FINAL FANTASY IX

Chocobo Hot and Cold is the largest sidequest in Final Fantasy IX and the ultimate aim is to dig up 24 items, known as 'Chocographs', then locate the hidden treasures they offer a clue towards.

You will start out in Chocobo's Forest, which can first be accessed after you leave Lindblum in Disc 1, before progressing to Chocobo's Lagoon and then Chocobo's Air Garden. Along the way, through finding the hidden treasures, you will unlock different types of chocobos which can navigate different types of terrain, which will be needed to access new locations and find further hidden treasures. You start out with the field chocobo (yellow), before progressing to reef chocobo (light blue), mountain chocobo (red), sea chocobo (dark blue) and sky chocobo (gold).

Whilst the three main digging locations may vary in size and shape, the premise remains the same. At a cost of 60 Gil per game, Choco can dig in the ground to find as many items as possible within 60 seconds. As Choco digs up items, the party earns Points which can be redeemed for items and Choco's beak will grow stronger and allow him to dig faster.

As the minigame's name might suggest, when you dig using the button, an indicator will inform you how close you are to uncovering a treasure. When you dig, the chocobo will respond with either:

• "Kweh." which means you are cold.
• "Kweh?!" which means you are warm.
• "Kwehhh?!" which means you are hot (close to the item).
• "K-KWEHHH!!!" means you have have found the item.

There's no way of knowing what items are available in a given game until you dig them up so digging up Chocographs is basically a luck-based grind. However, with the High Speed booster, this version is much quicker than before, while while it significantly boosts Choco's movement and digging speed, the in-game timer remains at normal speed. This means you can basically just mash the entire time until you dig up all the items in a game and you will only rarely hit the time limit.

Whenever you dig up a Chocograph, there are three clues to finding the treasure on the world map: the picture on the Chocograph, the Chocograph's name and a hint given by the Help Moogle by pressing in the Chocograph menu (accessed by pressing while on a chocobo). Note that there are 23 complete Chocographs, plus one more comprised of six Chocograph Pieces that you will have to dig up individually.

The three locations you can play Chocobo Hot and Cold and the Chocographs you can find in each, are:

Chocobo's Forest

This area can be accessed after you leave Lindblum in Disc 1, on the Southern side of the Mist Continent:

• Streamside
• Between Mountains
• Uncultivated Land
• Healing Shore
• Abandoned Beach
• Cold Field
• Faraway Lagoon
• Bird's-Eye Lagoon
• Small Beach
• Forbidden Forest (after you receive a mountain (red) chocobo)
• Green Plains (after you receive a mountain (red) chocobo)
• Forgotten Plains (after you receive a mountain (red) chocobo)
• Cold Lagoon (after you receive a mountain (red) chocobo)

Chocobo's Lagoon

This area can be accessed after you obtain the Blue Narciss on Disc 3 and also requires a reef (light blue) chocobo, obtained from the Healing Shores Chocograph. It is located on Palmnell Island, south of the Forgotten Continent. Land on the beach north of here and navigate around the archipelago via the reef until you reach the location:

• Forgotten Lagoon
• Abandoned Lagoon
• Dawn Lagoon
• Dusk Plains
• Sea At Dusk (after you receive a sea (dark blue) chocobo)
• Ocean (after you receive a sea (dark blue) chocobo)
• Outer Island 2 (after you receive a sea (dark blue) chocobo)

Chocograph Pieces

There are six of these in the game and are required to piece together the Chocograph called Mist Ocean. The pieces are found in the following:

1. Chocobo's Forest (from the start)
2. Chocobo's Forest (after you receive a mountain (red) chocobo)
3. Chocobo's Forest OR Chocobo’s Lagoon, once you receive the Blue Narciss (it will be in one or the other)
4. Chocobo’s Lagoon (as soon as you can access it once you have the Blue Narciss)
5. Chocobo’s Lagoon (once you have the Hilda Garde III)
6. Chocobo’s Lagoon (once you have the Hilda Garde III)

Finding the hidden treasure this Chocograph grants you access to a sky (gold) chocobo and Chocobo's Air Garden.

Chocobo’s Air Garden

This area can be accessed after you obtain a sky (gold) chocobo. Unlike the previous two, this location isn't fixed and can appear in any of five places. Firstly, you must be flying on Choco by taking off in a forest, then locate a dark circle on the world map. Once above it, use a Dead Pepper and you will land in Chocobo's Air Garden. The five various locations are:

• Outer Island
• Fairy Island
• Forgotten Island

There is already a ton of guides across the Internet detailing the exact location of each hidden treasure so for convenience's sake, you can use the guide located here: LINK for a text walkthrough with screenshots or follow this video guide with commentary (credit to Missildine Online! for this):

The commentary is a little annoying but tells you the order you can find the treasures in (as you can't get them in the order shown in the Chocograph menu) and also has timestamps in the description to find the ones you're missing.