Chocobo racing, does everything cheat in this game?

[Raez]

My chocobo has SS str SS end C disc and F res with gallop and canter

I can never, ever, ever beat the three super chocobos in free runs despite having strickly better racing stats and using the exact same item. does res have some crazy super secret effect on racing or does the game just cheat like it certainly shows you. (it clearly moves your chocobo back behind them if you are in front every cutscene)

[Godofgods]

i actuly have beaten them once or twice with my choco but its not often. Mine has S str/end F res/dis. If i remember, the three super all have S str/end with canter gallop, so it will be hard against them even with a well trained choco.

That being said, its annoying as hell. With three super chocos, theirs a high chance one will always be present, meaning you cant win. Which makes earning chocobuckes in free run nearly impossible, and highly highly time consuming. And considering the cost of items, like the choco training tokens (80-100 chocobucks) and that you could use like 7+ to raise a single stat a single level, it becomes insain.

[Limecat]

I stopped trying to beat them. I figured that even if I could use an item to beat one, it's still more cost-effective to just get your bird to the point where it never loses to a non-super bird, and spam free runs without using any items. Ends up coming out as each training token costing 27k(assuming 1k races) and taking 134 minutes of racing, on average.

[Saenomo]

My Chocobo has Gallop and Treasure Hunter. It has a 50/50 shot at beating one of the three Super birds, but falls into third or forth during the race with all three of them together. I found the best plan is to hold back so they beat each other down and come from behind at the end of the race. There is also a pattern to when each bird will appear as well, though I forget the order. It runs 1 Super, 1 Super, 1 Super, 3 Supers, No-Supers, No-Supers, Repeat.

[Kavik]

Since this is the only thread i can find on this i'ma jump on it instead of making my own. 5 chocobucks for a a 1k race win is ridiculous. I can see winning 5 chocobucks for a race that costs 100gil. But why can't we get an amount of chocobucks based on how much gil we put in? Even 1/10th of the race cost would be better then what we have now :( also i think it would be REALLY nice to just skip the entirety of the race like you can with raising a chocobo or redoing a storyline battlefield, "Skip the event?" YES PLEASE! it is tedious watching the same choco's run around the track every time when you have no control over the outcome of the race, now if were manually racing our birds this would be a different story but it just makes it a waste of time to sit and watch them (i have a race going in the background as i'm typing this) (yay my bird with SS str and ENd, cantor and gallop is winning). I really hope SE finds it in their hearts to change these things to make chocobo racing more approachable to the general population.

[Natenn]

They need to make Chocobo Racing like how it was in FF7, where we manually control the bird and give us weapons like Mario kart/speed boosts ect. Then everyone would love it and it would give us more reason to raise chocobos.

[Kavik]

i actuly have beaten them once or twice with my choco but its not often. Mine has S str/end F res/dis. If i remember, the three super all have S str/end with canter gallop, so it will be hard against them even with a well trained choco.

That being said, its annoying as hell. With three super chocos, theirs a high chance one will always be present, meaning you cant win. Which makes earning chocobuckes in free run nearly impossible, and highly highly time consuming. And considering the cost of items, like the choco training tokens (80-100 chocobucks) and that you could use like 7+ to raise a single stat a single level, it becomes insain.

Star onion (green 'super chocobo') has first class Str, better then average endurance average discernment and average receptivity and uses keep pace with canter and gallop (equips speed apple)

Invincible leg (blue Super chocobo ) 1st class str impressive endurance and average discernment and receptivity + gallop and canter also uses keep pace (equips speed apple)

Meteor Brian (black super chocobo) first class str better then average endurance and average discernment and receptivity uses keep pace (equips speed apple)

{case no one noticed i just got these 3 in a single race so i shall be coming in 4th on a black choco with capped str and endurance and poor on the other 2 with a speed apple using keep pace with the abilities canter and gallop}

[Kavik]

450 gil.... 1 chocobuck for 4th place.

