Chocobo Racing Guide
Huge thanks to Kotetsu for allowing us to use his (this) FAQ
Final Fantasy X (US) Chocobo Racing Guide
Written by Kotetsu (Kellen Bloch, haruka0@earthlink.net)
Written for: GameFAQs.com and lazy gamers everywhere
Version 0.9 2-20-02
LEGAL JUNK: This guide was written by me. Before you
rip it off, ask me. I'll probably allow you to use it.
However, I will keep notes of who I allow to use this FAQ.
If you use it without my permission, you'd better run.
Basically, copyright Kellen Bloch 2001-2002, blahblah.
ANOTHER NOTE: E-mail me at haruka0@earthlink.net if I made
any mistakes or if you think anything should be changed or
added.
And now, on with the guide.
Table of Contents
1. History
2. FAQ
A. How do I get the Cloudy Mirror?
B. How do I turn the Cloudy Mirror into the Celestial Mirror?
C. How the hell do I get 5 chests in the Remiem Temple race?
D. What about the 6th chest that's on the map? Can't you get 6 chests?
E. When do I get the airship?
F. Where can I do this Chocobo racing stuff?
G. How do I get 0:0.0 on the Catcher Chocobo game?
H. I can't find the chocobo rider! Where is she? (Solved?)
I. Where can I find Morelock's guide?
3. Remiem Temple Race (*Cloudy Mirror*)
4. Chocobo Training (Racing games)
A. Wobbly chocobo
B. Dodger chocobo
C. Hyper dodger chocobo
D. Catcher chocobo
- E-mailed strategies
5. Contact Information
6. Thanks, Credits, Etc.
1. History
v0.1 12-26-01 Finally got to this part of FFX. Started the chocobo stuff. Almost threw my PS2 out the window multiple times. Decided to write an FAQ to help prevent anyone else from doing that. Started with the Remiem Temple.
v0.2 12-27-01 Finished everything up. Ready to submit.
v0.3 12-30-01 Added another question in the FAQ, changed a few things. CHANGED CONTACT INFORMATION. PLEASE READ IT.
v0.4 1-4-02 Fixed some mistakes. Decided to update the Cloudy Mirror part of the FAQ. I kept getting e-mails about it, so...enjoy.
v0.5 1-20-02 Finally decided to add another question to the FAQ. I've gotten at least 30 people asking me about it. Sorry for not responding to those e-mails, my only answer was 'I don't know'
v0.6 1-23-02 Decided to add yet another thing to the FAQ.
v0.7 1-31-02 Added some contributions, CHANGED CONTACT INFORMATION AGAIN. PLEASE READ IT BEFORE CONTACTING ME.
v0.8 2-7-02 Morelock's guide has been found. Check out the FAQ section of the guide for the link.
v0.9 2-20-02 New site with my guide on it and I added some info to the Remiem Temple section of the guide.
2. FAQ
Q. How do I get the Cloudy Mirror?
A. You have to win a race at the Remiem Temple. No chests
are required, and I think you'll still get the mirror if you run into a pole.
Q. How do I turn the Cloudy Mirror into the Celestial Mirror?
A. You turn it into the Celestial Mirror by wandering around Macalania forest and talking to some people. You go to the Macalania Lake with your airship, go south to the X shaped map. To to the lower-right part of the X and run along the shiny path until you see a mother with her child (they won't be on the shiny path.) Talk to them a few times, then go near the exit of the Macalania Forest, where you'd end up at the Calm Lands. Go on the Northern Path and talk to all the people until one of them runs off. Go back to where the mother and child were. The child will be gone, but his mother and father will be there. Talk to them a few times, then go back on the shiny path until you see a fork in the road. The child should lead you up to a big hemi-sphere type thing. That will turn your Cloudy Mirror into the Celestial Mirror. This is also the place where you power-up ultimate weapons with crests and sigils.
Q. How the hell do I get 5 chests in the Remiem Temple race?
A. Luck. Skill. Patience. I spent about 2 hours racing before I got all 5 chests. Also, use the D-pad rather than the analog stick. I don't know why, but the D-pad seems easier to use. When you get a chest, hold UP so you run as soon as you can. If you can see the other chocobo on your screen while getting the 4th chest, you might as well let him win.
