[SE]- Chocobo Racing is HERE! (03/29/2007)

[Evelyn]

Coincidentally, I've found the recipes for Gysahl and Spore Bombs.

Gysahl Bombs:

Earth Crystal
Firesand
Bast Parchment
Gysahl Greens

Spore Bombs are the same except a dance shroom instead of greens.

They're both low-level alchemy synths, listed between chocotonic and mercury, so I'm guessing 15-16.

Don't know about the yield, but I got 9 off an HQ.

[Zilong]

3 normal, 6-9-12 HQ I'd imagine

I used 80 chocobucks to raise my chocobo endurance

It's not a full level upgrade, and I haven't really trying another upgrade...

In a way, I'm kinda glad since maxing the chocobo wont be too easy.

In the other, I'm fucking pissed because those 8/6/4/4 canter galloper NPCs are fucking h4x

If they show up on free run, it's fucking impossible to win 1st.

[LD]

I've come to the conclusion that Gallop(and/or Canter) adds a significant amount of speed to a racing chocobo after seeing chocobo with the same level speed as me pass me pretty consistently on the track (sometimes w/o items).

Races are pretty fun, I was afraid all races would have to be PvP, so I'm kinda glad it wont be another Ballista/Benner deal where you have to wait on people to get anything out of it.
I would have liked to control them myself, but seeing a character that is basically me riding my chocobo is a decent compromise.

Re-Run prizes suck, you seem to get 1% of the original gil reward (10% would have been reasonable), but doing them for the first time is a pretty decent reward, and chocobucks seems like a pretty cost effective way of feeding any growing chocobos.

From the language of the patch notes, I'm confident the Free-Run price will drop back down to 100 after JP midnight, or at the very least, go down in price.
'Course we wont really know until 11am EST tomorrow, will we?

[FinalJustice]

Im going to guess that in order to beat the 3 NPCs, your bird will need full str, full end, Gallop, and either cantor or Hp Regen? As well as the right item, and race method.

Though im not sure the impact auto regen has in races yet. I assume you love your stamina at a slower rate?

[Mifaco]

They patrol the entire coast of Buburimu, cliffs and beaches, so I assume they do so for all of their zones.

http://img249.imageshack.us/img249/7537/fishbothb2.png

[Priran]

obviously not

What I meant was, they're not just confined to the one spot RMT gathered at.

[Zilong]

Im going to guess that in order to beat the 3 NPCs, your bird will need full str, full end, Gallop, and either cantor or Hp Regen? As well as the right item, and race method.

Though im not sure the impact auto regen has in races yet. I assume you love your stamina at a slower rate?

I come close at beating them couple time with my 8/7/3/1

You need decent mental stats to resist the effects of bombs and biscuits though, since even if you are winning, the random chocobo will usually screw you over by pelting your ass with biscuit or items.

And since 3 super NPC has average disc/rec, they're almost unaffected by the effect of item, or at least affected less to easily overtake you when an AoE item is used.

[BRP]

I cleared all the official races pretty easily, with an Outstanding/Outstanding/Poor/Poor chocobo. On the first try, I used a Speed Apples and won, but then I rerun it(checking how much gil you make), I won without it.

[Zilong]

official races are retardedly easy though, most of the choco are like tier 2-3 stats only

[BRP]

Aren't you guys talking about Challenge Race 1? The final official race of this update (at least until JP Midnight or something, if there is more).

Anyway, if you mean free runs... those ain't so easy. I'm thinking that depending on much you win, the harder they get. I noticed the first free run I was in... 1st place. Then second, 4th place. Then 1st place... then 2nd place... and so on. Pretty much one or two very-high stat/ability chocobo would show up the next race I won. I could be imagining all of it though.

[LD]

I did all the Official races with Even Pace, 1st every time.
Odds are it'll only get harder though, to the point where items and better mental stats will decide the game...like in those free runs.

I won one or two free runs without items, because none of the other chocobos had any stats ranked 6 or higher.
However, I did lose one under the same circumstances.
Fire Biscuit always hits the front runner, got hit with that and then another guy followed up with the G-bomb.
They got 1st and 2nd while I got 3rd. -_-

[Zilong]

I dont know if it's different in every city

But in sandy, if MeteorBrian, StarOnion, or InvincibleLeg shows up, unless you got some god 8/8/4/4 chocobo or something liuke that, you'll probably lose.

Most of the time only 1 show up on races though.

[FinalJustice]

Yea, were talking about the Free race. All the challangers in that one are easy.. except for MeteorBrian (black choc ridden by an elvaan female), StarOnion (green choc ridden by a female taru), or InvincibleLeg (Blue choco ridden by a Galka) (though the riders might be different for everyone, maybe the colors too? but the names are teh same for all.) .

Those 3 are the ones you need to beat. Unless you have pretty much max stats and items youll lose to all 3. Usually only 1 shows up in a race, but a few times all 3 will show up in the same race. So be prepared to take 4th place hehe.

My retired bird im using for the race currently is 8/7/2/0, and no abilities so i have no chance of winning hehe. Im currently raising a choco now, but it will be a few weeks before i can max its stats to bother entering it. Its only day 28, but it has 2 abilities alrdy, so just gotta max stats now.

[blister1]

Managed to aggro the gob in Qufim by the worm camp (pond area) while lvling a lowbie job. I happened to be the only one there, but it wasn't satisfied as it made a beeline for the rest of my party who was a few yards away

As for the T gob in Batallia, I'm pretty sure I saw it con T, it might however pop as a different level each time after death similar to Goblin Archaeologist. Can't really clarify.

