Each digidestined child has a Digimon partner who protects them and gains power from them. The Digimon (bar Gatomon) are all in-training Digimon when the kids first meet them, but soon digivolve to Rookie in order to save them. They usually stay in Rookie stage but through the facilitation of digivices and crests, can digivolve to higher levels, usually when their partner is in danger.

As the purpose of these Digimon's existence is to serve as partners to the children, all of them are extremely loyal and follow their partners anywhere. They are themselves like children, looking up to their partners and trusting them to make the decisions. As far as the spotlight goes, Digimon usually take a backseat to their humans; they just tag along on the adventures.

Agumon

"I'm a trump card, huh!"

Baby: Botamon
In-training: Koromon
Rookie: Agumon (Pepper Breath)
Champion: Greymon (Nova Blast)
Ultimate: MetalGreymon (Giga Blaster)
Mega: WarGreymon (Terra Force)

Agumon is Tai's Digimon partner. As he is the Digimon of the main character, he plays hero quite often and is always the first to reach a new level of digivolution.

Agumon's personality is a bit difficult to pinpoint, if indeed he has one. *gets thwapped* He's reasonably enthusiastic, and he's brave, and usually fairly easy to get along with, although he can be grouchy at times. He and Tai argue occasionally.

He also tries hard to live up to Tai's expectations; knowing that his partner is brave and gung-ho, and always wanting to win, Agumon tries his best to impress the boy. He once digivolved from Greymon into SkullGreymon when Tai was pushing him too hard and trying to force him to digivolve. (This was Tai's fault, not Greymon's, but SkullGreymon was terrible and ruthless, only being stopped by the Digimon's natural inability to maintain a digivolved state for too long. SkullGreymon dedigivolved to Koromon, who felt awful, guilty and tired for some time.)

He once disguised himself as "PunkAgumon", going in disguise to infiltrate Myotismon's castle with Palmon. Agumon's best friend among the Digimon is probably Gabumon; his common fighting partner. Garurumon and Matt's friendship gave Tai and WarGreymon the power they needed to fight Piedmon.

Along with Gomamon, Agumon is the Digimon most eager to fight, and his contribution to the team is mostly in the form of his great strength and fighting power, coupled with his willingness to attack. With Gabumon, Agumon was the only Digimon to reach Mega stage in 01.

Agumon specialises in orange-coloured fire attacks.

Gabumon

"We can't stop fighting now just because of a little setback!"

In-training: Tsunomon
Rookie: Gabumon (Blue Blaster)
Champion: Garurumon (Howling Blaster)
Ultimate: WereGarurumon (Garuru Kick, Wolf Claw)
Mega: MetalGarurumon (Metal Wolf Claw and numerous other attacks)

Gabumon is Matt's Digimon partner. The two complement each other quite well; both are fairly serious, thoughtful and introverted, but bring out the best in each other. Gabumon is always the second Digimon (after Agumon) to reach new digivolutions.

Gabumon is fairly soft-spoken; gentle, kind-hearted and a little shy, he is usually a comforting presence although he does have a bit of a tendency to make bad jokes. ^_^.

The strength of the bond of friendship between Gabumon and Matt was enough to enable Matt's crest to glow even when he had forgotten his friendship with Tai. Gabumon was lonely until Matt came to the digital world, waiting his whole life for his partner to arrive, and when he came, determined to prove to Matt what real friendship was, and to support him.

Gabumon showed unparalleled loyalty, saying that he would trust Matt's decisions and follow him unquestioningly with whatever the boy felt was the best thing to do. This led him to even battle his good friend, Agumon/WarGreymon, when Matt felt that Tai was his rival.

Despite this, he did argue with Matt when he felt worthless and depressed, trying to encourage him and support him. It was Gabumon's friendship that enabled Matt to break the coldness, the 'cool' image, the darkness that he had carried with him for years.

Gabumon - befitting one who is empowered by the crest of Friendship - is a true friend to Matt, and he also seems to get along with Agumon, Patamon and Gomamon quite well. Gabumon protects Matt but will also protect TK, knowing that he is the one Matt cares for more than anyone.

Gabumon's voice makes him sound older than most of the others; it's a slow, patient voice that gives him a general air of wisdom and gentleness. The "Saint Bernard" Digimon (that's what Tai called him; it's a safe bet that he's some sort of canine, given his digivolved forms) specialises in blue energy/fire attacks shot from the mouth.

Palmon

"I may be a lady but I am not a pushover!"

