Advanced chocobo raising

[tsaroth816]

I have both Burrow and Bore on my bird, and play H&C in the desert all the time. It takes me 3 digs to pull up a chest (the first hit +2 more).

How the heck do you folks get anything with having to use 7 digs to get the chest.... I'm boggled.

Earlier in this thread, I was having similar problems too. But Burrow + TF = 5 digs for chest, which means you need to find the mark in 6 digs or less w/o relying on Jackpot. Personally I do not know how ppl do it, and wasn't really satisfied with the answers on how ppl do Altepa with more than a 33% win rate (that's my win rate for Altepa). Jungle on the other hand has been very nice to me with win rate, and it takes many less digs. Thing is, you need to be *right* on top of the chest, Jungle also gives default +3 digs over Altepa so that's nice for narrowing down the last circle.

[Electro]

I apologize if this sounds dumb or is the wrong place to ask this question. I raised a green bird a long time ago. Got treasure finder from birth, but wanted burrow and or bore and could not obtain either. Plus its about time that I raise another bird because I want a good digger. I was curious as to whats the best possible way to raise a bird this way. Last time I bred a TH from the parent's. Those players are no longer playing. Was curious if anyone has an recommendations or a guide on what I should do. What are these new racing silks for? Only thing I did besides dig was do Hot and Cold game which I stopped doing about a year ago. Being an A15 digger I would truly like a great digging bird.

[Ropeydonkey]

I apologize if this sounds dumb or is the wrong place to ask this question. I raised a green bird a long time ago. Got treasure finder from birth, but wanted burrow and or bore and could not obtain either. Plus its about time that I raise another bird because I want a good digger. I was curious as to whats the best possible way to raise a bird this way. Last time I bred a TH from the parent's. Those players are no longer playing. Was curious if anyone has an recommendations or a guide on what I should do. What are these new racing silks for? Only thing I did besides dig was do Hot and Cold game which I stopped doing about a year ago. Being an A15 digger I would truly like a great digging bird.

There is a decent ammount of info in wiki about the breeding itself. You can breed a bird from your green one plus one other, and choosing the right care plan, you can help to determine which bird the chick will most likely draw its abilities/colours etc from - (this is all on wiki). Your bird can only learn at most 2 abilities, and different abilities require different levels of Discernment to learn (again, all on wiki). The rest is down to picking the right care plans and food to help get the stats you want.

The silks boost/modify ur chocobos stats etc - these effects should be listed with the silks on wiki or ffxiah etc.

[Electro]

Currently don't have access to wiki, will have to look when I get home.

[CDF]

Thanks for the feedback. Based on that, it seems Bore alone doesn't help reduce the number of digs, Burrow alone does, while the Burrow/Bore combination reduces the number of digs even more. To recap:

Burrow (with TF) in Altepa = 5 digs to uncover chest (7 normally)
Burrow and Bore in Altepa = 3 digs to uncover chest (7 normally)
Bore (with TF) in Jungle = 5 digs to uncover chest (5 normally)

[Teorem]

Hasn't anyone checked to see if the effects of the digging-related silks (blue and sky blue) apply when they are equipped after calling the chocobo?

I forgot to update; you can swap Sky Blue and Blue Racing Silks while riding the same chocobo and get the appropriate effects for each.

[urat]

There is a decent ammount of info in wiki about the breeding itself. You can breed a bird from your green one plus one other, and choosing the right care plan, you can help to determine which bird the chick will most likely draw its abilities/colours etc from - (this is all on wiki). Your bird can only learn at most 2 abilities, and different abilities require different levels of Discernment to learn (again, all on wiki). The rest is down to picking the right care plans and food to help get the stats you want.

The silks boost/modify ur chocobos stats etc - these effects should be listed with the silks on wiki or ffxiah etc.

I have a guide from day 1 to retirement with step by step recommendations on what care plans/food etc to use, as the other raising guides simply state what care plans do what, which foods do which, but don't actually tell you which you should use when.

For my digger I found it learned burrow around lv 4 disc and TH around 5. There doesn't appear to be any noticeable effect on digging from discernment, just racing.

