Chao guide

A large guide that contains Chao information spanning over all current released games that contain Chao you can raise, along with Chao that are playable or notable characters documented in the miscellania section.

Note that I don't currently have discs for Sonic Adventure and Sonic Adventure 2, though I would be interested in them in NSTC-NA format as I have both a VMU and Dreamcast console. I'll also only cover information I myself have seen and verified, so check back often!

Chao basics

A Chao (pronounced "Tchah-oh") is a small, usually harmless creature with a notoriously short lifespan and an ability to rebirth itself if it was treated correctly and not abused. They are known for their ability to mutate if cared for correctly. They have been around in the Sonic world since at least early tribes of guardian echidnas, if not since the creation of the Chaos Emeralds, or closely after or before.

History

Ancient Chao had different features to the lovable creatures known in modern times, but they weren't all that different. The main difference is that Chao were a darker shade of sky blue, and had three wing "feathers" instead of only two, with longer wing structures.

Chao have been first seen in the clearing surrounding the Master Emerald shrine that later became the Floating Island. They were cared for by Tikal, a peace-loving echidna who developped a bond with Chaos, the guardian of the Chao. Tikal's father, Pachacamac, led his men out of greed to capture the Master Emerald and Chaos Emeralds and use their powers for their own ends. The Chao were attacked in the assault and killed, and Chaos retaliated by eliminating Tikal's tribe.

Tikal, sensing the danger in letting Chaos unleash its great anger upon the land, sealed him within the Master Emerald along with herself. The Chao clearing was all that remained of the ancient land, and the Master Emerald's subsequent energy lifted it in the air. It can be assumed that despite their brutal end, the Chao were well cared for by Tikal and thus reincarnated, leaving their ancestral home for safer havens where no memories of massacre lingered.

Chao are nowadays adored for their cuteness, and most people keep them as pets. Although Chao usually speak their own "language", some of them have learned to communicate with humans and evolved animals, and provide a vast array of services to make caring for Chao much easier.

Chaos

Chaos is the final evolution of a Chao, quite possibly caused by the constant exposure to the Master and Chaos Emeralds. It is logical to assume that it was a Light Chao before, and a normal Chao before all of that. It lived through centuries of peace before Pachacamac led the assault on the Chao, protecting and caring for its brethen.

When it flew into a rage, it absorbed the Chaos Emeralds to make itself more powerful, and destroyed Tikal's tribe and most of the land. Tikal, in retaliation, sealed Chaos in the Master Emerald, forcing it to give up the Chaos Emeralds, and then sealed herself in along with it to keep Chaos prisonner and harmless in the emerald.

Dr. Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik later broke the Master Emerald open and released Chaos, wanting to use it to dispose of Sonic. Tikal was also released, albeit as a spirit. Chaos gradually strengthened itself with the Chaos Emeralds again, and after absorbing all seven emeralds, turned into the creature known as Perfect Chaos, and tried to wash away Station Square with tidal waves, violent storms, and its own watery body.

Sonic, absorbing the positive energy of the Chaos Emeralds and urged by Tikal, battled Perfect Chaos as Super Sonic, and neutralized it. Chaos was reverted to its base Chaos 0 form, and slunk away into the unknown as a simple puddle, accompanied by Tikal's light.

Tikal and Chaos both make a return in Sonic Adventure 2, as special characters in the Master Emerald-hunting game. Chaos' special ability was that he could remain underwater indefinitely, echoing the ability of Chao to be unable to drown even if they do not know how to swim.

Gardens

The Chao gardens are the main areas where a Chao can be found. One garden is typically unlocked on a new game, and then two others are unlockable, with the single exception of the Tiny Chao garden, on the first two Sonic Advance games, where the Tiny Chao garden must be unlocked before it can be used. A certain number of normal eggs can be found in a newly-uncovered garden, with the exceptions being the Hero and Dark gardens of Sonic Adventure 2.

Most gardens also provide a pool for Chao to swim in, if they can swim, and native trees from which ripe fruits can be shaken down. Each garden is usually different and, with few exceptions, there are no way to die while in the gardens.

See also: Sonic Adventure gardens and Sonic Adventure 2 gardens

Portable Chao

Both Tiny Chao Gardens on the Sega Party Pack consisting of Sonic Advance and Sonic Pinball Party work, and can each hold one Chao in it.

There are two ways to carry a Chao with you, but only a single Chao per unit. There's the VMU, which stands for Visual Memory Unit, Or a GameBoy Advance, with or without Sonic Advance, Sonic Advance or Sonic Pinball Party.

See also: Chao Adventure, Chao Adventure 2, and Tiny Chao Garden

Chao Kindergarten

Almost all adresses provided in the games are no longer supported by Sonic Team! They're no longer maintained, or lead to a 404 page.

The Chao Kindergarten is exactly what it claims to be: a school specialized for Chao, staffed by Chao that can speak human language. The building houses several services, explained in more detail below.

See also: Black Market and Chao Classroom

Fortune-Telling House

This room is covered in mystical sumbols and odd statues, and is lighted by a candellabra. It houses the Chao Mystic, who plays with a crystal ball, Tarot cards, and prayer beads most of the time. She wears a golden tiara with a teardrop-shaped black gem, and has a purple see-through veil covering her mouth. She's a normal, grown Chao.

You can change your Chao's name here. The Chao Mystic offers to give your Chao a lucky name from a pre-selected list, or you can choose to name your Chao yourself if you refuse the name(s) she gives you.

Health Center

In the Dreamcast version of Sonic Adventure 2, bringing a Chao that died and left behind an egg will result in a game freeze and a possible deletition of the Chao! Don't bring a reincarnated Chao over to the Chao Doctor!

This room, decorated in pale shades of blue and grey for the most part, has a dazzling variety of pills and medicine, in cabinets, pots and on shelves, and two beds for sick Chao. It houses the Chao Doctor, who plays with his stethoscope and his comfy pink office chair. He only has his stethoscope around his neck, ready for use, but he has two wild bat-winged puff of grey hair sprouting from the sides of his head. He's a normal, grown Chao.

You can heal your Chao or see your Chao's medical chart here.

If a Chao has the hiccups or starts coughing, bring it to the Chao Doctor for the cure!

The medical chart contains, on the first page, your Chao's attribute, ability type, and its skills and skill ranks, from the abysmal E to the fantastic S. The second page notes the Chao's personality, its favorite fruit, its age and times of reincarnations, and its health condition. The third page is the Records page, showing the Chao Race and Chao Karate records established by that Chao.

Principal's Office

This room, decorated with a cute Chao university carpet, mahogany wooden elements and a lovely beige wallpaper, has many photos and a diploma on its walls, and a bookshelf. It houses the Chao Professor, who reads and often falls asleep or begins slipping off his chair. He wears thick glasses, and has a greyish-white mustache and goatee. He's a normal, grown Chao.

You can see Professor Chao's tips about Chao here, which are very useful for beginners and is highly recommended that you listen to him before hatching your Chao.

Stat explanation

Unless otherwise noted, all stats are currently in Gamecube (the DX Director's Cut of Sonic Adventure, and the Battle of Sonic Adventure 2) due to being currently unable to offer accurate coverage of the original versions. Anyone wants to sell or give over their Dreamcast disc?

Stats are crucial in the development of a Chao. They influence what it can and can't do, how well it does it, and also influence how it will grow! Stats, so far, seem to maximize at something a bit shy of 3100, excluding an outrageous amount of resets and reincarnations. Of them, the first five are displayed on the tiny menu that appears as you feed, hold, or enhance your Chao, and the next two are hidden values that the game references. The last two are additional meters that appear in the Tiny Chao Garden.

Swim
This indicates the Chao's ability to swim. Unless it has 100 points, it will flail around in pools instead of swimming. At 600 points, it swims like a diver instead of doggie-paddling. In Chao Karate, it tells how much defense the Chao has.
Fly
This indicates the Chao's ability to fly. After it gains about 200 points, it will take flight if it has to jump down, or it's about to crash into something instead of diving in the pool. In Chao Karate, it helps factoring in if the Chao hits its enemy or is hit.
Run
This indicates how the Chao can move. After it gains 100 points (50 in Sonic Adventure DX), it stops crawling and will begin walking about instead. At 600 points, it power-walks instead of walking normally. In Chao Karate, it determines how fast a Chao can attack.
Power
This indicates the Chao's strength. It helps to shake trees and climb cliffs faster, and also raises the Chao's attack power, in and out of Chao Karate.
Stamina
This indicates the Chao's endurance. It mostly serves to give quick bursts of speed during a race in Sonic Adventure 2, and is how a Chao's HP is calculated in Chao Adventure and Chao Adventure 2, and once again is tied to HP in Chao Karate.
Intelligence
This indicates how wise a Chao is. It mostly tells how quickly it can figure out how to interact with machines and match pictures, but also helps the Chao find an efficient shortcut in a race.
Luck
This indicates a Chao's luck. With low luck, a Chao will trip more often, or fall into traps more often. It also factors in on how evasive the Chao is during Chao Karate.
Mood
This is the indicator for the portable Chao's mood, in lieu of their wide range of actions and behaviors in the console games.
Belly
This indicates how hungry a Chao is in the portable games. If it won't eat, it's most likely because its belly is already too full for the fruit it's being given.

Basic care

While a Chao has many needs and many requirements, most people will want to understand the basics before moving on to more complex things. This section applies to all versions of the games, no exception!

Eggs and hatching

There is no substantial proof that Chao faces are directly linked to the hatching locations, methods, and/or characters.

An egg is the most basic state of a Chao. Normal Chao eggs are white with blue spots and yellow tops, but there are other varieties sold in the Tiny Chao Garden shop, the Black Market, and found in the adventure fields of Sonic Adventure. The eggs sold have wide price ranges, going from 500 to 20,000 rings in price!

You can hatch an egg by four methods. You can pick up the egg and nuzzle it, then set it back down and wait for a moment, which is the fastest and gentlest method. You can also let the egg alone and, after a length of time, it will hatch on its own. If you attack an egg or throw it at the wall, it will hatch, but the Chao in that egg will be extremely unhappy.

When you hatch an egg, you will notice the Chao's first possible difference… Faces. It can have a large array of eye and mouth combinations. While on the Dreamcast, a face is randomly generated when the egg hatches, which means that, with time, a Chao will have the wanted face. On the Gamecube and GBA, its face is instead generated when the egg is first loaded into a garden, either on player discovery or mating.

Needs

A Chao has four basic needs it requires, and won't live long without them. If you want to make your Chao live to its fullest, you need to fulfill what it demands while in your care, much like a real pet.

Eating is the most basic need, but also the subtlest if you're not using the Tiny Chao garden and its Belly meter. It's also the easiest to fulfill. As long as you feed your Chao regularly, or at least leave fruits lying around for the Chao to wander into if it's very, very hungry, if you fear you can't handle feeding all your Chao at about the same time so there will be no jealousy. (You DO want a harmonious garden, don't you?)

Next, a Chao needs to sleep. After a long bout of effort and activity, or after eating a lot, a Chao will start to get drowsy, and will eventually fall asleep. If a Chao is asleep, it will most likely make mumbles or snore loudly, something that I first mistook for one of the tigers in the garden roaring. When a Chao sleeps, it has closed eyes, and can sleep on its side, back, stomach, or sitting up. That's why, if a Chao isn't moving and sitting down, you should always see if it's spacing out or asleep… A Chao detests being woken in the middle of its short, two-to-four minutes long nap.

A Chao also needs a safe environment. If it's scared of everything, it might become ill with stress, just like a real pet! If the Chao tends to beeline for the pool and always goes back to it even if it flails around, you should give it enough animals, fruits, and/or drives so that it can swim safely around. If the Chao is being bullied, you most likely want to separate it from its tormentor(s), or make an effort to make the two Chao do activities together, like eating their meals closer, or bringing them both in the pool together, or watching television together… You get the idea. You also need to be careful about attacking it! It usually understands if you intend on hitting it or just accidentally hit it somehow, based on how good your friendship with it is, but it does remember attacks rather well.

The final need a Chao has that must be fulfilled… Is love and care. If the Chao feels that you go above and beyond its expectations in its other needs, it gets much healthier… And it opens the door to one of the Advanced Care features, that of reincarnation. A loved, happy Chao also likes to interact with you on a much more frequent basis, as if it no longer shies away from asking for something it wants, be it food or attention. A happy Chao is also a whole lot more social than a neglected one!

Emotions

The emotions of a Chao are expressed in three ways: actions, which will be covered in the section below; emotes, which are how the little ball, halo, flame or point of light changes forms; and facial expressions, when its default look changes. The emotes and facial expressions often tell you a lot about what it needs, wants, or feels about you.

Emotes

Dot
This is a Chao's normal emote ball. When they have it and their default expression, it means they think about nothing in particular.
Heart
This emote means the Chao is pleased with something that just happened or is happening. Most often, it's due to something you did to them that they like, like petting or picking them up, or because they're ready to mate.
? Mark
This emote means the Chao is puzzled, by one of your actions or something else. See how it will end up reacting.
! Mark
This emote is the natural continuation of the question emote. The Chao found out what should be done, and is going to do it. It can also happen on its own when a Chao is hungry and it sees fruit lying around.
Spiral
This emote means the Chao is upset or tired. Did you wake it up during a nap or attack it? It could also have been pushed into the water accidentally, and you picked it up from the water after. A few fruits, some petting and then leaving it to go back to sleep is advised.

Facial expressions

All of these could also be a Chao's default look, so don't forget to combine all the signals it sends you about its mood!

Eyes open
A Chao's normal look. It doesn't mean anything special, good or bad.
Eyes closed downward
Usually, a Chao with these eyes is asleep. Don't wake it up! Tey can also do that if they're saddened.
Eyes closed upwards
A Chao with happy closed eyes is delighted! It really likes what it's doing at the moment.
Eyes half-closed
Usually, a Chao with these eyes is tired. Did it wake up from its nap?
Swirly eyes
If a Chao has swirly eyes, something is definitely wrong! Did you attack it or wake it up one time too many?
>< eyes
If a Chao squints like that, it could be afraid, choking, screaming, or simply disgruntled.
Smiling open mouth
A Chao with that look is delighted with what it's doing! Keep it up!
Smiling mouth
This is the smile a happy Chao makes, often chained up with the heart emote ball form. The Sonic Adventure 2 Hero Chao has that official mouth shape.
Sharp-teethed grin
This is a mischevious grin. The Sonic Adventure 2 Dark Chao has that official mouth shape.
No mouth
A Chao's normal look. It doesn't mean anything special, good or bad. The Neutral Chao of Sonic Adventure have that official mouth shape.
Pouty scowl
More often than not, it's found on sad, crying Chao.
Sharp-teethed scowl
This happens very rarely, but the few Chao wearing it as anything but a default look are extremely hateful toward you or other Chao. Best to keep it away from what it hates.
Mouth open and tongue out
One of few non-default expressions. It usually happens when a Chao dislikes you and lets it be known.
Downturned open mouth
It appears when a Chao is greatly distressed, or when it's extremely sad.

Actions

Actions are the most surefire way of knowing how a Chao feels, when combined with both emote ball signals and facial expressions. They can mostly be classified into neutral, good, bad, prize-triggered, school-learned and animal-learned categories.

Neutral actions

Crawl
The Chao wriggles its way across the floor. It's either a child, or it doesn't yet have enough Run points to walk around.
Flail
The Chao splashes around, with a distressed look on its face. It doesn't have enough Swim points to swim around. Get it out of the water before it gets a cold!
Sleep
The Chao lies down and goes to sleep, eyes closed. It might shift and get on its belly, side, or back. Sometimes, it sits down instead, but it can often shift from falling asleep sitting to sleeping on its back.
Yawn
The Chao stretches and yawns, shaking its head. It often happens after one of its restful naps, or when it starts to get sleepy.
Eating
This is an automatic version of eating. The Chao sees a coconut, emotes out surprise, and then grabs the fruit with a whistle sound effect to eat it. It happens when a Chao feels hungry.
Trip
If a Chao has low Luck and doesn't crawl, it might make a double-clicky sound effect and sprout a spiral emote. That means it just tripped up. Maybe you have time to pick it up or give it a consoling pet?
Watch
If a Chao nearby begins a learned action, Chao who don't know how to or can't do something similar will sit down and watch.
Pool time!
A Chao might make a noise similar to "agahbahdah dah". After that, they very often beeline for the pool. …They do know how to swim, right?

Positive actions

Clap
A Chao claps in a positive reaction to being carried around by someone they like, or appreciating the performance of other Chao it just watched. In the later case, it helps the involved Chao's friendships.
Hug
While it could also mean a spoiled Chao, if a Chao comes up to you and grabs your leg for attention, it means it likes you and wants a hug from you. A non-spoiled Chao will go away after one or two hugs. It does turn a little chaotic when a full garden decide they like you and want a hug at once…
Giggling
While it could also mean a spoiled Chao, it hops up and down, waving its arms and giggling happily. It likes you, and you didn't hug it when it was snuggling and asking for a hug back.

Negative actions

Tantrum
The Chao is flat on its back, flailing its arms and legs and tossing its head side to side, with a high-pitched scream, crying. It could be the result of hunger pains, in which case giving it food is a good idea, or could be in reaction to being refused a hug. If it's not jealous from favoritism, then it's simply spoiled. Leave it be.

Prize actions

Seed planting
The Chao will carry a seed, find a spot to plant it, and use the scoop to dig a small spot to plant the tree into. If the Chao also has the watering pail, it will also water the tree (and make it grow faster).
Watering
The Chao will move to a tree, emote surprise, and then move back to use the watering pail. It will water the tree, and then do a happy dance, wiggling and raising its arms up thrice after jumping from side to side with its arms raised. If done on a planted tree, it will lengthen its lifespan a bit.
Rattle shake
The Chao will sit down and wave its arms, flapping its wings and shaking the rattle it won. Nothing too spectacular.
Car toy play
The Chao will sit down and roll a shiny red toy car back and forth on the ground. Nothing too spectacular, either.

Class actions

Castanets
The Chao will stand up with a happy smile, hold a red and blue castanet in their hand, and tap it with the other in rhythm.
Sing
The Chao will shift from foot to foot, singing a little tune, and occasionally wiggle around more. There are a few variants on the song it might sing.

Animal actions

Roll
The Chao will lay down and roll to the side, or sit down and roll forward. It learns this behavior from the Seal in Sonic Adventure 2.
Fire breath
The Chao will stand on its tiptoes and spit out a long plume of orange flames. It learns this behavior from the Dragon in Sonic Adventure 2.

Feeding and petting

Stat raising

Advanced care

VMU/GBA transfer

Relationships

Evolution

A Chao's appearance is the biggest clue as to how it will evolve! Try to give it stats so that it can run/swim/fly early after hatching or its first evolution, and then make it the type you want it to be until it looks like a smaller version of its evolved form!

Mating

Note that a bred special-colored Chao will be in a plain egg, not a special egg from the Black Market or the adventure field!

Death and reincarnation

A Chao has a lifespan, and once it's over, the Chao will begin to act sick, and sit down to die. It will form a cocoon, like the one during its evolution, but, on the gamecube version, it will have different colors depending on how it was treated. If the cocoon is grey, the Chao was not happy enough to live on, and will disappear along with its cocoon. If the cocoon is pink, the Chao was extremely happy in its old life, and will return to its egg to hatch anew.

When a Chao reincarnates, it will keep its appearance and name, has a much higher chance of keeping the default face it was hatched with before, and will keep 10% of its stats. A reincarnated Chao also often keeps its headwear and its race medals, along with any action it learned that wasn't from an animal, such as planting seeds, watering trees, singing and dancing.

A reincarnated Chao has three main uses. It keeps your Chao alive and lets you enjoy its presence for much longer than you could otherwise, it lets you evolve your Chao and upgrade its stat ranks without having to breed for the perfect racer, and it unlocks the way to the Chaos Chao, once your Chao has gone through at least two reincarnations.

Chao items

Food

Animals

Accessories

Chao customization

A Chao can be extremely varied, and more often than not can be made to look just like how you want it to be. Part of the fun is finding out how you want it to look, and then making it look like that!

Colors

See also: Two-tone Chao list, Odd Chao list

Attributes

Remember that a Chao's alignment can only be influenced before its first cocoon evolution! Once it evolves, you can't change its attribute anymore until the next reincarnation!

A Chao can be of Neutral, Hero or Dark attribute. The Neutral Chao has the standard round emote ball, the Hero Chao has an emote halo, and the Dark Chao has an emote spike ball. A Neutral Chao usually has a cyan-blue body, yellow highlights, bright pink wings and a single, gently curving head point. A Hero Chao usually has a white body, blue highlights, blue wings and two rounded head point nubs. A Dark Chao usually has a black body, red highlights, batlike red wings and a crooked, jagged-looking head point.

To change the attribute of a Chao isn't a challenging task, but it does take some attention and consistency. To keep a Chao Neutral, you have to treat it equally with both Hero (Sonic, Tails and Knuckles) and Dark (Shadow, Eggman and Rouge) characters in Sonic Adventure 2, or… Play Sonic Adventure, where a Chao by default will remain neutral. To make a Chao Hero, you need to treat it well with Hero characters, bad with Dark characters, and/or feed it Hero Fruits. To make a Chao Dark, you need to treat it well with Dark characters, bad with Hero characters, and/or feed it Dark Fruits.

Once it goes into its first cocoon to change its type, it can also change attributes. If your Chao comes out with the emote ball you want it to have, then, congratulations! Hero, Dark and Neutral Chao also have their own separate evolution looks, multiplying the 25 choices available in the original Sonic Adventure to a dizzying 75! It's nearly impossible to make two Chao the same with that… Unless you do it on purpose.

Note that, in Sonic Adventure 2, creating your first Hero Chao unlocks the Hero Chao garden, and creating your first Dark Chao unlocks the Dark Chao garden. Go check them out, but don't feel obligated to move your Dark and Hero Chao around into their respective gardens. The Gardens have a small effect on newborn Chao, making them more likely to be of the alignment of the respective garden, but it doesn't make Chao of the opposite alignment sick.

While the Neutral Chao has no qualms about anything and everything that can happen, Hero and Dark Chao do have their little quirks. Both Chao will absolutely refuse to eat any Fruit of the opposite alignment trait, like they do with personally disliked fruits. Don't even try to force-feed a Dark Fruit to a Hero Chao or a Hero Fruit to a Dark Chao… It only results in everyone being grumpy. Dark Chao and Hero Chao also have a race competition only open to their alignment and Neutral Chao! (I wasn't kidding when I said the Neutral Chao has no qualms about doing anything and everything both of the other alignments can.)

Ability types

Animal parts

Special Chao

Some Chao are seen as "special". Maybe they look a bit too much like a character you've seen before, somewhere in the games…? Maybe they're so hard to find, people have taken to hacking to have them in their games? Whatever the reason, they're here, and any way to obtain them is, too.

Chaos Chao
This is a special Chao… It's immortal, and you can make it without hacking it. Take a newborn Chao that has been reincarnated at least twice and only give it one of each animal, and fruits. You can't give it two animals of each species, or chaos drives. If you did it right and with a character it likes, the Chao will form a cocoon for its first evolution, as always… And come out of it as a Chaos Chao of its respective alignment. A Chaos Chao is rarely affected by animal parts, so don't be surprised if you can't embellish your newly immortal Chao with some spiffy part additions. There are three versions of a Chaos Chao. For the Neutral Chao, a Light Chaos Chao, for the Hero Chao, an Angel Chaos Chao, and for the Dark Chao, a Devil Chaos Chao.
Sonic Chao
Raise a Chao to be a Neutral Run type. It should resemble a green Sonic with stripes on its head and sharp little quilly green wings. Give it more green chaos drives and animals after its first mating season. After it finishes its second evolution, it should be a bright sapphire blue, and its quills should sweep down like a miniature Sonic! For more convincing results, don't teach it how to swim, give it a seel and a ram so it learns to roll around and do frontflips, give it boars until it gets their feet, and erase all animal parts but the boar feet, for shoes.
Shadow Chao
Raise a Chao to be a Dark Run type. It should resemble Shadow with green stripes on its head, and oddly shaped green and black wings. Give it more green chaos drives and animals after its first mating season. After it finishes its second evolution, it should have larger quills that bend upwards and its stripes should become blood red, like a miniature Shadow! For more convincing results, don't teach it how to swim, give it a seel and a ram so it learns to roll around and do frontflips, give it boars until it gets their feet, and erase all animal parts but the boar feet, for shoes.
NiGHTS Chao
Raise a Chao to be a Neutral Fly type. It should resemble a pink NiGHTS with long jester hat-like headpieces, stripes on their tips, and bright green, wide wings. Give it more purple chaos drives and animals after its first mating season. After it finishes its second evolution, its jesters should be longer and bigger, its body a lot more purple, and it should have large golden-white wings, like a tiny NiGHTS! For more convincing results, give it an otter, a penguin, a seal and a ram so it learns to backstroke, roll around, slide on its belly and do frontflips, erase all animal parts, teach it to play the flute and all the dances, and make it win the Garnet Jewel race for its red Ideya shard on its chest.
Tails Chao :
: Amy Chao :
: Knuckles Chao :
: Advanced NiGHTS Chao
Only obtainable by hacking. There is data in the Sonic Adventure games for an advanced NiGHTS Chao, as some sort of third evolution. Its jesters are much, much longer, and its body color is a deep purple that perfectly matches NiGHTS'.
Tikal Chao
Only obtainable by hacking. This is a modified Knuckles Chao that has Tikal's colors and lacks the spikes on its fists. Some completists like having a Tikal Chao in their garden, even if it is a nonlegit Chao.
Omochao
Only obtainable by hacking. This is the Omochao you can race against in one of the challenges.
Small Animal
Only obtainable by hacking. This is a small animal you can race against in one of the challenges.
Egg Chao
Only obtainable by hacking. This is a Chao egg with legs you can race against in one of the challenges.

Chao events

VMU Battle/Mating

Tiny garden Mini-games

Chao Race

Chao Karate

Version differences

Sonic Adventure

Sonic Adventure 2

Miscellania

Tips and tricks

Chao outside the gardens

A-Life

Beta emotes

A few emote ball emotions were planned, but scrapped at the last second. There are a star, a teardrop, a cloud, and a strange, birdlike hook. The stormy cloud could have been used to accompany angry actions like the heart accompanies happy ones, the teardrop could have been used for a Chao that was startled, instead of the spiral, and the star could have been used in conjunction with the swirly eyes to make a Chao dizzy from an attack.

Neo's Gardens

One of my game files, on the original Sonic Adventure for the Dreamcast, isn't accessible for the moment due to a lack of Sonic Adventure disc, and it's been so long I don't remember which Chao I raised on it.

I don't claim to be a professional Chao breeder or having much of the know-how of other Chao caretakers. I keep most of my Chao in a time lock by simply not going into their garden for long amounts of time, and usually only bring them to the form I'd like them to resemble, and then leave them well enough alone, only stopping by to briefly care for them, give them pets and hugs, feed them, give them one last pet and then leaving again.

See also: Neo's Chao

Additional Chao resources

CHAO Laboratory
The official Sonic Team Chao website! No longer maintained, but it still works…
Chao Island
A website with information and pictures of Chao and Chao evolutions! It's pretty complete, and the pictures are nice and taken from an angle that shows all the features a Chao has.
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