Non-elemental damage on any one opponent
Description
Chocobuckle is an attack spell that deals physical damage in Final Fantasy VII based on how many times the player has fled from battle. It is an enemy skill used by the wild Chocobo that can be learned on the Enemy Skill Materia for the player to use. Learning it is more for completion's sake, as it would take considerable investment to make powerful.
Obtained[]
If learning each enemy skill the earliest they are available, Chocobuckle is the third skill the player could get, learned from the Lv16 Chocobos in the Grasslands Area. However, earning the skill this early takes some time and money (the player will need to buy the most expensive green from the farm) and it is not a skill that is useful in battle unless the player heavily invests in boosting its damage by repeatedly fleeing, which is not advisable to do in a casual playthrough. The Lv36 Chocobo in the Mideel Area is a much more common encounter, and the player will have more funds available at this later point in the game, and so it may be preferable to skip learning Chocobuckle the first instance doing so is possible.
Chocobuckle is learned through enemy Chocobos that appear on the tracks in the vicinity of the Chocobo Farm or Mideel. The player must find a Chocobo whose level is a multiple of 4, such as the level 16 Chocobo found on the footprints near the Chocobo Farm–and give it some Mimett or Sylkis Greens. The character with the Enemy Skill Materia equipped must cast L4 Suicide (can be learned from the Mus in the Grassland Area). After being hit by the spell, the Chocobo will cast Chocobuckle in retaliation and flee. If a party member activates their Cover Materia, neither the target nor the Cover user will learn Chocobuckle despite the text displaying that the skill was learned.
Encountering a Chocobo requires the Chocobo Lure. The player can pick up only two of these at the Chocobo Farm so they can permanently miss Chocobos and the Chocobuckle skill by trashing or selling all their Chocobo Lures.
The Chocobo's level can be determined either by using the Sense command, or by the monsters the Chocobo appears alongside with. The level 16 Chocobos near the farm are invariably encountered with either two Elfadunks or two Levrikons. Chocobos with any other monster combination are level 13. The level 36 Chocobo in Mideel Area appears with a single Spiral.
While all Chocobos have Chocobuckle, their condition to use it is to be hit by an attack that reduces their health by 31/32 of their Max HP or more after eating a Mimett/Sylkis Green, and so the only realistic way to learn Chocobuckle is via L4 Suicide.
Stats[]
| Command Materia | Enemy Skill Materia |
|---|---|
| Effect | Damage equal to the number of times the party has fled from battle on one target. The damage formula was different in the original Japanese version.[note 1] |
| MP cost | 3 |
| Reflect | No |
- ↑ In the Japanese version, the damage was based on the number of battles the party had fled from multiplied by the user's level.
Use[]
Chocobuckle deals non-elemental fixed damage to a single target calculated by the number of battles the party has escaped from, meaning it could potentially deal 9,999 damage for the small cost of 3 MP. However, it would take a long time to power up the spell to this level. The man at old man's house tells the player how many times they have escaped so they can keep track.
In the original Japanese version, the damage was based on the number of battles the party had fled from multiplied by the user's level. This was changed for future releases, most likely because of how strong the attack could become at an early point in the game.
One use for the spell is to run away from battles until the attack is doing 1,111 or 2,222 damage, and use it against a party member with maxed-out 9,999 HP to trigger All Lucky 7s. If the player invests into powering it up, it can be useful in various situations, as fixed damage is always useful, including against the superbosses.
Etymology[]
The name "chocobo" derives from a Japanese brand of chocolate malt ball by Morinaga, ChocoBall (チョコボール, Chokobōru?). The mascot for this product is Kyoro-chan (キョロちゃん?), a bird who says "kweh".
食う / くう / kuu is a rough way to say "eat", whose volitional casual form is 食え / くえ / kue ("let's scoff 'em down!"), leading to Kweh!