Advanced chocobo raising

[Rugazanami]

Also, who runs out of time during a dig session? I always have like 15 mins left after getting my chest.

My bird just dumped me off during a game of Hot and Cold. It caught me by surprise, so I'm not sure of this or not, but it felt like the same amount of time I normally get on my bird. In my case, my riding time is 17 minutes; 10 of which comes from Chocobo gear.

I was really wracking my brain trying to figure out the rings in Buburimu. I had just found the "The treasure is close" ring when my bird ran away. I really wish I hadn't skipped all those Chocobo Wand events. I don't know how people can consistently win Hot and Cold without getting lucky.

[tsaroth816]

That chocobo riding time + eq doesn't work with chocobo whistle (tested personally) or tanj grass (assumed since won't work with whistle). Hence why there are 2 different silks for riding time (Orange=rental, Red=personal). I think 16~17min is lowest time possible (no eq, poor END).

[Rugazanami]

That chocobo riding time + eq doesn't work with chocobo whistle (tested personally) or tanj grass (assumed since won't work with whistle). Hence why there are 2 different silks for riding time (Orange=rental, Red=personal). I think 16~17min is lowest time possible (no eq, poor END).

Oh! Good to know. Thanks.

So as to avoid a double post:
Does anyone know how much the training tokens increase a bird's stats compared to simply choosing to raise its stats at the Chocobuck vendor? I'm just wondering what the best chocobuck to stat-increase ratio is.

[RalphTheDwarf]

I have a 1st generation chocobo that I started raising the first day it was available, and since there wasn't much info available at the time (or things were extremely expensive) it didn't turn out very well (terrible all around stats, no abilities). I'd say it's the used Yugo of the chocobo world. It has long since been retired, and I've decided to start raising another hoping to do better the second time around.

Does this pitiful excuse of a chocobo stand any chance in HFIL of winning any races to start stockpiling chocobucks? Or am I better of waiting until the new chick is old enough to race?

[Amok]

Completely depends on its stats. Mediocre to good chocobos will average the same amount of chocobucks per run (a fraction more than 3), because there's a whole pool of crappy birds and only 3 good ones. If you always manage to finish in front of the losers, then you're golden. Only really top notch birds can occasionally beat the super birds without items. Conclusion, you don't really need a top racer to get bucks. What is good enough?

I can't say for sure, but I expect something along the lines of 6/6/0/0 without any abilities will be enough. This is based on my first racer (8/8/0/0, no abilities) beating the crappy birds comfortably.

[RalphTheDwarf]

Thanks for the reply. I've tried the starter race with my original chocobo, and didn't stand a chance. Took several tries just to beat the first course and that one doesn't even give chocobucks, just a few gil. I've given up on racing with that bird, it's just too far gone to be of any use.

[enoch]

Howdy. Just looking for some advice. Here's my story:

I'm on day 35 of my first chocobo on this character - bred from 2 black racer friends (both 8/8/4/4 with G+C) it was born with Gallop, and is now 6/7/1/1. A couple days ago I got my green silks. I'm still working on pumping up STR/END with Carry Packages while keeping affection capped with 2 vomps and 1 azouph per Urat's racer guide.

Now that Long Walk is available, I spam that as much as possible each day and have met Brutus twice. With the leftover energy I compete twice and watch over it as much as I can (watching that much is probably redundant given the azouph greens, but it can't hurt).

I'm not entirely sure why my STR is lagging behind my END. It might be due to the Long Walk spamming? Since becoming an adult I've earned one Chocotrain: STR each day to try to catch it up to END. I'll change this to DSC once I learn the story for Canter or STR gets caught up.

My question is - what's the preferred way to raise DSC high enough to learn abilities which minimizing STR/END losses? It looks like my options are Digging for Treasure, or Exhibiting to the Public.

I've also thought of utilizing a few days of Exercising Alone to help catch my STR up to END, since after 200 points, it seems to be more efficient. Thoughts on that?

[Guppy]

I'm not entirely sure why my STR is lagging behind my END. It might be due to the Long Walk spamming? Since becoming an adult I've earned one Chocotrain: STR each day to try to catch it up to END. I'll change this to DSC once I learn the story for Canter or STR gets caught up.

My personal preference is to avoid spending on special chocotraining until your chocobo is past Day 64 and no longer learning from care plans. Instead, stock up on chocobucks until you near the 1k limit, then stockpile DSC tokens so you can keep earning more. The tokens can be mailed to a mule if you need the inventory space.

I've also thought of utilizing a few days of Exercising Alone to help catch my STR up to END, since after 200 points, it seems to be more efficient. Thoughts on that?

That works fine if you feel you need to keep the levels equal at this time. Shifting between careplans is much easier and cheaper than spending chocobucks at this point, and I prefer to hold off on using them until you reach the point where it becomes your only option. Your overall goal is to use training plans to pack in as many "points" as you can within the envelope of your desired final stat distribution among the four categories, and then afterwards use chocobucks to cap overall stats.

My question is - what's the preferred way to raise DSC high enough to learn abilities which minimizing STR/END losses? It looks like my options are Digging for Treasure, or Exhibiting to the Public.

I generally would not even consider raising mental traits until I had reached my target physical stats, and depending on which mental plan, overshoot that target a bit to try to compensate for the drop when switching to Digging for Treasure or Exhibiting to the Public. The question is (assuming you intend to raise a stat-capped chocobo), do you want any points in Receptivity when your chocobo is finished? If not, then focus on Digging for Treasure.

[enoch]

I'm definitely going for capped stats.

Not having any higher level racing experience, I'm not sure about receptivity. On the free races I've been using to earn chocobucks, I'll place a close second or third on maybe half the races - and half of those times will be because I got hit with a gysahl bomb or fire biscuit or some other enfeeb I wasn't able to avoid. Sometimes I *do* avoid them, even with poor RCP.

