Digging skill caps on items

[Ayrlie]

Listed are some of the items obtained through chocobo digging. Like fishing, each item has some sort of skill cap based on rank. Certain items require a minimum skill to dig up, but there is an chance you can dig them up sooner, depending on moon phase.

Test items in italics only need to be dug up just once during your current digging rank.

Caps at Amateur rank (min. skill Amateur rank to dig)
Pebble
Little Worm
Flint Stone
Chocobo Feather
Acorn
Bone Chip

Caps at Recruit rank (min. skill Amateur rank to dig)
Insect Wing
Seashell
Lugworm
Arrowwood Log
Maple Log
Pugil Scales
Rattan Lumber

Caps at Initiate Rank (min. skill Amateur rank to dig)
Tin Ore
Zinc Ore
Rock Salt
Moko Grass
Lauan Log
Copper Ore
Beastcoin
Willow Log
Cinnamon

Caps at Novice Rank (min. skill Amateur rank to dig)
Lizard Molt
Giant Femur
Silver Ore
Iron Ore
Shell Bug
Ash Log
Yagudo Feather
Bird Feather
Sage
Danceshroom

Caps at Apprentice Rank (min. skill Recruit rank to dig)
Yew Log
Holly Log
Coral Fragment
Elm Log
Saruta Cotton
Silver Beastcoin
Grain Seeds
Crystals
Dryad Root
Rosewood Log

Caps at Journeyman Rank (min. skill Initiate rank to dig)
Wyvern Scales
Oak Log
Dried Majoram
Chestnut Log
Colored Rocks
Mythril Beastcoins
Herb Seeds
Vegetable Seeds
Scream Fungus
Ebony Log
Mahongany Log
Puffball

Caps at Craftsman Rank (min. skill Novice rank to dig)
Darksteel Ore
Gold Ore
Philosophers stone
Friut Seeds
Clusters
Coral Fungus
Gold Beastcoin
Petrified Log

Caps at Artisan Rank (min. skill Apprentice rank to dig)
Platnium Ore
Red Jar
Platnium Beastcoin
Mistletoe
Shall Shell
King Truffle

Caps at Adept Rank (min. skill Journeyman rank to dig)
Tree Cuttings
Black Chocobo Feather
Phoenix Feather
Turtle Shell
Reishi Mushroom

Caps at Veteran Rank (min. skill Craftsman rank to dig)
Cactus Stems
Adaman Ore
Orichalcum Ore
Elemental Ore

[Ayrlie]

some personal notes:
pulled up first king truffle as an apprentice but didn't start pulling them up until i was journeyman
when i hit journeyman i noticed an increase of petrified logs, ebony logs, and mistletoe i pulled up

i pulled up my first orich ore as a journeyman

i have yet to pull up adaman or elemental ore and i just dinged craftsman now

since hitting craftsman i'm saw an increase of darksteel ore and now pulling up catcus stems in north gustaberg.

[Xaoko]

Are you sure yew log is at apprentice and not recruit? I'm only an amateur, and have in the past dug up yew logs in la theine...

But otherwise, nice list you have there :D Will be very useful when I get more into digging!

[Caspian]

How do you know what your rank in digging is? Is it just a guess or can an NPC tell you?

[Xaoko]

How do you know what your rank in digging is? Is it just a guess or can an NPC tell you?

Taken from The Ultimate Guide to Chocobo Digging on FFXI link (http://www.kharvey.com/ffxi/chocobo/) from Ayrlie's Chocobo Digging FAQ (http://www.ffxionline.com/forums/mining.digging.q/57595-chocobo.digging.faq.html), with some minor formatting done for ease of reading:

Digging Rank | Area Delay (seconds) | Dig Delay (seconds)
Amateur | 60 | 16
Recruit | 55 | 11
Initiate | 50 | 6
Novice | 45 | 0
Apprentice | 40 | 0
Journeyman | 35 | 0
Craftsman | 30 | 0
Artisan | 25 | 0
Adept | 20 | 0
Veteran | 15 | 0
Expert | 10 | 0

[Caspian]

Ah, cool. May start doing this. I'm guessing it levels about as slowly as fishing?

