Chocobo Hot and Cold

Chocobo Hot and Cold is Final Fantasy IX 's biggest sidequest. It involves a minigame part and a treasure hunt around the world map.

Chocobo Hot and Cold
To start the sidequest, the player must use Gysahl Greens in an area with Chocobo tracks to call for Choco. They can get a Gysahl Green from the Chocobo's Forest on the Mist Continent. After acquiring Choco the player can ride it into the forest and a Moogle named Mene will allow Zidane to dig in the ground to find items and Chocographs and to earn points the player can spend on various items. It normally costs 60 gil to play the game and the player gets 60 seconds to search; the exception is Chocobo's Lagoon before obtaining the Sea ability when only half of the area is available, and a game will cost 30 gil for 30 seconds of searching.

Choco
Some Chocograph treasures send Choco into Chocobo's Dream World, where Choco can learn a new ability to move on a new kind of terrain. Choco is told that he can go to Chocobo's Paradise if he helps Zidane uncover all the treasures.

Beak Level
Choco can gain beak levels while playing Chocobo Hot and Cold. Higher beak level allows him to dig faster. The formula for the depth that is subtracted is:

Forest: Beak Level + 6

Lagoon: $$\left \lfloor \frac{beak level}{2}\right \rfloor + 3$$

Air Garden: $$\left \lfloor \frac{beak level}{3}\right \rfloor + 3$$

Chocographs


Whenever the player digs up a Chocograph, the player can use it to find treasures on the world map, with the aid of three things: the picture on the Chocograph, the Chocograph's name, and a hint is also given by the Help-Moogle by pressing Select in the menu. The first Chocograph will always be "Streamside" and upon being dug will be called "Stone with Patterns" which prompts Mene will explain what it is. Chocographs become available at different times during the game, and Mene will tell the player when there are no more Chocographs to be found. Certain treasures require certain skills to be obtained, and the player can acquire these skills by finding certain special treasures which will grant Choco abilities to move on different types of terrain.

Sometimes, instead of digging up a Chocograph, Choco digs up a "Chocograph Piece" instead. Chocograph pieces are stones that give the player a hint as to the various places where Chocobo's Air Garden floats on the world map and once the player had collected all the pieces they can be assembled into a Chocograph that grants Choco the ability to fly.

List of Chocographs

 * Streamside - Forest Disc 1. Will always be the first chocograph.
 * Between Mountains - Forest Disc 1
 * Uncultivated Land - Forest Disc 1.
 * Healing Shore - Forest Disc 1
 * Abandoned Beach - Forest Disc 1
 * Cold Field - Forest Disc 1
 * Forgotten Lagoon - Lagoon after party has access to Blue Narciss
 * Faraway Lagoon - Forest Disc 1
 * Abandoned Lagoon - Lagoon after party has access to Blue Narciss
 * Bird's eye lagoon - Forest Disc 1
 * Small Beach - Forest Disc 1
 * Dawn Lagoon - Lagoon after party has access to Blue Narciss
 * Forbidden Forest - Forest Disc 2 after getting Reef Chocobo
 * Green Plains - Forest Disc 2 after getting Mountain Chocobo
 * Dusk Plains - Lagoon after party has access to Blue Narciss
 * Forgotten Plains - Forest after party has access to Blue Narciss
 * Sea At Dusk - Lagoon after getting Sea Chocobo
 * Ocean - Lagoon after getting Sea Chocobo
 * Cold Lagoon - Forest after party has access to Blue Narciss
 * Mist Ocean - Obtained after finding all 6 Chocograph Pieces
 * Outer Island - Aerial Garden
 * Outer Island 2 - Lagoon after getting Sea Chocobo
 * Fairy Island - Aerial Garden
 * Forgotten Island - Aerial Garden

List of Chocograph Pieces

 * Chocograph Piece 1 - Forest Disc 1
 * Chocograph Piece 2 - Forest Disc 2
 * Chocograph Piece 3 - Forest OR Lagoon after party has access to Blue Narciss (note - will only be in one or the other)
 * Chocograph Piece 4 - Lagoon after party has access to Blue Narciss
 * Chocograph Piece 5 - Lagoon after party has Hilda Garde 3 and a Sea Chocobo
 * Chocograph Piece 6 - Lagoon after has Hilda Garde 3 and a Sea Chocobo

Hidden Treasures
There are hidden treasures on the world map that must be found to complete the sidequest. The player has to use Dead Peppers to uncover the treasures found beneath foaming water and in cracked mountain walls. There is also one hidden treasure that only appears after the completing disc 3, which contains Zidane's Ultima Weapon.

