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* |J@p@NKl@N| Entertainment Strategy Guides - Final Fantasy VII : Raising Chocobos - v1.0 *
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Copyright notice at the end of the document.
This document is completely original. Information in this document has been found trough the Final
Fantasy VII game (PC US version) [and a huge 6-days long Chocobo hunting session].
Index
1. Where to find Chocobos
2. Where to find Chocobo Sage
3. Preparatory steps before breeding the special Chocobos
4. How to Obtain the River (Blue) Chocobo
5. How to Obtain the Mountain (Green) Chocobo
6. How to Obtain the River-Mountain (Black) Chocobo
7. How to Obtain the Ocean (Gold) Chocobo
8. What to do with the Gold Chocobo
9. Chocobo Racing
10. How to get the Chocobuckle Enemy Skill
1. Where to find Chocobos
Chocobos can be found in 7 different areas of the World Map. These areas are marked with Chocobo
tracks. To actually meet Chocobos in combat, you need the Chocobo Lure Materia.
*?* Where is Chocobo Lure Materia?
*-* You can find Chocobo Lure Materia at the Chocobo Ranch, just east of Kalm and Midgar. You can
purchase it for 2000 gil, or (much better, since you will not be needing chocobo hunting until
disc 3) you can wait to reach disc 2 or 3 and find one for free near the now empty Chocobo fence.
In every area, Chocobos come with a variety monsters, however the chocobo/monster combinations are
fixed, and are useful for determining beforehand what kind of Chocobo you are fighting. The
Chocobo type is discovered either by noting which monster came with the Chocobo or by Moving
Chocobos from the fance to the stables in the Chocobo Ranch.
*?* What should I do at Chocobo Ranch?
*-* To get the Gold Chocobo, you will need as much as 4 stables (for a mere 10000 gil each). Rent
them from the guy in the western building of the Chocobo Ranch.
When you have Chocobos, you will also have to Feed, Ride and Mate them. All this option are
available trough Choco Billy in the Chocobo Stables (eastern building of the ranch). We will
explain feeding and mating later.
When you encounter Chocobos, you have to kill all the monsters that come with them in a very
short time, WITHOUT attacking the Chocobo. If you want to buy some more time, buy some greens
(the cheapest one, Gyashkl, are just perfect) from Choco Billy and use them on the Chocobo you
encounter. The Chocobo will start eating the greens, giving you some more time to catch it.
*?* When should I start hunting Chocobos?
*-* My personal suggestion is to wait the third CD, until the Northern Cave Dungeon becomes
available. Before that time, you don't have probably enough chance of getting the vast amounts
of gil needed to breed champion-class Chocobos.
These are the 7 areas where you can find Chocobos and the comment that Choco Billy will give you
about them:
Area 1 : Chocobo Ranch Area
Description : The Chocobos you find here are pretty weak and useless. The only reason to encounter
Chocobos here is that they are the only Chocobos that use Chocobuckle. Refer to section 10 on how
to get Chocobuckle Enemy Skill attack.
Monsters with the Chocobo Choco Billy Comment Quality
2 Mandragora "This one doesn't seem very good" Poor
1 Mandragora & 1 Levikron as above Poor
2 Levikron "I really can't raccomend this one" Weak
2 Elfadunk as above Weak
Area 2 : Junon Area
Description : Completely useless. The Chocobos you find here are not good at anything.
Monsters with the Chocobo Choco Billy Comment Quality
2 Capparwire (front-view) "This one doesn't seem very good" Poor
2 Nerosuferoth as above Poor
3 Capparwire "Mmmm, this one's not bad" Fair
2 Capparwire (side-view) as above Fair
Area 3 : Gold Saucer Area
Description : One of the components for the River and Mountain Chocobo comes from this Area,
so watch closely :D
Monsters with the Chocobo Choco Billy Comment Quality
1 Harpy "This is a pretty average Chocobo" Average
2 Flapbeats as above Average
2 Spencer "Mmmm, this seems like a good Chocobo" Good
Area 4 : Rocket Town Area
Description : useless. You can find the same Chocobo you need for the River and Mountain Chocobo
in Mideel, where you also gain more EXP and AP.
