Yugi Muto

Yugi Muto is a not-so-average kid. Yugi is pure-hearted and child-like. He lives with his grandfather Solomon Muto and mother, although he never speaks of the latter in the English anime. In the Japanese manga, it's explained that Yugi's father is a businessman. Yugi is good at games and puzzles, especially Duel Monsters.

Yugi possesses the Millennium Puzzle, which allows his body to bear host to the spirit of the Puzzle, Yami Yugi. Yugi was initially unaware of his existence and control of Yugi's body would involuntarily shift to Yami, when Yugi or his friends are wronged.

Yugi is part of a close-knit group of friends: Joey Wheeler, Tristan Taylor, and Téa Gardner. Miho Nosaka is also one of Yugi's friends in the first series anime. Yugi's friends often cheer him on from the sidelines, and Joey has dueled at his side. Yugi has been friends with Téa since childhood and is in love with her. Téa has been shown to have feelings for both Yugi and Atem (Yami Yugi).

In Japanese, the first characters of "Yūgi" and "Jōnouchi" combine to form "Yūjō" (友情), which means "friendship." The "Yu-Jo Friendship" card is named after the word and the fellowship between the characters.

Design


Yugi's character design was overseen by Kazuki Takahashi. His usual outfit consists of the standard male Domino Junior/Senior High uniform complete with a closed buckled collar. His extremely extravagant hair features multiple layers including long blond crooked, pointy locks for his fringe, the rest features a five large spikes colored black with a magenta sheen along the edges. He wears the Millennium Puzzle on a lace around his neck. In the manga and second series anime, the lace is later replaced with a chain. In the manga (post Volume 7) and in the second series anime, he often wears a KaibaCorp Duel Disk on his left arm.

When he plays Dungeon Dice Monsters against Duke Devlin, he wears a dark-gray long-sleeves shirt, a sleeve-less vest, dark blue pants and black shoes.

When he and Téa took a day together to find out about the Millennium Puzzle, he wore a black linen shirt and several pieces of wrist-chains, along with a pair of leather pants. He is seen wearing the same outfit when he met Jaden Yuki for the first time, but he doesn't wear the chains and has blue pants instead of black. Also, in GX, Yugi's (present day) face is never directly shown.

In Yu-Gi-Oh! Capsule Monsters, Yugi wears a different attire of a violet jacket and jeans. He also wears the Capsule Shooter on his left arm. In episode 4, he gains a duel armor that allows him to become one with one of his capsule monsters.

Manga biography

 * See: Yugi Mutou in the manga

First series anime biography

 * See: Yugi Mutou in the first series anime

History
Yugi lived in his family's game shop, Kame Game, with his mother and grandfather. His grandfather taught him a lot about the game, Duel Monsters.

Joey and Tristan used to bully Yugi. Joey even went as far as taking a piece of Yugi's Millennium Puzzle and throwing it into a canal. However Yugi stood-up for Joey and Tristan, when they were attacked by Ushio, claiming that they were his friends, whereas Ushio claimed he was protecting Yugi in order to earn money. Joey and Tristan came to be Yugi's friends after the incident and Joey recovered the piece of the Puzzle.

After solving the Millennium Puzzle, Yugi unknowingly became host to Yami Yugi, the spirit of Pharaoh Atem. He shared his body with Yami, who occasionally takes control, typically to help Yugi and his friends.

Yugi and Joey once visited Burger World, only to find Téa working there. She fears that if they tell, she'll get expelled as it's against school rules to have part-time jobs. (In the English version, she worries about getting fired, as they could reveal that she's under 18, the required age to work there.) She splatters their burgers in ketchup, warning them not to tell. They tells her that they did not even know she worked there, and they wouldn't say a word.

Yugi later finds Téa in a warehouse, being filmed by a pervert, who threatens to reveal she's working at Burger World. (In the English version, he was a mugger who tricked her by writing a note, pretending Yugi and Joey had given her a dance studio.) Yugi tackles the man, but gets thrown against a wall. Téa is also knocked unconscious after trying to attack him. Yugi then transforms into Yami Yugi, who defeats the man in a card draw game and Mind Crushes him. Yugi came to believe he had saved Téa, although he doesn't remember how he did it.

Prior to the tournament
After beating Joey in Duel Monsters, Yugi invites Joey, Téa and Tristan to see his grandfather, Solomon's rare card, the "Blue-Eyes White Dragon", after school. Kaiba, who overheard, ends up kidnapping Solomon and forcing him into a Duel for his "Blue-Eyes", as he refused to trade or sell it. Yugi and his friends catch up after Solomon had already been defeated, and witness Kaiba rip the "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" in front of them. Outraged, Yugi challanges Kaiba to a Duel, and Solomon gives Yugi his Deck. Yugi duels Kaiba as Yami Yugi and discovers Kaiba has the other three "Blue-Eyes White Dragons" in his Deck but defeats him using "Exodia." After defeating Kaiba, Yugi becomes the Duel Monsters World Champion.

Since Joey has been having troubles with winning in Duel Monsters, Yugi asks his grandfather to help train Joey.

Pegasus sends Yugi a video inviting him to participate in his Duelist Kingdom tournament. Pegasus appears on the video and duels Yugi on the spot while freezing everyone else in the room. He places a time limit on the Duel. Pegasus only won because time ran out seconds before Yugi could lower his life points with his Summoned Skull. As a penalty for his defeat Solomon's soul is stolen.

Yugi enters the tournament to rescue his grandfather. At the pier, he gives Joey one of his two Star Chips that are required for entry to allow Joey to participate and help him.

Yugi meets Weevil Underwood on the ship to the tournament, who acts friendly to Yugi, including telling him that he knows of new rules that are going to be introduced in the tournament. Shortly after Weevil leaves, Yugi gives Joey the "Time Wizard" card, telling him how it can be useful in a tight situation. Yugi meets Weevil again later and shows him his "Exodia" cards, which Weevil tosses overboard, to hinder Yugi's Deck. Joey jumps into the water to recover them. After getting two of the cards, the current hits Joey and Yugi dives in to save him. Both of them are then rescued by the stowaways, Téa and Tristan, who throw them a rope ladder.

Preliminaries
After the tournament starts, Yugi tracks down Weevil, determined to get his revenge, but Weevil flees, leading him into a forest. Yugi suspects this is to do with the new rules Weevil mentioned earlier. Weevil leads them to a meadow, where he accepts Yugi's his challenge, as his monsters now get Field Power Bonuses. Yugi switches to Yami Yugi, who bets both his Deck and Star Chip, earning him Weevil's 2 Star Chips after he wins.

Yugi cheers for Joey in his Duel against Mai. As Yami Yugi, he offers Joey abstract clues to help him win. Joey defeats Mai using the "Time Wizard" card, Yugi gave him.

While searching for food, Yugi and his friends, find fish Mako Tsunami had prepared. Unbeknownst to them, Mako had set it as bait to lure opponents, to where his monsters greatly benefit from the field. After sharing the food, Mako challenges Yugi. After switching to Yami, Yugi defeats Mako, winning 2 more Star Chips.

Yugi and his friends see a contestant, being forced to leave the island as he is out of Star Chips. The boy says they were stolen, along with his Deck and describes the thief and where he met him. Yugi promises to get his Star Chips back, before the boat leaves the island. Back at the scene of the crime, they meet the thief, who has his face disguised. He duels Yugi with 5 Star Chips on the line. Yami Yugi identifies the thief as Mokuba Kaiba. Mokuba tells them how Yugi humiliated his brother, causing him to leave, giving Pegasus an opportunity to take over KaibaCorp. Mokuba now seeks revenge on Yugi for this. Unable to win the Duel, Mokuba makes a grab for Yugi's Star Chips. Yami discourages Mokuba and promises to help him and Seto.

The group make their way back to the bay, but the boat has already left. Yugi shows Kemo that he won back the Star Chips, but Kemo slaps them into the water, including some of Yugi's. Kemo grabs Mokuba to take him back to Pegasus, but Yugi challenges Kemo to a Duel for Mokuba's freedom. Kemo doesn't Duel himself, but tells Yugi to come back in an hour (4 hours in the English version) and he'll have an opponent arranged for him.

