Pokémon Go Jessie and James: How to find and counter Jessie and James explained

How to find Jessie and James in Pokémon Go

If you want to battle either Jessie or James, then you need to keep your eyes on the sky for that floating Meowth.

Finding Jessie and James in Pokémon Go works exactly like finding the Team Rocket Balloons, which means that you have the chance to encounter their balloon at least four times a day - depending on how lucky you are, of course.

If you want to find them, then we recommend looking at the Pokémon Go map on maximum zoom. This will not only give you the best view of the sky, but will allow you to spot the shadow of their balloon moving across the map more easily.

If you see that shadow, look above you in-game, because there's a chance that's the Meowth balloon you're looking for.

Each Meowth balloon contains encounters with both Jessie and James, so you get two Team Rocket encounters for the price of one. If you quit out of the second encounter, just tap the Meowth balloon again to resume.

This break allows you to heal up, or progress your Battle Go Fest Challenge if you need to progress to the next 'defeat a Rocket grunt' step.

Jessie and James counters and differences in Pokémon Go

Jessie and James are similar to the Go Rocket Team Leaders in that they have unique character models and certain fixed Pokémon.

When facing Jessie in Pokémon Go, you'll start the battle facing Shadow Scyther every time, whereas James will feature a Shadow Pinsir in their line-up.

Once you've defeated Jessie's Shadow Scyther, you'll have to defeat Ekans and Stantler.

While Jessie has a mixture of Pokémon types, they are all weak to steel-type Pokémon, so grab your strongest steel-type Pokémon, such as a Metagross, Dialga or Excadrill, and start demolishing her team. If you don't have many steel-types, Jessie's team are also weak to rock, psychic and fire-types.

Aside from Shadow Pinsir, James' team also consists of Koffing and Grimer.

Since James' team literally consists of one bug-type and two poison-type Pokémon, it's very easy to plan out which Pokémon you should use against it.

Pinsir will be easily defeated by any strong fire-type Pokémon and, once it's taken care of, you'll have the choice of your psychic and ground-type Pokémon for Grimmer and Koffing.

Remember - Jessie and James are closer to a standard Rocket Grunt in difficulty than a Team Leader, so for counter recommendations, you can get away with just throwing your most powerful creatures at them regardless of type.

The reward for each is the chance to catch Shadow Scyther and Shadow Pinsir respectively - both of which have the chance to be shiny.

The Season of Celebration has arrived! With it comes a level cap increase - including the addition of XL Candy, the Legacy 40 Challenge quest and boosts to some XP sources - Platinum Medals, the arrival of Gen 6 Pokémon such as Espurr and changes to the Go Battle League We've recently seen the addition of 'Strange' red eggs and new Arlo, Cliff, Sierra andGiovanni line-ups.

Jessie and James dates and times in Pokémon Go

Jessie and James returned to Pokémon Go Monday, 14th December and will remain in the game till the end of February 2021, which was announced by the Niantic Support twitter account on Thursday, 17th December.

- Jessie and James will not be leaving the world of Pokémon GO until the end of February 2021. We will revise the Today View in-app to reflect this.

- There is no time limit to complete the Special Research ?Distracted by Something Shiny? once it has been collected.

— Niantic Support (@NianticHelp) December 17, 2020

During this time, Jessie and James will appear more frequently from Thursday, 17th December to Monday, 21st December, ending at 10pm your local time. They will also appear more frequently on Friday, 25th December from 8am to 8pm your local time.

Jessie and James debuted on Friday, 10th July 2020, the same date as the Battle Go Fest Challenge.

When Jessie and James are present in Pokémon Go, their Meowth balloon will appear instead of the typical Team Go Rocket Balloon as a rare encounter. The rate at which the Meowth Balloon may increase if a particular event is currently taking place in Pokémon Go.