Hey there, Tamers! We just reached 2.000.000 accounts on Temtem, which is an impossibly big number for us to fathom! As we achieve this milestone, we think it's a great time to reflect on patch 1.8, which was the last big planned patch for Temtem and such an important milestone for us to reach, as well.
The focus on patch 1.8 was to make Temtem more enjoyable in a more casual way, putting aside our long-held fears that having things become too easy would destroy or make impossible a proper, stable player economy. Screw that!
We made adjustments to most gameplay areas so goals were more achievable and accessible, and most things can now be obtained in less time. We did our best to make sure the game is enjoyable, fun and kind to all the players who continue enjoying Temtem on a daily basis, and any new players who might make their way into the Archipelago.
There was hardly any area of gameplay untouched in the patch, so we recommend you give the patch notes a read if you didn't back then, but today I'll do my best to break down the most important changes we made to Temtem.
Join me in this stroll through the many changes and improvements in the 1.8 update!
We have Umbras at home (and we really do)
In this new Temtem era, the dream of having Luma and Umbra Tems has already become a reality for many more players! To start off easy, we improved the base Luma and Umbra rates to 1/2000 and 1/20000, respectively. That said, we still wanted to keep the flow of new Lumas/Umbras comprehensible and sensible, because they are still special! To strike a good balance, we made some adjustments to Radars and the Saipark, which were the main source of Lumas and Umbras for most players.
Luma Radars are now cheaper, which is good on its own, and we also added a new Umbra Radar Box that can provide any random Umbra Radar from the pool, but Radars (of both types) now break once you capture a Luma Temtem (if it's a Luma Radar) or Umbra Temtem (if it's an Umbra Radar).
Saipark got a new, similar limitation on the amount of Lumas you can catch per week on it: one Luma Temtem. To offset this limitation, all weeks have been and will be be Luma weeks in the new Saipark, and you don't need to pay any fee to enter it!
Since the one Luma per week condition can be confusing, let us go deeper into it: once you catch ANY Luma Temtem in Saipark, the park will stop spawning Luma Tems. You can catch any regular Tems (non-Luma) or Umbra Tems in the Saipark without any risk to your weekly Luma catch. Alternatively, you can run from or kill any Luma Temtem, and that won’t use your catch of the week.Only actually catching one Luma Tem counts as your catch of the week. Please note that the game doesn't differentiate between the weekly featured Luma and any other Luma, so catching a Luma Tateru that was just chilling in its Saipark house WILL count towards your weekly catch and lock you out of finding Lumas of the weekly featured Tems.
With that cleared up, did you know that you can use any type of TemCard inside the Saipark since then? You can still buy SaiCards, of course, and they have a x2 capture chance in the park, plus they don't expire at the end of the week.
Our goal with this was removing as many as possible of the pain points of the Saipark, and making the experience a lot easier and more gratifying, which, as you will see, was the general trend of this patch. Like for Luma & Umbra and radars, we had to put down some limitations so it didn’t get out of control, even more so in Saipark’s case because of our ongoing battle with bots. It was made easier to find a Luma in Saipark, and it’s now free to enter, so most players have been rewarded with a sparkly new Tem.
We also made SaiCards a choice instead of an obligation, while allowing the most aesthetic-oriented players to keep that Saipark drip!
To sum it up: with these changes, while most players can find a Luma and/or an Umbra with relative ease, it became harder to hoard and accumulate huge numbers of them. We believed this was a good point of balance in making Luma/Umbra Tems both more achievable and still special!
Don't just take our word for it though, let the numbers do the talking. Since launching Patch1.8, we've seen a 304% increase in Luma captures!
That means you're now 4 times more likely to find a Luma!
An improved Story campaign
New players discover Temtem all the time, and we knew the campaign could be a tad overwhelming at first, and become a bit tedious later.
Trying to stablish a balanced economy began by looking at the early stages of play, but since we've thrown caution to the wind with the economy concerns, we focused on making the economy kinder and more rewarding. An issue often mentioned was the need to backtrack to heal your Tems and thus be able to win the many NPC and wild Temtem combats you face, as the funds were originally very limited. To this end, we improved the amount of Pansuns defeating an NPC Tamer grants: every NPC Tamer now provides 40 more Pansuns each.
Does it seem like a small number? It's actually the difference between being able to buy a Balm or not, so you won't have to go back to heal to a Temporium. In the grand scheme of things, this meant 27.400 more Pansuns during a completed game campaign, battling all 685 NPC Tamers.
To pair with this, we created a new item, a sort of little cousin to the Temessence Phial: the Temessence Ampoule. This item, which heals all of your team for half of their HP, is a consumable that you can purchase, but most importantly, that you can find during your journey in boxes strewn across the Archipelago. This improved the feeling of having to backtrack to heal, and allowed players to keep a more straightforward strategy while they face the story campaign!