EDIT: Nm, reading your guide. Nicely done btw. I may have to look into this. :thumbsup:

[zagex]

eh, I dug up a gold beastcoin when I was amateur... either amateur or recruit for sure because I'm only a recruit now.
I think you always have a chance to dig up anything, maybe your list is only items you'll see more than once or twice until you get to whatever ranks you listed.

[Ayrlie]

you must also keep in mind that some items per zone are common, some uncommon, and others very rare. each zone is different. also certain items have the restriction of weather (cyrstals, clusters), others have restriction based on time of day (seeds can only be dug up at night), and couple based on moon phase (elemental ores only during 7% to 24% waxing). competition will also play a factor, as an higher-rank digger is more likely to pull up better items.

as you go up in digging rank, your chances of pulling up rare and very rare items in a zone will increase. yes it is possible to pull up anything at any rank, but since i been keeping track I noticed that you need to be Initiate or Novice rank before you can really compete in Kazham and Craftsman Rank before you can compete for elemental ores and adaman ores. if you go into the jungles, you are more likely to pull up petrified logs or coral fungus than king truffles; and rosewood logs than ebony logs. I did not pull up my first petrified log until I had hit Initiate Rank, my first King Truffle came at Apprentice Rank. (I only have pulled up 4 or 5 Reishi Mushrooms and 10 King Truffles since I started digging.)

[zagex]

I guess I didn't read the first couple lines of your post thoroughly

[Xaoko]

I guess I didn't read the first couple lines of your post thoroughly

lol, same.

Remember kids, reading through the entire post before posting=good.

Now to practice what I preach...

[Neomage]

Approximately how many greens do you need to level up? Because I have dug up around 3 stacks of Bone Chips already, as well as alot of other things.

[Ayrlie]

to level up first time it took me 80 stacks

the last time i leveled up it took me 1100 stacks (sooner than expected considering that the last ding came after 1000 stacks)

i got an estimate list at http://www.kharvey.com/ffxi/chocobo/ just scroll down.

[Balfree]

May i be the one to finally dispell the bone chip rumor? I got 2 last night, and my re-digs still take 16 seconds.

[Haggai]

Wow! You mean there are two people on Remora that are this dedicated to chocobo digging? I know someone who may want to look at this information, an LS mate. He digs all the time. Thank you for the information Ayrlie, I'll pass it on.

[Xaoko]

May i be the one to finally dispell the bone chip rumor? I got 2 last night, and my re-digs still take 16 seconds.

More proof on that it isn't bonechip that's the skillup item:

I was digging in Konschtat, and was getting no chips. Only flints, pebbles, and pugil scales. Hit level 2 while there.

[Nakti]

May i be the one to finally dispell the bone chip rumor? I got 2 last night, and my re-digs still take 16 seconds More proof on that it isn't bonechip that's the skillup item:

I was digging in Konschtat, and was getting no chips. Only flints, pebbles, and pugil scales. Hit level 2 while there.
Could there be a hidden skill level as well as rank level? Maybe as long as (general) you dig up the test item at some point during the appropriate rank level, you can advance. And the other items just add to your skill level.

So even if your skill level got to 10 without digging up a Bone Chip, you wouldn't advance to the next rank until you did get a Bone Chip.

But if you dug up a Bone Chip at, say, level 8 and you dug up other items that got you to level 10, you'd advance to the next rank just because you'd already "turned in your test item".

Just a hypothesis.

There's way too much I want to do in this game. ><

[Ayrlie]

yeah, I haven't done much digging at all over the past 4 days. too much RL stuff going on, and when I was online I either did a besieged or I logged to check on AH and went AFK again. i'm going on vacation next friday and will be gone for 9 days, so i'm hoping to hit artisan digging rank by june 30th though i have at least 1200 stacks to go right now.