This is a guide for defeating Giacomo, Boss of Team Star’s Dark Crew in Pokémon Scarlet & Violet.

You can fight Giacomo after completing the Star Barrage at the Dark Crew’s base in West Province (Area One), just south of the town of Cascarrafa (where the Water Gym is).

Recommended Pokémon for Giacomo¶

Your Pokémon team should ideally be Level 20 or higher for this battle.

In general, Fighting , Bug and Fairy Pokémon are recommended. In particular, we highly encourage leading with a type.

For a list of recommended Pokémon species, please refer to the previous page.

Giacomo of the Team Star¶

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(1 of 2) Giacomo leads the Segin Squad.

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Giacomo leads the Segin Squad. (left), First into the arena is Pawniard. (right)

Pokémon	Level	Type
Pawniard	21	Dark Steel
Revavroom (Segin Starmobile)	20	Dark

Giacomo leads with Pawniard. If you were smart, you can easily one-shot with a Fighting type. Since it takes quadruple damage from those moves. Fairy-types are at a disadvantage since it has Steel-type moves. Fire and Ground-types are also good here.

After Pawniard, this is where the battle really begins. Giacomo will send out a Revavroom, but it’ll be a Segin Starmobile, which is bulkier than usual and a pure Dark type.

The Segin Starmobile seems to alternate between Metal Sound, which lowers your Special Defense, and Snarl, which deals Dark-type damage and lowers Special Attack.

What you want here is a Fighting or Fairy type that’s a physical attacker. This allows them to resist the damage from Snarl and prevent their damage output from dropping due to Snarl’s Special Attack reduction.

However, if your Pokémon keeps getting hit with Metal Sound, they might take substantial damage from Snarl. In which case, you should switch them to cancel the stat drops. This will also cancel the Special Attack drops from Snarl, if they’re a special attacker.

Tinkatink is a really good Pokémon to use, since it takes a quarter damage from Snarl. However it’s quite rare and only has special-based attacks until it reaches Level 35.

After the Battle¶

For defeating Giacomo, you’ll receive a Star Badge from him and TM062 Foul Play. This teaches a Dark-type move that uses the foe’s Attack for inflicting damage.

While leaving the base, Cassiopeia will call you again, unlocking additional TMs that you can craft at the TM Machine. Also, their helper will supply you with some materials for crafting TMs.