Temtem Best Early Team – Good Beginning Options to Collect!

We're taking a look at the best early Temtem you should collect as you make your way through the first island in the game! This selection of options will get you easily through the beginning of the game and will set you up with a strong team going forward.
You will be fighting a bunch of different Wind and Water types in the beginning of the game which makes Electric Temtem invaluable to your team! If you're fresh off of Pokemon Sword and Shield, you might be used to breezing through content. In Temtem, it is a bit more difficult so you will want to make sure to have the right types for your battles.

Best Early Temtem to Catch!

Don't feel like you have to emulate this team exactly! The only Temtem I would absolutely say is a requirement for the early game is Ganki. After that, you can pretty much fill out your team how you want and you should do fine. This is more of an optimal team to put together that should dominate the majority of encounters you come across in the first island.

Starter Choice: Crystle

Crystle is the better short-term Temtem to choose. The reason for that is that Crystal types are strong against Electric types. While you won't run into a ton of Electrics, you will run into both Sparzy and Nessla which can be problematic if you don't have something that counters them. Sparzy in particular can be a handful, so having a Crystal type is beneficial to you for defeating trainers.
If you're looking at the longer game, then you might want to go with Smazee. While all starter Temtem can be caught, only Crystle is available to find in the wild in the Early Access. Smazee is a Melee type, which is strong against Crystal type. You will end up fighting your way through quite a few of those later in the game.

Swali

Swali can be picked up very early in the game. While you'd think the strength of this Temtem is being a Nature type, you'd actually be mistaken! Unfortunately, it doesn't have any Nature type moves, so that part of it is irrelevant. The benefit of Swali, is that it learns Urushiol. This is a Toxic type move which is strong against Water types. It will give you a 1-2 punch with the next Temtem that will take down quite a bit of the Temtems you will encounter.

Ganki

This is your most important early game Temtem to acquire. It is so good against just about everything you will be commonly facing on Deniz that it is pretty much a requirement to get through it all. You will want to make sure to level up Ganki as much as possible to carry you through. You first get DC Beam which is an okay move, but later you get Chain Lightning which can hit multiple Temtem (including your own, be careful).

Tateru

If you didn't pick Crystle as your starter, then you're going to need something to combat the couple of Electric types that can be problematic. Both Tateru and Skail learn an Earth type move called, Sand Splatter. Tateru has a higher base attack stat, so it will be able to deal more damage with this physical type move. Tateru is a Neutral Temtem, so it's only weak against Mental types which are very rare in the early game.
These are the basic Temtem you should have to get through the first Dojo in the game. Here's a couple of more Temtem that can be found a bit later in Deniz that will be strong on your team.

Nessla

Once you complete the first dojo and obtain the Surfboard, you will want to run on to the small lake at the Thalassian Cliffs to catch one of these. When you catch one, make sure it has the Electric Synthesize trait. This will heal your Nessla if it is hit with an Electric type technique. You can pair this with your Ganki which can use Chain Lightning. It's a great attack, but it will hit one of your Temtem as well as the enemy team. So, when you use Chain Lightning now, it will hit the Nessla who will just by healed by it! It's a great combination, and makes farming all of the Wind and Water types a whole lot easier.

Oceara

Oceara has the highest base stats in the game, and is at the top of the list for the SPATK stat. This makes it a very strong attacker, and is a Temtem you can obtain in the Aguamarina Caves. You will need to at the very least beat Sophia in the first Dojo to get to this area, because you need to have the surfboard and travel on water to get there.