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By:
Biggs
After leaving the Dragons
Gate at Lindblum you can head East over land to
the Chocobo Forest. Here you will meet a man called Mene and his friend
Choco. They are in need of help to reach Chocobos Paradise. This section
tells you how this can be achieved...
Your party will not be able to reach certain areas or find some powerful
items until you have obtained certain vehicles and Choco has acquired the
necessary skills to swim, climb mountains, or fly.
Every time you pay the 60 gil fee to Mene you get 60 seconds to rummage
around the forests for items, gil, and chocographs. Whilst riding Choco you
push Square to dig, Choco makes a "kweh" sound to tell you how close or far
you are from an item Choco makes 4 different "Kweh" sounds to tell you the
rough distance from you to the nearest item. This is explained as follows:
Kweh - there is nothing near
Kweh!? - you are quite close to the nearest item
Kwehhh!? - you are very close to an item
K-KWEHHH!!! - you are standing right on one so start digging
For each item or amount of Gil you find, you receive points. If you find
four items in one sixty-second game, Mene will add 10 seconds to the clock
and double your points for each item found thereafter. If you dig up two
items within five seconds of one another, you receive additional bonus
points.
Choco's beak level will increase occasionally, depending on the total number
of points you've earned. As Choco improves, finding items and digging them
up become much easier and faster.
Chocographs
There are certain items buried deep beneath the ground in the forest called
Chocographs. Chocographs provide clues to the whereabouts of treasures
around the world map. During you're first visit to the chocobo forest it is
rather easy to find the first chocograph (streamside). This chocograph
allows you to dig up a treasure chest buried on the beach near the river,
not far from the chocobo forest.
To use a chocograph to find buried treasure, leave the Chocobo Forest riding
Choco. Press the Triangle button to open the Chocograph menu, select the
treasure you want to search for, and exit the menu. Now toggle the Select
button until the mini-map appears in the lower right-hand corner of the
screen. The picture of the treasure's location should appear just above the
mini-map. Ride Choco to that location and begin searching for the treasure
by pressing the Square button. Choco will make similar sounds as in the
"Chocobo Hot and Cold Game" to indicate how near you are to the treasure.
A chocograph also lists the required skills a chocobo must have in order to
obtain the treasure shown. The chocograph in your menu will be grey until
you obtain the abilities to get that treasure.
Chocobo Abilities
A few Chocographs provide hints about locations where Choco can dig up a
"Power Up." In this case, instead of finding treasures, Choco will fall
asleep and go to Chocobo's Dream World for a moment.
Here, Fat Chocobo (god of all Chocobos) bestows upon Choco a new ability,
which in turn changes Choco's colour. Each color indicates that Choco has
attained a new ability. The abilities are cumulative, so Choco will not lose
a previously gained ability just because he has turned a new colour.
When Choco turns light-blue he can search light-blue areas of the ocean(reef
ability). When he is red he has the mountain ability and can pass mountains
and ridges that you couldn't pass before. This also enables Choco to search
the high ledges to the left and to the right in the Chocobo's Forest area.
A dark-blue chocobo has the sea ability and can cross any part of the ocean.
Last but not least is everyone's favourite chocobo, the gold one : this
(as in the older Final Fantasies) can go anywhere in the world map but new
to Final Fantasy IX they can also fly, with this ability you can access
areas even unreachable in the airship.
Chocobo's Lagoon
Continue digging up Chocographs in the Chocobo's Forest until Choco tells
Mene that there are no more Chocographs to find. Once the party has a
vehicle, pilot the party to the small strip of islands south of the western
Forgotten Continent. Land on the island where you see chocobo tracks, and
use a Gysahl Green to summon Choco.
Choco must have the REEF ability to travel in the light blue colored water
areas to find Chocobo's Lagoon. Ride Choco north across the reefs in this
area, curving south until you reach an island with a cave visible in the
side, close to the reef. When you see the "?" appear, ride in on Choco. This
is Chocobo's Lagoon.
Mene appears and offers to let you search the area for 30 seconds at 30 Gil
a shot. With the REEF ability, the light blue colored chocobo can only
search the shallow portions of the area. Once he earns the SEA ability, the
dark blue chocobo can search the entire area for 60 seconds at 60 Gil. Note
that, you must have a red chocobo before you can have the ocean chocobo. To
acquire the ocean chocobo, you must return to Chocobo Forest with the red
chocobo.
Chocobo Air Garden
After finding all of the Chocographs in Chocobo's Lagoon, Mene indicates
that it's time to find Chocobo's Air Garden. The whereabouts of this
mysterious place is indicated by the clues inscribed on the back of the six
Chocograph Pieces. You must dig up all six of these pieces in the "Chocobo
Hot and Cold game." After finding them all, the Chocograph that leads you to
the gold-colored chocobo SKY ability immediately becomes available.
Most of the Chocograph Pieces indicate a location on the World Map. Fly to
each location with the gold Choco and search for a small black shadow on the
ground.
