IX. Chocobo Farmin'
A. Catchin' 'Em
Catching chocobos is really the least of your concerns, and is something you
can get out of your way very quickly. Beforehand, you'll be needing to
purchase you a few stables at the Chocobo Ranch (something that cannot be done
until you have reached at least section III.H. of the walkthrough). Go talk to
Chocobo Bill, who begins a very long-winded speech about how we're all going to
die a horrible firey death and how things suck so badly, so why not go and
raise a chocobo? Hell, he can even rent you the stables at the cost of an arm
and a leg each! At least four are reccomended, though you'll probably want to
go ahead and nab all six. Money really shouldn't be much of an issue to you at
this point, and if it is, I strongly advise against chocobo breeding for now
(as feeding these little bastards is going to run you a pretty penny, indeed).
Also, if by some stretch of the imagination you didn't buy it earlier, you'll
also be needing the Chocobo Lure materia from Chocobo Billy.
Anyways, now it's time to fill out your shopping list. You'll first and
foremost be needing two "great" chocobos ("good" chocobos also work, but
"great" ones are preferred). These guys can be found around the chocobo tracks
near Mideel. The "great" ones will appear to you in fights alongside Spirals,
so those'll be the ones you'll be wanting to capture. You may wish to have a
cheap green along to feed to the chocobo in battle so that it does not run
away. But given the point you are at in the game, it should not be overly
difficult to quickly dispense of the enemies surrounding it. Just be sure not
to use any attacks that target everyone, because I've found that chocobos tend
to become somewhat pissy after having their asses kicked (though, interestingly
enough, they cannot be killed by any means).
After winning the battle, you'll find yourself on top of the chocobo.
Disembark, and the game asks you if you want to set it free, or send it back to
the Chocobo Ranch. I don't know how in the ten thousand hells of the great
Lord Chaos it happens, but if you opt to send it back to the Chocobo Ranch, the
chocobo will just run off into the distance and end up there without any
outside assitance whatsoever. Never mind the fact that it has no idea where
it's "supposed" to go, has to cross oceans and moutnains to get there, and
probably doesn't want to go there, anyways... Jesus, that's a mind bender.
Now, as you might expect, these two chocobos will have to be male and female
(sadly, you are not allowed to introduce your chocobos to the joys of
homoeroticism, and that would just prove fruitless, anyways.) However, the
chocobo's sex is not determined until you actually get back to the ranch.
Meaning that all you have to do is save before you go there, and two chocobos
will be all you need at this time. Go speak with Chocobo Billy about "moving
chocobos", and he'll help you sort through your "inbox" of chocobos and either
move them into the stables, or give them the boot. You can tell which chocobos
are "great", because Chocobo Billy will comment, in no uncertain terms, that
"this is a great chocobo!" As for the gender, need I repeat that you'll be
needing both a male and a female?
With your two "great" chocobos handy, you have what you need to get started.
However, sicne we're already busy capturing chocobos, you might as well go
ahead and get the one more chocobo you'll be needing for later on. Not a
"great" chocobo... no, no. You'll be needing a "wonderful" chocobo. Those can
be found in the snowy north, and are present in battles alongside adorably cute
little bunnies (Hopping, I believe they were called). You will only be needing
one, and the gender really doesn't matter, so whatever you get the first time
will work. As with the "great" chocobos, Chocobo Billy will confirm the
wonderfullness of said chocobo by telling you that "this... is a wonderful
chocobo!"
And that's it for the catchin' of chocobos. Your Chocobo Lure materia is
now more or less entirely worthless.