Monsters with the Chocobo Choco Billy Comment Quality
1 Velcher Task & 1 Kyuvilduns "This Chocobo's so-so" Mediocre
2 Velcher Task as above Mediocre
2 Valron "This is a great Chocobo" Great
2 Kyuvilduns as above Great
Area 5 : Wutai Area
Description : Completely useless. You might want to control Razor Weeds to gain the Magic Hammer
Enemy Skill, but this doesn't concern Chocobo hunting :D
Monsters with the Chocobo Choco Billy Comment Quality
3 Tail Vault "This is a pretty average Chocobo" Average
2 Tail Vault (front-view) as above Average
2 Tail Vault (side-view) "Mmmm, this one's not bad" Fair
3 Razor Weeds as above Fair
Area 6 : Mideel Area
Description : One of the components for the River and Mountain Chocobo comes from this Area, so
watch closely :D
Monsters with the Chocobo Choco Billy Comment Quality
3 Headhunters "Mmmm, this one's not bad" Fair
2 Headhunters as above Fair
1 Spiral "This is a great Chocobo" Great
2 Spirals as above Great
Area 7 : Icicle Area
Description : It's the only area where you can hope to find the components for the Gold Chocobo...
Monsters with the Chocobo Choco Billy Comment Quality
2 Bandersnatch "I really can't recommend this one" Weak
1 Bandersnatch & 1 Jumping as above Weak
1 Jumping "This... is a wonderful Chocobo!" Wonderful
2 Jumping as above Wonderful
Now that we know where to find what, let's start the stressing path to the Gold Chocobo...
2. Where to find Chocobo Sage
Chocobo Sage can be found only if you have airship Highwind (or the Gold Chocobo, of course :D).
He lives in a small house just a bit north of Bone Village (the place with the archeologists). He
is the only one that sells Sylkis Greens, the best type of green, but he is otherwise pretty
useless since he will always forget what he was saying (it's faster reading this guide, than
going around into the world, get back to the Sage, running around some more, get back to the
Sage,... you got the idea).
Get ready to buy loads of Sylkis greens from him (don't use Sylkis to catch chocobos! Throw them
those cheap Gyashkl ones!).
BTW, the Green Chocobo that lives in the Chocobo Sage house will give you an Enemy Skill Materia
if you "talk" to it (at that point of the game, i found that materia a bit useless).
3. Preparatory steps before breeding the special Chocobos
Make certain you have:
* rent 4 stables at the Chocobo Ranch
* 3 Carob Nuts
* 1 Zeio Nut
* at LEAST 50 Syklis Greens (yes, that's a 250.000 gil flying away)
*?* Where to find the Carob Nut? No one sells them!
*-* There are two ways to find Carob Nuts:
1) you can win it for a mere 300 GP in the Golden Saucer Wonder Square (DISC 2 or 3 only). It's
the first prize marked as ?????. I don't know if you can win more than one, so you might have to
use also way 2).
2) Equip the Steal Materia (quite easy to find troughout the game) and go the Bone Village with
the Highwind. Do you see those small islands just south of Bone Village? They are 3, one is
incredibly small, another is long and another one is almost square. Land on the square one (it's
about 10 x 12 "paces", it has no sand on it and is covered half with pale grass and half with
dark grass) and start running around. Here you can find pesky squirrel like creatures (not even
a match, they are ridiculous at any stage of the game) or the mighty Vladorakos. Well, the
Vladorakos has your Carob Nuts, so steal from him. After beating it the first time, run around
some more time and get 3 of those Carob Nuts. You won't need more.
NOTE : Vladorakos has something like 40000 hp, but has ridiculous attacks, so don't worry, just
hack him away.
*?* Where to find the Zeio Nut? No one sells them!
