Temtem gets official versions of the modes Pokemon is too cowardly to add

Temtem has just gotten a major new update including Speedrun and Nuzlocke modes, catering to fans of Pokemon's most popular fan-created challenges.

The new 1.3 patch for Temtem adds Nuzlocke, Randomlocke, and Speedrun challenge modes. You can only have one challenge run in progress at a time, and it'll occupy a different save slot on a different server, so you don't have to worry about overwriting your existing Temtem collections.

If you're unfamiliar with the Nuzlocke challenge, it's a years-old fan-imposed set of rules that give Pokemon a hardcore permadeath mode. There are plenty of variations of the rules, but Temtem's Nuzlocke mode is close to standard: you can only catch the first two creatures you meet in each route area, and if a member of your party gets knocked out, they're released from your collection and effectively considered dead.

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The Randomlocke mode offers the Nuzlocke challenge with the addition of a randomizer, totally swapping around Temtem, items, and much more into new and unexpected combinations. Randomizer romhacks are popular not just for Pokemon, but for a pretty wide variety of classic games, giving a notable new challenge to your mastery of familiar worlds.

You can probably guess what Speedrun mode does - it offers an in-game timer encouraging you to play through as fast as possible. You'll get individual timer sections for each island in addition to an overall clock, and you'll automatically move past skippable events.

All of these modes offer unique rewards to your main save for successful completion - you can see the details on those and all the other big changes in this patch on the official site.

With its pre-release hype, Temtem seemed poised to challenge Pokemon way back when it launched into Steam Early Access way back in 2020 - but it never really managed to gain much mainstream momentum, even after its official 1.0 launch on PC and consoles last year. Temtem has still managed to keep a small but dedicated community by catering to hardcore creature collection fans with the much-demanded features Pokemon still isn't getting, and it's good to see that trend continue.

If you're looking for more games like Pokemon, you know where to click.