B. Feedin' 'Em
Feeding your chocobos is also a very simple process, no matter how hard
the game makes it out to seem. Simply put, the more expensive the green
("greens" are chocobo feed, just in case you were wondering), the more
effective it is. To make things more interesting, different greens also alter
different stats. The best greens, which will raise all stats by the largest
amount of any green, are called Sylkis Greens, and cannot be purchased at the
Chocobo Ranch. Rather, you'll have to fly to the northern continent and
discover the secluded hut of the reclusive Chocobo Sage and buy them from him
(oh, and you might also want to speak with his green chocobo before leaving to
reieve your complimentary ~E. Skill materia). Though you can get chocobo
breeding advice from the Chocobo Sage, as well, he has the memory of a Mafia
witness, and is a complete pain in the ass to get any kind of worthwhile
information out of. Besides, you have this guide, don'tcha?
A point I should make is that Sylkis Greens are painfully expensive, and the
cost of breeding chocobos will be by far the
costliest investment of the entire game. While you should note that by using
larger amounts of inferior greens, it is theoretically possible to save
yourself gil. But, this aplies only to the cheapest greens available, and the
amount of money saved is probably negligible as compared to the insane amount
of time it would take to feed your chocobos that many Goddamn greens (we're
talking a lot of freaking greens here). Another thing you should want to
consider is your ultimate goal with chocobo breeding. Do you simply want to
breed a gold chocobo? Or do you want to breed the fastest gold chocobo mankind
has ever seen? Granted, both will be fast enough to win any race they choose,
it's just that there is a certain sense of accomplishment in the latter.
Either way you slice it, you'll be shelling out a lot of gil. It comes down,
really, to the difference between a small fortune and two small fortunes.
Unless you've been spending way too much time levelling-up, you're probably
going to be hard up for the gil required for the project. However, a good way
to make yourself a lot of gil really quick is to sell one or two mastered All
materia. By this point in the game, you should have several mastered, and
several more on the way, so you probably wouldn't mind parting with a few.
And, in the interests of saving your time and sanity, you're probably going
to just want to feed your chocos Sylkis Greens and
be done with it. The three chocobos that you have captured all stand to benfit
from a full 99 Sylkis Greens each. However, each subsequent chocobo (that is,
any chocobo that you breed yourself), will not see any real benefits past 25
Sylkis Greens. "Skimping", if you're really that hard up for cash, is
something you can get by with, but I strongly recommend you read the paragraph
below if you plan on doing so. Even if you do not plan on skimping, you may
find useful information down there, but it's not really necessary for you to
know.
Let me take a minute to discuss the three stats themselves for a second.
Intelligence is the absolute least of your worries, and is the easiest stat to
max out. Furthermore, it is one that can (and should) be maxed out wth your
original chocobo, and thus will be something you need not worry about for any
future generations. Stamina is the most difficult stat to max out, requiring
the most amount of greens for your buck, but again is something that can be
maxed out with your original chocobo, and again be passed down to every future
generation. If you find yourself skimping on the greens, this is the stat that
will suffer (which isn't much of a bad thing, as the problem should alleviate
itself within a couple of adequately-fed generations). Just be aware that
racing is already going to be hard enough for your first generation of
chocobos, and denying them their stamina is just going to make things more
difficult on you, which is precisely why I do not reccomend skimping. Lastly,
speed is the one stat that should be of your utmost concern. It is not as
difficult to raise as stamina, and you should make every effort to raise this
stat as high as possible for your current chocobo. Unlike intelligence and
stamina, however, the limit on a chocobo's speed will constantly be rising as
you breed further generations of chocobos, which alone is what necessitates
that you feed those generations, as well (as opposed to starving them, I
suppose).
Anyways, do remember where the Chocobo Sage lives (a small secluded hut
nestled into a snowy mountain valley), 'cause you'll be making several trips
out to see him during the course of your chocobo-breeding career. Yes, it's
very annoying how you can't carry more than 99 Sylkis Greens at once, but at
least be glad that you have the superhuman strength mobility to haul around all
that crap in the first place and still have the mobility to function
effectively in battle.
To move the greens from your backpack to the chocobo's mouths, speak with
Chocobo Billy. And that, my friend, is all that can be said on the subject.