Yugi returns to the spot, where he faces Ghost Kaiba. Ghost Kaiba pretends to be the actual Seto Kaiba and uses his Deck. With the help of the real Kaiba, who weakens Ghost Kaiba's "Blue-Eyes White Dragons", via a virus, Yami Yugi wins. Yugi retrieves Kaiba's Deck, but Kemo has already disappeared with Mokuba.

Yugi is unallowed to help Joey in his Duel with Rex Raptor. As the Duel starts Yugi goes to find Tristan, who left in a huff with Joey for accepting those conditions. Tristan reminds Yugi that he should still be at the Duel to offer Joey his friendship, so the two of them return to watch.

That night, Mai shares her food with Yugi and his friends, although she promises that they'll be enemies tomorrow.

Ryo Bakura appears at their campsite, shortly after Mai leaves for a walk. While the group talks about cards they own, that they an identify with, Yugi encourages Téa to pick one for herself. Yugi picks the "Dark Magician" as his. After everyone has exchanged, which cards they recognize with, Bakura suggests they play a friendly Duel, where Yugi includes the cards Joey, Tristan and Téa choose; "Flame Swordsman", "Cyber Commander" and "Magician of Faith" and he can show them how his card, "Change of Heart" works.

Bakura changes to Yami Bakura, who traps the group's souls in the cards they selected. He proceeds to take Yugi's Millennium Puzzle, but Yami Yugi emerges. Yami faces Yami Bakura, in a Shadow Game, to return his friends, but staking his Millennium Puzzle.

Yugi's friends appear in place of the monsters they selected as Yami Yugi Summons them. When the Dark Magician, Yugi is Summoned, the 2 Yugis meet. In the Japanse version, Yugi was aware of Yami's existance and the two of them agree now is not the time to keep secrets. Yugi tells his friends of Yami's existance, that he is the spirit of the Millennium Puzzle and apologises for not telling them before. In the English version, Yugi admits to having felt Yami's presence while he duels and feels they can trust him.

Yami manages to win the Duel, with the help of Ryo betraying Yami Bakura, returning everyone to normal. Although Téa, Tristan and Joey believe the Duel to have been a dream, Yugi doesn't take time to explain as they hear Mai scream.

The group find the Eliminator, Panik, who has just beaten Mai and taken all eight of her Star Chips. Yugi accuses Panik of being a coward and duels him as Yami Yugi, winning back Mai's Star Chips. He offers them to Mai, who reluctanlty takes them back, saying she owes him one.

Later that night Kaiba arrives on the island and Yugi returns his Deck.

The next day, Mai leaves a letter explaining she's left and owes Yugi for winning back her Star Chips. Joey later gets seperated from his friends. They search a cave after finding his wallet outside. After running from many traps, they find Joey in a Duel with Bonz. But after Joey wins, Bandit Keith's gang trap Yugi and his friends in the cave, by sealing the entrance with a boulder.

Using Bakura's Millennium Ring as a guide, the friends find the Paradox Brothers guarding the exit. Yugi and Joey face them in a Tag Duel. After winning Yugi and Joey, each have enough Star Chips to enter the finals. Yami Yugi passes the brothers riddle test in order to exit.

At the stairs to Pegasus' castle, Téa ponders on Yugi's differing personalities and wonders if there could be two Yugis. Yugi admits to feeling as though there is someone else living inside him, but hopes he isn't going crazy.

At the top of the stairs, Kaiba blocks the way and talks Yugi into a Duel. Yami takes control and faces Kaiba, using his Duel Disk technology. As Yami is about to win, Kaiba stands up on the edge of the castle, such that the shockwaves from Yugi's attack may cause him to fall to his death. (In the English anime, Yugi speaks to Yami, telling him not to do it.) Yami contemplates, but overall decides to attack. Téa runs to Yugi insisting that this isn't like him and calls for the ordinary Yugi to come out. Yugi takes control in time to cancel the move. He falls to his knees, disgusted by what he's done. Kaiba takes his turn and wins the Duel, claiming 5 of Yugi's Star Chips.

Now fully aware of the other Yugi's existance, Yugi admits it to his friends, telling that he is afraid of him and consequently afraid to Duel. Kaiba calls Yugi weak, but Téa protests arguing that Yugi saved him and Kaiba is the real loser. After Kaiba leaves, Yugi continues to mope. Joey offers Yugi to take his Star Chips, so he may enter the finals, but Yugi ignores him. Frustrated Joey grabs Yugi by the shirt, asking him if he cares about his Grandfather.

Mai appears and is briefed in on what just happened. She offers Yugi her excessive Star Chips, as per her promise from earlier, but Yugi doesn't even acknowledge Mai's appearance. Annoyed Mai tells him to grow up and hangs on to the Star Chips. She accuses him of being afraid to Duel again and challenges him. Téa instead accepts the Duel, to win back Yugi's Star Chips.

Yugi begins to slowly snap out of his depression as he watches Téa duel. After Mai surrenders, Yugi approaches her about the face-down card she didn't use. Mai denies that she lost for him. (In the English version, she says that some cards just aren't worth playing.)

Finals
Inside the castle, the group are invited to watch Pegasus duel Kaiba. Seeing as Kaiba is dueling to save Mokuba, Yugi offers support to Kaiba. Kaiba is trapped in Pegasus' "Soul Prison" card, after his defeat. Yugi then shouts down to Pegasus' asking who he is to mess with people and their families like this.

The finalists, Téa, Tristan and Bakura are treated to a meal that evening, where the finalists get paired-up. After the meal, Yugi gives Joey his "The Glory of the King's Hand", as it is mandatory for each finalist to possess either it or "The Glory of the King's Opposite Hand".

That night, Yugi is woken by his grandfather's voce, calling him. He follows it and finds a "Soul Prison" card, with his grandfather's soul inside. Solomon warns him about Pegasus and is accompanied by the cards containing Seto and Mokuba Kaiba's souls. Yugi wakes up afterwards, wondering if it was a dream.

Yugi faces Mai in the first Duel of the finals. In the Japanese version, Yami Yugi gives little effort to the Duel, as he worries about facing Pegasus, whereas in the English version, Yugi refuses to let Yami duel, fearing how he may harm their opponent. Either way results in Yugi playing poorly. Encouraging words from Mai, return the Yugis to the top of their game and allow them to turn the Duel around and emerge with a win.

Yugi cheers for Joey in his Duel against Bandit Keith.

Yugi inevitabely faces Joey in the final round. Joey uses all he learned from Yugi, but is still defeated, by Yami Yugi. Afterwards, Joey offers to give "The Glory of the King's Hand" back to Yugi, so he may claim the prize money. However Yugi declines, as he had entered to tournament with the intent of saving his grandfather and now the Kaiba brothers. The money is not important to him, but Joey needs it for his sister's eye operation.

Yugi advances to duel Pegasus. At the start of the Duel, Yugi requests that the Kaiba brothers souls be released as well as grandfather, if he wins. Pegasus accepts but indicates that he plans on taking Yugi's soul if he wins. He learns of Pegasus motive to steal his Millennium Puzzle to try revive his deceased wife Cecilia. Pegasus uses his Millennium Eye to read Yami Yugi's mind during the Duel, but Yami Yugi and Yugi continue to switch minds so Pegasus cannot read the other's strategy. After the Yugis destroy Pegasus' "Toon World" card, Pegasus transports them all into the Shadow Realm. In the Shadow Realm, Yugi loses his life energy while doing the mind shuffle strategy, and Pegasus continues successfully reading Yami's mind until Joey, Téa, and Tristan block his Millenium Eye. Yami defeats Pegasus, returning them both back from the Shadow Realm.

Aftermath
Pegasus disappears after his Duel with Yugi. Determined to ensure the captive souls are returned, Yugi and his friends search for Pegasus. They find a number of Pegasus' men carrying him away after he was assaulted by Yami Bakura. Croquet explains that he was attacked. (In the English version, he says he has fallen ill.) Yugi and company head to Pegasus' tower, where they find a diary entry addressed to new King of Duelists who defeats him, explaining why he created Duel Monsters. Yugi then spots the 3 "Soul Prison" cards, which are now blank, meaning the souls are no longer imprisoned.

