For Final Fantasy VII on the PlayStation, a GameFAQs message board topic titled 'Chocobo racing s-class prizes'. Final Fantasy VII at IGN: walkthroughs, items, maps, video tips, and strategies. Visit Chocobo Square once you have a Chocobo of your own and you'll be able to enter your mount in the Chocobo.

Racing Chocobos

Why race Chocobos? After winning three races, the victorious Chocobo will move up a rank and race superior birds for better prizes. Prizes are cool, and it’s the best way to earn GP in the Gold Saucer, but higher-rank Chocobos also have a better chance of breeding colored Chocobos. This wasn’t necessary for the Blue and Green Chocobos, but for the Black and Gold ones… well, the time spent racing is probably going to be less than the time spent struggling over the low odds of breeding them from low-rank Chocobos. Note that you must have Cloud back in your party before you can race Chocobos, as the Gold Saucer is closed before then.

Now that you’re motivated to race (right…?), let’s get onto the preparation. A Chocobo that hasn’t been fed Greens hasn’t developed its stats yet, and a faster, smarter bird with more stamina is naturally going to win more races. This is where things get expensive, however, as the best Greens for racing, Sylkis Greens (purchase them from the Chocobo Sage), cost 5000 Gil each. It’ll take ten to twenty Sylkis Greens to make a Chocobo race-worthy, which means it’ll cost 50,000 to 100,000 Gil per racing Chocobo. Selling an All Materia or two will set you up nicely, and really… it’s hard to put a price on the most powerful attack in the game. Chocobos who don’t have their stats raised with Greens will have a lower speed and stamina, which is bad enough, but worse still, their intelligence and co-operation stats will be low, as well, meaning they won’t go where you tell them to under manual race controls, and will run stupidly on automatic controls.

Feed each Chocobo you plan to race either ten to twenty Sylkis Greens (depending on how much you care about their stats), then head over to the Gold Saucer, enter the Chocobo Square and talk to Ester, who is standing near the 'STAFFROOM' sign. She’ll let you enter races, as well as tell you what the controls are, in case you forgot. Winning each race should be simple, if your Chocobo is up to snuff. Accelerate to your top running (not sprinting) speed and hold down R1 + R2 ([PAGE DOWN] + [TARGET] on the PC version) to regenerate stamina as you race, and sprint when you reach the winding blue path at the end of the track if you have the stamina for it (and if you even need to). Also, for the sake of speeding things ups, pick the short courses.

Every time you win a race, you’ll get a prize depending on the rank you’re in, and the race-card (1st and 2nd place Chocobos) which won. In effect, this means most of the time the computer is choosing which random prize you’ll win, and in most cases, the GP is worth more than the item itself. After winning three races with the same Chocobo you’ll move up a rank, starting at C rank, then moving to B, then A, and finally S. Your normal Chocobos - any of the Chocobos you capture in the wild - will probably struggle to make it to A rank. Fortunately for 'Good' and 'Great' Chocobos, they don’t need to reach A Rank; B rank should be sufficient. Getting a 'Wonderful' Chocobo to A rank should be easier, and it should be your goal.

All told, you should race at least twenty-four races; enough to get Green, Blue, Black and Wonderful Chocobos up to A rank. Racing 'Good', 'Great' or a Gold Chocobo is optional, but it can’t hurt to score some GP, Megalixirs and if you’re lucky, perhaps a Counter Attack Materia or two. There’s only one complication to Chocobo racing; in A and S rank races (and very, very rarely in B rank races), Joe - the jockey you met after your brief stint in Corel Prison - will start showing up. Simply put, his bird is a phenom, and will likely out-stat your Chocobo (not to mention the normal competition) until you get a Gold Chocobo that’s been fed with plenty of Sylkis Greens. He doesn’t show up all the time (although you can expect him more often than not in S rank races), so he’s a hazard you can just endure until you’ve got a bird who can compete.

Breeding Black and Gold Chocobos

Once you have an A rank Blue Chocobo and an A rank Green Chocobo, mate them together, feed them a Carob Nut and with a little luck, you’ll end up with a Black Chocobo. Once done, make a note of the Black Chocobo’s gender and fly to the Icicle Inn area, where you’ll find some Chocobo tracks just south of the town. Land on a convenient patch of grass and run around the tracks to find Chocobos, in this case 'Wonderful' Chocobos, which are only found exclusively with Jumping enemies; large rabbits with a relatively high chance to dodge attacks. Catch a 'Wonderful' Chocobo of the opposite gender to your Black Chocobo, feed them both Sylkis Greens, and get them to A rank (or S rank, if you’re really ambitious). To get a Gold Chocobo, you’ll need to breed a high-ranking Black Chocobo and a 'Wonderful' Chocobo and feed them a Zeio Nut , which can be stolen from Goblins on Goblin Island (in the forests of some island north of the Chocobo Ranch).

Once you’ve got your Gold Chocobo, it’s time to get to looting. You can also race the Gold Chocobo as much as your heart desires, as it should be able to defeat any competition you might come up against; even S rank Joe. If you have a mind to attempt the Battle Arena later, harvest GP by racing. It also won’t hurt to get the unique Materia you can only get as prizes from Chocobo racing (Enemy Away Materia, Sneak Attack Materia) and Accessories (Cat’s Bell, Sprint Shoes). It’s also the only way you’ll get more Counter Attack Materia, besides leveling up the one you already have. If you win ten S rank races with the same Chocobo, Ester will reward you with Sprint Shoes , a Precious Watch , a Cat’s Bell , a Chocobracelet and a piece of Counter Attack Materia .