I seem to recall many years back that people seemed to think DSC helped with in-race item usage. I can't find anything that really backs that up... but with poor DSC, my choco sometimes uses items are really retarded times, leaving me to hope that a higher DSC will fix that.

So that's more or less the reasoning behind wanting a balanced 8/8/4/4.

Actually, looking at the numbers, is 8/8/4/4 even possible? Is the hard cap really 637? Seems 8/8/4/4 would require 640.

[urat]

Thats receptivity for racing, it effects evasion/accuracy.

Discernment effects how effectively your bird uses stamina. A bird with capped discernment will use up their stamina perfectly so they end the race right on the 0 mark, or extremely close to it.

I personally took the SSS-SSS-B-F route like you say you want. You need to be careful though. Birds with receptivity instead will hit you with biscuits like a friggin semi, Ive seen my bird go from first to last in one move because a bird with SS recept sniped me D:

Im not sure about how the timing of items fits in yet, its either recept or disc, maybe both?

I know Ive seen my bird use items twice in a race. Once every 10 or so it glitches and happens, /shrug

I personally went with digging for treasure once I capped birds str/end and zerged discernment through BOTH care plan and tokens. 2-3 tokens a day + plan got me up to B discernment in about 2 weeks.

I had to spend about another week retopping up my strength but it still ends up working out to the same. Your bird never loses points, just gains them or shuffles them around.

[nitsuj]

I'm definitely going for capped stats.

Not having any higher level racing experience, I'm not sure about receptivity. On the free races I've been using to earn chocobucks, I'll place a close second or third on maybe half the races - and half of those times will be because I got hit with a gysahl bomb or fire biscuit or some other enfeeb I wasn't able to avoid. Sometimes I *do* avoid them, even with poor RCP.

I seem to recall many years back that people seemed to think DSC helped with in-race item usage. I can't find anything that really backs that up... but with poor DSC, my choco sometimes uses items are really retarded times, leaving me to hope that a higher DSC will fix that.

So that's more or less the reasoning behind wanting a balanced 8/8/4/4.

Actually, looking at the numbers, is 8/8/4/4 even possible? Is the hard cap really 637? Seems 8/8/4/4 would require 640.

8/7/4/4 is alright. I'm not completely convinced it's the best way to go for racing.

Especially not this week since I lost all my chocobucks on 3 bad C1 races in a row :/

[enoch]

Thanks for your input, guys. Given the above two posts I'm kind of inclined to take DSC up just high enough to learn Canter, then let it drop, ending up at 8/8/3/4.

Although I'm not 100% sold that RCP is for anything more than evasion (during racing). From a strictly semantic point of view, discernment should be what helps "discern" when it's best to use an item during a race... but maybe that's reading too much into it.

2-3 tokens/day is beyond what I'm currently capable of, time-wise. I'm currently doing 1 training/day + 1 official race/day. Maybe once I'm 8/8 I'll place 1st or 2nd more often in the free races. Also; I'm pretty lazy and stick to Final Spurt + Speed Apple... mostly because I have an assload of Honey stacks and Faerie Apples and crystals are cheap/plentiful. And I never visit the paddock before the race. If I were to visit the paddock and skip races with the NM birds, my win percentage would shoot up, but the extra time it'd take would likely make it a hindrance.

[urat]

From SS-SS-F-F to SSS-SSS-B-F I havent had my success in the normal races change that notably.

Near the end I finally started winning against the big birds, but even then its about 10% or so.

Once you start pulling off 2nd place on the normal races, first on the easy races and fourth on the big race, you'll be averaging 4 chocobucks a race.

[Amok]

Decent receptivity also gets you benefit from the Rabbit Hide and Sheep Leather saddles. It's not a reason to raise it, but it seems to make up for physical stats that aren't fully capped in a way that gives you more leeway when raising.

[Guppy]

Especially not this week since I lost all my chocobucks on 3 bad C1 races in a row :/

I've taken to running mostly in C2 races. The purse is smaller, but more consistent, and there is rarely competition from other players (at least during NA hours). I get back a steady positive flow of chocobucks, more than enough to offset the occasional wipeout.

Plus, I don't have to keep fetching my stands to engrave the resulting trophies from C1 races.

[RalphTheDwarf]

I'm starting to get into the Chocobo Racing Circuit. I thought I had a handle on when the events were scheduled, but I was wrong. I thought it went C4 C3 C2 C1 every hour, but that isn't the case. Is there a schedule of events posted somewhere in game that I missed? I'm confused about when some of the races are held, especially C1 races.

[CDF]

The schedule was changed in November 2009.

Sign-up periods after the start of the hour...

C4 (orange): 0-15 minutes
C3 (green): 15-30
C2/C3 (red): 30-45 (C2 even EDT hours, C3 odd EDT hours)
C1/C2 (blue): 45-60 (C1 even EDT hours, C2 odd EDT hours)

[RalphTheDwarf]

Ah ok. That makes sense now. Thank you.

[Khiinroye]

The server merger really hurt my winnings...it seems Seraph had a lot more racers than Bismarck (at least when I normally sign up). Consolation prize is that Windurst is dominant now instead of San d'Oria, so I can use a better saddle.

[Guppy]

The server merger really hurt my winnings...it seems Seraph had a lot more racers than Bismarck (at least when I normally sign up). Consolation prize is that Windurst is dominant now instead of San d'Oria, so I can use a better saddle.

I had the same experience going from Midgardsormr to Quetzalcoatl. There are a lot more entrants for both C1 and C2 races, even during Jpn off-peak hours. And, they generally all have extremely competitive chocobos.