Thus I'd recommend what I am doing with my bird atm, raise its discernment until you learn the two abilities, then swap to strength/endurance training so not only can the bird dig well, but be fast on the field at the same time thus covering both bases for an on the field choco.

It won't be quie as a fast as a bird with gallop and canter but close.

[Guppy]

For my digger I found it learned burrow around lv 4 disc and TH around 5. There doesn't appear to be any noticeable effect on digging from discernment, just racing.

That's a question that has been bothering me for a while, how much does INT/REC affect a chocobo, outside of racing and ability learning? I am of the belief that it affects the hot-and-cold game, given my experience trying it with both high/low mental stat birds -- the lower stat bird had no chance of scoring a win in Altepa, while I do it fairly regularly on the high-stat bird. But it wasn't a reliable test, as there were other factors differing between them, such as body shape.

[Rugazanami]

I was reading through one of the Chocobo Raising guides on the wiki, and I noticed this line:

"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."

How is this true? In my case, I've been raising a digger bird with the intent of leveling up my digging with it. Now I'm a little worried.

[nitsuj]

I've decided my 8/7/4/4 bird isn't cutting it, so I'm going to buy some tokens to make sure it's 8 is capped, and tweak his other stats.

My question is, using the retired tokens when your SS skill is at the absolute cap, does it give you a different message? Like "it's impossible to raise this stat any further" ?

I know if I do it, it'll tell me something along the lines of "Raising this stat will lower another" since my skill points are all allocated. But what about when the stat itself can't go any higher?

[CDF]

FYI, tokens for retired chocobos (not in stables) are not as effective. You get only +2 per token. (I tried this myself, wasting 1000 chocobucks on 10 tokens and I still didn't get an increase in attribute rank. It was only later that I found this info from a JP source.)

As I recall,

"I'm sorry, but any attempts to further raise that attribute may result in serious injury to your chocobo" means that particular attribute is maxed. (You get no option to raise it further.)

and

"I'm required to inform you that raising the specified attribute will adversely affect others" means that your attribute/skill points are all allocated. (You get an option to raise that attribute at the expense of the others.)

Also, I'm curious why you think 8/7/4/4 doesn't cut it. So far, I've won 162/329 races with an 8/5/5/5 (considering 8/6/5/4 for another character to maximize revenue), and it's common for me to be up against 1-2 other PCs (but I try to avoid JP afternoon and morning where it's apparently cool to race 5 PCs at a time), so I can't really expect to win them all.

I've decided my 8/7/4/4 bird isn't cutting it, so I'm going to buy some tokens to make sure it's 8 is capped, and tweak his other stats.

[midguardian]

Thanks for the feedback. Based on that, it seems Bore alone doesn't help reduce the number of digs, Burrow alone does, while the Burrow/Bore combination reduces the number of digs even more. To recap:

Burrow (with TF) in Altepa = 5 digs to uncover chest (7 normally)
Burrow and Bore in Altepa = 3 digs to uncover chest (7 normally)
Bore (with TF) in Jungle = 5 digs to uncover chest (5 normally)

I have a chocobo with TF + Bore. It takes me 5 digs to uncover chest in Desert and 3 digs in the Jungle. I've been using it since H&C was released and have a 80% success rate combining Jungles/Desert (higher in Desert and lower in Jungle). Stats I'd have to check. No more than 5 or 6 at most in Disc/Recp and 1/2 in Str/End. I don't log on every day, so I never bothered trying to raise a super bird, just wanted the abilities.

I contributed to a thread on Alla when H&C was first released, and going back that far I thought that the normal requirement was 6/4 digs for Desert/Jungle and that Burrow/Bore each knocked off one dig from the requirements. But that was a long time ago and I never tested on a bird with different abilities.

One thing to consider. For those raising new birds, are you reregistering your chocobo when you learn a new ability? That might explain any discrepancies.

[nitsuj]

FYI, tokens for retired chocobos (not in stables) are not as effective. You get only +2 per token. (I tried this myself, wasting 1000 chocobucks on 10 tokens and I still didn't get an increase in attribute rank. It was only later that I found this info from a JP source.)