[Kyrial]

Once I maxed out my bird the way I wanted, I found that I would randomly beat the supers from time to time as long as it was 1-on-1 (still lost the 3-on-1, of course, though sometimes came in 2nd on that), even with no item at all. That was with Gallop and Canter, SS Strength (capped), S Endurance (barely; almost A), C Discernment (barely; almost D), and D REC (barely; almost C). I also always used Final Sprint for my orders. Final Sprint is important, and Receptivity is more important than some people seem to realize, when it comes to the super chocobos and Chocobo Circuit races. If I'm not mistaken, Receptivity affects your resistance to attack items (Gysahl Bombs and such). My theory is that while yes, you can resist those items outright, you can also partially resist them (which would be shown as them affecting you, rather than being resisted). That would be where the Receptivity comes into play.

Just the observations of me and a friend of mine, though. Take it with a grain of salt. :P

[Kavik]

my aim for this choco is to raise it with SS and S then A and then whatever i can get on the last one which isnt really much, my choco chick currently, at day 16 is substandard strength a bit defiecient endurance and poor on the other 2, i've been feeding vomp carrots x2 and a azouph green a day. She also has gallop already so i'm hoping this will finally be my race bird. Both parents had first class str and endurence.

[Urat]

My bird is SSS-SSS-C-F with Canter+Gallop, and he occasionally beats the super birds about 30% of the time. Super race he generally comes second.

1K race is VERY VERY cheap and you can make LOTS of money with chocobo racing free runs if you know what you're going.

If the races are:
Easy - Easy - Super - Super - Super - Tri-Super, I average
5 - 5 - 3 - 5 - 3 - 1

Thats 22 chocobucks in 6 races, for 6K. Thats a really good price, as you can double your money with it.

But I'm not going to tell you how and let you figure it out on your own. #1: SE might very well gimp this method on a whim, which'd suck, and #2: its not that hard to figure out, takes like 5 mins on wiki.

[Kavik]

I believe i am currently using you're guide on wiki actually, i was wondering though, what care plan does one use to raise the intelligence of ones bird without gimping it's str/endurance too much? i have found no clear thoughts on it.

[Zatias]

I believe i am currently using you're guide on wiki actually, i was wondering though, what care plan does one use to raise the intelligence of ones bird without gimping it's str/endurance too much? i have found no clear thoughts on it.

Sadly the only way to raise these stats is to do just that. Or abuse the chocobuck training program. Though expensive, it does not lower any other stats (unless completely capped out)

My prize-winning bird (over 50 times Crystal Stakes 1st prize winner and full clear of story mode races) has STR-SS/END-S/DSC-B/RCP-D. I raised her off mental plans early in her life until she learned Gallop and Canter. I then changed the plans to physical increase, by this time she had A DSC and C RCP. Through the work of care plans, carrots, and chocobuck "training", she ended as STR-SS/END-S/DSC-B/RCP-D. (chart here:
http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Zatias/Chocobo_Raising/The_Racer_Strategies)

I'm beginning to babble and am over-complicating things, so if you want to know more detailed strategies just look at my guide on wiki, on Chocobo Raising.

Linky:http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/User:Zatias/Chocobo_Raising

And a bit back on topic, my chocobo can "randomally" win against the super-chocobos WITHOUT an item, it just takes a bit of luck. Those birds were made to leave you in their dust.

[Kavik]

I have nearly 400 chocobucks saved up for when my chick hits adulthood (i'm racing what should have been my star racer but since i had to take a 3 mo break he turned out largely useless SS str/end poor/poor canter and gallop, he wins C4 races occasionally for my new bird lol) , i plan to get SS on Str/end and hopefully at least B Discernment and have canter and gallop on the new bird (i bred gallop into it), both it's parents had first class str/endurance. So i'm hoping this is going to be my star racer finally, currently at day 27 her str/endurance are at Average and are now flying up, i'm using 3 different raising guides so hopefully the combination will work to my advantage.