Q. What about the 6th chest that's on the map? Can't you get 6 chests?
A. Go ahead and try. If someone does acually manage to do this, I'd love to hear what the prize is.
Q. When do I get the airship? (gamepro2817@aol.com)
A. Just after the Zanarkand Ruins, after you beat Yunalesca. The airship is different from all the Final Fantasy's, but this system works fine.
Q. Where can I do this Chocobo racing stuff?
A. The Calm Lands. I first started it after I got the airship. Go to the Calm Lands, go down a bit, and talk to the stationary chocobo rider. S/he'll have several options for you.
Q. How do I get 0:0.0 on the Catcher Chocobo game?
A. If Morelock's guide ever gets posted anywhere, look at it. If not, just try to get a good run with the balloons at the beginning. After that, avoid birds and get balloons.
Q. I can't find the chocobo rider! Where is she?
A. If you go back to the airship and then to the Calm Lands, she'll probably be just south of the rest area. If she's not there, she might be in the northwestern part of the Calm Lands or maybe she'll be in the southern part. I can't really say for sure, I've never had this problem.
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An E-mailed Tip (ddondo@yahoo.com)
First off, excellent guide. I think I might be able to add to it however. One of the FAQs was "H. I can't find the chocobo rider! Where is she?" Unlike you I did some chocobo riding before the airship and beat the first three training races. After doing some other things and subsequently gaining the airship I came back to the calm lands for the express sole purpose of getting Tidus's ultimate weapon. When I got back to the Calm Lands however, the chocobo trainer was not in her usual place in the the north west corner above the Calm Lands central save point and was actually nowhere to be found. I then searched every square inch of the calm lands to no avail. What I then did was ask the Chocobo rider I could find, the rider over by the north east corner that asks you when you talk to him, "Are you lost? Need to get back to Bevelle? Follow me then." (I think this is what he says) So I follow him. I kept following him even though I got into numerous battles. Once he led me up the incline back to the entrance of Macalania Forest, lo and behold there the Chocobo trainer was, straight across from the zone line overlooking the calm lands. I'm not sure if this works everytime as I only did it once.
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Another Tip (Penguin2212@cinci.rr.com)
I was reading your FAQ at gamefaqs.com and I've noticed the question, "Help, I can't find the Chocobo Rider, where is she?" It seems that her location changes depending on where you enter the Calm Lands from. I'm lazy as hell so I always enter the calm lands from Macalania Forest or Mt. Gagazet (to avoid battles). It seems that whenever I enter from Mt Gagazet, she's right there at the enterance of Mt Gagazet or, if I enter from Macalania forest she's right there at the other enterance. If you enter the Calm Lands directly, she's usually at the enterance closest to Macalania Forest. Sorry if I screwed up the names of the places but hopefully you get the idea.
One correction, I went back and found that if you fly directly to the calm lands, she's right there by the weapons shop where you land. -------------------------------------------------------------------
Q. I got 0:0.0 on the Catcher Chocobo race, but I only got a Turbo Ether! Where's the Sun Sigil?
A. I've also gotten a lot of e-mails about this one. It also happened to me. I was hoping that people would figure it out on their own, but I guess they didn't. Here's the explaination:
You acually have to BEAT 0:0.0 to get the Sun Sigil. What does this mean?
Example:
Let's say you get the following...
Time: 0:36.0
Balloons: 14
Birds: 2
You receive: Turbo Ether
Doing the math, your time will come out to be 0:0.0 exactly. Now, onto example 2...
Time: 0:35.9
Balloons: 14
Birds: 2
You receive: Sun Sigil
Why? The game still shows the time as 0:0.0...However, if you do the math yourself, it comes out to be -0:0.1. Thus, you beat 0:0.0.
Q. Where can I find Morelock's guide?
A. http://home.san.rr.com/circe/
Click on "Sidequests FAQ v.0.75" and you'll find his guide.