In-training: Tanemon
Rookie: Palmon (attack Poison Ivy)
Champion: Togemon (Needle Spray)
Ultimate: Lillymon (Flower Cannon)

Palmon, Mimi's Digimon partner, is friendly, energetic and likeable. On good terms with everyone, she has the rather daunting task of helping Mimi to become a good digidestined. But Palmon just loves Mimi and looks up to her, wanting to make the girl like her.

She's a little ditzy/melodramatic but generally more level-headed and down-to-earth than Mimi. The two work well together, because Palmon is enough like Mimi that they can get along, and tease each other (and that Palmon can deal with Mimi without getting frustrated!), and different enough that Palmon can stand aside as a mediating influence and encourage Mimi or correct her on something.

Palmon is a girly girl; I bet if she were human she'd be painting her nails, malling, fussing about her hair... exciteable yet down-to-earth, reliable and with a real sense of humour, I'm finding it difficult to describe her. I have a subpage for her as part of my Mimi site if you're interested. ^_^;

Palmon is the plant Digimon, and all her forms have plant-related powers. Her own move, Poison Ivy, is rarely used in battle but as a useful rope to trip or tie up enemies, or to catch hold of something.

Gomamon

"Don't we get points for enthusiasm?"

In-training: Bukamon (Japanese name Pukamon)
Rookie: Gomamon (attack Marching Fishes/Fish Power)
Champion: Ikkakumon (Harpoon Torpedo)
Ultimate: Zudomon (Vulcan's Hammer)

Gomamon is mischeivous, quick-thinking and cheerful. He's quite a contrast to his partner, Joe. Joe, who is fairly serious, dry and steady, finds it difficult to cope with Gomamon and his bad jokes, flippancy and laid-back attitude. And Gomamon thinks Joe is stuffy. But they get used to each other.

Despite their different personalities, the two get along extremely well. Gomamon knows just how to handle Joe - when to stop teasing, when to be serious, and the way to get him to do things. He is also constantly encouraging his friend, trying to counter his pessimism with phrases like "look on the bright side" and "it could be worse".

I think he knows about Joe's low self-esteem because when he (as Bukamon) thought Jim was hinting that Joe wasn't good enough to be a doctor, he got very snappish and defensive for his friend's sake. Another time, he felt that Joe must be feeling useless and low on confidence, so he hatched a scheme, dubbing him the 'leader' which in turn prompted Joe to be stronger and braver. It worked.

Unlike Joe, Gomamon is not nervous and very rarely shows fear. He's spunky and gutsy, always willing to go into battle. He'll even fight battles he knows he can't win, without fear. Once, after Joe had been captured and Gomamon was left on his own (thus without his source of strength or ability to digivolve), he solidly demanded to stay and fight, and even ran at Piedmon - the most powerful Dark Master, a Mega Digimon!

Although it is possible for him to use his fish attack when there is no water around, he very rarely does so. He seems to prefer physical fighting to using Marching Fishes, like in the first episode where all the Rookies were fighting Kuwagamon, he was the only one who didn't actually attack, he just threw himself underfoot so the monster tripped over him.

Water is Gomamon - and his digivolutions' - specialty. Gomamon just loves swimming and relaxing in the water, and if there's water around he'll be in it. His element attack-wise doesn't seem to be water - more physical attacks, like firing things - but Gomamon digivolves particularly when there is water around, as he has an advantage there. As Ikkakumon (and occasionally Zudomon) he also doubles as a boat.

Tentomon

"As usual, I'm right!"

Baby: Pabumon (Japanese name Babumon)
In-training: Motimon
Rookie: Tentomon (attack Super Shocker)
Champion: Kabuterimon (Electro Shocker)
Ultimate: MegaKabuterimon (Horn Buster)

Tentomon is Izzy's Digimon partner. He digivolves into various, more powerful bugs, and specialises in electricity. Tentomon himself seems to be robotic, an electronic bug. I suppose that is appropriate for Izzy, the electronics genius.

Tentomon is originally a bit of a whiner, although it doesn't take long for him to change. Occasionally he seems reluctant to fight but that's probably more because he likes complaining than because he's afraid. Tentomon a wiseguy and does like to talk, and likes to get the last word in.

While not at all stupid, Tentomon is nowhere near as intelligent as his human partner and thus has great respect for Izzy's skill. He also likes Izzy's parents, particularly his mother, whom he seems to have a bit of a crush on. He also likes her cooking. ^_^. It might seem like Tentomon wishes Digimon could have families.

Izzy seems less emotional than the other kids; while other people will be interacting, he's more likely to be on the computer or hunting down knowledge. As such, it might seem that Tentomon was disadvantaged with the partner he got; the other kids hug or hold their Digimon, and in general seem to take more of an interest in them rather than a purely scientific one of curiousity.

