Chocobo Raising Guide

Forewarning

 * Please be aware that when your chocobo first grows up, it will not be faster then a rental chocobo. Do not expect to be running laps around someone no matter how hard you try, it will take time, effort and a lot of Vomp Carrots.
 * Don't be afraid to be stingy on feed, your chocobo won't care if you give it Gysahl Greens or Azouph Greens. As a reminder, while the additional effect of foods is small, it is slightly noticeable if given in large quantities.
 * You won't be guaranteed a colored chocobo.
 * You cannot call a chocobo in any area that you cannot normally ride one. For example: Xarcabard, Beaucedine Glacier, Caedarva Mire, Tu'Lia among many others.
 * There are 0 benefits to force-feeding your chocobo. That includes benefits from food, potions, and other consumable items. In addition this may cause stomachaches and offset your training additional days while you give it the appropriate medication.

Boy or Girl?
Male or Female? If you care which gender your chocobo ends up being, once it hatches, you might like to know that it seems very hard to actually get new eggs to be the other gender in the event that your first one turns out to be a disappointment to your expectations.

Beauty is Only Skin Deep
What will you do if your 19 day old chocobo turns out to have 0 chance at being a colored one? They really love to guilt you for giving up on your chocobo egg, chick and adolescents.

Step 2: Obtaining a Chocobo Egg
Currently, Chocobo Eggs can be obtained from certain Sanction battlefields (ISNM), purchased from Dabih Jajalioh near the Auction House in Ru'Lude Gardens, by completing the quest Chocobo on the Loose!, or by breeding two chocobos.

While there is only one name for the various items, "Chocobo Egg", they each have slightly different descriptions.

Step 3: Raise Affection
The first (and arguably most important thing) to do when raising a chocobo is to keep its affection level high. This can easily be done by feeding your chick either Sharug Greens or Azouph Greens. Your chocobo will likely have its own personal preference toward either the sweet or bitter variety. The message "Chocobo gobbles up the [Favourite Greens] in a single gulp!" will probably mean that your chocobo favors that particular kind. You can then "Ask about your chocobo's condition" to check that the Affection Level really did improve.

Whatever the best mix of feed is, it is known that your chocobo's affection level goes up at least one level each day that the ideal mix is fed to your chocobo. The goal is to have your chocobo reach a state of "High Spirits".

It is possible to have your chocobo regard you as its parent without feeding it Azouph or Sharug greens, simply by watching over the chocobo every day, the use of food does speed up the process, but if you're short on gil, this is a viable option.

High Spirits (Chick)

You know your chocobo is in high spirits when...


 * "Chocobo seems pretty perky lately. It should be responsive to anything you give it now."
 * "Chocobo is in high spirits."
 * "Chocobo has been receiving plenty of affection, and seems extremely happy. Your chocobo is in excellent condition now!"
 * "Regarding affection, it seems to regard you as its parent." (redundant if you have the above states, but worth mentioning)

This primed state of affection is fundamental to raising your chocobo's attributes quickly. It will only last a certain number of days.

High Spirits (Adolecent)

May be the same as the High Spirits state as in the adult stage, and not entirely sure what it affected, but have received 3 separate types of High Spirits messages.
 * "Your chocobo is Exceptionally Energetic today"
 * "Your chocobo is Full of Energy today, some rigorous physical training would have good effect on it" (not exactly as npc said, but general idea)
 * "Your chocobo is Unusually Bright today, some rigorous mental training would have good effect on it" (not exactly as npc said, but general idea)

All 3 of these effects can be on the same chocobo at the same time. Exceptionally Energetic seemed to decrease the amount of energy that giving Personal Care to your chocobo would normally take out of it. Unknown what Full of Energy would do, but it could be speculated that Unusually Bright would make it easier for it to learn an ability from telling it a story. Tried telling chocobo "Story of a Diligent Chocobo" 10 times in a row with Unusually Bright effect on, but may have had no effect because my chocobo's Discernment wasn't high enough to let it learn a story (A Bit Deficient is speculated to be needed before a chocobo is able to learn a story).