As he leaves the tower, Yugi bumps into Shadi, who uses his Millennium Key to enter Yugi's mind. To Shadi's surprise he finds two soul rooms; one for Yugi and one for Yami. Shadi ends up in a Shadow Game with Yami, but is rescued by Yugi. Yugi informs Shadi that he doesn't believe his other self intends to harm him and asks Yami to release Shadi from the game.

A door opens, leading them to a room lined with stone tablets of Duel Monsters. Yugi learns from Shadi that millennia ago, Egyptian kings played Shadow Games with real monsters and magic. After the games became a war that threatened to destroy the world, one brave pharaoh sealed the magic away. The duo are confronted by the Dark Magician. Shadi prepares to counter by Summoning the Blue-Eyes White Dragon. However Yugi insists that the Dark Magician would never harm him and asks the magician to let them past. To Shadi's astonishment the magician complies. Seeing Yugi's control over the Dark Magician, Shadi believes he may be the chosen one.

Shadi returns himself and Yugi to outside Yugi's soul. Before disappearing, he tells Yugi his name and claims to have not told it to anyone before.

After the group find Mokuba is back to normal, Croquet hands Yugi the other prizes on behalf of Pegasus, who has been taken to hospital. Yugi receives the card "The Ties of Friendship", is crowned the King of Games and also receives the 3 million dollar cheque, which he gives to Joey for Serenity's eye operation.

Kaiba thanks Yugi for saving Mokuba and insist that have a fair Duel someday to determine who is the better duelist. Yami Yugi congratulates Yugi on saving everyone. In the English version, Yugi points out that he doesn't even know Yami's name. Yami replies that he has been called many things such as Pharaoh, Yu-Gi-Oh and Yami. Yugi refers to him as Yami and says he is glad to call him his friend, while Yami is proud to be one.

Yugi and his friends get a lift back to Domino City from Kaiba.

As Yugi brings his grandfather home from the hospital, the group is confronted by Rebecca Hawkins. She accuses Solomon of stealing her grandfather's "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" and challenges him to a Duel. At Kaiba Land, Yugi faces Rebecca in the Duel, as his grandfather is unfit to play. The Duel turns out to be an exact repeat of the Duel, their grandfathers played long ago over a drink of water. Like how Solomon surrendered back then as Arthur needed the water more, Yugi surrendered to teach Rebecca about the Heart of the Cards. Just then Arthur arrived and showed that Yugi could have won and explained why he surrendered. After Rebecca apologizes, Yugi gives her the card, "The Ties of Friendship".

Dungeon Dice Monsters
A new student, Duke Devlin, defeats Joey in a game of Duel Monsters, forcing Joey to become his servant. Duke makes Joey wear a dog costume and humiliates him in public. Outraged, Yugi challenges Duke to a Duel. Duke accepts provided they play Dungeon Dice Monsters, rather than Duel Monsters. Unfamiliar with the rules, Yugi gets off to a rough start. His chances do not improve as Duke reveals that he designed Dumgen Dice Monsters with Pegasus' aid. Yugi uses his innate gaming skills to turn the tables on Duke. Yugi succeeds in calling Dark Magician, the monster he counts on the most, and Yugi wins and Duke steps down.

Legendary Heroes
Afterwards Kaiba's mind gets trapped in the "Virtual World" by "The Big Five" while testing out a virtual reality machine that he created. Yugi and Joey entered the virtual world at Mokuba's request where they help Kaiba defeat the Big Five and escape.

Prior to the tournament


Yugi replaces the brown rope around the Millennium Puzzle with a chain. Yami Yugi appears to compliment Yugi on the change and offers him advice on impressing Téa, who is waiting for him. Embarrassed, Yugi asks what he's talking about. As Yugi leaves the room, his mother asks who he was talking to. He says nobody and dashes off, telling Yami to stop picking on him, as he offers to help make Téa love him. (The Yugis talking about Téa and the scene with Yugi's mother are removed from the English anime.)

Yugi meets up with Téa and heads to school with her. (In the English version, they were going to a soccer game) Yugi tells her about the other Yugi: that he lives in the Millennium Puzzle, is worried about his destiny and has no memory of his past.

On the way, Yugi bumps into a fortune-teller and reluctantly lets him hold the Puzzle in order to read his future. The fortune-teller knocks the table over at Yugi and Téa, while he runs off with the Puzzle. Yugi and Téa split-up in pursuit of the thief. Yugi follows a series of arrows. Despite knowing its a trap, Yugi had no other choice.

The thief, who turns out to be Bandit Keith in disguise, controlled by Marik Ishtar, must defeat Yugi in a Duel, before he can claim true ownership of the Millennium Puzzle. Without Yami's help, Yugi faces Keith to win back the Puzzle, while the Puzzle is bolted to a wall.

Yami Bakura senses an evil presence and pinpoints in to the Duel. Seeing Keith controlled, Yami Bakura uses the Millennium Ring to break Marik's control. Keith struggles to resist being repossessed, but Marik takes control long enough to have Keith smash the Puzzle. Bakura swings down from a rope, knocking Keith out. As Bakura collects a piece of the Puzzle, Yami Bakura seals a fragment of his soul inside it, before returning it to Yugi. Keith regains consciousness and continues to struggle with Marik's mind control, setting fire to the warehouse in his confusion.

Unable to remove the piece of the Puzzle connected to the wall, Yugi stays in the burning building to reassemble it. After inserting the last piece he collapses, but is rescued by Joey and Tristan.

Worrying about how the Puzzle almost got stolen, Yugi takes time to talk with Yami. He learns that Yami has no idea of who he once was, as he has lost all his memories. The duo suspect that their new enemy is in possession of a Millennium Item.

Yugi asks Téa if she could spend time with Yami to see if would help him regain his memories. He asks Téa out, but switches to Yami just before the date. Not expecting this Yami starts shouting into the Puzzle at Yugi, until noticed by Téa. On the date, Yami and Téa learn from Ishizu Ishtar that Yami was once an Egyptian pharaoh and that Yugi must enter the upcoming Battle City tournament to stop their new enemy.

While talking with Téa, about Duel Monsters at school, Téa asks which card best suits Yugi, assuming he'd pick "Dark Magician". However Yugi explains that while "Dark Magician" is powerful, "Maha Vailo" better suits him, as it's not the strongest card, but it had hidden power. He'd like to have picked "Dark Magician", but thinks it's better suited to the other Yugi.

The day before the tournament, Yugi and Joey pick-up their Duel Disks in order to compete. The next morning Yugi finishes reconstructing his Deck for the tournament.

Preliminaries
Yugi spots Joey trying to talk the Rare Hunter, Seeker, who won his "Red-Eyes Black Dragon", into a rematch. Yugi notices his robes are the same as the ones Bandit Keith was wearing, while he was possessed. Seeker refuses to face Joey again, but challenges Yugi to a Duel. Yugi accepts and switches to Yami. After defeating Seeker, Yugi takes back Joey's "Red-Eyes Black Dragon". Marik then uses Seeker as his puppet to communicate with Yugi. He introduces himself, tells Yugi how he's after the power of the pharaoh and warns him that are more dealdy Rare Hunters. Yugi offers Joey back the "Red-Eyes", but Joey refuses and says he'll wait until he's a true duelist before earning it back.

Yugi is lured into a tent by a harlequin, where he faces the Rare Hunter, Arkana. As Yami Yugi, he faces Arkana in a Duel, where the loser's feet get cut off by a buzzsaw. (In the English version, they got sent to the Shadow Realm by energy disks.) Yami wins the Duel, but Yugi then takes over and saves Arkana from buzzsaw (energy disk).

At the canal side, while Yugi talks with Yami about recent happenings they are confronted by another Rare Hunter, Strings. Strings, who is under Marik's complete control, duels Yami Yugi using the Egyptian God Card, "Slifer the Sky Dragon". Yami manages to win the Duel, earning "Slifer the Sky Dragon" through the Ante rule. Kaiba challenges Yugi to a Duel on the spot, but Marik warns Yugi that he is going to take control of Joey. Yugi declines Kaiba's challenge as he must find save his friend.

