r300 best Chocobo builds

Hey all, looking for some of the experienced racers to give their insight on builds that have worked for them at the r300 level with a 20/20 bird. I'm prepping my final bird and I'd like to come up with what is potentially the best ability/stat setup.

Kaeko Leta of Excalibur posted a video of him dominating post-nerf with Head Start and Choco Dash III. From that video, I gathered that being out in front is way too powerful and so the optimal build would operate around that.

I didn't find his build perfect. I think Cure III is superior to Dash III when used as part of this strategy. Restores more stamina and counteracts meteors more effectively.

However, I'm most curious about the use of Head Start. Yeah, head start puts you out in front, but I'm thinking perhaps Dash III would work the same way if used at the beginning? The advantage would be that there is a stamina savings when compared to Head Start, but I have no experience with a maxed out g9 choco to be sure that it's mechanically the same.

So can anyone give insight as to how Dash III compares with Head Start when facing NPCs with Head Start like Star Breaker?

Outside of this particular strategy, what other builds have people found great success with?

Head Start is subar at the moment. Yes sure, if you run a head start + choco dash III build and you start getting stamina tablets and choco cures like a pig, then it's a guaranteed win, but if that doesn't happen you are screwed.
At the moment the most optimal and reliable builds would be (in my opinion) something along the lines:

Increased Stamina III + Choco Cure III or Increased Stamina III + Choco Dash III or...

Choco Ease III + Choco Cure III or even Increased Stamina III + Choco Ease III.

All the above are far far far more reliable and safe than a Head Start + Choco Dash III combo. The problem about choco dash + head start is that you massively rely on the RNG, and while you always depend on the RNG no matter what build you run, it isn't as drastic.

How are your starts without Dash or Head Start? Do you require a lot of points stacked in acceleration as a result?

The last thing I want to do is grind out the races in the middle of the pack, where you're susceptible to briars and getting items dumped on you from a lot of different racers, instead of just the 2nd place guy.

I can't answer that, but pretty sure a Max speed of 500 and a good Acceleration (I'd say over 400) are enough to put you out of the "lolbriar zone" reliably fast.

I've also heard really good things about Level Head V, to resist the VERY potent high-end frenzy attacks, which can screw your chances.

The main issue that appears to be a bug right now with Dash III is that at r300 races, if you are already capping max speed, the ability won't go beyond 500 for max speed, so you get a net zero result.

Which is compelling a number of breeders to discard dash III once they hit pedigree 9.

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Originally Posted by Duuude007

I've also heard really good things about Level Head V, to resist the VERY potent high-end frenzy attacks, which can screw your chances.

The main issue that appears to be a bug right now with Dash III is that at r300 races, if you are already capping max speed, the ability won't go beyond 500 for max speed, so you get a net zero result.

Which is compelling a number of breeders to discard dash III once they hit pedigree 9.

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It's not entirely useless though, as your chocobo stamina stops draining for a few seconds, so it acts like a minichococure and can easily replace head start too at the beginning. I'd say the skill is fine, just not top tier at the moment (in R300, in low R brackets it's op as hell xD).

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Originally Posted by Duuude007

The main issue that appears to be a bug right now with Dash III

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Nice to know the conversation we had went completely over your head. Now please keep this garbage out of the thread, it's totally off topic.

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Originally Posted by thendcomes

Nice to know the conversation we had went completely over your head. Now please keep this garbage out of the thread, it's totally off topic.

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Keeping it classy, I see. It is still relevant to your OP theme- what builds work in rank 300, and what continues to have issues.

Tell me, when is it ever just OK for something to be useful for one group of people, but simultaneously pathetic for another group, when other abilities continue to scale properly beyond the known caps.

....Unless it was your intent to hide this detail, by creating another topic which covers the same stuff... minus known issues we have identified... Though your motive for this ruse is indeed 'over my head'.

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Originally Posted by thendcomes

Nice to know the conversation we had went completely over your head. Now please keep this garbage out of the thread, it's totally off topic.

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That was unnecessarily harsh. You posted a video about a guy dominating with choco dash III, Duuude007 just gave his opinion about why he thinks choco dash III is underwhelming at the moment. In any case I do agree with him about being better skills. I'd say both choco dash III and head start are not top tier anymore.

I don't care about his personal agenda to "fix" a "bugged" skill that's not bugged. It's totally off topic. I'm looking for best builds not discussion on what skills need improving. I don't think I'm gonna get it here though.