As I recall,

"I'm sorry, but any attempts to further raise that attribute may result in serious injury to your chocobo" means that particular attribute is maxed. (You get no option to raise it further.)

and

"I'm required to inform you that raising the specified attribute will adversely affect others" means that your attribute/skill points are all allocated. (You get an option to raise that attribute at the expense of the others.)

Also, I'm curious why you think 8/7/4/4 doesn't cut it. So far, I've won 162/329 races with an 8/5/5/5 (considering 8/6/5/4 for another character to maximize revenue), and it's common for me to be up against 1-2 other PCs (but I try to avoid JP afternoon and morning where it's apparently cool to race 5 PCs at a time), so I can't really expect to win them all.

Well, my first C1 race I placed 7th of 8 against 4 PC characters (so even the NPC's beat me!).

I have been doing C2 (nearly always top 3) and today's C1 I got 2nd against 1 other PC player. So it may not be as bad as I had thought.

It just seems two things are wrong

1) My bird's strength isn't capped SS (I don't think).
2) Birds with Receptivity (3rd stat?) as more of a focus point tend to do quite well with the races.

I'm not going to buy any tokens yet, give it some more time. Only done ~20 races or so.

[Teorem]

One thing to consider. For those raising new birds, are you reregistering your chocobo when you learn a new ability? That might explain any discrepancies.

I want to say yes, but honestly, I've been using this chocobo so long that I don't remember. I'm going to be kind of pissed if I didn't and have been providing wrong information...and missing out on the potential crates I've been so close on before.

Edit: I re-registered my Treasure Hunter/Bore Chocobo, went to Yhoator, and pulled up a chest in three digs.

Sorry to be misleading, I was definitely wrong about Bore and the JP wiki page was accurate.

[Ropeydonkey]

Couple quick questions (I will trawl back through old posts for answers too):

• Once a stat is at SS, will any further points in that stat make any difference? I.e. will a bird with totally maxed Strength be faster than one with only JUST SS Str?
  
• If you have Canter, is it worth having SS Endurance or does Canter push endurance over the stat cap?
  
• When you are at the cap for total stats and you continue to upgrade... what stats are lowered? I thought upgrade tokens were +3 so -1 from each other stat makes sense... but previous poster said they may be +2? So how does it choose which 2 stats to drop by 1? Or maybe its just random?

Cheers in advance

Bascally my Blue Choco retired 8,8,4,1 G+C (Str is totally capped but END is only just inside SS) and is now 8,8,4,2 and im wondering how to tweak it with tokens - wondering if (8 END = 7 + Canter) etc

[nitsuj]

Couple quick questions (I will trawl back through old posts for answers too):

• Once a stat is at SS, will any further points in that stat make any difference? I.e. will a bird with totally maxed Strength be faster than one with only JUST SS Str?
  
• If you have Canter, is it worth having SS Endurance or does Canter push endurance over the stat cap?
  
• When you are at the cap for total stats and you continue to upgrade... what stats are lowered? I thought upgrade tokens were +3 so -1 from each other stat makes sense... but previous poster said they may be +2? So how does it choose which 2 stats to drop by 1? Or maybe its just random?

Cheers in advance

Bascally my Blue Choco retired 8,8,4,1 G+C (Str is totally capped but END is only just inside SS) and is now 8,8,4,2 and im wondering how to tweak it with tokens - wondering if (8 END = 7 + Canter) etc

I've always wondered if SS/SS/*/* + Gallop and Canter we wasted, or if there was a sort of SSS class...

[urat]

At just barely over SS strength and end my bird never once, even through hundreds of races, came in first place vs any of the "super birds" in normal races, star onion, invincibleleg, meteorbrian.

Hitting about 1 token away from the hard cap I began to beat the super birds 30% of the time, which makes quite a significant boost in my average chocobucks/race.

YEah, they for sure boost your stats, and your bird can go faster than the hard SSS cap of strength. Using the strength/speed saddle and speed apple my bird has hit a whopping speed of 7 O_o

This was of course final burst mode so he saved all of his speed to the very end. Maybe I should give you guys a quick 101 in choco racing and how the system sets it up, at least from what I've seen.