As Yami Yugi searches the city for his friends, with Kaiba's help, he disposes of a number of Rare Hunters, gaining enough Locator Cards to qualify for the finals and locates Joey at Domino Pier.

Yugi is made duel Joey, who is possessed by Marik at the pier. Each player has their ankles chained to an anchor, which will drag them underwater to drown after the timer reaches 0. The only way for either player to save themself is to defeat their opponent, which will open a box, giving them a key. Yami takes the first few of Yugi's moves, but Yugi insists that he should fight this battle himself. Through talking to Joey and using "Red-Eyes Black Dragon" to remind him of his promise to become a true duelist and even giving him the Millennium Puzzle, Yugi manages to get Joey's subconsciousness to ignore Marik's commands. Yugi manages to fully snap Joey out of Marik's control shortly before forcing himself to lose. With Joey back to normal, Yugi tells Marik that he is the true loser of this Duel. Yugi lets his Life Points fall to 0 and collapses, releasing Joey's key. However Joey manages to force the Duel into a Draw, releasing Yugi's key too. Using the chain, Joey swings to Yugi's side of the field and grabs his key, before the anchor drags them both down. He unlocks Yugi, who floats to the surface and is brought ashore by Tristan. Serenity dives in with the other key to save Joey.

Afterwards Joey apologizes and returns the Millennium Puzzle. Yugi thanks Yami for trusting in him and Yami says that Yugi has taught him the strength behind kindness and that one day Yugi will surpass him in every way. Afterwards Mai gives Yugi and his friends a lift to the finals.

Quarter-finals
Yugi, Joey, Mai, Téa, Tristan, Duke and Serenity arrive at the KaibaCorp Stadium for the finals. Yugi is suspicious of the finalists Marik, who is under the guise "Namu", and Ryo Bakura, who should be in the hospital. Téa clears any suspicion of Namu, informing Yugi of how he saved her Joey and Bakura earlier. Shortly after Odion Ishtar, pretending to be Marik arrives, everyone boards the blimp, where the finals are to take place.

As Yugi prepares for the finals in his room, he adds "Slifer the Sky Dragon" to his Deck, thinking he's going to need it to face Marik. He also suspects Bakura has come into contact with the Millennium Ring again.

Yami Yugi faces Bakura in the first of the quarter-finals on the Stratos Dueling Arena. Yugi's suspicions are confirmed as they face Yami Bakura. When Bakura is one turn away from winning with "Destiny Board", the two Yugis agree they must use "Slifer" to defeat him. After Yami Yugi Summons "Slifer", Marik switches control of Bakura's body from Yami Bakura to Ryo, who is too weak to withstand the attack. However Yami Bakura disagrees with Marik's plan and takes control of Ryo's body and invited Yugi to attack him, refusing to let his host die. Yugi wins the Duel, knocking Bakura unconscious and in need of medical attention.

During the intermission before the next Duel, Yugi unsuccessfully tries to get Kaiba to make an emergency stop to take Bakura to a doctor. He then goes to his room, where while examining his Deck, he meets Shadi. Shadi tells Yugi how the Egyptian God Cards were created and why he must stop Marik from getting his hands on them.

After Joey defeats Odion, who was still pretending to be Marik, Joey exposes his opponent as a fake. With Odion defeated, Namu is exposed as the real Marik and Yami Marik takes control of his body. Marik confronts Yugi, saying the battle for the Pharaoh's power has now begun.

After losing to Kaiba, Ishizu Ishtar tells Yugi of the Ishtar family's history and gives him the Millennium Necklace, as he will be needing all 7 Millennium Items to recover the Pharaoh's memories.

That night Yugi is woken by Téa, who reports Bakura is missing. They discover he's dueling with Marik, but loses shortly after they arrive.

Virtual World
The Battle City blimp gets sucked into a mechanical fortress in the sea, by Noah Kaiba. Yugi, Joey, Tristan, Téa, Serentiy, Duke, Kaiba and Mokuba are greeted by a projection of the Big Five, who explain that they got trapped in the Virtual World, after they failed to trap Kaiba there, during the Legendary Heroes game. For that they hate Yugi and his friends for helping Kaiba. Having Kaiba as a common enemy, Noah uploaded their minds into his computer system. Using an altered form of Duel Monsters, they plan to face the gang in order to claim possession of their bodies, so that they may exist in the real world.

The group are then transported to a virtual jungle, where they are given a demonstration of the Deck Master rules. The Big Five then seperate the gang, by making holes appear under them.

Yugi ends-up at a pond, where he is faced by Gansley, who has taken the form of "Deepsea Warrior". Before dueling Gansley, Yugi changes to Yami Yugi, who Gansley identifies as "Type-B". During the Duel, Yugi notices that their Deck Master, Kuriboh is trying to tell them something. As Yami is about to lose, Yugi takes over and uses Kuriboh's Deck Master effect to save them. Shortly afterwards, Yugi collapses and Yami finishes the Duel.

The Yugis enter a hallway. Although they are aware there are traps behind some doors, Yugi runs through one, after hearing Téa scream, but is thrown back by an attack. Yami draws the Level star of the door to Yugi's attention, so Yugi Summons a monster of a higher Level, "Winged Dragon, Guardian of the Fortress" and has it launch an attack into the doorway. They enter the doorway and end-up repeating the exact same process Realising it's because they keep chosing the Level 1 door, they start attacking different Levels. The final door has the 2000 ATK, Level 4 monster, "Flash Assailant", backed up with a series of face-down Magic or Trap Cards. Yugi uses "Heavy Storm" to clear the face-downs and "4-Starred Ladybug of Doom's" effect to destroy "Flash Assailant".



Yugi arrives at the scene of Téa's Duel, but is held back by a wall of ice. "Dark Magician" is taken from Yugi's Deck and Summoned to Téa's field, after she plays "Sage's Stone". Attacking with both "Dark Magician" and "Dark Magician Girl", Téa defeats Crump, causing the ice around her to disappear. Yugi rushes to her aid and gives her his coat. Together they walk though the ice region and enter a door, taking them to a courtroom, where Joey is dueling Johnson.

Yugi correctly suspects that Johnson has rigged the outcome of Joey's luck based cards. Although Noah attempts to disqualify Johnson, Joey insists that they continue with the game unrigged. After Joey wins, he, Yugi and Téa exit though another door.

The trio find their way to Duke, Serenity and Tristan's Duel against Nesbitt. After the Duel, the gang try to find Tristan, befor the Big Five take his body. They briefly meet up with Kaiba and Mokuba, but are attacked by Nesbitt in possssion of Tristan's body. The real Tristan in the body of a robot monkey helps them fight the imposter. However Nesbitt kidnaps Mokuba and Kaiba takes off after him, leaving the others think about what to do with the monkey, not knowing it's Tristan.

The group take a pick-up truck to go after Kaiba. On the way, they find out the monkey is Tristan when he accidentally flips a switch, allowing him to speak normally.

After watching Kaiba duel Lector, Yugi and Téa go with him to help him find Mokuba. The others try to follow, but the tunnel disappears, before they can enter.

Inside the tunnel Yugi and Téa get seperated from Kaiba, and find themselves in a simulation of Kaiba's mansion back when Seto Kaiba got adopted. Yugi finds a picture of Kaiba's father with Noah, shortly before meeting up with Kaiba again. Noah then shows the three of them a projection of the past, where Gozaburo shows Noah a picture of Seto, who Noah must be able to compete with in order to run KaibaCorp.

Noah transports Yugi, Téa and Kaiba back to their friends, where they are confronted by the Big Five, now all in possession of Tristan's body. Yugi and Joey team-up to duel them in order to win back Tristan's body. Although Yugi and Joey win, the Big Five attempt to steal their bodies, but Noah takes them away, along with Tristan's body, before they can.