Ocean Bubbles
Beneath Quan's Dwelling
 * 9 Ore
 * 15 Topaz
 * 1 Tiger Racket
 * 1 Red Rose Card

The player must enter Quan's Dwelling and jump down from the ledge to find the treasure.

Directly North of Iifa Tree
 * 50 Potion
 * 25 Hi-Potion
 * 9 Ether
 * 7 Elixir

Between Mist Continent and Outer Continent
 * 8 Straw Hat
 * 8 Pearl Armlet
 * 7 Aloha T-shirt
 * 8 Sandals

South Tip of Forgotten Continent
 * 10 Remedy
 * 1 White Robe
 * 1 Genji Gloves
 * 1 Blue Narciss Card

Exact Former Location of Shimmering Island on disk 4 The treasure spot has no bubbles to show its location, but to find the treasure, the player needs to check the larger version of the world map where Shimmering Island is still marked.
 * 10 Aquamarine
 * 1 Ultima Weapon
 * 1 Maximillian
 * 1 Invincible Card

Mountain Cracks
Eastern Part of Lost Continent
 * 41 Lapis Lazuli
 * 1 Rosetta Ring
 * 1 Protect Ring
 * 1 Airship Card

Northeastern Part of Forgotten Continent
 * 19 Eye Drops
 * 1 Madain's Ring
 * 1 Genji Helmet
 * 1 Hilda Garde 1 Card

Near Oeilvert
 * 1 Maiden Prayer
 * 1 Dragon's Hair
 * 1 Gauntlets
 * 1 Odin Card

Hidden Island in the Northwest corner of the Map
 * Entrance to Chocobo's Paradise

Island North of Outer Continent
 * Entrance to Mognet Central

Visiting all the Beaches
After the player has got all the 24 Chocographs, the 5 treasures from cracks, the 4 treasures from bubbles and the Ultima Weapon, the player can talk to Fat Chocobo at Chocobo's Paradise and he will tell Choco to go around all the beaches in the world. There are 8 beaches in the Mist Continent, 5 in Forgotten Continent, 7 in the Outer Continent and 2 in the Lost Continent. The player must press on each beach and at the last beach they get a message. After finding all the beaches, whenever the player presses X on any beach, the party's HP & MP will restored and all abnormal statuses will be healed.

Dead Pepper
After unlocking the second dig spot, Chocobo's Lagoon, the player can obtain Dead Peppers, an exotic pepper that Chocobos are fond of. Dead Peppers have an effect when used on the field: used when Choco is on land, Choco pecks furiously and can uncover hidden caves or treasures from mountain cracks. When used in water, Choco can dive. When used in air, Choco can fly up to Chocobo's Air Garden. Overall there are four cracks and four dive spots to find on the world map. Cracks are signified by prominently dark cracks in mountain sides and dive spots are signified by a cluster of bubbles gathering in the ocean.

Items
The player can dig up other treasures as well as Chocographs which give points used to buy other equipment:

The values change depending on the dig site. The above values are from Chocobo's Forest. Item point values are doubled in Chocobo's Lagoon and tripled in Chocobo's Air Garden. The additional 5 points awarded for Chocographs and Chocograph Pieces are not affected by the multiplier.

Wing Edges, Cachushas, Extensions and Reflect Rings are extremely rare. There are likely other ultra-rare loot items that are not contained in this list, but appear with such low frequency they go undocumented.

Dead Peppers cannot be obtained until the party obtain a mountain Chocobo. Aforementioned rare items such as the Reflect Ring may require story progress or some other unknown means of unlocking before it and other items become available in the game's loot pool.

Extra Points
If the player manages to find four items within the time limit, Mene will reward them with an additional ten seconds on the clock and all subsequent points will be doubled. The exception is Chocobo's Lagoon before the Sea ability is obtained; in that case, the game will end after four items.

A further five points are available for finding an item within 5 seconds of finding the previous one. The bonus may also be subjected to the time and area multipliers.

It is not permitted to find more than eight items (four at the Lagoon before Sea); if the player reaches the quota within the time limit, Mene will complain that the player is driving him out of business and the remaining time will be exchanged for bonus points according to the following formulas.

