Care

The amount of care given to a Tamagotchi will affect its growth. It can affect it in different ways, and sometimes depends on the character. General rule of thumb, unhealthier characters are more sensitive to care mistakes, whereas healthier characters can be cared for less well and still avoid getting care mistakes.

Growth Charts

Different characters are obtained through different requirements. These requirements are always described on charts showing each growth, requirement and character. These charts are called Growth Charts, and are used for depicting all possible growth outcomes for a given Tamagotchi. Although countless varieties of fan-made growth charts exist, Bandai has released an official one for each release in the vintage era.

Growth charts show all possible characters and the care requirements. For example, a good Tamagotchi Connection Version 4 growth chart would include information on Skill Points required for various characters and which family each character is part of.

Involvements and Guidelines

Hunger and happiness

Hunger and Happiness determine how hungry or happy a Tamagotchi is, normally indicated by hearts. On color Tamagotchi releases, hungry hearts are replaced with rice and the happiness hearts are represented as a gauge unit.

Hunger is filled each time a meal is fed. Happiness is filled in multiple ways, such as feeding a snack or playing a game. Since the 2004 reboot, there are usually two "hidden" hearts on the meter, which means that a Tamagotchi can be fed another two meals after its hungry hearts are all filled. This is the same with happiness, except that snacks can still be fed even after the two hidden happiness hearts are filled. From child stage onward, feeding a Tamagotchi approximately fifteen snacks in succession will lead to it getting a cavity, however. Prior to the Tamagotchi m!x, adults could not get cavities.

In the FamiTama and Version 5, as adults, missing three consecutive calls for empty hungry hearts will result in an evolution to Puchiputchi. Missing three consecutive calls for empty happiness hearts will result in evolutions of Gozarutchi and Kunoitchi. Overfeeding on three occasions by filling up seven hearts will result in an evolution to Osumotchi. Likewise, In the Royal FamiTama and Version 5 Celebrity, as adults, missing three consecutive calls for empty hungry hearts will result in an evolution to Modeltchi, missing three consecutive calls for empty happiness hearts will result in evolutions to Paparatchi, and overfeeding them on three occasions by filling up seven hearts will result in an evolution to Puddingtchi.

Several releases replace happiness with an identically functioning mechanic. In the Tamagotchi Angel, the Happiness meter is referred to as the "Effort meter" and can only be raised through playing the game due to candy increasing Angel Power; while the Devilgotch uses friendship, the Hexagontchi uses intelligence and the 4U/4U+ uses love.

Some color versions, feature a happiness meter that may be extended via certain game mechanics. Such as collecting happy symbols on the Plus Color.

On the m!x, On/Meets, and Pix, happiness is capped at the halfway mark until adulthood.

Stress

Stress is a feature exclusive to Tamagotchi Music Star as well as the Game Boy games. If a Tamagotchi's stress level is kept low, it will become happier and will evolve into a character of better care. The highest stress level is 99. After a Tamagotchi's stress level exceeds a certain threshold (for instance 70) it will eventually skip concerts, refuse to practice and so on, further boosting its stress level. Eating food besides Baby Food and Baby's Milk, playing games besides the ones accessible from the "Away" menu, and playing with its favorite toy, as well as praising it, will lower a Tamagotchi's stress level. However, practicing, being given a time out or a toy it doesn't like, playing the games accessible from the "Away" menu and becoming sick will all increase stress.

On the Game Boy version of Tamagotchi, stress, along with selfishness (failure to discipline a Tamagotchi), determine what adult you get. However, it's also noted that if the stress levels are too high, then they can either get sick (if the level is around 50) or die (100). Stress is raised under certain conditions (sicknesses, high amounts of poo, and neglect, or if fed snacks) and lowered by playing with your Tamagotchi (unless if the Math game is played an hour before or after sleep in which it is raised), praising, or by feeding a food it likes (unless if it's meat).

Training

In the vintage era, a Tamagotchi might call out for no reason. When this happened, users had to select the discipline icon, therefore adding to the training meter. In the Tamagotchi Angel, the equivalent to discipline is praise, used whenever the angel is praying. Praising a praying angel will increase their good deeds meter. If praising whenever it was not the case, one happiness/effort heart will be deduced. A similar concept was introduced with the Genjintch Tamagotchi except making pottery and praising would increase the evolution meter, which would contribute to evolution. In the TamaOtch, both a training and a discipline meter exist. The training meter is different from discipline, and in this version alone, refers to how much performance training has been completed.

The training feature in the Tamagotchi Connection and Tamagotchi Plus series functions similarity, but is now split into "Time Out/Punish" (しかる scold) and "Praise" (なでる praise). The latter is used when the Tamagotchi calls for attention and appears unhappy or crying. In these releases, failing to respond to a training call or responding inappropriately also counts as a care mistake.

Weight

Weight is a factor appearing in most releases. Weight increases when a Tamagotchi is fed and decreases when games are played.

On certain versions such as the Mori de Hakken! Tamagotchi and Tamagotchi 4U, the current weight is a factor taken into consideration during evolution. In the former, Imotchi must reach 40mg in order to evolve into Mayutchi. The age at which the evolution happens, as well as how it was cared for, determine the Mayutchi obtained.

In the Osutchi and Mesutchi as well as it's Game Boy port, if a Tamagotchi's weight reaches 99g it will evolve immediately into Debutchi. Once its weight is reduced to 89g, it will go back to normal. If this does not happen within 24 hours, it will die.

This feature has been absent since the release of Tamagotchi m!x.

