Tamagotchi P1 Care Guide

Welcome, Tamagotchi caretaker! You have been chosen to take care of an alien lifeform called Tamagotchi which is estranged from its home planet. The caretaking is done through interacting with an egg-shaped device called Tamagotchi House, which allows you to monitor your pet Tamagotchi on a screen and interact with it through the use of an interface of buttons and icons. Before we get started, let's learn about the Tamagotchi House you will be using to care for your Tamagotchi.

The Tamagotchi House is powered by batteries, has a speaker embedded in it, and has four buttons.

The main three buttons are the face buttons below the screen on the face of the Tamagotchi House. In this care guide, we will refer to these buttons as the A Button (the left-most button), the B Button (the center button), and the C Button (the right-most button). These three buttons will be used to navigate the Tamagotchi House interface and interact with Tamagotchi.

The fourth button is the reset button on the back of the Tamagotchi House, which must be pressed with a small, thin object such as the tip of a pencil. Be careful not to press too hard with a sharp object! When you first start your Tamagotchi care journey by pulling the tab or replacing the batteries, press the reset button on the back of the Tamagotchi House to reset it. Sometimes glitches may occur from fresh battery contact without a reset.

After you press reset, an egg appears and the adventure begins!

After resetting the game, either by pressing the reset button or pressing A and C buttons simultaneously from the Death screen, you will be presented with a Tamagotchi egg. This is the beginning of Tamagotchi's life journey! How you care for it from here on out determines how healthy it will be, how long it will live, and what forms it will evolve into!

The look of the egg will be different depending on which version of the Tamagotchi House you are using. A Japanese Tamagotchi egg will be white with black spots. A western Tamagotchi egg will be black with white spots. The appearance is the only difference between the two types of eggs.

From the egg screen, the only thing that can be done is to press the B button to access the Clock. The clock is not set at first after a reset, and you will need to set it to incubate Tamagotchi. Press the A button to change the hours, press the B button to change the minutes, and press the C button to confirm the time and start the clock ticking. If you want to change between AM and PM just continue progressing the hours from 11 to 0/12 to swap. After setting the clock, you can return to the egg by pressing the B button. If you reached your egg by pressing A + C buttons from the death screen, you don't need to set the clock again, as it will already be set for you.

While it is recommended to set the clock to same time as the real world, you may set the clock differently to suit your schedule. Tamagotchi will go to sleep between 8PM and 11PM and will wake up between 9AM and 11AM, so you can plan accordingly to match your schedule.

Once the clock has been set, your egg will hatch after five minutes. Once the egg has hatched, you will have a baby Tamagotchi to take care of.

Once Tamagotchi hatches, you can interact with it through the Tamagatchi House's interface. Pressing the A button will cycle through the selectable options by highlighting one of seven icons located at the top and bottom of the screen. Pressing the B button while an icon is selected will execute that action or open that submenu. Pressing the C button will cancel the selection process and make no icons highlighted.

To turn the sound on or off, while no icons are selected, press the A and C buttons simultaneously. You will hear a chime if the sound setting is toggled properly.

Clock

If no icons are highlighted, you may press the B button to move to the Clock screen. Here you can check what time it is in the Tamagotchi House. Press the B button again to return to the main screen to access the main menu again. While the clock is displayed, you can set the clock by pressing the A and C buttons simultaneously. While the clock is in set mode, you can press the A button to cycle through hours, the B button to cycle through minutes, and the C button to accept the current time and reset the clock. To change between between AM and PM, just continue progressing the hours from 11 to 0/12 to swap.

While the clock is in set mode, Tamagotchi's life cycle will be temporarily "paused." Tamagotchi will not age, evolve, poop, fall asleep, call for you, lose happiness, or grow hungry.

Menu Icons

There are seven icons you can cycle through and select on the main menu. Pressing the A button will cycle through them from left to right, top to bottom.

