You can begin breeding Chocobos after you have obtained the Highwind during the escape from Junon. You can start racing Chocobos after you have rescued Cloud from the second visit to Mideel, as this is when Gold Saucer reopens for business. The Chocobo side quests are much easier later in the game once you have reached Disc 3.

The goal of this side quest is to breed a Blue Chocobo, a Green Chocobo, a Black Chocobo, and finally, a Gold Chocobo. Each color of Chocobo possesses unique characteristics and abilities when you ride them on the world map.

• Blue Chocobo:
  Also known as River Chocobos, they are capable of running across shallow water (similar to the Tiny Bronco).
• Green Chocobo:
  Also known as Mountain Chocobos, they are capable of running over mountainous terrain.
• Black Chocobo:
  They are capable of crossing both shallow waters and mountainous areas.
• Gold Chocobo:
  They are capable of crossing all terrain, including oceans, and can travel unrestricted to any area of the map.

You can pick up numerous items and rewards around the world in areas of the map known as the Materia Caves.

The Blue Chocobo can reach a cave that contains a Quadra Magic Materia, the Green Chocobo can reach a cave that contains a Mime Materia, the Black Chocobo can reach both of the previous areas as well as another cave that contains an HP ↔ MP Materia and finally the Gold Chocobo can reach all three previously listed items as well as a special cave that contains the most powerful summon in the game, Knights of the Round Materia.

Preparations

The first step to breeding and racing Chocobos is to take the Highwind and travel back to the Chocobo Farm. Enter the barn, speak to Choco Bill in the house next to the barn, and choose to rent all 6 Chocobo stables. Each of them will cost you 10,000 gil.

There is another Chocobo Lure Materia, which you can pick up outside the farm as well (shown in the screenshot below) in case you lost your first one.

Equip both of your Chocobo Lure Materia, to your characters, as using both of them will increase your chances of encountering a Chocobo. You also need to purchase “Greens” to help you with capturing a Chocobo. You have the following options:

Type of Greens	Location	Effect
Gysahl Greens	Chocobo Farm	Distracts a Chocobo for 2 turns.
Krakka Greens	Chocobo Farm	Reduces a Chocobos chance to run away each turn to 33.3%
Tantal Greens	Chocobo Farm	Distracts a Chocobo for 3 turns.
Pahsana Greens	Chocobo Farm	Reduces a Chocobos chance to run away each turn to 20.0%
Curiel Greens	Chocobo Farm	Distracts a Chocobo for 4 turns.
Mimett Greens	Chocobo Farm	Distracts a Chocobo for 1 turn (allows the use of “Chocobuckle”)
Reagan Greens	Chocobo Sage’s House	Distracts a Chocobo for 8 turns and reduces the Chocobos chance to run away each turn to 12.5%
Sylkis Greens	Chocobo Sage’s House	Distracts a Chocobo for 1 turn (allows the use of “Chocobuckle”)

As you can see from the chart above, the most expensive greens are Sylkis Greens, which are not ideal for capturing Chocobos in a battle. Their primary use in battle is for obtaining the Chocobuckle move on your Enemy Skill Materia.

You should stock up on Reagan Greens; buying five of them should suffice. You can purchase them at the Chocobo Sage’s House. Check out the Chocobo Sage’s House guide in the Side Quests section if you have not been there before.

You will still require around 25-30 Sylkis Greens, though, to raise the stats of your Chocobos after you capture them, so make sure that you buy some of those as well while you are at the Chocobo Sage’s House.

After you capture a Chocobo in battle, you will now be given the option to send that Chocobo back to the stables at the Chocobo Farm after you dismount. They will initially arrive in the large, open stable that you see when you first enter the Chocobo Farm. You can then speak with Choco Billy to move them from the large pen into one of the six stalls that you purchased.

Choco Billy will provide you with a short description of a Chocobo before you move it into the pen. There are eight different types of Chocobos that you can catch that are described by Billy as follows: Terrible, Bad, Poor, Average, Fair, Good, Great, and Wonderful. Choco Billy’s descriptions of the Chocobos are listed below:

In addition to needing greens for capturing the Chocobo, you will also need different nuts for breeding your Chocobos, so let’s get started on tracking those down. The first nut you require is called a Carob Nut.

You can steal these nuts from an enemy called Vlakorados, which can be found in the fields just south of Bone Village. Use the screenshot below to help you locate it and equip your Steal Materia, allowing you to steal the nuts. You will need at least three of them.

The second nut you require is called a Zeio Nut. These can be stolen from Goblin enemies or obtained as loot after defeating a Goblin. You can find these Goblins in the forests on the aptly named ‘Goblin Island.’

Goblin Island is an island located in the northeastern section of the world map, and you can fly there in the Highwind. The Goblin enemies are pictured in the screenshot below. You will only require one Zeio Nut.

Breeding Blue and Green Chocobos

To breed Blue and Green Chocobos, you will need to capture either Good or Great Chocobos. You can breed any combination of either Good/Good, Good/Great, or Great/Great Chocobos to do this, but Great Chocobos have the best stats, which will be helpful later on when you race them, so you should consider capturing at least two Great Chocobos.

Travel to the Chocobo tracks near the town of Mideel. You can catch two types of Chocobos in this area: Fair and Great.