Something else that definitely helped eliminate backtracking was allowing players to choose from their Temdeck when trading with an NPC. This way players no longer have to go back to a Temporium to look for the Tem they're going to part ways with.
The leveling and evolving system in Temtem took new players a bit of getting used to. To help make this easier, we added the level at which a Tem would evolve to their details menu, including if it was ready to evolve in case you had previously denied the evolution. This was another frequent request and solved the issue of not knowing when your Temtem was going to evolve unless you noted down the exact level at which you caught it. Also, eggs hatch faster in 1.8 than ever before!
Another subject we touched on a bit in this patch was stickers! Since we wanted to make the game more enjoyable as a solo experience, we increased the amount of different stickers each person can find. We also included Stickers as a reward for Postal Service quests!
Completing the album by oneself is now possible, although it's going to take a lot of time! We still recommend trading with other players when possible.
What about the endgame?
Of course, there's no alpha without omega, so we also poured tons of love into the world after the campaign: the endgame. We usually consider endgame activities those that are either unlocked or only accessible after completing the campaign, plus repeatable content that provides more advanced currency or items for goals beyond finishing the campaign. This includes Tamer's Paradise, of course, but also Lairs, Housing, PvP, Luma & Umbra Hunting, etc. We made updates to most of these areas to ensure the endgame stage can be squeezed to its last drop, and every activity from Tamer's Paradise was improved upon, either to make it easier, more rewarding, or both. Let's get into it:
Tamer's Paradise
First, we unified the behavior of the flame icon to start after level 100 for all activities. This made the entire experience less confusing! Another change that affected all the Tamer's Paradise activities was a review and update of the TV spreads and Technique Pools of all the Tems involved, which was important so the experience was as enjoyable as possible.
Then, getting into the activities, TemSafari got a reroll option for the banned types! It can be used endlessly, as long as one possesses the Pansuns for it. The leveling up curve was also softened so players could get further in the activity.
As for DraftArena, we softened enemy level a little, but also added a complete battle log, like the one you can see playing ranked matches! This battle log will be available even before you see the rival teams, so you can prepare well in advance.
Thinking of GritArena, it also got a new reroll option for the banned Tems! It works the same way as the one on TemSafari, and it'll be super helpful when your strategy requires specific Tems.
The cool Evershifting Tower started letting you run away from one NPC per run, making things way easier in times of need! But even more, it has allowed you to always run away from wild Tems, and we added a complete battle log to it, which made the activity much more accessible for many.
Last but not least, the very popular DigiLairs! The Tems you receive were given access to their entire Tech pools by raising their levels, and the target Tems now have better chances of being Luma or bringing the right Egg Move. We also lowered the price of the Token to 5k Pansuns, so players could repeat DigiLairs more often and have a lot more chances at Luma Tems.
And! Anahir was added to the selectable characters in DigiLairs, responding to a request from players to have a steady and trusted way to keep Anahir flowing into the game.Mythical Lairs also had their Tems pushed to higher levels to give them access to their entire Tech pools.
To top this all off, Housing fans can now have everything in the comfort of their own home! A TemDeck, to move Tems and edit your team; a Vault, with direct access to those precious rewards you get from codes or the Challenge modes; a Healing Machine to heal your Temtem after arduous battle, and a totally new Trading Station so you can trade, buy and sell Tems from your room!
The economy!
Oh, the economy! Long ago something so important to us, but that has faded now. We wanted to keep offer and demand balanced, and give everyone equal opportunities, but this caused some restrictions on how obtainable everything was. Since we took the route of making Temtem as enjoyable and rewarding as possible, all those preventions were lifted, and new measures were introduced to make everyone happier.Combat animations being skippedWe finally added a setting many were asking for: the ability to skip battle animations!
For seasoned players who've already completed the campaign, for Luma and Umbra hunters, for competitive players looking to have matches that go straight into the point, there's a lot of different players who have been benefitting from this new setting that skips the Tems’ entrance in battles, the Technique animations and the Status condition animations! This was an important step towards making Temtem more friendly and enjoyable, now that we weren't as worried about economic balance inside the game.
Prices: down, rewards: up
Prices have gone down aaaaall across the Archipelago. Teleporting has gone down, Luma Radars have gone down, all the purchasable items on the Breeding Center have gone down, some Tamer's Paradise tokens have gone down!
Some other prices have been adjusted to follow the trend set by players in the Trade House, like the prices of ETCs.
The net rewards of all NPC Tamers have been raised, and Dojo Parks were changed to reward 2 more Telomere Hotfixes, and have a better chance to drop a Telomere Hotfix: Trait Swap.
Away with restrictions: customize everything!
