This guide is a compilation of things I've learned over the course of researching Chocobos. Many insights were gained through FFXIclopedia, JPWiki, and my own personal experiences. This guide is a work in progress, and should be treated as such. I will do my best to update the sections regularly.
Since this guide is a remake, you may view the old thread
here.
Last Major Update: 8/24/2012
Last Minor Update: 7/22/2025
There’s a lot of new discoveries and I haven’t learned it all yet. Also all of the images I posted in the before times are broken, and probably not worth replacing because they’ll just break again in another 10 years. I’ll try to think of an alternative.
What kind of Chocobo?
Before you continue reading this guide, you must ask yourself what kind of chocobo do you want?
Racer
A Racing Chocobo is what's going to net you the coveted
chocobo pullus torque and
Crystal Stakes gold cup. It also has the potential to earn you ~100k a day, and more if you place successful bets on your bird. However, I must warn you that these chocobos are very expensive to raise properly, and require a lot of care.
Digger
These chocobos are adept at
finding things in the ground all over Vana'diel. It's classified as a craft, and as thus must be treated as such. It will cost a decent chunk of gil to raise your digging skill to max level, and there's a cap to how much you can dig per RL day(and how much you can dig in an area per game day) making the process very tedious. You can have the greatest digger in the world, but if you don't have the digging skill to back it up, you're not going to get very far.
Summonable Mount
These chocobos sole purpose in life is to make it easier for you to get around. Because they don't require much in the way of expenses, they're very easy to raise. Note that you can use any of the aforementioned chocobos as a suitable mount, but their top speed and riding duration depends on STR and END stats, and the abilities Gallop and Canter. Keep in mind your chocobo will only be as fast as a rental, unfortunately, never faster.
Breeder
These chocobos are created with the intent to have parents to create a whole generation of chocobos. They will be the color you desire, and have very high receptivity to pass on the traits you wish for your future chocobos. I find these useful only if you're having a hard time finding people on your server with C+ Receptivity, with the Color/Abilities you wish your future chocobos to possess.