C. Trainin' 'Em
Well, before you go about breeding your chocobos, you've gotta train 'em
first. Training them has very positive effects on the abilities of the
offspring, or, depending on how you want to look at it, neglecting to train
them will generally have a poor effect on the offspring of said chocobo.
Besides, the most beneficial part of racing your chocbos doesn't come in the
form of statistical bonuses, anyways (though they certainly don't hurt). The
true benefit of racing your chocobos is for the fun prizes offered by the
Chocobo Square management. The Chocobo Square suffers from more or less the
same issues as the other branches of the Gold Saucer in that rather than
offering cute stuffed animals or other fun novelties as prizes, they instead
hand out weapons of mass destruction to the holders of winning tickets. It's
like something you would expect to find in Iraq, except that there is little to
no danger of your chocobo being blown up by a land mine as it races.
But, to make along story short, there's a lot of stuff you can win at the
Chocobo Square, but very little of it is stuff exclusive to the place. And a
lot of it is probably stuff you will deem worthless. This is good, because you
are always given the option of exchanging your prizes for GP, and even the most
worthless prize has a very nice GP value. This also makes the Chocobo Square
by far the best place in the game to earn GP (which in turn will help you
obtain the Gil Plus and Exp. Plus materia, not to mention all of those lovely
prizes at the Battle Square). That being said, do keep an eye out for stuff
you can earn at the Chocobo Square exclusively. This includes the ~Enemy Away
and ~Sneak Attack materia. There are also several rare items that can be
discovered elsewhere, but the only way to obtain further copies is through
chocobo racing. These prizes include the ~Magic Counter materia, ~Counter
Attack materia, ~Cat's Bell, ~Sprint Shoes, ~Precious Watch, and the
~Megalixir. If I haven't mentioned your prize anywhere on this list, take the
item over the GP at your own risk and discretion.
As I mentioned in another section, it's generally a far better idea to rely
on chocobo racing to earn the prizes here than it is to purchase tickets. This
is because, with your own chocobo, you're at the very least almost guaranteed
to win (I'd really rather not get into it about odds and probabilities past
that point). Suffice it to say that there are three different possible prizes
for each race, and the prize offered is dependent on the top two placing
chocobos. This means that regardless of how you fare, your odds for winning
the "rare" prize for each race is still the same ("rare" in this case meaning
probably the only item you won't want to chunk in favor of GP, though you'll
still likely want to do that half the time, anyways). Another thing I should
mention is that everything I listed in the above paragraph will be obtainable
only as rare prizes, and on top of that all appear as prizes rarely to begin
with (you'll find that the rare prize is usually just an Elixir or a Turbo
Ether). So, while the odds of winning a "rare" prize for any given race are 1
in 5, this is also assuming that the rare prize for that race is something
you're after. And when you consider how rarely the Sneak Attack materia, for
instance, actually shows up as a pontential prize, your odds of winning it are
actually much lower than you thought. So, I hope you've got some patience
about you (or failing that, a Gameshark). At the very least, this may make you
feel better about breeding several generations of chocobos that must each be
raced countless times through the Chocobo Square.
Oh, yeah, I should make one final note about the prizes here (don't worry,
I'll get to racing strategy in a minute). That is that the prizes available
will be largely dependent on the racing class you are currently in. Class C,
being the worst, offers notably crappy prizes in return. Class B isn't much
better than Class C, though I have found it to be for some reason the most
reliable place to pick up the Enemy Away materia. Class A is where you start
to see the good prizes, like the Sneak Attack and Counter Attack materia, the
Cat's Bell, and the Sprint Shoes (with the emphasis on the Sneak Attack
materia). Class S, finally, is where you will finally begin to see the Magic
Counter, Megalixir, and the Precious Watch. Sneak Attack, Sprint Shoes, and
the Cat's Bell all also appear in Class S, as well, and you stand just as good
a chance of seeing them here than you did in Class A. You can also find the
Enemy Away materia in both Class S and Class A, though as I mentioned before,
Class B seems to be the best place to earn it.
