Chocobo (Final Fantasy VII)



Chocobos are a form of transportation, entertainment, and an important gameplay element in Final Fantasy VII. They can be raised and bred at the Chocobo Farm, used to travel to locations otherwise inaccessible, and can be raced at the Gold Saucer. When riding a chocobo, the player encounters no enemies. The player can capture a chocobo near the farm to cross a swamp due to it being fast enough to evade a giant snake in the area.

Unlike later games, the chocobo cry in Final Fantasy VII is "Wark." not "Kweh."

Breeds
There are several different Chocobo breeds, many of which can be attained by the player through breeding, others which can only be seen in races. Chocobos can be one of the breeds and male or female.

Yellow
All wild chocobos are yellow. They are the most common breed and have no special abilities other than being a faster alternative to traveling by foot on the World Map. Yellow chocobos cannot travel through water, high mountains or ocean. "Good," "Great" and "Wonderful" chocobos are required to breed chocobos of different colors. The standard chocobo Cloud is given in Gold Saucer in his first chocobo race is yellow.

Blue and Green


Blue chocobos, also called river chocobos, can run over rivers and shallow water, but not deep ocean or mountains. Green chocobos, also known as mountain chocobos, can cross mountains and cliffs but cannot enter water. Both types are born from great and good chocobos using a Carob Nut. The player can breed two great chocobos, two good chocobos, or breed the great and the good chocobos with each other.

Great chocobos can be found by Mideel (those accompanied by one or two Spirals) or Rocket Town (those not accompanied by Velcher Tasks), and good ones by the Gold Saucer (those accompanied by two Spencers).

The player can mate either two great chocobos, two good chocobos, or use a mix. Once one colored chocobo of either blue or green has been born, the player can mate the colored chocobo with its parent for a chance to get either green, blue, or yellow chocobo. The player can try and breed the chocobos, and if they get an undesirable result, reset the game and try again. Due to the game's random number calculation, one will receive the same color/gender combination after every "hard reset" (switching the console off and on) and reload directly outside of the farm. A simple way to bypass this is to feed a random green to a random chocobo after the reload forcing the next random number being calculated, and one receives the next color/gender combination.

It is typically advisable to get two sets of parents so that once one of the two special chocobos is born, the player can save and keep trying with the second set of parents until they get the complementary chocobo. Otherwise the player has to wait until the parents of the first are ready to breed again. Chocobos that have advanced in ranks in the Gold Saucer races have a much better chance of producing colored offspring than if the chocobos haven't been raced at all.

In the Gold Saucer races, a programming error reverses the abilities of these colored chocobos. Green chocobos are unaffected in the space section of the short course as well as the water section of the long course, while blue chocobos climb hilly terrain easier. This can be seen easiest in the short course; given the same or comparable top speed, the blue chocobo will conquer the rising spiral at the beginning far more handily than a green or yellow chocobo.

Black


Black chocobos (also called mountain-and-river chocobos) are born when blue and green chocobos are bred together with a Carob or Saraha Nut. They inherit all the abilities of their parents. They can travel over both shallow water and high mountains, but cannot cross ocean. They have freedom from being slowed-down in both the undersea and space sections of the chocobo racing track.

Gold


Gold chocobos (also called sea chocobos) are unmatched in the races, naturally coming with impressive stats. A gold chocobo can be born when a black chocobo is bred with a wonderful yellow chocobo, which can be captured near Icicle Inn (accompanied only by one or two Jumpings), with a Zeio Nut. Because they are descended from green, blue, and black chocobos, gold chocobos can travel anywhere around the map: over mountains, through shallow water, and even cross the ocean, thus they are the only means of obtaining the Materia for the ultimate summon Knights of the Round from Round Island.

The player can obtain a gold chocobo from the Kalm Traveler by offering him the Desert Rose key item; however, to get the Desert Rose, the player must have beaten the Ruby Weapon. A gold chocobo obtained this way has poor stats for racing or breeding. If the player's chocobo stables are full when giving up the Desert Rose, the chocobo will wait at Kalm Traveler's house until the player makes room for it.

