Companions
- See also: Chocobo and Chocobo Raising
Companions are pets that will fight alongside you. Players will not only be able to rank up his or her Chocobo companion but also customize their looks and abilities. Players can specialize their personal Chocobos into tanks, healers or damage dealers by allocating their skill points into the Defender, Attacker or Healer skill trees. Players can customize their chocobo with various bardings. The bardings are only cosmetic, they give no bonus stats or other benefits.
Obtaining Chocobo Companion
Chocobo Companions are unlocked after the completion of My Feisty Little Chocobo quest at level 30 or higher. The quest starting NPC is Docette, located in Camp Tranquil in South Shroud (x17,y28).
- You must have acquired your Chocobo Mount before you can start this quest.
Summoning Chocobo Companion
You will need to use a Gysahl Greens to summon your Chocobo. When summoned, Chocobo acts as a member of your party and remains summoned for a set period of time, after which it auto-dismisses. After death or dismissal, you will need to expend another Gyshahl Greens to re-summon your Chocobo.
- Gysahl Greens can be purchased for 36 gil each from Maisenta <Black Raddit Traders> (X:11,Y:11) in New Gridania, Roarich <Independent Importer> (X:10, Y:9) in Ul'dah - Steps of Nald and Bango Zango <Brugaire Consortium> (X:9, Y:11) in Limsa Lominsa Lower Decks. Certain other 'Merchant & Mender' traders in open zones offer them as well, such as the one at (X:21, Y:21) in Central Shroud at 'Bentbranch Meadows'.
Customizing Chocobo Companion
As Chocobos defeat monsters and obtain experience, they rank up and gain skill points (SP).
SP can be spent to grant your Chocobo bonus stats and skills. This is performed by purchasing abilities from one or more of three specializations: the 'Defender', 'Attacker', and 'Healer' trees. These trees correspond to battle stances - when placed into a specific battle stance your Chocobo will favor using abilties from the corresponding tree. Notably when in Healer stance, the Chocobo should not use auto-attacks and instead focus entirely on healing. A "Free Stance" option is available to instruct the Chocobo to use all available abilities whenever it sees fit.
Each level the amount of SP earned by a Chocobo raises by one point (so Chocobos earn 1 SP at level 1, 2 SP at level 2, etc).
Similarly, the cost of purchasing abilities from a tree rises one point with each rank - Rank 1 abilities cost 1 SP, Rank 2 Abilities cost 2 SP, etc)
- 10 SP are earned for each level past level 10.
The experience required for the Chocobo to reach the next level rises drastically as its level increases. Players should therefore be aware that it will likely take them a very long time to hit maximum level. The Chocobo will consume a portion from each enemy killed by the player- this does NOT include Fate, Leve or mission experience reward bonuses, but does include "Exp-chains".
- Once a Chocobo reaches level 10, feeding it a Thavnairian Onion will raise its level cap by one level.
- The Maximum number of SP a Chocobo can currently earn is 155. Which is not enough SP to take all of the abilities in all trees.
- Purchasing lower rank abilities unlocks higher rank ones in the same tree, so if you want to purchase a Rank 5 ability then you must first purchase Ranks 1 through 4 from that tree.
- "Traits" stack across trees. Selecting a stance will make your Chocobo unable to use weaponskills from other trees, but it will keep all passive stat boosts.
- Since the highest-rank abilities in a tree cost the most SP, a player should consider very carefully if they want to spend all their points in one tree, or invest in abilities from different trees.
As an example: for 55 SP a player could either choose to take Ranks 1 through 10 in ONE tree, or Ranks 1 through 9 in that tree plus ranks 1 through 4 in a second tree.
- Players can reset their Chocobo's Skill Points using Reagan Pepper purchased from your Grand Company quartermaster for 48,000 Company Seals or from Bill Huntmaster for 20 Allied Seals.
Players can specialize their Chocobos to compensate the weaknesses of their classes. For example, a Thaumaturge might allocate more SP into the Defender tree to make their Chocobo a better tank. Although it is important to note that Chocobo Companions cannot currently be used in instanced missions, and you cannot summon your Chocobo Companion when queueing for duties without losing your place in the queue.
The appearance of your Chocobo can also be customized by equipping different Head, Body and Legs pieces in its saddle slots. These costume pieces can be earned in a variety of ways (notably purchased from the Grand Companies) but currently they give no stat boosts and are for aesthetic purposes only.