We opened the floodgates on all cosmetics and Tamer Passes, so the Archipelago has since become more colorful!
You can select which Tamer Pass you want to work towards and complete it on your own terms and schedule. All Seasons and Passes are included, and you can switch from one to another with total ease. Your progress is saved and kept every time you change, so you can go ahead without fear of missing progress or stepping back. You can only have one Tamer Pass active at one point, though!
But of course, we also completely renovated the Store and changed the way it worked: for starters, it no longer rotates! All previously Premium cosmetics are featured all the time, in an enormous, permanent recollection of cosmetics for you Tamers to purchase with Feathers. We added all the cosmetics previously obtained through Novas, and all items from past in-game events, the cosmetics from all Tamer Passes, and a handful of extra items that were currently outside of player’s reach, like common cosmetics and furniture.
The rotating nature of the Store was the main cause of FOMO that still remained in the game. Part of our desire for Temtem to be delightful for as long as possible without new updates included making sure there is no FOMO left, and offering a greater fan of customization possibilities for players.
We also added more cosmetics and housing furniture to the Wishing Wells out of those available to purchase with Pansuns. Like the title says, customize everything!
A twirl to Ranked play
As mentioned above, we also dedicated some time to adjusting and changing stuff around Competitive play, given its importance to us and the community.
The Season system was made obsolete with the changes to Tamer Passes and the Store. Since Seasons marked the time for rewards, balance changes, and a Tamer Matchmaking Rating (aka TMR) reset to keep the scene fresh and competitive, we needed to make sure Ranked PvP still had its Seasons. So, Ranked Seasons now automatically happen every two months, fitting perfectly inside our scheduled monthly maintenance. Every Season, TMR will get reset and adjusted based on current population, so the ranks make sense and challenge can still be sought. And you will get a hefty sum of Feathers for your efforts!
We also lowered the requirements to access PvP, like the number of matches you need to play before you can queue for a ranked match, or how defining those matches are. We hope more people can easily hop into the competitive scene with resources like these and the Showdown feature, which allows you to create a team in 10 seconds.
If you are an endgame competitive players, you'll like to know that the minimum required Warriors for Dojo Wars was reduced from 9 to 5 members of a club, ensuring that clubs with less members can participate.
And for new and experimented players alike, we made TMR easier to track and understand: from making it visible at all times, to reducing its variance and making it as organic as possible, a request the community has held for a long time. With these changes, we hope more people can access and enjoy the Competitive side of Temtem, which we're really proud of and believe adds a lot of depth to the game!
Crossing the finish line, and the road ahead
This was Temtem’s last content-focused patch, marking the completion of a journey that began 8 years ago with our initial vision for the game.
When we first set out to create Temtem, we had a clear goal in mind: a world with six islands to explore and a roster of 141 Tems to tame. By the time we reached our desired finish line, we had expanded that vision far beyond its original scope, delivering 165 Tems, additional zones, and an experience that pushed the boundaries of what we had initially imagined.
Of course, growing beyond our original vision also brought along some challenges. Some were obstacles we overcame along the way, while others, like core system limitations, would require fundamental changes to the game’s structure. At this stage, making those changes would mean rewriting significant portions of Temtem rather than building upon it. Instead of focusing our efforts on reworking the foundations of Temtem, we’d rather use that time and the experience obtained to create something new, something that expands the universe of Temtem in fresh and exciting ways.
Temtem has grown into something truly special, thanks to the passion of our community and the dedication of our team. We’ve always wanted to make sure that every piece of content we created felt meaningful and polished, and we’re incredibly proud of what we’ve built together. Now, as we shift our focus to new adventures, we carry forward everything we’ve learned from Temtem to make our next project even more ambitious.
We’re grateful to everyone who has been part of this journey and can’t wait to share what’s coming next!
Closing words
This patch was huge, special and bittersweet: it was Temtem’s last big planned patch. Since then we've met back here a couple of times for bug fixes, corrections and the occasional balance changes, and these sort of irregular, need-based updates are still the plan for the future. We’ve reached our original goals for Temtem: fulfilled –even surpassed!– our planned roster of Tems and islands, and saw this game become bigger and greater than any of us could have ever dreamed of. As we kiss it complete, we wanted to put the cherry on top by making sure everyone, all of you who’ve been playing for years and any upcoming newbie snatching Temtem for the first time, can have the most enjoyable time while playing.
We hope you liked patch 1.8, and that it made Temtem nicer to play, replay and return to. We also hope you’ll stick with us as we discover new genres, learn and become better devs and continue enlarging the Temtem universe with more games, animated series, more merch and whatever the future brings, be it a future —yet still unplanned— Temtem 2 or... this project Downbelow:
Have fun and Temtem up, Tamers!