High Spirits (Adult)

It seems that there is an additional High Spirits state in the adult stage.

(It happened for me around day 42) In at least one version of the adult High Spirits, your chocobo will readily learn abilities from stories. To reach this state, stories were told to the chocobo regularly; at least once per day, some days were missed.

Step 4: Daily Care
Once you know just how affection improves your chocobo's growth, you can start setting it on various care plans to raise one of the following classes of chocobo: Balanced, Speed, Digger, Breeder.

Balanced Chocobo
Method 0: The "Watching the Egg" trick.

While the chocobo is an egg, its energy does not decrease when cared for. It has been proven that if you watch the egg at least 100 times before it hatches will provide you with maximum affection (regards you as a parent) when it hatches.


 * There may be some other factor involved. Two chocobo eggs watched 100 and 130 times, respectively, hatched chicks at the penultimate (wants to be with you all the time) affection level.

Method 1: The following chocobo development guide has been noted in forums.

Raise affection to maximum and then do alternate between 7 days of Physique Care Plans with Intelligence Feeds and vice versa. The food is used as a substitute for maintaining your chocobo's attributes while you work on increasing the others.

Method 2: Basic Care

It would seem that there is at least one clear usefulness for the "balanced chocobo" path! While it appears that Basic Care is probably utterly useless, having your chocobo chick grow up solely on Basic Care will give it an easy-going personality for the rest of its life. This means that the chick stage is fundamental in influencing your chocobo's personality. The only potential drawback is that by having an easygoing personality, your chocobo may not receive as many days or level ups in its training towards being First Class as either a Speed Chocobo or Digger Chocobo, but only if the growth in attributes is limited to a certain number of days. That drawback might not even exist, since the trade off is that your chocobo behaves much better and has less of those cranky or stubborn days.

Remember, as Chocobo grow older, they learn much slower until they eventually cannot learn at all -seemingly around 100 days or so- with dramatic slowdown long before that. If spread too thin, the "balanced chocobo" may not learn all the desired abilities, or even get close to 1st class in just two attributes, let alone all four. Especially if this is your first generation, be weary of making a chocobo that is too average and useless. Balance is much better achieved in well managed training and breeding. Specialization in a particular attribute, though in the short-term may seem unbalanced, helps to produce much better baby chocobo's later on. It is easier to breed two chocobo with opposing attributes (a racer and a digger) to get a "balanced chocobo" then it is to attempt and do it all at once in the first generation. A chocobo raised to be "balanced" first generation and given contradictory food and training, that starts with nothing, will end up much weaker then the specialized chocobos (who others will want to breed with. Why breed with a mediocre bird when there are months at stake?) Even 2nd and #rd generation should fear attribute degradation with bad food or harsh training. Concerning personality, few understand it yet, the aforementioned "easy-going" persona is also accessible after rigorous conditioning with the help of affection food, lots of walks, and caring for the chocobo everyday. It's just as easy for someone attempting to raise a balanced and calm chocobo to raise an "enigmatic" personality perhaps, or any number of odd moods the birds take on. Basic care is better used as a tool for in between intensive training schedules, to let the chocobo cool down and regain a more cheerful personality if it does become cranky. Even though a complete Basic care plan seems balanced and appealing, in the long term, most of the time the chocobo will end up merely inadequate, and you will have to raise another specialized chocobo anyway, again, after all that work. Basic care should be used in moderation just as any strenuous care plans would be used. There is no single "balanced" chocobo path, it takes many plans in coordination with each other.

-Daily Care-

Basic Care has not raised the chocobo's stats over 19 days (chick stage) - always stayed poor in all attributes. Food seems to have very little effect (if any) towards raising a chocobo's stats. It might only act as a catalyst in preparing your chocobo to learn more during its daily care plan.

Mixing Vomp Carrot & Zegham Carrot have negative and contradictory effects & should never be alternated on the same day. The two carrots can, however, be used effectively at different developmental stages, Zegham when training for learning abilities at an early age & Vomp much later in physical training. Even though combining the two may seem to be balanced, in the long run, your chocobo will never be able to learn as much as it could, wasting both time and gil.