Now for the racing, then. Head on over to speak with Esther, who'll do all
the work of registering your chocobo in the races for you. One of the great
curiosities of the world is how she magically teleports your chocobo from
wherever it happens to currently be to the chocobo track in less than a minute,
but it's not like that question is ever going to be answered. Just be thankful
that you've got a chocobo that can more or less kick the crap out of the
competition at the time. Your chocobo will start out as a C rank chocobo, and
will move up to the B ranks after 3 wins in Class C. They will then be
promoted to Class A after 3 wins in class B, and finally to Class S after 3
wins in Class A. Let me do my best to put you at ease when I tell you that
things will only get easier from this point forward. In short, your original
three chocobos will be the most difficult to race, given their inferior speed
to what you will eventually breed. While you should still be able to massively
slaughter Class C and Class B, it'll take some amount of effort to bring these
chocobos from Class A to Class S (and no, don't go expecting to actually win
any Class S races with these chocobos). This is one of the reason that I
reccomended using only "great" chocobos earlier, as I've found that advancement
from Class A to Class S is hard enough with the maximum possible speed of 99
for a "great" chocobo. Trying this with anything less maskes things needlessly
difficult, possibly inachieveable.
You should be familiar with the general strategy behind chocobo racing from
your little stint at the Desert {rison earlier, but I suppose it couldn't hurt
to go over it all once again. From the outset of the race, just take off.
Race your chocobo until iots stamina bar (that bar on the left side of the
screen) is almost empty. If you wait until the thing empties entirely, your
chocobo will become winded and will race very slowly, so you will want to avoid
that. During many of the races, this tactic should be more than enough to
cement your win, but there do come the times when you actually have to try to
win. You'll recall that holding down the R1 and R2 buttons as you race will
slowly refill your stamina as you head down the track (hold them down for the
entire race, mind you). While this was a cheap shot earlier, it is more or
less a necessitated tactic for winning many races here at the Chocobo Square.
To elaborate on this point further, I must note that the thing your chocobo
has running the most in its favor is the fact that you can make it sprint
throughout almost the entire race (while the other jockeys, thankfully, do not
do this). For this reason, you will be able to easily overcome chocobos faster
than you. Also for this reason, the short track is by far to your strategical
advantage over the long track. From the outset of the race, just take off
(while holding R1 and R2, mind you). If you're up against chocobos that are
somewhat faster than yours, you are also going to have to make an effort to
move around a bit and break away from the rest of the pack (very important to
do). Your stamina bar should be pretty much drained as you make it to the top
of the spiraling rainbow staircase (this will vary slightly depending on the
speed of your chocobo). If you have yet to break away from the pack at least
somewhat by this point, you have little hopes of winning. Anyways, as you
continue on, do your best to hold your lead, though your strategy at this
point is more or less limited to hugging the curves. The point at which you
will want to break away again is as you step onto the log bridge leading into
the home stretch (again, this may vary slightly, but not much, depending on the
speed of your chocobo). With luck on your side, this should help you to win
most any race.
However, there is one final issue that needs to be touched upon: Teioh.
Teioh is a black chocobo that will occasionally appear in the race to teach you
the meaning of the word humility. Regardless of your chocobo's stats, Teioh's
will always be higher, so the only possible way to beat him is through your
strategy. That being said, he is next to impossible to take on with anything
less than at least a blue or green chocobo (I'm not saying it's completely out
of the question to beat him with one of your original three, but it's certainly
not something you can bet on). Even though Teioh will remain faster and
strogner than your chocobo no matter how fast your becomes, he will become
increasingly easier to defeat as you get faster and faster. Do note, however,
that not matter how fast you become, defeating Teioh still necessitates your
full attention and concentration. You can expect to see Teioh appear on rare
occasions in Class B races, occasionally in Class A, and rather frequently in
Class S.
