Chocobo comments

After 2,200 chocobucks, about 628,572 gil, and at least 52 hours of senseless automated free race cutscenes (barriers to entry, right?), I've finally completed my chocobo's receptivity regimen and its current distribution of attributes stands at SS/S/F/B (or 8/7/1/5) STR/END/DSC/RCP. Now I just have to wait out the next 10 days of "digging for treasure" and hope I don't have to do much tweaking to achieve the desired SS/B/B/B profile.

As expected, it took 26 targeted chocobuck upgrades to improve receptivity to "better than average." This was accomplished using 14 training sessions (1,120 chocobucks or about 320,000 gil based on the expected value of 3.5 chocobucks earned per 1,000-gil free race entry fee) along with 12 training tokens (1,080 chocobucks or about 308,572 gil) set aside so that I wouldn't have to wait long to finish the training regimen while accumulating another 1,000 chocobucks to pay for the rest of the upgrades.

I did attempt the Survival Race again with this SS/S/F/B chocobo and, not unexpectedly, it placed 7th. I am not so irritated with the result as with the fact that these races have steep entry fees in gil cost and time cost. Now that's 120 chocobucks wasted on four attempts at the Survival Race, or about 35,000 gil and almost 3 hours of free racing.

Considering that the entire Pashhow Swamptrot series takes 225 total chocobucks to finish (about 64,286 gil and 5-6 hours of free racing) without repeated attempts, and the gil rewards add up to 48,000 gil, it's typical of SE to make gil rewards totally incommensurate with the wasted time and gil put forth. Sure, a Chocobo Pullus Torque, another shiny trophy, and a title signifying a difficult "accomplishment" are nice, but consider the cost of raising a chocobo capable of clearing the Swamptrot. What the hell do they expect chocobo racers to do for cheaper chocobucks, Hot and Cold?

I'm banking on my chocobo being able to rake in the gil in the Chocobo Circuit, though, so the gil costs ain't a thing. As far as the time spent accumulating chocobucks goes, I wouldn't excoriate people for being sensible about acquiring chocobucks with, ahem, unattended free races.