How to battle Fashion Challengers in Pokemon GO

Fashion Challengers are the new adversaries that trainers will have to face during Fashion Week in Pokemon GO.

Fashion Week has definitely been a jam packed event. The release of Furfrou had many trainers going around collecting the different trims. Other Pokemon received very fashionable sprite changes as well, including Sneasel and Kirlia. Many trainers have been looking forward to completing the Timed Research from Fashion Week, but to do that they’ll have to beat Fashion Challengers.

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Trainers will have to beat new opponents for Timed Research in Pokemon GO

Fashion Challengers operate almost like Team GO Rocket Grunts. They spawn at PokeStops, and trainers can battle them by interacting with any PokeStop they are located at.

Defeating Fashion Challengers is part of the Timed Research for Fashion Week. The more Fashion Challengers a trainer defeats, the more XP that trainer gains. The maximum XP a trainer can gain from Fashion Challengers is 5,000 after defeating five challengers.

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Which Pokemon do well against Fashion Challengers?

Furfrou is found on every Fashion Challenger team (Image via Niantic)

All Fashion Challengers have similar teams. They each lead with Furfrou, the mascot of Fashion Week 2021, and they also occasionally have some of the other Pokemon featured in Fashion Week. Their teams are as follows:

• Cool Challenger: Furfrou, Sneasel, Gothitelle
• Eccentric Challenger: Furfrou, Graveler, Blitzle
• Slick Challenger: Furfrou, Croagunk, Obstagoon
• Sassy Challenger: Furfrou, Butterfree, Vaporeon
• Quirky Challenger: Furfrou, Braxien, Shinx

The first step to building a good team against these trainers is adding a Fighting-type. Trainers will be guaranteed to face Furfrou no matter which Fashion Challenger they pick, so they should be prepared to counter the Pokemon. As it turns out, Graveler, Sneasel and Obstagoon are all weak to Fighting-type Pokemon as well.

Out of all the potential Pokemon these trainers can bring, only three of them give Fighting-types any trouble. Gothitelle and Butterfree both hit Fighting-types for super effective damage, and Croagunk resists Fighting moves.

With this being the case, trainers will definitely want to counter these Pokemon. Fortunately, both Butterfree and Croagunk are weak to Flying. Therefore, an optimal team to bring for this challenge would be a Fighting-type Pokemon, a Flying-type to cover Butterfree and Croagunk, and a Dark or Ghost-type Pokemon to deal with Gothitelle.