tamagotchi cheat sheet
This is for all the Tamagotchi geeks out there, who can’t just rely on the care manual but have to have first-hand experience from someone else, just so they can be sure…
Things the manual doesn’t tell you.
Health Meter: Generally, this thing is pretty accurate, but you can still feed your tamas meals even if their Hungry hearts are full. But you can only give them one or two before they refuse you, whereas if they were really hungry, they’d eat 3.
Food: Meals are meals, there’s not much to say about them that isn’t mentioned above. Snacks, however, aren’t as evil as they seem. They make your pet happy, and fatten them up. Mine used to be barely above base weight, and they wouldn’t play games until I fed them a snack. Now, if I’m busy, I just give them snacks to keep them happy. As long as it’s not grossly overweight, your pet should be fine. Anyway you can always work off the weight.
Toilet: It is true that they go every 3 hours, but the timing varies. Mine go at different times every day. Just note the timing of the first one and count from there. You can catch them beforehand, stinkwaves appear and if you press the Toilet option then, they’ll go on a potty or a toilet bowl, depending on their age. It’s funny in a Crayon Shin-chan manner.
Games: It’s probably true that after 30 jumps, you’ll get a surprise. The problem is getting to 30. My best so far is 25. It gets faster as you pass 10, 15, 20, and 25. I don’t know for sure what the reward is, though. If you get more than 10 jumps, your pet will gain 2 Happy hearts. I’ve figured out that the best time to jump is after they take 4 steps. White blobs don’t have feet, they sort of squiggle, but I guess you can count each squiggle as a step. 4 steps and jump. That’s my basic.
Infra-red: I found that if you press the B buttons simultaneously to go to the standby screen, then press either tama’s B button to proceed, there is a 70% chance that one tama will go visit the other. There’s no guarantee, but I routinely do this and it produces results. The games and results are still pretty much up to them, though. Losing one game won’t upset your pet, but two or three will cause it to lose Happy hearts. Pity getting presents doesn’t increase Happy hearts.
Discipline: The manual was quite useless in this respect. Basically, if they call you and/or the Attention icon is lit up (I keep my tamas on silent), and they’re happily bouncing across the screen, do not hesitate to punish them. This is the tama equivalent of tugging on your sleeve. Don’t let them grow up into needy adults! You praise them when they are in a bad mood, to make them happy. Babies and children will cry for no reason, with streams of tears coming out (how Japanese). Praise will make them happy again. As teenagers and adults, they will turn their backs on you, and a “moody cloud” will hover around their heads. They’re feeling unappreciated, perhaps.
Health: Only used when your tamas are sick. A skull or a tooth icon indicates that your pet needs medicine. Mine got a toothache because I fed her 2 snacks, and she refused the 3rd one and a toothache appeared. Generally, I haven’t had to give them more than one dose, but it differs among tamas. Mine are Ichigotchi.
Lights: You have to switch the lights off when they fall asleep, but if you decide to have a look at them later, it’s okay to switch on the lights. This function is just there to see if you care.
Notebook: The tama’s Little Black Book. A list of friends, their names and gender, and the level of friendship is shown. Only adult tamagotchis of opposite sexes will become partners or lovers. It doesn’t take much to reach best friend status, they get close pretty fast. You can “part” with friends as well, because the capacity of the notebook is limited.
Matchmaker: On the Web she’s also known as Mrs. Busybody… this is the option for single tama owners, or if both your tamas are the same sex. This old lady will come in through a door (that’s what it looks like to me) and ask if you’re lonely. Say yes, and she’ll find you a mate. Basically the only time this happened, I wasn’t paying attention, I selected “yes” and next thing I knew there were fireworks and suddenly a tiny black blob (the baby) next to my pet. This is, in my opinion, a bit of a killer app for the tama. You can’t just declare that you’ve given up after it dies, like I did with the original. They can have babies, and keep going on and on and on.. producing generations to keep you occupied. In which case you either have to turn down Mrs. Busybody’s match-finding services, or you take out the battery. There.
Birthdays: On the morning of the birthday date, which you entered, the tama will play a happy melody (not “Happy birthday”, I’m afraid) and show fireworks and be happy for you. Mine did this on my boyfriend’s birthday, twice. Once when it woke up and once at lunchtime.
Screensavers: These are sort of like Easter Eggs in the software. Left on their own long enough (I don’t mean neglect them, they just do this when they’re idle), your tamas will do funny things at times, depending on the character and growth stage.
Children (the white blob) roll around the bottom of the screen. It’s like cartwheels, except that they have no hands.
Teenagers (the strawberry) sing and dance. This is very cute to watch, they step from foot to foot and smile. Strawberry pets also have a disconcerting habit of running 3 steps, jumping then falling flat on their faces. Seems a little self-destructive to me. Either that or they’re just clumsy.
Adults (the masked one) watch tv. The first time this happened, I didn’t know what was happening, so I pressed a button and everything returned to normal. Just leave them to it.
I’ll probably update this post as I go along, I’ve only had mine for 2 weeks, and there’s not a lot of characters I’ve had time to acquaint myself with. Leave me a comment and tell me how are your tamas doing!
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