Care Mistakes

A Care Mistake, also known as a 'care miss', is a variable that appears on all Tamagotchi releases. It is a measure of how many times the user has forgotten to care for their Tamagotchi, which factors into what character it will evolve into or how close it is to Death. When one or more meters are empty, the Tamagotchi will inform the user by beeping and highlighting the "Attention" icon. If fifteen minutes have elapsed and the user has not tended to the Tamagotchi's needs, the attention icon will turn off resulting in a care mistake.

Not turning the lights off after a Tamagotchi has gone to bed will result in a care mistake as well (though on certain releases the attention icon will remain on for an hour before a care mistake occurs), except on releases (such as the color Tamagotchis) where the light icon is absent.

Physical/mental care and tiers

Several releases such as the Connection and Keitai divide care into two categories: physical and mental.

A physical (body) care mistake happens when the user does the following:

• Miss a call for empty hungry hearts.
• Miss a scolding call.
• Don't cure it when it is sick.

A mental (heart) care mistake happens when the user does the following:

• Miss a call for empty happiness hearts.
• Miss a praising call.
• Leave the light on when it goes to sleep (Keitai and V1-V3 only).

Doing well in games can make either type of care improve by reverting one care mistake. For example, if an Ichigotchi on the V1 has received three physical care mistakes but no mental mistakes, they should evolve into Hanatchi. However, winning Jump enough times might result in an evolution to Kuchipatchi or Mametchi instead.

On the V5 and V5.5, only the calls related to empty hunger or happiness will count towards an adult evolving into Puchiputchi and Gozarutchi/Kunoitchi on the V5 or Modeltchi and Paparatchi on the V5.5.

On the early connection releases, adults are grouped into five tiers.

• The Serious adults are the healthiest, obtained with 0-1 care mistakes in both care categories, while Normal adults are obtained with up to 2 care mistakes. A toddler born from two unhealthy parents is unable to become a Serious adult.
• Having at least 2 or 3 care mistakes in one of the categories will result in a Naughty or Frail adult depending on whether the care mistakes were related to mental or physical care. Good physical care and subpar mental care obtains a Naughty adult, while the reverse obtains a Frail adult.
• Stubborn adults are the unhealthiest, obtained with at least 2 or 3 care mistakes in both physical and mental care.

Response period

Failure to respond to a call within fifteen minutes may result in it becoming sick. This can also happen if more than one poop is left on the screen for a certain amount of time, or not bathing the Tamagotchi or cleaning the room after they become dirty for a long time. On some releases, missing calls for discipline will not result in Care Mistakes. A certain number of Care Mistakes are required to obtain a specific character on most releases; for example, on the Tamagotchi iD L 15th Anniversary Version, Young Oyajitchi can evolve into Oyajitchi with at least 6 care mistakes.

The more care mistakes occur, the closer a Tamagotchi is to either death or running away from home. The number of care mistakes in a certain growth stage required to trigger the scenario vary from release to release. Some modern Tamagotchi releases, such as the Keitai Kaitsuu Tamagotchi Plus, Chou Jinsei Enjoi Tamagotchi Plus and the Tamagotchi Plus Color, have ways of preventing death; should death be avoided, one Care Mistake will be reversed. Care Mistakes can also be reversed through the use of a special medicine obtainable on some versions, although it has no effect on evolutions. Less than 6/7 units filled on the discipline bar on the Tamagotchi Ocean at the end of a growth stage will also result in death, as will getting sick or injured four times in a single growth stage.

Vintage History

Care-based evolution has been retained across all Tamagotchi releases from 1996 to date. The vintage era created a system involving a certain teen having a certain set of possible adulthood evolutions. In the original Tamagotchi, the better care teen would be able to evolve into all six possible adults, whilst the worse care teen could only become three of them.

Modern History

In Tamagotchi Connection Version 2 and Version 3, the parents determine the child evolution which will occur from the resulting baby. If the parent was given good enough care when a teen, depending on which character they marry the baby could develop into Kuribotchi/Kinakomotchi and Kuchitamatchi/Mohitamatchi on the V2 and V3, respectively.

Care does not affect the growth in the Tamagotchi Connection Version 5 and Tamagotchi Connection Version 5 Celebrity. Instead, there is a new feature called Bonding, which steers the evolution in these versions. That said, however, there are three neglect-exclusive families obtainable at adult stage.

A similar system to that of the original Tamagotchi exists for some of the modern pets, although now genders and sometimes generations have an effect on growth. However, many evolutions can also be obtained by using a certain item or eating a certain meal or snack for enough times regardless of care mistakes (or a diffferent range of care mistakes to that of the normal way of obtaining said adult), though not every adult can be obtained this way as some adults do not have such items and must be obtained by getting enough care mistakes. In releases with downloadable contents such as the Tamagotchi P's, Tamagotchi 4U and Tamagotchi Smart, this is the method of obtaining the downloadable characters and their evolution is otherwise not influenced by care at all.

On the TamaTown Tama-Go, when the character is an adult it can evolve into Otokitchi or Ojitchi through neglect, and this can happen within a mere 48 hours if given enough neglect.

The Tamagotchi 4U's Personality Stage form involved a certain adult character evolving into characters revolving around that character. The method of obtaining these characters depends on the original character.

Notes

While it is not possible by normal means to measure the total number of Care Mistakes at any given time, some releases, such as the Tamagotchi Connection Version 2, have an internal care mistake counter which can be made visible through battery glitches. However, it is possible to make the counter appear perminently by rubbing pencil graphite over the jumper marked J8 on the back of the circuit board, similar to when debugging the unit.