Tempo is an entity from inside the crypt.
Rules and Restrictions[]
Tempo starts with a shovel, a blood dagger, a torch, and a compass.
All of his attacks have infinite damage; every monster successfully damaged with a weapon will die instantly regardless of health. However, Tempo is limited by a timer starting at 16, ticking down every beat. If the timer reaches 0, and Tempo cannot reset it, he will die due to his curse on the next beat. Deaths caused by Tempo's Curse cannot be prevented even with a potion. The timer is reset by any of the following conditions:
- Killing an enemy (with the exception of a pixie)
- Eating any food
- Purchasing or picking up an item for the first time (Throwing or swapping an item and picking it back up will NOT count)
- Opening any chest (handy for Boss rooms)
- Reaching the next level
In order to help him overcome his curse, Tempo has a permanent telepathy effect akin to Nocturna's bat form or having a Circlet. Tempo can also find enemies from all Zones which have a chance to replace enemies of the current zone, although not all enemies will spawn everywhere (for example, Lightning Mages will not spawn in Zone 1). In addition, exit rooms will spawn an additional mini-boss and both must be killed to unlock the stairs.
Boss hallways have a sarcophagus added to the bottom left corner, allowing Tempo to refresh his timer just before starting the boss fight instead of draining part of the timer walking up into the room. (The sarcophagus will not appear if there is a miniboss arena due to reaching the boss floor via trapdoor.)
Strategy[]
When seeing a place which might be worth returning to, it is advisable not to kill all the monsters near that area.
Zone 1 is arguably the hardest zone for Tempo, as he is fighting strong enemies from the start and a lot of enemies can kill or stall him in the 1-tile-wide tunnels (Spiders and Blademasters for example). Enemies in the other zones are not much harder, but Tempo will have acquired gear (especially a better Shovel) and level layouts are much more open, facilitating combat against protected enemies.
Items[]
For balancing reasons, 
Ring of Courage and 
Ring of Piercing are removed from Tempo's item pool.
Due to his already infinite damage, Tempo cannot normally find titanium, obsidian, or glass weapons. Scroll of Enchant will do nothing when used on a non-dagger weapon (and cannot turn a dagger into a Jeweled Dagger). However, Tempo can still obtain obsidian and glass weapons from shrines or be granted a glass weapon by Scroll of Need. Most damage-increasing items are also removed from Tempo's item pool. It is notable that he is still able to find and equip 
Ring of Wonder as well as obtain 
Ring of War by blowing up an unactivated Shrine of War.
Since food consumption can promptly reset Tempo's timer, 
Cookies and items that allow the player to carry more consumables (
Backpack and 
Pack of Holding) are optimal.
Combat[]
While Tempo's damage is infinite, enemies can still block attacks; having a piercing damage source will make Tempo really unstoppable.
If Tempo is carrying a dagger or other throwable object, and his timer is about to run out with no enemies near enough, it is advisable to throw it in the direction of a possible offscreen enemy as a last resort. If it kills an enemy, his timer will be reset, allowing the player to retrieve it and continue.
Trivia[]
- Tempo seems to be a creation of The Conductor.
- "Tempo" is a term used to refer to the speed of a musical piece.
- Tempo is the Italian word for "Time", which refers to Tempo's timer curse and is emphasized by the clock he has on his chest.
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 Amplified
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 Synchrony
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 Hatsune Miku
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