[Haggai]

My choco reached adulthood last night. I figured I would explain how to obtain the chocobo whistle.

When your chocobo has reached adulthood, you will have a new option when speaking to the VCS member. Choose to register your chocobo for riding. Don't care for your chocobo until after you have gone for your whistle, you will probably need his/her energy for the quest.

The VCS member will then instruct you to go to San D'Oria and speak with the VCS president. The VCS president is the VCS caregiver in the South San D'Orian stables. He will tell you that you will need to find something that your chocobo has hidden and bring it to him.

Take your chocobo on a walk, you will get an option to look for an item he/she has hidden. There is a possibilty that you will fail. It appears to be dependant on your relationship with your chocobo. My chocobo regards me as her parent, so I succeeded on the first try. It is unknown whether the length of walk effects success rate. Once you successfully find the key item "dirty hankerchief," go back and talk to the VCS president in San D'Oria.

Additional information on obtaining the dirty hankerchief:

Originally Posted by Loial

From experience yesterday getting the handkerchief for two different chocobos:
If you take your bird for a short walk, attempt to search for the item while the bird is "absorbed" looking at something and you do NOT find the item... then don't go on a short walk again. Next time, go on a regular walk... and if you fail to find the item, then go on the long walk.

It seems that it is random which walk has the item.

What is the dirty hankerchief?

The dirty hankerchief is actually the white hankerchief with your scent that you previously gave to your chocobo to allow him/her to sleep more easily at night.

IMPORTANT: After you get your chocobo whistle, go back to your chocobo and choose to register your him/her to ride for 500 gil. If you do not do this step, your whistle will not work.

The Chocobo Whistle has 25 charges and can be used every five minutes. Of course, there is the usual 30 second delay when equipping.

You may notice that your chocobo is slower than rental chocobos, but faster than walking. Look at your chocobo's stats, it is safe to assume that if your chocobo has poor or substandard stats, he/she will run slow. You will need to train your chocobo to get him/her to run faster. Just remember to re-register your chocobo so that the new stats will be recognized when you call him/her.
If you run out of charges on your whistle, simply trade it to a VCS member and they will recharge it for you.

Also realize that if you retire your chocobo and want to register him/her for riding, you will not be able to change the stats to make him/her faster.

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Although my called chocobo is slow, she is still very useful. I rode her last night to unlock Samurai. I first outpost warped to Valkurm, called her, and rode to Konschtat to spawn Forger. Then I outpost warped to Zi'tah and rode her to to the Guardian Treant spawn.

I did make an attempt to call her in Xarcabard and Beaucedine Glacier. Not allowed. I have yet to try Qufim and Caedarva Mire, though. EDIT: Caedarva Mire and Qufim are not allowed. It appears the only places that are allowed are the places a rental chocobo can go.

I suspect that the Chocobo whistle will be EXTREMELY useful when the chocobo rental NPC in Al Zahbi has been taken prisoner. Along with riding back from the Dunes after reaching level 20. And riding back from Yhoater Jungle after a party. Chocobo from the leypoint, too!

Something else I noticed, the Chococards used for breeding are Bazaar-able. Can you say "Chocobo whore?"

[KoukiRyu]

Thanks for this :D I definitely agree that it will be terribly useful at the times you mentioned, as it would have helped me after finishing up Valkurm on my whm a few days ago, and if I can't use it in those other zones, that kinda sucks :x I was looking forward to being able to take my Choco where it was impossible to take rentals ; ;

[Loial]

Take your chocobo on a walk, you will get an option to look for an item he/she has hidden. There is a possibilty that you will fail. It appears to be dependant on your relationship with your chocobo. My chocobo regards me as her parent, so I succeeded on the first try. It is unknown whether the length of walk effects success rate. Once you successfully find the key item "dirty hankerchief," go back and talk to the VCS president in San D'Oria.

From experience yesterday getting the handkerchief for two different chocobos:
If you take your bird for a short walk, attempt to search for the item while the bird is "absorbed" looking at something and you do NOT find the item... then don't go on a short walk again. Next time, go on a regular walk... and if you fail to find the item, then go on the long walk.

It seems that it is random which walk has the item.

[Zamphire]

Someone go test the chocobo in Xarcabard!! I want to know if I can ride it there

[Haggai]

I did. It doesn't work.

[Haggai]

Originally Posted by Loial

From experience yesterday getting the handkerchief for two different chocobos:
If you take your bird for a short walk, attempt to search for the item while the bird is "absorbed" looking at something and you do NOT find the item... then don't go on a short walk again. Next time, go on a regular walk... and if you fail to find the item, then go on the long walk.

It seems that it is random which walk has the item.

Thank you, I will add this above with credit to you.

[Zamphire]

Damn Xarcabard is about the only reason I really wanted a chocobo

[Haggai]

I plan to check Qufim, Cape Terrigan, Valley of Sorrows, and Caedarva Mire tonight. I simply forgot last night. If it is allowed in Caedarva Mire, I will be unlocking PUP and COR. The only reason I haven't is because of the stupid Imps. I just don't want to deal with them.

[Omniblast]

Why has this not been stickied yet?

[Karinya]

Sadly, I think the imps and taurus are part of the reason you won't be able to call chocobo in those areas. They didn't put those things there so you could walk past them without paying any attention to them.
Man, I wish I had known what Loial said before I did mine. I was doing mainly short walks to save energy and found nothing several times. Once you find nothing, don't go to that zone again. It isn't there. (Note: this does not count being caught by your chocobo before you finish searching.)
Oh yeah, and some useful information for this thread: with substandard endurance, I was able to ride for 21 minutes 20 seconds before being forced to dismount. (I teleported Yhoat, called chocobo at the telepoint and just ran around Yhoator and Yuhtunga taking screenshots.) So I don't think the 5 min recast on the whistle is going to be a big deal.

[jcmeadows]

OK, here is my question, do you have to be lvl 20 to call and ride the chocobo. If I'm trying to lvl a lower lvl job, (lvl 11) and have my subjob (lvl 25, I have the licence) can I still call and ride? I'm sure you can't but I thought I would ask anyway. I still have not got the whistle. I know I have tried the short and reg walk and I find nothing every time and he does reguard me as a parent. But I have had some problems with getting daily reports about my chocobo. I will go and talk to the trainer once a day around the same time each night and he never gives a report and my chocobo has not regained any health. Has anyone else had this?

[Jethreal]

jcmeadows; the chocobo whistle is a neck piece equippable at lev 20, so unfortunately it won't help you tons in the dunes. Of course if you have your choco liscence you'll still be able to rent one from any of the starting cities. (but you probably know that already )

Also the hankerchief seems to 'move' locations per game day, it took me 4 days to get this item, I recieved it on my 3rd check on the medium walk (different days). So your best bet would be to go on all 3 walks in one day and hope you get the 'your chcocbo appears to be completely absorbed...' message on all 3 walks.

[jcmeadows]

Cool, thats what I thought, thanks for the info

[Drive]

Originally Posted by Karinya

Sadly, I think the imps and taurus are part of the reason you won't be able to call chocobo in those areas. They didn't put those things there so you could walk past them without paying any attention to them.

I was looking forward to partying in the Range but since my chocobo won't even work there i'm going back to the thickets like everyone else. Letting chocobo's in outdoor areas where we couldn't take them before allows for more exp spots to be used. Why run around the range for 30+ mins looking for a camp when i can just camp over someone in the mire?

[Olorin401]

>.> Not having your chocobo available in ALL outdoor areas takes away half of the point of having the chocobo whistle.

This needs to be changed by SE in the next available update.