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Originally Posted by thendcomes

I don't care about his personal agenda to "fix" a "bugged" skill that's not bugged. It's totally off topic. I'm looking for best builds not discussion on what skills need improving. I don't think I'm gonna get it here though.

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No, it's now clear that you're not looking for best builds. If you were you wouldn't be whining about it when somebody points out that the possible "best" you suggested and asked about has major problems. You're the one who brought it up. You're the one who asked people about it. Don't complain when people answer your questions. You can agree with people or not, but quit being so rude about it.

You can sum up the optimal way to play an R300 race in 2 ways:

(1) Get out in front and dictate chests.
(2) The vast majority of losses are due to meteor.


The Head Start / Dash III combo that I use pretty much wins unless a meteor is involved. Though Dash III is less useful at R300 (since your max speed is the dash speed), it does have a very nice perk in that after being meteored, Dash gives you 3 seconds of stamina-free max speed, an instant acceleration from base to max speed, and in the scenario of being out of stamina after being meteor'd, gives you the extra distance as you decelerate after your 3 seconds of max speed. If you watch some of the races in the video, I'm usually out of stamina around 80% of the race and simply dash after meteor. The 3 seconds of max speed and the subsequent distance covered as I decelerate usually gets me across the finish line. Cure III would not allow you to do this. After a meteor hit, you would get more stamina than Dash, but would have to take time to accelerate. So basically Cure III I think is more useful in the setting of say getting frenzied or trying to ration stamina; however, in the chaotic situation of post-meteor, Dash is superior imo.

Another thing you can consider is Esuna III. You can actually ignore meteor all-together by timing Esuna as the meteor is falling over your head. It takes some practice with timing but is reproducible. If you actually pay full attention for all your races, you can win quite a few by just timing Esuna and negating all meteor effects. Something to consider.

Ultimately I'm not that sure if Head Start / Dash III is the best or not. All I can say is that post-changes, this combo wins reliably somewhere between 90% and 95% versus NPCs on Costa Del Sol (the one I used to farm a lot). I'm sure it would do a lot worse on Tranquil as it is a longer race. I will say that there is a common argument that this build is RNG-dependent in terms of stamina - I think this doesn't necessarily hold up unless you're running Tranquil. You basically end up in a situation where you will finish w/o issue unless you get frenzied. If you get frenzied you will fall short, but will almost always win if you save up dash at the end. Being double frenzied without meteor is usually still fine. Being out in front allows you to try to limit the # of bad effects on you so actually being double frenzied is rather rare. The build is RNG-reliant in that I cannot survive more than 1 meteor usually. But most builds cannot. I've never personally seen a build in practice more successful than the one I use but then again, chocobo racing is not that popular.

Thanks Kaeko. That was all really useful. The Esuna trick is especially awesome, I had no idea about that!

Fundamentally speaking, your chocobo is built to avoid the need for acceleration. You're able to skip it completely while training, and you use your abilities to compensate. You've already proven this is a great build.

Since you're the only example I've found, I was hoping for some other build that could be as effective, or maybe even more. That could be tweaks to your build or a brand new one. Since I haven't gotten any feedback, I'm doing some science myself. I'm building my current g9 with max Acceleration and no extra Endurance, since I'm not sold on the use for Endurance when you're pressing forward the entire race (at least in Sagolii/Costa). I'll see if I can get consistent results with Cure III + X. I'm not sure what the 2nd ability will be, but I'm leaning towards Speedy Recovery III if I need Stam or (now) Esuna if I don't.

The reason I think Cure is better than Dash -- Dash nets you 3 seconds of stamina savings, which is less stamina gain than Cure. In the case of no meteor, this just means that you're sprinting for longer, which nets you a faster time. In the case of meteor hitting you to 0, you get more mileage out of 12% stamina than 3 seconds of max speed, better when you have more than 3-5 seconds of track left.

Edit: Changed Increased Stamina to Speedy Recovery. Also, I forgot about another benefit to Cure over Dash -- if you come across a Hero Tonic or Stamina Tablet at 0 stamina, you can actually make use of them, whereas with Dash you can't.

Jubs finds Head Start to be subpar post-2.55 era. You start lathered and are instantly draining STA at a higher clip than pre-2.55. Toss in Frenzy/heavy frequency being up'd + their buffs + lowered ratio of tabs/potions... Head Start hurts. This is compounded when you starting the race in unfavorable weather condition.

Dash III/II... great to rank up with. Recommend it class 60-220. Subpar compared to other abilities in 300, imo.