So have fun racing your chocobos to Class S. Racing in Class S is a
different story, however, and is something you should only attempt once you
have bred your final chocobo. Races in Class S are a far cry from those of the
other classes, and the chocobos here are all insanely fast. However, with a
gold chocobo at your reins, you'll still be much faster. Anyways, you're
probably going to want to take some time to set a spell at the S Class once you
have bred your fastest chocobo. Not only will you want to do this to win such
valuable prizes as the Sneak Attack materia, but also for your special prize
that coems after 10 wins in the S Class. At this point, Esther will take you
aside and take note of your amazing ability to win races. Then, for some
inexplicable reason, she rewards you with all sorts of cool crap, including the
~Cat's Bell, ~Sprint Shoes, ~Precious Watch, ~Chocobracelet, and a ~Counter
Attack materia.
And that's about it, then. With your first three chocobos trained as far as
you can get them, let's move on to the breeding.
D. Breedin' 'Em
Let me begin by saying that the breeding system in Final Fantasy VII was
deliberately meant to be confusing as hell. Despite the fact that so many nuts
are available to you (nuts for some reason being a requirement for two chocbos
to have sex... must be an aphrodisiac), there seems to be absolutely no reason
why one would want to breed additional regular chocobos. So, you'll probably
want to go straight for the special chocobos, and those require special nuts.
The ~Carob Nut can be stolen (using the Steal materia) from a creature named
Vlakrodos hanging around the unfrozen patches of land near Icicle Inn. You can
also purchase Carob Nuts for a hefty 300 GP at the Wonder Square, but in doling
so you will be declared hopelessly and potentially dangerously stupid.
You must travel to an obscure island in the northeast of the world to find
the ~Zeio Nut, however, and steal it from the creature there known as the
>Goblin. You may also win Zeio Nuts from them after battles. Also note that
the Goblin utilizes an attack called ~Goblin Punch, which you may want to learn
with your E. Skill materia.
You will need a minimum of 3 Carob Nuts and 1 Zeio Nut to breed a gold
chocobo. Assuming that you would like to breed a super- fast gold chocobo, you
will be needing many more Zeio Nuts (but 3 Carob Nuts is still all you need).
Now, for what it's worth, I will try my best to explain how the chocobo
breeding system works. If you really don't care to know, and would like a more
simplified step-by-step guide, just skip to the paragraph below. I am simply
trying to note that the exact route I took is by no means the only way towards
the fastest gold chocobo ever, but it is what I have found to be the easiest,
at any rate. With a deeper understanding of how the chocobo breeding system
works, one may very well discover a faster or more efficient way to breed that
monster, in which case, I'd like to hear all about it (see the bottom of this
file for contact information). But, without further ado, the breeding system
is actually quite simple at its core. What happens is that the offspring of
two chocobos will have speed, stamina, and intelligence equal to the calculated
avaerage between its mother and father. As I noted earlier, stamina and
intelligence are two stats which can be maxed out with your additional chocobo
and henceforth should be nothing for you to worry about. Assuming that you
didn't, note that the limit for stamina or intelligence stays the same for all
of your chocobos. However, the limit for speed is constantly going up, and is
dependent on several factors. First and foremost, the "type" or "color" of a
chocobo shall impose an ultimate limit as to how fast that chocobo can be bred.
After hitting the ceiling for each color, your only hopes of breeding anything
any faster than what you have is to breed a new type of chocobo. Secondly,
gender is the other issue. I mentioned that each statistic for a newborn
chocobo, including speed, will be the result of the averaged values of both its
parents. However, this is before feeding, and you'll find that through feeding
greens to the newborn chocobo, you should be able to increase its stats to well
above those of its parents. How gender factors into this is when statistical
differences exist between the parents. In such case, when a chocobo is the
same gender as the parent with the higher stats, you should find that there is
a greater potential for stat growth within that chocobo. As far as I can tell,
this is the complete set of information concerning the chocobo breeding system,
but I'm not above saying that there may be several hidden factors which elude
me. If you think you know something I don't, by all means contact me. But
also be prepared to offer some sort of proof to substantiate your statement (I
hear way too much from folks who claim to have bred 250 KPH chocos, but have
absolutely no evidence to back themselves up with).
