FINAL FANTASY IX
51 Achievements
1,000
60-80h
Follow Your Nose
Raise your chocobo's beak level to 99.
15
1.72%
How to unlock the Follow Your Nose achievement in FINAL FANTASY IX - Definitive Guide
H+C: https://finalfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Chocobo_Hot_and_Cold
H+C: https://jegged.com/Games/Final-Fantasy-IX/Side-Quests/Chocob...
Chocographs: https://jegged.com/Games/Final-Fantasy-IX/Side-Quests/Chocog...
Leveling up your chocobo beak can be done by playing the Chocobo Hot and Cold minigame located in the 3 Chocobo based locations in the game.
The first time you are able to do this is after leaving Lindblum Castle for the first time through the Dragon Gate, after Dagger and Steiner depart the party and Freya joins. To the east, across a bridge, is a domed forest. This is the Chocobo Forest.
In order to play H+C, you must go talk to the Moogle inside to obtain Gyshal Greens, use one on the Chocobo tracks outside the forest on the world map, then enter the forest riding Choco (your new Chocobo buddy). Talk to the Moogle, and you can now play it for 60 gil a game.
The rules of H+C are to run around the small map, pressing to try to dig up a spot. The response from Choco determines how close you are to an item. They are as follows:
Kweh. - Not close
Kweh?! - Close
Kwehhh?! - Very close
K-KWEHHH!!! - You've found an item
You have 60 seconds to try to find 8 items. You get 5 bonus seconds after the 2nd and 6th item, and 10 bonus seconds after the 4th. Items 5-8 give double points.
NOTE: High Speed Mode ( + ) makes this a breeze. While you are much faster, the timer moves at normal speed, making finding all 8 items much easier.
Getting your beak up to 99 takes 14,000 points. My highest score in a game so far has been 202 points in the Chocobo Forest, but you can easily beat that with good luck and good movement.
The other 2 locations are the Chocbo Lagoon, located in the southern-most island in the archipelago of the Forgotten Continent, and the Chocobo Air Gardens, located in 1 of 5 locations only accessible through flying (links above and below).
The 2 other locations can only be accessed through upgrading Choco through finding the hidden Chocograph treasures found on the world map. Chocographs are found in H+C, and each Chocobo location only has a certain number of them you can find.
The upgrade locations are:
Reef - Chocograph #4 - Healing Shore (necessary for entering the Chocobo Lagoon)
Mountain - Chocograph #12 - Dawn Lagoon
Ocean - Chocograph #14 - Green Plains
Sky - Chocograph #20 - Mist Ocean (necessary for entering Chocobo Sky Garden)
The rules of H+C change in each location (Lagoon is half time/double points, etc) so it's easier to level up in the 2 later locations.
And that's basically it. It seems daunting, but with practice, and the High Speed Mode, this is exponentially easier than it was on the PS1.
Important links that can help you a lot:
H+C: https://finalfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Chocobo_Hot_and_Cold
H+C: https://jegged.com/Games/Final-Fantasy-IX/Side-Quests/Chocob...
Chocographs: https://jegged.com/Games/Final-Fantasy-IX/Side-Quests/Chocog...
In my experience, it differs per the area.
If you're in Chocobo Forest, it's big enough that using High Speed to scout around, find a general target area, then switch to Normal Speed to find it, then switch back for next find.
This works the opposite in the Lagoon, because the area is small enough that High Speed is too fast to find the general area. There, my method is to search in Normal Speed but, when I find the treasure, I pause and switch to High Speed mode so that the item is dug up in about a second or less. Then I switch back to Normal Speed.
These toggles can even help in getting the bonus for finding another treasure quickly as well.
The benefits to doing it at the Lagoon (even after you've upgraded to the Ocean ability and have access to the full map) is that it's the smallest of the areas, so you have a better than half chance of treasures being really close to each other, making it easy to snag that 10 point bonus for a "within 5 second" dig. (High Speed Mode makes this laughably easy) Plus, it's all on one area, so you don't have to waste seconds jumping up and down ledges.