Obtaining the gold chocobo earns the player an achievement in the PC version re-release of Final Fantasy VII.

Other Breeds
In the chocobo races other breeds of chocobos are seen, including white, pink, red, dark blue, and purple. Though they are of a different color they effectively function as yellow chocobos. There is no way for the player to acquire chocobos of these colors in Final Fantasy VII. A single white chocobo is found in Mideel, and when given Mimett Greens and tickled behind its ears it relinquishes the Contain Materia.

The Fat Chocobo appears as a rare and random outcome of the Choco/Mog summon, and is also a mascot for Gold Saucer. Chocobos made out of snow appear in the snowboarding minigame.

Gold Saucer has staff dressed in chocobo costumes in the venues. Two can be found at the Wonder Square who are intended to appear in different sizes, a regular sized one and an unrealistically small one, yet due to a bug this is not the case in the PlayStation versions and they both appear at regular size. After obtaining the Highwind the larger one disappears and the smaller one comments on being alone. There is also a chocobo painted on the background of the Event Square and a chocobo mascot on the ticket office in Round Square.

Story
AVALANCHE first come into contact with chocobos while in pursuit of Sephiroth. Blocking the path towards the Mythril Mine is Midgar Zolom, an incredibly difficult enemy to defeat. The Chocobo Farm offers an alternate to fighting Midgar Zolom head-on; using a chocobo to cross the swamp and evade it. Later on, chocobos feature once again when AVALANCHE visit the Gold Saucer, and end up thrown down in Corel Prison. In order to be freed from the prison, Mr. Coates tells them they must win a Chocobo race at the Saucer; Cloud Strife alone wins a race for the whole team.

Following the acquisition of the Highwind, AVALANCHE can then choose to raise and breed chocobo at the Farm; as Meteor is falling and the farm has fewer visitors, AVALANCHE may rent as many stables as they please.

Chocobo Breeding
Chocobos can be bred and raised on the Chocobo Farm. They come in various breeds and are either male or female. The chocobo's gender is decided when the captured chocobo is moved into a stable from the yard; the player can save their game and reset and try again if they get an undesired gender.

Wild chocobos can be encountered in special areas on the World Map covered in chocobo tracks. Once captured, chocobos can be kept in stables in the Chocobo Farm; the option to buy stables opens after the party has acquired the Highwind. The stables cost 10,000 gil and six can be bought at once. On the farm the chocobos can be bred to create new breeds or to be used in the chocobo races at Gold Saucer. Several locations and items can only be reached on a chocobo. The player can also board the Highwind while on a chocobo (see also: Vehicles Glitch).

Males and females can be bred together to make stronger chocobos with better stats and sometimes new abilities. To breed a chocobo, Nuts must be used. Most of the Nuts in the game are useless, and the lower grade Nuts have a chance to produce chocobos whose stats are lower than those of its parents. The only Nuts worth using are Carob and Zeio Nuts: The Carob Nut is used to breed the first blue and green chocobos and Zeio Nuts are the best Nuts in the game when it comes to stats. Carob Nuts can be obtained from Vlakoradoses or from Wonder Square for 500 GP, and Zeio Nuts are obtained from Goblins.

The racing class and stats of the chocobo being bred help decide what type of chocobo will be born. Adult chocobos can breed again after 3-10 battles have been fought and newborn chocobos can breed after 3-18 battles; for a battle to count it must be won, fleeing won't count. The higher the class, and the greater the stats, the more likely a strong chocobo will be born. Special-colored chocobos are needed to find the treasures in the secret Materia Caves. There are five colors of chocobos in Final Fantasy VII. To get the ultimate chocobo, a long sidequest of racing and item finding must be undertaken. The Chocobo Sage hints on how to get through the sidequest in his home on the Northern Continent.

While the party can begin breeding chocobos any time after the Highwind is obtained, they won't be able to race in Gold Saucer until Cloud returns. Without promoting chocobo classes via racing, the probability of getting a colored chocobo is only 10%.

