Last week, we offered some advice on choosing your starter Temtem. Now that you’ve hopefully made your decision, we’re back with some tips for starting out in Temtem’s Airborne Archipelago. There are tons of similarities to Pokémon in Temtem, but some things work differently enough that you’ll want to take note.
Love Your Character
Assuming appearance is important to you to begin with, it’s not exactly cheap or easy to alter it in the game once you’ve finalized your choice. You’ll eventually be able to acquire new cosmetics, including hair and clothing, but they tend to be fairly expensive and dyes are single use. Also, your face is locked in permanently (at least for now) so keep that in mind!
Form a Balanced Team
Types actually matter in Temtem. You can’t just pick your favorite Tem and spam your best move to overcome any encounter. You’ll want to plan ahead and make sure your squad is appropriately leveled and typed for the area you’re in. Note what you’re running into and assemble a diversified team. Hint: Ganki and Kaku are pros in the starter zone.
Also, XP share isn’t a thing until you find an item called the Coward’s Cloak (which can only be held by a single Tem), so make sure to rotate your Tems to maintain level parity.
Grind a Bit
Speaking of level parity, grinding is definitely a thing in Temtem, for better or worse. Personally, I don’t mind having to grind before a difficult encounter, but it’s something to note nonetheless. If you’re planning on just waltzing into a major boss fight with underleveled Tem, you’ll be in for a rude awakening.
Talk to Everyone
Temtem’s NPCs are exceptionally chatty, but many of them will offer you sidequests with useful rewards. Being a social butterfly pays off in the Airborne Archipelago.
Conserve Currency
Early on in the game, your only real source of currency will be fighting the route cops along each route. This means currency is basically finite, so use it wisely. Smoke Bombs (Escape Ropes) tend to be more efficient than Balms once you’ve taken out all the route cops along a route, so it’s a decent way to save money. You’ll just have to trek back through to where you left off.
Fill Out Your Tempedia
Catch every new Tem you encounter, even if you don’t plan on using it. Aside from the obvious benefit of filling out your Tempedia, having knowledge of a specific Tem will also reveal which moves will be super effective or half effective against it when you encounter that Tem in battle. This shows up as a green circle (super effective) or red circle (half effective) beneath the selected Tem.
Combat Nuances
Some moves have “holds” which means they’ll only be available to use after a certain amount of turns in combat and they’ll go on cooldown for that same number of turns after they’re used. The turn amount is reflected by the number of stripes on the ability icon.
PP is gone. Stamina is in. Each Tem has a certain amount of Stamina (mana) and all moves share that pool. If you exhaust your Tem’s Stamina, you’ll be able to continue to use moves, but they’ll hurt your Tem in the process. Managing Stamina (both your own and your opponent’s) is critical to your success in Temtem.
Synergies are also important. Some moves gain additional bonuses when other Tems of a certain type are paired with your Tem in combat. Make sure to exploit these synergies to get the edge in combat.
Keep Anything With Maxed Special Values (SVs)
This is somewhat obvious, but if you catch any Tems with 50 in any SV, make sure to store them as breeding fodder in your box. The reason I say this is somewhat obvious is that you may not actually care about breeding, but this still applies to you.
As an online game, there’s a robust Tem economy already in the game, so even if you don’t plan on breeding, you can still trade useful Tem in exchange for currency to players who are interested in the activity. It’s potentially a great way to fund your Temtem fashion goals or to save up Pansuns for housing, whenever that is introduced.
Technical Courses (TMs) Are Not Consumable
Small, but important detail. Don’t be stingy with TCs you pick up, they can be used infinitely to teach your Tems various moves.
Don’t Mind Spoilers? Use This Handy Resource
The folks over at Temtactics have compiled data on all the Temtem locations in the game and their encounter rates. If you’d rather figure this out on your own, that’s cool, but if you don’t mind some extra help, it’s been an invaluable resource to me so far.
Got any of your own tips to share? Post 'em in the comments below!