Forest: $$64 + 16 * {seconds remaining}$$

Lagoon: $$32 + 8 * {seconds remaining}$$

Air Garden: $$200 + 50 * {seconds remaining}$$

(These formulas may vary with Choco color; above values were all determined from a Gold Chocobo.)

As one might imagine, the few remaining Chocographs in the Air Garden can be incorporated into outstanding high scores, topping 1,400 points if items are found in rapid succession with ample time remaining.

How to Spend the Points
Points can be exchanged for items:

Tip

 * During digging, the treasure locations are decided at random after the last treasure was dug. If the player is using an emulator and thus has a way of quicksaving right after the first peck, one can quickload and find the treasure easily within 5 seconds with a few tries.
 * Also, if playing on an emulator, there is a way to cheat at the game: right after the player has control of Choco, they must peck and save the state, then spend their time looking for the treasure. Once found, the player can load state and the treasure will be in the same place.
 * What the treasure is isn't decided until Choco has dug it up. When playing on an emulator, the player can quicksave the game after finding a treasure, dig it up, and if the treasure isn't for their liking, they can quickload and dig again and might find something else this time.

Advanced Tactics
Set of strategies for players who already know how to play Chocobo Hot and Cold, and want to boost their limit bonuses by a second or two every few games.


 * The best place for treasures is in Chocobo's Forest with a level 99 plain or reef chocobo, when the player should be able to get limit bonus in most games (about 65-70%). As the limit bonus in the forest is double that of the lagoon, it makes for the quickest method of accumulating points.
 * Once the mountain chocobo has been obtained it is recommended that to upgrade it to a sea chocobo as fast as possible via the Green Plains chocograph found in Chocobo's Forest. The reason is because when the player gets a mountain chocobo, two new areas are unlocked in the Chocobo's Forest that take 0.8 seconds to climb up to AND to climb down from. If one is digging around their base they can accidentally climb up. Furthermore, one cannot detect items that are at the top from underneath, or vice versa.
 * Once the sea chocobo has been obtained, the lagoon becomes a good source of points as the time limit is extended to the full 60 seconds at only a slight increase in time to search the area, making the lagoon a superior area to the forest. One should get a limit bonus about 85% of the time.
 * Tempting though the 200 points limit bonus may look, the player should NOT switch to the Aerial Garden when the sky chocobo becomes available. The sky chocobo is only useful for getting the three Chocographs located in the Aerial Garden, but it is an inferior location for earning points, as it takes a lot of luck to get limit bonus there - only roughly 2% of games.

Chocobo's Forest

 * The player should start off by stepping slightly forward but not go too far. It increases the area one can detect an item from with their first dig.

Chocobo's Lagoon

 * The player should start off by digging right where they start and if nothing is spotted head into the main area. It is best to bear in mind that it is just about possible for an item to be just outside the area one can detect along the entrance path. However, this is rare enough to make it worth the risk rather than losing a second or two if it isn't there.

Aerial Garden

 * It is best to only travel across if one is certain that the item is not in the island one starts in. One should bear in mind that the path on the second island does branch. It takes 7-8 seconds to travel from one island to the other at max speed.
 * There is never anything hidden in Ozma's corner, so there is no need to waste time searching there. Likewise, it is extremely rare to find anything on the thin bridge between the left and right sides of the front island.

All Areas

 * When searching for hints of an item, one should travel as far as possible without missing it. Digging takes time (about 0.7 seconds), so the player will want to minimise the number of digs to find the right area. The Forest can be covered in 4 digs; the Lagoon in 5 and the Garden in 11 (if one is unlucky) - 5 for the front island and 6 for the back one.
 * If one is forced to backtrack (for example if the last item was in the middle of the lagoon or forest, and one went the wrong way), one should not dig in an area they have already searched. Some players waste around 4-5 seconds doing this.
 * When digging around looking for an item, one should try to dig in a new place every time. IT sounds obvious, but it isn't always easy.
 * If the player is up against the wall in the lagoon or forest, they should take a step out before digging. Otherwise they should dig where they are after finding an item.
 * It is useful to pause briefly on the final message coming up from an item, look at the time and then double tap Square. This technique should save about 0.1 seconds from every item - that's nearly a second for a game where one finds 8 items.
 * One should take full advantage of luck. Most people are so surprised to dig up an item without any hint beforehand they pause for a bit. But one should not do this - dig as fast as possible. There is a good chance to get the 5 second bonus - which pausing may well throw away!