San d'Orian Carrot can be replaced with any Chocobo Medicine, if necessary. Affection should never be a problem with this path. You will likely end up with a chocobo which has attributes which are Average (untested) Poor (at least after 19+ days of testing).


 * It will never be same speed as rental because a chocobo with first-class strength and endurance is still slower than rental. Tested numerous times. However, chocobos with first-class strength and Gallop are as fast as rentals.

Speed Chocobo
Raise affection to maximum and then feed a daily mix of mostly Vomp Carrot. For example: 3x Vomp Carrot; or 2x Vomp Carrot and 1x San d'Orian Carrot; or 1x Vomp Carrot and 1x Azouph Greens (two greens would leave you with a sick chocobo the next day, thereby decreasing skillups even further); etc. This food will help give little boosts to your chocobo's Strength and Endurance attributes. Zegham Carrots are only useful in the early stages of growth when reading stories to the chocobo, trying to teach it gallop or canter; but only for a short while at risk of stunting your speed due to the food's negative effects. Greens will help keep Affection up when you use the higher-intensity care plans. Use care plans such as Take a Walk in Town, Carry Packages and Deliver Messages. Be aware of your chocobo's affection levels! You will need to find a balance between using the Affection-lowering care plans and feeding your chocobo Azouph Greens or Sharug Greens.

Digger Chocobo
Raise affection to maximum and then feed a daily mix of mostly Zegham Carrot. For example: 3x Zegham Carrot; or 2x Zegham Carrot and 1x San d'Orian Carrot; or 1x Zegham Carrot and 1x Azouph Greens (two greens would leave you with a sick chocobo the next day, thereby decreasing skillups even further); etc. This food will help give little boosts to your chocobo's Discernment and Receptivity attributes. Vomp Carrots are utterly useless for the Digger Chocobo. Greens will help keep Affection up, when you use the higher-intensity care plans. Use care plans such as Listen to Music, Interact with Children, Interact with Other Chocobos, Exhibit to the Public, Dig for Treasure and Act in a Play. Be aware of your chocobo's affection levels! You will need to find a balance between using the Affection-lowering care plans and feeding your chocobo Azouph Greens or Sharug Greens.

Breeder Chocobo
I have learned through experience as a Chocobo breeder that by breeding chocobos it allows the passing of learned abilities from the chosen parent (you can chose which parent in Jeuno by purchasing the correct ticket) to the new chick, and I have good reason to believe that color is passed along with it.

After extensive testing, the only sure way to get the color of chocobo that you want is to have both parents be the same type.

Chocobo Remedies
From personal experience, one unit of recommended medicinal grass/paste is usually sufficient, and two is the most I've ever needed to give at one time.

I have discovered that if I feed the chocobo the medicinal grass/paste until the VHS trainer says something to the effect of "I hope it gets well soon", then it will get well by the next update. If I only feed it one piece and the trainer does not comment, it always needs more medicinal feed the next update and has often become even more sick.

Scary Dreams
You will only receive this quest if you have not received and kept your Chocobo Whistle.

Love Struck
If your chocobo has become love struck, the VCS trainer will tell you that your chocobo appears to be in love. It will hang its head as if sick and will behave as such. (It will even have hearts floating above its head.) Give it a Celerity Salad. This is the only known remedy. It has been my experience that if you ignore your chocobo's love struck status its affection for you will take a dip and keep on dipping the longer you leave it in that state. The love struck condition can last anywhere from 1 to ??? days - fix it as soon as possible or expect all of your hard work to go down the drain since you'll be building it's affection levels back up in order to raise attributes again. With ~64 days to do this (outside of racing, and that's painful as it takes ~5-7 sessions at 80 chocobucks each to raise just one attribute level) every day is precious. Waste no time.


 * Love-struck chocobos can learn abilities.


 * Resting or Scolding your Chocobo can also cure it of his love sickness. Both have worked multiple times for me.

Caught a Cold
If your chocobo has caught a cold the VCS trainer will recommend you bring it some Tokopekko Wildgrass. If ignored, the cold may become a high fever.