The icons in order are:

FEED icon, for feeding Tamagotchi. Press A button to select between Meal (ごはん) or Snack (おかし), and press the B button to confirm your selection. Press the C button to cancel.

LIGHT icon, for turning the light in the Tamagotchi House on or off. Press the A button to select between On (おん) or Off (おふ), and press the B button to confirm your selection. Press the C button to cancel.

PLAY icon, for playing games with Tamagotchi.

MEDICINE icon, for curing ill Tamagotchi.

DUCK icon, for cleaning Tamagotchi's poop.

METER icon, for seeing the status of Tamagotchi. Press the A or B button to navigate between status screens, and press the C button to cancel.

DISCIPLINE icon, for scolding naughty Tamagotchi.

There is an eighth icon, the ATTENTION icon, which cannot be selected, but rather lights up to show that Tamagotchi is calling for attention.

By selecting the METER icon, you can check on the current status of Tamagotchi. Pressing the A or B button will cycle through the pages of the status menu.

The first screen shows Tamagotchi's age in years (才) and weight in either oz (English-language version) or g (Japanese-language version). Tamagotchi's age increases one year every time it wakes up from sleep, even if it was just a nap. Tamagotchi's weight increases upon eating and decreases upon playing a game, with a maximum value of 99 and differing minimum values depending on the evolutionary form it is in.

The second screen shows Tamagotchi's Discipline (しつけ). This is a bar that starts empty and will fill up every time you properly scold your Tamagotchi. The bar can either be 0%, 25%, 50%, 75%, or 100% full.

The third screen shows Tamagotchi's Hungry (おなか) level. Tamagotchi's hunger can be any value from 0 to 4, with colored-in hearts representing hungry points. If all four hearts are filled, your Tamagotchi is full, and the more hearts that are empty shows it is hungrier. Hunger is satiated by feeding Tamagotchi.

The fourth screen shows Tamagotchi's Happy (ごきげん) level. Tamagotchi's happiness can be any value from 0 to 4, with colored-in hearts representing happy points. If all four hearts are filled in, your Tamagotchi is happy, and the more hearts that are empty shows it is sadder. Happiness is gained by feeding snacks or playing games.

When Tamagotchi needs or wants something, it will call for you. This is Tamagotchi's way of crying. A series of beeps will play (if the sound is not turned off) and the ATTENTION icon will appear in the bottom-right corner of the screen. The icon will stay lit for fifteen minutes or until you take care of the reason Tamagotchi is calling for you. There are four possible reasons Tamagotchi will call out with their own ways to respond properly:

• When Tamagotchi's Hungry level reaches zero. Feed Tamagotchi meals to alleviate the call.
• When Tamagotchi's Happy level reaches zero. Feed Tamagotchi snacks or play games with Tamagotchi to alleviate the call.
• When Tamagotchi has gone to sleep. Turn off the lights to alleviate the call.
• When Tamagotchi wants unnecessary attention. Scold Tamagotchi to alleviate the call.

Note that Tamagotchi will still call for you even when the sound is turned off, so if you have the sound turned off, make sure to check frequently to see if you are being called by looking for the ATTENTION icon!

Care Mistakes

Normally, if you do not alleviate Tamagotchi's call within fifteen minutes, you will accrue a care mistake. Each care mistake shortens Tamagotchi's lifespan. The number of care mistakes made during each stage of evolution also can affect which form Tamagotchi will evolve into next.

You cannot "undo" a care mistake by changing the clock and then meeting Tamagotchi's needs.

A care mistake is not accrued if you ignore Tamagotchi's call for unnecessary attention; the only consequence of missing this call is a lack of increase in discipline, unless you are playing with the rerelease, in which you accrue a discipline mistake.

Discipline Mistakes

On the 2018 rerelease, Tamagotchi can call more than enough times to fill the Discipline meter. In addition to the Discipline meter, a failure to respond to a misbehaving call will result in a discipline mistake. Like care mistakes, the number of discipline mistakes made during each stage of evolution can affect which form Tamagotchi will evolve into next.

