The Tamagotchi Morino, also known as the Forestgotchi, has you raise a forest insect: a tiny caterpillar that becomes a beetle, a ladybug or another “Mushitchi” depending on how you raise it. This instruction guide in English covers the egg choice, managing weight and cocoon temperature, the predators and the full growth chart.
What is the Tamagotchi Morino?
Its Japanese name is Mori de Hakken! Tamagotchi (森で発見!たまごっち, “Discovered in the forest!”), and it launched in Japan in February 1998. A North American release was planned for the summer of 1998 under the name “Tamagotchi Garden”, but it was cancelled: every Morino is therefore a Japanese unit.
- Characters: the Mushitchi, insect-inspired Tamagotchis living in the forest.
- Shell: the same size and shape as the original Tamagotchi.
- Sensor: it reacts to tapping and to shouting, which is how you scare predators off.
- Batteries: two LR44 cells. The Morino shows “BATT” at the bottom of the screen when they run low.
Starting up and choosing your egg
- A white egg appears on start-up. Set the clock first.
- Then choose between the white egg and the black-spotted egg. This choice matters: it decides which evolutions are available to you.
- The egg hatches after 3 minutes.
Setting the clock and pausing
- With no icon selected, press B to display the clock.
- Hold A and C to enter setting mode.
- A advances the hours, B the minutes, C confirms.
Pause trick: while the clock is in setting mode, your Mushitchi does not age, does not lose hearts and does not poop. Leave it on that screen to pause the game.
To mute: press A and C together from the main screen.
Why has my Morino turned into a tiny dot?
This is normal and unique to the Morino: after 10 seconds without touching the device, the screen zooms out and your insect becomes a small black dot wandering between two trees. Press any button to zoom back in.
The Morino icons explained
| Icon | Function |
|---|---|
| Food | A choice of several foods (see below). |
| Game | Find the leaf hidden under one of four hats. |
| Bathroom | Clean up the poop. |
| “?” box | Only selectable during a predator attack. |
| Medicine | Treat injuries. |
| Light | Switch the light on or off. |
| Meter | Hunger, happiness, age and weight (in milligrams). |
| Attention | An indicator that lights up on its own when your insect needs you. |
The foods
Every food counts as a meal: you cannot feed your insect when the hunger meter is full. There is no ordinary snack, so managing weight comes down to choosing the right food.
- The leaf: +1 hunger heart, +1 mg. The only food available at the baby stage.
- The special snack: +1 hunger heart, +2 mg. It changes with the time of day: cherries in the morning, ice cream in the afternoon, seeds in the evening. Available from the child stage onwards.
- The adult’s own food: specific to each adult character, it gives +1 hunger heart, +1 happiness heart and +1 mg.
- Kabutotchi’s food: turns up at random to make Kabutotchi grow.
The hat mini-game
A leaf is hidden under one of four hats: move the cursor with A and choose with B. A game runs for 4 rounds and you need to win 2. A win gives +1 happiness heart, and a perfect game (4 out of 4) gives 2. Every game takes off 1 mg.
Predators and injuries
The Morino never falls ill: instead it gets injured when a predator attacks.
- When your insect is in danger it calls you, and a special animation runs for 2 minutes.
- Select the “?” box: the screen shows the predator, a giant footprint or Keropyontchi the frog.
- Tap the side of the shell to drive it away.
Do nothing within those 2 minutes and the attack lands. Your insect then appears bandaged and leaning on a crutch: use the medicine icon quickly, because an untreated injury shortens its life. Injuries become more likely when happiness is low, and attacks grow more dangerous as your insect ages.
Weight and cocoon temperature
On the Morino, the teen stage is replaced by the cocoon stage (Mayutchi). During that phase you cannot interact with your insect at all: your only lever is the cocoon temperature.
- When does the cocoon form? As soon as the caterpillar (Imotchi) reaches 40 mg. The game checks its weight at the 12th, 24th and 36th waking hour. If 40 mg is never reached, the cocoon forms at the 48th hour and leads to a lower-tier evolution.
- Setting the temperature: open the meter. A gauge runs from cold (C, on the left) to hot (H, on the right). Press A to point the arrow, then B to confirm: the temperature then drifts that way over time.
- Beware of extremes: an extreme temperature held for many hours, especially near the end of the 24-hour cocoon stage, can kill your insect.
Tamagotchi Morino growth chart
From the white egg
Babymotchi (baby) → Imotchi (caterpillar, after 12 waking hours) → Mayutchi (cocoon) → adult, 24 hours later. Which adult you get depends on when the caterpillar hit 40 mg, on the quality of your care and on the cocoon temperature.
| 40 mg reached… | Warm cocoon | Cold cocoon |
|---|---|---|
| within 36 waking hours, with good care | Koganetchi | Tentotchi |
| within 36 h with poor care, or within 24 h with good care | Chobitamatchi | Minotchi |
| within 24 h with poor care, or as early as 12 h | Mushibatchi | Gejitchi |
| never, within 48 hours | Funkorogatchi | |
Worth knowing: the longer you take to reach 40 mg (within the 36-hour window), the better the adult. Driving off every predator counts too.
From the spotted egg: Kabutotchi
The spotted egg hatches straight into Imotchi, which spins its cocoon 1 to 4 days later and becomes Kabutotchi, a rhinoceros beetle, a day after that if the temperature is handled well. Kabutotchi has a stat of its own: its length in millimetres. The aim is to grow it as long as possible using its special food, and its length also sets its lifespan.
The secret characters: Twinaritchi and Helmetchi
For both of these, start from the white egg, feed the caterpillar nothing but the special snack, get it to 40 mg within 24 waking hours and keep its weight between 40 and 49 mg.
- Twinaritchi: then keep the cocoon warm.
- Helmetchi: keep the cocoon at a medium temperature. Your insect then reverts to a caterpillar; bring its weight back below 40 mg, then repeat the whole process for a second cocoon.
Light, sleep and end of life
- Turn the light off when your insect falls asleep, before the Attention indicator goes out, or it counts as a care mistake.
- It only ages while awake: it gains a year each time it wakes up.
- Answer calls within 15 minutes, or the indicator goes out and a care mistake is logged.
- It does not call you when it poops: check the screen from time to time.
A Mushitchi eventually dies of old age or of its injuries; the screen then shows a bush marked with a cross. Press A and C together to return to the egg choice.
Frequently asked questions
Was the Tamagotchi Morino released outside Japan?
No. The Western version, “Tamagotchi Garden”, was cancelled before release: every Morino is a Japanese unit.
My caterpillar won’t spin a cocoon, why?
It hasn’t reached 40 mg yet. Give it more of the special snack (+2 mg) and cut back on games, which take weight off. Past 48 waking hours the cocoon forms anyway, but the adult will be a lower tier.
My insect has a bandage and a crutch, what should I do?
A predator has injured it. Use the medicine icon straight away: an untreated injury shortens its life.
Do I need to read Japanese to play a Morino?
No. Like the other vintage models, the Morino works entirely through icons, with no on-screen text to read.
Browse our Tamagotchi Morino (Forestgotchi) units and the Tamagotchi Ocean, its underwater cousin. You can also read all our Tamagotchi guides.