Because the game determines on whether or not a chocobo is ready to be bred by the number of battles, when the player reaches a very high number of battles this system glitches. The game can't use a key-number higher than 32767, and so uses numbers from -32768 to 32767; thus if the player fights 32768 battles, the game considers, when it does calculations for chocobos, them have -32768 battles. 32769 battles will be transformed to -32767 battles and so on until 65535 battles will overflow the counter and reset it. When the game considers the player to be at -32768 battles, the baby chocobo would need whopping 32766 battles to mate.

If the player comes near to the amount of battles where the game begins to consider the number as negative, they can find themselves in a situation where they can mate the chocobos over and over again without needing to fight any battles in-between. At 32767 battles the game will calculate the player will need some new battles, but it'll be always higher than 32768 battles (as that is actually -32768), meaning the player doesn't need to fight any battles to mate the chocobos.

Below is how a newborn chocobo's stats are determined when the parents have been mated with a Zeio Nut:

If the player breeds a gold chocobo that would normally have below 5000 maximum Dash, it will get a bonus to its MDash in the following manner:
 * 7/16 chance → MDash = 5000
 * 2/16 chance → MDash = 5100
 * 2/16 chance → MDash = 5200
 * 1/16 chance → MDash = 5300
 * 1/16 chance → MDash = 5400
 * 2/16 chance → MDash = 5500
 * 1/16 chance → MDash = 5950

These values will get increased/decreased by a number between 0 and 25.

Through breeding, the player can gain access to each of the chocobo breeds, beginning with the blue/green chocobos, and finishing with the Gold Chocobo. This is needed in order to access the Materia Caves.

Chocobo Tracks
Around the world there are chocobo tracks where wild chocobos may appear in random battles. They only appear when the Chocobo Lure Independent Materia is equipped. The Materia can be bought at the Chocobo Farm on disc 1, or found lying around the farm later in the game. The maximum Chocobo Lure rating is 32. Level 1 Chocobo Lure adds +8, Level 2 adds +12 and Level 3 and Master add +16. The effect stacks to the maximum of 32 by equipping multiple Chocobo Lure Materia. Different tracks have different chances of attracting chocobos, the track near the farm being the easiest.

With a Level 1 Chocobo Lure Materia the player has 75% chance to enter a chocobo battle on the tracks near Chocobo Farm, 50% chance on the tracks in Junon Area, and 25% everywhere else. With a Level 3 and mastered Chocobo Lure Materia the chance to encounter a chocobo in a battle on the tracks near Chocobo Farm and in Junon Area is 100%, and 50% everywhere else. With two Level 3 or higher Chocobo Lure Materia equipped, the player will always encounter chocobos on all the tracks.

Along with the chocobo are several enemies. The enemies must be beaten without scaring the chocobo away to capture it. To do this, the chocobo must be pacified with Greens, otherwise it will run away. Attacking it will cause the chocobo to attack the party with weak pecks or the Enemy Skill Chocobuckle before retreating. The chocobo cannot be defeated. If all other enemies are defeated, the chocobo is captured.

Greens (see below) can be used to keep the chocobo occupied for a number of turns and to reduce the chance of it fleeing. The default chance a chocobo will run is 50%.

Greens
Greens can be given to chocobos in battle to reduce their chances of running away and keep them occupied for a number of turns. When fed to chocobos in the Chocobo Farm stables the greens boost the chocobo's stats making them better racers in Gold Saucer.

Sylkis Greens are twice as good as Reagan Greens and are the best greens to raise Dash, Run, Stam, and Co-Op. Pahsana Greens are the best to raise Int. The only Greens that raise Accel are Mimett Greens, and there's only a 25% chance for an increase. Feeding a chocobo greens can improve its stats, but only to the maximum of the chocobo's potential. The only way to attain higher maximum Run and Dash is by breeding.

Greens can be bought from the Chocobo Farm and from Chocobo Sage.