When you find the shadow, hover Choco directly over it and then take Choco
up into the sky. Feed Choco a Dead Pepper, which temporarily increases
Choco's abilities, to find the Air Garden. After Mene arrives, you can play
the "Chocobo Hot and Cold Game" here to find the remaining Chocographs.
Search along the two islands floating among the clouds, but don't hop to the
other one until you're sure there are no more treasures on the island you're
currently on.
Chocobo Paradise
After finding all of the Chocographs and digging up their corresponding
treasures, it's time to head to Chocobo's Paradise. You'll need a Dead
Pepper, an item you can find while playing "Chocobo Hot and Cold."
Pilot your gold chocobo to the most northwestern part of the World Map,
where you'll find a hidden island. There's a forest for Choco to land in and
a small mountain nearby. Look for a large crack on the side of the mountain.
Move Choco across the ground to the crack, and then open the menu (press the
Triangle button) and use a Dead Pepper. Choco will dig open the entrance to
Chocobo's Paradise.
Now ride Choco to the right, where he will use the fountain as a springboard
to leap up to the high platform. This is where Fat Chocobo presides. At this
stage, the Fat Chocobo will indicate that there are still treasures to find
on the World Map. Also, you are now able to understand all of the chocobos
when they speak. The chocobo seated to the left of Fat Chocobo will give you
99 Dead Peppers. All the rest of the chocobos, including the two near the
entrance, provide clues as to the whereabouts of treasures hidden in the
world that you can find by using Dead Peppers.
If you've found all of the treasures, Fat Chocobo dictates that Choco must
stay in Chocobo's Paradise. He gives you the ultra-rare Fat Chocobo Card, as
if it's any consolation. But don't worry, Choco won't abandon his friends.
When you move back to the entrance, Choco rejoins you for more adventures!
Chocobo Locations and Treasures
Listed in the following table are all of the Chocographs in the game in the
order they appear in the Chocograph menu.
You can find a map of all the locations here.
Name
Treasures found
Streamside 2 Elixir, 3
Hi-Potion, 4 Ethers, 2 Germinas Boots
Between Mountains 5 Potion, 5 Hi-Potion, 2 Tent, 2 Cotton Robe
Uncultivated Land 10 Antidote, 1 Jade Armlet, 3 Wing Edge, 1
Cargo Ship Card
Healing Shore Chocobo upgrade to light
blue Choco
Abandoned Beach 9 Phoenix Pinion, 5 Phoenix Down, 12
Peridot, 1 Diamond Gloves
Cold Field 5 Echo
Screen, 7 Hi-Potion, 3 Tent, 1 Theater Ship Card
Forgotten Lagoon 8 Gysahl Greens, 5 Ether, 7 Hi-Potion, 1
Dragon's Claws
Faraway Lagoon 37 Potion, 6 Magic Tag, 1
Shield Armor, 1 Gaia Gear
Abandoned Lagoon 6 Soft, 4 Ether, 1 Feather Boots, 1 N-Kai
Armlet
Birds-eye Lagoon 8 Potion, 4 Phoenix Down, 3 Ether, 1
Magician Robe
Small Beach 4 Remedy, 2
Elixir, 8 Rising Sun, 1 Oak Staff
Dawn Lagoon Chocobo upgrade
to red Choco
Forbidden Forest 7 Ether, 2 Elixir, 10 Wing Edge, 1 High
Mage Staff
Green Plains Chocobo upgrade to
dark blue Choco
Dusk Plains 12 Phoenix Down,
14 Ore, 1 Kaiser Knuckles, 1 Iron Man Card
Forgotten Plains 17 Ore, 5 Ether, 14 Opal, 1 Demon's Mail
Sea at Dusk 15 Phoenix
Pinion, 1 White Robe, 1 Diamond, 1 Masamune Card
Ocean
27 Ore, 1 Light Robe, 1 Whale Whisker, 1 Alexander Card
Cold Lagoon 11 Peridot, 9
Opal, 15 Sapphire, 19 Topaz
Mist Ocean Chocobo
upgrade to gold Choco
Outer Island 21 Amethyst, 16
Garnet, 1 Genji Armor, 1 Ragnarok
Outer Island 2 11 Sapphire, 1 Circlet, 1
Pumice Piece, 1 Hilda Garde 3 Card
Fairy Island 33 Potion, 15
Annoyntment, 1 Holy Miter, 1 Dark Matter Card
Forgotten Island 1 Ribbon, 1 Rebirth Ring, 13 Amethyst, 1
Ark Card
Chocobo Revitalizing Ability
As an added bonus for completing the "Chocobo Hot and Cold" game, Choco can
learn to completely restore your party's HP and MP, as well as remove any
status abnormalities. All you need to do is visit a beach.
First, find every treasure on the World Map and all of the Chocographs. Then
visit Chocobo's Paradise and challenge Fat Chocobo to a card game. When you
challenge Fat Chocobo to a card game, he will give you clues to the beaches.
It isn't necessary to even play against him, as long as you challenge him.
Ride Choco to a beach and dismount. Then press the Circle button and you
will hear a chime. After you repeat this process on every single beach, you
will heal your entire party. You can now heal your party completely just by
visiting any beach and pressing the Circle button!
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