Life cycle

A chao runs egg, child, adult, rebirth, then starts again as a child of the next generation. Nothing in that chain is permanent except the genetics.

The stages

Egg

Hatches after 240 seconds of the garden actually running. It does not age while you are away, so an egg left overnight is still an egg.

Child

Lasts 24 hours of age. This stage decides what the chao becomes: type and alignment are both read at the moment it evolves. See evolution.

Adult

Lasts 7 days. An adult can keep changing shape, see second evolution, but its type is settled.

Adults that have become Chaos Chao are immortal. They keep aging and never cocoon.

Time while you are away

Chao age when the game is closed, but slowly.

• A child ages at 1/7 of real time.
• An adult ages at 1/5 of real time.

Both apply to the wall-clock gap since you last played. A child left a full real day picks up a little over three hours of age. An adult left a week gains about a day and a half.

You cannot lose a chao by not playing. You also cannot grow one by leaving it alone: active time is worth five to seven times as much, and everything that steers a chao needs you present.

Cocoon

Both transitions run through a cocoon, which takes about 11 seconds.

The transition waits for a resting moment. The chao must be idle, wandering, sitting or happy. A chao mid-swim or mid-climb does not evolve until it settles.

A chao slightly past its time is normal. Leave it and it will cocoon at the next quiet moment.

Rebirth

At the end of its 7 days an adult cocoons and returns as a child, one generation on.

What carries over

Half of each stat level. STAT_RETENTION is 0.5, so a level 40 swim returns as level 20, rounded down. Progress toward the next level resets to zero.

Every grade, exactly as it was. A chao that rolled S in fly keeps S in fly permanently. Generations compound because the pace multiplier survives while the levels rebuild on top of it.

Appearance genetics, untouched: colour, shiny, jewel, name, parents, id.

Generation, incremented by one.

What resets

• Alignment, back to 0 (neutral). Re-earn it with fruit.
• Type investment, the record of what you fed it. Next life’s type is decided from scratch.
• Adult investment and any morph locks, which described a body that no longer exists.
• Care stats.
• Animal parts. A reborn chao sheds its ears, wings and tail.
• The animals-given roster. Chaos Chao credit is per life: a full set of 21 must be gifted again inside a single life.
• Adult form and its committed sub-type.

A rebirth resets everything except pace and looks. It is how you fix a chao you raised into the wrong shape, and how you build a strong one, because half of a big number is still a big number and the grades never move.

If you are aiming at something specific, plan the life rather than the chao. You get another go in seven days.

See them all

The egg, the hatch, the child and every adult shape are rendered on the chao forms page.