[TheGrandMom]

This was a guide given to some members of my LS. I did not write it so I can't answer any questions about it. I am only posting this to help Bluecat. Credit goes to Kylea!

First off, ffxiclopedia is stupid when it comes to color heredity. I've proved time and again that it is inherited. My current theory (so far not disproven) is that every character has a built in special color (not yellow) assigned to it and they have a good chance of getting that specific color if raising a randomly purchased/quested/ISNM egg. Whenever I raise a random egg I get a blue or a yellow, other people I know and have helped raise chocos only get black or yellow. The only time I've gotten another color is when I've had cards to trade in to specifically breed that color. Out of all the times I've turned in cards to breed a specific color only once have I gotten a yellow instead of another color I wanted... and that's a lot because I've stopped at juvenile level a few times when testing cross breeding... If you want a specific color, do yourself a favor and get cards... I've got access to pairs of all colors but green (with green shortly to complete).


Starting off - I'm only an egg

4 days of egg watching... boring! On the fourth day it hatches. It will be full, you don't have to feed it this day, but you /should/ check it, name it, do care for it and put in a raising plan for your new baby.

Care Activities - 3 short walks, 1 or 2 watch over chocobo (if it picked something up)

Raising Plan - 2 sets of 7 days. If you going for speed/endurance these plans should be Go for a walk. If you are going for receptivity/discernment these plans should be listen to music. Choco babies become adolescent on day 19, this plan will take them all the way through to that point when you get other options.

Baby choco days - isn't it fluffy and cute???

Set a specific time every day (or as close to as possible) to check. either as you log in or before you log out usually works pretty well. Daily checking means a chocobo that stays happy. During these 14 days you should feed your chocobo every day, do care activities and generally keep track of how it's doing. This takes all of 10 minutes max (less if you don't watch the FULL cs but the edited version). You don't /have/ to worry about illness/injuries/etc if you don't really want to. Chocobos will generally heal on their own. You can change the food slightly the next day if you really want to though.

Food - 2 Azouph Greens. If Ill - 1 Azouph Green, 1 Tokopekko Grass. If injured - 1 Azouph Green, 1 Gausebit Grass. If stomachache (you'll almost never see this) - 1 Azouph Green, 1 Garidav Grass. Azouph Greens are totally the way to go. They make your chocobo like you more, in turn making them more productive and less likely to become unhappy when the harder options for training open up.

Care Activities - 3 short walks, 1 or 2 watch over chocobo. Usually you'll get the handkerchief quest (if you don't have a whistle), the lost chick quest and the main story for your area during this time if you keep doing the care activities every day.

Adolescence - teenage chocobo angst

Keep to your check time. Day 19-30 are the adolescence and they go fast. Now is when you will see the color of your choco come into light. Despite rumors, once they have shown a color it CANNOT change. On day 19, when it grows to the next stage, you'll want to update your raising plan for your baby. Food stays the same, no matter what stage they are at. Azouph Greens are /always/ best.

Care Activities - Mid-range walks (2) or 1 Mid-range walk and 1 race (if you really care about the Auto-regen ability which is what that quest gives you the story for). If you're in San or Bastok you can get the story for the other city in the mid-range walk. If you're in Windy, you'll get the San story.

Raising Plan - 2 sets of 7 days again. This will actually carry you past the day it turns adult, but you can change it after that happens. 7 days is easy to set and you don't have to worry about it. For str/end chocobos you want to switch to Carry Packages. If you are raising a digging choco with rec/disc then you want to Exhibit to Public. Bonus here is you'll make 100-200 gil per day.

Adult - grown up at last!

Full color and riding capabilities are yours. If you've done the quest for the whistle then you won't have to do it again, but it's easy enough if you do. Remember you've been feeding it Azouph this whole time, so it likes and trusts you completely. Unhappy chocos are the hardest to get a whistle for. Keep training toward caps and now's the time to toss in stories to get abilities you want. SAME FOOD. Yay Azouph Greens!

Care Activities - Long Walk and a story or two (depending on choco energy) or Long walk and watch over chocobo. If you have the right training activities in, you normally won't get enough energy for 2 long walks.

Raising Plan - Override the leftover days from Adolescence and put in two 7 day sets of your preferred activity. If you are going for a fast chocobo, your plan should be set for Deliver Messages. If you want to learn abilities easily/have a digger, you should be set for Digging for Treasure. If, for some odd reason you want Receptivity instead so your choco will pass on its abilities (or will be more likely to do so) to a new chocobo, then do Acting in a Play. Endurance doesn't have it's own, but it's last on your list if you want a fast choco anyway.

Raising Plan part 2 - Once your chocobo hits Outstanding in one stat area, you need to change your plan again. Strength chocobos need to go to Excercise Alone. Discernment go to Interact with Children. Receptivity go to Interact with Chocobos. These options give a 5% boost to the amount of that stat instead of a hard number. Before this point, it's really not as much as the other options.

Raising Plan part 3 - Hitting First Class in one stat means switching to another. You're going to hate it, but honestly it's just about impossible to have one physical and one mental stat capped. Str/End or Disc/Recp are the way to go. Endurance needs either Carry Packages or, once you hit Impressive, Excercise in a Group.



Other Tips and Tricks:

Azouph Greens aren't hard to grow if you're worried about cost. For best results, a porcelain pot with wildgrass seed will give you a decent range of grown stuff. Feed the plant water crystals. You can even npc junk the stuff you don't need/want and probably pay for your seeds that way.

Stories:
Hantileon - San d'Oria (short walk), Bastok and Windurst (medium walk) Story of an Impatient chocobo = Gallop
Zopago - Bastok (short walk), San d'Oria (medium walk), Windurst (long walk) Story of a Worrisome chocobo = Burrow
Pulonono - Windurst (short walk), Bastok and San d'Oria (long walk) Story of a Youthful Chocobo = Bore
Brutus/Dietmund - Long Walk chance no matter what city Story of a Curious Chocobo = Canter
Lost Chick Quest - Story of a Diligent Chocobo = Treasure Finder
Race Trio - Win a Race 3 times against these guys and get Story of a Happy Chocobo = AutoRegen

If you don't want to wait for stories to work, you /can/ try to get cards of a chocobo that has the trait(s) you want and breed for the traits of that parent with a honeymoon plan in Jeuno. This makes it more likely that those traits will pass along. Stats aren't ever passed on to offspring, just traits.

You don't have to wait for auto-retire to retire your chocobo. If it's done to your satisfaction, retired it.

Make sure that when a stat upgrades in skill you reset your whistle for your chocobo. If you don't, the stats for the chocobo you call won't be upgraded.