3. Remiem Temple Race
Getting to the Remiem Temple:
Here's some information before you do the race:
You can only get each of the prizes once (except potion)
Don't hit any poles or else you'll just get a potion
(Assuming you travelled via airship) Goto the Calm Plains. Go down a bit and talk to the chocobo rider (s/he should be standing still.) Choose the first option (Let me ride one!) Ride your chocobo to the southern-most enterance to the Calm Plains. All the way to the east of that area, there will be a broken bridge with a chocobo feather lying on the ground. Examine the chocobo feather while still on the chocobo. It will jump down onto lower ground. Now, follow along the path until you get to a save sphere. Inside the temple, Yuna can have a summoning battle with Belgemine, but we're not covering that now. Anyway, from the save sphere, run to the left. Just beyond the chocobo, you'll see a message sphere. Examine it. Then go to the OTHER side of the temple. Examine that chocobo. You can now do the Remiem race.
Why do you want to do this race? Simple! For winning this race, you can get the Cloudy Mirror along with a bunch of other neat items.
Since I can't draw a map of this in a txt guide, I'll leave a link to CB!'s wonderful scanned picture.
Here
Here are the goals:
Chest A - < 7 seconds
Chest B - < 13 seconds
Chest C (w/o Chest B) - < 13 seconds
Chest C (w/Chest B) - < 18 seconds
Chest D (w/o Chest B) - < 19 seconds
Chest D (w/Chest B) - < 23 seconds
Chest E (w/o Chest B) - < 28 seconds
Chest E (w/Chest B) - < 32 seconds (You can get that and still lose. The 5 chests requires a flaming heap of luck)
0 chests - Potion - Easy
Skip all the chests. Go straight to the finish.
1 chest - Elixir - Easy
Chest A
Finish
2 Chests - Megalixir - Easy to Moderate
Chest A
Chest C
Finish
3 Chests - 30 Wings to Discovery - Easy to Moderate
Chest A
Chest B
Chest C
Finish
-OR-
Chest A
Chest C
Chest D
Finish
(I like the first one better)
4 chests - 30 Pendulum - Moderate to Hard
Chest A
Chest C
Chest D
Chest E
Finish
5 chests - 60 Three Stars - Very Very Hard (need lots 'o luck)
Chest A
Chest B
Chest C
Chest D
Chest E
Finish
4. Chocobo Training (Racing games)
To be able to access these mini-games, talk to Cid on the airship and go to the Calm Lands. Go down from the rest area a bit and talk to the chocobo rider. Select the 3rd option to be able to play the games.
If you haven't played the games yet, the first time you go, only the Wobbly Chocobo race will be available. To open up the next races, you have to beat the previous one.
A. Wobbly Chocobo
Strategy: Try to keep the chocobo near the middle of the track. He likes to turn to the right toward the end, so you might want to aim yourself at the chocobo rather than the trainer.
First Time Prize: Elixir
Beating Your Record Prize: X-Potion
B. Dodger Chocobo
Strategy: Keep turning! If you don't, you'll get hit by blitzballs and get stopped for a second. Don't go TOO far out to the side, or you might have trouble getting back. The blitzballs tend to come in groups of 3. Dodge 3 in one direction, switch directions, continue dodging, repeat.
First Time Prize: Lvl 1 Key Sphere
Beating Your Record Prize: Mega Potion
C. Hyper Dodger Chocobo
Strategy: Swirve like mad. If you're on the right side and you see stuff coming at you, swirve to the left. If you're on the left and see stuff flying at you, swirve to the right. Chances are you'll get hit at least once, even if you're good.
First Time Prize: Lvl 2 Key Sphere
Beating Your Record Prize: Ether
D. Catcher Chocobo
Strategy: At the beginning, hope for a line of ballons on the right. If the balloons aren't on the right, just stick to the inside of the turn. Attempt to dodge the birds (why the hell are they flying at you in the first place?) while collecting balloons. Dodging birds should be priority 1, while collecting balloons should be your 2nd priority.
