I'm dreading the grinds in this game an I am wondering if it's for me

[wet socks]

Hey people,

so Pokémon basically died for me. The last semi proper games were sun and moon for me but I personally loved Soulsilver most (and everything that came before was great too).

So I am looking for an alternative. Temtem looks interesting, like a mix between a good time but also like a very, very huge grind and now I don't know what to expect from it. Can the game be enjoyed without the infinite grind? Is there anything that's worth grinding for? I've played multiple mmorpg's but man, it's always this bittersweet experience of a great start and a dreadful ending, where I realize that I have wasted a ton of time.

Like my only hopes are this game, Coromon and Drayano's Pokémon romhacks at this point. Coromon seems like a good singleplayer experience. How does Temtem compare? Is there "soul" in it or does it more feel like streamlined grinding?

I am fully aware that my question can only be answered in a highly subjective manner, but that's fine.

Thanks for any help :)

[Cyroy]

Story's pretty fun, gameplay's nice and smooth. But after the story it is pretty much just a grindfest.

[wet socks]

Originally posted by Cyroy:

Story's pretty fun, gameplay's nice and smooth. But after the story it is pretty much just a grindfest.

Is it a fun grind though? Like if it feels like work then I am not sure if I want to play this, because many mmorpg's start to feel like doing chores after a while and that's really not my thing.

[Umbrul]

First of all, the game is fun regardless of its grind. The grind is mostly irrelevant to playing the campaign. Even the bits you CAN interact with are usually optional and/or minor. The campaign is basically just a solo/coop experience where you see other players running around as you play the game. My biggest flame of the campaign is something in the finale, but game was still fun.

Finishing the campaign DOES up the grind, though some of it makes sense. Teambuilding and experimenting without something like pokemon showdown requires catching, training, and breeding. There is a tem showdown being patched in eventually, for what it's worth.

But game is fun, gameplay is fun, battle system is great, and it has further damaged my ability to enjoy battling in a pokemon campaign. Legit, game is worth playing for that alone. Also, I agree that sun/moon gen is fun, just hate the intro. Rest is gold. SS being great is a given, it's a very fun game.

===

Secondly, the grinds. The grinds are either minor or major grinds.
Minor

• Rare hunting. As in catching rare species. It is the typical 5%/10% scenario, just different sections of a route will likely have different creatures. Some ONLY show in certain spots.
  
• Full clearing. As in defeating every trainer and finding every route item, even side routes. Routes range from moderate pokemon density to victory road+ density. The latter happens twice, but only one feels annoying. The other one was kinda funny and story relevant.
  
• Teambuilding. This seems a little weird. But, basically you will very likely adjust your team when playing. More than once, likely. This leads to catching new stuff, leveling it a little, and so forth. You can get an exp share (1 creature only) first island, so that helps. This can be a rabbit hole that switches to a major grind if you like doing it, but THAT amount is not needed for campaign. I did it... but I like teambuilding. SPECIAL NOTE: If you do not like changing your team/strategy and like playing real casually, you will get punished lol
  
• Side Quests. They can have some back-and-forth. Mitigated by waiting until you unlock mobility stuff, like rock-climbing. Can have good rewards, like equipment or moves. Most are fine, tbh. There are some troll ones xD
  
• Rematches. You can rematch gym leaders and 'elite four'. Fun to do, but ONLY doable with a proper decent team. (think good ivs and actual strategy). Good, not perfect, but perfect is nice obviously.

Major

• Shiny/Luma Hunting. Odds are base 1/7500. You can bring it down to 1/1500 and 1/750 depending on the stage of your radar. Radars are a post-game item.
  
• Teambuilding. For people trying to do any post-game, this is their first road-bump. I already said why it'd be in both sections. All I'll add is this is hard if you spent you money/pansuns for silly stuff, like TOO MANY healing items or cosmetics during story.
  
• Fishing. For people trying to do post-game, this is their second road-bump. I am referring to a specific weekly. I THINK its minor, but it really is divisive. It usually can be done within an hour (yep), but could get unlucky and go to 2 hours. Good rewards, can be painful. Usually really chill, I've done it within 30 minutes several times. Tied to unlocking something in post-game.
  
• Breeding. You want good temtem to use for breeds, so you catch a large group. You want egg moves, so you catch a bunch of temtem with those. You breed them all, and take the result. Nothing new, honestly. The difference is there is limited fertility... so you have to be smart when breeding.
  
• Freetem. Basically, you get paid for releasing temtem you caught. I'd mix it with shiny hunting or teambuilding/breeding. Some people use it to get large amounts of money with guides that have been posted.
  
• Feathers. So, freetem, fishing, rematches, and post-game activities give this post-game resource. Required for various things, including radars.

