Rocket hideout spotted so I had my first Rocket Leader fight !

Last night at home I decided to launch the game again at some point to look at the spawns around me, and I wanted to see if the Rocket Radar would perhaps say something different or still say the same thing. My team leader, Blanche, told me that it seemed like there was no activity anymore, that we may have scared them all off and to check back in the morning. That was a different message from what I had been receiving ever since I had made the Rocket Radar. Which was super positive news for me!

Earlier today when I was outside to go to an appointment I launched the game to play a bit on my walk there. I checked the Rocket Radar, and guess what! There was a hideout visible on it! It was near the local park, and I had to walk past there. So I took the road next to the park that would allow me to pass the place the hideout was at.

Once I arrived at the Pokéstop that's on that place on the map, it turned into a Team GO Rocket stop. It'll only turn into a Team GO Rocket stop once you're actually standing next to it. Because of it being a hideout. You may possibly find these without a Rocket Radar, but won't be able to fight the Team Leader, as the Rocket Radar will be used up after you have successfully defeated the Rocket Leader.

I encountered the Team Rocket Leader Arlo at this hideout! I selected a few Pokémon and went into a battle with him. Unfortunately it seemed like I did not pick good Pokémon against his team, with one of my Pokémon fainting really fast. After I lost the battle I decided to continue to my appointment, otherwise I could end up running late, and thought to myself to check on my way back whether or not it would still be there.

When I was close the local park again I checked the Rocket Radar once more, and luckily the hideout was still there. This time I knew what the first two Pokémon were that he would bring, so I formed my team a bit more around that. I did also add in my Groudon as upon defeat it mentioned Steel-type Pokémon which I figured would be his last. My Weavile unfortunately fainted rather fast and after my Tyranitar went down his Crobat was still up, to which my Groudon could hardly do much damage.

Another try I decided to swap out Weavile for Mamoswine, with an Ice-type fast attack as I didn't bother trying to swap it to Rock-type. Once again his Crobat was proving extremely difficult. Blocking 2 of my charge attacks with the 2 shields you can use during battle. Luckily I was able to use one more charged attack before my last Pokémon fainted so I could see his 3rd Pokémon, a Scizor.

Now onto the 4th battle, finally more prepared to tackle his team. I placed Mamoswine first so its Ice-type fast attack could dish out a lot of damage to the Scyther already, saving the Ancient Power to take one of his shields down against Crobat. Mamoswine kept fighting until it went down, letting Tyranitar take its place and force him to use his 2nd shield against my Stone Edge when it was charged up. My next Stone Edge was then finally able to hit the Crobat and take it down as he was now out of shields. Tyranitar fought really hard against Crobat, dealt some damage to Scizor and fainted. Now it was time for Ho-oh to shine. As fast attack it can unfortunately not learn any Fire-type moves, but I simply used its Psychic-type fast attack to charge up my Fire Blast, and once that was charged up I used it to take down his Scizor and secure the victory!

The Shadow Pokémon I was able to capture after the battle is a Scyther. Now that I won, my Rocket Radar was used up. I'll have to fight Team GO Rocket Grunts again now to collect 6 Mysterious Components to make a new Rocket Radar. During the evening when I was going for a Machamp Raid there was a Team GO Rocket Grunt nearby who I defeated, so now I'm at 1/6 Mysterious Components for the next Rocket Radar. This Rocket Grunt had a Porygon and Porygon 2, these were added as possible Shadow Pokémon that they have with them and was my first time seeing them from a Grunt.

Have you fought some Team GO Rocket Leaders already?