With that out of the way, lets get on with the breeding. I mentioned
earlier that you should begin to consider exactly what it is you're after: a
gold chocobo or the fastest gold chocobo ever? Well, it's getting damn near
time to make up your mind. Assuming you're going for the fastest gold chocobo
ever, you'll be needing a substantially larger amount of gil, a larger supply
of Zeio nuts, a lot of patience, and an open mind concerning the practice of
inbreeding. In all seriousness, in merely breeding a gold chocobo, the worst
you will see is a singular brother-sister mating. In breeding the ultimate
gold chocobo, expect a family tree that not only does not fork in any place,
but also at times requires curved lines (something that no family tree should
possess) and gives me an inexplicable and insatiable desire to watch "Hee-Haw".
For added amusement, consider giving them names like, "Bubba, Mary Jo, Bubba,
Sue Ann, Bubba, Jo Beth, Bubba, Billy Bob, and Bubba" and pretending that you
live in a trailer park in West Virginia. Because in the end, your family tree
will end up looking more like a family web, and don't think I'm happy about
that. Y'all dad-gum varmints... I'm gonna go rustle me up some vittles now,
ya hear?
Oh, and before you go any further, save your game first, and always save
before breeding your chocobos. The results of any chocobo breeding are
produced at random, and you'll want to be able to reset and try again if you
get something you don't want. And before you even try, do realize that this
practice is generally frowned upon in real life.
Anyways, with your nuts in your hands, go talk to Chocobo Billy, who has the
morally downtrodden job of helping your chocobos mate. Select your two "great"
chocobos for breeding (I do hope you remember which two were which), and hand
him a Carob Nut. The next morning, you'll end up with either a mountain
chocobo or a river chocobo. The mountain chocobo is green in color (it's the
same one that the Chocobo Sage had), while the river chocobo is a lovely shade
of blue.
First and foremost, you'll likely be wanting to reap the benefits of your
brand-new chocobo, and believe me, there are benefits. Ask Chocobo Billy about
riding the chocobos, and then select which chocobo you'd like to take out of
the ranch for a ride. Your tamed chocobos will stay put when you get off of
them (no matter where you decide to leave them) and can even ride in the
Highwind. To ride a different chocobo, simply ride that chocobo back to the
Chocobo Ranch and select another one.
Now, just where can you go with your new chocobo? Well, I guess that's kind
of dependent on whatever you just bred. Assuming that you got yourself a
mountain chocobo, it's time to head west to the islands of Wutai. Utilizing
your chocobo's mountain-crossing powers, you should be able to access a
secluded mountain cave on the island's eastern border. Inside, you will find a
lost mako cache, and formed within it, the ~Mime materia. Also, as added
bonuses, your mountain chocobo will open up sections IV.C. and V.K. of the FAQ
to you. However, if on the other hand you found yourself with a river chocobo,
then it's back to Mideel with ya! Navigate the shallows to the far eastern
edge of the rocky archipelago towards yet another of those mako caches. Inside
this one, you will discover the mighty ~Quadra Magic materia.
With that out of the way, it's time to head back to the basics. You'll want
to feed your newborn chocobo in accordance to the feeding instructions I gave
in section IX.B. of the FAQ, and then its off to trian the chocobo at the Gold
Saucer, which you can read more about back in section IX.C. of the FAQ. Unlike
the parents, you'll discover that it should be fairly easy for the new chocobo
to advance to Class S.