Currently running Level Head V, frenzy immunity is lovely... Don't need Cure to fix Frenzy STA dmg. And Choco Ease III, heavy removal + cure. Even if you don't get hit with heavy, but need some extra sta.. run over a purple pad. You can't do this with Calm... so jubs doesn't recommend reverse of Heavy Resist V + Choco Calm III.

Okay, so I raced a lot over the past 24 hours. I tested a lot of different skills at the r300 level while leveling, and I continued to test even with mostly maxed out stats. The following pertains solely to racing and beating NPCs on Sagolii and Costa -- Tranquil would need a totally different strategy. Obligatory apologies for the long post, but I have a lot of good stuff to share.


If I could go off topic for a second, it's really frustrating how limited you are for testing.

A) You really need super high stats which requires grade 3 food, making a test chocobo a really expensive guinea pig.
B) You pretty much need maxed out stats for real testing. The difference between 495 and 500 of a stat is comparable to the difference between 400 and 495. The game awards you a hefty bonus for hitting the cap.
C) You can only test skills with what RNG gives you, and you only have a handful of races with that skill before you must drop it to test a new skill.

Anyway I could make a super long post about all the issues I found while racing and testing this bird but I'll leave it at that. Now for the actual results.

I cannot stress enough that Head Start is the best ability in the game. Yes, I'm saying to ignore the 2 previous posters that said otherwise. No other ability gives you anywhere near the amount of tangible and intangible benefits, and the downside is truly negligible at r300.

1. Shaves many seconds off your run. In many ways, the r300 races are like time trials. When you're up against Star Breaker and, to a lesser extent, Teioh, the speed at which you finish directly impacts your ability to win consistently. No other item does this, not even Choco Dash III.
2. Puts you safely ahead of everyone, except Star Breaker but you even pass her after a few seconds. You don't have to worry about Choco Shock or Silence out of the gate, or getting hit with Briars when you reach the first treasure chest.
3. The safety cushion provided by Head Start also means you can be hit with a Graviball and you won't be susceptible to someone catching up to you with Briar/Silence/Shock.
4. When you're in clear first, the only person that can hit you with items is the second place guy, and most often there is one clear cut second place guy. In 2nd through 7th place, you are susceptible to many different riders dumping items on you as they jockey for position. It's totally not uncommon for the following to happen: You're coasting in 2nd place and pass a treasure chest. The 3rd place guy graviballs you and passes you, the next place guy graviballs you and passes you, and the next place guy hits you with frenzy.
5. Allows you to skip dangerous obstacles. Many of the various obstacles on the course just stop working if you hit them early enough. The apkallus charging in Costa, the Peistes breathing in Sagolii, etc. All of these are extremely dangerous because they crush your momentum and force you to have to accelerate again.
6. Being first allows you to dictate chests. No other position gives you so much control over the rest of the race. Yes, sometimes the box up ahead will have 2 of the same item inside, but in these cases you can just skip it entirely if you want to cut down on the chance for a meteor to show up.

Head Start saves the most stamina (indirectly), shaves the most time, and gives you the most control over the race itself and RNG, all in one ability. What are the cons for such an amazing skill? You start out lathered.... and that's it! This is so unbelievably inconsequential. The entire race on Sagolli and Costa you will be lathered. You DO NOT have the luxury to slow down and coast below lathered, because the NPCs will simply catch up and pass you. Thankfully, with the use of a second skill to help your stamina, only in rare cases of 3+ frenzy or frenzy + meteor(s) will you not have enough gas to finish in clear first.

By the way, 500 acceleration does nowhere near enough what I think it should. With 500 acceleration and speed, you'd think that you'd be ahead of all but the Head Starters and Dashers out of the gate, but that's just not true. I found it incredibly inconsistent. Sometimes you'd end up ahead of the pack, but most times you'd end up somewhere in the middle. I could not find a pattern to any of it. It seemed like it was just the laggy racing interface at work most of the time. Additionally, for Sagolii, if you had a bad pole position on the far left or right, you basically had no chance to make it out in front.

Continuing that thought, Choco Dash III is not a replacement for Head Start either. I would mash that button out of the gate and still be swallowed up by people in front of me oftentimes. A little less inconsistent than just relying on pure Acceleration, but still very disappointing. If I pressed left or right a lot, I'd be able to free myself and shoot up in front, but Star Breaker would be far ahead, and you'd only sometimes be tied with the other Dashers.


As for a second skill, here is the only place you have for wiggle room. There are pros and cons to all of them.