First Time Prize: Lvl 3 Key Sphere
Beating Your Record Prize: Turbo Ether
Beating 0.0.0: Sun Sigil
Morelock's Guide:
http://www.gv-vault.com/final_fantasy_x_sidequests.txt
Strategies
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From rleeson42@hotmail.com
I was just bored and wanted to tell you what I'd figured out about the actual chocobo race for the Sun Sigil. The trick to beating it is really straightforward and simple, just hard to maintain. You must get out in front of the trainer going around the bend from the plateau to the plain. Following this follow the path of balloons exactly in order. You'll notice if you look close enough no two balloons are exactly across from each other, so if you run staight to the side with one that looks like it's directly across you'll actually get the next one. When you follow this path, the crazy zig-zag, not only can you get most of the balloons, but the birds will miss you. They'll pull up just at the last second assuming you stay on this path. If you stray from it you might get hit. I beat it this way getting 17 balloons and 1 hit, ending up with about -6 seconds. It seemed to work every time I used it but I'd usually screw up right before the end, so people will have to practice it and be careful. All right well that's enough, hope this helped.
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From saintly@innocent.com
I believe the purpose of the chocobo race (and making it required in order to attain the main characters ultimate weapon) is part of an evil plot by Square to make everyone truly hate and despise Chocobos forever.
That said... tips to beating the %7(*%# game:
- Expect to put in around 3-5 hours playing the game over and over.
- If you don't get at least 4 balloons on your side at the beginning, just let the game play itself and go do something else. Rationale: Losing the game is frustrating and uses up some of your concentration. Take a 30-second break (to read a book, or do something else while the game plays itself) when you know you can't win. Even when you just let the chocobo run on it's own, I've still seen it beat the trainer (it zig-zags across the field, bouncing off the sides - it only usually gets hit with 2-3 birds too!)
- You NEED the 12-15 second bonus from the first balloons, the rest are much harder to get.
- Do NOT head directly for the next balloon, unless you are doing it at at a very sharp angle in relation to the direction you are supposed to be heading. The birds do adjust course to intercept you, but they can't change course fast enough if you are heading sharply to the right or left.
- The birds come in pairs, and alternate. Two come for you, then two come for the trainer. Once you dodge your two, you can head straight (and collect balloons) for a while until you see the two for the trainer go by, then immediately start to dodge to the left or right.
- For some reason, your Chocobo becomes "Wobbly chocobo" when you try to steer hard to the right (especially on the third part of the track). Either *tap* the Right direction in hopes that it will go that way, or do NOT try to go right to dodge. It works best if you head right to give yourself room when the trainer's birds are on screen, then start dodging left just when your own come on.
- If you find yourself already at the far left of the screen when your birds show up, head into the wall (to bounce off of it), then immediately press Right. Heading into the wall makes you go right at a good angle, and pressing Right will make the turn sharp enough to hopefully dodge the birds. - The birds are MUCH worse than the balloons. Forget the balloons entirely when your birds are on the screen (only try to collect them when it's the trainers turn to get birds thrown at them) and focus on dodging the birds. Getting hit with a bird does three nasty things:
a) Adds 3 seconds to your time at the end (cancels a balloon)
b) Stuns you on the field for an additional 1.5 seconds
c) Lets the trainer get ahead of you to eat precious balloons
- For that reason, when the birds are about to appear, the only thing you should be doing is pressing HARD to the left (or possibly the right, if you bounced off the left side).
- You have two "free" dodges, one at each turn in the course. Since you need to see which birds are coming for you, stay away from the trainer when you make the first turn if you both make the turn at the same time. Otherwise, it's hard to sort out which of the 4 birds are for you. When you make the first turn, it's easiest if you angle it so you run diagonally across the field instead of trying to follow the course. If you press hard to the Left at the end of the second part, you will delay the course changing to the third section for a bit:
Course becomes a 90-degree turn:
---------------|
|
3d part |
______ X |
| |
|2d pt|
What you want to try to do is to be going hard Left in the second part and following the left wall of the 3rd without the screen shifting to make it so you're heading straight yet.
The reason is that the birds come at you from the X location in the 2nd part, and they will all miss you while you're almost a third of the way down the 3rd part already!
