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Before you power on your device, let’s get you acquainted with its button layout. The three buttons to the right of the screen are, from top to bottom: A, B and C. Their functions are as follows:

• A - Select: This lets you cycle through the different icons at the top and bottom of the device. This also lets you choose between different menu items. When viewing the clock, this toggles the display between 12 hour and 24 time.
• B - Confirm: Once you have highlighted an icon or menu item, press B to confirm that selection. If no icon is highlighted, and you are not in a menu, B will show you the clock.
• C - Cancel: If you have an icon highlighted, C will cancel the selection, making it so no icon is highlighted. If you are in a menu, C will take you out of the menu.

Sometimes you can press two buttons together to create a different effect. The following combos exist:

• A+C on main screen. This will allow you to mute the sound on the device. Once this combo is pressed, you’ll see a menu with “On” or “Off” letting you toggle the device’s sound. Useful for school, work or other times when you don’t need beeps disrupting everything.
• A+C on clock screen. This lets you change the time. Changing time will not speed up your Digimon’s growth, but you can adjust it to fit your own schedule.
• A+C on the Death Screen/Computer. This gives you the option to hatch a new egg after your Digimon kicks the bucket. Once you press this combo, a new bouncing egg will appear, ready to hatch after a minute.

That’s the reset button! You shouldn’t need to push it very often, but if at any point you think you want to reset your Digimon, you can press this button to do so. WARNING: This button will restart your device completely, meaning any Digimon you have active will be lost and you’ll start over from an egg. Be absolutely sure this is what you want before resetting.

Your device uses two LR44 batteries, so make sure to have some spares handy! Keep in mind that the Pendulum does NOT have a save feature, so replacing the batteries will reset your device. Be sure this is what you want to do before replacing the batteries.

Because it contains a pendulum: A little clacky thingy that keeps track of the number of times you shake the device vertically. Unlike the Pendulum Ver. 20th which uses an accelerometer, the Pendulum uses a physical clacker to register shakes. It’s super important that this component works perfectly to get the most out of your device, as it affects Training and Battles!

WAIT! Let’s make sure you know what the Menus are first.

Various important stats about your Digimon appear here.

• Age - How many days your Digimon has been alive (even if it says years)
• Weight - How much your Digimon weighs, in Gigabytes. If you hit 99 Gigabytes, your Digimon will get sick! Eating adds weight while trainings and battles shed weight
• Hungry - As time passes, these hearts will empty. Feed your Digimon meat to fill the hearts back up.
• Strength - Your Digimon likes to be at maximum strength, so refill these hearts by training or feeding protein
• DP - Your stamina. This is required for battling and training. If you have no DP, you can’t fight or train your Digimon. Training will require 0.5 DP while battles require 1 DP. You also need full DP in order to Jogress. DP is restored by a full nights sleep or by feeding protein pills. Feeding 4 pills will restore 1 DP, but this won’t have any effect if your Digimon is sick.
• Battle Record - Number of wins vs. number of losses with your win percentage below it. A high win percentage is required to reach higher evolution stages without Jogressing, so use this section to keep track of things.
• Type - There are 4 types/attributes: Vaccine, Data, Virus, and Free. These operate in a Rock-Paper-Scissors format where if your attribute has an advantage over your opponent, you will have a higher chance to win than normal. The Free attribute is reserved for Baby I and Baby II stage Digimon, which can’t battle and won’t have anything listed for their attribute.
• Vaccine is strong against Data
• Data is strong against Virus
• Virus is strong against Vaccine

Having an attribute advantage will make it more likely to emerge victorious from battle. In addition, attribute determines Jogress compatibility and outcome.

• BJ - B stands for Battle, J stands for Jogress. An O next to the letter means your Digimon is capable of that action, an X means it is not.

In addition to the above stats, the following stats aren't displayed on the Stats screen, but are still important.

• Effort - This is a hidden value that makes it more likely for your Digimon to win in battle. Effort is directly linked to training, with each successful training raising your effort by 1 point, up to 40 points total. A Digimon with 0 Effort will be at a drastic disadvantage against the same Digimon with 40 Effort, so be sure to train hard! Also keep in mind that Effort will not carry over across evolution stages.
• Care Mistakes - How many care mistakes you make by missing a Call. This stat resets on each evolution back to 0. See the Call section below for more information.

Even virtual pets need food to survive! Digimon can be given two types of food:

• Meat - Basic food. Giving this to a Digimon will add one heart to the Hungry meter and add one gigabyte to their weight.
• Protein - For strength! Giving this to a Digimon will add one heart to the strength meter, two gigabytes to their weight, and restore their DP by .25 points. Be careful about feeding too many Protein! If your Digimon reaches 99G, it will get sick, and 20 sicknesses will kill your Digimon!

