Table of Contents
Tamagotchi Friends
The Tamagotchi Friends: Digital Friend, often called simply Tamagotchi Friends, debuted as part of the Tamagotchi Connection series. Bandai launched this virtual pet toy in Spain, Poland and the UK on December 26, 2013. Early 2014 saw its release in Belgium, Germany and France, followed by Russia in May. The UK market received a second wave of designs that same year. Canada got the toy on August 1, 2014, while US consumers could find it exclusively at Toys ‘R’ Us from August 27.
May 2015 brought an upgraded version: the Tamagotchi Friends: Dream Town Digital Friend. This iteration featured 6 new shell designs, 11 minigames, 5 additional locations and 5 new characters. The franchise expanded beyond the virtual pet, offering toy sets and character figurines. On November 23, 2013, a new website replaced Music City, showcasing character bios, news, and games. Time to Play recognized the toy line’s innovation, nominating it for a People’s Play Award in Toy Tech on October 9, 2014.
Design
The Tamagotchi Friends looks a lot like the Tamagotchi iD L. It has a plastic frame around the front. The faceplate might have a pattern printed on it, or it might be see-through with shiny diamond-like designs in the corners. The screen is in 4 shades of gray, ike an old GameBoy. When they first came out, the Tamagotchi Friends were plain. Later ones, and all the ones sold in the USA, have little pictures printed on the top and bottom.
This Tamagotchi doesn’t use the old infrared way of connecting to other devices. Instead, it uses NFC, which is a newer way for devices to talk to each other. You need two AAA batteries to make it work. The batteries go in a little compartment at the bottom, which is kept closed with one screw.
The characters on the screen look different from older Tamagotchis. They’re bigger now, up to 20 by 20 little dots in size. They also use shades of gray to show more detail on the characters.
Watch a TV advertisement for Tamagotchi Friends:
Gameplay
The Tamagotchi Friends introduced NFC technology, replacing infrared communication. This “bumping” method allows devices to interact when touched back-to-back, enabling visits, gift exchanges, messaging and Gotchi Point earning. Daily interactions are limited to 5, with remaining connections shown as hearts beneath the clock.
Initial setup involves choosing one of three eggs: spotted, striped, or heart-shaped. This choice influences future generations, with each type affecting gender probability differently. The first generation’s gender is random.
Traits – Gourmet, Social, and Active – are earned through specific care actions during the Teen Stage, influencing evolution. Curiously, only female adults exist in the “No trait” group, while traitless male teens evolve randomly.
The BFF meter, located under the Check meter, fills through device connections. Half-filling it unlocks the Flower Count game.
Travel options include exploring locations, playing games, shopping, visiting the park, connecting to Dream Town online, and accessing the Date Place for adult Tamagotchi.
Games vary between European and North American versions, with two additional games unlockable through gameplay. The Mail icon allows message exchanges, while the Jewelry feature offers collectible items that unlock additional content.
Instead of dying, neglected Tamagotchi may run away, leaving a “Bye Bye” note. Pressing A and C simultaneously generates a new egg.
DekaTama
The Tamagotchi Friends DekaTama is a big version of the regular Tamagotchi Friends. It’s called a Deka Tamagotchi because “deka” means big. This big Tamagotchi doesn’t work like a normal version. Instead, it’s mainly used to give out jewelry to the smaller Tamagotchi Friends devices. They first showed up in stores in Poland and Russia.
If you have a regular Tamagotchi Friends, you could go to certain stores and use the DekaTama there. To connect your toy to the big one, you pick the “special” option under the bump picture on your Tamagotchi. Once they’re connected, you can pick any piece of jewelry you want. The jewelry then goes into your small Tamagotchi for free.
Using the DekaTama uses up your “bump hearts” for the day. Bump hearts are like tokens that let your Tamagotchi connect with others. You only get five of these each day. So you can get up to 5 pieces of jewelry from the DekaTama per day, just like how you can only connect with friends five times a day on your regular Tamagotchi Friends.
Website
The Tamagotchi Friends had its own website. This website was pretty cool and had lots of stuff on it:
- You could read about different Tamagotchi characters.
- There was news about Tamagotchi.
- It showed Tamagotchi products you could buy.
- You could watch short videos called webisodes. These were based on a cartoon show called “Tamagotchi! Yume Kira Dream”.
- There were small games you could play on the website.
- It had a special place called TamaTown. This was like a virtual town based on something called Dream Town.
Sadly, they closed down the website in 2019. They did this to make room for a new Tamagotchi, the Tamagotchi ON.