Skills
Defender
| Name | Icon | Level | SP Cost | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Choco Drop |  |
1 | 1 | Weaponskill | Orders chocobo to deliver an attack with a potency of 150. Additional Effect: Increased enmity |
| Enhanced Strength |  |
2 | 3 | Trait | Increases companion strength by 5%. |
| Increased HP |  |
3 | 6 | Trait | Increases companion HP by 10%. |
| Choco Kick |  |
4 | 10 | Weaponskill | Orders chocobo to deliver an attack with a potency of 130. Additional Effect: Slow + 20% for 12s |
| Enhanced Accuracy |  |
5 | 15 | Trait | Increases companion accuracy by 5%. |
| Enhanced Critical Hit Rate |  |
6 | 21 | Trait | Increases companion critical hit rate by 15%. |
| Choco Guard |  |
7 | 28 | Weaponskill | Reduces damage taken by chocobo by 15% for 15s. |
| Enhanced Strength | |
8 | 36 | Trait | Increases companion strength by 5%. |
| Increased HP | |
9 | 45 | Trait | Increases companion HP by 10%. |
| Choco Strike |  |
10 | 55 | Weaponskill | Orders chocobo to deliver an attack with potency of 150 to all enemies in a cone before it. Additional Effect: Increased enmity |
Attacker
| Name | Icon | Level | SP Cost | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Choco Slash |  |
1 | 1 | Weaponskill | Orders chocobo to deliver an attack with a potency of 150. |
| Enhanced Strength | |
2 | 3 | Trait | Increases companion strength by 5%. |
| Increased HP | |
3 | 6 | Trait | Increases companion HP by 5%. |
| Choco Beak |  |
4 | 10 | Weaponskill | Orders chocobo to deliver an attack with a potency of 130. Additional Effect: Damage over time with potency of 20 for 18s. |
| Enhanced Accuracy | |
5 | 15 | Trait | Increases companion accuracy by 5%. |
| Enhanced Critical Hit Rate | |
6 | 21 | Trait | Increases companion critical hit rate by 15%. |
| Choco Rush |  |
7 | 28 | Weaponskill | Orders chocobo to deliver attack with a potency of 130. Additional Effect: stun for 5s. |
| Enhanced Strength | |
8 | 36 | Trait | Increases companion strength by 10%. |
| Increased Attack Speed |  |
9 | 45 | Trait | Increases companion attack speed by 10%. |
| Choco Blast |  |
10 | 55 | Weaponskill | Orders chocobo to deliver an attack with a potency of 170 to all enemies in a cone before it. |
Healer
| Name | Icon | Level | SP Cost | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Choco Regen |  |
1 | 1 | Spell | Orders chocobo to grant healing over time effect to target. Not particularly powerful by itself, but it adds up over time. Cooldown is sufficient to keep it up nearly constantly on both you and the Chocobo. Cure Potency: 25 Duration: 18s |
| Enhanced Mind |  |
2 | 3 | Trait | Increases companion mind by 10%. |
| Increased HP | |
3 | 6 | Trait | Increases companion HP by 5%. |
| Choco Cure |  |
4 | 10 | Spell | Orders chocobo to restore target's HP. Cure Potency: 300 Starts at approx 380HP per Cure at player level 50. Cooldown appears to be in the 8-10 second range. |
| Enhanced Accuracy | |
5 | 15 | Trait | Increases companion accuracy by 5%. |
| Enhanced Critical Hit Rate | |
6 | 21 | Trait | Increases companion critical hit rate by 15%. |
| Choco Surge |  |
7 | 28 | Spell | Increases chocobo's healing magic potency by 30% for 30s. Cooldown is only very slightly longer than duration. Assume at least ~75% uptime. |
| Enhanced Mind | |
8 | 36 | Trait | Increases companion mind by 15%. |
| Increased HP | |
9 | 45 | Trait | Increases companion HP by 5%. |
| Choco Medica |  |
10 | 55 | Spell | Orders chocobo to restore its own HP and the HP of all nearby party members. Cure Potency: 150 |
Stances
Free Stance
Auto-attacks, whilst using all available abilities as the chocobo sees fit.
The Chocobo AI appears to alternate between using Weaponskills and Regenerative/Healing abilities when in this stance reasonably well. Providing you have purchased them with SP, 'Choco Regen' will be applied whenever you or your Chocobo take any damage and 'Choco Cure' will be cast whenever you or your chocobo drop below roughly 50% HP.
The chocobo will auto-attack the FIRST enemy you engage. If you are fighting multiple enemies, you can change the chocobo's target by switching it to "Follow" mode and then back into 'Free Stance'.
Defender Stance
Favours using abilities from the Defender Tree.
Prior to patch 2.1 it was unlikely that a "Tanking" Chocobo could hold hate at all, however the enmity generated from Choco Drop and Choco Strike has now been noticeably increased. A Chocobo which has only the "Choco Drop" attack available will use it roughly every 6-8 seconds; and can now hold hate fairly well. If a player wishes for their Chocobo to have the ability to "Tank", it might be wise to only purchase the first three abilities from the Defender tree, and swap it into this stance whenever you need it to generate heavy amounts of enmity.
Attacker Stance
Favours using abilities from the Attacker Tree.
Healer Stance
This stance favours Healing abilities.
Providing you have purchased them with SP, 'Choco Regen' will be applied whenever you or your Chocobo take any damage and 'Choco Cure' will be cast whenever you or your chocobo drop below roughly 75% HP.
The Chocobo should not auto attack when in this stance. Unfortunately you cannot currently tell your Chocobo to "stay" at a certain location, so it will follow directly behind your character... this means that your Chocobo will have a tendancy to get hit by any Cone attacks that are aimed at your character.
Food Effects
When using different Chocobo foods to summon your Companion. your companion will gain a boost to its stats depending on the food. If the food is your Chocobo's favorite, it will gain an additional boost.
- Food Effects were introduced in patch 2.3.
| Food | Normal Effect | Favorite Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Curiel Root | Companion EXP Up | Companion EXP Up II |
| Sylkis Bud | Companion Attack Up | Companion Attack Up II |
| Mimett Gourd | Companion Healing Potency Up | Companion Healing Potency Up II |
| Tantalplant | Companion Maximum HP Up | Companion Maximum HP Up II |
| Pahsana Fruit | Companion Enmity Up | Companion Enmity Up II |
Future Content
As stated in this post and this post, there are some fixes and changes planned for Chocobo Companions:
- Chocobo Summoning to be possible during Duty Finder Queues
- AI to be improved (Defender Stance)
- Macros and text commands to be implemented for Pets in Patch 2.1
- Looking into improving visibility of Summon Duration timer
- Looking into "visibly confirming" the commands you issue to pets