sableye, Honchkrow, or Milotic in Pokemon Go
How to counter Sierra’s Houndoom, Alakazam, or Victreebel in Pokemon Go
Best team to defeat Sierra in Pokemon Go

How to beat Sierra in Pokemon Go

pokemon go team go rocket leaders promo image

Sierra is the most unpredictable Team Go Rocket Leader.

You can beat Sierra in Pokemon Go by using counters that deal super-effective damage and prompt her to use shields as soon as possible.

Here’s the complete lineup of Team Go Rocket Leader Sierra:

First Battle: Trapinch
Second Battle: Sableye / Milotic / Honchkrow
Third Battle: Alakazam / Houndoom / Victreebel

To beat Sierra, you’ll have to make sure that you have Pokemon that can provide different resistances and super-effective attacks against most of these opponents.

How to counter Sierra’s Trapinch in Pokemon Go

pokemon go team rocket leader sierra shadow trapinc

Shadow Trapinch can decrease your Pokemon’s Defense with Sand Tomb or Crunch, so be careful.

Trapinch is a Ground-type Pokemon, which means it’s weak to Grass, Ice, and Water-type moves. It’s also resistant to Electric, Poison, and Rock-type attacks, so be careful who you pick for this fight.

We recommend picking counters that can be effective in more than one fight against Sierra’s team. With that in mind, here are some of the best counters to defeat Trapinch:

Glaceon with Ice Shard and Avalanche.
Mega Sceptile with Fury Cutter and Leaf Blade.
Mamoswine with Powder Snow and Avalanche.
Greninja with Water Shuriken and Hydro Cannon.
Mega Gyarados with Waterfall and Crunch.

How to counter Sierra’s Sableye, Honchkrow, or Milotic in Pokemon Go

Team Go Rocket Leader Sierra’s got a lot of variety in her latest lineup.

Sableye

Sableye is a dual Dark and Ghost-type Pokemon, which means it’s only weak against Fairy-type moves. It’s also resistant to Normal, Psychic, Fighting, and Poison-type attacks, so be careful who you pick for this fight.

Since Fairy-type attacks have an advantage against Sableye, we recommend picking Pokemon of those types. With that in mind, here are some of the best counters to defeat Sableye:

Gardevoir with Charm and Dazzling Gleam.
Togekiss with Charm and Dazzling Gleam.
Xerneas with Geomancy and Moonblast.
Sylveon with Charm and Dazzling Gleam.
Primarina with Charm and Moonblast.

Honchkrow

Honchkrow is a Dark/Flying-type Pokemon, meaning it’s weak against Electric, Fairy, Ice, and Rock-type attacks. It will resist Ground, Psychic, Dark, Ghost, and Dark-type moves.

Shadow Honchkrow can surprise you with a Psychic-type attack, so you should stick to the basics.

Some of the best counters to take Honchkrow down are listed below:

Rampardos with Smack Down and Rock Slide.
Mega Diancie with Rock Throw and Rock Slide.
Rhyperior with Smack Down and Rock Wrecker.
Mega Tyranitar with Smack Down and Stone Edge.
Gardevoir with Charm and Dazzling Gleam.

Milotic

Milotic is a pure Water-type Pokemon, which means it’s only weak against Electric and Grass-type moves. This Pokemon is resistant to Fire, Ice, Steel, and Water-type attacks, so you shouldn’t have much problem with your picks.

Here are some of the best counters to defeat Milotic:

Mega Sceptile with Fury Cutter and Leaf Blade.
Kartana with Razor Leaf and Leaf Blade.
Shadow Raikou with Thunder Shock and Wild Charge.
Xurkitree with Thunder Shock and Discharge.
Electivire with Thunder Shock and Wild Charge.
Magnezone with Spark and Wild Charge.

How to counter Sierra’s Houndoom, Alakazam, or Victreebel in Pokemon Go

Any of these three will be a challenge.

Houndoom

As a dual Fire and Dark-type Pokemon, Houndoom is weak against Fighting, Ground, Rock, and Water-type attacks. It’s resistant to Ghost, Steel, Fire, Grass, Psychic, Ice, and Dark-type moves, so be careful with your pick.

Fighting-type Pokemon are your safest bet, but you can also go with not-so-obvious choices, relying on powerful Water-types.

These are some of the best counters to choose from:

Lucario with Counter and Power-Up Punch.
Machamp with Counter and Close Combat.
Conkeldurr with Counter and Dynamic Punch.
Kyogre with Waterfall and Surf.
Primarina with Charm and Hydro Pump.
Tyranitar with Smack Down and Stone Edge.

Alakazam

Alakazam is a pure Psychic-type Pokemon, meaning its only weaknesses are Bug, Dark, and Ghost-type attacks. Luckily, it only resists Fighting and Psychic-type moves.

Exploiting Alakazam’s weaknesses when you face Sierra in Pokemon Go can be a little tricky, so here are some useful counters to beat it:

Mega Tyranitar with Bite and Brutal Swing.
Mega Gengar with Lick and Shadow Ball.
Chandelure with Hex and Shadow Ball.
Mega Banette with Shadow Claw and Shadow Ball.
Mega Houndoom with Snarl and Foul Play.

Victreebel

Victreebel is a dual Grass and Poison-type Pokemon, so it’s weak to Fire, Flying, Ice, and Psychic-type attacks. Its list of resistances includes Grass, Electric, Fairy, Fighting, and Water-type moves.

Here are some of the best counters to defeat Victreebel:

Mewtwo with Psycho Cut and Psystrike.
Baxcalibur with Ice Fang and Avalanche.
Rayquaza with Air Slash and Dragon Ascent.
Reshiram with Fire Fang and Fusion Flare.
Yveltal with Gust and Oblivion Wing.
Moltres with Wing Attack and Sky Attack.

Best team to defeat Sierra in Pokemon Go

The best team to defeat Sierra is Mega Sceptile, Togekiss, and Mewtwo. Alternatively, you can replace Mewtwo with a Dark or Ghost-type Pokemon so Alakazam isn’t a problem for you.

You should note that Mega Sceptile with its high Attack stat of 320 and spammy Bug and Grass-type moves is the top counter to battle Sierra, so it’s a great lead to use that can potentially sweep her entire team as well.

That’s all you need to know to beat Leader Sierra’s April 2024 lineup. For more Pokemon Go content, check out our other guides: