What's a Vital Bracelet?
The Vital Bracelet is a new breed of V-pet from Bandai that combines fitness with Digimon. Unlike past V-pets the device wraps around your wrist instead of hanging on a keychain, and by using the built in pulse tracker and pedometer it allows you to train your Digimon and evolve them.
This page was last updated 8/05/2024
Basic History (pre BE)
The first version of the Vital Bracelet was released in May of 2021. Known as the "Vital Bracelet Digital Monster", it came in three versions: White, Black, and Special. It featured the new Digimon Pulsemon as the main mascot and training partner. With other Digimon available on seperately purchaseable DiM Cards. The Special version was only available to purchase when the VB was released, and featured a bright highlighter yellow band and the ability to train Veemon as well.
The Digivice -V- was the second iteration of the vital bracelet. It came out a few months after the first version, and was a tie in with the new anime, Digimon Ghost Game. The Digivice -V- was featured as the new season's digivices and had a navy blue band and a different logo on the top of the device. Instead of Pulsemon it allowed you to train the lead Digidestined's partner, Gammamon. The Digivice -V- 
had a few quality of life improvements that addressed common complaints, such as easing up on DiM DRM and giving users more control over their Digimons' sleep schedules.
The third "version" of the Bracelet was an English translation of the Digivice -V- called the Vital Hero. It came out in July 2022 and came in Red, Blue and Black. Each color version came with it's own starter Digimon: Red had Agumon, Blue had Gabumon and black had Pulsemon. The six Vol Series DiM Cards were also re-released in English to go along with them. While the black and blue versions were easily purchasable online from the start, the red version was initially walmart exclusive and were not released on time and in small quantities. Thanks Walmart! Now you can now purchase them on Amazon if you really want one, but the Vital Bracelet BE is superior to it in almost every way.
To BE or not to BE
The next, and as of writing this, final iteration of the Vital Bracelet was known as the Vital Bracelet BE. "BE" is not an acronym- it's literally the English verb "be," and was used heavily in the advertising of the device. Specifically the phrases "BE PARTNER," "BE ACTIVE," and "BE ONLY ONE." I'm sure it sounded way cooler in Japanese.
At release in November of 2022 it came in several different versions, Clear Black and Clear White being the base versions and several special editions for different Bandai owned franchises. The Digimon version was called the Digivice VV, and had a dark pink/light red band. It included a new Gammamon BE Memory DiM that contained an updated roster to better match the anime, and the first round of pre orders even came with a special smaller BE Memory that let you train the basic Veemon and Wormon lines. Besides minor cosmetic differences every VBBE worked exactly the same and were cross series compatible, allowing people to freely to choose whichever color they liked best.
The BE also had a number of improvements to its hardware and software. Hardware-wise it got a (slightly) slimmer form and higher water resistance. Software-wise you could now store up to four Digimon/characters instead of two, was cross compatible with all old DiM and VBM cards, and allowed you to freely choose what exercises you wanted to do and got rid of the limit. The BE also had the ability to read SD cards, allowing for firmware updates to be pushed out on Bandai's website. This opened the doors for modding the BE software for the very first time, giving users the ability to add their own QOL changes.
With the announcement of the discontinuation of online fucntionality for the VBBE app, it appears the life cycle of the Vital Bracelet has come to an end. At least for now. If you decide to purchase a Vital Bracelet BE while everything is on sale, keep in mind that the Clear Black and Clear White were the cheapest and most readibly available versions for a reason. They did not come with ANY DiMs or BE Memory cards, so make sure you collect some before you dive in.
What is a DiM Card?
Unlike other types of Digimon Vpets, Vital Bracelets allow you to "load" them with Digimon Identified Memory (DiM) Cards. These little memory cards can plug into the device in order to hatch a new Digimon or transfer a Digimon from the App back to your device. The first version of DiMs contain a Digimon line with up to 17 different Digimon to evolve into, and there were 37 different ones to collect.
On all previous devices, using a DiM card would lock the card to that device. DiMs could only be paired to one Vital Bracelet Digital Monster at a time, and the Hero and Digivice -V- allowed DiMs to be used on three devices.
BE Memory DiMs were the upgraded version of DiMs, and were only compatible with Vital Bracelet BEs. They featured more Digimon per DiM, and Adventure Mode could be completed by any Digimon, regardless of what BE memory DiM they come from. A shame they only made 15 different Digimon cards and even less for the different anime.
About that App...
Bandai's Vital Bracelet BE app is going offline in September of this year. And honestly? Good riddance to it. Despite the constant updates it continued to be slow and clunky. The original App was better in every way, but it wasn't being made in house so they axed it to cut costs. Yippe! The original App would have weekly ranked battles available, where you would fight ghost data of another person's Digimon in order to score points to rise to the top of the leader boards. There were also raid battles where user's Digimon would come together to take down famous big bads from different seasons of the anime. The newbattle system made fights between online users. Cool in theory, but this was a niche product for a niche franchise, and waiting for your opponent to choose their move sucked all the momentum out of the fight. To add insult to injury cards from different series couldn't even fight each other! Come on Bandai, wouldn't it have been cool to see a BNHA character fight Metalgreymon? Fans love stupid crossovers!
Oh yeah, they added an adventure mode eventually, but it was only for the Digimon series, and didn't add any aditional gameplay. You just sent Digimon out and after a couple of hours they would return with items to use in the online battles.
As far as I am aware you will still be able to download the app for a while. Get it if you can, if only because you'll need a way to store your Digimon when you run out of space on the BE itself.
So long, and thanks for all the Tobiumon
Sadly, with the closure of the App, it seems Bandai is done with the Vital Bracelet brand. It was a neat little device but it's not for everyone. Unlike a traditional V-Pet you do not have the option to feed your Digimon or clean up their poops, they don't die of old age and it's hard to get them sick. The Vital Bracelet wasn't that great of a health tracker either. It scratched easily and the BE was still only splash resistant. For the same price you could buy a FitBit for accurate readings and the ability to exercise without wiggling your arms around.
Despite my issues with the Vital Bracelet series I enjoy having a Digimon branded device that gamifies fitness. I like being able to carry a partner around without having to check on it every five minutes to make sure it doesn't die. Wanting to help my Digimon evolve into something cool has gotten me excited to go on walks and appreciate the nature trails near my house. Hopefully Bandai revisits the concept at a later time like they have with the Color series. No matter how long it takes, I'm a life long Digimon fan and I'll be waiting to see what comes next. If I'm lucky I'll have finished filling out my Codex by then.
If you're interested in getting a Vital Bracelet I recommened getting a Clear Black or White and getting any DiM/BE Memory DiM cards that are still on sale. Also check out the Digitama Hatchery Discord to chat with fans or find someone willing to sell their collection.
