Sickness

Sickness

Sprites:

Regular: Injury: Toothache: Downheartedness:

Sickness is a status condition in which the player's Tamagotchi becomes severely ill, and the user must respond quickly to return the Tamagotchi to normal health. It was introduced on the original Tamagotchi, and has appeared on almost every release since.

Function

The standard sickness is portrayed by a skull floating next to the Tamagotchi, with the Tamagotchi looking upset. The Tamagotchi will refuse to eat food, play games, or use any items, though the user may still use the Meter and Flush icons. The user must use the Medicine icon (or, on later releases, the Clover icon) to restore the Tamagotchi to normal, but must do it within a limited time frame. Failing to respond in time may cause early Death.

A Tamagotchi naturally falls ill close to its time of Evolution. For the Baby Stage, this is typically within 20 minutes. For all other stages, it may be anywhere between 12 and 24 hours. Sickness can also be deliberately induced through neglect, by leaving Hungry or Happy hearts empty or letting poo occupy the screen for too long.

On the original Tamagotchi, the Tamagotchi would also spontaneously become sick as it aged. If the user is able to keep it alive past the age of 10, it will become sick at the age of 12, and get sick again every three days (15, 18, etc.). Each time it gets sick, its hearts will drop faster than they previously did, until the Tamagotchi eventually dies.

On the Tamagotchi Angel, the Angel would never get sick unless the user turns off the lights while the Angel is awake. Doing this too many times would trigger it to mutate into Deviltchi.

On the color Tamagotchis, the screen fades to a translucent dark blue when the Tamagotchi becomes sick.

Babies will also become sick on two occasions on color Tamagotchis as opposed to once on other releases. On most releases babies show smaller skulls, known as "baby bugs".

One skull will appear on the screen at one time. So far, the only situation where more than one is seen is when an adult Tamagotchi has a baby and gets sick, and its baby becomes sick before the parent is cured. This can also happen in reverse.

Variations

Injury

Injury is a variation of sickness that occurs exclusively on the Tamagotchi Ocean and the Mori de Hakken! Tamagotch. For this variation, the Tamagotchi only becomes sick when the user fails to prevent a predator attack. Like a standard illness, repeated injuries can lead to a shorter lifespan and death.

On the Tamagotchi Ocean, it is represented by a skull. On the Morino, it is represented by the Mushitchi completely encased in a cocoon of bandages, leaning on a crutch with only its eyes visible. The sprite for every character injured is the same, with the exception of the two secret characters, Twinaritchi and Helmetchi, who have their own unique sprites.

Toothache

Toothaches, also known as Cavities, were first seen on the original Tamagotchi, and have appeared on almost all modern releases, alongside the normal sickness. It occurs if a Tamagotchi eats fifteen consecutive snacks in a short period of time. The image for this sickness is represented by a broken tooth, though it was represented by the standard skull on the original Tamagotchi. Babies and adults can't get toothache.

Downheartedness

Downheartedness is a negative status condition which featured on every color Tamagotchi starting with the Tamagotchi iD. It also appears on the Tamagotchi Nano. It happens when an adult gains a Care Mistake and replaces the skull. It is represented by three vertical lines, one of which is longer than the others. On releases starting with the Tamagotchi 4U, child characters can become downhearted as well as adults, and only occur when the user misses a care call for an empty happiness bar.