Even if you understand how the individual functions work, you will still need a proper strategy to keep your pet alive. Knowing what the options do is not enough to be successful at this pet, but when you do succeed, it is an incredibly satisfying victory. This guide will help you with the first generation of vintage Giga Pets and some Giga Pets Plus.
This is the same method I have used for all my Giga Pets since I was 12 years old in 1997. I used to teach this to the other kids at school when their Gigas kept dying. Follow this method to a "T", and you will have no problems keeping your health score at 100.
Startup
When you startup your pet, you will begin with 0 hunger, 80 discipline, 80 happiness, and 80 health. There is a pattern I use when caring for my pet, and I call each round of the steps a "care session".
- Teach your pet one trick. Feed a reward to lock in the correct action. (hunger: 5; discipline: 80)
- Perform the learned trick 2 times. Throw in a reward here and there 2 times. (hunger: 15; discipline: 100)
- Feed your pet 4 meals which add up to 80 hunger points. (hunger: 95; discipline: 100)
- Play a game.
- Wait 20 seconds, and your pet will poop. I wait here, because otherwise it will poop while you are playing a game, and it makes the game stutter.
- Clean up the poop. When your pet poops, you will lose a little discipline. Don't worry about this. It's normal.
- Play 2 more games.
- Give pet a bath.
- You're done! Leave it alone for a couple hours except to clean up any poop!
Important Notes
- When filling the hunger meter, never go over 100. I feed until I hit the 80's or 90's, then I stop. If you do this, then play with the pet, the health score will go up by a point.
- I try to use treats or rewards to get the score in to an "odd" number 10's. So, 20's would be an even number section, and the 30's would be an odd number section. I do this so that I can easily get the hunger score into the 90's using only meals, since they are worth 20 points, and I like to make sure the last item my pet eats is a meal.
- For example, if my hunger is 25, and I feed my pet 3 meals, then my hunger score is 85. If I feed any more meals, then my score will go over 100. If my hunger is 35, and I feed my pet 3 meals, then my hunger is 95, which is very close to 100 without going over, giving me a health point up, and giving me more time between care sessions.
- If I am at 25 hunger, then I feed my pet 2 treats during tricks to get the hunger to 35. Then 3 meals gets me to 95. Done!
- Only bathe your pet once per day
- Only take your pet to the vet once per day. Vet care isn't a necessity, so you can skip it, and raise the health by care instead. This is what I normally do.
- Do not tell your pet to sleep when they do not need it. This can cause their health to drop.
- Only play with your pet 3-4 times per care session, or they will become too tired.
Maintenance Care
I normally wait until the health scores are in the 30's to bring them back up. Check the steps below for maintenance care steps you use after you have already done the startup section steps.
- Wait for hunger and discipline to hit somewhere in the 30's.
- Perform the learned trick or tricks 7 times, or however many it takes to get to 100 discipline. Going over 100 on discipline is perfectly fine.
- Eat 3 meals getting hunger into the 90's.
- Play a game.
- Wait for a poop, then clean up the poop.
- Bathe your pet. (Since this is only done once per day, I do this in the first care session of the day, then wait until tomorrow.)
- Play 2 more games.
- Done! Your health points will have increased! As long as you do not neglect your pet, you can get to 100 and maintain using this method.