Chocobos

In Final Fantasy VII the creature known as a "Chocobo" is a very importany animal and vital to the completion of the game. Below is a guide for capturing, racing and breeding chocobos.



First Principles
You will need to be laborious when it comes to capturing, racing and breeding chocobos. You are also going to need alot of Gil to buy food.

Catching Chocobos
On the first disk you don't need to worry about breeding or racing. You only need to catch one chocobo in order to cross the swamp with the Midgar Zolom running into you.
This is where you will first have to catch one. Enter the farm and go into the barn. Talk to the child. Hopefully you will have 2000 Gil spare to buy "Chocobo Lure" materia. Buy some food as well. Mimett if you can. Now exit the farm. Attach the materia to someone in your party and walk around on the dark green area. It might be an idea to place the food at the top of your item list for quick use.
The first thing you should notice when you battle a chocobo is that the music is different. Sometimes there are some other enemies with it. Either way the first chance you get give it some food. With the chocobo eating have the other two members of your party attack the enemies. Do not use any magic-all because if the chocobo is hit at all it will run away. It is also important to feed the chocobo the second it has stopped eating. If it has no food it will run away. Once you have killed the monsters around it the chocobo is yours.
Now if you are on disk 1 and you get off the chocobo it will run away. If you are on disk 2 or 3 and havn't been the chocobo farm the same thing will happen. If you have been to the farm you will get the option of keeping your chocobo at the farm.

Breeding Chocobos
Here is the basic jist of things. You capture a male and female chocobo. Feed them good foods to make them strong. Race them at the Gold Saucer race track to raise their racing level. When they are at their best you can then give them a nut that will allow them to have a baby. It is then possible to get a different type of chocobo. With these you can explore the entire world map.

Stables
On disk 2 go to the chocobo farm. Go into the house and talk the the old man. He will offer you stables for 10,000 Gil each. They are permanent but you can only have a maximum of 6.

Types of Chocobo
There are many types of chocobos, but at we are interested in two at the moment. One is a "good" chocobo, the other a "great" chocobo. You will find good chocobos south of the gold saucer. You will see some chocobo tracks. As usual feed the chocobo and defeat the enemies. Capture as many as you can and then go back to the farm. Go to the barn and talk to "Choco Billy" who will inform you if the chocobos you captured are good. You want to keep one "good" male and one "good" female.
Something i have learn't is that if you save the game before entering the farm you can save yourself some hassle if for some reason you only get females or males.
After this you will need a "great" chocobo. These can be found near Mideel. Run around until you encounter one. Be fast to feed this chocobo because they run off very quickly. Defeat the enemies and go back to the barn. Once again go to Billy and select one "great" male and one "great" female.
Now you need a nut to breed with. These can be found on one of the islands south of Bone Village. There you will fight a monster called Vladorakos. One of your party members should have �Steal� or �Mug� equipped. When you get a chance steal a Carob Nut from it. Get as about four.
Go to the farm again. Before entering save your game. Talk to billy again and choose the mating option and select Carob Nut.



Mountain/Green Chocobos
These chocobos are the result of mating a "good" male Chocobo with a "great" female. These chocobos allow you to cross mountains.



River/Blue Chocobos
These chocobos are the result of mating a "good" female Chocobo with a "great" male. These chocobos allow you to run on rivers.



Black Chocobo
The good thing about a black chocobo is that it can cross both mountains and rivers. You will need a female and male chocobo that blue and green. First you need to go to the Chocobo Sage�s house, located North of the Ancient City. Here you can buy some Sylkis greens as well as getting an enemy skill materia from the green chocobo. Once you have done that give those greens to you blue and green chocobos. Next go to the gold saucer race track where you will see Ester. She will ask you if you want her to be your manager. Say yes and start racing. Get both your green and blue chocobos up to rank A. Once that is done go back to the farm. Save before entering and breed a green and blue chocobo together with a Carob Nut. You should then have a black chocobo.



Gold Chocobo
A gold chocobo has the abilities of a black chocobo but can also cross the ocean allowing you full access to the world map. You will now have to go west of Icicle Village. Here you will find "Wonderful" chocobos. Capture 2 and then head back to the farm. Save before entering and then talk to choco billy. Make sure that the "Wonderful" chocobo is the opposite sex to your black chocobo.
Go to the Chocobo Sage and buy some Sylkis greens. You will need them to train up your Black and "Wonderful" Chocobos. Leave the sages house and head east to Goblin Island, the island with a forest on, and battle some Goblins in the forest. Using "Steal" or "Mug" get two Zeio Nuts from some goblins. After that return to the farm and save before entering.
Give both the black and "Wonderful" chocobo equal amounts of greens. After that start racing them at the gold saucer. Get the pair of them up to S class. Once you have done this go back to the farm. Save before entering. Talk to choco Billy. Breed the black and "Wonderful" chocobo using a Zeio Nut. You should now have a Gold chocobo.




Racing Chocobos
Racing at the gold saucer is fun but difficult. You will be riding against 5 other opponents on either a short or long course. Short course are about speed which long course are about stamina. The top speed for any chocobo is 187kph and you can have 999 stamina. Speed, Intelligence and stamina can be increased by using greens on your Chocobos. Intelligence is important as it allows you to control your chocobo more and handle it better in a race.
When racing you should see a stamina bar at the bottom of the screen. When that runs out your chocobo will start walking slowly because it is worn out. Move your chocobo with the left and right controls and make it sprint by pressing O. If you press the square button this will increase the speed which the chocobo jogs at. The stamina bar will decrease but not as fast as sprinting will. The X button slows down the chocobos jogging speed, allowing you to save some stamina. You may have noticed the red box at the bottom of the screen which says automatic. If you press the select button the chocobo will control itself. Press the select button again and you will have control.
You first start in the C class. To go to B class you have to win three races. After winning three, they don't have to be consecutive, you will be in B class. Once again win another three races and you will be in A class. At this point you will need to have a black chocobo because the opponents are about to get harder. Once you are S class you can start to get some rare gifts from Ester. Win 20 races and start talking to her and she will give you some nice gifts.
There is one person you will need to watch out for when you get passed C class. A man called Joe that rides a black chocobo. He will normally have higer stats then you which makes the race much harder to win. A good tip is to hold down R1 and R2, this will replenish your stamina.



Extra Information
To the east of Mideel are alot of islands that eventually come to a point. Ride there and enter the cave. Press the action button and you shold get some materia. Now go to the center of the western continent and go east. You should see a cave. Inside is the "Mime" materia. Next go north of North Corel. You should see another cave enterance. Go inside and you will get HP<>MP materia. You will need your gold chocobo next to cross the ocean to the far North East of the map. Here you will find a small island called the "Round Island" with a cave enterance. Inside is Knights of the Round, the most powerful summon you can get. If you missed getting Alexander on disk 2 you can still get it in disk 3. Ride around the Icicle Village and across the snow until you see a little barrier of snow. Get off the Chocobo and walk into it. You should now have Alexander.
One final thing to do. Go see the chocobo Sage. Keep talking to him until he stops say "can't remember for the life of me". Once thats done go to the farm and talk to Choco Cole. He will ask if you have talked to the Sage. Say you have and now Cole should tell you which of your chocbos is the fastest, most intelligent and has the best stamina.