Since Noah designed the robot monkey, they search it for clues. Yugi pushes a red button, taking them to a virtual KaibaLand. From there the gang take a handcar through a subway and end up on the scene of Noah and Seto Kaiba's Duel.

Noah wins and turns Seto and Mokuba to stone. This causes Yugi to get mad and change to Yami, who accuses Noah of foul play, as he used Mokuba as a shield to help him win. As Yami he combines his Deck with Seto's and continues the Duel. Noah gradually turns Yugi's friends to stone as Yami duels, until there are no more left. Yugi then offers Yami support and takes him to his soul room. Inside he takes Yami to a room containing his recent memories, where everyone turned to stone offers their support. Back in virtual reality, Yami imagines Yugi's friends giving him the cards drawn by "Card of Sanctity" and uses them to defeat Noah.

After the Duel, Noah attempts to steal Yugi's body and escape to the real world, but the power of the Millennium Puzzle forces Noah back. After Noah finds out that Gozaburo had been using him, he tries to help everyone escape the virtual world. He takes them to a virtual Domino City. The group get separated and meet-up again, minus the Kaiba's. Having realized Noah double crossed them, Yugi starts to blame himself for trusting Noah.

Gozaburo has monsters attack Yugi and his friends as they look for a way out, but Yugi and Joey fight them off by Summoning monsters from their Decks. Noah, having stolen Mokuba's body and escaped to the real world, organizes a missile attack to destroy the fortress, including the servers for the virtual world. After having a change of heart, he contacts the group and explains that they must get out out quickly before the virtual world is destroyed.

Noah tells them to go the arcade. Yugi, Duke and Joey fight off more of Gozaburo's monsters, while Téa, Serenity and Tristan go there. When Yugi, Duke and Joey get to the arcade, Noah asks Yugi to go get Seto before returning himself.

Yugi complies and goes to the KaibaCorp building, catching Seto shortly after he beats Gozaburo in a Duel. Gozaburo takes the form of a monster and chases the two. Noah instructs them to jump off the building. With no other option they comply, but awaken in the real world, before hitting the ground.

Yugi, Kaiba and Mokuba run to escape the fortress before the missiles strike. Joey and Tristan help them get onto the moving blimp, as they leave Noah's fortress, before it gets destroyed.

Battle City finals
The KaibaCorp blimps takes the finalists to the Duel Tower for the Battle City finals. Yugi switches to Yami Yugi for the Battle Royale to determine match-ups and ends up with Kaiba as his opponent.

During the "Clash in the Coliseum", Yugi must face Kaiba in the rematch of the Millennium since their bout in Duelist Kingdom. Both Yugi and Kaiba summon the respective Egyptian God Card each of them possesses, but the Duel ends up in a heated stalemate, as neither Egyptian God is able to destroy the other. In the end, after a frightening flashback of Ancient Egypt, where Yugi and Kaiba see their prvious incarnations conduct a Shadow Game, both Gods are destroyed, so both Yugi and Kaiba fall back on summoning their favorite Cards (Dark Magician and Blue-Eyes White Dragon, respectively) to battle each other. When Kaiba summons his 2 other Blue-Eyes with The Flute of Summoning Dragon, Yugi considers forfeiting the Duel, but is convinced by Joey's spirit to look at all his options, and he discovers that there is something he can do. And so, he summons "Red-Eyes B. Dragon"—which Joey had given to him after he'd defeated the Rare Hunter—and activates "Magician's Selection" to destroy "The Lord of Dragons", leaving "Spellbinding Circle" free to weaken one of the Blue-Eyes White Dragons enough for Red-Eyes to destroy it. The Duel ultimately culminates and concludes after Yugi Fusion Summons "Dark Paladin" and combines him with "Diffusion Wave-Motion" to strike the final blow and win the Duel. As per the ante rule of the Battle City Tournament—and after Kaiba berates Yugi with his delusion that everyone in the world is alone—Yugi is given Obelisk the Tormentor before "The Final Face-Off" with Marik.

In "The Final Face-Off" between Yugi and Marik, Marik duels Yami in a Shadow Game where the loser ends up forfeiting his good side, but as Marik pointed out, no matter who won, an innocent soul would be lost forever—and if Yami Yugi lost, Yugi would vanish into the Shadow Realm, and the Pharaoh would cease to exist. Yami manages to summon both Slifer and Obelisk to attempt to win, but Marik manages to complete his Immortality strategy, locking down Yami's attacks by combining Egyptian God Slime with Jam Defender before reviving Monster Reborn and using it to summon his Winged Dragon of Ra. The Duel ultimately culminates and concludes with the destruction of both Ra and Yami Marik (thanks to Yami Yugi's "Ragnarok" card), and when Marik regains control of his body and mind, he forfeits the Duel to Yami Yugi, destroying Yami Marik, and gives him his Winged Dragon of Ra card, and, in addition, shows him the hieroglyphs tattooed on his back. According to Marik and Ishizu, the "Secret of the Pharaoh" is written somewhere in the hieroglyphs, and only the possessor of the Millennium Puzzle and the 3 Egyptian God Cards can unlock that secret.

Waking the Dragons
Shortly after Battle City, Yugi, Téa, Joey and Tristan go the museum in order to recover Yami Yugi's memories. As Yugi holds the Egyptian God cards, something holds him back. The group hear a scream and dash outside, finding a large number of living Duel Monsters in the city.

After Yugi's God cards get stolen by a group of bikers, he ends up dueling one of them, Grerimo. Grerimo uses the soul stealing card "The Seal of Orichalcos" and is even able to Summon "Obelisk the Tormentor" through its power. Yugi still manages to defeat Grerimo, causing his soul to be sealed in the card. Afterwards Yugi takes his necklace containing a fragment of the Orichalcos stone. As a reward for his victory, Rafael releases the souls of Rex and Weevil, which Grerimo had captured using "The Seal of Orichalcos".

Afterwards Yugi and his friends meet Rebecca Hawkins, who claims Yugi is now her boyfriend. She takes Yugi and his friends to see her grandfather Arthur, who tells them that he believes there is a dimension where Duel Monsters are real.

Back home during a dream, Yugi ventures to the Duel Monsters Spirit World. Here he meets Dark Magician Girl, who instructs Yugi and Yami Yugi to pull a sword from a dragon trapped in a glass prison. Yugi succeeds and receives the dragon as a card, "The Eye of Timaeus", after waking up.

While showing his friends the card, Yugi receives a video tape from Industrial Illusions. he is initially reluctant to open it, remembering how last time, Pegasus sent him such a tape, his Grandfather's soul got stolen. After deducing Pegasus can't seal their souls, since he no longer has the Millennium Eye, Yugi and his friends watch the tape. Pegasus offers some explanation for the recent events, but must meet Yugi in person to tell him. Pegasus arranges a jet for Yugi and his friends to come to California.

The leader of the organization responsible for the soul stealing Dartz, wants to use the 3 God cards to help awaken the force that once destroyed Atlantis. His swordsman Rafeal targets Yugi. When Yugi duels Rafeal, Yami Yugi ends up using "The Seal of Orichalcos", despite Yugi's objections. Yami Yugi loses the Duel, but since the card only takes one soul, Yugi lets it take him, sparing Yami. Yami ends up going through an emotional breakdown, while Rebecca is constantly blaming him for the capture of Yugi's soul.

After the duel between Rafael and Yami Yugi, Yami Yugi realises that he has darkness in his heart. He travels to a place where spirits are roaming around. He meets two people called "Ironheart" and "Chris". He is told that he needs to go down the hill to the Spirit Place. Tea tries to follow, but Ironheart stops her, saying that Yami needs to go alone. There, he is confronted by Yugi, whose soul was trapped by "The Seal Of Orichalcos". He is challenging Yami to a duel. Yami accepts and Yugi plays "The Seal of Orichalcos". Yami succeeds in defeating Yugi and Yugi tells him it was just a test. He also says that by defeating him Yami defeated the Darkness in his heart.