Yet without the constant "I'm here for you"-ness of Gabumon and Matt, or the "I love you"-ness of Biyomon and Sora, or the "I'm glad you're my friend"-ness of Patamon and TK, the simple partnership of Tentomon and Izzy has an extremely strong friendship running through it. Both care about each other very much.

Tentomon is a lot more easy-going in his attitudes than Izzy, and likes relaxing, eating and spending time with friends. In that way, he is good for his partner, encouraging him to get off the computer once in a while...

Gatomon

"If you believe in yourself, then dreams are real!"

In-training: Nyaromon
Rookie: Salamon (Japanese name Plotmon; attack not shown?)
Champion: Gatomon (Japanese name Tailmon; Lightning Paw)
Ultimate: Angewomon (Celestial Arrow, Heaven's Charm)

Gatomon was originally seen as a villain; a slick, streetwise and clever henchman of Myotismon who recruited tough Digimon for his army when he went to Earth. Once on Earth, Gatomon went around with a copy of the eighth child's crest, trying to find said child and curry favour with Myotismon (or save her own skin). This put her at odds with Demidevimon, who was also trying to find the child.

But Gatomon is a vaccine-type Digimon and with the help of Wizardmon - a good friend of hers who she still remembers fondly - she remembered that she was supposed to look for someone. After finding Kari, she dedicated herself to protecting her partner, thus becoming part of the digidestined team.

Gatomon is different in a few ways to the others; she was with her partner for less time than the other Digimon, and was all alone in the digital world (Gennai dropped her digiegg before she hatched, away from the others). Being alone for so long, she felt she had to look for someone, and searched tirelessly... but found Myotismon instead and was forced to serve him. Having spent longer on her own, and in training, Salamon naturally digivolved (as opposed to via digivice) and that is why Gatomon usually stays in her Champion form.

Despite her size, Gatomon is pretty powerful for a Champion. She is also smart and usually kind of serious and sad; the affect her past has on her personality makes her seem more of an adult than the other Digimon. Kind, determined and protective, Gatomon makes a total turnaround from her old self... although she still carries the scars.

Biyomon

"I've never had a best friend before!"

In-training: Yokomon (Japanese name Pyokomon)
Rookie: Biyomon (Japanese name Piyomon; attack Spiral Twister)
Champion: Birdramon (Meteor Wing)
Ultimate: Garudamon (Wing Blade)

Cheerful, cute and energetic, Biyomon is Sora's Digimon partner. She is always eager to help Sora, and the group, any way she can. Generally friendly and well-liked by all members of the group, Biyomon seems to get along particularly well with TK, Patamon, Tentomon and Gomamon.

She can be rather childish at times, and before Sora has to leave the digital world she confesses that sometimes she worried that she was just annoying Sora. But that wasn't so; Biyomon's way of freely offering and expressing her love was just what Sora needed, and helped her to understand her relationship with her own mother.

And like a child, she is bright and hopeful. She and Sora are especially good friends, with Sora feeling that she can easily confide in the kind-hearted bird, and Biyomon always optimistic to counter Sora's occasional bouts of depression/solemnity.

Biyomon's digivolved forms specialise in fire attacks, but Biyomon's own attack is like a mini-cyclone; beams of green energy. Her strength and that of her various forms are unspectacular, on par with those of Gomamon, Palmon and Tentomon.

Patamon

"Some day, I'll digivolve too!"

Baby: Poyomon
In-training: Tokomon
Rookie: Patamon (attack Boom Bubble)
Champion: Angemon (Hand of Fate)
Ultimate: MagnaAngemon (Japanese name HolyAngemon; Gate of Destiny, Magna Antidote)

Patamon seems even younger than TK, his partner. This probably works out well, because they look after each other. Like a little kid, Patamon is cute and enthusiastic and innocent. He and TK love playing together although they occasionally have fights, because Patamon is huffy (although he forgives easily ^_^.).

Angemon is the most powerful digidestined Champion and can often hold his own against Ultimates. However, for most of the season, Patamon found it difficult to digivolve - he was the last to manage it. He is small and can't fly very well/fast, so he usually rides on TK, or TK carries him. One of the weaker Rookies, he nonetheless fares well in the battles against fellow Rookies that he has.

Sometimes Patamon wishes he could be stronger so he could help TK more, but then when he *does* digivolve he makes up for that. Most of the time though, Patamon is cheerful, curious and good-natured. He and Gatomon are like partners, as their human counterparts are good friends, and their digivolved forms complement one another.

Patamon's digivolved forms seem to have powers centering around the idea of destiny. Magna Antidote is a sort of healing move; MagnaAngemon used it to restore the digidestined back to their normal selves.