FFXIV Chocobo Breeding and Raising Guide

FFXIV Chocobo Breeding and Raising Guide by FawksB

FEEDING

Feeding is fairly simple. Every Rank you gain, you’ll get one training session to use to feed your chocobo. Training sessions will stockpile, so it’s okay to save up for better food if you want to. The different grades of food raises stats at set rates. Grade 1 will raise stats by 1% of Stat Cap, Grade 2 is 2%, Grade 3 is 3%. Decimals here do not show, but they exist so you may occasional see ‘bonus’ stats appearing. This is simply the decimal rounding up and down.

Grade 1 Feed is available from a vendor in Bentbranch for 1500 gil. It can be crafted as well, but the materials are more expensive then just buying it from the vendor. Grade 2 Feed can be purchased for 1100 MGP, can be bought from the marketboard, or crafted from a 2* CUL recipe which requires 1* MIN & BTN mats, along with cross-bred gardening veggies. Grade 3 can only be purchased with MGP.

STAT CAPS

This formula took a little crunching to figure out. Your stat caps are determined by (40x((Pedigree-1)+Star Rating))+20. So, your starting chocobo is Pedigree 1 (P1) and has 2 Star Ratings in all stats, so all stat caps are 100. If a P2 Chocobo has all stats at 2 Stars, all stat caps are 140. The maximum stat caps are 500 with a P9 Chocobo with all 4 Stars. That’s the ultimate goal.

Be warned, as chocobo’s pedigree levels increase, XP required to Rank Up climbs up as well, but at least you’ll have access to higher division races which yield more XP and MGP as well. Your rating will also climb quite quickly as you first start Ranking up. For example, a P4 Chocobo can easily start with over Rating of 20, which means even at Rank 1, you’ll be unable to race in the Maiden Division.

BREEDING (This section has been heavily edited since the original posting, thanks to people contributing.)

When you breed chocobos, you’ll need at least a chocobo that is the same pedigree as your retired chocobo. Regardless of how high of a pedigree chocobo you use, you’ll only be able to increase pedigree by 1 per breeding. So, if you breed a P1 with a P1, you’ll get a P2. If you breed a P1 with a P9 Cover, you’ll still get a P2. Using a higher pedigree chocobo does mean a chance for better stats, and also getting a Tier III ability (which seems to be only possible through breeding right now), however they are more costly. There doesn’t seem to be any downside to using a higher chocobo other then cost.

Stats are determined at random, but the system does have some crazy sort of logic to it, and this will take some explaining. When you breed, it’s the chocobo’s grandparents that’ll determine what stats your bird will have. This is how the system works. For this, M1 is the male being breed, and F1 is the covered female, and M2 is the male child born. When M1 and F1 breed, the system looks back at their parents and grabs stats at random from the chocobo’s parents. So, for M1, stats are picked randomly from both of those parents and form the MALE PEDIGREE for M2, and the five stats picked from the female side become the FEMALE PEDIGREE. These pedigrees are what M2 will use when he becomes a breeder. Now, from these pedigrees, stats are picked at random again to form the actual stats of M2.

So, while picking chocobo’s to breed, it’s important to know that while looking across the pedigrees, there is a 25% chance your chocobo will have any stat from the 4 grandsires/dams, and a 50% chance he’ll be able to pass that stat on to future generations. Let’s get an example here. While looking at Max Speed, you see the four pedigrees at MM – 2 / MF – 2 / FM – 4 / FF – 1. Since the Male pedigree has 2 Stars in both grandparents, it’s a guarentee that the male pedigree will carry on the 2 Stars. For the Female pedigree, one parent has 4 Stars and the other has 1 Star. That means it’s a 50/50 chance of which stat will be carried on. So, overall the new born chocobo will have a 25% chance at 4 Star, 50% chance at 2 Star, and 25% at 1 Star.

In a way, a chocobo’s breeding potential is completely different then it’s racing potential. It is completely possible for your new chocobo to have lower stat ratings then the sire, but higher pedigree still means higher stats as well. Abilities and colors have a 50/50 chance of being passed on, your fledgling with have the color and ability of either of the parents, there is no ‘mutating’.

RETIRING CHOCOBOS

Once you have reached Rank 40, you can retire your chocobo. Current stats make no difference, only stat ratings will be passed onto the offspring. Also, your ability you have will be locked in to be passed on as well. If your chocobo has 2 abilities, you will be able to choose which one you want locked into pass onto your young. Retired Chocobos can be bred up to 10 times.

RETIRED VS COVERING CHOCOBOS

Covering chocobos will have random stats and abilities, and are ideal while you are getting your pedigree raised. However, they can only be bred once. For this reason, Retired chocobos are more ideal mates as they give much more control. Since retired chocobos can be bred 10 times, if the offspring doesn’t turn out to your liking, you can simply discard the offspring and try again. However, this is more once you start reaching Pedigree 8 or 9 and are trying from your perfect chocobo.

Any questions, feel free to ask below and I’ll answer to the best of my ability. Also, check out my basic guide for information on racing items and abilities. Also, you can check my guides on Stat Growth and Ranks and Ratings