Training is the primary way of adding hearts to the Strength meter, and the only way to raise your Digimon’s hidden Effort value. If training is successful, meaning you get at least one Superhit, you will gain a Strength heart. Your Digimon will also lose one gigabyte of weight every time they train, even if you fail. When training begins, you will be asked to COUNT, which means SHAKE THE DEVICE! Each Digimon requires a specific number of shakes to get the ideal outcome: a Megahit. On a successful Megahit, your Digimon will fire 5 consecutive “double projectiles” and you’ll see a special “MEGAHIT” screen (unless you’re using a Pendulum 1.0 or 1.5). Getting a Megahit will completely fill your Digimon’s Strength and reduce its weight by 8. To get consistent Megahits, try to make your shakes nice and even and only start shaking after the starting beep finishes playing.

Those little metal nodes on the top of your device aren’t just for show, you can use them to connect to another device! After choosing the connection you wish to perform, your device will play a jingle indicating its ready to connect. While the jingle is playing, connect the devices and press the A or B button on one of the devices to initate the connection. Make sure to hold the devices together until you hear a confirmation sound, at which point you can pull them apart and view the result of your connection.

• Battle - This is how you fight other Digimon. Upon choosing this option, you’ll see the “Ready” screen coupled with 3 starting beeps, just like in Training. Once you see the “Count” screen, shake your device and aim for a Megahit. Once the Count ends, you’ll see the “Battle” screen, meaning it’s time to rumble! Connect your device up to your opponent's and enjoy the show.
• Jogress - Apparently if you take two Digimon and smash ‘em together, you get a new Digimon! In order to Jogress, you will need two Digimon Adult stage or higher on separate devices, and both will need to be at full DP. Generally speaking, both Digimon should be at the same evolution stage, but there are exceptions to this. The Digimon on both devices will evolve based on their attribute and the attribute of their partner. For information on what combinations make what Digimon, check out the Evolution Guide.

What’s a virtual pet without virtual poop? Your Digimon will poop in 3 hour intervals, which can pile up if you’re extra negligent. Just select this icon to clean it up, and make sure you never let 8 piles accumulate or else your Digimon will get sick!

When you choose this icon, you are given an option for “On” and “Off,” which toggles the light. Your Digimon will become tired every night, indicated by it switching to a special sleeping animation with an adorable “Z” above it. Turning the light “Off” while your Digimon is tired will put it to sleep, indicated by a black screen and that same floating “Z.” Failing to put a tired Digimon to sleep within 30 minutes of the call will result in a care mistake. If you turn the light off before the Digimon gets tired, it won’t call out and will fall asleep normally with no risk of a care mistake. A sleeping Digimon will still grow, and may even silently evolve while sleeping. Different Digimon will fall asleep at different times, but all Digimon wake up at 8:00 AM. If you attempt to train, battle, or feed your Digimon when it calls out to sleep or is already sleeping, this will cause the Call Light to go out and count as a “Sleep Disturbance,” which will cause a Care Mistake. Your Digimon will wake up an hour later for each Sleep Disturbance with a maximum of 6 extra hours of sleep (2:00 PM wakeup time). If you get 10 Sleep Disturbances in a row, your Digimon will get sick!

If your Digimon gets sick or injured, this is how you heal them! There are two types of ailments: Dots and Skull. Dots means your Digimon is sick (probably because it’s TOO FAT) and Skull means your Digimon is Injured (probably because it LOST A BATTLE). When you select this icon, choose which ailment your Digimon has and it will be healed. Note that if your Digimon gets sick or injured 20 times, it will DIE. These are separate pools, though, so you can get sick 19 times and injured 19 times without dying.

If your Digimon needs you, it will call out to you with a few beeps, and this icon will light up. When this happens, act fast! If the call light goes out before you take care of the Digimon, that counts as a care mistake. The number of care mistakes you have will affect the outcome of your evolution. For evolving to the Child or Adult stages, your number of care mistakes, along with amount of training, will decide what Digimon you evolve into. For evolving to the Perfect or Ultimate stages, too many care mistakes will prevent you from evolving naturally, leaving Jogressing as your only option. Calls may occur for the following reasons:

• The Hungry meter is empty
• The Strength meter is empty
• Your Digimon is tired and wants to go to bed

The call light will go out after 10 minutes for an empty meter, and after 30 minutes for a tired Digimon. Note that if you have sound off, calls will still occur.

It’s time to start raising your Digimon, so pop in those batteries! You’ll see the Bandai logo followed by a clock. Use A to change the hours, B to change the minutes, and C to stop setting the clock. You will then see your very first Digitama (also called a Digi-Egg). The Digitama will hatch after 1 minute, but in the meantime you should SHAKE IT LIKE YOUR LIFE DEPENDS ON IT! Shaking a Digitama 100 times before hatching will increase your odds of evolving past the Adult stage by 10%. Once your Digimon hatches, it’ll scream at you because it’s STARVING. Feed it, train it, and respond to its calls based on what you learned above. Literally nothing you do during this stage matters, but it’s a nice warm up. After an hour of coddling (or ignoring), the Digimon will evolve to its Baby II form.

