The Super Rocket Radar Is the Only Way to Battle Giovanni in 'Pokémon GO'

Any Pokémon trainer knows that Team Rocket is the ultimate enemy to face — and an opportunity to take down the group's boss, Giovanni, is a challenge worth embarking on. Unfortunately, it's not as easy as one would hope to face off against these powerful opponents in Pokémon GO, and you'll need the Super Rocket Radar to do it. But how do you get the item that leads you to Giovanni?

Both the Rocket Radar and the Super Rocket Radar will help you track down different members of Team GO Rocket to battle them. There are three different leaders of the team: Arlo, Cliff, and Sierra, and their boss, Giovanni.

The Rocket Radar is obtained by collecting six mysterious components from Team Rocket grunts by defeating them in battle. Once you've collected six, it'll transform into a Rocket Radar, which will direct you to one of the three leaders.

This Rocket Radar will be good until you defeat a leader. You can equip it once it's created and use it to find the leaders at one of your local PokéStops. Once you defeat the leader, though, you'll have to defeat six more grunts to collect the mysterious components to craft another, or you can buy the item in the shop to hunt down another leader without completing more battles.

Unfortunately, the Rocket Radar will not direct you to Giovanni; to battle the Team GO Rocket leader, you'll have to get a Super Rocket Radar, which is a bit trickier to get.

Unfortunately, if you want to battle the Team GO Rocket leader Giovanni, you'll have to get the Super Rocket Radar, which can only be obtained by completing a series of Special Research tasks, including defeating all three Team Rocket leaders. Sometimes, though, beating all three leaders is only one part of the puzzle — in some instances, depending on the season or event going on in-game, you may also have to complete other tasks to get this item.

That being said, once you've completed the necessary research tasks, you'll be rewarded with the Super Rocket Radar, which will lead you directly to the Team GO Rocket headquarters (and Giovanni). Here, you can battle him and his collection of Shadow Pokémon.

Once you've defeated the Boss, you then have a chance to catch the Shadow Legendary Pokémon he has on his team. This changes as well, so check online for Boss's current team lineup.

We have an entire guide on defeating Giovanni if you need help, as he's a difficult opponent to take down, given his collection of extremely powerful Pokémon in his arsenal. Though it'll likely take you a fair amount of time to defeat Giovanni, catching a Shadow Legendary Pokémon will make it worth it, as these are incredibly rare to find.