After Joey and Valon's duel, he, along with Tea and Tristan, find their soulless bodies. They pick them both up and go to Industrial Illusions. There, Mai has just lost a duel to Rafael. Rafael then challenges Yami Yugi to a Duel, playing "The Seal Of Orichalcos" himself. Rafael loses the duel, and the Orichalcos closes in on him. But then he is released from the Orichalcos and his soul is saved. Suddenly, the building begins to shake and it is about to collapse. Weak from the Duel, Rafael is carried by Yami Yugi out of the building. Rafael is trapped within the collapsing building,but not before giving them a PDA to lead them to Dartz's HQ.

Shortly after this, the gang and Kaiba travel to Dartz's HQ via the KaibaCopter. They enter Dartz's HQ and they finally meet him. Dartz then challenges Yami to a duel. Kaiba steps in and says Yami is not dueling without him. Yami and Kaiba team up to take Dartz down. Dartz plays "The Seal of Orichalcos". He then proceeds to play "The Seal Of Orichalcos- Deutros" and "The Seal Of Orichalcos- Trios". Dartz manages to get Kaiba's LP down to 0 and Kaiba's soul is taken by the Orichalcos. Before this happens Kaiba plays a card that transfer's his Monster's ATTK points to Yami's LP's. Yami is then furious at Dartz for taking Kaiba's soul. He remembers the card that Pegasus give him. He looks at it and realises its the one of a kind "Legend of Heart". He plays this card and succesfully summons "The Legendary Knight Critias", "The Legendary Knight Hermos", and "The Legendary Knight Timaues". With these 3 Knights on the field "The Seal of Orichalcos" is destroyed. But Yami faces a big challenge. Dartz has a monster on his side of the Field with over 20000 attk points. He sacrifices this monster in order to bring out a new monster with infite attack points. Yami then sacrifices his three knights in order to bring out an even powerfuler monster than Dartz's. It is called "The Knight Of Destiny" and has infinite+1 attk points. Yugi attacks Dartz's monster and destroys it- winning the duel.

After the duel, Kaiba and Joey's souls are released. Yami proceeds to pick up his 3 God Cards that were stolen from him at the start of the Season. He places them with the rest of his deck and goes outside with Kaiba and the gang (who were knocked unconcious during Dartz's and Yami's Duel). They witness the rebirth of atlantis and also the rebirth of the Great Leviathan (the monster Dartz is using to destroy the world). Kaiba, Joey and Yami Yugi go back inside the HQ and through a portal that allows them passage to Atlantis. There they are confronted with the Great Leviathan, and realise that because Dartz couldn't capture Yami's soul, he has merged himself with the Great Leviathan as Dartz's soul is an equally powerful one to Yami's. The Great Leviathan proceeds to swallow Kaiba, Joey and Yami whole. Yami summons forth the three Egyptian Gods, "Obelisk The Tormentor", "Slifer The Sky Dragon" and "The Winged Dragon of Ra". They are no match for Leviathan though and he destroys them easily. Leviathan then swallowed Yami almost completely, with only his hand sticking out.

With most of Yami's body inside Leviathan, Yami calls out to the Soul's of everyone who has been taken by The Seal of Orichalcos. He tells them to think of everything that makes them happy and everything they hold dear to their heart. They do so and orbs of light appear and transfer to Yami's Duel Disk. The monsters of the Spirit World also transfer their power to Yami's Duel Disk giving him the power he needs to break free. He does, and Kaiba and Joey also come out. He calls again on the Egyptian Gods and this time (infused with the powers of everyone's souls and the Duel Spirits' powers), the Gods defeat Leviathan. As Kaiba, Joey and Yami rush towards the portal, the Leviathan makes a comeback. Kaiba and Joey go through the portal, expecting Yami to be close behind. But Yami stays to confront Leviathan for one final time. Leviathan covers Yami in darkness in an attempt to take him down. Yami thinks of all his friends and manages to break out of the darkness vortex that Leviathan has trapped him in. He uses his friendship to defeat the Leviathan. Yami then proceeds through the portal back to the front of Dartz's HQ's. With Leviathan defeated, everyone's souls have been restored and the world is at peace again.

Grand Championship
Yugi, Kaiba, and all of Yugi's friends prepared for Kaiba's ultimate tournament, the KC-1 Grand Prix Championship. The winner of the tournament would face Yugi Muto in an attempt to claim his title as the world Duel Monsters champion.

On the opening day, while Yugi and his friends are watching a Duel between Rick and a CPU opponent, a hacker traps all the duelists and spectators inside the makeshift electronic stadium. The CPU opponent level has been altered to its highest of difficulty, and the only way for everyone to escape is to defeat the CPU in a Duel. Rick had mostly Dragon-Type Normal Monsters and almost no Magic or Trap Cards in his Deck. Yugi transforms into Yami and takes over, using "Heart of the Underdog"—a card Yugi had given Rick—and combined it with the effects of "Spirit Ryu" to win and free everyone.

Yugi didn't duel much in this season. He cheered for Joey and Rebecca throught the tournament. He dueled and defeated Vivian Wong, in order for her to cure Solomon Muto's back.

Yami faced Leon von Schroeder, who assumed the alias Leon Wilson, in the finals. Leon acted differently during the Title Bout and Yugi discovered that Leon only wanted to duel and defeat him to earn the respect of his family that Zigfried couldn't earn in his youth. Leon played an illegal card, "Golden Castle of Stromberg", that forced Yugi to discard half the cards in his Deck with every passing turn that Leon took and also infected a virus into the KaibaCorp computer system. Yami figures out a weakness in the card; He couldn't discard half the Cards in his Deck, having only 1 card left. He was able to destroy it and nullify the virus. With "Golden Castle of Stromberg" defeated, Yugi continued the Duel and played several Spell and Trap Cards before striking the final blow using "Dark Magician", "Necromancy", and "Diffusion Wave-Motion" to win.

Dawn of the Duel
After the KC Grand Championship, Yugi and the gang all head to Egypt, where the Tomb Keepers bring them to the chamber where the tablet depicting the duel between Yugi's and Kaiba's Egyptian counterparts. With the power of the Egyptian God Cards, Yami is seperated from the group into "The World of the Pharaoh's Memories" to truly discover the secrets of his past, his name in particular.

Yugi and the gang eventually follow him, finding they can only interact with certain people within this new realm. After defeating Yami Bakura in a duel unaided, Yugi memorizes the egyptian symbols that spell out Yami's true name, which they finally manage to deliver to the Pharaoh.

Yami Yugi finds out his name is Atem in Episode 219, In the Name of the Pharaoh. "Atem" is actually a variant of the name of the Sun god ." After finding out his real name, he is told by Ishizu Ishtar that in order for his spirit to be freed and return to where he belongs, he must be defeated in a Duel in the tomb where the Millennium Items are held. Yugi decides to duel his other half. The two put up a good fight, but in the end, Yugi manages to defeat all three Egyptian God Cards and win the Duel. The pharaoh then returns to the spirit world and the Millennium Items are sealed away forever.

Yu-Gi-Oh! GX
In Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, Yugi, Seto Kaiba, and Joey Wheeler are regarded as legendary duelists.

Jaden Yuki, bumps into him on the way to the Duel Academy sign ups. Yugi gives Jaden the card "Winged Kuriboh". In the Japanese version he says the card is lucky. In the English version, he says that he feels the card belongs with Jaden.

Yugi's Deck goes on display at Duel Academy. Later on, it is stolen by Dimitri, who duels Jaden with it. Afterwards the Deck is returned.

While Lyman Banner was giving a history lesson and mentions Yugi and Kaiba. One of the girls in the class calls him a dream boat, and another girl says that he is one of the best looking.

While Jaden is dueling T-Bone, Jaden gives T-Bone some words of wisdom, which Solomon Muto believes to be exactly what Yugi would have said.

While Bob Banter is caught spying on Alexis Rhodes, he distracts Jaden, Syrus and Hassleberry, by saying "Hey look! It's Yugi", so he make his escape.

When Jaden's duels Frantz, who stole a copy of "The Winged Dragon of Ra", Pegasus compares Jaden to Yugi.

During one of Aster Phoenix's flashbacks, Pegasus mentions Yugi being "Number 1" in his top five duelists, with Kaiba as number 2, Joey number 3, Aster number 4, and Jesse Anderson as number 5.

