Temtem's Best Starters, and who to catch early

Temtem, the Pokemon lookalike from Spanish studio CremaGames, is an MMO that brazenly champions its nature as a complete and utter copycat of Pokemon. There are all sorts of curious creatures dotted across the Airborne Archipelago, and, like Ash Ketchum before you (it even sounds like Temtem), you've gotta catch 'em all.

As you jump into the realm of Temtem, prepared to no doubt find, battle, and capture every creature across the land, you'll be facing the most difficult decision of any of these creature-catching titles: choosing your starter companion.

Temtem has three starters known as Crystle, Smazee, and Houchic, but who's best? Or more importantly, which starting companion is going to be best for you? Well, we've got you covered. In the following guide, we've explained each starter Temtem to help you choose between them.

Temtem's Best Starters - Which starter Temtem should I pick?

When you start out in Temtem, you'll encounter Professor Konstantinos. They'll give you a choice between the three starting Temtem, and will also gift you a Tuwai temtem. Tuwai is meta-mimetic, meaning they have a lot of evolutions!

Tuwai is a nice, additional Temtem treat, but the real work here is picking between Crystle, Smazee, and Houchic!

Smazee

• Strong against: Earth, Crystal
• Weakness: Mental
• HP: 26
• Stamina: 22
• Speed: 16
• Attack: 17
• Defence: 14
• Special Attack: 13
• Special Defence: 13

In Temtem, there are three starters to choose from (wonder where they got that from): Houchic, Smazee, and Crystle. The first thing you need to know is that picking Smazee is not the wisest idea. Its evolution, Baboong, is the second-worst Melee-type in the game - after Smazee itself - so it's really quite useless.

Don't get me wrong: Melee-types are important, as they're fantastic Crystal-busters. But, given that there are much better Temtems out there, you're wasting an opportunity to get a rare Crystal or Mental-type right at the start.

Houchic

• Strong against: Melee, Neutral
• Weakness: Crystal
• HP: 24
• Stamina: 22
• Speed: 16
• Attack: 14
• Defence: 14
• Special Attack: 17
• Special Defence: 15

Houchic, the Mental-type starter Temtem, is an excellent choice. It's a bit frustrating at the beginning, as two out of your three moves can only be used every second turn, but you can rip Neutral- and Melee-types to shreds while benefiting from a lack of suitable counters to you (namely Crystal-types and other Melee-types). Like Smazee, Houchic and its evolution, Tentai, are pretty weak in relation to other Mental-types, but you won't encounter most of these - at least not in situations where you can catch them - until later in the game, so it's handy to have Houchic in your squad for the beginning.

Crystle

• Strong against: Mental, Electric
• Weakness: Earth, Fire
• HP: 27
• Stamina: 22
• Speed: 13
• Attack: 16
• Defence: 17
• Special Attack: 14
• Special Defence: 14

The final starter Temtem is Crystle, and they are - you guessed it - a Crystal-type Temtem. Crystle is also a great choice for your starter, so it mostly boils down to personal preference between them and Houchic. That being said, on top of Crystle and its evolution, Sherald, there are multiple other Crystal-types to choose from later on, almost all of whom are stronger than the starter.

Crystle is a strong pick given that they counter two of the most powerful types you'll counter during the early-game: Electric and Mental, but Houchic is also a pretty viable starter given that you can find Crystle out in the wild easily. For example, you can find Crystle in the Mines of Mictlan and the rock-hopping islands south of Quetzal (exact locations shown below). With that in mind, Houchic is probably your best starter to pick in Temtem, but it's all down to personal preference!

What are the best Temtems to catch early on?

Once you've chosen your new best bud and are ready to set out on your brand new Pokemon-like adventure, you'll start to come across other creatures in - you guessed it - the tall grass across Temtem. Instead of PokeBalls, you're armed with Temcards, which sort of trap all the ants and animals in digitized sheets. At first, the variety of early-game Temtems might seem quite impressive, but you'll soon realize that these are all you're going to be coming across for the foreseeable future, so it's best to play it smart and catch the best ones as soon as possible.

You've got five slots left to fill if you want a full squad. Obviously those five lucky candidates are at least partially based on who you chose as a starter - due to type coverage - but the ones mentioned here are solid regardless, especially early on.

Skail is a Neutral-type who you'll meet almost immediately. It evolves into Skunch, at which point it develops a hybrid Neutral/Melee type and has a base stat value of 454 - the second most powerful Melee-type in the game. You can catch Skail at level 2-4 right at the beginning, or else wait until you get to Windward Fort about an hour in, where the level jumps to about 11. However, choosing the former will allow you to enter said fort at about level 17 if you're willing to do a bit of extra training, and having a strong Melee-type on your side (again, not Smazee) will allow you to deal with some pesky Crystal-types when you face evil Clan Belsoto for the first time.

Ganki is an Electric/Wind-type that saved my skin on more occasions than I can count as I went through Windward Fort - although, and this is important, do not replace DC Beam with Chain Lightning. The latter, although slightly stronger, hits your own team member as well as the opponent. If you've got Water, Mental, Wind, or Digital Temtems on your team, a decently-leveled Ganki will wipe them out in a single hit.

Ganki's hybrid typing also means that almost nothing can hit it super-effectively - although pretty much everything hits it neutrally, so, while you'll never get wiped out in one, you will take consistent damage from most foes and will need to deal damage quickly in order to make it out without fainting (or going unconscious in Temtem terms - that's how blatant the changes to phrasing are).

Aside from these two, you've got some other options that are relatively okay. Tuwai is a Wind-type that you're given alongside your starter, and is good for the first few hours due to its base stats trumping a lot of first-evolution Temtems you encounter early on. However, it won't be a mainstay in your team long-term, so don't do what I did and spend a stupid amount of time levelling up something that's going to end up in your TemDeck station, aka PC.

Tateru is a Neutral-type that crops up almost immediately and appears to be completely useless, but, despite the fact it doesn't evolve, it has a base stats value of 474, which is frankly pretty good. It's not flashy and it learns absolutely no good moves until level 25, but if you play smart it can become a late-game powerhouse with only one easily-countered weakness (Mental).

Paharu is rubbish, as are its second and third evolved forms. Kaku is not very good either, but can, potentially, be useful in very specific situations. Maybe if you have a single slot left it could be semi-worthwhile. Pigepic has deceptively good stats and only one weakness but, like Tateru, doesn't learn anything good for a while (level 20 in this case). You won't encounter any other Temtems until at least after the first Gym, I mean, er, Dojo.

Now that you've chosen a new best friend to accompany you throughout Temtem, take a look at our guide to evolution to see what they could eventually become!