The Tamagotchi Keitai (Keitai Kaitsuu! Tamagotchi Plus) and its red-screen sibling, the Akai, are two Japanese Tamagotchis you can spot by the antenna on the side. They are the models that introduced Gotchi Points, the Tamagotchi currency. This instruction guide in English covers the setup, the money, the travelling shop, the games, connections and marriage.
Keitai and Akai: what are they?
| Keitai (K-Tama) | Akai | |
|---|---|---|
| Japanese name | Keitai Kaitsuu! Tamagotchi Plus | Keitai Kaitsuu! Tamagotchi Plus Akai Series |
| Release | 23 November 2004, for the brand’s 8th anniversary | July 2005 |
| Screen | Black pixels | Red pixels |
| Shell | Antenna on the left-hand side | The same shell as the Keitai, in 20 colourways |
| Setting | Tamagotchi Plus | Makkakka Town, with new characters, foods and games |
“Keitai” is Japanese for “mobile phone”: the Keitai could connect to a Japanese phone app called Tamagotchi Park, which has since shut down. Both models were sold in Japan only. The Akai runs essentially the same programming as the Keitai, so everything below applies to both unless stated otherwise.
Starting it up
- Set the date and time: A changes the digit, B confirms. You set the month, the day, the hour and then the minutes.
- Enter your own birthday.
- Wait for the egg to hatch: it takes about a minute, and the screen then shows the baby’s gender.
- Give it a name, in hiragana (Japanese characters), up to 5 characters long.
The life cycle
| Stage | Length | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|
| Baby | 1 hour | It falls ill after 10 minutes, takes a 5-minute nap and asks for discipline. |
| Child | 24 hours | It can use infrared and receive the shop keeper. It can die if neglected. |
| Teen | 72 hours | The character depends on the care it received as a child and on the generation. |
| Adult | Until marriage | After 3 days, the matchmaker Otokitchi comes round with a partner. |
| Senior | Up to 99 years | An adult that hasn’t married by age 16 becomes a senior. |
After the marriage, the baby is born and the parent leaves for the Tamagotchi planet 24 hours later.
Day-to-day care
- Meter: hunger and happiness; discipline and Gotchi Points; age, weight and name; gender and generation.
- Food: a meal fills one hunger heart, a snack one happiness heart. Too many snacks can make it ill.
- Discipline: scold it when it misbehaves or calls for no reason; praise it when it is sad or crying.
- Medicine: treat it when it is ill or has a cavity. More serious cases need two doses.
- Light: a yawn means it is tired. It falls asleep half an hour later, and that is when you switch the light off. It turns the light back on itself in the morning.
- Button C: with no icon selected, press C to watch your Tamagotchi perform a little animation. Teens and adults may even come right up to the screen.
Gotchi Points, the shop keeper and the King
The Keitai was the first Tamagotchi with a currency: Gotchi Points. You can hold up to 9,999 of them, shown in the meter.
- How to earn them: when your Tamagotchi evolves, by winning games (alone or against another Tamagotchi), and by inheriting money from its parents.
- The shop keeper: twice a day, at 11 am and 5 pm, Ojitchi drops by with a food or an item for sale. He brings only one per visit, and you are free to buy it or not.
- The Gotchi King: you can make donations to him. Once you have given 1,000 Gotchi Points, he sends you a reward.
- Items are permanent: foods and items you buy stay in your inventory and can be used without limit, unlike on the Connection V3.
Do the passwords still work?
Yes. Many items were unlocked with passwords, through the phone app or during promotions. Those codes are universal and still work on any device; most still cost Gotchi Points once entered.
The mini-games
Games fill happiness, take weight off and earn Gotchi Points. A perfect game pays 100 Gotchi Points.
| Keitai | Akai (reworked version) |
|---|---|
| Catch the notes: catch the falling music notes while avoiding the poop. | Throw away poop: the opposite! Catch the poop in the bin while avoiding the Gotchi Points. 100 points for a perfect game. |
| Basketball | Going postal: get the letters into the postbox. 30 letters makes a perfect game. |
| Running race | Swimming race: guess which place your Tamagotchi will finish in against two rivals. |
Connections and compatibility
The Keitai and Akai connect over infrared:
- With each other (Keitai, Akai, Hanerutchi 1): gift exchanges, two-player mini-games and marriage.
- With the Entama and Uratama: the Gotchi Points exchange game only.
- With the Japanese Tamagotchi Plus: gifts and games, but no marriage.
- With the Deka Tamagotchi (the home-sized model): it can hand over items or Gotchi Points.
- Not with the Hanerutchi 2.
The two-player games
- The money bag: each player stakes a bag of Gotchi Points, and one of the two walks away with both.
- Balancing on the ball: press A or B as fast as you can for 10 seconds to fill the gauge. The loser falls off.
- The balloons: each player picks one of three balloons. When they burst, one reveals a flower and the other a poop.
- The trumpet: memorise a 5-note tune and play it back with the three buttons. This is the only game with no winner or loser.
Marriage
Two Tamagotchis can marry by connecting if they are adults, of opposite gender, of marrying age and with a high enough friendship level. On the Akai, marriage by connection only works between two Akai units. Without a partner, the matchmaker Otokitchi comes round with a spouse three days after adulthood.
What is special about the Akai
- Red foods: rice, pizza, shrimp sushi, a vegetable, a sundae, watermelon, peach and wine.
- The wine: a baby or child refuses to drink it. A teen throws up and an adult staggers about, but neither loses hearts nor falls ill.
- The graveyard: the Akai remembers your parents and up to three deceased Tamagotchis. If you visit a departed Tamagotchi while Death is coming for your current character, it wakes up and chases Death away, which clears one care mistake. This works only once per deceased Tamagotchi.
- Special characters: Kurokotchi becomes Wooltchi if you use the “Wool” item. Paparatchi comes from marrying Ribotchi and Mametchi between two Akai units. And two seniors married between two Akai units produce Oyajitchi.
Frequently asked questions
Can you play a Keitai without reading Japanese?
Yes, the care functions all run on icons. Only a few screens show Japanese text, such as entering the name in hiragana and some menus; this guide walks you through them.
Can you still connect a Keitai to a phone?
No. The Tamagotchi Park app no longer exists, and it only ever worked with Japanese phones. The item passwords, however, still work.
How does it differ from the Tamagotchi Connection V3?
The Connection V3, sold in the West, looks very similar to the Keitai. But on the V3 the foods you buy are single-use, whereas on the Keitai they stay available without limit.
What battery do the Keitai and Akai take?
One CR2032 cell per device. See our guide What battery does my Tamagotchi need?
Browse our Tamagotchi Keitai and Akai units, and all our Tamagotchi Connection models. You can also read our Entama and Uratama guide, our Connection V1 guide and all our Tamagotchi guides.