Also like care mistakes, you cannot "undo" a discipline mistake by changing the clock and trying to discipline Tamagotchi.

By selecting the FEED icon, you can choose to give Tamagotchi a Meal (ごはん) or Snack (おかし). In the Japanese version, Tamagotchi eats a bowl of rice as its meal. In the English version, Tamagotchi eats a loaf of bread as its meal. In both versions, Tamagotchi eats a piece of wrapped candy as its snack.

Meals restore Tamagotchi's Hungry level by one heart. If Tamagotchi is full (Hungry level of 4), it will refuse to eat. If Tamagotchi refuses to eat despite having empty Hungry hearts, Tamagotchi is misbehaving. Every meal fed to Tamagotchi increases its weight by one oz/g.

Snacks restore Tamagotchi's Happy level by one heart. Tamagotchi will not refuse to eat snacks for any reason. Every snack fed to Tamagotchi increases its weight by two oz/g. In the anniversary re-release versions, Snacks are bad for Tamagotchi's health and will decrease its lifespan. They are so unhealthy that a steady diet of Snacks will kill Tamagotchi even in the Child stage.

Selecting the PLAY icon will initiate the character game. The character game consists of five rounds. Each round, Tamagotchi will dance and wait for you to guess which direction it is going to look. Press the A button to guess that Tamagotchi will look to the left or press the B button to guess that Tamagotchi will look to the right. Upon making your selection, Tamagotchi will simultaneously turn in a direction. If you guess the same direction Tamagotchi turns, it will cheer and you will win the round. If you guess incorrectly, Tamagotchi will groan and you will lose the round. You can press the A or B button to skip the cheering or groaning to make the game proceed more quickly.

After all five rounds have passed, you will be presented with the score. If you won 3 or more of the rounds, you have successfully won the character game. If you only won 2 or fewer of the rounds, you have lost the character game.

Winning the character game will cause Tamagotchi's Happy level to increase by one heart. Losing the game will not affect the Happy level.

Whether you win or lose the game, Tamagotchi's weight will decrease by 1 oz/g.

At any time during the game, you can press the C button to quit playing the game and return to the main menu. If you cancel the game early, Tamagotchi's weight will not decrease and there will be no change in the Happy level even if you already won 3 or 4 rounds of the game. After finishing the character game, the game will restart, so the only way to stop playing is by pressing the C button in the middle of a game.

If Tamagotchi refuses to play a game, it is misbehaving.

Every so often, Tamagotchi will poop. At younger evolutions, it poops more frequently, while at adult stage it poops about every three hours. When Tamagotchi poops, a poop will appear on the right side of the screen. Up to four poops can accumulate, and allowing Tamagotchi to wallow in poop will cause it to become ill.

To clean the poop, press the DUCK icon. The duck icon will wash away all poops on the screen at once.

Tamagotchi will not call to alert you that it has pooped, so make sure to check on it now and then to see if there are any poops that need cleaning.

Even if there are no poops, you may press the duck to wash the screen. Doing so will not affect Tamagotchi in any way.

At Tamagotchi's bedtime, it will immediately fall asleep, and it will awaken at its wake-up time. Tamagotchi will sleep in the middle of the screen with Z's coming out of its head and sometimes with a blanket on. There is no way to wake Tamagotchi up during its sleep other than resetting the clock to a time when it should be awake.

When Tamagotchi first goes to sleep with the lights on, it will call for you. All you have to do is use the LIGHT icon to turn the lights off. Not turning the light off within fifteen minutes of Tamagotchi falling asleep results in a care mistake. You cannot turn the lights off early to avoid the care mistake; you must turn them off during the 15 minute period.

Tamagotchi will automatically turn the lights back on when it wakes up. Tamagotchi does not call to let you know it has woken up.

The time that Tamagotchi falls asleep and wakes up depends on its current evolutionary form. As a newborn baby, Tamagotchi will also take a nap for a short time.

