User:Kalagan/Chocobo Raising Guide

Overview
I have long been sort of addicted to raising chocobos. I did not read much into how to care for them at the start, and as such my first chocobo was a complete failure. Since then I have experimented raising several birds while using wiki as a general guide. The information within this page is simply the data of those experiments and my opinions on it. If you find information to be false, please send me a message to correct it; I know I am not as experienced a chocobo raiser as some.

What Kind of Chocobo?
Before you start raising a bird, you must ask yourself what type of bird you are looking to achieve. A digger? A racer? A breeder? Or just a plain and simple "I need to get around" chocobo? Depending on what type, you should be looking to strengthen certain attributes.

The Digger Please note that this type of chocobo is directly influenced by your own digging skill. You can raise a magnificent bird with all the stats that a veteran chocobo digger would drool over, but if you don't have the skill, it will be lackluster. These crafty chocobos can dig up items that normally rented birds cannot, as well as dig with higher accuracy. Diggers generally have... High Discernment High Endurance Abilities Burrow and/or Bore

The Racer These chocobos are often the most difficult to raise. When most people think of racing, they assume the physically strongest chocobo will always win. Not true. It takes a both strong body and mind to be a good racer. However, a physically superior bird with low mental strength will almost always win against a weak runner with a high intelligence. Race birds usually have... High Strength High Endurance Moderately High Discernment Decent Receptivity Abilities Gallop and Canter

The Breeder These birds are sensitive and do well around other chocobos. This will greatly affect the success of matchmaking and potentially pass down dominant traits to their offspring. Chicks from these receptive parents are often easier to raise than purchased or quested ones, as they get a head start on certain stats. The type of honeymoon also affects the outcome of the chick. Birds raised for the sole purpose of breeding should have... High Receptivity Desired Attributes for Chicks Desired Abilities for Chicks

The General Mount These chocobos are usually not spectacular in races, digging, or breeding, but are a decent way to get around. They are raised for the purpose of transporting their master around the field, and therefore have a decent running speed and endurance. Not much more to say about these birds.

See raising chocobo attributes.

A Chocobo's Life Cycle
To start raising a chocobo, you must obtain an egg!

Chocobo Eggs can be obtained several ways. The easiest way is to purchase them from Dabih Jajalioh in Ru'Lude Gardens for about 1k. At times her stock is empty of eggs in which you will have to buy from her until she starts selling or wait for other people to do so.

Other ways include completing the quest Chocobo on the Loose and winning certain battlefields. In addition, you can recieve eggs from breeding chocobos. The latter is most useful if you want your chick to hatch with abilities or a chance at a certain color.

However you decide to attain your egg, you must take it to one of the 3 starting nations to be cared for in the Chocobo Stables. The life cycle of a chocobo is mapped out here:


 * Egg Stage- 3 real life days, hatches on the 4th day (Day 1-4)
 * Chick Stage- 2 weeks (Day 4-18). Your bird develops its personality during this phase, depending on its attributes.
 * Teen Stage- 10 real life days (Day 19-29). You will now know what color your chocobo will be as an adult.
 * Adult Stage- Day 30 onward. Depending on its attributes, your chocobo may look different than normal.
 * Adult birds will grow remarkably fast on or around day 43, to around day 64, in which the chocobo cannot develop via care plans for the rest of its life. However, you CAN raise its attributes by other means until the bird must retire (day 129).

Raising a Winner
After trading your egg to the chocobo trainer (i.e. Hantileon in San d'Oria), you will have to wait 4 days for it to hatch. During this time, I recommend you watch over the egg at least 100 times (you don't have to do this all in one day, just before the egg hatches). This will put your chick at maximum affection, or close to it, as soon as it is born.

Affection Levels From Lowest to Highest Regarding affection, it does not seem to care about you. Regarding affection, it seems to be able to endure your company. Regarding affection, it seems to slightly enjoy your company. Regarding affection, it seems to like being around you. Regarding affection, it seems to like you pretty well. Regarding affection, it seems to like you a lot. Regarding affection, it seems to want to be with you all the time. Regarding affection, it seems to regard you as its parent.

Is affection important, you ask? The answer is yes. Having high affection levels will greatly increase the rate in which your bird develops. Low affection, on the other hand, will result in a cranky, depressed chocobo with mediocre attributes. Simply put, do not neglect your bird at any time if you wish to raise a winner. Missing a few days along the line is acceptable and understandable, but if you can, care for your bird everyday. You will be rewarded with a happy, healthy animal.