Chocobo Race Rewards

There are plenty of prizes to win in the Chocobo races, some of which are unique. The best of these items will be discussed here. To start off with there are somewhat mundane items like Elixirs, Megalixirs and Turbo Ethers that might be worth keep… or at least the former two. As for armor, there’s a Chocobracelet, which is… pretty uninspiring at this point in the game, honestly. The Precious Watch boasts absolutely no defensive stats, but it does have eight Materia sockets (albeit unjoined ones). Sprint Shoes are nifty accessories that automatically put their wearer in Haste status, which will spare you the trouble of casting 'Big Guard' in fights that don’t warrant an expenditure of MP. A Cat’s Bell accessory will restore the HP of the wearer while walking around, but at a rate too slow to be of much use.

Enemy Away Materia… well, it reduces the odds of encountering enemies, for moments when you’d really prefer not to be bothered (one of these might prove useful later). Sneak Attack Materia will give the user a 20% chance per level of automatically casting the paired magic when the battle begins (up to 80% at level four). Magic Counter works like Counter Attack Materia, but it counters with the paired Materia when the character is attacked (a higher level Materia increases the odds of counter attacking). And of course, good old Counter Attack Materia, which physically counters when attacked. This is the only place in the game where this Materia can be stock-piled, and if you get enough Counter Attack Materia on a single character, you can essentially win pretty much any fight in the game by just letting the enemy provoke several counter attacks every time they act.

The accessories and Materia start showing up in higher ranked races, and tend to be worth a good bit of GP, if you find that you don’t need these items. A list of all the items you can win by rank can be found below.

Note: If you need GP but can’t be bothered to race Chocobos (shame on you!), there’s another way to get GP without having to mess around with any stupid mini-games. In the Ropeway Station in the Golden Saucer there will be a man in overalls who occasionally spawns north of the Save Point (just enter and exit the station repeatedly until he shows up). If you talk to him, he’ll offer to sell you some GP… at the price of 100 Gil per GP. This guy will only spawn after Cloud rejoins the party in disc two.

HPMP Materia

With the Black Chocobo in your possession, you can now ride it and get a new piece of unique Materia. Head over to Costa del Sol and ride over to the entrance to the mountain pass that leads to North Corel. If you ride over the river to the east you’ll find some desert. Continue east to find a mountain range and enter a cave, wherein you’ll find the HP⇔MP Materia , which, as the name suggests, switches your HP and MP values. If you’re expecting some hidden Materia combination or tactic that makes this stuff useful, then… well, you’re out of luck. This Materia just isn’t very useful. You can use it to build up a character’s Limit Gauge by fighting weak enemies (since your Limit Gauge charges based on a percentage of damage taken, not total) but aside from that… eh… you’ll never need to use it.

Knights of the Round Materia

The Golden Chocobo is the best mobility option in the game. It can run over mountains, rivers, even the ocean, and unlike the wussy Highwind, you can even reach, say, an island in the middle of the ocean surrounded by mountains and covered by forests. Speaking of which… such an island - which you can only reach with a Gold Chocobo - exists. Ride your Gold Chocobo to the north-eastern corner of the map, deep into the ocean, where you’ll find Round Island. Head inside the cave on the forested island to find the fabled Knights of the Round Materia , which allows you to cast what is perhaps one of the most gloriously over-powered attacks in gaming. What else can you say? Give it a cast and see. It costs a whopping 250 MP, but for that hefty price you’ll summon thirteen knights that each hit all enemies for several thousand points of damage (thus surpassing the 9999 damage cap). Pair with a character with a high Magic score and/or MP Turbo Materia, this spell can do well over 100,000 damage a casting, and it is a prime target for the Mime command. Mix with with HP Absorb and/or MP Absorb, and it’ll full heal the caster every time you use it, too.

Once you have the four rare Materia that can only be obtained by breeding Chocobos (Mime, Quadra Magic, HP⇔MP and Knights of the Round) and you’ve raced to your heart’s content, you’ll finally be done with Chocobos. You could, with your new-found stash of GP, take on the Battle Arena, but this will be easier once you have some better weapons. Instead, consider taking on the challenges of the 'Ancient Forest' , or, if you want to get back into the story, skip ahead to the 'Underwater Reactor' section.

Written by: Mike Eyal
E-mail: mike_chocobo AT outlook dot com
First posted: February 2002
Last update: September 2019

Table of Contents

Welcome to the wonderful quest of Chocobo breeding for the eternal masterpiece – Final Fantasy VII! If you don’t know anything about FF7 and Chocobos, you came to the right place. If you DO know anything about Chocobos. you’re still at the right place. I hope this guide helps you on your Chocobo journey and your quest to breed a Gold Chocobo. If it doesn’t, you’re more than welcome to e-mail me your suggestions for further improving this guide. While there are many other guides out there, what makes this one unique is its ease-of-use and descriptive screenshots. Enjoy!

Disclaimer (Legal crap)

This guide is for personal use only, and may not be altered or reproduced in any way. This guide may not be used for profit purposes (i.e. printing and/or selling it), and may not be published without my authorization. You may not put this guide on your web page, but you can put a link that directs to this page.

Intro

Final Fantasy VII’s (probably) most intricate side quest is the Chocobo breeding quest. As a matter of fact, it is considered one of the most complicated quests in the entire Final Fantasy series. Do note that it is a side-quest, meaning you don’t need to complete it at all in order to finish the game and/or to enjoy it. However, if you choose to tackle it, you will not only tremendously strengthen your characters, but also have a chance to explore deeper into the mysterious, yet wonderful depths of Final Fantasy VII.