Has Injury
If your chocobo has an injury, the VCS Trainer will tell you your chocobo has become injured. It will lay down in its stall and will look very unhappy. Typically a chocobo becomes injured when participating in care activities that produce physical strain such as Carrying Packages, Delivering Messages, and Exercising in a Group (in order of most likely to get injuries to least likely). The remedy is to feed it Gausebit Grass as prompted by the VCS Trainer. By the next real-time day the wound should be healed, but on rare occasions the wound may take 2 days to heal requiring another treatment with the Gausebit Grass. In this case, the wound will be healed by the third day.

Chocobo Abilities
"Teach an Old Chocobo New Tricks!"

Each chocobo can learn 2 out of the 6 abilities (or attributes as they are called in the game). They can be obtained by telling a chocobo a story or by picking the appropriate VCS Honeymoon Ticket plan from Finbarr, which causes the resulting egg to inherit the abilities of a specific parent. The abilities are:


 * Gallop (Story of an Impatient Chocobo) - Increases chocobo's running speed. Obtained from walks with Hantileon.
 * Canter (Story of a Curious Chocobo) - Increases a chocobo's endurance. Obtained from walks with Brutus.
 * Burrow (Story of a Worrysome Chocobo) - Adds a few different items to Chocobo Digging. Obtained from walks with Zopago.
 * Bore (Story of a Youthful Chocobo) - Allows your chocobo to find less common items while Chocobo Digging. Obtained from walks with Pulonono.
 * Auto Regen (Story of a Happy Chocobo ) - Increases the rate at which your chocobo restores energy. Obtained from competion races with Bashraf.
 * Treasure Finder (Story of a Diligent Chocobo) - This ability will increase a chocobo's ability to locate treasure when playing The Chocobo Hot and Cold Game (Dec 19th FFXI Update). Obtained from the quest, Lost Chick.

Note: It is possible to obtain all stories regardless of where the Chocobo is raised. Only difference from raising in a different city is the order the stories can be obtained. It is also possible to learn abilities after day 64.

When an ability is learned, the corresponding story's key item disappears, a light-bulb animation goes off above your chocobo's head, and the chocobo's energy bar is restored by 20-100% (the amount restored seems to vary from person to person, but they have always restored 100% for me). After 2 stories have been learned, your chocobo can still "learn" more stories, which will then disappear, but it will not actually learn the corresponding abilities, as the limit of 2 has already been reached, however, energy will still be restored. It is possible to learn all stories on the same day, thus it is also able to take many long walks on that day (learn a story, take a long walk once or twice, learn another story, take more long walks, and so on). This is best done once you have obtained all the stories, have discernment at least to impressive, and have the unusually bright condition. If you want to try this, make sure to have a Chocolixir ready in case you end up a little low on energy at some point.

Relative difficulty of learning stories
The following lists the stories in order of most difficult to learn to least difficult to learn, as well as giving the recommended level of discernment in order to learn the ability "easily" (within 1-6 tellings). The more difficult a story is to learn, the more discernment it requires to be learned "easily." Please take note of the careful wording; Abilities can be learned with less discernment and a LOT of luck. Other factors, such as the unusually bright and focused condition, also come into play.

Any of the abilities may be inherited at birth from the parents.


 * Bore (Story of a Youthful Chocobo) – Impressive
 * Canter (Story of a Curious Chocobo) – Average
 * Treasure Finder (Story of a Diligent Chocobo) – Average
 * Burrow (Story of a Worrysome Chocobo) – A Bit Deficient
 * Gallop (Story of an Impatient Chocobo) – A Bit Deficient(confirm please, I've been reading my chocobo this story for 3 days now at "A Bit Deficient", and it has yet to learn the ability.)
 * Auto Regen (Story of a Happy Chocobo) – A Bit Deficient

Misc Info
The following information is mostly already available in the ol' Chocobo Raising page and do not actually provide any guidelines about the care, feed and daily rituals needed to raise chocobos.