Passive vs. Active - Since you want Head Start, I believe there's too much value to lose by using a passive for the 2nd option, basically adding a dead Aether draw from the treasure boxes. That being said, it's common to never come across an aether either, so I don't think it's necessarily wrong.

For passives, Increased Stamina III impressed me tremendously. I'm not sure how it would interact with Head Start, but based on the tooltip there is anti-synergy there so I'm not sure that would work, I wasn't able to test both in conjunction. Level Head and Heavy Resistance are good because you have much better chances of getting good treasure draws, since you can always rely on being able to pass graviball or water to the 2nd place guy. Speedy Recovery is a bit too inconsistent without Cure/Ease/Calm since it relies on actually drawing stamina abilities.

I personally believe that Choco Cure III is the best compliment for Head Start. It's a powerful catch all that restores more stamina than Ease and Calm and can be used on demand to counter Meteor. I stated above other reasons why I think it's so strong. I was not able to play with Esuna, but I don't think Head Start + Esuna is enough to get you consistently across the finish line. Honorable mention for Dash 3 for playing a similar role to Cure but being worse in most cases. A really nice benefit of Dash III however is that you can use it to avoid the stamina penalty from meteor, which Cure can't do.

I'm still only grade2 with my chocobo, since I'm having to spend a lot of time farming for my relic. But I'll definitely keep these comments in mind when I start planning out my gr9 choco.

im in love with increased stamina III and got it on both of my retired chocobos that i use for breeding, so im not gonna change that again. After reading your post about Head Start im thinking about going with two passives... You talk about anti-synergy probably because Inc Stam III says it reduces stamina depletion during "acceleration", however, it also works when you are sprinting at max speed so its basically a 15% stamina cost reduction.
So with 2 passives i would not be able to make use of Aethers, but like you said, i dont get them too often anyway and its also one of the items that you can leave for the npc behind you without having to worry (unless he has the chocobo steal ability).
Im just not sure, is Head Start really that much faster than using DashIII at start? With Dash i could make use of Aethers again and having a second Dash for when things go wrong is very valuable imo.

I was really impressed with increased stamina, and I wasn't convinced on the tooltip either. The anti-synergy that I mentioned with Head Start could very well be made up. Let us know if you try it with Head Start.

Additionally, when I had increased stamina, it was so strong that it ended up being overkill on a lot of races in Sagolii if I got even one stamina item. Remember that any stamina you have once you cross the finish line is wasted, so I'd be wary about buffing up your stamina too much. Plus, it's not useful for countering meteor, though you may already be at such a stamina surplus that you could shrug it off. Try it out and let us know.


Regarding Dash 3, one of the original questions I had in the OP was exactly that. Won't Dash 3 be just as good if I use it at the start? Well, you'd think so, but it absolutely is not. You get cockblocked (pun intended) right out of the gate and you'll have to wiggle free. When the dust clears, you'll be far behind Star Breaker and even behind the 3 other dashing NPC's if they are in your race. It's just flat out not good enough. I don't think the benefit from making use of Aethers is good enough to outweigh keeping a poor version of head start, but that's hard for me to say for sure. If you try it out, let us know.

After playing with many builds in R300, I'd like to give my opinion and make emphasis in the fact:

1 - Foul chocobos are vastly superior to fair ones (regardless of circuit). If you get a fair chocobo and it has good star rating, either use it as breeding fodder or throw it to the paper bin, but do not attempt racing with it.

2 - 500 endurance and 500 stamina. This is just...so important. The higher these 2 stats are, the better. Both are VERY relevant. If you can get them to 500 then awesome.

3 - 460-500 Max speed is what you want. 460 is the conservative way. You can take 3 bachus wine in a row and still come on top with a stamina surplus. 500 max speed is a bit more greedy, you'll dominate if nothing strange happens, but you can't take extra caltrop ticks, meteors or any bachus wine. I'd say the perfect number is 475-480.

4 - Cunning and acceleration are almost useless, especially cunning, do not bother too much with these (only rise them when others are maxed).

5 - Best passive: Head Start. Unquestionable. Best active: Choco Cure III/Choco Dash III - Both are IMPRESSIVE. Choco Cure III is more conservative, it just gives you a flat amount of stamina. Choco Dash III acts as a mini Choco Cure III in the sense it saves a bit of stamina...but there's something about Choco Dash III people neglect, and it's the fact that it counters heavy VERY HARD. If you are heavied and use Choco Dash III or sprint shoes you are at max speed for almost the entire duration of the 10 second heavy status (bugged imo).

