By I recently got my hands on an early access build of Temtem:Swarm v1.0, which officially drops on April 2nd. If you played the early access version from about a year ago like I did, let me tell you—the leap in quality and content is absolutely massive.
For those who might be newer to the genre, swarm-survival games are all about outmaneuvering literally thousands of enemies on screen while your character attacks, relying entirely on your build, synergies, and movement to survive. Temtem Swarm takes that highly addictive formula and injects it with the colorful creature-collection charm we all know and love. As someone who loves pushing the limits of handheld gaming, I immediately fired it up on my Steam Deck to see how this spin-off handles the chaos of its full release. From new characters and shifting maps to deep progression systems, there is a lot to cover. Here are my honest thoughts, performance impressions, and the best settings to get you started.
Massive Skill Trees and Prestige Progression
Before we dive into the shiny new characters, we need to talk about the progression loop. When I say the skill tree in Version 1.0 is staggering, I mean it. You will spend hours just theorizing the best path to take, unlocking tons of abilities and stat boosts as you play. What really caught my attention, though, is the prestige system.
Once you hit a prestige level, you unlock some incredibly cool variations for your Temtems. But a fair warning from my own experience: hitting prestige does reset your progress somewhat. Your characters will retain a bit of their leveling, but you will have to grind back through various bits and pieces to regain your full power. It adds a fantastic layer of replayability and long-term goals, but you definitely have to be prepared for that temporary drop in your power level.
Steam Deck Performance and My Recommended Settings
Now, the juicy part—how does Temtem Swarm 1.0 actually run on the Steam Deck? Out of the box, the game defaults to the High graphics preset. While it looks gorgeous in the starting zones, once you reach the later stages and the screen fills with major enemy additions and flashy particle effects, it is simply a bit too much for the Steam Deck to handle smoothly.
To get that buttery smooth experience, I had to tinker in the menus. Here are the exact settings I recommend for the best balance of visuals and performance:
- Display Mode: Full Screen
- VSync: Off
- Resolution: 800p
- Framerate Limit: Capped at 60 FPS
- Graphics Quality: Medium
The 800p resolution perfectly matches the Steam Deck’s native screen, meaning you get crisp, clear visuals without wasting processing power. With these tweaks, the game runs beautifully. You will get a solid 60 frames per second for the vast majority of your runs. Naturally, when the screen is absolutely covered in massive area-of-effect attacks, you might notice a few minor frame dips. Honestly, though? You will be too busy fighting for your life to stare at the FPS counter.
As for battery life, the power draw sits comfortably around 15 watts in the early, quieter areas. As the chaos ramps up in the later stages, expect that to climb into the 18 to 20-watt range. In practical terms, this gives you around three hours of gameplay on a full charge—more than enough for a few intense runs from the couch or during a commute.
Deep Dive: Playing as Venks
Version 1.0 introduces two brand-new Temtems, and I spent a lot of time experimenting with Venks. I played using the unlockable Umbra skin, and it looks downright evil—in the best way possible. There is also a Luma variation to unlock if that is more your style.
Venks starts off a bit sluggish. It is primarily a melee-focused brawler out of the gate, which takes a bit of getting used to if you prefer keeping your distance from the swarm. But the evolutions are where Venks truly shines, offering two distinct paths:
1. Vental (Speed and Ranged): This evolution completely flips Venks’ playstyle. It transforms the Temtem into a highly mobile, ranged attacker. If you go this route, be prepared to reskill your build to support ranged damage, as your initial melee focus will not carry over well.
2. Venmet (Tank and Melee): This is the path I found myself gravitating toward. Venmet is a bulky, tank-oriented melee powerhouse. However, you have to be careful with the game’s glitch mechanics here. Some of the glitches you can pick up seem too good to be true and can actually hinder your tank build if you aren’t paying close attention. It is a brilliant risk-reward system that keeps you on your toes.
Deep Dive: Playing as Chromeon
If Venks is the slow-and-steady bruiser, the second new Temtem, Chromeon, is the lightning-fast skirmisher. I had an absolute blast playing this character.
Chromeon is incredibly quick, darting around the map and relying heavily on ranged attacks. While Chromeon does not have any evolutions like Venks, it makes up for it with a massive arsenal of swappable abilities. The standout for me was its ultimate ability—a massive spark boost that practically wipes out everything in your immediate vicinity. The sheer satisfaction of popping that ultimate when you are completely surrounded is unmatched. Building Chromeon is all about experimenting with different ability combinations to see what can carry you to the very end of a run.
The Ever-Shifting Tower and Dialing Up the Difficulty
To test these new Temtems, I jumped right into the newly added area: the Ever-Shifting Tower. True to its name, the layout changes every single time you enter. This roguelite element ensures that no two runs feel exactly the same, forcing you to adapt your pathing and survival strategies on the fly.
If you master the tower and find the base game a little too easy, Temtem Swarm has you covered with the new Hacking Level system. This feature lets you manually increase your difficulty multiplier by adding custom challenges. You can boost enemy HP, increase their movement speed, throw in extra mini-bosses, or even reduce your own maximum health. It is a fantastic way to keep the game challenging and highly replayable, even after you have beaten all the standard levels.
Final Thoughts
Version 1.0 of Temtem Swarm shapes up to be an incredible update. Between the massive skill trees, the prestige system, the dynamic Ever-Shifting Tower, and the two fantastic new characters, there is a wealth of content to dive into. With a few quick settings adjustments, it plays like an absolute dream on the Steam Deck. Whether you are building an unkillable Venmet tank or zipping around the map as Chromeon, this is a swarm-survival experience you will not want to put down.