What you will Need to Raise your Chocobo
These are the things that will be required over the month of your chocobo raising. All of the items can be purchased from the Auction House in your city.
 * 29 days in which to check on your chocobo.
 * Between 8-12 stacks of Chocobo Feed
 * If your chocobo gets sick, two of the Medicinal Feed is recommended
 * Possibly a Chocolixir or two for when your chocobo becomes an adult.
 * A lot of patience

Chocobo Stages
These are the stages that your chocobo will go through to reach maturity. As appears so far, most cutscenes and personality differences are random in occurrence. Do not be upset if your chocobo does not develop a personality until late in its development.

Egg

 * After obtaining a chocobo egg, head to one of the starting cities' chocobo stables and trade the egg to the Vana'diel Chocobo Society trainer located inside. From there, you can watch your chocobo grow!
 * The only care plan option is Basic Care
 * Your only care option is Watch over the Chocobo.
 * It is possible to Watch over the Chocobo an unlimited number of times as the energy bar does not decrease as an egg. Watching it at least 100 times as an egg guarentees that the hatchling "Regards you as a parent" from the moment it is hatched.  You can not do this after it hatches.
 * The egg cycle is 4 real life days. (96 Earth hours)
 * Each day, exactly 24 earth hours after the last, you will receive a cutscene in which the VCS Trainer will update you on your chocobo's condition. If you miss a day, any missed cutscenes will be given the next time you talk to the VCS Trainer.
 * On day 4 your egg will hatch into a young chocobo.

Chick

 * The care plan now includes Basic Care, Rest, Take a Walk in Town, Listen to Music
 * You may name your chocobo by combining two of the Chocobo Names up to 15 characters.
 * You may now Feed your chocobo. To Feed your chocobo, trade the chocobo food or medication to the VCS Trainer.
 * Your care options are Watch over the Chocobo and Go on a Walk (short).
 * During this phase of its life, your chocobo may develop many Personalities. Some will last for only a day, others will remain for longer periods of time. The effects of the Personalities is unknown at this time.
 * You may receive a second cutscene in which the VCS Trainer states, "Your chocobo seems pretty perky today. It should respond to anything you give it". The current belief on this is that it is the day on which to feed your chocobo a worm.
 * The chick cycle is 2 weeks Earth time.
 * For the first 2 days, the VCS Trainer will give you regular updates on your chocobo, mentioning what care plan it was on. In this phase you may begin to get a second cutscene in which your chocobo may be ill. If this occurs just follow the instructions given by the VCS Trainer.
 * Day 7: After another 24 hours, talk to the NPC again for a cutscene showing your chick.
 * You will get a cutscene in which the NPC will mention that your chocobo has been crying at night. You will receive a key item called a White Handkerchief. Wait until the after midnight of the next Vana'diel day, then zone and come back. You will now be able to use the handkerchief with your scent on it and it the Chocobo Trainer will take it back from you. It is rumored that if you are too late, the chocobo trainer will use his own item to make the chick get better and your handkerchief will just simply be taken.
 * From day 8-19: You will get regular updates, sometimes getting an ill cutscene and sometimes getting the perky cutscene. On day 19 your chocobo will grow into a Adolescent Chocobo.

Adolescent

 * The care plan options now include Exercise Alone, Exercise in a Group, Interact with Children, Interact with Other Chocobos, Carry Packages and Exhibit to the Public.
 * Personal care options now include Tell a Story, Scold the Chocobo and Go on a Walk (regular)
 * After your first regular walk, you will meet three other trainers who challenge you to a competition. This opens the Personal care option, Compete against Others.
 * Your chocobo may now become bored. Use the new Compete against Others to race and remedy its boredom (like other conditions, your chocobo's mood will not update until the next day).
 * The tips of your chocobo's tailfeathers will now be either, white (yellow), black, blue, orange (red), or green. This indicates what color your chocobo is going to be when it reaches the adult stage.
 * See above note under Breeder Chocobo for more in-depth color guide.
 * The Adolescent cycle is 10 earth days.
 * For the next 10 days you will get regular Chocobo update cutscenes, occasionaly getting ill or bored cutscenes. On day 29 your chocobo will become an adult.

