FINAL FANTASY XIV Online: The Ultimate Chocobo Guide

Steam Community guide by Dr. Permixtus.

Your Personal Chocobo

Acquiring your own personal Chocobo
Once you choose a Company, which happens naturally through the main story, and you are at least level 20, you will be able to accept the quest "My Little Chocobo". This is not a Main Scenario Quest, but a Blue Side Quest, so make sure you don't accidentally miss it!
Depending on what Company you chose, the quest giver for this quest will be a different one, the quest itself however will be the same.
Maelstrom
Quest giver: R'ashaht Rhiki
Limsa Lominsa Upper Decks (X:13.1, Y:12.8)
Twin Adder
Quest giver: Vorsaile Heuloix
New Gridania (X:9, Y:11)
Immortal Flames
Quest giver: Swift
Ul'dah - Steps of Nald (X:8, Y:8)
In Order to finish the Quest, you will need to acquire Seals. By completing the Main Scenario Quest of choosing a company, you should have already acquired 300 seals. If you for some reason don't have these seals, you can just participate in a couple fates and you should get them quickly.

Once you have 200 you exchange them at the Quartermaster for a Chocobo Insurance. With that Insurance you can now exchange it for your own personal Chocobo! To complete the Quest you will have to give your Chocobo a name. Don't worry if you can't think of anything great right away, you can still change the name later.
Should you need a Chocobo before reaching level 30, you can rent a Chocobo from the Chocobo Stable of one of the main 3 Cities. This is not like the Porter and will allow you to ride a Chocobo on your own control for 10 minutes. 10 Minutes cost 80 gil, but be aware that dismounting it will result in the Chocobo to dissappear.

Your Chocobo as a Fighting Companion

Unlocking your Chocobo as a Companion
Your chocobo can fight by your side and help you in a lot of useful ways as a companion in the world. But first you have to unlock the ability to summon your Chocobo by completing another Quest.
The Quest "My Feisty Little Chocobo" will be available to you as soon as you acquired your Chocobo as a mount. To accept it you have to go to the South Shroud (X:17.0, Y:28.2) and speak with Docette. (You should accept the follow-up quest for later as well)
Following this quest you're going to learn to use Gysahl to summon your Chocobo and upon completing will unlock the ability to do this everywhere in the over-world.

Finishing this quest also grants you access to the Chocobo Saddlebag. This is additional Storage space you can use to carry items. Be aware you cannot access it in Dungeons or Instances.
You can find it under Character > Chocobo Saddlebag.
Gysahl Greens
Gysahl can be purchased from a bunch of merchants, but the easiest to access is Maisenta in New Gridania (11.5, 11.2). She is right next to the Aetheryte. 1 Gysahl costs 36 gil.
With one Gysahl you can summon your Chocobo for 30 minutes. The time will extend to 1 hour if you use another one, but it won't go above that. Once the time runs out, your chocobo will dissappear, but you can simply summon it again by using another Gysahl.
The Timer is visible in your party list and looks like this:

Should your Chocobo level up in Combat, it will extend the time by 30 minutes for free.
Important to note as well is that the timer will pause if you are mounted or in a dungeon. Chocobos itself will only accompany you in the over-world and cannot come into dungeons or instances with you.

Leveling your Chocobo in the Field

Leveling from Rank 1 to 10
Your Chocobo will always match your current characters level, however it has its own ranking system and will start at Rank 1. At that rank your Chocobo can't do very much, other than some basic attacks it will do to help you fight. But it can learn more skills later.
You can gain experience for your Chocobo by fighting monsters that are in your level range together with your Chocobo. Each defeated enemy will grant your Chocobo a small amount of XP. At the start you'll level fairly quickly by just having your Chocobo summoned with you at all times.
You can check your Chocobos Status in your companion menu under Character -> Companion:

When you defeat enough enemies, your Chocobo will rank up and you will be rewarded with Skill Points to spend on your Chocobo. More on that in the Skill Tree Section.
You can freely level your Chocobo until Rank 10 at which point it will cap and stop leveling for now.
Leveling beyond Rank 10
To increase the level cap of Rank 10 you need to feed your Chocobo a Thavnairian Onion. This will increase the level cap by 1 level, which means for each level going forward you're going to need to feed your Chocobo another Thavnairian Onion to continue leveling. You can do this a total of 10 times to reach the actual last Rank of 20. Leveling from Rank 10 will also be significantly slower than before.
Important:
To feed the Onion to your Chocobo, it has to be summoned in the field next to you or used in stable training. If you use the onion in a dungeon, city or instance without your chocobo being present, you will lose the onion.
Thavnairian Onions can be acquired in 3 ways.