Webisodes
The Tamagotchi Friends had short videos you could watch online. These videos were based on a Japanese cartoon show called “Tamagotchi! Yume Kira Dream”. They took the best parts of the show and made them shorter so they’d be easy to watch on the internet.
People from different countries could watch these videos. They were in English, French, German and Polish. They might have been in Russian, too. If you spoke Spanish, you could read subtitles at the bottom of the screen.
There were 14 videos in total:
- Welcome to Dream Town (November)
- Kiraritchi and Yumemitchi (December)
- The Arrival of Himespetchi (March)
- Dream Town Tour (March)
- Choosing a Dream Class (April)
- Tea Robot (April)
- YumeKira Transformation (May)
- Where’s the Tool? (May 30)
- Study Group (July)
- Cooking Class (August)
- Introducing Kiramotchi (September)
- Kiramotchi’s Creation (October)
- Dance of Love (November)
- Tropicatchi’s in Love (December)
These videos came out over one year. They showed fans little bits of the Tamagotchi world. You could see the characters hanging out, having adventures in Dream Town, and doing everyday things in their fun, silly world.
Trivia
1. In the Adult Stage, there are a bit more girl characters than boy characters. It’s 10 boys to 14 girls. This makes things more interesting when your Tamagotchi grows up.
2. The Tamagotchi Friends uses NFC to connect with other devices. It’s like what smartphones use when you tap them to pay for things.
3. If you bought a Tamagotchi Friends in Europe, it had 5 games that were in older Tamagotchi toys. This was nice for people who’ve been playing with Tamagotchis for a long time.
4. Some of the characters got new names in this version. Maybe they did this to make the names easier to say in different countries or because the characters look a bit different.
5. Most countries have Tamagotchi Friends in English. But in Russia, they made a special version in Russian.
6. The sounds in Tamagotchi Friends are the same as in TamaTown Tama-Go, but a bit lower. This made it sound a bit like older Tamagotchi toys.
7. People sometimes call Tamagotchi Friends “TF” or “TMGC Friends” for short. Some fans call it “Tamagotchi Connection Version 8” or “V8”, but you won’t see these names on the box.
Tips & Tricks
1. The park in Tamagotchi Friends is a fun place. Your pet can go there to hang out with other characters or just be by itself. Going to the park doesn’t really change how your pet grows up, but it makes the game more fun and real. You might think going to the park a lot would make your pet more social, but that’s not really how it works. Instead, your pet gets more social by “bumping” with other Tamagotchi Friends toys. “Bumping” means touching 2 devices together so they can talk to each other. This new way of connecting makes the Tamagotchi Friends feel more modern and helps decide how social your pet becomes.
2. Tamagotchi Friends lets you send messages, similar to texting. You can write short messages on your device and save them for later. When you bump your toy with another Tamagotchi Friends, you can send these saved messages. It’s like having a tiny Facebook just for Tamagotchis.
3. The new Tamagotchi Friends has 4 ways to connect with others:
- BFF bump: You can get jewelry or play a game to win points.
- Visits: Your pets can do things together.
- Marriage: This happens on its own when the time is right.
- Gifts: You can give things to other Tamagotchis.
4. There’s also a “Secret” option where you can get special jewelry. Remember, you can only connect with others 5x each day.
App and Interactive Clothing Line
Characters
Male Characters
| Name | Growth Stage | Obtaining |
|---|---|---|
| Aokumotchi | Baby | Hatches at birth |
| Mitsumarutchi | Child | Random evolution from Aokumotchi |
| Turtletchi | Child | Random evolution from Aokumotchi |
| Cosmotchi | Teenager | Good care from any male child |
| Maimaitchi | Teenager | Average care from any male child |
| Bokuhoshitchi | Teenager | Bad care from any male child |
| Mametchi | Adult | Social trait and 0-3 care mistakes from Cosmotchi, or 0 care mistakes from either Maimaitchi or Bokuhoshitchi |
| Righttchi | Adult | Active trait and 0-3 care mistakes from Cosmotchi, or 0 care mistakes from either Maimaitchi or Bokuhoshitchi |
| Knighttchi | Adult | Gourmet trait and 0-3 care mistakes from Cosmotchi, or 0 care mistakes from either Maimaitchi or Bokuhoshitchi |