Note: This guide contains many **SPOILERS**, and is recommended for players who have at least made it to the last dungeon of the game (the Northern Crater).

Generally, what you do in the quest is catch Chocobos, raise them, feed them, race them, and then breed them. Sounds easy? Well it’s not, but I hope this guide will make it as simple as possible. The main goal of the Chocobo breeding quest is getting a Gold Chocobo. This Chocobo will be your best friend and your only means of achieving the strongest Materia in the game.

This guide has 17 sections. The first 16 sections describe every possible aspect in Chocobo breeding in great detail. The last section, the Step-By-Step guide, describes exactly how you should use the information given earlier in order to achieve the final goal of the Chocobo breeding quest, which is obtaining a Gold Chocobo. While you may simply skip to the last chapter and still succeed in doing the quest, I stress that you at least take a look at the earlier chapters, they should help making the process a whole lot less confusing.

First of all, why should I breed Chocobos?

The main reason for even wanting to start with the Chocobo breeding quest is acquiring some of the most powerful Materia, which cannot be acquired in any other way. By having these Materia, you will can build a powerful team which can take up on any monster or boss out there, including the insanely difficult Emerald & Ruby Weapons. These optional bosses pack a whopping 1,000,000 HP and 800,000 HP respectively, and prove quite a challenge for an unprepared team. By having the Materia acquired through this quest, you’ll find your team practically unbeatable.

Some of these Materia are:

Knights of the Round – The most appealing reward in the Chocobo breeding quest. Knights of the Round (known as “KotR”) is the most powerful summon Materia in the game. This is the only Materia that, when being used, strikes the enemies 13 times in a row. Providing that each hit causes 9,999 damage, 13 hits of 9,999 damage will eventually add up to 129,987 damage, which can kill almost every enemy (and boss) in a single blow. And that’s not all. If you use W-Summon (the Materia that lets you summon twice in the same turn), you can do up to 259,974 damage in a single turn!

Mime – This Materia lets the character who equips it use the “Mime” command. A character who uses “Mime” copies the exact action/magic/summon the last character did, even if he/she doesn’t have the required Materia equipped. For example: Cloud’s turn is on, and he’s using KotR. Next up comes Cid, which uses Mime and summons another KotR on the enemy, without equipping the KotR Materia himself. Definitely useful.

Quadra Magic – This is a very useful support Materia. When you attach it along with another magic/summon Materia, it lets you use that Materia 4 times in one turn, at the cost of one casting. For example, if you pair Quadra Magic along with Bahamut, when you use Bahamut in battle you will summon it 4 times, at the MP cost of 1 summon. Additionally, if you throw W-Summon or W-Magic into the mix, you’ll be able to cast your favorite spell/summon eight times at the cost of 2 times, all in a single turn. You’ll probably want to grab some popcorn however, because 8 castings of Bahamut Zero would take a while.

There are plenty more goods you can obtain, mostly by winning Chocobo races at the Gold Saucer, like Counter Attack Materia, Enemy Lure Materia, Enemy Away Materia, Cat’s Bell, Precious Watch, Chocobraclet, Megalixirs, HP <=> MP Materia, Hero Drinks, TONS of Gold Saucer GP and many, many more…

When can I start?

You can start your Chocobo Breeding bonanza at disc 2, when Cid becomes the temporary leader of the group. I suggest you wait until Cloud returns to be the leader, because Gold Saucer is closed at the time Cloud is gone.

How should I prepare myself?

First of all, you will need a hefty amount of money (more than 300,000 Gil), before you even start. Some suggestions on how to easily farm Gil:

• If you’re on disc 2, the best way would probably be to level up an “All” Materia to “MASTER”. Equip the Materia on a double growth weapon / armor, and fight the monsters around the forests near Mideel. They should give 300 AP per battle. Selling a “MASTER” All Materia grants you a whopping 1,400,000 Gil, with which you can easily cruise through the quest.
• If you’re at the end of disc 3, and have reached the Northern Crater, you should go to the swamp area that is located at its depths. In order to get to that area, enter the Northern Crater, and keep going down. When you reach the first split, take the left turn. On the next screen go to the entrance on the right. This is where you can encounter monsters that yield very high AP and Gil – the “Magic Pots”, and the “Movers”. Mastering an “All” Materia here should be done in a matter of minutes.

The second thing you’ll need is some Chocobo stables. You can rent them at the Chocobo Farm (disc 2 onward – after leaving the Great Glacier). Renting a stable costs 10,000 Gil and the max stables you can rent are 6. I suggest renting all 6 of them because you’ll need them. In order to rent a stable, go to the house on the left at the Chocobo Farm and speak to Choco Bill, the person in charge of your Chocobos.

Third – Chocobo Lure Materia! You must have this Materia equipped if you ever plan on catching a Chocobo, anywhere. A high-ranked Chocobo Lure Materia should increase your chance of encountering Chocobos. Two of them further improve your chances.

Fourth and final, you’ll need the proper Greens and Nuts in order to breed your Chocobos. The next section explains how to get them.

How do I get the proper Nuts and Greens?

Chocobo Nuts and Chocobo Greens are vital to a successful breeding process. This section describes how to obtain them, and further below I will describe how and when to use them.

Obtaining Chobobo Nuts:
You can buy some Nuts at the Chocobo Farm, but they’re all pretty much useless. Here’s how to get the good ones:

Carob Nut – You can get the Carob Nut by stealing it from Vlakorados, a red dragon found on the world map, on the area near Bone Village (see pic). He’s not very strong, but has 33,333 HP. My advice would be to steal the Carob Nut from him and simply run away. You should obtain 3 Carob Nuts that way.