• Market Board
• Gardening
• 2 Onions through Questing
  The easiest, but also most expensive way is by buying the Onions on the Market Board.
  Alternatively, you can garden them yourself, if you have a housing plot with a garden.
  Refer to this guide if you want to know how: https://www.ffxivgardening.com/cross-diagrams
  There are however two Onions you can get by doing two quests in Heavensward, which will save you some money for the first 2 levels past 10.
  Quest 1:
  Lvl 50: Landing a Stable Job The Pillars (X:6.2, Y:9.4) by Mathye
  Quest 2:
  Lvl 57: A Hunter's True Nature The Dravanian Forelands (X:31.6, Y:22.9) by Hervoix
  (These Quest might require you to do some previous quests to show up)

Tips for leveling

If you have your chocobo summoned at all times that you're fighting outside, it will level naturally with time. There are however two things you can do to speed this up.
Your Challenge Log has 2 Challenges every week that will help boost your Chocobos level.
Bosom Buddies I - defeat 20 enemies with your Chocobo - rewards 5% of your current Ranks XP
Bosom Buddies II - defeat 100 enemies with your Chocobo - rewards 10% of your current Ranks XP
I recommend doing these challenges through fates, as the sync down option for the fates makes sure that your Chocobo and you are always at the same level range and guarantee XP for your Chocobo. It's also a good way of leveling in general. The higher level fate you will do, the more XP your Chocobo will earn.
It's also a good idea to stable and train your chocobo everytime you know you will be in a dungeon, or are going to log off, as this will help with increasing the XP over time as well.
Feeding your Chocobo Curiel Root as a Training Program to make it their Favorite Snack and then using it in the Field will also grant you an XP Buff to increase the amount earned and can improve the speed at which it levels.
(More on stables and food in the next section)

Chocobo Stable and Training Food

Raising Chocobos at a Stable

Following the Quest "My Feisty little Chocobo" you will get the Quest "Bird in Hand". You should have already accepted it.
The Quest is fairly quickly done and will reward you with 5 Krakka Root and the unlock Chocobo Raising.
In oder to raise your Chocobo you will need to stable it. For this you need to have access to a Chocobo Stable. Chocobo Stables are only accessible if you have a housing Plot, an apartment or are part of a Free Company that owns a Stable.
The Stable can be used for a variety of things, while it is mainly to train the Chocobo, you can also customize it with the stable. Though more on that in the Customization part of the guide.
While your Chocobo is stabled you will not have access to your Companion Menu. You won't be able to summon your Chocobo as a mount or as a fighting companion in the overworld either. For this you have to use the Fetch Option at the stable to get your Chocobo back.
You also have to Withdraw your Chocobo in order to stable it. You can do this with the Companion Menu as well.
Training and Chocobo Food
When in the stable, you'll have the option to train your own or other stabled Chocobos.
(A Head Barding can be obtained upon training 10 Chocobos that don't belong to you)
Training can be done once per hour and will increase the XP your Chocobo currently has, but it demands specific foods in order to be able to train them.

There are 6 different types of food that you can use to train your Chocobo. Upon training your Chocobo 10 times with the same food, it will become their favorite snack. You can check this in the first page of your Companion Menu.
All 6 foods can be fed to your Chocobo outside in combat as well, they won't however incrase XP but give your Chocobo a specific buff. If you feed them their favorite snack, it will increase the buff of the food a little more.
(You cannot summon a Chocobo with a snack, you need to feed it to them after you summoned it)
Icon for feeding a non favorite snack