Also, the pattern for races, if you start when you face all 3 'super' birds is this:

3x Super - 1x super* (meteor brian) - 1x super* (invincible leg) - 1x super* (meteor brian) -1x super (invincible leg) - 1x super (star onion) - 0 super - 0 super and then it repeats itself

which will net you (if your like me) and will cost you: 1 buck(100 gil), 3 bucks(150 gil) 3 bucks(200gil) 3 bucks(300 gil) 3 bucks (400 gil) 3 bucks (600 gil) 5 bucks(800 gil) 5 bucks (1,000 gil) = 26 bucks (3,550 gil)

With this formula it would be possible to hit 1,000 chocobucks in as little as 39 (actual # is 38.4) days, this is without entering your bird in any races other then 'free runs' (i didn't factor in any of the other races since data on them is sketchy at best, if you enter your bird in c4 races and he gets first you earn a net gain of 15 bucks but if he comes in 4th or lower you lose 9 or if you do the quest races you gain more that day etc)

*I didn't write them down so the super chocobo in the race could be completely random, it just seems to be what i get a lot.

side not i think i'll write a guide after i'm done with the current bird since most of them have no data on HOW to do/get some of this stuff, i havn't found the above formula anywhere ><.

[Zatias]

Data on how to get what stuff? >.>

The formula you said is trivial if you're zealous enough with raising your bird's stats; there is no limit to the amount of Free Runs you can do in a day (unless you count how many you can do before that actual 24hrs time frame ends, which is going too far imo lol)

Curious did you read my racing guide? XD http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/User:Zatias/Chocobo_Racing

I didn't link to it last post, sorry about that.

[Kavik]

No, i didn't and my formula assumed that you'd be trying to spend as little gil as possible over the time you have to raise the bird to adulthood to apply them, since not everyone has infinite gil to spend on raising a chocobo. Of course if you want to get bucks faster you can spend 26k for 26 bucks doing the 1k gil races but it seems silly if you're just patient, in 39 days your bird will be at the perfect time to raise all those stats anyway. i myself was one of those people until a few things to my good fortune happened, my brother quit and gave me 3 mules worth of gear which netted me about 2 million gil in sales in addition to 500k in gil, after this gil boom or perhaps during it rather, i began lvling alchemy which with farming my own mats drove me into the margin of pure and very rapid profit, i ended up at 3.5mil (i know i'm prolly behind the curve because thats the most i've ever had and i've been playing for 7 yrs, but i've lived on a short budget because i hate farming for endless hrs even with 90 thf), before that i had hovered around 500k which is not enough to sustain my jobs (echos, food, shihei ((the worst killer @ 100k for a stack of stacks)), there was one point when i was buying these every other day), let alone spells i needed for lvling new jobs and such since i refuse to be gimptastic like most players these days due to abyssea burns and raise chocobo's properly(no less then 3k a day with no immediate reward:p). So while most people will say, if you don't wanna spend the gil just don't do it there are some people like me that will always search for the 'cheapest' way to do something (like lvling rng to get thf's marksmanship up because bloody bolts are more expensive then bronze bolts, takes work and patience but it's easier on one's wallet)

[Zatias]

I see.

But raising one stat a single level requires about 600 chocobucks, so you may have to resort to not caring about the cost like I did, since you have a limited timeframe before it retires.

[Kavik]

Are race chocotrains better then the training programs they offer which are slightly cheaper? If there is any information on it please point me in the right direction ><. Also, day 28 my newest chick just hit above average on str and endurance.

[Zatias]

Your bird is doing very well in growth XD

And no, the "tokens" increase by the same amount as the normal programs ; ; they are only more expensive because you can sell them and hoard them + 1000 chocobucks.

My race team is never in first (why sandy, why) so I don't have any real data to enforce this. This gut feeling comes from dye; bottles are more expensive than direct coloring but they do the same thing (aside from being able to craft with the dye, which still doesn't impact what it does to your bird)

If you don't mind eating up chocobucks to test this, by all means try it. I just don't recommend it ^^;

*surprised to be talking to people who actually enjoy chocobo raising* lol

[Kavik]

Hehe, I'm in sandy too, but on Phoenix they are always in first. It's really nice to have some direct contact with someone that has raised a lot of birds lol. This is my 6th one and the only one that will probably have decent discernment. I'm looking forward to having a bird that can win all the time and against the damn sheep in the swamptrot 2 race, all my previous birds were a little slow witted >< (ok so really slow witted) lol. I'll have to buy some chocotrains now then, i'm at about 480 bucks now so i had better get on it.