At this point, how you care for your Digimon begins to matter. Care mistakes are now being tracked on your device, but you won’t see a meter for that anywhere, so if you are concerned about that, you will just have to keep track separately. The number of care mistakes you make will decide which Child stage your Digimon will evolve into.

Evolution will occur at set times depending on your Digimon, based on when the previous evolution occurred. Specific evolution times for each Digimon may be found on the Evolution Guide, but the time ranges are as follows:

• Digitama to Baby I - 1 Minute
• Baby I to Baby II - 1 Hour
• Baby II to Child - 6-12 Hours
• Child to Adult - 20-32 Hours
• Adult to Perfect - 60-76 Hours
• Perfect to Ultimate - 68-86 Hours

The timer ticks no matter what unless the clock screen is on “Set,” so your Digimon will grow even while sleeping. So long as you don’t completely neglect your Digimon, you are pretty much guaranteed to reach the Adult stage. The Perfect and Ultimate stages require 30 battles total to reach, and these battles must be completed before your Digimon’s evolution period ends. Once fulfilled, this 30 battle requirement will stay fulfilled from the Adult to Ultimate evolution stages. A good win percentage is also required for evolution. The minimum win percentage is 40%, but a higher win percentage will increase your chances of evolving further. Alternatively, you can also choose to Jogress to reach the Perfect or Ultimate stages, but some Perfect stage Digimon can only proceed with natural evolution, and some can only proceed via Jogress. Note that if your Digimon does not evolve naturally within its listed lifespan, it will never be able to evolve naturally again, even if it has been Jogressed.

While you aren't interacting with your Digimon, it will move around the screen doing different animations. These animations are all just for show, and don't mean anything by themselves, but they sure are endearing!

As your Digimon gets older, it’ll try harder and harder to die. You could still potentially keep it alive forever, but let’s face it— life happens. You’re gonna forget it at home one day and come back to find that it’s returned to data. So sad. There are actually several ways your Digimon can die, including the following:

• Getting sick 20 times in one form
• Getting injured 20 times in one form
• Getting a care mistake 20 times in one form
• Getting a care mistake 5 times upon or after reaching the evolution window for Perfect or Ultimate
• Remaining sick or injured for 6 hours

Sometimes, you may be able to prevent death! When a Digimon is about to die, it stops moving and lets out a series of cries that get progressively more desperate for one minute. This is your chance! SHAKE! SHAKE YOUR DEVICE! SHOW YOUR LOVE BY SHAKING! If you shake hard enough, you very well could save it. Please never do this to a real pet. Ever.

For those of you that couldn’t save your Digimon, you are now looking at an old school computer. Or, if you took exceptional care of your Digimon, you’ll see it lay an egg before the computer appears! (see Traited Egg). Either way, your Digimon has died and converted back into raw data. Oh well! LET’S MAKE A NEW ONE! Press A+C simultaneously to spawn a new bouncing Digitama, and don’t forget to shake 100 times!

If you manage to keep your Digimon alive longer than its natural lifespan (listed in the Evolution Guide), you will get a Traited Egg when it dies. After the death animation, you will see your Digimon lay an egg before a final death beep plays and the computer appears. This will grant the next Digimon you hatch an additional 10% chance to evolve to Perfect and Ultimate. Traited Eggs do not stack, so your highest chance of evolution will always be 70% if you fulfilled battles, shook your egg and hatched from a Traited Egg.

To get the most out of your Pendulum, you’ll want to make sure your shaker is working perfectly, since it affects training and battles. Here are some tips for keeping this all-important component in tip-top shape:

• Check Accuracy using the Screen Test feature: Don’t think your pendulum is registering shakes? By holding the A button while pressing Reset, your device will enter Screen Test mode. You’ll see a series of test screens that you can navigate by pressing the buttons. When you get to a screen with the device version over four zeros (0000), you’ve reached the Shake Counter. Shake your pendulum and check to see if the number increases. If every shake raises the number by 1, you’re golden. If not, you may need to perform further maintenance.


• Clean your pendulum: If you’re positive your shakes aren’t registering, it’s time for a bit of surgery. Open up the battery compartment and remove the batteries. Then, unscrew each of the four screws that hold the two halves of your device together. Next, carefully separate the two halves of the shell, making sure you don’t put stress on the speaker wire. Using isopropyl alcohol (90% or higher), wipe off the contact points between the clacker and the rubber pad. You may need to unscrew and remove the pad to make enough space to clean both effectively. Once you’re done cleaning, reassemble the pendulum and check the shaker using Screen Test mode.


• Practice: Getting consistent Megahits on a Pendulum can take time. Due to age and quirks between individual devices, the recommended shake counts may not work for you. In this case, practice with multiple shake counts, techniques, and directions to see what consistently gets you that Megahit. As long as your pendulum is registering shakes, you’re guaranteed to find the sweet spot eventually. Just keep at it!