*-* This is extra-easy, much easier and quicker than the Carob Nut affair. Fly with the Highwind
to the northeastern group of islands (just head straight east from Bone Village). One of them is
covered with a forest. Land there and run around the forest until you encounter Goblins. Steal
from them and you will get the Zeio Nut. Another thing you can get from the Goblins is the very
useful Goblin Punch Enemy Skill that deals non-elemental damage (and deals a LOT of damage if
you are fighting a creature that has the same level as you currently have) and costs ZERO MP!
(yes Zero).
*?* I don't have a lot of money, what should I do?
*-* You might win the GIL Up Materia for a hard 1000 GP at the Golden Saucer Wonder Square. The
best way to win it is keeping going and exiting the Golden Saucer and hoping for the GP smuggler
to pass by. When you arrive at the Golden Saucer Ropeway Station (on the Saucer, not at Corel),
there will be the hostess and the chocobo-suited animator. However, from time to time there will
be a guy near the save point, the GP smuggler, who will convert up to 10000 gil in 100 GP. Keep
doing this and you will reach the GIL Up Materia. To make this efficient, it's better if you make
some winning at the Chocobo Square Bookmaker's Office, gaining GPs instead of useless items
(except for Megalixirs, perhaps). Don't worry about winning, since you will earn a lot of items
in your Gold Chocobo jockey life (much later, though...).
4. How to Obtain the River (Blue) Chocobo
This one is really easy, as the Mountain. Reach the Golden Saucer Area, and catch a Good Quality
Chocobo (2 Spencer). Then reach Mideel Area and get a Great Quality Chocobo (1 or 2 Spiral). You
could also get the Chocobo near Rocket Town, but in Mideel you get more EXP and AP. In order to
get the River Chocobo, you need a MALE Great Chocobo from Mideel and a FEMALE Good Chocobo from
Golden Saucer. Mate them with the Carob Nut and you will receive the Blue River Chocobo. After
breeding, release the parents of the River Chocobo, you will not be needing them again.
*** UNIVERSAL TRICK FOR CUTTING TIME *** When you catch a Chocobo and send it to the Stables, its
sex has not yet been determined. Chocobo sex is determined when you move Chocobos from the fence
to the stables (so, in Chocobo Ranch). Always save just before entering Chocobo Ranch! This way,
if you mess up with Chocobo sexes, you can reset and restart.
[NOTE FOR PC USERS: If you have FF7 for the PC and have installed DirectX 6.x, you might find that
if you quit from FF7 and then relaunch it, FF7 halts and freezes the system. To overcome this
problem, just enter a fight and cast Ultima on your own party. In less than 30 seconds you will
be asked to load a game, removing the need to quit from FF7 :D).]
5. How to Obtain the Mountain (Green) Chocobo
This one is also really easy. Reach the Golden Saucer Area, and catch a Good Quality Chocobo (2
Spencer). Then reach Mideel and get a Great Quality Chocobo (1 or 2 Spiral). In order to get the
Mountain Chocobo, you need a FEMALE Great Chocobo from Mideel and a MALE Good Chocobo from Golden
Saucer. Mate them with the Carob Nut and you wil receive the Green Mountain Chocobo. Again,
release the parents of the Chocobo, you don't need them.
*** MAKE SURE YOUR MOUNTAIN CHOCOBO IS OF THE OPPOSITE SEX OF YOUR RIVER CHOCOBO!!! ****
[Note for PC Users: It's rumored that you cannot have more than one "special" chocobo at a time.
When I bred my first green chocobo (and didn't knew the trick) it got of the same sex of my blue
one, so I tried to breed another green. I tried 20 times, and always got a normal Chocobo. On the
PSX you can have as many specials as you want, on the PC I don't think so, unless you obtain them
in some other way (i.e. beating Ruby Weapon and giving the Desert Rose to the man in Kalm)]
6. How to Obtain the River-Mountain (Black) Chocobo
This needs some more time than the Mountain and River Chocobos. Feed your Blue and Green Chocobos
with Sylkis Greens until their stats stop growing (if the only effect of a feeding is "They are
getting along better" it means that that Chocobo has reached its limit). This might require
somehitng like 15 Sylkis greens each. It's better to give them large amounts of Sylkis, instead
of giving them one by one.