Stats
Choco Billy at the Chocobo Farm can rate the strength of a captured chocobo for the races. If he does not give a positive adjective in his rating ("Good", "Great", "Wonderful"), the chocobo is not worth the effort of raising.

Below is the strength of the caught chocobo compared to the rating Choco Billy gives it:

A chocobo has several stats, and only some of them are visible to the player. By feeding the chocobo greens its stats will be augmented. Every time the stats are increased, the Final Fantasy VII version of the "Victory Fanfare" plays.

The stats the player can see are speed and stamina.


 * Speed = [Dash/34] (Max = 6000/34 = 176)
 * Stamina = [Stam/10] (Max = 9999/10 = 999)

Newly caught chocobos fall in one of the aforementioned eight categories; these ratings determine the chocobo's stats. It is possible to get fairly good racing chocobos by feeding greens to caught high-rating chocobos, but their stats will never go as high as bred chocobos' stats.

Materia Drops
Chocobos can create and cough up Materia: the Choco/Mog Summon Materia (whose summon features a chocobo and a moogle, or a rare alternate attack with a Fat Chocobo) is obtained from the chocobos at the Chocobo Farm, while the Contain Materia is obtained by giving the white chocobo in Mideel some Mimett Greens, then tickling it behind the ears.

Chocobo Racing


In the Gold Saucer resort chocobos race in the Chocobo Square. The inmates from Corel Prison can escape the jail by winning a chocobo race. Cloud Strife wins his party's freedom this way after being captured while hunting for Sephiroth. He is taught how to race by the racing expert Ester. Cloud is the default party member to take part in the chocobo races, although Tifa and Cid may also volunteer to race when they are in the party.

This is a minigame the player only has to win once in the storyline. The chocobos in the races have two stats: Stamina and Speed. Speed determines how fast they run, and Stamina determines how long they can run at top speed. On the left side of the screen is a red meter that shows how much Stamina the chocobo has left. When the chocobo runs out of Stamina they will slow down to a crawl and are easily overtaken. To restore Stamina, the player can hold down the two right shoulder buttons ( and ) (for the PC version, hold down Page Down and Target), which means one can push the chocobo harder throughout the race. While riding a chocobo two forms of control can be used: Manual and Automatic. Automatic gives complete control to the chocobo, while Manual gives the player control.

For winning a chocobo race the player receives an item which can either be kept or be traded in for GP, the currency of Gold Saucer. There are four classes for the chocobo race: Class C, Class B, Class A and Class S. Each one is more competitive than the last, and requires better and better chocobo to win. To advance to the next class three races in the current class must be won.

A talented jockey named Joe and his black chocobo, Teioh, infrequently appear in Rank B races, occasionally in Rank A, and frequently in Rank S. He is more of a challenge than the other racers because Teioh always has 25% higher Stamina and 10% higher Speed than the player's chocobo.

Winning ten times in a row will prompt the message "This is the winningest jockey in S rank ever since Joe" from Ester, and the player is rewarded with a prize package of items won from the races.

Materia Caves
In order to access the Materia Caves, which contain the Mime Materia, Quadra Magic Materia, and Knights of the Round Materia, the player needs to gain chocobos that can access each. This can be done one of two ways, either breeding chocobos to gain access to each of the chocobo breeds which can access the Materia Caves, or by defeating Ruby Weapon to immediately gain access to a Gold Chocobo when presented to the Kalm Traveler.

RNG Manipulation Strategy
There is a way to breed a gold chocobo without needing to race at Gold Saucer. This means the earliest the player can get the gold chocobo is after obtaining the Highwind, before even reuniting with Cloud. With the right chocobos being bred there is always a small chance the player will get the desired chocobo, but it relies on the game's random number generator. Random number generation progresses in a predictable way, and therefore it is possible for the player to manipulate this to get a gold chocobo fairly quickly (under an hour). It relies on resetting the game to reset the random number generation, minimizing the tasks that generate new numbers (such as when traveling on the World Map), and orchestrating tasks that generate new numbers in a predictable way to ensure getting the correct color and gender.

