How to battle a Challenger in Pokemon Go: All lineups & rewards

❘ Updated: 2022-08-18T11:42:33

Challengers appearing in Pokemon Go with their lineups

Niantic

Challengers are appearing at PokeStops in Pokemon Go to celebrate the World Championships event, so we’ve got details of their lineups and the rewards you can earn for defeating them.

The 2022 World Championships event has begun in Pokemon Go, bringing loads of exciting features including Timed Research, a new costumed Pikachu, and Zacian & Zamazenta returning to Raids.

There are also a new set of Challengers starting to pop up at PokeStops. These NPCs use powerful teams of Pokemon that you’ll need to defeat in order to complete Research tasks and unlock rewards.

To help you take down these Challengers in Pokemon Go, we’ve included details of how to battle them, the lineups they might use, as well as the rewards you can earn below.

Challengers provide a difficult battle. Are you up to the task?

How to battle a Challenger in Pokemon Go

Challengers are NPCs that will take over random PokeStops and challenge you to a battle if you interact with them. They work in a similar way to the Team Go Rocket Grunts that you’ve probably encountered before.

Each of these Challengers will have a random Pokemon lineup based on the teams used by Trainers who won the Pokemon Go Regional Championships, so you know you’re in for a difficult battle if you try to defeat them!

Challengers will appear during the World Championships event which runs from August 18 at 10AM until August 23 at 8PM local time. You can spot a Challenger from a distance by looking out for a PokeStop that’s shaking.

This is what the Eccentric Challenger looks like.

Pokemon Go Challenger lineups

Here are all of the Challengers and the Pokemon they can use in battle:

Challenger	Pokemon #1	Pokemon #2	Pokemon #3
Ambitious Challenger	Araquanid, Obstagoon, Swampert or Trevenant	Alolan Ninetales, Nidoqueen, Registeel or Walrein	Greedent, Sableye, Swampert or Talonflame
Confident Challenger	Diggersby, Scrafty, Swampert or Walrein	Mandibuzz, Nidoqueen, Trevenant or Walrein	Cresselia, Deoxys (Defense) or Lickitung
Eager Challenger	Medicham or Nidoqueen	Lickitung or Sableye	Swampert or Walrein
Eccentric Challenger	Sableye, Sirfetch’d, or Walrein	Lickitung or Walrein	Registeel or Talonflame
Novice Challenger	Sableye or Trevenant	Alolan Ninetales or Azumarill	Galarian Stunfisk or Obstagoon
Slick Challenger	Azumarill or Walrein	Medicham or Sableye	Registeel or Trevenant

It appears that each Challenger has a variety of Pokemon they can send into battle, so you won’t always be able to predict their lineups. There is some crossover between Challengers though which could help.

The table above features Pokemon we’ve seen in our own Challenger battles as well as those reported by the Silph Road community on Reddit. We’ll keep the table updated as more lineups are discovered.

Rewards for defeating Challengers in Pokemon Go

This is what the Confident Challenger looks like.

If you manage to defeat a Challenger in Pokemon Go, you’ll be rewarded with a bundle of random (but useful) items including Poke Balls, Potions, Berries, and Stardust.

Battling Challengers will also help you complete the World Championships Timed Research quest. If you battle five Challengers, you’ll be able to unlock two rare items: the Elite Fast TM and Elite Charged TM.

That’s everything you need to know about battling Challengers! Visit our Pokemon Go home page or check out our World Championships event guide for more.