Mr. Stein talks about Atem and Thief Bakura while dueling Jaden.

During Jaden's last year, the person who had gained the most graduation points at the exam would get a copy of Yugi's Deck (excluding the God Cards). Chazz Princeton, Alexis Rhodes and Syrus Truesdale qualified, but turned down the prize in favor of their own decks. During the graduation party, Jaden is led by Winged Kuriboh to the room containing Yugi's Deck. Yugi appears and sends Jaden back in time to duel his younger self. Yugi seems to be taller and more muscular.

The two engage in a Duel. Yugi is impressed by Jaden's "Elemental Heroes". After Jaden gets the upper hand, Yugi switches to Yami Yugi, who Summons "Slifer the Sky Dragon", stating that the only worthy opponent for Jaden is a god. Jaden then remembers the important thing that he had lost - how to have fun in a Duel regardless of its importance. No outcome to the Duel is shown, but before the end of the episode, Jaden said "Yugi, I'll become stronger. And when the time comes..."

Cyber Kaiba
In a storyline occuring only in the Yu-Gi-Oh! novel, two weeks after Yugi's battle with Kaiba in Death-T, Yugi gets a call from Kaiba, who tells him to meet for game of Duel Monsters at the top floor of KaibaCorp. Yugi accepts, and when the Duel begins, they use a special variation called the "Bingo Rule," which prevents the used of a specific card in each player's Deck. Kaiba seems to be himself, but plays a different trump card, the "Automatic Giant".

Mokuba stumbles in on them, and tells Dark Yugi that Kaiba has not yet awoken from his catatonic state. It turns out that the Kaiba that Yugi is playing against is a Cyber Kaiba, controlled by the KaibaCorp computer, and using all of Kaiba's memories.

Dark Yugi defeats the "Automatic Giant" and Kaiba with a card called "The Unknown Egg", restoring everything to normal.

Yu-Gi-Oh! R
The story takes place soon after the Final Round of Battle City. I2 (Industrial Illusion), Pegasus' former company, take over the duel ring server of Kaiba Corporation. The leader of I2 at that time is Yakou Tenma. With the main computer, Yakou Tenma projects a hologram of his body, then meets Yugi and accuse him to be the criminal that make Pegasus gone. He then challenge Yugi, boasting about the evil gods that shall punish Yugi. Yugi then summons Slifer the Sky Dragon, but then Yakou Tenma summons The Wicked Avatar, a monster shape like a dark sun. The monster then slowly change form to Slifer the Sky Dragon. Yugi then try to stops the summoning of The Wicked Avatar with Slifer's special effects, but it is cancelled because the Rank of The Wicked Avatar is the same with The Winged Dragon of Ra, higher than Slifer the Sky Dragon. After that The Wicked Avatar attacks Slifer, beating him.

After the battle, Téa's body disappear in the thin air, because it is just the hologram projected by the duel ring server. Téa had already been kidnapped and she is inside the Kaiba Tower. Tenma said that he need Téa for R.A. Project. He then challenged Yugi to try to save Téa. Yugi, accompanied by Joey and Tristan, rushes to the Kaiba Tower to rescue Téa.

In the entrance, Yugi receives the Soul Prison Card with Téa's picture from Deschutes Lew. Deschutes is one of the Card Professor that guards the Kaiba Tower. Each has a card key that used to gain access throughout the tower. Yugi must battle with them to get the card key. But if Yugi lost, Yugi must hand over the Soul Prison Card as his mark of defeat and he cannot proceed in rescuing Téa. The Soul Prison Card's value is USD 100,000. There are 13 Card Professors total in Kaiba Tower.

After defeating 2 Card Professors, Joey is trapped in slide floor, making him go to the basement of the tower. Tristan rushes to follow him just before the floor closed, leaving Yugi behind because he trusts in Yugi. Yugi becomes angry to the card professor in that room and defeats him. Joey in the basement also meet 2 card professors and is able to defeat them, earning him card key as well.

After Yugi defeats another Card Professor, Tenma Yakou shows up and challenge Yugi with a newly form deck. If Tenma loses, Yugi can meet with Téa, but Yugi must stake all of his Egyptian Gods cards. In this battle, Tenma summons the second Evil God, The Wicked Dreadroot that halves the attack power of all monsters on the field except Dreadroot. Yugi then able to defeat Dreadroot by summoning Alkana Knight Joker.

After the battle, it is clear that the man Yugi is battling is not Tenma Yakou, but Tenma Gekkou, his twin brother. Yakou traps Gekkou's mind and controls him to battle Yugi. Because of the massive dark energy from Dreadroot, Téa's mind and body is separated. Yakou then reveals his plans, R.A. Project, or Rebirth of Avatar. His target is to revive the soul of Pegasus inside Téa's body.

Gekkou then gained consciousness. He tells Yugi that actually he wants Pegasus back, but not with this kind of way, sacrificing other people. He then shows Yugi how to speak with Téa's soul, by putting the Soul Prison Card in his Duel Disk. Meanwhile, Joey has beaten another card professor. While he is celebrating his victory, he sees Kaiba's jet plane returning to Kaiba Tower.

Kaiba and Mokuba is in America to promote the Kaiba Land using the M&W Competition. But then all of the participant's duel disk is not working. Yakou then shows up in hologram form again to ask Kaiba not to interfere with his plan and promise Kaiba that he will return the server after his plan is working. Kaiba and Mokuba then fly to Kaiba Tower to find out what's going on.

Upon his arrival, Kaiba must face a Card Professor in battle to have access to a card key. After defeating him, Mokuba has already hacked the security system so he doesn't need card key. Kaiba then rushes to Yakou's place.

While Yugi is heading to the next room, he asks Gekkou why Yakou involves Téa in his plan. Gekkou tells him there are 3 things required so the combining of soul and body can be done. first, not a duelist, because a duelist has a tendency to fight back. Second, healthy in mind and body. And the third, must be a direct family or friend of the enemy, that is Yugi. Gekkou also told him that a man from the Duelist Kingdom told Yakou that Yugi is the one that makes Pegasus disappear. Who is that man? Bandit Keith.

After that, Yugi and Gekkou meets Bandit Keith. Keith then takes them to the next Card Professor. Gekkou then volunteers in dueling this Card Professor. With his techniques, Gekkou is able to defeat him. Keith then takes them to the next Card Professors.

Meanwhile, Joey is facing another Card Professor. This one is special, because she is playing M&W for a month, and already admitted as Card Professor. He has zero will to battle and uses high-defence monsters. Her way of winning is reducing the opponent's deck using Field Tragedy that throw away 5 cards from deck for each attack. Joey then Téach her how to become a proper duelist, and able to defeat her. But unfortunately, Joey cannot move on because the Card Professor doesn't have a card key. Mokuba then shows up. Joey and Tristan decide to follow Mokuba to the Duel Ring Server.

Kaiba arrives in the top office of Kaiba Tower, where Yakou resides. Kaiba then challenge Yakou. But unfortunately Kaiba loses the duel because of the combination of The Wicked Avatar and The Wicked Dreadroot. The Wicked Avatar's effect is revealed. It can copy the monster on the field with highest ATK, and then plus the ATK with 1. When Kaiba loses, Yakou then use The Wicked Avatar to bring back Pegasus using Pegasus Soul Card. But Kaiba is able to cancel the effect using the command of other duel, canceling the summoning of Pegasus to Téa's body.

Yugi and Gekkou face the rank 2 and Rank 1 of Card Professors, Depre and Richie. Because Yami Yugi is still shocked because of previous battle, normal Yugi then faces Depre in battle. Using Toy Wizard, Yugi is able to defeat Depre. Richie then face Gekkou. But unfortunately, Gekkou loses the duel, making Yugi cannot go on to the next room. Gekkou is extremely sad because he let down Yugi. But then Joey contact Yugi that they have already find Téa's body and opens the door. Yugi and Gekkou then rush to next room.