[Zatias]

I look forward to seeing your bird's "final form".

Once you get capped STR and END you can generally beat most of the C4 and maybe C3 races for extra chocobucks each day and make it easier on you. Just try to avoid the "rainy" races, they can really hurt your bird's chances, especially when paired with evil chocobos with fire and pepper biscuits ; ; lol

[Kavik]

I've noticed this lol, and i think i forgot to mention this is my 6th raised bird, i owned both her parents and the each had first class str/end, father had canter and gallop and mother had burrow (inherited) and first class str/end as well (only female i had at the time ><) so i'm hoping this will help me to get a really racer. Also, are +5 care plans better then 5% care plans? i don't wish to try it if someone else has already done it.

[Zatias]

The 5% are better once you get to a certain point, like 120+ points in that skill (high "average", low "Better than Average"). Below 100 points they are worse. They also start to trump the +8 points care plans around 180 points into the skill ("Impressive"-"Outstanding" rating).

If your bird is Average to Better than Average in a skill, you may want to go with one of the % plans. The only real disadvantage is it doesn't give 5 points to two stats like the normal care plans.

[Kavik]

Hmmm i've always kept my birds on delivering packages because of the dual increases, i think i'll keep doing that until i need to pump up it's discernment, and hope for the best, i've never had a problem getting str/end up to SS.

[Urat]

You might wanna check out the price you can NPC sell a stack of vomp carrots to an NPC for, then look back at the cost of your chocobucks.

If you get what I'm saying don't actually say it here, best to keep this one under wraps. Just a "thank you" or whatever is enough for me to know you get it.

If you are having trouble I can drop more hints I guess.

[Kavik]

I was originally going to post that i needed more help with hints... but i think i get it now.

[Kavik]

If zatias still reads this thread, a strange thing happened, i used the 80 chocobuck option of 'raising one of the birds stats' since i'm still on str/end plans i used the str one, 2 'days' later, my chocobo's str went up to outstanding while it's end is still impressive (end has been going up before str since it was a chick, taking as many as 4 days to catch up when it was younger) so it would appear that the training sessions do have a pretty good impact on the stats of the bird.

[Urat]

If zatias still reads this thread, a strange thing happened, i used the 80 chocobuck option of 'raising one of the birds stats' since i'm still on str/end plans i used the str one, 2 'days' later, my chocobo's str went up to outstanding while it's end is still impressive (end has been going up before str since it was a chick, taking as many as 4 days to catch up when it was younger) so it would appear that the training sessions do have a pretty good impact on the stats of the bird.

So the effect of the plan isn't instant? I never noticed this, odd.

[Kavik]

Thats not exactly what i meant Urat. Since i only used one of the raise attributes training thingies my bird didn't have high enough str to boost it to the next lvl. But it had enough of an effect to boost it PAST where it's endurance was at and gets it's str up before it's end when it's end was going up much faster then it's str. They should be going up about equally now. It took another day of care plans/food/long walks for it's end to catch up to outstanding. So it did take effect immediatly but since the bird wasn't close enough to outstanding for the npc to tell me it was outstanding i had to wait until it had enough 'points' to be outstanding.

[Zatias]

Raising stats also has to do with your chocobo's condition (high spirits, illness, or whatever). This means that stat gain can vary depending on which direct care you did with your chocobo on that day, and depending on your chocobo's "genes"/personality.

You will notice with most birds that eventually 1 stat will pull slightly ahead of the other. For example, one of my birds started with both STR and END at the same level with the care plan Take a Walk in Town, then Carry Packages. STR finally pulled ahead at the Above Average mark, whereas END was still at Average. This was with no chocobuck increases.