Icon for feeding a favorite snack

Food Effects:
Food Effect Curiel Root Increased XP Gain Sylkis Bud Increased Attack Power Mimett Gourd Increased Healing Potency Tantalplant Increased HP Pahsana Fruit Increased Enmity Krakka Root No Effect
These effects only appear when fed to your chocobo after you summoned it, they will not appear when training with these foods. You can change the favorite food of your Chocobo by training it again 10 times with a different food at the stable.
Where to get Chocobo Snacks
Having finished the Quest Bird in Hand you will have obtained 5 Krakka Roots
To get the other Foods you will have to either Garden them yourself, acquire them from the Market board or buy them off the Vath Vendor in The Dravanian Forelands (23.6,19.0). For this you will have to unlock the Vath as a Beast Tribe and reach the Reputation Friendly. You can then purchase all Foods for 348 gil each, except for Krakka Root and Curiel Root. These are exclusive to the Market Board or Gardening. Keep in mind that Market Board Prices can vary and you might be able to buy them cheaper off there than of the Vath Vendor.
Stable Conditions
There are 3 Stable Conditions that will effect the amount of XP your Chocobo will earn during Training.

• Good
• Fair
• PoorYou can see it's status when you click on it, or by looking at the stable. If it shines it's good, no shine is fair and if the hay is scattered around it's poor.
  
  To maximize the amount of XP you gain, your stable should always be in Good Condition. You can achieve this by using a Magicked Stable Broom on the Stable to clean it. You will have to use it twice to get from Poor to Good.
  You can acquire the Magicked Stable Broom in 5 different ways.

1. A level 57 Quest in The Dravanian Forelands (X:31.6, Y:22.9) by Hervoix will reward 3 Brooms.
2. A level 50 Crafting Recipe
3. Market Board
4. If your House or FC has a Junkmonger you can purchase them for 20000 gil
5. At the Quartermaster of your Company for 1500 Company Credits

Fighting and Skills

Your Chocobo will naturally use its abilities to help you fight enemies. You can however influence the effectiveness of your Chocobo with different things:
Your Skill Tree and your Stances
Let's go over the Skill Tree first:

You can find this in the second Section of your Companion Menu.
You have 3 Skill Trees to choose from:

• Defender
• Healer
• AttackerEverytime your Chocobo levels up a Rank, it will gain Skill Points. You can use these Skill Points to buy Skills from the different Skill Trees. Each Skill costs its level in SP, so the first Skill of the Tree always costs 1SP, the second one 2SP and so on.
  You will have enough Skill points to buy every single Skill if you level your Chocobo to level 20.
  Finishing a Skill Tree will also reward you with a Barding. You can get 3 Bardings by finishing all 3 Skill Trees.
  While it is possible to mix and match the Skills from the trees, I personally recommend choosing a skill tree and sticking with it. Depending on your needs, the Healer and Attacker Skill Tree should be the one you focus on, while the defender Skill tree should come last, as its skills are the least useful in there.
  Each Skill Tree has 4 Active skills and 6 Passive Traits. Traits will increase your Chocobos strength, HP or mind. While active skills will help in battle by teaching it spells to heal you with or weaponskills to fight with. You can check what each skill does by hovering over them in the Companion Menu.
  Refunding Skills
  Should you be unhappy with the Skills you chose for your Chocobo or want to try out a different Tree without leveling further, you can refund all Skills by feeding your Chocobo a Reagan Pepper.
  You can buy a Reagan Pepper at the Quartermaster of your Company for 48000 Seals (You have to be the Rank lieutenant for this) or from your Hunt Billmaster for 20 Allied Seals.
  Now let's get over your Stances:
  
