Arlo: The Former Valor Member Turned Team GO Rocket Leader

He left Team Valor without a word, and resurfaced wearing the other side's uniform. Arlo leads Team GO Rocket alongside Cliff and Sierra, in Pokémon GO. Thick glasses, long hair, a declared fondness for the Flying type: three strokes are enough to sketch him. What makes him interesting lies elsewhere — before commanding Shadow Pokémon, he fought on the same side as Candela.

Contents

• One of the three Team GO Rocket leaders
• Before the Uniform: Team Valor, and Candela
• The Ponyta Field Showdown
• Battling him in game: Rocket Radar and Team GO Rocket Hideouts
• Arlo at a Glance
• Frequently Asked Questions

One of the three Team GO Rocket leaders

Arlo exists only in Pokémon GO. There he holds one of the three command posts of Team GO Rocket, at the same rank as Cliff and Sierra, and his official artwork gives him two instantly recognizable features: long hair and a pair of thick glasses.

He was the last of the three to be introduced to players, in late October 2019. His reappearance comes through a decrypted snapshot from the research of Professor Willow, in which Candela recognizes a face she never expected to see again.

His profile credits him with a preference for the Flying type, and his teams back that up: Scyther, Gyarados, Charizard, Dragonite and Salamence all share the Flying type. The rest of his pool makes up for it with Steel and Psychic types, with Magnezone, Steelix or Gardevoir.

🔥 Black uniform and red logo: see the section dedicated to Team Rocket.

Before the Uniform: Team Valor, and Candela

His file goes back much further than his recruitment. Arlo and Candela once wore the same colors, those of Team Valor, and they were close — close enough that the team leader still speaks of him as a friend to this day.

The break comes shortly after Candela was named head of the team. Arlo leaves overnight, with no explanation and without a trace; his former teammate won't hear the slightest news of him until that photo. She admits she can't understand how someone so close could have gone over to an organization like that.

In early November 2019, he breaks his silence with a message addressed to Candela. In it he spins out a fire metaphor — tamed warmth on one side, a raging blaze on the other — before accusing Candela of taking a place he considered his own. The character's whole motive fits in that one sentence.

The Ponyta Field Showdown

The showdown takes place a few days later, near a field of Ponyta where the two had crossed paths the previous time. Candela arrives prepared: she has built her strategy by combining Professor Willow's advice with the experience of the other team leaders, where her fiery temperament alone would have worked against her.

She sets her conditions before the first throw. She refuses to face Shadow Pokémon and demands the same teams as in their earlier confrontation. Arlo, who had been lying in wait for her in the shadows, accepts the terms — and the exchange kicks off at a brutal pace.

The outcome leaves no room for doubt. Arlo loses two Pokémon without knocking out a single one, gives up before the end and leaves the field: victory goes to Team Valor. Candela then reaches out to him, floating the idea of being on the same team again like in the old days; he rejects it the way you'd turn down charity, invokes his title as leader, and vanishes once again.

Battling him in game: Rocket Radar and Team GO Rocket Hideouts

You don't just run into Arlo around the corner. First you need to assemble a Rocket Radar, then track down a Team GO Rocket Hideout: that's the only place the leader agrees to battle, unlike the Grunts you can push aside everywhere else.

His team fields three Pokémon, but only the first one is fixed — the next two are drawn at random from three possibilities each, which makes it impossible to prepare a single counter. After the win, the player gets a chance to catch that first Shadow Pokémon, with the possibility of it being Shiny.

The documented lineups have followed one another in set windows. Scyther kicks things off in November 2019, Bagon replaces it in late December, then comes Charmander. Behind it, the rotation draws from a stable pool: Gyarados, Crobat, Magnezone, Charizard, Dragonite, Scizor, Blastoise, Steelix, Salamence, Mawile and Gardevoir. These lists describe the feature's early seasons and say nothing about current rotations.

Arlo at a Glance

Frequently Asked Questions

• Who is Arlo in Pokémon GO?
  One of the three leaders of Team GO Rocket, alongside Cliff and Sierra. A man with long hair and thick glasses, whose profile lists a preference for the Flying type.
• How do you battle Arlo?
  You need to get a Rocket Radar, then head to a Team GO Rocket Hideout. There Arlo fields three Shadow Pokémon, and only the first is always the same: the other two are drawn at random from three possibilities each.
• What's the connection between Arlo and Candela?
  They both belonged to Team Valor and were close. Arlo left without warning shortly after Candela became its leader, and she only picked up his trail again when she recognized his face in a decrypted photo from Professor Willow's research.
• Can you catch one of Arlo's Pokémon?
  Yes. After the battle, the first Pokémon on his team can be caught, and it has a chance of being Shiny.
• Where does the name Arlo come from?
  From Old English, where it refers to a hill or a fortified hill. All three Team GO Rocket leaders have names tied to geography, a nod to the geospatial technology Pokémon GO is built on.

In short

Arlo boils down to one simple contrast: a former Valor member who now commands a squad of Shadow Pokémon, and who would rather flee a battle than take the hand his old friend holds out to him. His name extends the in-house joke — an Old English word for hill, or fortified hill. All three leaders are named after landforms, a deliberate nod to the mapping technology that makes the game run.