Note: You can also get a Carob Nut in Gold Saucer for 500 GP (talk to the lady at Wonder Square), but 500 GP are not easy to obtain, so I suggest sticking to Vlakorados.

Zeio Nut – You can steal the Zeio Nut from Goblin, a cute little midget found on Goblin Island’s forest. Goblin Island is found on the North-East area of the world map, it’s a small island shown on the map. You only need 1 Zeio Nut, by the way.

Obtaining Chocobo Greens:
You can buy different kinds of greens in the Chocobo Farm, but just like the Nuts that are sold there, they’re all pretty much useless. The best Greens are called Sylkis Greens and they can only be bought at the Chocobo Sage’s house. His house is located in the world map, at the northern continent near the Icicle Inn (see pic). He sells Sylkis for 5,000 Gil a piece (told you Chocobo breeding is expensive.). If money isn’t an issue, go ahead and buy 80+ of those. Otherwise, keep following the guide and I’ll mention how many are needed in each part.

How do I catch a Chocobo?

If, for some reason, you’ve forgotten how to catch a Chocobo, allow me to refresh your memory.
First, equip your Chocobo Lure Materia. Go to an area on the world map with Chocobo tracks (check the pic below for what Chocobo tracks look like). If you’re lucky, you will enter a fight with a Chocobo and other monsters. The Chocobo will be yours once you have killed all the monsters surrounding him. Do note that after a few turns, if you haven’t killed all the monsters around him, the Chocobo will run away. However, you can stall him by feeding him some Greens, and that way you will have plenty of time to get rid of the rest of the enemies. You can feed him any kind of Greens (which can be bought at the Chocobo Farm). It is imperative that you do not hurt the Chocobo! If you accidentally hit him, he’ll get emotional and run away.

Once caught, you will be able to ride your Chocobo without encountering enemies. When you choose to get off of him, you’ll have an option to move him to the Chocobo Farm (assuming you have rented a stable!). If you choose so, the Chocobo will automatically run and wait for you at the Chocobo Farm, at the fenced area. Once you return to the farm, you can speak to Choco Billy (the kid, located at the shed on the right), and select “Moving Chocobos”. By doing so, you will move the Chocobo you’ve caught from the fenced area outside, to one of the 6 stables you have rented.

The next map shows exactly where are the 7 Chocobo tracks located on the world map.

Addition information regarding the Chocobo Lure Materia: A rank 3 (3 stars) Chocobo Lure Materia doubles your chances of encountering a Chocobo over a 1-star Materia. (Rank 4/mastered is the same as rank 3). So it is highly suggested you level up your Chocobo Lure Materia before proceeding to catching Chocobos. Additionally, equipping two Chocobo Lure Materia (both at rank 3 or mastered) will once more double your chances of encountering a Chocobo over a single rank 3 Materia.

Addition information regarding the Greens used to catch a Chocobo: The Chocobo Farm sells all kinds of greens, some are cheap and some are not. While the cheap ones usually have the same effect as the expensive ones (preventing the Chocobo from fleeing in the battle), the cheapest one (Gyshal greens) will only keep the Chocobo occupied for a couple of turns, while the expensive ones (Reagan Greens) can keep him there for up to 8 turns. If short on cash, Curiel Greens should hold the Chocobo long enough for you to finish off the rest of the enemies.

What the heck is a ‘Chocobo Type’?

A ‘Chocobo Type’ determines the potential of your Chocobo, in terms of speed, stamina, etc. These stats are important for Chocobo racing (covered further below). There are 8 different types of Chocobos that can be caught, the higher the rank, the better potential your Chocobo will have. In order to see the type of the Chocobo you’ve just caught, go to the Chocobo Farm (the house on the right), speak to Choco Billy and select “Moving Chocobos”. He’ll rate the Chocobo that you’ve caught and determine his type according to this table:

So, as you have probably guessed, Wonderful is the best type of Chocobo, and Poor is the worst one. The next section contains information on how to catch your desired type of Chocobo.

How do I determine what ‘Chocobo Type’ will I get?

Many players don’t know this, but when you enter a battle with a Chocobo and some monsters, you can determine his type just by looking at the monsters that surround him.

The following table shows just how you can find out the type of the Chocobo you have just encountered in battle and wish to catch. It is split into 7 areas (since there are 7 different Chocobo tracks around the world map), and in each area you can see which monsters can accompany the Chocobo, and what type will the Chocobo be.

Note: This table contains a lot of data which you don’t really need. I will specify exactly what needs to be done in the next few sections. This information is only here for completeness’ sake.

How do I determine what ‘Chocobo Gender’ will I get?

Chocobos can be either Male or Female, and breeding can only be done between a male and a female. Unfortunately, there is no way of determining the gender of the Chocobo you’ve just caught in the same way that you could determine his/her type. The gender is chosen randomly (50/50 chance of being a male/female) when you examine the captured Chocobo at the Chocobo Farm for the first time.

So, let’s say you want a male Chocobo. Assuming you figured out which ‘type’ you need, based on the preceding chapter you would travel to one of the 7 Chocobo tracks and try to catch a Chocobo. After you have caught the Chocobo, but before going to the Chocobo Farm, SAVE YOUR GAME, and then enter the farm. Go to Choco Billy and select “Moving Chocobos” in order to see your Chocobo’s type and gender. If you got a female Chocobo simply restart the game and try again.

The reason for this is quite simple. The game determines your Chocobo’s gender ONLY when you choose to move him/her into the Stables. And since the gender is randomized, all you need is to try a few loads until you get your wanted gender.

