Early on in Wild Hearts, you’ll come across this friendly-looking device called Tsukumo. This is part of the ancient technology called Karakuri. However, unlike the Karakuri, that you manually have to engage, the Tsukomo is entirely autonomous. They bounce and carry on like little children, but they’re also a perfect helper once you’re out in the world of Azuma. In this guide, we’ll break down the features of the Tsukumo and our recommendations on leveling them up.
How to upgrade a Tsukomo
Once you’ve acquired your first Tsokomo, you’ll want to upgrade it. The first upgrade is free, so you won’t have to worry about locating resources for it. However, after that, you’ll have to find more. But not to worry, while they’re scattered across Azuma, you’re bound to run into many of them throughout your journey.
To upgrade Tsukomo, you must visit a campsite and select the “Enhance Tsukomo” option. The Tsukomo has access to four different forms, with each form providing you with a unique buff or stat when you’ve upgraded the Tsukomo enough.
Attack Form: Tsukomo will join you in combat and toss crates and other items at the Kemono when battling.
Buff: Tsukomo Bolt-On: Battery – Tsukomo will gain attack power. We don’t recommend this upgrade path until you’ve upgraded the other ones, as this is the least helpful buff.
Defense Form: Tsukomo will pull aggro from Kemono’s when you’re engaged in a battle. This is helpful, especially if you find yourself in a situation where you need to heal.
Buff: Health Boost: Tsukomo will gain extra HP. This is important, as Tsukomo will become inactive if it takes too much damage and will go on a cooldown.
Assist Form: Tsukomo will provide heal you and it by releasing a healing mist. This is great when you run out of healing items or don’t want to waste them. The downside is you can’t tell Tsukomo when to use it.
Buff: Tsukomo will heal you more and more frequently the more you upgrade it. We recommend upgrading this one as soon as possible.
Threader Form: Tsukomo will release threads for you, allowing you to create Karakuri.
Buff: The more you upgrade Tsukomo, the more threads it will release.
In terms of which path to upgrade, that’s completely up to you. However, we do recommend you go this path; Defense > Assist Form > Threader Form > Attack Form.
Reseting Tsukomo stats
If you don’t like the current state of your Tsukomo, you can visit a campsite to reset its stats. Depending on how many upgrades or bolt-ons you’ve already given Tsukomo, will depend on how many Kemono orbs it will cost to do so.
How to rename Tsukomo
If you don’t like the name Tsukomo, you can also rename it. Simply head to a campfire, just as you would to upgrade it, and select name change. Then you can rename Tsukomo to whatever you like.
Wild Hearts will be released on February 13th via early access, with the full game releasing on February 17th, 2023, for the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC (EA’s App, Steam, and Epic Game Store).