First off, the entire race is a giant moving grid, 8 columns each with its own bird, 12-13 (its hard to tell) columns long.

Each bird starts off at the farthest right column, and each has a top "Speed" set by their strength and saddle if your in circuit (saddle adds +1 to your speed throughout race which in turn drains your stamina faster, we'll get into that)

Now your birds dont sit at their top speed the whole race. Instead, based on your discernment they'll stick closer to the speeds set by the command you give em at start.

The faster your bird runs, the faster their stamina, which is set by your birds endurance mostly, drains. This is not capped however, so if they use a stamina apple at start they can have more stamina then what they started with. Imagine if stamina is like your chars HP and the faster he runs the faster it drains.

Instead of a stamina apple being like a hi potion, its more liek tossing on a piece of HP+ armor.

Ok so as long as your birds stamina is at cap they can go as fast as they want, up to their capped speed set by strength. The moment they run out of stamina they immeaditly are forced into their slowest speed, also set by strength.

In other words, it doesnt matter if you have SSS endurance, if your birds strength is F he cant go any faster than a speed of 1-2 even if he has a bajillion stamina.

Now then, in each individual CS throughout the race, the game determines your birds current speed and moves it forward/back that many spots. Getting hit by biscuits etc do different things to your speed.

From what Ive seen gysahl bomb reduces your brids speed by 1-2 depending on the sender receptivity for a not a set duration, whereas the speed cracker (spicy I think?) drops your birds speed by n amount based on receptivity immediately, and forces them to regain it manually through the next few CSs

Ok so now that you understand all this, your first and foremost primary stat in choco racing is strength, as you want to get your birds top speed as high as possible. So far it seems your strength/2 = your top speed, then you add in apple, gallop, canter, and saddle.

Thus if you have them all kicking in you can have lv 8.9 strength which pretty much puts you at 4.5 speed, + 0.5 from canter, 0.5 from gallop, 1 str from saddle which = another .5, and 1 from speed apple for a total of a whopping 7 speed at your birds peak.

This drains the livign fuck out of stamina when and if your bird hits it, but he can go from the 12 spot to first in 2 spots. You can generally tell this is about to happen with a high discernment choco via the message "but it looks like _______ is waiting for the perfect moment to make his/her move" around the time you are about to enter the tunnel.

So far I've only seen my bird hit this speed a handful of times, but its just ridiculous to watch it happen. It IS possible to hit a much much higher speed in the swamp trots, as Im sure you have done them have noticed your bird runs WAYYYYY faster in it due to no rider and saddle.

I never really payed much attention to his exact speed at the time, but I do know not only are there way more slots in the swamptrot but that cactuar must've hit a speed of 11~12 when he spams his speed move, as he goes all the way from the last slot to the first in 1 CS.

There's a lot more to the racing but I hope this was enough to give you a basic idea of what would be best leveling up. ^_^/

[urat]

Ok, so got green silks, just hit day 4 raising my bird. All I can say is holy shit.

I managed to pull off 5 short walks with a 4 day old chickobo fresh out of the egg, which ended up with me finding the lost choco, meeting hantelion twice AND getting the first 2/3 hints on the owner, a normal walk AND finding a free item.

I almost had enough stamina for a 6th walk as well.

Ended up naming my birdy FeatheredEtoile, which works on so many diffrent levels, being my main a dancer, etoiles being blue, and my bird (hopefully) becoming blue. <3

[Guppy]

My question is, using the retired tokens when your SS skill is at the absolute cap, does it give you a different message? Like "it's impossible to raise this stat any further" ?

As CDF mentioned, you will get feedback messages when this happens. However, it only seems to happen on Stat-specific training and stat-specific tokens. I played around with the random tokens , and was able to keep feeding them to a capped chocobo without any further warning messages (I believe they merely shuffled stats around without any net increase). This was a quite a while ago, so I don't know if it's been fixed or continues to work this way.

[CDF]

I can see why you wouldn't get any messages using them. If you had the choice to stop training, then you could ensure you weren't reducing one attribute while raising another randomly (for the message that gives you the option to stop) or wasting a coin trying to raise a maxed attribute (randomly chosen).