6 - Other decent stuff you can try on your chocobo that could work too: Increased Stamina III (worse than choco cure III for obvious reasons but still ok). Choco Ease III. A good skill, but situational in the sense you won't be able to renew it in certain parts of the circuit with choco aethers. Heavy Resistance V. Very good and very underrated, Head Start + Heavy Resistance V = complete yolo mode (very greedy but if odds favour it's ridiculous).

7 - Useless: the rest of the stuff that hasn't been mentioned (maybe speedy recovery III could get a pass...but meh).

I wud go for head start, choco calm for a speed build or increased stamina, choco ease for a stamina build. U cud also use choco cure instead of the ease and calm abilities. Dash 3 is useless unless ur out of stamina. In terms of stats i havent seen any real benefit to increasing acceleration it just eats stamina so much, put points into cunning if all the others are maxed

Increased Stamina III > Choco Calm in my opinion. The first one will increase your stamina always, the second one, if unlucky, can turn into a complete dead skill. As for Choco Dash III being useless unless you are out of stamina, you are slightly wrong there imo, Choco Dash III saves stamina (not as much as Cure III true, but it's still something, while in sprint status during those 3 seconds, stamina stops draining, so it's like a 3 second stamina tablet). It also counters heavy pretty hard and works very good too against meteors because it puts you at max speed instantly once you leave that annoying lame status. I think you are underestimating all the potential uses this skill brings. I often race with a guy who has a 500 max speed, 500 endurance and 500 stamina chocobo with head start and choco dash III, and he's pure nightmare to win.

I mentioned it earlier in the thread, but you can also use Dash to negate the stamina loss from a meteor hit. In this way it's flexible -- if you're very close to the end and want to burst out of lamed, or if it's midway thru the race and you prefer to save the stamina, you can use it either way.

After racing the past couple weeks on R-300, I wouldn't trade Head Start/Cure III for any combo if was given a choice.

http://i.imgur.com/Wy9exRn.png

Just curious, how much MGP do you get for a first place win at r300?

i'm gunna be honest i didn't read most of this stuff i'm just replying to the first post.

My r300 choco is built like this:
Max Speed : 500
Acceleration : 470
Endurance : 400
Stamina : 475
Cunning : 405

Abilities = Increased Stamina 3 / Cure 3

this build is with consistent wins in mind. yes abilities like head start and choco dash 3 get you to the front at the start and if you can stay there that's all fine and well, but if you run out of stamina you are boned. having increased stamina 3 makes up for my low endurance stat, and having a huge stamina pool with Cure 3 allows me to run start to finish no problems, i can even eat a briar to the face lol. also gotta have max speed at 500 and decent enough accel to hit max, because if you are at 500 speed you are basically dashing start to finish. who needs choco dash 3 when you are running that fast to start with?

When / where do you start getting the level 3 abilities? I'm at 5th generation of breeding and they still only get level 1 abilities and I don't see anything higher than 2 of most abilities in the vendor.?

i would say that the best build would be head start / cure 3 with 500 max speed and 500 stamina, and really high endurance \o/ accel shouldnt be totally neglected as you will still likely need it to recover from a meteor or heavy but since you have head start it would be fine around 400.
i went with stamina 3 so i dumped a lot more into accel than someone with dash or head start would need to, and cut back a lot on endurance.
dash 3 isn't bad by any means, i just think it isn't as good as cure, because stamina trumps all. and head start with the stats to back it up is the best skill imo, because if you can start ahead and stay ahead without bottoming out then you will win most races with little issue
i don't really see the point in maxing both stamina and endurance. even if you have head start you will want some acceleration to make sure if you get lamed/heavied you can recover. stamina is the best \o/ i just think 500 in both is overkill

@ kagato
403 for 1st place r300
and if you use lethe waters right before your choco ranks up you get a new learned ability based on your choco's rating when it ranks up.
i started getting top tier around rank 26 on my 20* pedigree choco, so the rating was around 175-180.

The earliest I ever got a rank 3 ability was at 140 rating, but it's rare. It becomes more and more common up until 240 rating where you stop getting rank 2 abilities.

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Originally Posted by gigumphats

@ kagato
403 for 1st place r300
and if you use lethe waters right before your choco ranks up you get a new learned ability based on your choco's rating when it ranks up.
i started getting top tier around rank 26 on my 20* pedigree choco, so the rating was around 175-180.

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okay so breeding for specific abilities is basically pointless till you get a high level bird, good to know :)