Naming your Chocobos

While this may seem as an unnecessary topic, I believe it should be covered. After you start catching a few Chocobos, you will find yourself a bit confused as to which of your caught Chocobo has which type or gender. All the yellow Chocobos look the same, no matter if they are ‘Poor’ or ‘Wonderful’, or if they are male or female. Therefore, the way you name your Chocobo will be your most useful tool in figuring out its type and gender.

When you catch a Chocobo and move it into a stable at the Chocobo Farm, you will be required to name it (maximum 6 letters per name). Give your Chocobo a name that will help you determine its type and gender, in order to prevent confusion in the future. For example: If you’ve caught a Great female Chocobo, name it “F-Gr8”. F indicates the gender (F=Female, M=Male) and Gr8 indicates the Chocobo’s type (Great).

Good male Chocobo:
“M-Good”
Wonderful female Chocobo:
“F-Wndr”
Green female Chocobo:
“F-Grin”

It’s a challenge giving your Chocobos meaningful names when you are only given 6 letters though.

What do I do with the Nuts?

Nuts make two of the Chocobos you choose mate (and you have to breed a male with a female, of course). When you breed two specific Chocobos types with a specific nut, a colored Chocobo might be born. All these “breeding combinations” are detailed further below. In order to breed your Chocobos, speak with Choco Billy and select “Breeding Chocobos”. You’ll be asked with what kind of nut you want to make them breed. More info on that later.

What do I do with the Greens?

Greens have two uses:

Catching Chocobos – You use the greens on the Chocobo and stall him in order to catch him (See How do I catch a Chocobo?).

Feeding Chocobos – Feeding your Chocobos makes them stronger, by raising their status. By status I mean Top Speed, Stamina and Intelligence/Co-operation. These attributes determine the Chocobo’s performance when attempting Chocobo racing, so raising these properties will increase your chances of winning the races. Top Speed determines the Chocobo’s maximum speed, Stamina determines how long your Chocobo will be able to dash or sprint, and Intelligence/Co-operation determines how your Chocobo will behave in automatic or manual mode, “stupid” Chocobos tend to run in zigzags or suddenly slow down.

In order to feed your Chocobo, speak to Choco Billy and choose “Feeding Chocobos” (you can only feed Chocobos that you’ve already moved into one of the stables that you’ve rented). After you select Feeding Chocobos you’ll be asked with what kind of Greens you want to feed your Chocobo. Remember the Sylkis Greens I told you about? Well, they’re the best for raising your Chocobos’ status, so you better use’em!

Note: Although there’s no limit to how many Sylkis Greens you can feed your Chocobo with, feeding him too much will prove to be a money sink, because his stats will have already maxed out after a certain amount. By maxing out the Chocobo’s status I mean that his status won’t increase any further (for example: Feeding your Poor Chocobo with 5 Sylkis or with 99 Sylkis won’t make too big of a difference). Also note that each type of Chocobo requires different amounts of Greens in order to max out his stats.

Here’s a list of approximately how many Sylkis you’ll need to feed each Chocobo in order to reach their racing potential:

Regular (yellow) Chocobo: 5 Sylkis Greens
Wonderful (yellow) Chocobo: 10 Sylkis Greens
Green Chocobo: 10 Sylkis Greens
Blue Chocobo: 10 Sylkis Greens
Black Chocobo: 10 Sylkis Greens
Gold Chocobo: Around 30 Sylkis Greens

Note: Those aren’t exact numbers, but they’re pretty close. For racing purposes these quantities seem to be enough for you to have little to no trouble winning Chocobo races. The real cap seems to vary between different Chocobos and there’s some randomization involved as well. If money isn’t a consideration, feel free to further feed your Chocobo with Greens.

Racing Chocobos at Gold Saucer

An important aspect of Chocobo breeding is racing them at the Gold Saucer. Remember how Cloud needed to participate in a race in order to escape Corel Prison? Well, you’ll be doing a whole lot more of those. And it can get boring and tedious. However, doing so will increase your Chocobo’s ‘Class’, which in turn would improve its chances of producing a better offspring when being bred. You can also win some pretty awesome prizes via winning races.

The Gold Saucer divides Chocobos into 4 classes: C (the lowest), B , A and S (the highest). Every wild Chocobo you’ll catch will automatically belong in the C-Class (even a Wonderful Chocobo). Sometimes you’ll have to raise your Chocobo’s class in order to breed him (explained below).

How do you race your Chocobo?
Go to the Chocobo Square at the Golden Saucer and speak to Ester, on the upper-left corner of the room (she looks like a bunny…). She’ll ask you to choose the Chocobo you want to race (only the ones that you’ve moved into the Chocobo stables!). After that she’ll ask you whether you want the long course or the short one. My suggestion would be to always take the short one. This will make racing faster, and you’ll be able to sprint through most of the race.

When the race starts, you’ll be able to switch from “Automatic Mode” to “Manual Mode” by pressing [Select]/[Assist]. On Automatic Mode, the Chocobo runs and acts on his own so you don’t need to control him, but he might act foolishly (run in zigzags, waste stamina too early, etc’). On Manual Mode, you get to control your Chocobo which is what I’d recommend.

Regardless of how you choose to race your Chocobo, after 3 wins (they don’t have to be consecutive wins), your Chocobo will have moved up a class. Moving up a class means encountering tougher opponents but also better prizes. Some of the prizes in the A and S Classes are very rare and powerful, so when you get a powerful Chocobo, I suggest taking some time to do a few races in the A or S classes and reap up some rewards.

