If you’re jumping into Digimon Story: Time Stranger, you’re going to figure out pretty fast that Digivolving your team is a super strategic thing you do outside of battles. This is awesome because it really lets you plan out your perfect crew.
Digimon takes a different approach to the idea of evolution than other franchises, so this isn’t what you’d think. Instead, you should really focus in on what Digivolving is.
How to Digivolve Your Digimon in Digimon Story: Time Stranger
For most Digivolutions, you need two basic things: hitting a specific Agent Rank and meeting certain stat requirements. Your Agent Rank mostly goes up as you play through the main story, but those side quests can give you a nice little boost. This is cool because it means the really powerful Digimon unlock as you get further into your adventure.
A huge part of making your Digimon grow is the Personality system. There are 16 different Digimon Personalities, and each one directly affects which stats get boosted as your Digimon levels up. For instance, a “Daring” personality helps out with your ATK and DEF growth, while a “Strategic” one is all about boosting INT and SPI. So, if you’re aiming for a specific Digivolution, you’ve gotta make sure you’re growing the right personality to match those stat needs. Like, if the evolution you want needs high ATK and SPD, you’d want to shoot for a “Zealous” personality.
Outside of just naturally leveling up, the DigiFarm is your go-to for controlling stats and personalities. You can use Training Sets there to bump up specific stats and, more importantly, to shift a Digimon’s personality toward one of four main values: Affection, Heart, Understanding, or Companionship. Say you use a “Punching Bag A Training Set” that’ll increase ATK and move the personality toward Heart and Affection.
Just keep in mind that these training sessions take real-world minutes, but you can pay a little in-game currency to complete them instantly. The downside is that any Digimon on the DigiFarm for training is temporarily unavailable for your active or reserve party. Having conversations with your Digimon outside of battle can give you dialogue options that subtly nudge their personality in a certain direction, adding another layer to how you influence them.
You can also De-Digivolve, and the requirements are a lot less intense. You mainly need to have encountered the target Digimon before and make sure your current Digimon’s personality matches the base personality of the one you want to revert to. This flexibility is awesome, and when you combine it with the “Load Enhancement” feature, which lets you raise talent and stats without having to de-digivolve, it really streamlines the whole process of building and perfecting your ultimate Digimon team.
How to De-Digivolve in Digimon Story: Time Stranger
De-Digivolution in Digimon Story: Time Stranger is a pretty vital mechanic if you want to really nail your Digimon’s growth and unlock those sweet, sweet new evolution paths. Now, unlike regular Digivolution, which is all about hitting certain stat milestones and Agent Ranks, De-Digivolution has its own set of rules. The main thing you need to worry about is having already encountered that specific Digimon in its prior form.
So, if you’re trying to revert your Champion-level Greymon back to a Rookie-level Agumon, you have to have had Agumon in your collection at some point. This makes total sense; the game isn’t going to expect you to change back into a form you’ve never even laid eyes on. This could be a video games where you can relive your summer memories just through nostaliga.
Beyond just encountering the Digimon, your current Digimon’s personality is a massive factor in the De-Digivolution process. The game is really specific, saying that “the personality of the Digimon they’re trying to Digivolve match the base personality of the target they’re De-Digivolving to.” What that means is, if you want your Greymon to revert to Agumon, Greymon’s current personality has to match Agumon’s natural or “base” personality.
There are 16 different Digimon Personalities in the game, and they fall under four core types: Valor, Philanthropy, Wisdom, and Amicability. These are all influenced by four core values: Affection, Heart, Understanding, and Companionship. You can mess with your Digimon’s personality using dialogue options outside of battle, but the more reliable way is through the DigiFarm’s training sets. Each training set not only boosts specific stats but also nudges your Digimon’s personality toward a specific core value.
The actual De-Digivolving process isn’t as demanding when it comes to raw numerical stats compared to Digivolving, but the importance of personality makes sure you’re actively managing and understanding your Digimon’s traits. This whole system stops you from just cycling through evolutions without any thought.
It’s the game’s way of pushing you for deeper engagement with the personality system, because a correctly matched personality is the key to making it work. While we don’t have the exact details on the in-game menu or prompt for De-Digivolution, it seems like you can do it “any time outside of battle,” just like regular Digivolution.
The main perk of De-Digivolving is to re-spec a Digimon, which can unlock different evolution paths or re-distribute cumulative stats and talent in Digimon Story: Time Stranger. It is worth noting, though, that “Load Enhancement” can also be used to raise talent and stats without De-Digivolving, which is a nice touch that addresses a common complaint from earlier titles.