You can raise affection after the hatching in multiple ways. Caring for your chocobo is the best way for you to bond and establish a good relationship with your bird. Also see chocobo feed.

Chocobo Attributes and How to Raise Them
Chocobos have 4 main attributes which are divided into two categories: physical and mental, and are explained in short below. Physical Attributes Strength: Your chocobo's leg power. The higher this is, the faster your bird will run. In a race, this affects your bird's base and max speed. Endurance: Your chocobo's vitality, directly affecting how long the bird will be able to carry you. In a race, this affects how long your bird will be able to maintain top speed.

Mental Attributes Discernment: Your chocobo's intelligence. Smarter chocobos will be able to learn new abilities and locate items better. In a race, high discernment gives your bird a chance to leave the gate early, as well as pace itself correctly. Receptivity: Your chocobo's ability to communicate. Receptive birds often are able to pass down abilities they learned to their young. In a race, receptivity seems to affect item accuracy and your bird's ability to dodge negative effects directed at it.

In addition, chocobos being raised in the stables have an energy gauge that will be depleted upon caring for it. This meter is restored each day, but you should never completely deplete it. Doing so will make your bird sick or cranky, hindering the rate it develops.

For more detailed information, see Chocobo Attributes.

Looking at this chart, you can map out how you will raise your chocobo. Keep in mind that you must have high affection for your care schedule to work. You can't just design a care plan for your bird and ignore it for the rest of its life. As such, when planning a hardcore schedule (one that decreases energy and affection dramatically), be sure to feed your bird its favorite greens everyday to keep its stress level down.

High affection increases the point value gained of each of these care options (maybe close to doubling). Negative effects will remain the same.

You can calculate your chocobo's growth by studying this chart. When raising a bird, remember that all of its attributes have a combined cap of 637. This makes it impossible to have a chocobo with First-Class in everything. To get the best of your bird, plan accordingly and be prepared for setbacks.

Chocobo Abilities
When telling a story to your bird, there is a chance that it may learn an ability. When it does, a light bulb will appear over its head and its energy will be restored, but more importantly, it will have an additional attribute! Your chocobo can only have two of the 6 abilities at a time.


 * Gallop-- Increases strength by one full level, making the bird able to run faster.
 * Tell Story of an Impatient Chocobo with Discernment at Rank D or higher.


 * Canter-- Increases endurance by one full level, making it able to carry you longer.
 * Tell Story of a Curious Chocobo with Discernment at Rank C or higher.


 * Auto-Regen-- Increases the rate your chocobo restores energy.
 * Tell Story of a Happy Chocobo with Discernment at Rank D or higher.
 * On a side note, I haven't seen this ability do much when raising the bird but it MAY help in chocobo racing.


 * Burrow-- When chocobo digging, adds a few more items attainable.
 * Tell Story of a Worrisome Chocobo with Discernment at Rank D or higher.


 * Bore-- When chocobo digging, adds a few rare items attainable.
 * Tell Story of a Youthful Chocobo with Discernment at Rank A or higher.


 * Treasure Finder-- Gives an extra clue when playing The Chocobo Hot and Cold Game.
 * Tell Story of a Diligent Chocobo at Rank D Discernment or above. This ability makes it easier to locate a chest by breaking the "Kweh" ring into two separate rings; "Kweh." and "Kweh!?", the latter being warmer.

In addition to having decent Discernment, your bird must either be unusually bright and focused or in the rapid growth adult stage for it to readily learn an ability. Please note that abilities CAN be learned with low Discernment and before your bird reaches the "prime of its life" adult stage (day 43), but the chance is very low (less than 1% with low Discernment; about 5% before day 43 or without focused condition).

Chocobo Conditions
Chocobos can go undergo several conditions, some of them positive, most are negative. All of them affect the development of your bird.

Chocobo Feed
To replenish your chocobo's energy each day, you must feed it until it is fully satisfied. Avoid overfeeding however, as this can make your chocobo sick. There are different types of food, including simple food, affection food, attribute food, and restorative/medicinal food. Always, ALWAYS be sure your chocobo has room before feeding it more.

Simple Feed: Cheap food with the sole purpose of satisfying your chocobo, this type can be skipped completely.
 * Gysahl Greens-- Cheap food, easily obtained.
 * San d'Orian Carrot-- Even cheaper than gysahls, easily obtained in San d'Oria.