Now, it's time to breed another chocobo. However, you'll learn from Chocobo
Billy that it's a bad idea to mate chocobos that have either recently mated or
just been born (because pedophillia apparently is taboo in a field where incest
runs rampant). At any rate, you'll need to fight about 10 random battles for a
recently-mated chocobo to go at it again, while you're looking at more like 20
random battles for a newborn to mature to the point of being able to reproduce.
And when you look at it one way... that's not a horribly long time. Scary.
You'll want to mate your original two chocbos to produce something that is the
opposite color and gender of your original offspring (so if you originally had
a blue female, you'll be wanting a green male). Again, a Carob Nut should be
used for this task.
Now, take your new chocobo as a result of that union, and ride around to
wherever it might take you (Mideel for the river chocobo, various places for
the mountain chocobo). And then feed and train it in a similar fashion. Then,
go out and fight some more randon battles to await the next generation.
For your third generation of chocobos, it's time to go black. Breed your
river and mountain chocobo together to achieve this. Do note that if you do
not plan on breeding any further than just a regular gold chocobo, then the
black chocobo you produce here should be of the opposite gender as your
"wonderful" chocobo. If not, then you may wish to breed a black chocobo of the
same gender as your "wonderful" chocobo.
Anyways, your black chocobo should have a shiny black coat, as well as a
significant speed boost over your second generation. The black chocobo
combines the powers of both the river and the mountain chocobo, and will allow
you to access another lost mako cache located near Costa Del Sol. Inside this
one, you'll find the questionable HP <----> MP materia. But, aside from that,
feed it and send that little bastard to the race track. Not only should making
it to the S Class be a breeze with your new black chocobo, but you should also
find it much easier to beat Teioh, as well. However, even though making it to
the S Class should have achieved a new level of ease, your black chocobo may
still find actually racing in it to be beyond its capacity.
What you do now is going to be dependent on your future plans. To
immediately obtain the gold chocobo, breed your black chocobo with the
wonderful chocobo (using a Zeio Nut), and be done with it right there (and skip
to the paragraph below to see exactly what you can do with said gold chocobo).
But if you'd like to work towards a super-fast chocobo, then you may very well
want to start with the black chocobo generations. My personal reccomendation
is to breed your original black chocobo with one of its parents to produce a
black chocobo of the opposite gender as your original black chocobo. In doing
this, a Zeio Nut should be utilized. Then, breed your two black chocobos, and
aim to produce a chocobo of the same gender as the second black chocobo you
produced. Again, use a Zeio Nut. If you've been properly feeding and training
your chocobos up to this point (something I really assume you'd be doing if you
were going for the ultimate black chocobo, anyways), your third black chocobo
should have reached, or at the very least closely neared the maximum speed
allotment for a black chocobo, which is 149 KPH. Then, you should breed your
third black chocobo with the "wonderful" chocobo to produce a Gold Chocobo.
However, due to the limited capabilities of the "wonderful" chocobo, don't go
expecting completely amazing results... yet. Your first gold chocobo should be
of the opposite gender as your third black chocobo.
Now the proud owner of a gold chocobo, I suppose the first thing you're
probably going to want to do is head out to retrieve the infamous ~Knights of
the Round materia. You can find it on a tiny, remote island surrounded
entirely by mountains located north and a little bit east of the "Goblin
Islands" (you know, the place where you found all those Zeio Nuts?) This
island is so tiny that it doesn't appear on the map, so a little recon work is
in order. Anyways, head onto the island and invade the mako cache there to
retrieve the most powerful materia in the game (well, except Master Summon, I
suppose).
The other thing you'll want to do with your gold chocobo (besides feeding
it, I suppose) is take it to the Gold Saucer and trounce the competition. With
this, you should easily be able to rack up wins in the S Class, and if you do
not plan on breeding any further, now is the time to do that. However, if you
have furture plans, why not hold off until you have your ultimate gold chocobo
before having your fun in the S Class? I mean, you could just as easily have
decimated the competition there with your third black chocobo, so be patient,
and wait just a little longer... it's time to do some more breeding.