| Wagassiertchi | Adult | Social trait and 4 care mistakes from Cosmotchi, 1-2 care mistakes from Maimaitchi, or 1 care mistake from Bokuhoshitchi |
| Kuchipatchi | Adult | Gourmet trait and 4 care mistakes from Cosmotchi, 1-2 care mistakes from Maimaitchi, or 1 care mistake from Bokuhoshitchi |
| Tacttchi | Adult | Social trait and 5-6 care mistakes from Cosmotchi, 3-4 care mistakes from Maimaitchi, or 2-3 care mistakes from Bokuhoshitchi |
| Monakatchi | Adult | Gourmet trait and 5-6 care mistakes from Cosmotchi, 3-4 care mistakes from Maimaitchi, or 2-3 care mistakes from Bokuhoshitchi |
| Charatchi | Adult | Social trait and 7 or more care mistakes from Cosmotchi, 5 or more care mistakes from Maimaitchi, or 4 or more care mistakes from Bokuhoshitchi |
| Acchitchi | Adult | Active trait and 7 or more care mistakes from Cosmotchi, 5 or more care mistakes from Maimaitchi, or 4 or more care mistakes from Bokuhoshitchi |
| Spacytchi | Adult | Gourmet trait and 7 or more care mistakes from Cosmotchi, 5 or more care mistakes from Maimaitchi, or 4 or more care mistakes from Bokuhoshitchi |
Female Characters
| Name | Growth Stage | Obtaining |
|---|---|---|
| Pinkbotchi | Baby | Hatches at birth |
| Terupotchi | Child | Random evolution from Pinkbotchi |
| Petithanatchi | Child | Random evolution from Pinkbotchi |
| Neotchi | Teenager | Good care from any female child |
| Nokobotchi | Teenager | Average care from any female child |
| Painaputchi | Teenager | Bad care from any female child |
| Yumemitchi | Adult | Social trait and 0-3 care mistakes from Neotchi, or 0 care mistakes from either Nokobotchi or Painaputchi |
| Kiraritchi | Adult | Active trait and 0-3 care mistakes from Neotchi, or 0 care mistakes from either Nokobotchi or Painaputchi |
| Pianitchi | Adult | Gourmet trait and 0-3 care mistakes from Neotchi, or 0 care mistakes from either Nokobotchi or Painaputchi |
| Coffretchi | Adult | No trait and 0-3 care mistakes from Neotchi, or 0 care mistakes from either Nokobotchi or Painaputchi |
| Himespetchi | Adult | Social trait and 4 care mistakes from Neotchi, 1-2 care mistakes from Nokobotchi, or 1 care mistake from Painaputchi |
| Julietchi | Adult | Active trait and 4 care mistakes from Neotchi, 1-2 care mistakes from Nokobotchi, or 1 care mistake from Painaputchi |
| Patitchi | Adult | Gourmet trait and 4 care mistakes from Neotchi, 1-2 care mistakes from Nokobotchi, or 1 care mistake from Painaputchi |
| Furifuritchi | Adult | No trait and 4 care mistakes from Neotchi, 1-2 care mistakes from Nokobotchi, or 1 care mistake from Painaputchi |
| Memetchi | Adult | Social trait and 5-6 care mistakes from Neotchi, 3-4 care mistakes from Nokobotchi, or 2-3 care mistakes from Painaputchi |
| Kiramotchi | Adult | Active trait and 5-6 care mistakes from Neotchi, 3-4 care mistakes from Nokobotchi, or 2-3 care mistakes from Painaputchi |
| Decoratchi | Adult | Gourmet trait and 5-6 care mistakes from Neotchi, 3-4 care mistakes from Nokobotchi, or 2-3 care mistakes from Painaputchi |
| Hoshigirltchi | Adult | Social trait and 7 or more care mistakes from Neotchi, 5 or more care mistakes from Nokobotchi, or 4 or more care mistakes from Painaputchi |
| Harptchi | Adult | Active trait and 7 or more care mistakes from Neotchi, 5 or more care mistakes from Nokobotchi, or 4 or more care mistakes from Painaputchi |
| Tropicatchi | Adult | Gourmet trait and 7 or more care mistakes from Neotchi, 5 or more care mistakes from Nokobotchi, or 4 or more care mistakes from Painaputchi |
English Manual
Growth Chart
Notes:
– I’m not exactly sure of everything that determines care, but feeding and playing with the Tamagotchi definitely do
– A Tamagotchi becomes social if you send or receive at least 10 SMS messages while the Tamagotchi is a teen
– A Tamagotchi becomes active if you play coin catch with it 10 times while it is a teenager (Other games might also work)
– A Tamagotchi becomes gourmet if you feed it at least 15 meals while it is a teenager (I feel like this should only apply to meals that are purchased versus the default bread, but I can’t find anywhere this happens, so I suspect it works with the bread too).
– If you achieve more than one condition above, you get the personality for the first one you achieve. So once a personality is set, you can’t change it.
– By “random” in the table, I mean random within the row for the care level