- Use the D-pad! Everyone says this. What's the rationale? The stick is analog and lets you turn at different degrees from
<------ | ------->
L Center R
And so it slows down your reactions. If you were heading R and wanted to go hard Left, you lose a second or so going through all the degrees of the Right and the low degrees of left to get to the Sharp left you want. PLUS, if you let the controller get angled slightly, you may not be heading sharp Left at all, you could find yourself heading mostly Forward and a little to the left at a crucial time. Your chocobo goes Forward automatically and ignores Forward/Back signals. All you need are either Sharp Left and Sharp Right on the D-Pad. The rest only hurts you.
- Winning the game is almost entirely luck after you learn the few tricks to dodging. Why? You need the balloons to be in the path you take to dodge birds, and the other ones to appear when the trainers birds are on screen so you can collect them without getting hassled. Plus you need 3-4 to appear on your side at the beginning and not get eaten by the trainer. This type of random appearance of balloons occurs in something like 1 out of 50 games.
- Using the other rider as a shield is unpredictable. First, it means letting them get ahead of you and eat the easiest balloons. Second, the birds come in pairs. If the first one that is meant for you hits you, the other will fly away. If it hits the trainer, the 2nd will still come for you. If you were following too closely to the trainer, it doesn't give you that much time to dodge the second unless you have a lot of room on the left and start dodging IMMEDIATELY after the first hits.
- A single bird *CAN* hit you both if you're close enough together.
- Getting hit near where birds appear is BAD. VERY BAD. Stay away from the center of the course near where the birds come in. Otherwise, you may get hit several times before you can move.
- It's better to be ahead, dodge the two for you, then use the "breather" time to snag balloons until the trainers birds go by and you have to dodge again.
- Notes: The best time I've ever seen the trainer get is 3.2, and I've also seen the trainer come in at over 1:07 - There are a few places you can intentionally get stuck and run up your own time, and one place where you can do it accidentally. If you just let the chocobo run on it's own from the beginning, it sometimes turns a little to the left instead of right at the first turn. Then it will run into the wall until you make it move. You can turn hard to the right into the ledge at the first turn and keep it there, and turn hard to the left at the last ledge (before the finish) to keep it there too. There's no reason to do so unless you want to get a really bad score in several minutes. - When you first start playing after a long break, your reflexes probably aren't going to be in top shape for a few games. To cut down the time involved in getting your senses tuned to play Catcher Chocobo, play Hyper Dodger for a bit. It's harder than Catcher (I think) and Catcher will seem much easier when you start playing that instead.
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ANYONE Can get 0:0.0...even the trainer! (from Spider) I just had a race with the trainer, and he beat 0.0. Kinda odd, I just thought you'd might like to add that.
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5. Contact Information
Please do not e-mail/IM me unless..
You found an error in the guide
You have an addition for the guide
You have a question that has to do with Final Fantasy X chocobo racing that was NOT covered in the guide.
E-mail address: haruka0@earthlink.net
AIM Screen Name: Miasmic Evil
6. Thanks, Credits, Etc.
Major thanks to CB! (http://home.san.rr.com/circe/) for assisting me with several things. She let me know what the prizes were for the mini-games, and let me rip off her scanned and translated map of the Remiem Temple course. She's written some great FAQs, I'd suggest that you check them out.
Thanks to the contributers, The Saint (saintly@innocent.com), David Dondonan (ddondo@yahoo.com), and Ryan Leeson (rleeson42@hotmail.com)
Thanks to Square for making yet another great Final Fantasy game, and for taking away weeks of my life.
Thanks to Babbages (http://www.gamestop.com) for selling me this wonderful game.
Lastly, I'd like to thank CJayC (http://www.gamefaqs.com) for running a beautiful site. He doesn't get enough recognition.
This guide should only be found on the following sites...
http://www.gamefaqs.com
http://www.psxcodez.com
http://www.micahevan.com/chocboinc.html
http://www.rpgclassics.com/~ff10/chocobofaq.shtml
If you see this guide posted on another site, please tell me.