Crypt of the NecroDancer

Tempo is one of the extra characters added in the Amplified DLC. He is easily the hardest character added in the DLC. His main gimmick is that he will die in 16 beats, and the only ways to reset the timer is to kill an enemy, open a chest, pick up a new item (not one the you dropped on the ground), eat food, or go to the next floor. However, his hits kill everything in one hit and he can see all enemies by default. Because of this, the run is very different from a normal run, both in required play style and enemy spawns. First, the differences. From the beginning, almost any enemy can spawn at any time, forcing you to face enemies from all zones during the whole run. Also, every floor spawns 2 minibosses as opposed to 1. Every boss floor also has a white sarcophagus in the starting room, allowing you to reset the timer before starting the fight. Now, some strategies. First off, you will want to prioritize reaching the exit of each floor over all else. This includes going slightly off path for items (most of the time) Because of Tempo's curse, if you don't leave any enemies to kill on the way back, you will usually die by going for items. This includes the shop on most floors as well. The exception is most floors in Zone 2 because the shops have mushrooms to kill inside of them. Because of this, you will be stuck with default equipment for a lot of the run. However, since you start with a blood dagger, you are better off not switching weapons anyway unless you find another blood weapon you like. Since any late game enemies can spawn in Zone 1, getting hit will cause a lot of damage, so you will need the healing as much as possible. Also, try to always have a food item on you. Rather than healing, you will use these mostly as a way to reset the timer. Cookies are by far the best to have because they give 6 uses rather than just one. If you can spare the food, they often allow for a trip to the shop because you can avoid the danger of the timer running out on your way back by resetting it. Another reason to keep the starting dagger is because if your timer is about to run out, you can throw it as a last ditch effort. If it kills something. you can keep going with the run after you pick it back up. I would make equipment recommendations, but really you are stuck with whatever you get unfortunately. Without much opportunity to shop, you're stuck with what you find in chests and crates/barrels. Almost everything is useful, so you just need to make do with what you get. Tempo, more than any other character in the game, is reliant on a lot of luck. Unlike every other character, Tempo is reliant on what items spawn where as well as good enemy spawns. Not every run will be possible to win with him because enemy spawns just won't be close enough to survive. He just forces you to try again and again until you get good luck and don't mess it up yourself.