Important note: Sometimes, in B, A or S classes, one of your opponents will be Joe and his Black Chocobo Teioh. His Chocobo will always be faster than your Chocobo, and his Stamina will be better as well. Nevertheless, you can still beat Joe and his Chocobo, but it might be not as easy as beating other opponents. The best way to beat him is to dash in front of him, block him and try to prevent him from passing you.

Cool trick: While racing, you can slowly replenish your Chocobo’s stamina by holding R1+R2+L1+L2 (Playstation), or [Page Down]+[Target] (PC).

Cool reward: If you have a Chocobo at S class, and win 10 times in a row when racing it, Ester will give you a bunch of items: Counter Attack Materia, Sprint Shoes, Cat’s Bell, Precious Watch, and Chocobracelet.

Chocobo Breeding combinations

Now that you know that each Chocobo has a type (Poor, Wonderful, etc’), a gender (male or female) and a class (Class C,B,A and S) you will be able to understand the following formulas. By breeding specific Chocobo kinds using specific nuts, you can have a colored Chocobo born!

Green Chocobo:
Great Female (B Class) + Good Male (B Class) + Carob Nut = Green Chocobo

Blue Chocobo:
Good Female (B Class) + Great Male (B Class) + Carob Nut = Blue Chocobo
OR
Great Female (B Class) + Good Male (B Class) + Carob Nut + Luck* = Blue Chocobo

Black Chocobo:
Blue Chocobo (A Class) + Green Chocobo (A Class) + Carob Nut = Black Chocobo

Gold Chocobo:
Black Chocobo (A Class) + Wonderful (A Class) + Zeio Nut = Gold Chocobo
(Note: Due to a bug in the game, the Black Chocobo must be selected first.)

Colored Chocobos have special abilities, detailed on the next section.

* Luck? What the hell? Yes, as you may have already noticed, many aspects of the game are random. Battle encounters, enemy behavior, item drops are random, as well the Chocobo’s gender (as we saw previously), and the result of the offspring produced by mating two Chocobos. All these random choices are computed using the game’s internal Random Number Generator (RNG). This means that if, for example, you have just bred a Great Female (B Class) with a Good Male (B Class), you may get either a Green or a Blue Chocobo. If you are unsatisfied with the result, you can always reset the game, and try breeding again (just remember – save before breeding!). However, there is one annoying little issue…

Random Number Generator bug: For many players, it appears that they always seem to be getting a Green Chocobo, no matter how many times they have tried reloading the game. There have been many discussions on the matter, and this seems to stem from a bug with the game’s internal RNG mechanism. This means that the game’s “randomness” is stuck – and you will always have the exact same result after breeding (i.e., always a Green Chocobo). In order to “unfreeze” this mechanism, it is advised to try entering/exiting the Chocobo Farm multiple times and feeding Greens of any sort. Then go outside, save, and try again.

Colored Chocobos’ abilities

Each colored Chocobo has a special “Gift” that lets him do special things that a normal Chocobo can’t do.

Green Chocobo – The Green Chocobo can climb hills and mountains.
Blue Chocobo – The Blue Chocobo can cross rivers and shallow waters.
Black Chocobo – The Black Chocobo is a combination between the Blue and the Green Chocobo. He can cross mountains as well as rivers and shallow water.
Gold Chocobo – The Gold Chocobo is like the Black Chocobo, but can also cross deep oceans. He can go anywhere in the map, except underwater.

Additionally, when riding any type of Chocobo (no matter what kind), the enemy encounter rate drops to zero (which means you won’t meet any enemies, as long as you’re on your Chocobo).

Waiting for Chocobos to mature

Chocobos that were just born and Chocobos that just gave birth can’t be immediately bred again. They need time to “mature”. Actually, it’s not a matter of time, it’s a matter of how many battles you have fought after the birth took place. If you have a Chocobo that has just given birth and you need to breed it again but you can’t, simply go outside and fight between 3 to 10 battles. By then he should be “matured”. Chocobos which were just born, cannot breed until you have fought between 3 to 18 battles.

So in short,
Parent Chocobos (Chocobos which just gave birth) – 3 to 10 battles before they can breed again
Child Chocobos (Chocobos which were just born) – 3 to 18 battles before they have matured and can be bred.

Collecting the rewards

The reward for breeding colored Chocobos is the ability to access hidden Materia caves. These caves contain special Materia which cannot be acquired in any other way. These caves cannot be accessed with the Highwind! But you can ride your Chocobo and board the Highwind, and have it take you close to your destination. Here is the list of the unique Materia and the location of their caves:

• • HP <=> MP Materia [Click here for a map] – This cave is found north of North Corel and it can only be reached with a Blue, Black or Gold Chocobo. Ride the Chocobo into the Highwind, fly to the grassy field near the Corel Area entrance to Mount Corel, and ride the Chocobo across the shallow river.
  • Quadra Magic Materia [Click here for a map] – This cave is located at the South-East area of the world map, east of Mideel. That area is made of 3 “talons”, the cave is at the northern tip of the smallest talon. Can only be reached by riding a Blue, Black or Gold Chocobo. Land the Highwind near the Mideel Area and ride your Chocobo on the water shallows to reach the cave.
  • Mime Materia [Click here for a map] – This cave is located in the middle of the Wutai Area’s east coast and can only be reached with a Green, Black or Gold Chocobo. Land the Highwind anywhere in Wutai Area and ride the Chocobo over the mountains to reach the cave.
  • Knights of the Round Materia [Click here for a map] – The most powerful Materia is located on a tiny island that doesn’t appear on any map and can only be reached using a Gold Chocobo. Ride the Chocobo toward the northeast corner of the map until you find a small island (“Round Island”) with a cave.