What your chocobucks increases did MAY have been the result of the slight differences such as these over time, though it is odd that yours was better on END in the beginning, yet we see the increase of STR here.

Let me ask, what personality type does your bird have? Patient, Aggressive? And was this the Tokens increase or just the Chocobuck Training?

There is much I do not know about chocobo raising; like many of the mechanics in ffxi, there is some randomness that seems to flow throughout. This is interesting that maybe the training can do more or less depending on certain conditions.

[Urat]

Your chocobo's personality is based on their highest stat, nothing more. Their personality changes if you increase a different stat and suddenly change.

When swapping from Discernment training to Strength training after learning abilities, my bird went from patient to aggressive.

Afaik, the strength training is simply stronger than endurance training and has more notable effects.

[Kavik]

My chocobo has a 'patient personality which makes it ideal for carrying goods' as per the NPC's words, out of all 6 of my birds i have never had an aggressive bird, the raising guide on wiki says it is dependant on the highest stat when the choco hits adulthood, since mine was end that makes sense. They have always been easy going, and my chocobo was sick when i had it do the training (chocobuck) so i don't think he was in a very 'positive' or focused mood lol, this bird has needed more medicine then my other ones i swear ><. And i believe this chocobo's end has gone up so quickly because both it's parents were first-class str/end and i used a care plan that said 'increases chances of inheriting the father's traits', father had canter and gallop, chick inherited gallop, there is some speculation that if the chick inherits 'enhanced' str/end/recept/discern that it's stats don't start any higher, they just go up faster, this chick seems to support this idea. All of my chocos (except for the first 2 epic fail birds which i no longer have) have first-class str/end, but the current bird is almost there before day 40, and that's really the fastest one has ever gone up, usually takes me about 46 days.

[Zatias]

Your chocobo's personality is based on their highest stat, nothing more. Their personality changes if you increase a different stat and suddenly change.

When swapping from Discernment training to Strength training after learning abilities, my bird went from patient to aggressive.

Afaik, the strength training is simply stronger than endurance training and has more notable effects.

I don't believe the strength training in itself has any stronger effects on the bird than any other training would have. I just think (see:think) that your chocobo's personality describes which type of care plan/direct care it will enjoy most and (MAYBE) benefit more from.

An aggressive chocobo would certainly enjoy racing/competing and pushing its strength more than an easy-going chocobo XD And a patient chocobo would enjoy tests of its endurance much more than a sensitive bird who enjoys socializing with people and other chocobos.

No facts there, just my thoughts.


there is some speculation that if the chick inherits 'enhanced' str/end/recept/discern that it's stats don't start any higher, they just go up faster, this chick seems to support this idea.

My birds have supported this idea as well, as my two "brainy" birds produced a chick that gained Discernment at a higher rate than Receptivity. If you look at my chart here (http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Zatias/Chocobo_Raising/The_Racer_Strategies) you'll see what I mean XD

[Kavik]

my chick's endurance hit substandard at day 7 i think it was, it was really quick, as of 11:00 am mst on july 13 chocobo day 40, str first-class, end outstanding discern poor recept poor (i haven't started the mental stuff until i get str/end first class, then i'm chocotrain the crap outta it) this leaves me with 80~ days to get the bird up to average or better discernment and what ever i can get it up to on receptivity witch chocbobucks. I forget what i broke the sections down to but i think it was if i leave the bird at just barely SS str/end i can get average discernment and substandar receptivity which seems ideal. Or i can go for SS str/end and then better then average discernment but that leaves no room for recptivity this is according to the chocobo raising guides 'point system', using the lowest values for each stat. We'll just have to see when we get there i suppose. i also don't plan on putting this bird on any intelligence plans for the sake of keeping everything as high as possible, so i will probably be putting a lot of gil into the final push to get at least it's discernment up through chocobucks. I plan to attempt some testing of how much each chocotrain does in regards to lvling the choco's attributes, it'll be interesting at any rate. ^^