So you’ve decided to exploit your feather friend(s) in Chocobo Racing? In this Chocobo Racing guide, we will discuss both major parts of the whole system: Breeding, Training, Feeding (everything about Raising) Chocobos is discussed in page 1 of this guide. Page 2 will be detailing the Racing Side (Tracks, Strategy and other race related information)
But for the 1M MGP question: “How do I start/unlock Chocobo Racing!?” Gold Saucer, WEST of ENTRANCE DESK there is an elevator lift, here’s where you start the quest for Chocobo Races. Remember to activate the aetheryte here so you can aethernet goin’ up here.
All about Chocobo Breeding & Raising
Chocobo Feed (for Racing)
You are what you eat. Not surprisingly, this applies to Chocobos as well. Each time your chocobo levels up, you get ONE TRAINING SESSION. This basically means you can give him 1 piece of food. Grade 1 food gives 1 of the chosen stat, Grade 2 food gives 2 of the chosen stats, Grade 3 food gives three of the chosen stats.
You can buy grade 1 food in Bentbranch Meadows, CSH (20, 22). for 1500 Gil. You can buy Grade 2 food in GS for XXX MGP and Grade 3 food in GS for YYY MGP. First of all let’s look at how this pans out for the future of your chocobo racer. (For the table below, we assume average of 4.5 stats gained per level up, and looking at minimum breeding rank of 40)
| Chocobo Feed? | Levelups | From food | Total | Compare |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 all the way | 190 | 40 | 230 | 0% |
| 2 all the way | 190 | 80 | 270 | 17.4% |
| 3 all the way | 190 | 120 | 310 | 35% (15%) |
Note that stat CAPS increase as the grade of your chocobo increases.
Hopefully you can make sense of this table. Though the importance of feed will SEEMINGLY be alot less as our chocobos rank up, time will tell. All I know is, the better feed you use, the easier it is to level up early on. Why? Because your chocobo will be a chunky % stronger than any chocobo fed on lower tier food – making winning races easier. It’s important to note that FEED DOESNT IMPROVE STAR RATING (I guess you can say the stars are genetics).
Chocobo Feed FAQ
Where do I farm Gregarious Worms / Mazlaya Greens? These appear in the unspoiled nodes of Gold Ore and Black Truffle respectively.
Mazlaya Greens: ETH XPM (Mazlaya is in slot 2, Black Truffle is in slot 7)
Gregarious Worms: ETH 9AM ET (Worm is in slot 1, Gold Ore is in slot 6)
They can only be gathered ONCE though.
How do I maximize each Worm/Green node? Use toil to discover the unreachables (no way around this). Gather the non-worm or non-green node until you’re at the last hit. Then use Blessed Harvest / Kings Yield so you can get more than 1 of these guys. You need close to 700 GP to do this (Since you gain a little gp while hitting… im guessing 675 is enough)
How can I easily get these feeds? Grade 1 can be bought with gil (don’t bother crafting this). Grade 2 can be bought with MGP or crafted, Grade 3 can be bought with MGP only. I prefer to craft Grade 2’s, because MGP is a bit harder to come by.
Where do I get this fruit!? that seed!? Okay, this needs table. (remember, Krakka Root seeds are bought from housing vendors)
| Stat food | Plant needed | Cross 1 | Cross 2 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Speed | Sylkis Bud | Krakka Root | Almond |
| Acceleration | Pahsana Fruit | Krakka Root | Linseed |
| Stamina | Mimett Gourd | Krakka Root | Midland Cabbage |
| Endurance | Tantalplant | Krakka Root | Wizard Eggplant |
| Cunning | Curiel Root | Krakka Root | Chamomile |
| Gregarious Worm | ETH | 9AM | Slot 1 |
| Mazlaya Greens | ETH | 1PM | Slot 2 |
Remember, if you’re attempting to breed these on your own, crossbreeding happens when you plant the seed. I guess the guys over at (ffxivgardening/planner) are a better source for this.
Breeding the ultimate Chocobo
I wish I could tell you guys more about this, but here is what I know for now:
Minimum Breeding Rank is 40. Once you “cover” (aka resign) your chocobo, you will now get something like a breeding permit. This breeding permit records the stats of the chocobo you retired. There are, however, some curious caveats. Once you cover a choco – you can use it to breed a max of 10 times.
AS I WAS WRITING THIS, I HAD TO DELETE A CHUNKY AMOUNT OF TEXT – There is still to many unknown factors, but I’ll continue to my conclusions in a bit. Check these out for other breeding info – here’s my take.
The ultimate Chocobo is a grade 9 4 star in each of the 5 stats: While that may be obvious, we need to understand “how” we’re going to get there. And trust me, the HOW part is the bummer.
Star ratings are genetics: You cant improve them: no matter what grade of food, you cannot improve genetic garbage. Stars determine 2 things (starting stats, stat cap and possibly stat growth)
Stap cap calculation: Is a bit weird. I’ve seen some examples.. but I think I need to see more grade 3 and 4 chocobos. But in a nutshell – better star rating, higher stat cap. This formula I found, by /u/fawksb seems to hold up so far: (40x((Pedigree-1)+Star Rating))+20. So this would mean the ultra chocobo has 500 max in all stats, which is 2500 total stats.
When does my chocobo learn a skill? At level 10, your choco learns a random skill. Using MGP, you can unlearn a skill your chocobo got. If you unlearn, you get a new random skill the next time you rank up.
Are the stat caps on Ariyala wrong? Because the highest I can see is 668
Honestly, I’ve seen a chocobo myself that defies that listed stat cap calc. :s Lemme do a little more research
Oh sorry I wasn’t very clear here. I was talking about crafting gear in regards to the paragraph I quoted below. Sorry again, looking at my post it’d be almost be impossible to know what I’m talking about.
“How do I maximize each Worm/Green node? Use toil to discover the unreachables (no way around this). Gather the non-worm or non-green node until you’re at the last hit. Then use Blessed Harvest / Kings Yield so you can get more than 1 of these guys. You need close to 700 GP to do this (Since you gain a little gp while hitting… im guessing 675 is enough)”
1) don’t understand how that would work and 2) Don’t understand how you’d hit 675 GP anyway. Isn’t the worm just not effected by King’s Yield regardless?
From what I’ve heard Yield does affect worms/mazlaya. Each strike of a node gives 5 GP, and you can use +GP food if you REALLY want it.
Though why do you have to go through all the nonsense of using toil and mining a different node and using yield on the last step? Is it some kind of trick I don’t understand?
Yield doesn’t effect worms if you just uncover slot 1 yourself and use yield. That was the first thing I tried. I just don’t understand why having 675 GP (with even with GP food I couldn’t make the Ariyala stat calculator) and using toil, mining gold until your last attempt and then using yield will make a difference.