There are a couple more locations that can’t be accessed via the Highwind:

Ancient Forest – The Ancient Forest contains many valuable items such as Cloud’s Apocalypse (triple growth weapon) and the Typhoon summon Materia. The Ancient Forest is located east of Cosmo Canyon, and you can only get there with a green, black or gold Chocobo (You can also get there after you kill Ultima Weapon, at the end of disc 2).

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Lucrecia’s Waterfall – You can get there by a Blue, Black or Gold Chocobo, or using the submarine. This place is a hidden cave at Corel mountains and you can get there Vincent’s ultimate weapon and limit break, as well as learning an important part of the FF7 story.

The Step-By-Step guide!

This section sums up all the above information into direct instructions on how to get a Golden Chocobo, and collecting the neat rewards.

Before you start your quest, make sure you have enough money (at least 300,000 Gil, check How should I prepare myself? for tips on how to farm money) and that you’re after the part where Cloud returns to be the leader.

1. Go to the Chocobo Farm, enter the building on the left, talk to the man in there (Choco Bill) and rent yourself six Chocobo stables (60,000 Gil total).
2. Go forth and obtain the needed nuts: The Carob and the Zeio nuts. For the Carob Nut, you’ll need to fight a red dragon called Vlakorados and steal the Carob Nut from it. You can find him on the area near Bone Village. After you get 3 Carob Nuts, you’ll need to get 1 Zeio nut, which can be stolen from Goblin, on Goblin Island (an island in the north-east part of the map). Check How do I get the proper Nuts and Greens? for pictures and maps.
3. It’s Chocobo hunting time! (Check How do I catch a Chocobo? if you don’t know how to). Equip the Chocobo Lure Materia, and go to the Chocobo tracks on the area east of Gold Saucer. You’ll need to catch a ‘Good’ Chocobo, which only appears with one or two Spencers, like this one:
   

   After you’ve caught your Chocobo, press [Cancel] to get off of him and choose to send him back to the stables. Now you should save, and enter the Chocobo Farm. Go to the building on the right, talk to the little kid in there (Choco Billy), and select “Moving Chocobos”. When you see the Chocobo you’ve caught earlier, Choco Billy will indicate that it’s a Good Chocobo (he’ll say: “Mmm, this seems like a good Chocobo”). Press [OK] and the Chocobo will move into the stable. After the Chocobo moves in, you’ll see his gender. Make sure it is a Male Chocobo! If your Chocobo isn’t a male one, reload the game and talk to Choco Billy again, repeating the process until you get a male one (remember, the gender is randomly chosen, you don’t have to catch another one!).

4. Now that you’ve got yourself a Good Male Chocobo, you’ll need a Great Female one. To catch her, go to the Chocobo tracks near Mideel, or the ones near Rocket Town, equip the Chocobo Lure Materia and try to catch her. If you chose the tracks near Mideel, the Great Chocobo will appear with one or two Spirals, like this:

   If you chose the tracks near Rocket Town, the Great Chocobo will appear with two Valron or with two Kyuvilduns, like in these pictures:

   My advice would be to try catching the Great Chocobo at the tracks near Rocket Town.

   After you catch your Chocobo, save your game, return to the Chocobo Farm, talk to Choco Billy and select “Moving Chocobos”, he’ll say that your Chocobo is great and determine its gender. This time the Chocobo’s gender should be a Female. If Choco Billy says that he’s a male, reload your game and talk to him again until he’ll say that your Chocobo is a female.

5. By now you should have two Chocobos: A Good Male and a Great Female. We’re going to feed them Sylkis Greens. To get those, go to the Chocobo Sage’s house (near the Icicle Inn on the northern continent of the world map) and buy 10 Sylkis Greens (50,000 gil total). Go back to the Chocobo Farm, talk to Choco Billy and select “Feeding Chocobos”. Feed each of your Chocobos with 5 Sylkis to boost their status.
6. Head on to the Golden Saucer, it’s Chocobo racing time! You will need to race the two Chocobos you’ve caught and move them up a class, from Class C (the default class) to Class B. Go to the Chocobo Square and talk to Ester in the top-left corner of the room. She’ll ask you with which Chocobo you will be participating the race, and what will be the length of the race. I would advise choosing the shorter route because it’s easier in the lower ranks. Race and win 3 times with each of your Chocobos 3 times in order to move them up to class B (a Chocobo moves up a class when he wins 3 times, but not necessarily in a row).
   Check list:
   At this point you should have:
   A Good Male Chocobo (Class B)
   A Great Female Chocobo (Class B)
7. At the Chocobo Farm, talk to Choco Billy and select “Mating Chocobos”. Select the two Chocobos you have by “talking” to them. After that you’ll be asked with which nut you want to feed them in order to make them breed. Select the Carob Nut. Now with a bit of luck, you should have a Green or a Blue Chocobo!
8. At this point we would like to breed these two Chocobos (Good male, Great female) again, however, we need to wait for them to rest and recover. Go outside into the world map and fight anywhere between 3 to 10 battles, this should be enough for the parents to have recovered. Go back to the Chocobo Farm (save before you enter). Now comes the tricky part: If you got a Green Chocobo (most likely), make the Good Male and the Great Female breed again (using a Carob Nut) but this time you’ll need to get a Blue Chocobo and he should be of the opposite sex of the green one! If you didn’t get him, reload your game and try again! If you got the Blue Chocobo on the first time, you should get a green one (of the opposite sex). Not too complicated, but you’ll need to reload the game a few times. If you find yourself stuck, and keep getting an offspring with the same color, you might have a problem with the game’s RNG mechanism. Check out Chocobo Breeding combinations for help on how to resolve this.
   Check list:
   By now you should have 4 Chocobos:
   A Good Male (Class B)
   A Great Female (Class B)
   A Green Chocobo
   A Blue Chocobo (of the opposite sex!)
9. Go to the Chocobo Sage’s house again and buy 20 Sylkis Greens (100,000 gil). Feed both your Blue Chocobo and your Green Chocobo with 10 Sylkis each. This should boost their stats so that they can easily cruise through the races.
10. Return to Gold Saucer and race your Green and Blue Chocobo until each one is at class A (you’ll need to win with each Chocobo 6 times).
11. Breed these Chocobos (the blue and green one) with a Carob Nut in order to get a Black Chocobo.
12. Now for a somewhat annoying part: You will need to catch a Wonderful Chocobo. Equip your Chocobo Lure Materia and head to the Chocobo tracks in the Icicle Area (the snowy area in the northern continent). The Wonderful Chocobo will appear with one or two Jumpings by his side, like this:

    This kind of fight can be rare, last time it took me about an hour and a half to finally encounter him! Anyway, after you catch him, send the Chocobo back to the stables.

13. Return to the Chocobo Farm (as usual, save before you enter), talk to Choco Billy and select “Moving Chocobos”. He should say “This…is a wonderful Chocobo!”, and determine its gender, Make sure that his gender is the opposite sex of the Black Chocobo that you already have. If not, reload and try again.Check list:
    6 Chocobos:
    A Good Male (Class B)
    A Great Female (Class B)
    A Green Chocobo (Class A)
    A Blue Chocobo (of the opposite sex of the Green one, Class A)
    A Black Chocobo
    A Wonderful Chocobo (of the opposite sex of the Black one)
14. Since all of the 6 stables you’ve rented are taken, I suggest releasing the Good Male and the Great Female Chocobos, in order to make room for the Gold Chocobo you’re about to have. Talk to Choco Billy and select “Releasing Chocobos”. Release those Chocobos.
15. Go to the Chocobo Sage’s house and buy 20 Sylkis Greens (100,000 gil), feed 10 Sylkis to the Black Chocobo and 10 to the Wonderful Chocobo.
16. Race the Black and the Wonderful Chocobo until both are at class A.
17. Mate these two with a Zeio Nut, but make sure you select the Black Chocobo first (due to a bug in the game). Now cross your fingers… If you’re lucky, you should get a Gold Chocobo!! Your objective is finally complete! Make sure you give a cool name like “Goldy”, “Wing”, “Timmy” or whatever.
    With the aid of your new Chocobo, you can now obtain some sweet rewards.
18. The first thing you’ll probably want to do is collecting the most powerful Materia in FF7, Knights of the Round. To get that, hop on your Golden Chocobo (doesn’t that sound cool?) by talking to Choco Billy and selecting “Riding Chocobos”. Go to a small island called Round Island, which is located in the north-east part of the map. Get off your Chocobo, enter the cave and collect the Materia. For the rest of the secret stuff you can take only with a Chocobo, click here.
19. You can collect more great prizes with your Golden Chocobo by racing it in Gold Saucer. Make sure you feed him first though. Around 30 Sylkis Greens should be enough to max out his stats. Your Chocobo should have about 999 Stamina and ~150 Top Speed. Just level up your Chocobo to the S-Class (should really be a piece of cake). In the S-Class you can win some great prizes like: Precious Watch, Counter Attack, Enemy Lure Materia, Enemy Away Materia, Chocobo Bracelet, Cat’s Bell, Megalixirs, Hero Drinks and many more.

History / List of changes

February 2002 – First version of the guide posted
May 2004 – Lots of grammar and spelling mistakes fixed (I was pretty young back then ^^)
August 2007 – Wow, I had no idea this guide was getting traction. Fixed some more grammar/spelling, changed font size so that ‘normal’ people can read it now. :> I’m planning to add some more information soon, regarding some changes between the Playstation version and the PC version.
July 2008 – Moved the site to a new URL and file host. No more annoying pop-ups and banners! Added information about Chocobo Lure materia, and the effects of different Greens when trying to catch a Chocobo. Corrected some more formatting and spelling.
October 2015 – Whoa… It’s been a while since I’ve last updated this guide. To be honest I have never expected this guide to become so popular. I appreciate each and every e-mail you guys are sending! In any case. In this version I have fixed a ton of grammatical errors. I was 14 when I originally wrote this guide, and English is not my native language. In addition, I have added some information regarding the RNG bug. Hopefully this helps all the poor folks out there who are having trouble getting a Blue Chocobo. I am personally very excited for the release of the FFVII remake, and I will go through great lengths in order to update my guide with relevant information when the game is finally out.
June 2019 – Some more minor text adjustments, trying to make some parts clearer. Also added some Chocobo racing tips. I truly appreciate each and every one of your emails, it makes me happy knowing I have helped so many people out there with this quest (I will never forget the frustration I had trying to figure it out back then). I have watched all the recent trailers for the remake and was elated with the amount of detail they have put into it. Am hoping they’ll give us another cool Chocobo quest!
September 2019 – Thanks to feedback from Donald Newburn, added information about a bug when mating a Black and a Wonderful Chocobo (the Black Chocobo needs to be selected first).

…Ending theme…

That’s it, you’ve finished your Chocobo breeding journey.
I hope this guide has helped you, and if it didn’t, please let me know, by sending me an e-mail to mike_chocobo AT outlook dot com.