Pokémon Go: Leader Sierra Counters And Weaknesses

While Team GO Rocket's grunts are as easy to beat as the average goon from any antagonist "Team" in the "Pokémon" series, their leaders are in a different league entirely. Unlike the easily out-leveled out-matched likes of Team Magma's Courtney or the Team Flare Admins from "Pokémon X and Y," Team GO Rocket's upper ranks are filled by three trainers who'll put up one heck of a fight every time. Going in unprepared is more often than not going to net you a loss against the menacing Shadow Pokémon with unfairly high CP counts — especially if you think they'll be coming at you with the same team composition each time.

The added difficulty to the Team GO Rocket leader fights is that their lineup changes every time you battle them, chosen from a pool of possible picks that also switch out every other month or so. If you really want to grab that 12km egg or fill out a Research Task on your way to finding and beating Giovanni, you'll need to know how to prepare for each leader's potential loadout. Here's a breakdown of Sierra's counters and weaknesses in "Pokémon Go" for March 2023.

While Sierra doesn't seem to have any one particular type that she favors, her most frequent team members tend to be Dark and/or Psychic types with a preference for Water and Grass types over Fire types, with the exception of her trusty Houndoom and occasionally, Blaziken. As of the Team GO Rocket takeover event of February 1 — and until the next takeover on March 21 — Sierra's potential lineup has consisted of:

• First: Beldum
• Second: Lapras, Sharpedo, Flygon
• Third: Alakazam, Houndoom, Shiftry

The first part of the fight is easy enough to prepare for — as a Steel/Psychic-type, Beldum can be easily taken out with any strong Fire, Ground, Ghost, or Dark-type moves, especially if boosted with a Same-Type-Attack-Bonus (STAB). Since it's impossible to predict which Pokémon you'll be facing next, it's more important to have all your bases covered with your usual group of challenge-ready Pokémon rather than trying to pick the most optimal counters with precision.

Thankfully, a lot of Sierra's Pokémon this time around share a type weakness, giving you plenty of room to plan a team that can account for any one of them with a simple switch. The two types to focus on are Fairy and Fighting, both of which are effective against three and four of the six possible Pokémon respectively with a convenient overlap. A Fairy-type can cover Flygon, Sharpedo, and Shiftry, while a Fighting-type can cover Sharpedo and Shiftry as well as Lapras and Houndoom, leaving you with only Beldum and Alakazam to cover with your third Pokémon.

Admittedly, this is a little tricky, as it means you'd be bringing your first Pokémon back in the third fight if you were to get Alakazam — but with the right pick of a High CP Ghost or Dark-type Pokémon like Darkrai, Hoopa, or Chandelure (as well as softening Alakazam up with the rest of your Pokémon), you shouldn't have too much trouble. Alternatively, other strong combinations involving Fighting, Bug, and Electric types can work very well so long as you can account for all of Sierra's Pokémon. The fact that her lineup doesn't change if you re-challenge her after an initial loss helps you set up an even better team for your second attempt.