Pokémon Go Team Rocket: How to find Team Rocket PokéStops and everything we know about Invasions

How to find Team Rocket in Pokémon Go

First of all, you need to be Trainer Level 8 and above for Team Rocket to appear in your game.

Team Rocket appear at PokéStops that have been Invaded. These PokéStops appear different to regular ones - with a slight darker appearance that twitches erratically.

Can't see any Team Rocket PokéStops? They are rare, at least on the feature's debut.

Early reports suggest they only appear for 30 minutes at a time without warning (thanks meier-andersen on reddit for confirming).

As such, it's worth regularly keeping an eye on your map view for any suspicious looking PokéStops. These Team Rocket PokéStops should appear for all other players in the vicinity, so if you're part of a WhatsApp group or Discord, be sure to share their arrival with others.

When you get close enough, the Team Rocket logo will appear above the PokéStops, as well as a Team Rocket Grunt that's housed there.

How Team Go Rocket Invasions and Team Rocket battles work in Pokémon Go

Interacting with Team Rocket PokéStops works as follows:

1. Team Go Rocket will invade a PokéStop for 30 minutes at a time.
2. Approach the PokéStop, and you'll be able to battle the Grunt by tapping them in a Trainer Battle.
3. If you defeat the Team Rocket Grunt's team of Shadow Pokémon, the Grunt will abandon one of them.
4. You'll have the opportunity to catch this Shadow Pokémon.
5. If caught, you get to keep the Shadow Pokémon, and can then Purify them.

Battling Team Go Rocket is similar to Trainer Battles, and each Team Go Rocket Grunt will be assigned a Pokémon type. You'll know this ahead of time in their choice of dialogue. For example:

• "These waters are treacherous!" - Water-type encounter
• "Do you know how hot Pokemon fire breath can get?" - Fire-type encounter
• "Don't tangle with us!" - Grass-type encounter

Meanwhile, catching Shadow Pokémon works in a similar way to Raids, with a limited number of Premier Balls at your disposal for you to use.

Pokémon Go Team Go Rocket rewards

With the battle over, you'll be given 500 Stardust, as well as the opportunity to catch the Shadow Pokémon.

The Shadow Pokémon is first one you fought as part of your Grunt encounter.

To catch the creature, you'll receive a base number of Premier Balls (5) and then bonus PokéBalls will be rewarded on a number of factors:

• How many of your Pokémon survive the Trainer Battle
• Your Purify Pokémon medal rank
• Your Defeat Team Rocket medal rank

The catch rate is the equivalent of those during raids (a change made a couple of days after the feature launched) so if you're struggling, getting those extra medal rank will help.

If you run out of balls, then you'll have to defeat the Grunt again for another chance at catching the Shadow Pokémon.

Once you have the Pokémon, it'll be added to your collection, and has a number of different stat and move differences. Our Shadow Pokémon and how to Purify Shadow Pokémon them page explains everything you need to know about this process.

The Season of Timeless Travels has arrived in Pokémon Go! The Along the Routes event is here, bringing Gift Exchange and the A Route to New Friendships quest with it. During it, take the time to try out Routes and Party Play while you're hunting down rare Pokémon, fighting in the Go Battle League or competing in PokéStop Showcases.

What else you need to know about Team Go Rocket and Invasions in Pokémon Go

Above are the essentials of how Invasions and Team Rocket work in the game, but there are lots of other smaller details to note:

Encountering Team Rocket in Pokémon Go

• Though you can only fight the Team Rocket Grunt once at a specific PokéStop, there is no limit to the number of Grunts you can fight in a day.
• There is no restriction on how close Team Rocket PokéStop encounters can be - with reports showing PokéStops next to each other can have Grunts spawn there. Keep your eyes peeled - you might get lucky!
• Unlike Raid encounters, there is no limit to the time of day Team Rocket encounters can spawn, and so can appear in the night and early hours.
• If you back out of the Grunt encounter, it will disappear, according to early reports. It's unknown whether this is a bug or intended, but if you plan to fight, make sure you commit to it!

Team Rocket Medals

• Two new medals are available as part of the Team Go Rocket update, which track the following stats. The higher their tiers, the more Premier Balls you'll then receive during the Shadow Pokémon catching phase:
• Purifier: Purify [X amount of] Shadow Pokémon.
• Hero: Defeat [X amount of] Team Go Rocket Grunts.

What else is coming soon to the Team Rocket and Invasions feature in Pokémon Go?

• Dataminers (such as Kelven91 on reddit) have uncovered two quests - which will be released alongside the Team Go Rocket Invasion update at some point, joining Jump-Start Research and the other Special Research Tasks. These will be named:
• Battle Team Rocket
• Purify Pokémon
• Finally, the datamines also revealed something named the Route Marker. The name of this item suggests it'll mark a route on the in-game map, and could be used in conjunction with the introduction of Team Go Rocket PokeStops. Beyond that, that's all we know!