Yugi then rejoins with Tristan and Joey. Joey then hits Gekkou because of his similarity to Yakou. But after he learns the truth he feels really sorry. Joey then battles with Bandit Keith, allowing his friends to go to the peak of the tower where Yakou waits. Keith is using The Wicked Eraser, the third Evil God, but then Joey use Gearfreed the Iron Knight to free Keith from his fear and empty soul.

Yugi then battles with Yakou. With God's Evolution and Obelisk the Tormentor, he is able to defeat The Wicked Avatar. Yakou, feeling lost of confidence and pride, try to surrender because he saw Pegasus walks away from him. Gekkou then tells Yakou that Pegasus has seen Yakou's true strength, the strength without the Evil Gods. Yakou then decides to continue the battle and finally lost to Yugi.

The control of Kaiba Tower returns to Kaiba. Yugi then reunited with his friends, especially Téa.

Voice
The voices differ slightly between the different series and the English dub, although commonly the voice of Dark Yugi is stronger and more confident than that of Yugi.

In the first series anime, Yugi and Dark Yugi are voiced by Megumi Ogata. Yugi's voice is positively timid, rarely showing any strength and almost always being polite in his speech, using honorifics and "boku" as his personal pronoun. Dark Yugi's voice is much rougher, uses "ore" as his personal pronoun and rarely ever uses honorifics. He also has a catchphrase, saa, geimu no jikan da (It's game time), usually spoken immediately after the change.

In the Japanese version of the second series anime, Yugi and Dark Yugi are voiced by Japanese singer Shunsuke Kazama. Yugi has considerably more confidence than in his previous appearance, but is still very polite. It's harder to distinguish between his voice and Dark Yugi's, but Dark Yugi's tone is considerably sterner and has the same pattern of speech as his previous appearance. This series also established Yugi calling Dark Yugi mou hitori no boku (the other me) and Dark Yugi referring to Yugi as aibou (partner).

In the English version of the second series anime, Yugi and Yami Yugi are voiced by Dan Green. Yugi's voice is high pitched and sometimes strained in more emotional moments, and generally has a friendly tone towards everyone. Yami Yugi's voice, in comparison, is fierce and commanding. Yugi's last name is pronounced "Moto" in this version, although it is still spelled "Muto". In the Singaporean dub of the second series anime, Yugi and Yami Yugi are voiced by Chuck Powers. In this dub, Yugi's voice is soft and slightly high-pitched, while Yami Yugi's voice is near the total opposite. In the Singaporean dub, both Yugi and Yami Yugi speak with a slight drawl. In the first season, Yugi calls Yami Yugi "spirit", then in other seasons Yugi started to call him "pharaoh". Sometimes, he also calls him Yami. Yami Yugi always called Yugi by his name.

Téa Gardner
Téa has been Yugi's friend since childhood. Téa is in love with Yugi, but no one knows if she loves Yugi more than his other half. The fact that Yugi and Yami Yugi are two seperate beings causes her confusion as to who she really loves. She also does have feelings toward the original Yugi as it is shown in many episodes when Rebecca Hawkins hugs Yugi, Téa appears upset. She has also shown jealousy towards Mai Valentine for her initially flirtatious attitude towards Yugi during her first appearance at Duelist Kingdom, as well as Vivian Wong.

Yami Yugi/Pharaoh Atem
After putting the Millenium Puzzle together, a "walk-in" spirit entered his mind and bonded with him. Yugi was initially unaware of Yami's existence and control of Yugi's body would involuntarily shift when Yugi or his friends are wronged. After finding out about the spirit, he was afraid of him, but eventually grew to accept this revelation as well as Yami himself. The two develop a father-son bond, and Yugi begins to grow, becoming stronger as he remains in Yami's shadow. After winning the Ceremonial Duel, Yugi was upset to see him go, claiming that he was weak and wasn't ready. Yami, proud of him, tells him otherwise, and as he steps through the door to the afterlife, Yugi gives him a thumbs up, now ready to go on his own.

Joey Wheeler
Joey initially bullied Yugi along with Tristan, but after he saw how Yugi stood up to Ushio, he became a close friend to him. When he was possessed by Marik, Yugi took Yami's place to get his friend back to his senses. After Joey's first Duel with Marik, Yugi couldn't believe he was dead, and was in grief. Joey, likewise, was upset when Yugi's soul was taken by the Seal of Orichalcos.

Rebecca Hawkins
During her first appearance in the Waking the Dragons arc, Rebecca announces that she has taken Yugi as her boyfriend. Since then, Rebecca continues to express her romantic affection for Yugi, getting angry at Yami Yugi after his loss to Rafael. She also gets mad at Vivian when she tries to flirt with Yugi, and taunts her after beating her in a Duel. Then, during her Duel with Leon von Schroeder, she gets depressed when Yugi gets distracted by having to find his grandfather, who goes missing.

Deck

 * Main article: Yugi Muto's Decks

Yugi's Decks are most famous for his "Dark Magician". Yugi's Deck probably has the most variety and balance of any other character's Deck in the series, and is sometimes referred to as a Strategy deck. His original Deck mostly composed of low Level EARTH and DARK monsters. The deck also originally had Exodia in it, which he used in the first episode to defeat Kaiba, but on the ship to the Duelist Kingdom, Weevil Underwood threw them overboard, and even though Joey Wheeler attempted to save them, only two of the five pieces were ever recovered, which were the head and the right arm.

During the Battle City arc, he keeps the theme of having EARTH and DARK monsters with dangerous effects. His Magnet Warriors become a major part of his Deck, as does his "Dark Magician Girl". His Deck from Battle City onward focuses more not only on his "Dark Magician", but also on his manipulation of his Spell Cards that are designed to destroy or negate the effects of his opponent's Spell Cards and Trap Cards. The rarest card in his Deck (aside from the previously lost Exodia) is "Dark Magician", of which he has only one (though during Battle City when he was challenged by Arkana, the rules specified that the winner of the duel would obtain the loser's "Dark Magician". Although Yugi won, it's unknown whether he actually took Arkana's "Dark Magician"; however, if he did, he never used it. It is unlikely, though, that Yugi would use Arkana's "Dark Magician" card,  as he determines during the duel that it has been tampered with, having its edges trimmed. Arkana did have two "Dark Magicians" though, so it isn't known if Yugi took one or not).

As the series progresses he adds more support for his "Dark Magicians", such as "Dark Magic Curtain", "Magical Dimension", "Dark Renewal", "Sage's Stone" and "Skilled Dark Magician".

During the Dawn of the Duel arc, Yugi uses a deck based around cards with a Toy theme and LV monsters such as "Silent Swordsman" and "Silent Magician". This deck represents the strength Yugi has without the help of Yami Yugi as well as his playful side.

When Yugi's Deck goes on tour at Duel Academy, the Copycat duelist Dimitri steals it and copies Yugi's voice, mannerisms and dueling style. While Dimitri copies Yugi's moves very well, he loses because he lacks the bond with the cards that Yugi has. This Deck is based around the "Dark Magician" and retrained Chaos varients of Yugi's Ritual Monsters.

In Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, when Jaden travels to the past to duel Yugi, the deck Yugi uses is one of his Decks from after Battle City but before the Dawn of the Duel arc.

In Yu-Gi-Oh! R, Yugi uses a Toy Deck, centered around Yugi's childish side, using cards such as "Toy Magician" and "Toy Box".

In Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie: Super Fusion! Bonds That Transcend Time, Yugi's deck focuses highly on his Dark Magician, as he has some new support cards in the movie never before seen in the anime.

Dice Pool
In the Dungeon Dice Monsters video game, Yugi uses monsters that he used in the anime, which makes many Spellcaster-Type, with a small number of Warrior and Dragon-Type monsters.

Capsule Monster Chess pieces
The first time Yugi faced Mokuba, he used the following Capsule Monster Chess pieces. He also used these in the anime against Warashibe.
 * Devil Castle
 * Flower Man
 * Eye Mouth
 * The Great "Pa"
 * Torigun

When Yugi faced Mokuba in Death-T, his Capsule Monster Chess pieces were:
 * Beeton
 * Brain Slime
 * Hyper Beetle (evolved from "Beeton")
 * Mogley
 * Ninja Squid
 * Toppo