Temtem PvP: Using Offtraits to Surprise and Overcome Opponents

Kinu Tempedia Entry in Temtem

Competitive Meta and Temtem Traits

When it comes to competitive PvP games, a meta is established to determine the best team or best loadout for a specific character. In Temtem, a turn-based monster battling game, each tem has one of two traits. And for probably almost all tems except a few exceptions like Volarend, one of the traits is heavily preferred compared to the other. This makes the undesired trait, also referred to as offtrait, quite underused. However, this does not mean that all offtraits are not worth using in PvP.

Offtrait Examples

Kinu's preferred trait is Protector, where it gives its ally +1 defence and +1 special defence when Kinu is switched in. This buff helps the ally withstand some heavy-hitting attacks and stay on the field longer. On the other hand, Benefactor Kinu heals its ally +10% every time it gets hit. Understandably, if the ally gets hit for a 80% of their health, they heal 10%, which is less effective than the mitigation from the defensive buffs. However, if your team can stall and buff defences up, Benefactor Kinu puts in a lot of value. The playstyle of the whole team completely changes, and usually requires Kinu to be trained in more defences over speed or special attack. I have such Kinu in one of my latest streams, particularly in this video:

Grumper is often used as Inductor, where it heals 8% of its max HP whenever an electric technique is used. My preferred trait for Grumper is Coward's Rest, where Grumper gets the status condition evasion when it rests. This, paired with the item Hopeless Tonic can allow for some cheesy wins, as in the video above. The item restores the tem to full health and stamina if it is the last tem standing, but giving it 3 doom. This is not as bad as it sounds - by using Thunder Strike, Grumper gives itself 2 turns of the exhaustion status condition. Then, next turn, it can rest to gain evasion. While having both exhaustion and evasion, the doom condition is then pushed off since a tem can only have two active status conditions.

Hopeless Tonic Description

Nagaise is another tem where both its traits are good, but Deceit Aura outshines in most scenarios. The reversal of turn order is significant to several team compositions, and is often expected when Nagaise is out on the battle field. The offtrait, Water Custodian, redirects water techniques towards Nagaise, thus helping fire and earth allies from taking effective water damage. Moreover, the opponent is quite likely to expect a turn-order reversal and they might take suboptimal decisions because of this expectation.

Another one of my favourites is Dreaded Alarm Pocus. When the enemy rests, the trait deals 25% of their HP as damage. Although it does not have much use in most games, it feels really cool when you pull it off. Moreover, I like to pair with techniques like Strangle from Kalabyss or Vulffy's Plague that overexert and exhaust the enemy, making it more likely for them to run out of stamina and be forced to rest. This can be seen in action in this video:

Creating your Own Strategies

Beginners are often recommended specific team compositions, TVs, movesets and trait decisions, and this is a fairly good entry point into competitive. However, because these tems are often too common, opponents are also more aware of what your team is capable of doing, and hence they might perform well against such teams.

Once you have some experience, I would completely encourage thinking deeper into the compositions you are creating, and seeing the value that certain niche traits or techniques bring. At the end of the day, being unpredictable can often give you the edge to overcome your opponent as long as there is some strategy behind such decisions. Make sure to check out tem.team, an important tool for teambuilding which provides information on type coverage and resistances of your team, as well as damage calculator for TV spreads and breakpoints.

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  *Cross-posted in Hive