After the feeding, go to the Gold Saucer Chocobo Square. There, on the Staff Room door, there will
be Ester waiting for you (she's the one that makes you run on the Chococos when you are thrown
into the Golden Saucer jail in the desert). Ask her to register a Chocobo for the next race and
keep racing until your blue and green chocobos are class A (or, much better, S). Refer to Section
9 for Chocobo Jockey tips.
When your Chocobos are both at least class A, get back to Chocobo ranch and mate them with the
Carob Nut, a nice Black River-Mountain Chocobo will be born. You will obtain the Gold Chocobo
shortly, so don't even ride out with this.
As before, release the parents of the black chocobo, you will not needing them any more.
**** NOTE ***** If you reach A class with all your chocobos in a VERY short time, when you get
back to the Chocobo Stables, Choco Billy will say that he can't mate freshly born Chocobos. If
this happens, do something else for a while (i.e. running some more at the Gold Saucer (in the A
Class you can win nice prizes, or stock on GP for getting that GIL UP Materia or the EXP UP
Materia for 2000 gp in Wonder Square) or entering the Battle Arena). After some time has passed,
you will be able to mate your 2 chocobos and obtain the black Chocobo.
7. How to Obtain the Ocean (Gold) Chocobo
This is quicker than the Black Chocobo. Feed the Black Chocobo with as much Sylkis as you can,
until his stats are at maximum (again, if you get only "They are getting along better" after a
feeding, it means that the Chocobo is at its maximum), then make it run at the Golden Saucer and
reach at least class A (at this point, reaching class S should be easy enough). After reaching
class A, go to the Icicle Area and hunt a Wonderful (1 or 2 Jumping) Chocobo of the opposite sex
of your Black Chocobo. Feed it with as much Sylkis as you can afford (at this point you might
have spent something like 400.000 gil) or, much better, to its limit, and make it run at the
Golden Saucer, reaching class S. Save before Mating these two Chocobos, because the chance of
getting the Gold are lower than the others (I think that if you do things the right way, the
chance for getting River and Mountain Chocobos are something like 100%). Mate the Black Chocobo
and your Wonderful Chocobo with a Zeio Nut and you will finally gain a Gold Chocobo (if you spent
a lot on Sylkis, it should be some kind of monster with a top speed around 190-200 and stamina
around 1500)!!!.
It might take around 4 hours to get the Gold Chocobo. Many people say that it's needed much more
because they do not know that the Quality of a Chocobo is linked to the monsters it comes with.
8. What to do with the Gold Chocobo
You can do a lot of nice things, which are:
* Reach the Circular Mountain Range with the Waterfall in it, put Vincent Valentine in your party,
enter the cavern behind the Waterfall and get his Limit 4 Manual (CHAOS) and his Ultimate Weapon
(Death Sentence). If they doesn't appear immediately, just pass by again later.
* Reach the uncharted island at the far Northeast of the map to get the legendary Knight of the
Round Summoning Materia, the most damaging materia of the game (with a 255 Magic pg, it does
around 90.000 damage) and the only way to beat the Weapons without dying of age :D
* Reach the cavern on a peninsula near Wutai and get the Mime Materia (that is NEEDED if you want
to have a hope of beating Ruby Weapon or Emerald Weapon)
* Reach the cavern on a peninsula near Mideel and get the Quadra Magic Materia
* Reach an island south of Cosmo Canyon (keep going south) where you can find the Cactuar, an
ominous creature immune to everything except Poison, Ultima and KoTR (might be hit by something
else, don't remember). It's worth a lot of EXP, AP and GIL
* Reach the Cave in the desert, near North Corel where you can find the (IMHO useless) HP{-}MP
Replace Materia.