Initially you can only dig at Chocobo Forest, but later you will have access to the Chocobo Lagoon and then Chocobo Airgarden. If you find an item within five seconds of the previous one you will get five bonus points and an extra 10 seconds digging time. If you get 8 items in the time limit Mene will stop you and claim you are driving him out of business, but your remaining time becomes bonus points.
This is much easier with the High Speed booster. Chocobo's movement and digging speed are increased but the in-game timer isn't, thus enabling you to get 8 items very quickly almost every time.
If you're in Chocobo Forest, it's big enough that using High Speed to scout around, find a general target area, then switch to Normal Speed to find it, then switch back for next find.
This works the opposite in the Lagoon, because the area is small enough that High Speed is too fast to find the general area. There, my method is to search in Normal Speed but, when I find the treasure, I pause and switch to High Speed mode so that the item is dug up in about a second or less. Then I switch back to Normal Speed.
These toggles can even help in getting the bonus for finding another treasure quickly as well.
Choco's beak level, will level up as part of the Chocobo Hot and Cold sidequest. Every time you successfully dig up an item, you earn points which can be exchanged for items with Mene and they also act as EXP to level up Choco's beak. Rarer items such as Chocographs and Elixirs will grant more Points, whereas more common items like Potions will net him minimal Points.
Whilst you start off only being able to dig in Chocobo's Forest, as you progress through the sidequest (see Diggin' It for more details), you will unlock Chocobo's Lagoon and Chocobo's Air Garden. Points are doubled for every item excavated in Chocobo’s Lagoon and tripled in Chocobo’s Air Garden. If you find an item within five seconds of finding the previous one, you get a bonus five points. Furthermore, Mene will add 10 seconds to your time and all subsequent points will be doubled if four items are found within the time limit. If you find a further four items in the time limit for a total of 8, Mene will stop you and claim you are driving him out of business. However, the remaining seconds on the clock will be converted into bonus points.
This trophy could have been a long grind but thankfully, won't take very long because of the High Speed booster. For some reason, Choco's movements and digging speed are vastly increased with the booster but the in-game timer counts down at normal speed. Therefore by mashing , you can almost always find all 8 items before the time runs out.
The formula for obtaining bonus points is quite complicated and varies depending on which location you're digging in and which type of chocobo you’re using. It used to be that Chocobo's Lagoon was the best place to farm points thanks to it being small and compact but with High Speed, you can easily get all 8 items in one Chocobo's Air Garden dig, which used to be extremely difficult with its two-tier layout. This location gives a huge multiplier for leftover seconds, meaning you can rake in thousands of bonus Points with every dig. Choco's beak should already be between Level 60 and 70 by the time you've dug up every Chocograph for Diggin' It and it should take no more than half an hour from here to get to 99 in Chocobo's Air Garden.
Your chocobo's beak will level up based on how many items it has dug up. I would suggest doing the "Diggin' It" achievement first which will likely get you this achievement along the way, then you can grind the rest out with the method below if needed.
Use Chocobo's Air Garden to get the rest of your levels. Play the game here with the High Speed Mode boost turned on. Your movement will again speed up, but not the clock of the mini-game. This should allow you to always get the maximum items and bonuses from left over time. You can grind the remaining levels fairly quickly. Again, see "Diggin' It" for more info on the digging mini-games.
https://www.ffforever.info/index.cgi...=ff9;p=chocobo
You collect 8 items and for the remaining time you receive a hefty bonus. It didn’t work right away, but with a little practice, I collected all 8 items every second run.
I was honestly blown away by my record))) The fastest - I dug up 8 items in 29 seconds. For the remaining 31 seconds, he received 1750 bonus points. Together with the items, this round brought me 1915 points.
To get level 99 beak you need about 14,000 points.