Chocobos are one of the iconic parts of the Final Fantasy franchise, and Final Fantasy XIV allows you to tame and train your very own chocobo mount. Beyond the initial details on feeding, riding, and using it as a companion to attack, there’s not much detail in-game on training your chocobo.
That’s where this handy guide comes in, demystifying the chocobo training techniques. However, to train your chocobo, you’ll need a place to train them (a Chocobo Stable), some good fruit and vegetables, and a little patience.
How to unlock your chocobo mount in FFXIV
First things first, to get your own chocobo mount in FFXIV, you’ll need to be level 20 and have joined a Grand Company. To do this, progress the Main Story Quest until you get a quest called “A Hero in the Making,” where you’ll meet the leaders of all three Grand Companies and then make your decision in joining one. After this, you need to complete the quest “My Little Chocobo,” which will be handed out by your Grand company, and a chocobo will be yours to name and train.
Once you've unlocked your chocobo, you'll be able to ride it as a mount and use Gysahl Greens to bring it out in battle. This food item will allow your new friend to stay by your side and help you fight for 30 minutes. We recommend always having your chocobo with you when you're leveling up in the overworld so it can level up with you, but when you're ready for a rest, you can stable your chocobo and train it while you take a break.
How to train your chocobo in FFXIV
Your chocobo companion will slowly gain experience as you fight and defeat enemies with them. But to directly train a chocobo, you’ll first need a Chocobo Stable. These can be purchased and placed outside player or Free Company housing, or if you’re an apartment owner, you can use the stable outside of the apartment building.
Once you have access to the Chocobo Stable, train your chocobo once an hour at the stable. After training them, which will boost their experience, you’ll need to reward them with a special food item, either a Krakka Root, Pahsana Fruit, Tantalplant, Mimett Gourd, Sylkis Bud, or Curiel Root. These can either be grown or purchased from a market board. Several can also be purchased from the Vath Stickpeddler vendor in The Dravanian Forelands if you’ve advanced the Vath Allied Tribes quest far enough. Below are the effects of each fruit/vegetable.
| Food | Effect | Favorite Food Effect | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Curiel Root | Companion EXP Up | Companion EXP Up II | Gardening or market board |
| Sylkis Bud | Companion Attack Up | Companion Attack Up II | Gardening, market board, or Vath vendor |
| Mimmett Gourd | Companion Healing Potency Up | Companion Healing Potency Up II | Gardening, market board, or Vath vendor |
| Tantalplant | Companion Maximum HP Up | Companion Maximum HP Up II | Gardening, market board, or Vath vendor |
| Pahsana Fruit | Companion Emnity Up | Companion Enmity Up II | Gardening, market board, or Vath vendor |
| Krakka Root | N/A | N/A | Gardening or market board |
Remember, you can only do this once per hour, so this is something to do in between quests rather than something to sit down and grind through.
Chocobo favorite foods
If you’ve used the same food 10 times, your chocobo has the chance to make that food its “Favorite Food.” This can only be the Pahsana Fruit, Tantalplant, Mimett Gourd, Sylkis Bud, or Curiel Root. It will never be the Krakka Root. A chocobo’s favorite food will double the effects each food fed to it has. You can change a chocobo’s favorite food by feeding it 10 times with another food.
Chocobo Stable conditions
The condition of your Chocobo Stable increases the amount of experience training the chocobo will get. Using a Magicked Stable Broom you can increase the condition of the stable. Chocobo Stables have three conditions, Good, Fair, and Poor. Using a Magicked Stable Broom improves it by one level.
My chocobo hit max rank?
Chocobos hit a wall at rank 10, but their actual maximum rank is 20. To increase your chocobo rank to 11 or above, you’ll need to feed them a Thavnairian Onion. This special item can be obtained from the market board, or grown using gardening. The price of Thavnairian Onions is quite high, so you might want to look into obtaining it via gardening instead, although it might take a bit longer.
Selecting chocobo skills
Each time your chocobo increases in rank, it earns skill points (SP) which can be used to teach it new skills. These skills are like your own abilities, and will be executed by the chocobo in battle. Skills will not be learned automatically. You must select them manually in the Companion menu under Character, in the Skills tab.
Resetting chocobo skills
Don’t worry if you’ve made a mistake with your Chocobo skills. A Reagan Pepper can be used to remove all skills from your chocobo and return all spent skill points so you can respec your bird. They can be purchased with company seals or Allied Seals from various vendors.