* Reach the Old Forest, in the forest just uphill near Cosmo Canyon where you can find, along with
other goods, the Slice All Materia that makes the Battle Arena the easier job of your life [You
can reach the old forest also by beating Ultimate Weapon, that will destroy the mountain that
blocks the passage to the area].
9. Chocobo Racing
Chocobo Racing is really enjoyable. If you followed the suggestions written here, you will gain
Chocobos with incredibly high stats and always win!
Some miscellanous tips:
* IF in Automatic mode you see that the Chocobo sprints immediately (wings set up, and Chocobo
icon showing a grim face) after the start, switch immediately to manual (unless you want to lose)
and just keep pressed (not pressing, pressed) the Speed Up button (not the Sprint/Turbo one).
* It takes 3 wins to get promoted to a new class.
* When you reach class S, if you win 10 times you will be proclamed "Best Jockey ever since Joe"
and you will be given 1 of every item you can win by racing in class S!!!! (Watch out for the
Cat's bell, an accessory that makes you regen HP while you walk! [the concept is the same as the
Tintinabar of Final Fantasy III])
* Unless they are offering Megalixirs or X-Potions (useful in the Battle Arena), always get GPs,
so you can afford the Experience UP and GIL Up Materia in Wonder Square.
* When you have the Gold Chocobo, you will win even against Chocobos much faster than you. My Gold
Chocobo (POWER) has a top speed of 157 and beats without problems (and without using Turbo) even
180 fast Chocobos.
* From time to time, rarely in class B, often in class A, and almost always in class S, TEIOH will
appear in the race. TEIOH is a guy with a Black Chocobo (he will "pump" it from time to time, so
don't get dizzy if in the blink of an eye he races with a 190 fast, 1800 stamina Black Chocobo).
He is the only jockey to be ware of, since the others play really lame (they almost always start
with turbo depleting their stamina). Anyway, your Gold Chocobo should be more than able to beat
TEIOH hard (telling the truth, i beat him repetedly with my Wondeful Chocobo).
* Never use the Turbo command, unless you are in a neck-to-neck fight near the goal. If you are
far from the goal (suggestion: always pick the SHORT track) just let them pass. The jockeys are so
lame they will deplete their stamina, getting out of the way real soon. If all the others pass by,
you might be too slow: also in this case Turbo is useless, since you will deplete your stamina just
to catch them (and in that case your chocobo will start walking, while the others keep running).
10. How to get the Chocobuckle Enemy Skill
This is kinda tricky. Go to the Chocobo Ranch and buy 2 Mimmet Greens (1 is for the Chocobuckle,
the other is for the Chocobo in Mideel, if you haven't visited it yet [yes, the white chocobo
that "doesn't like humans that don't seem to give him greens", You can get near him and obtain a
very precious Contain Materia if you have Mimmet Greens with you]. Get out of the ranch and equip
some Chocobo Lure Materia. Run around near the Chocobo Ranch and you will encounter a Chocobo.
Throw a Mimmet Green to the Chocobo and then perform a L4 Suicide Attack (you must have it on your
Enemy Skill Materia, you can learn it from the squirrels found near Chocobo Ranch [don't remember
their name, sorry]) on the Chocobo. It will get crazy and perform the Chocobuckle Enemy Skill.
Chocobuckle is a non-elemental attack that does as much damage as the times you escaped from a
battle (I don't understand why it does 29 damage when I cast it... I NEVER escaped a battle in
the whole game!). You can now how many times you escaped by talking to the old man sleeping in
a cave near Nibelheim (not sure, sorry). You can reach that cave with Highwind or your Gold
Chocobo.
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* |J@p@NKl@N| Entertainment Strategy Guides - Final Fantasy VII : Raising Chocobos *
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8/12/1998 Written by Ninja ([email protected]) - all rights reserved
Final Fantasy VII is a copyright of Squaresoft LTD.
This document may be freely distributed if kept whole in every part. This document cannot be used
for commercial purposes without the explicit permission of the author.
1998 |J@p@NKl@N| Entertainment Department
The Spoiler Centre