How to battle a Challenger in Pokemon Go: All lineups & rewards
Challengers appear at PokeStops in Pokemon Go to celebrate the World Championship event, so we’ve got details on their lineups and the best counters to beat them.
The 2022 World Championship Event has begun in Pokémon Go, bringing a host of exciting features including Timed Research, a new costumed Pikachu, and Zacian & Zamazenta returning to Raids.
There’s also a new set of challengers appearing at PokeStops. These NPCs deploy powerful teams of Pokémon that you must defeat to complete research tasks and unlock rewards.
To help you defeat these challengers in Pokemon Go, we’ve included details below on how to fight them, the setups they could use, as well as the rewards you can earn.
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Challengers offer a difficult fight. Are you up to the task?
How to fight a challenger in Pokemon Go
are challengers NPCs that will take over random PokeStops and challenge you to a fight if you interact with them. They work similarly to Team Go Rocket’s Grunts, which you’ve likely encountered before.
Each of these challengers will have a randomized Pokemon lineup based on the teams used by trainers that have won the Pokemon Go Regional Championships, so you know you’re in for a tough battle if you try to beat them !
Challengers will appear during the World Championship event, which expires August 18 at 10 a.m. to August 23 at 8 p.m local time. You can spot a challenger from afar by keeping an eye out for a wobbling PokeStop.
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This is what the Eccentric Challenger looks like.
Pokemon Go Challenger Lineups
Here are all the challengers and the Pokémon that can use them in battle:
It seems that every challenger has a variety of Pokemon to send into battle, so you can’t always predict their lineups. However, there is some overlap between the challengers that might be helpful.
The table above shows Pokémon we’ve seen in our own Challenger battles, as well as those reported by the Silph Road community on Reddit. We will update the table as more lineups are discovered.
Rewards for defeating challengers in Pokemon Go
If you manage to defeat a challenger in Pokemon Go, you’ll be rewarded with a bunch of random (but useful) items, including one Pokeballs, potions, berries and stardust.
Fighting challengers will also help you complete the World Championships Timed Research quest. By fighting five challengers you can unlock two rare items: Elite Fast TM and Elite Charged TM.
That’s all you need to know about fighting challengers! Visit our Pokemon Go homepage or check out our World Championships Event Guide to learn more.