[wet socks]

Originally posted by Umbrul:

First of all, the game is fun regardless of its grind. The grind is mostly irrelevant to playing the campaign. Even the bits you CAN interact with are usually optional and/or minor. The campaign is basically just a solo/coop experience where you see other players running around as you play the game. My biggest flame of the campaign is something in the finale, but game was still fun.

Finishing the campaign DOES up the grind, though some of it makes sense. Teambuilding and experimenting without something like pokemon showdown requires catching, training, and breeding. There is a tem showdown being patched in eventually, for what it's worth.

But game is fun, gameplay is fun, battle system is great, and it has further damaged my ability to enjoy battling in a pokemon campaign. Legit, game is worth playing for that alone. Also, I agree that sun/moon gen is fun, just hate the intro. Rest is gold. SS being great is a given, it's a very fun game.

===

Secondly, the grinds. The grinds are either minor or major grinds.
Minor

• Rare hunting. As in catching rare species. It is the typical 5%/10% scenario, just different sections of a route will likely have different creatures. Some ONLY show in certain spots.
  
• Full clearing. As in defeating every trainer and finding every route item, even side routes. Routes range from moderate pokemon density to victory road+ density. The latter happens twice, but only one feels annoying. The other one was kinda funny and story relevant.
  
• Teambuilding. This seems a little weird. But, basically you will very likely adjust your team when playing. More than once, likely. This leads to catching new stuff, leveling it a little, and so forth. You can get an exp share (1 creature only) first island, so that helps. This can be a rabbit hole that switches to a major grind if you like doing it, but THAT amount is not needed for campaign. I did it... but I like teambuilding. SPECIAL NOTE: If you do not like changing your team/strategy and like playing real casually, you will get punished lol
  
• Side Quests. They can have some back-and-forth. Mitigated by waiting until you unlock mobility stuff, like rock-climbing. Can have good rewards, like equipment or moves. Most are fine, tbh. There are some troll ones xD
  
• Rematches. You can rematch gym leaders and 'elite four'. Fun to do, but ONLY doable with a proper decent team. (think good ivs and actual strategy). Good, not perfect, but perfect is nice obviously.

Major

• Shiny/Luma Hunting. Odds are base 1/7500. You can bring it down to 1/1500 and 1/750 depending on the stage of your radar. Radars are a post-game item.
  
• Teambuilding. For people trying to do any post-game, this is their first road-bump. I already said why it'd be in both sections. All I'll add is this is hard if you spent you money/pansuns for silly stuff, like TOO MANY healing items or cosmetics during story.
  
• Fishing. For people trying to do post-game, this is their second road-bump. I am referring to a specific weekly. I THINK its minor, but it really is divisive. It usually can be done within an hour (yep), but could get unlucky and go to 2 hours. Good rewards, can be painful. Usually really chill, I've done it within 30 minutes several times. Tied to unlocking something in post-game.
  
• Breeding. You want good temtem to use for breeds, so you catch a large group. You want egg moves, so you catch a bunch of temtem with those. You breed them all, and take the result. Nothing new, honestly. The difference is there is limited fertility... so you have to be smart when breeding.
  
• Freetem. Basically, you get paid for releasing temtem you caught. I'd mix it with shiny hunting or teambuilding/breeding. Some people use it to get large amounts of money with guides that have been posted.
  
• Feathers. So, freetem, fishing, rematches, and post-game activities give this post-game resource. Required for various things, including radars.

Thanks for the in depth reply! It actually sounds like it's a lot of fun... I think I might give it a shot.

[Shaesy]

You can do the main story (50-60 hours) without too much grind. You may have to grind a bit if you want to try out new temtem, since it's better to breed and level them up than to use a wild one that you just caught. Temtem from eggs are more likely to have good stats -it depends on how good the stats of the parents are, though- and will evolve faster since they evolve after X levels and not at a specific level.

After the main story there's a lot of grind and repetitive tasks. You will need to build a new team from scratch with very good stats and proper tv training if you want to beat Dojo rematches, the Archtamers and Dojo parks. Tv training is very useful for these activities and will take many hours of beating wild temtem, unless you want to use ingame money and buy tv fruits instead to save time. You will also need a good amount of level 100 temtem to do the TemSafari and GritArena, more than your usual 6-8 temtem since some of them might be banned there. Other activities, like Freetem (catching and releasing temtem for ingame money and rewards), Koish of the week (finding a fish with specific physical features for money and rewards) and Luma hunting (doing radars or going to Saipark to find lumas) are tasks so repetitive and mind-numbing that most people do them while doing something else, like watching youtube videos. Doing Freetem and Koish of the Week usually takes around 4-5 hours weekly each. Doing a radar also takes around 4 hours, while going to Saipark to find lumas can take 5-20 hours or more of running in circles.

[Harley]

The game is fun if you want a single player experience. End-game is just a grind for perfect Tems and by the time you get them I doubt you'll be playing the PvP anyways since the playerbase is dwindling. Games dead only thing that will revive it is a major update or a free-to-play model.

