Dare
With January rolling in, Giovanni returns yet again with a revamp to his special research tasks, rewarding hard-working trainers with a Shadow Moltres. But, is that all there is to it?
The Man Behind the G
Trainers who search for the G Man know that a majority of the time, the PokéStops that show up on the Super Rocket Radar will have a decoy Grunt in place, instead of the big man himself – and for some players, it can be rather frustrating.
Those especially affected by this frustration are those who try to obtain the Shadow Legendary as quickly as they can – often on the first day they are able to battle Big G. However, I must ask, Is it worth getting incredibly annoyed by encountering Decoy’s?
Why the rush?
In truth, there is no benefit in defeating Giovanni, completing the quest line, and obtaining the Shadow Legendary early. Instead, we should be looking at this as an opportunity to work on both your Hero Medal, as well as obtain some sweet, sweet Stardust.
The Decoys that appear on the map are essentially free wins to your Hero Medal count, as well as a sweet 500 Stardust each. If you’re looking for components to put together a Rocket Radar, these decoys are a great way to add to your daily count as well.
Currently, Team GO Rocket battles are often luck based – where players need to either sit, wait, and hope for a PokéStop to be taken over, or to drive around looking for one. But, when you have access to Decoy Grunts, this means that, oftentimes, a significantly larger number of Rocket Stops are available for players each day.
Quick Added Bonus Recap
| Potential Stardust/Hero Medal Count Gains | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1x Per Day | 5x Per Day | 15x Per Day | |||
| Dust | Medal | Dust | Medal | Dust | Medal |
| 500 750 | 1 | 2,500 3,750 | 5 | 7,500 11,250 | 15 |
| 30 Day Totals | |||||
| 1,500 22,500 | 30 | 75,000 112,500 | 150 | 225,000 337,500 | 450 |
| If you battle a TGR Team Leader after every 6 Decoy Battles, you can obtain an extra 5,000/7,500 Stadust if you battle 1x Decoy per day, 25,000/37,500 Stardust if you battle 5xc Decoys per day, and 75,000/112,500 Stardust if you battle 15x Decoys per day. | |||||
| *Numbers in italics represent Stardust totals IF you are running a Starpiece. | |||||
Back to the Benefits of Bailing
Simply by ignoring Giovanni for a good portion of the month, hitting Decoy bases as hard as possible, players can greatly increase their opportunity for dust collection for the month – as long as you don’t forget to take Giovanni down at the end of the month.
To add to all this, Decoy Rocket’s have a comparatively easy, and predictable, lineup – making countering them both easy and cheap. A lineup of Heatran and Lucario/Machamp would often be more than enough to help you with this quick battle.
Decoy Battle Teams
| BELLSPROUT | ||
|---|---|---|
 | ||
| Bellsprout is weak to Fire-, Flying-, Ice-, and Psychic-types, meaning there is a wide variety of counters you can use to take out it. We recommend Mewtwo, Blaziken, and Moltres against Bellsprout. | ||
 |  |  |
| Confusion Psystrike | Fire Spin Blaze Kick | Wing Attack Sky Attack |
| WEEPINBELL | ||
|---|---|---|
 | ||
| Weepingbell has the same weaknesses as Bellsprout, so if you draw it for the second battle you could, in theory, take it out with the same Pokémon you used in the first battle against Bellsprout. | ||
| | |
| Confusion Psystrike | Fire Spin Blaze Kick | Wing Attack Sky Attack |
| RATICATE | ||
|---|---|---|
 | ||
| Raticate is weak to Fighting-types only. As such, we recommend using Lucario, Machamp, or Toxicroak to take down the big rat. | ||
 |  |  |
| Counter PuP | Counter Dy. Punch | Counter Dy. Punch |
| SNORLAX | ||
|---|---|---|
 | ||
| Snorlax is also only weak to Fighting-types, as such, we recommend the same counters as for Raticate, Lucario, Machamp, and Toxicroak | ||
| | |
| Counter PuP | Counter Dy. Punch | Counter Dy. Punch |
| RATICATE | ||
|---|---|---|
| ||
| Wait, didn’t we just fight a rat in the second battle? Well, here is another one. The same counters apply. | ||
| | |
| Counter PuP | Counter Dy. Punch | Counter Dy. Punch |
| *All counters were put together with the help of the GoHub Database. | ||
Don't Forget Giovanni
As a recommendation, we suggest that you claim your Giovanni reward on the last day of your last 7-day streak of the month (for Adventure Sync), with a Starpiece on to maximize the Stardust gains. Keep in mind that Giovanni himself also gives a fair amount of Stardust upon defeating him.
Team GO Rocket Reads
For some additional help with Team GO Rocket Battles, check out our following guides:
