After 30 C1 races my chocobo has yet to place worse than 3rd, which is actually kind of nice since I haven't had to write off a disastrous 4th or worse finish. To my delight, some of my PC competitors have actually placed worse than 3rd even with fewer than 3 entrants. (The worst result was 6th for a SS/B/A/C chocobo; I placed 3rd.) Since the Sept 8 update, my chocobo's 1st-2nd-3rd tally is 6-2-2; overall, 14-12-4.
In the last 10 races, I've faced PC chocobos 7 times. I've used the mythril saddle at least twice (the first two races after the update I finished first both times with a mythril saddle) but otherwise I've used the elm saddle. Speed apple used, as always.
I hope in the long run my win rate ends up being closer to 60%, but that's probably wishful thinking because of competition from PC chocobos. It hasn't been uncommon for me to face two other PC chocobos in a race. I have yet to try the C1 slots at 21:45 and 22:45 JST time. I've done either morning or mid-day, and the usual suspects are sticklers for the morning slots (5:45 AM and 6:45 AM)
What are my net gil earnings? In the past week I've hardly been doing free runs, and when I do I just do one cycle of eight races, which costs 3,550 gil to complete. Because 2nd and 3rd place finishes result in a net loss of chocobucks, I factor in the costs of chocobucks, too.
1st: 90,000 × 14 = 1,260,000 gil
2nd: (30,000 - 40/28*3550) × 12 = 299,142 gil (approx.)
3rd: (10,000 - 64/28*3550) × 4 = 7542 gil (approx.)
Total: 1,566,685 gil (approx.)
I really couldn't be happier with this gil fountain that requires minimal effort to tap now (despite the initial outlay of raising a chocobo). I don't covet any big-ticket items (too bad I can't just up and buy Usukane Sune-Ate, Usukane Hizayoroi, and Morrigan's Slops, pieces for which the materials are cheap), but maybe I'll think of something to blow my gil on later on.
I've noticed, or at least it's somehow evident to me, that accidents ("stuck in the mud") may adversely affect other chocobos since most of them appear to be startled when it happens. (The camera "work" is still bad though so sometimes you can't get a good look at how they react.)
I think I'll give a progress report after every 15 races just to give me an excuse to use Blogger once in a while. It's pretty sad I've found occasion to make 8 posts this month already...
Congratulations on your success at the chocobo circuit. It’s nice to know that enduring free run after free run does net some reward. I hope to have my bird up to racing form soon and be able to discuss tactics once I can start hitting the C1 races. I’m currently on day 46 with a bird that is SS(uncapped)/B/E/E and have my bird on a steady “Digging for Treasure” regime while looking for Brutus for the canter story.
ReplyDeleteIt annoys me that I can only go on one “Long Walk” a day and, despite choosing this option 15 times already, have only met Brutus once. Perhaps things will be better now that my bird’s REC is at E after subjecting it to 7 chocotrain REC sessions. Much to my chagrin, going from E to B on the mental stats without totally destroying the physical stats seems impossible without copious amounts of chocobucks to pay for chocotrain sessions. I guess I can’t really complain though since the horrible nature of this training is probably what keeps people from raising a race chocobo thus preserving its benefits.
Based on SE's m.o., I think they really wanted to guard against RMT abuse above all other considerations (as I mentioned previously). RMT could easily bot free runs for the sake of chocobo raising, but I guess the return is not so appealing to them because the setup costs are steep.
ReplyDeleteC1 races could easily be saturated since there are only 9 every 24 hours (or 6 permanent time slots every day), but as you say the grind keeps people from raising one.
I hope you don't go completely insane accumulating chocobucks!