This game is a poor Pokemon clone with some QoL features. Not worth 60$ CAD. If it's on sale at some point for 5-10$ CAD then go for it.

[Umbrul]

This is where the subjective element will start to show, but I think its worth its price at $45 (US), especially on sale right now. Not gonna really debate it, just give my view that I do not think its bad value or a bad pokemon clone. Last couple pokemon games were $60, and I'll agree Arceus was great value... but I don't wanna go into the rabbit-hole of my other views.

Playing it is easily more/equal fun to older pokemon, but definitely better for the battle system... unless you are playing super casual or don't really care for battling. I really think its inspired, and not a cloned system, especially with the stamina/hold system + no criticals. I honestly can't enjoy pokemon for battling anymore since I usually don't care for PvP and what is battle frontier anymore honestly, and temtem has legit made pokemon more painful.

I am fine with playing for the setting or exploration, hence liking Arceus and maybe Scarlet/Violet after a patch. I REALLY loved Arceus. Temtem's PVE end game can be grindy, but pokemon doesn't even have one really anymore. The pvp is a grind, but you don't need perfect breeds, just egg moves + TVs (evs for pokemon) for ranked. The temshowdown patch is on its way as well.

Shaesi basically already said more on the PVE side than I did. Though I will add there is a draft mode and a weird random dungeon/tower mode (simpler than it sounds, but roguelike-ish). Also that Koish can go lots faster if you AFK it less, but yeah, that will definitely vary.

[wet socks]

Originally posted by Umbrul:

This is where the subjective element will start to show, but I think its worth its price at $45 (US), especially on sale right now. Not gonna really debate it, just give my view that I do not think its bad value or a bad pokemon clone. Last couple pokemon games were $60, and I'll agree Arceus was great value... but I don't wanna go into the rabbit-hole of my other views. :lunar2019deadpanpig:

Playing it is easily more/equal fun to older pokemon, but definitely better for the battle system... unless you are playing super casual or don't really care for battling. I really think its inspired, and not a cloned system, especially with the stamina/hold system + no criticals. I honestly can't enjoy pokemon for battling anymore since I usually don't care for PvP and what is battle frontier anymore honestly, and temtem has legit made pokemon more painful.

I am fine with playing for the setting or exploration, hence liking Arceus and maybe Scarlet/Violet after a patch. I REALLY loved Arceus. Temtem's PVE end game can be grindy, but pokemon doesn't even have one really anymore. The pvp is a grind, but you don't need perfect breeds, just egg moves + TVs (evs for pokemon) for ranked. The temshowdown patch is on its way as well.

Shaesi basically already said more on the PVE side than I did. Though I will add there is a draft mode and a weird random dungeon/tower mode (simpler than it sounds, but roguelike-ish). Also that Koish can go lots faster if you AFK it less, but yeah, that will definitely vary.

I already bought the game and I am digging it so far, mainly because it runs better than scarlet and violet and because I like the Temtem designs. I will take it slowly, explore, play the story and maybe even have a look at the grinds. So far I am quite happy!

[Umbrul]

Originally posted by wet socks:

Originally posted by Umbrul:

This is where the subjective element will start to show, but I think its worth its price at $45 (US), especially on sale right now. Not gonna really debate it, just give my view that I do not think its bad value or a bad pokemon clone. Last couple pokemon games were $60, and I'll agree Arceus was great value... but I don't wanna go into the rabbit-hole of my other views.

Playing it is easily more/equal fun to older pokemon, but definitely better for the battle system... unless you are playing super casual or don't really care for battling. I really think its inspired, and not a cloned system, especially with the stamina/hold system + no criticals. I honestly can't enjoy pokemon for battling anymore since I usually don't care for PvP and what is battle frontier anymore honestly, and temtem has legit made pokemon more painful.

I am fine with playing for the setting or exploration, hence liking Arceus and maybe Scarlet/Violet after a patch. I REALLY loved Arceus. Temtem's PVE end game can be grindy, but pokemon doesn't even have one really anymore. The pvp is a grind, but you don't need perfect breeds, just egg moves + TVs (evs for pokemon) for ranked. The temshowdown patch is on its way as well.

Shaesi basically already said more on the PVE side than I did. Though I will add there is a draft mode and a weird random dungeon/tower mode (simpler than it sounds, but roguelike-ish). Also that Koish can go lots faster if you AFK it less, but yeah, that will definitely vary.

I already bought the game and I am digging it so far, mainly because it runs better than scarlet and violet and because I like the Temtem designs. I will take it slowly, explore, play the story and maybe even have a look at the grinds. So far I am quite happy!

Nice :)

Make sure to get the EXP share after you finish the first dojo/gym. It's on first island

I'll spoiler the exact location, but if you explore lots, you will find it.
https://temtem.wiki.gg/wiki/Location_maps?marker=25#Deniz-0