Affection Feed: Comfort foods which are very helpful when raising your chocobo, especially when putting your bird through stressful care schedules.
 * Azouph Greens-- Your chocobo will favor this or sharugs, though both increase affection.
 * Sharug Greens-- Your chocobo will favor this or azouphs, though both increase affection.

Attribute Feed (aka Carrots): It seems a lot of players think they MUST feed their bird carrots in order for it to be the best it can be. This is not true. Carrots simply help you raise the stats slightly faster, and are not noticeable in small quantities. When your chocobo is on a hardcore plan, stick with affection feed. Otherwise, feeding it carrots now and again will give the bird a small boost.
 * Vomp Carrot-- Increase physical stats slightly while lowering mental stats.
 * Carrot Paste can be used in place of this while in the chick stage, but avoid using it when the bird is a teenager or older, as it will lower affection.


 * Zegham Carrot-- Increase mental stats slightly while lowering physical stats.

Medicinal Feed: Your chocobo will likely get sick or injured some point in its life, and when it does, it helps to be prepared.
 * Tokopekko Wildgrass-- Cures illness; doesn't taste good.
 * Garidav Wildgrass-- Relieves stomachaches due to overfeeding; doesn't taste good.
 * Gausebit Grass-- Helps heal wounds; doesn't taste good.
 * Chocolixir-- Restores your bird's energy to full.
 * Celerity Salad-- Cures most negative status effects and slightly increases Discernment.

Worms: A note on worms: I prefer not to use worms while raising my chocobos. Seems kind of pointless to me, as other foods have better effects. This is only my opinion though, so don't let this stop you if you wish to try them out.
 * Cupid Worm-- Greatly increases affection while lowering your bird's dominant stat by a little.
 * Why it's pointless to me: You should always have your bird at high affection. Even the hardcore care plans can be made up by a few of the chocobo's favorite greens, and without lowering any stats.


 * Gregarious Worm-- Restores about 25% of your chocobo's energy, but completely fills it.
 * Why it's pointless to me: You can use 2 chocolixir in one day, completely filling its energy TWICE.


 * Parasite Worm-- Lowers a random stat from your bird but allows it to eat more.
 * Why it's pointless to me: Why would you want to lower a stat so it can eat more? Isn't the point of eating to help it GAIN stats? I suppose this can be useful if you want to try some of the ability-removing items, but I can't think of any other reason.

Chocobucks
If you have raised a chocobo before, you will able to generate chocobucks to help your new bird develop. You can purchase feed, medicines, attribute training tokens, and some pieces of armor that aid in chocobo raising.

I recommend you stacking as many chocobucks as possible (up to 1000) before raising a new bird, or while it is in the egg, chick, and teen stage. Why so? As soon as your chocobo becomes an adult, you may then use the currency to directly increase its attributes!

Unfortunately, if this is your first bird, you will not have the advantages of being able to make chocobucks until it is an adult.
 * Green Racing Silks (150 chocobucks)-- Do your best to get these as soon as possible. They are extremely helpful while raising a new bird. For example, something that you could normally do 4 times a day max (i.e. Compete Against Others), you can do up to 6 times with these equipped. Especially useful when attempting to teach an ability. In addition, as some of the activities you can do with your chocobo raise its attributes slightly, over time you will notice the difference, especially if paired with carrots.
 * Note: The system doesn't take into account the energy reduction before actually caring for the chocobo, for example: even if you only use 30% for a long walk with the silks on, you still need 40% energy available to be able to take a long walk.


 * Attribute Training (80 chocobucks)-- Only available to adult birds, each upgrade you purchase will increase your chocobo's select attribute by about 5 points without lowering any other stats. This means it takes 7 or so upgrades to increase a stat by a full level (for example Outstanding to First-Class). Training your bird this way is a must to make it the best it can be.
 * Chocobo Dye (50 chocobucks for direct coloring, 75 for a bottle)-- If your bird isn't the color you desire, you can purchase every available chocobo color here! In my opinion, people worry too much about color, when they should be concerned about how great the bird actually is. If you have a surplus of chocobucks and don't need more important things from the depot, color away, otherwise save them for stuff your bird actually needs. Keep in mind that dye will stay on the chocobo you registered to your whistle until you re-register, and your bird will always appear its natural color in cutscenes.