The party needs 70 Krakka Greens and 1 Saraha Nut (can be bought from the farm), 2 Carob Nuts (stolen from Vlakorados) and 1 Zeio Nut (obtained from Goblins), and to buy 6 stables at Chocobo Farm. After catching a "wonderful chocobo" from Icicle Area (appears with one or two Jumpings) and a "great chocobo" from Mideel Area (appears with one or two Spirals), the player must send them to the stables. The player should save their game next to Chocobo Farm and hard reset the game (not using soft reset).

After reloading the game the player must immediately enter the Chocobo Farm, run in to talk to Choco Billy and ask to move chocobos. The player should move the "great chocobo" into the stable. If done correctly, the chocobo will be female. The player should immediately move the "wonderful chocobo" into the stable as well, and it should be male. If the chocobo genders were not correct, the player must reload their game and try do the sequence faster; the aim is to move in immediately as the game loads. After getting the correct chocobo genders the player must head outside to save and hard reset again.

Upon reloading the game the player must rush back in and feed one Krakka Green to any chocobo, then immediately mate the "wonderful" and "great" chocobos with a Carob Nut while selecting the female first. The result should be a blue female. Next the player must head onto the world map and fight six random battles, then save next to the farm and hard reset. When the game reloads the player must rush inside and talk to Choco Billy. The player must now feed 50 Krakka Greens to a chocobo, then mate the "wonderful" and "great" chocobos again using a Carob Nut while choosing the female first. The result will be a green male. The player must now head onto the world map to fight eight random battles, then save next to the farm again and hard reset the game.

After speeding in and speaking to Billy the player must feed 5 Krakka Greens to any chocobo, then mate the blue and green chocobos with a Saraha Nut while choosing the blue one first. The result is a black female. The player should fight three random battles on the world map, save next to the farm and hard reset. If the three battles were not enough to make the black chocobo ready to mate, the player should fight further seven battles and this should do it. As the game loads the player must run inside and talk to Billy and feed six Krakka Greens to a chocobo, then mate the black female with the "wonderful" male with a Zeio Nut choosing the black one first to breed a gold female chocobo.

Musical Themes
There are five themes associated with chocobos. "Electric de Chocobo" is a version of the "Chocobo Theme" that plays during random battles when chocobos appear. "Waltz de Chocobo" plays during the dance the chocobos in front of the Chocobo Farm perform before they give the Choco/Mog Materia. When the chocobo is ridden on the World Map, "Cinco de Chocobo" plays.

"Racing Chocobos - Place Your Bets" plays during the menu screen just before the chocobo race, while "Fiddle de Chocobo" plays during the actual race. Two variations of the classic victory fanfare play after the player has finished a race: "A Great Success" or "Tango of Tears," depending on whether the player wins or loses the race.

Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children
Though no live chocobos appear, chocobo-related items are scattered around the world.

Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII-
Zack Fair can get a chocobo in his Digital Mind Wave by finding a treasure in Mission 8-4-1. When summoned, the chocobo and Zack perform Chocobo Stomp together. Though the Chocobo Farm appears as background to some missions, no chocobos are seen on its premises.

Final Fantasy Trading Card Game
Final Fantasy VII chocobo's card appears in Final Fantasy Trading Card Game.

Trivia

 * The chocobo breeding tutorial in Final Fantasy VII is incomplete compared to the original Japanese version. For example, Choco Billy will only mention the necessity of Nuts if the player picks the "Mating Chocobos" option while not having any Nuts in the inventory. In the Japanese version Choco Billy also explains newborn chocobos and chocobos caught from the wild start on rank C but can improve their rank by racing. Players of the English version had to discover this game mechanic by themselves.
 * Unused text from the game data indicates that Choco Billy was originally intended to judge newborn chocobos' stats. In the final game, only Chole judges the chocobos' stats when asked.
 * The only Nut that will never produce a gold chocobo offspring is the Carob Nut. Even when breeding two gold chocobos with a Carob Nut the resulting offspring will never be golden.