Overview
As Oliver prepares to head into Ding Dong Well for the first time, he encounters and is given a Thumbelemur. These little critters are great physical attackers and a welcome addition to a new player’s party. While you may encounter familiars with a higher attack score later on, Thumbelemur stays relevant by having one of the highest attack and movement speeds available. This helps keep your furry little buddy relevant until mid-game or later.
Proper Care and Feeding
Thumbelemur is a Bestiae family familiar and even though your first Thumbelemur will initially be attached to Oliver, they function far better under the care of Swaine for a 10% affinity boost. The primary drawback to fielding Thumbelemur is the lack of the defend command. Instead, it can “Psych Up!” and “Go Wild!”. Fortunately, you will find that it has an impressive evasion score, allowing it to avoid many attacks that would otherwise eat away at your HP. While there are no right or wrong ways to feed your familiar, you will want to decide early on whether you want to use the bonus points to shore up Thumbelemur’s defense or take an all out attack approach. For this example layout, we’ve taken into consideration that Swaine has access to many defensive familiars and have chosen to focus on Thumbelemur’s offensive abilities.
Attack +30
Magical Attack +10
Evasion +10
Thumbelemur’s advanced forms learn a handful of elemental tricks so adding a little bit to magical attack doesn’t hurt (though the primary focus is definitely its physical attacking prowess). A small boost to evasion can also help, since Thumbelemur can’t defend and needs all the help it can get to avoid taking damage.
Metamorphosis
One of the great things about Thumbelemur is that you can’t really go wrong with metamorphosing one! It learns several solid physical attacks and, once metamorphosed into a Dumbelemur, picks up the storm elemental trick Whirligig. For its second metamorphosis you will choose between Aye-Aye Sir and Aye-Aye Catcher. Statistically, the only major difference is that Aye-Aye Catcher has a slightly higher magical attack.
The primary thing to look at when choosing a final form is which tricks each form learns. Aye-Aye Sir is a more offensive form and learns a handful of physical and support tricks to round out your attacking abilities. Aye-Aye Catcher adds a handful of healing tricks to its arsenal instead.
Take a look at what familiars you have used to fill out the rest of your party. If you already have a few familiars with healing abilities, it may be best to metamorphose into Aye-Aye Sir. On the flip side, if you find the party taking heavy amounts of damage, it could be worth choosing Aye-Aye Catcher to gain some backup healing attached to a reliable physical attacker.
Best Buddies
As mentioned earlier, Thumbelemur works best with Swaine to gain the 10% affinity boost it grants. One of the great things about this partnership is Swaine’s access to some of the best tanking familiars available (a fantastic way to back up Thumbelemur’s lack of the defend command). Consider giving Esther and Oliver an extra magical attacking familiar as you will find Thumbelemur’s high attack speed ripping through all but the toughest foes in seconds. To round out Swaine’s other slots, you may want to add a Sprog Cog or Monolith to support your fuzzy little companion. Both of those familiars combine a high defense with a strong magical attack to round out a great partnership.
Tips and Tricks
By mid to late game you may find Thumbelemur’s inability to defend giving you some trouble. If this is the case, focus a little more on building its defense with treats or adding an extra healer to your party. Metamorphosing into Aye-Aye Catcher can give that little extra oomph by providing healing tricks. This form also allows it to fill an extra support role in emergencies since Swaine doesn’t have any natural healing abilities of his own.
Treat it right and you will find Thumbelemur brings a cute little face and a surprising amount of damage to your party. Do you have a special trick for using it in your party or a feeding pattern you like using? Have another familiar you like using or want to see spotlighted? Feel free to comment below and let us know!
Learn more: read all our Ni No Kuni articles here.
Published: Feb 14, 2013 09:05 am