Adult

 * You receive the care plans Deliver Messages, Dig for Treasure and Act in a Play
 * You receive the personal care option long walk.
 * Your Chocobo is now rideable. Complete the mini quest Obtaining your Chocobo Whistle to obtain your Chocobo Whistle.
 * After obtaining your Chocobo Whistle, you must register your chocobo in your city.


 * You may now retire your chocobo. Doing so will allow you to begin raising a new chocobo.
 * You can continue to improve the stats of your chocobo. (On day 129, your chocobo will "auto retire"; at this time its stats are permanent and you may begin to raise another chocobo.)
 * You can now get a Chococard. This is used for breeding with another chocobo in Jeuno. More information is pending.
 * The stop chocobo raising option is removed at this time.
 * Your chocobo will auto-retire on day 129. (Note: At no point is it necessary to retire your chocobo in order to ride it, breed it or anything else. Retire it only if you wish to begin raising a new chocobo.)
 * You will be updated daily on your chocobo's status, as well, all cutscenes from the young chocobo phase will still occur in this phase.
 * On or around day 43, you may receive a message "Your chocobo is in the prime of its life." It was once "Your chocobo's attributes are at its peak" even though its stats could and would still increase after this point. It is assumed that this was a mis-translation that has been corrected.
 * On or around day 43, you may receive a message "You have done a magnificent job raising this chocobo. Now is the best time to improve its attributes.  I must say, is beginning to develop quite a distinguished air." You may or may not have both abilities by this day.
 * On or around day 64, you may receive a message saying something about how distinguished your chocobo looks. It has been shown that once you get this message the chocobo's attributes no longer increase through the use of care plans. It may still be possible to increase stats with carrots and the racing association's intense training programs however.
 * On or around day 65, if your chocobo has not been named, a name will be chosen for you.

Vana'diel Chocobo Society farms

 * At day 129 your chocobo will have to retire to the farms for the rest of its life. However, you can still call it to the field by using a Chocobo Whistle if you have done the quest to attain it.

Chocobo Attributes
Each chocobo has 6 main attributes: Both strength and endurance are collectively referred to as "Physical attributes". Both discernment and receptivity are collectively referred to as "Mental attributes".
 * Strength - is a term used to describe the chocobo's leg power. The more strength a chocobo has, the faster it will be able to run. Rental chocobos have been raised with an emphasis on this attribute.
 * Endurance - is a term used to describe the chocobo's stamina. If your chocobo has high endurance, you will be able to ride it for a long period of time.
 * Discernment - is a must for anyone who wants their chocobo to learn new abilities. This increases the likelihood of learning an ability. While it is still possible to learn an ability with low Discernment, the chances are slimmer and some abilities appear more difficult to aquire with low Discernment than others. It is possible to raise this to average quickly to learn two abilities, and switch the care plan to have a first class speedy chocobo.  You may want to consider raising this attribute if you are interested in digging for treasure.
 * Receptivity - is a term used to describe the chocobo's sensitivity when dealing with others. You can foster receptivity in your chocobo by giving it lots of opportunities to communicate with other chocobos.
 * Energy - is a term used to describe the amount of power the chocobo needs to stay active for the day. If your chocobo has a lot of energy, care plans are more likely to be successful and you can provide more direct care for your chocobo. You can restore your chocobo's energy by feeding it, so remember not to skip out on feeding time after a demanding schedule!
 * Affection - is the most important attribute of all. Your care schedule will fall flat if you don't show your chocobo proper affection! You can raise your chocobo's affection by feeding it greens and caring for it on a regular basis. Affection is split into several levels:
 * level 1 - not care about you at all
 * level 2 - be able to endure your company
 * level 3 - slightly enjoy your company
 * level 4 - like being around you
 * level 5 - like you pretty well
 * level 6 - like you a lot
 * level 7 - want to be with you all the time
 * level 8 - regard you as its parent


 * Each attribute has several levels:
 * level 1 - Poor
 * level 2 - Substandard
 * level 3 - A bit deficient
 * level 4 - Average
 * level 5 - Better than average
 * level 6 - Impressive
 * level 7 - Outstanding
 * level 8 - First-class