The type of Chocobo you receive depends on the kind of enemies that surround it during the battle. For example, if either two or three Head Hunter enemies surround the Chocobo, it will be of Fair quality.

To capture Great Chocobos, you need to ensure that the Chocobo is accompanied by Spiral enemies, which are shown in the screenshot below. They look like small grey bugs, and it doesn’t matter if one or two Spirals accompany them. Any Spirals will do.

Travel back to the Chocobo Farm, enter the barn, and speak to Choco Billy. The gender of your Chocobo is determined as soon as you move it from the outside pen into one of the stalls that you purchased inside the barn. Move your first Great Chocobo inside the barn and then exit the Chocobo Farm and save your game on the world map.

Return to the barn and speak to Choco Billy again. Reset the game if you don’t receive the opposite gender of Chocobo when you move the second one into the barn. You require one male and one female (obviously!).

At this point, you should now race your Chocobos to maximize the odds of obtaining a Blue or Green Chocobo. Contrary to popular belief, you do not need to race your two Chocobos up to “S” class.

All you need to do is win 4 races between your two Chocobos to maximize the potential of breeding a Blue or a Green Chocobo. You only have to race one of them, and you should pick the one with the best stats to race.

Speak to a character named Chole in the Chocobo barn. Chole can tell you which of your two Great Chocobos have the best stats.

Feed that one around 10 of your Sylkis Greens until its stats stop going up, and then travel to Gold Saucer to win 4 races with that Chocobo.

You should also take this opportunity to select some “GP” as your prize when you win a race. Having GP will help you prepare for a side quest that comes later involving Battle Square.

Return to the Chocobo Farm and save your game on the world map just out front. When you’re ready, breed your two Chocobos using a Carob Nut, and you should receive either a Green or a Blue Chocobo.

At this point, you will have to wait before you can breed your Chocobos again. To reset the timer, you will need to fight at least ten battles without running away.

Save your game before you attempt to breed them again, as your Great/Good combination of Chocobos can be used to get you both your Green and your Blue Chocobo.

You need to receive the opposite color and gender of your previous Chocobo so that you can breed the Blue and the Green. Reset the game using a soft reset by holding the following six buttons at the same time:

+ + + + +

Keep trying until you obtain the correct Chocobo color and gender combination. Hopefully, it doesn’t take too many tries, but there is definitely an element of randomness to it!

Breeding a Black Chocobo

You need a Blue and a Green Chocobo of opposite genders to breed a Black Chocobo. To maximize the odds of breeding a Black Chocobo, you need to win approximately 9 races between your two Chocobos.

The Green Chocobo is the best one to race as it doesn’t slow down when racing through the space station section of the racetrack like all the other Chocobos do. Feed your Green Chocobo around 10 Sylkis Greens and return to Gold Saucer to win the races.

Chocobos that you breed will not be old enough to breed themselves until you have engaged in somewhere from 3 to 18 battles (without running away).

Complete the battles and then save your game outside the Chocobo Farm. Breed the Green and the Blue Chocobo using a Carob Nut, and you should receive a Black Chocobo. Just one more step!

Breeding a Gold Chocobo

To breed a Gold Chocobo, you will need to breed your Black Chocobo with a Wonderful Chocobo. You can capture Wonderful Chocobos on the tracks near the Icicle Inn.

You can land the Highwind nearby on the non-snowy parts of the continent, and the area you need to find is shown in the screenshot below.

Wonderful Chocobos are always accompanied by an enemy called a Jumping, but not by any enemies called Bandersnatches (if you get a mix of Jumpings with Bandersnatches and a Chocobo, it will also still not be a Wonderful Chocobo).

Jumping enemies are shown in the screenshot below, and they look like rabbits, while Bandersnatches look like wolves. Send the Wonderful Chocobo back to the Chocobo Farm after you capture it.

Fly back to the Chocobo Farm and save your game outside on the world map. Go back into the barn and speak to Choco Billy to have him bring your Wonderful Chocobo into one of the stables.

Soft reset your game, using the method outlined above, if the Chocobo is not the opposite gender of your Black Chocobo. Next, feed your Black Chocobo around 10 Sylkis Greens until its stats stop increasing.

You need to win 12 races between your Black Chocobo and your Wonderful Chocobo to guarantee that you receive a Gold Chocobo. It can be fairly difficult to win races in “S” class after you have won 9 races on either of your Chocobos, so race both of them up to a combined total of 12 if you’re having trouble.

Remember that you might have to initiate between 3 and 18 battles again before you can breed your Black Chocobo. Save outside the Chocobo Farm before you attempt to breed them, just in case you don’t receive a Gold Chocobo.

Reenter the Chocobo Farm, breed them using a Zeio Nut, and do another soft reset until it works. Note that some players have reported that they were only able to obtain a Gold Chocobo by selecting the Black Chocobo first, so give this a try if you run into any problems.

Congratulations! You are now the proud owner of a Gold Chocobo!

The Gold Chocobo can travel anywhere on the world map, including across oceans. This includes several secret areas around the game, such as the Materia Caves. Check out the Materia Caves side quest page below for more information:

Your Gold Chocobo will have the highest stats of the previous Chocobos you raised. This makes it ideal for racing in Chocobo Square to obtain all the top prizes.