Back at the Chocobo Ranch, prepare to breed your ultimate gold chocobo.
Again, there are several paths to take, but assuming that you've been sticking
with my plan up to this point, here's what you do: breed your gold chocobo with
your third black chocobo (using, of course, a Zeio Nut). You will likely have
to reload several times before you get what you want out of this, which is a
gold offspring who's gender is the same of that of the gold parent. You should
find that of the four possible outcomes, this is the rarest. That's because
this is the best possible outcome, and you'll see that the resulting chocobo
should be a speed demon, to say the least. Feed and train your speed demon,
and then mate it with its black parent (yes, your black choco is really getting
around at this point). Again, use a Zeio Nut, but this time, you'll be wanting
a gold chocobo whose gender is the same as that of the gold parent. While
you'll find that the resulting chocobo here isn't quite as fast as its gold
parent, it does allow you access to the final gateway. That is to breed your
third gold chocobo with its gold parent to produce a fourth gold chocobo who's
gender should be the same as that of the faster parent (the faster parent being
the second gold chocobo). If you did exactly as I have transcribed, then the
resulting gold chocobo should be more or less the "ultimate" gold chocobo,
having reached its speed cap of 176 KPH. And damn, can that little bastard
tear up the track. Teioh, inexplicably, is still faster. And at this point,
Teioh should actually start to becoming more of a pain in the ass to face again
(I mean, he just freaking flies once he breaks about 190 or so), so do be
careful about racing him. On the other hand, it's fun to take a nap while you
wait for all of the other racers to finish (especially in Class C... damn!)
As I mentioned earlier, the route which I took to the ultimate gold chocobo
may very well not be the most efficient one available, but it's the best I have
to offer. And if you're hard-up for a quick solution that doesn't involve any
of that laborious reading (see above), then feel free to follow my example via
this handy chart. Yes, I admit that the only reason I typed this up is because
I thought it was the funniest thing I had ever seen before in my life, but
that's not the point. The point is this: a family tree should not look like
this. And if yours does, then you probably live in West Virginia. So without
further ado:
/----------\ /----------\
1st Generation: | Great | | Great | <---- Carob Nuts are used
| Male | | Female | to breed the 2nd
\----------/ \----------/ and 3rd generations.
\ /
\ /
\/
/\
/ \
/ \
/----------\ /----------\
2nd Generation: | Mountain | | River |
| Male | | Female |
\----------/ \----------/
\ / |
\ / |
\/ |
/----------\ |
3rd Generation: ______| Black | | <-------- Past this point,
/ | Male | | only Zeio Nuts
| \----------/ | should be used
| | |
| | |
| | |
| /----------\ |
4th Generation: | | Black |___/
| | Female |
| \----------/
| |
| |
| |
/----------\ | /----------\
5th Generation: | Black |___/ | Wonderful| <---- Tho
| Female | | Male |
\----------/ \----------/
| | \ /
| | \ /
| | \/
| | /----------\
6th Generation: | | | Gold |
| | | Male |
| | \----------/
| | |
| | |
| | |
| | /----------\
7th Generation: | \_____| Gold |____
| | Male | \
| \----------/ |
| | |
| | |
| | |
| /----------\ |
8th Generation: \_______| Gold | |
| Female | |
\----------/ |
| |
| |
| |
/----------\ |
9th Generation: | Gold |____/ <------- If you followed all
| Male | the steps correctly
\----------/ this should be the
"ultimate" chocobo
*Note that all occurrences of males and females in this "family tree" may be
swapped to produce more or less the same results. Also note that in 9
generations, it has produced 11 chocobos from only 3 originals, which should be
regarded by all non-West Virginians as at the very least, "just a tad bit on
the creepy side". |
Linear Mode