Every time Tamagotchi wakes up, it gains one year toward its age.

Character	Sleep Time
Marutchi	8PM - 9AM
Tamatchi	9PM - 9AM
Kuchitamatchi	9PM - 9AM
Mametchi	10PM - 9AM
Ginjirotchi	10PM - 9AM
Maskutchi	11PM - 11AM
Kuchipatchi	10PM - 9AM
Nyorotchi	10PM - 9AM
Tarakotchi	10PM - 10AM
Oyajitchi	10PM - 9AM
Bill	10PM - 9AM

Sometimes, Tamagotchi will call for attention when it doesn't have any pressing needs. The ATTENTION icon will appear in the bottom-right corner of the screen, but Tamagotchi will have more than 0 Hungry level, more than 0 Happy level, and will not be asleep. This is also known as misbehaving. The misbehaving phase will last for fifteen minutes, and during this time, Tamagotchi will refuse to eat meals or play games.

You can choose to scold Tamagotchi while it is misbehaving by selecting the SCOLD icon. Doing so will increase Tamagotchi's Discipline level by 25%. In the original 1996-1997 releases, Tamagotchi will misbehave exactly enough times to fill its Discipline level to 100%. In the 2017-2018 replica releases, Tamagotchi will misbehave more frequently to allow more chances to fill Discipline.

Choosing not to scold Tamagotchi will not result in a care mistake, so it is up to you how disciplined you want your Tamagotchi to be. The amount of discipline factors into what form Tamagotchi will evolve into.

Scolding Tamagotchi when it is not misbehaving does not affect it in any way.

Sometimes, Tamagotchi can become sick. When sick, it will sit in the center of the screen and a skull icon will appear next to it. Tamagotchi will become sick once per evolutionary stage, and additionally if you allow it to sit in poop for too long.

To cure Tamagotchi of its illness, select the MEDICINE icon repeatedly until it is no longer sick.

Tamagotchi will not call for you to let you know it is sick, perhaps because it is too weak to call. You will not accrue a care mistake no matter how long it takes you to respond to Tamagotchi's illness; however, if Tamagotchi is sick for too long, it will die. Make sure to check on your Tamagotchi from time to time to see if it is sick.

Throughout its life cycle, Tamagotchi will evolve several times. After hatching from its egg, Tamagotchi is considered to be in its Baby form. It then evolves into a Child from a Baby, into a Teenager from a Child, and into an Adult from a Teenager. There's also a secret evolution that can change from one Adult form to a Hidden Figure.

In Japanese media, both the Baby and Child forms are called Babytchi (ベビーっち), while Teenager is called Kodomotchi (こどもっち). Adult is called Adulttchi (アダルトっち) and the secret evolution is referred to as Hidden Adulttchi (かくれアダルトっち).

It takes 65 minutes for Tamagotchi to evolve from Baby to Child. It then evolves to Teenager by the age of 3, and to adult by the age of 6. The secret evolution occurs some time between ages 8 and 12.

In the Teenager and Adult stages of life, there are multiple forms Tamagotchi may take. Which form (or character) your Tamagotchi evolves into depends on how you have cared for it.

All good things must come to an end. Tamagotchi complete their life cycle with death. When dying, Tamagotchi will cry out for a long time with many long beeps while the screen shows Tamagotchi as if it were sick. After it has died, the screen will be replaced by either an angel among the stars (English version), or a grave with a ghost named Obaketchi (Japanese version).

Tamagotchi will all die with old age. The more care mistakes you make, the shorter lifespan Tamagotchi will have. Leaving Tamagotchi's Hungry level at 0 or leaving it ill for too long without caring for it can also result in death. In the anniversary re-release, feeding too many snacks can also cause Tamagotchi to die.

From the death screen, you can press the B button to check on the final age and weight of Tamagotchi.

If you want to start over and hatch a new Tamagotchi egg, you can press the A and C buttons simultaneously to birth a new egg from the death screen.