[Zilong]

So...after racing about 50 or so races...it seem that I have found a pattern

There is 2 races in a row with none of the 3 badass NPC
Following that, is 1 race with all 3 in it
Then about 5 races with 1 of the NPC

Order are

MB
IL
MB
IL
SO

Then it goes back to 2 races without any of the badass NPC

So, assuming that your chocobo is at least good enough to win without those "sharks" you'll average at 3.25 chocobucks per race

Assuming you spam the 1000 gil entry one, you're spending ~308 gil per point.

Im gonna see if I can get stat boost with 2 80 bucks stat upgrade....since the first one didnt give me level boost on stat...

But, we're looking at 50k or so gil per stat boost, or 15k gil to dye a decent chocobo.

A full stat chocobos might be worth at least a few mils, granted that at some point you'll just keep winning races, turning the gil value of point into 200 per.

And this is assuming you dont use any item

[Lylie]

They should make it like Mario Kart, would be hella fun!

[Zilong]

Ok, I spent 160 chocobucks on my Chocobo's Endurance, and it haven't budged from Outstanding > First Class

This mean one of the following:

1) the improvement from the 80 bucks plan is fucking minimal
2) 3rd time is the charm
3) The day 64 stat locks apply to the chocobo stats raised this way

I'm hoping it's #2, but it's 4 AM here, and I'm getting pissed and tired on this thing.

If 1 is the case, then I can forget about a maxed chocobo, while if 3rd is the case...I'll have to raise a new chocobo and get him a fuckload of stat via racing before it hit day 64 to max it out.

Though I've read in zam that there is an option to raise retired chocobo stats with 100 chocobucks, which would eliminate the possibility of #3.

But I have no retired chocobo, so I can't exactly check on that.

Well hope my over-enthusiasm on this whole chocobo racing thing help those who's interested...luckily I didn't lose too much money on racing because I did make a decent amount overpricing apples and bombs to feed my racing habit.

[Maguspk]

Ok, I spent 160 chocobucks on my Chocobo's Endurance, and it haven't budged from Outstanding > First Class

This mean one of the following:

1) the improvement from the 80 bucks plan is fucking minimal
2) 3rd time is the charm
3) The day 64 stat locks apply to the chocobo stats raised this way

I'm hoping it's #2, but it's 4 AM here, and I'm getting pissed and tired on this thing.

If 1 is the case, then I can forget about a maxed chocobo, while if 3rd is the case...I'll have to raise a new chocobo and get him a fuckload of stat via racing before it hit day 64 to max it out.

Though I've read in zam that there is an option to raise retired chocobo stats with 100 chocobucks, which would eliminate the possibility of #3.

But I have no retired chocobo, so I can't exactly check on that.

Well hope my over-enthusiasm on this whole chocobo racing thing help those who's interested...luckily I didn't lose too much money on racing because I did make a decent amount overpricing apples and bombs to feed my racing habit.

If there is a way to raise a retired choco for 100 chocobucks I didn't see it...

I am quite pissed I thought my choco was a pimp like max str/bit deficient endurance, and he won every Mission race no problem, but the first Free Run I got my ass handed to me and came in 4th...

How did you all raise your chocobos in endurance and other stats so high without sacrificing strength? Back when I was raising a chocobo you could only really raise one stat and then one other a little bit before it got locked in late adulthood. Don't feel like digging through the Chocobo raising thread either..

[Zilong]

If there is a way to raise a retired choco for 100 chocobucks I didn't see it...

I am quite pissed I thought my choco was a pimp like max str/bit deficient endurance, and he won every Mission race no problem, but the first Free Run I got my ass handed to me and came in 4th...

How did you all raise your chocobos in endurance and other stats so high without sacrificing strength? Back when I was raising a chocobo you could only really raise one stat and then one other a little bit before it got locked in late adulthood. Don't feel like digging through the Chocobo raising thread either..

I basically maxed STR and END first by spamming carrying packages, both hits first class at day 41 or so.

Then I switched to Dig for treasure until I get Average Discernment so it can learn Both Canter and Gallop, but in the Process, my END got lowered to just Impressive.

Then I just set for some more carrying package to salvage the END, and it hit Outstanding like 2-3 days before the stat locks.

Anyway, just got the 2nd official match, Gustaberg Derby, you race against Cid's bird. Costs 5 chocobucks to enter, 5k gil reward.

The race itself is pretty easy, though the competition does use items, so if you're not too confident, bringing some speed apple would not hurt.

As for 100 chocobucks option, like I said, I read it on zam, so take it with a grain of salt I guess...

I'm gonna try working on 3rd upgrade on END, if this doesn't do it, I think it's not gonna be worth my time...

I honestly don't feel like raising another chocobo, since it would take at least 60 days to get one even remotely close to the level of my current one.

[Millael]

goblin bounty hunters?

rofl, DIE FISHBOTS

Wont that kill EXP groups too in Valkurm/Qufim?

Leveling my WAR sub at the pond in Qufim last night, these things hit me like the fist of an angry god. Everything else cons T or VT-- to me with 75 BRD songs on, but the Bounty Hunter cons IT++ even then. He was also hitting me for around 3-4x what the crabs/worms were and, as previously mentioned, tends to move at near-flee speed. With this thing on a 5-minute respawn timer, leveling at the pond in Qufim isn't gonna happen anymore without a bodyguard.