  The first section of the Companion Menu will show you what stance you can choose from. Each of these stances can be assigned to a hotbar as well for easy access.
  You can see what stance is active in the Party list on your Chocobos name.
  Stance Effect Follow Your Chocobo will not engage in Battle and only follow you around. Good to lose emnity Free Stance Your Chocobo will freely choose out of all its available skills and do what it thinks is the most important. Defender Stance Your Chocobo will attack the enemy and use skills from your defender tree only Healer Stance Your Chocobo will not engage in battle, but will focus on healing you and your party members Attacker Stance Your Chocobo will focus purely on attacking and use skills from your attacker tree only (Please not that Withdraw is not a stance and it will completely remove your Chocobo, until you summon it again with Gysahl Green.)
  Recommendation for Stances
  Using Free Stance is almost always recommended, as your Chocobo will make the most out of all the Skills it has and won't suffer the skill cooldown penalty from only using one skill tree.
  This means, at the highest rank your Chocobo will have more DPS on the free stance, than on the Attacker Stance, since it can use the defender Skills as well.
  Should you realize you're struggling to keep yourself alive in a situation however, changing your Chocobo to healing stance can also be recommended, while the cooldowns on the skills still apply, the focus on purely healing can make the difference in keeping you alive.
  The Attacker Stance can be useful if you're starting out as a healer and need some extra DPS in the beginning, or to help speed up quests to kill enemies as a healer.
  The Defender Stance should mostly be avoided, as the Emnity your Chocobo builds up does not compare to your own and it will struggle holding Emnity.
  If your Chocobo is attacking the wrong enemy, you can change what enemy it attacks by choosing the following Stance, then switching back to Free Stance or Attacker stance and attacking the enemy you wish the Chocobo to focus.

Changing Chocobo Colors and Bardings

You can customize the appearance of your Chocobo in mostly 2 ways.
The Color of your Chocobo and the Barding.
Check your Appearance Tab in your Chocobo Menu to see Customization options and Infos:

All Customization options appear both mounted and unmounted on your Chocobo.
To change the color of your Chocobo you need to stable it and feed it specific foods in a specific order to change the hue.
It is important that you feed the food in the right order to avoid unwanted results, as you will have to do it all over again, should the color not be the one you wish for.
The process takes 6 hours after you fed your Chocobo the snacks, do not unstable your Chocobo in that time, as it will reset the progress on the coloring. This is only useful if you made a mistake in the feeding order and wish to start over.
This website has an excellent overview over what colors you can choose from, what food you need for them and in what order you need to feed them:
https://ffxivchocobo.com/en
As always there are different ways of acquiring the Snacks to change the Colors
Gardening and Market Board as usual
and the following quest that are all acceptable from
Hervoix in The Dravanian Forelands (X:31.6, Y:22.9)
Lvl 57 Getting a Legtrap Up - Rewards a choice of either 15 Xelphatol Apples, 15 Doman Plums or 15 Mamook Pears
Lvl 57 Pest Control - Rewards a choice of either 15 Valfruit, 15 O'Ghomoro Berries or 15 Cieldalaes Pineapples
Lvl 57 A Step in the Right Direction - Rewards a Han Lemon
The Han Lemon can be used to revert your Chocobos color back to the original desert Yellow Color and only needs to be fed once.
Bardings
Equipping a barding is another way of customizing your Chocobo.
There are a total of 88 Bardings that can be acquired in different ways. Some have to be bought with real money, some are crafted or bought from the market board, some you get through fates or other currency exchanges.
Some easy to get Bardings in the beginning can be acquired in Old Gridania (10.6, 6.2) at Jonathas Achievement Exchange. He offers 3 full bardings and one head piece barding for a few Achievement points.
In order to equip your Bardings open the Companion Menu.
You can equip the Bardings in the Gear section of the Appearance window. Feel free to mix different Bardings together for a unique look!

A complete List of all Bardings and how to get them can be found here:
https://ffxivcollect.com/bardings

Chocobo Racing

As there already exists a really good and in-depth guide about Chocobo Racing and Breeding, I will link it here and only go over the basics.
https://ffxivchocoboracing.wordpress.com/
Unlocking Chocobo Racing
To unlock Chocobo Racing you first need access to the Gold saucer, which you gain through a level 15 quest "It Could Happen to You" in Ul'dah - Steps of Nald (X:9.6, Y:9.0) by Well-heeled Youth
Once you have access to the Gold Saucer, you can use the Aetheryte to teleport to the Chocobo Square. There the Race Chocobo Registrar should have the Quest "So You Want to Be a Jockey" for you.
The Reward unlocks Chocobo Racing as well as your first Fledgling Chocobo Registration. You can choose between G1-M and G1-F, which basically means you can choose between having a female or male racing Chocobo. (This is purely choice preference and has no influence on stats)
Chocobo Racing is made up of different things. I will go over the basics in each of these:

• Your Racing Chocobo
• Racing
• Tips for Racing

Your Racing Ch