Chocobo Digging is an activity where adventurers may use rented or personal chocobos to dig up exotic treasures like Acorn and maybe, just maybe, Heavy Metal. Chocobo Digging has a leveled skill referred to as "Wing Skill," which effects timers and delays between digs, along with dig accuracy and possible items.
There is no item limit to a zone, but players are subject to 100 successful digs total per Earth day on a rental chocobo, and upwards of 100~200 digs on a raised chocobo depending on its stats, further doubled up to 400 with Blue Race Silks.
Getting Started
Wing Skill is now displayed on successful digging skill ups.
Gysahl Greens are required in order to /dig, purchased from NPC vendors located by every chocobo stable. Gysahl greens are consumed regardless of a successful dig or failure.
Players are subject to 100 successful digs total per Earth day on a rental chocobo, and upwards of 100~200 digs on a raised chocobo depending on its stats, further doubled up to 400 with Blue Race Silks. The daily limit is based on successful digs and not total dig attempts. A personal chocobo may get an occasional "free" dig.
Players must move 2 yalms or more from their previous dig or they will fail to dig. There may be a longer history than 1 dig, so it's best to walk around the zone.
The time (in seconds) required to wait after zoning into an area before being allowed to dig, and the required delay between digs, decrease as digging skill increases. The items available in an area change as digging skill increases as well.
Rank
As of the March 2026 Version Update, Chocobo Digging skill is now listed as "Wing Skill", and increases are displayed in the chat log. A player may check their current Wing Skill by speaking to the following NPCs:
Chocobo Digging may be further improved by using specialized equipment:
Blue Race Silks - 50% of the time, a successful dig will not count towards the daily fatigue cap.
Sky Blue Race Silks - Gives a message about your chocobo learning something ~50% of the time on successful digs, which is likely related to skilling up faster.
It is unclear which of the two Race Silks you should use if you want to cap digging skill, but either will be better than neither.
Chocobo Rope - Slightly increases the digging skillup rate.
Black Chocobo Suit - Reduces the chance of obtaining common items by 50%, and increases the chance of obtaining rare items by 50%.
Denim Pants +1 - Reduces the chance of obtaining common items by 50%, and increases the chance of obtaining rare items by 50%.
Since these pants and the Black Chocobo Suitreduces your chances of obtaining common items (a much higher pool), wearing either will greatly lower your dig rate. Not recommended for skilling up at low ranks.
Egg Helm - Adds Egg-themed items to the potential digging pool.
This can be used to increase the odds of digging something up if seeking skillups.
NPC Rented Chocobo Duration gear:
Orange Race Silks - Increases riding duration by +10 minutes for a rented chocobo.
Chocobo Wand - +30 minutes. May be dual wielded for +60 minutes.
Red Race Silks - Increases riding duration by +10 minutes for a personal chocobo.
Goblin Diggers
Goblin Diggers sporadically appear in some diggable zones and bury items. After they bury the item, they will move on and you will be able to dig it up. This triggers a different series of digging messages (indicating proximity) than normal, and items dug up this way do not count against your daily fatigue quota.
"You feel there's something nearby." will tell you the Goblin Digger buried something close by.
Weather and Moonphase
Some items can only be dug in specific weather. For instance, Clusters are only available during double weather.
These count against your daily fatigue quota.
Colored rocks (Red Rock, etc.) and Elemental Ores are determined by an area's current weather. Elemental Ores may only be obtained when the Moon Phase is on the first 7 Vana'diel Days of Waxing Crescent (7%-21%), there has to be elemental weather, and they can only be found in non-expansion middle lands zones. It also seems to specifically be zones in the vicinity of Jeuno (e.g. Fire Ore can be obtained in Rolanberry Fields but not Eastern Altepa Desert or Valkurm Dunes).
Moon Phases previously determined the availability of items in a zone. Historically, zones were able to be dug clean by multiple players and few to no items would be left until replaced at a certain moon phase. This was removed in the June 2016 Version Update. Thus there is no longer a universal item limit per zone, only a daily personal fatigue limit similar to Fishing.
Personal Chocobo
Personal Chocobos, from Chocobo Raising and called by a Chocobo Whistle or via the "/mount chocobo" command, have a few bonuses. These bonuses depend on their stats, which only update when you re-register them for riding at a chocobo trainer NPC.
They have a higher successful digs/day cap
You may use a normal Chocobo for the first 100 successful digs and then switch to your personal chocobo to dig the difference
This is related to the Endurance stat, from my observations it's approximately 2 points in endurance = 1 successful dig over base of 100. Note: The ability Canter does NOT increase successful digs. Therefore, the 200 dig cap is reached at approximately 200/255 points in Endurance stat, for example:
E = approximately 100 - 115 dig cap
B = approximately 164 - 179 dig cap
S = approximately 196 - 200 dig cap
SS = 200 cap (no change)
They will occasionally "refuse to partake" in Gysahl Greens on successful or unsuccessful digs.
This rate is related to their Discernment stat
B = 15%
C = 10%
They can learn the Bore and Burrow abilities, which change the distribution of items available in each zone.
Burrow allows the chocobo access to any Gardening seeds, Beastcoins, feathers, Spider Webs, mushrooms, or roots and greens such as Gysahl, Ginger, Napa, Chamomile, Deathball, etc.
Bore allows the chocobo to access any crystals, logs, shells, scales, or ores
Certain zone pools allow you to obtain many of these items without Burrow or Bore.
Your Chocobo will have an increased chance for digging skill to increase every time it digs.
Note: When run concurrently with the Hyper Chocobo Digging Campaign below, experience gains will be properly applied even though there are no changes in visual effects.
Gysahl Greens are required in order to /dig, purchased from NPC vendors located by every chocobo stable. Gysahl greens are consumed regardless of a successful dig or failure.
Blue Race Silks. The daily limit is based on successful digs and not total dig attempts. A personal chocobo may get an occasional "free" dig.
Arvilauge in Southern San d'Oria (I-11)
Gonija in Bastok Mines (I-9)
Kiria-Romaria in Windurst Woods (K-12)
Sky Blue Race Silks - Gives a message about your chocobo learning something ~50% of the time on successful digs, which is likely related to skilling up faster.
Chocobo Rope - Slightly increases the digging skillup rate.
Black Chocobo Suit - Reduces the chance of obtaining common items by 50%, and increases the chance of obtaining rare items by 50%.
Denim Pants +1 - Reduces the chance of obtaining common items by 50%, and increases the chance of obtaining rare items by 50%.
Egg Helm - Adds Egg-themed items to the potential digging pool.
Orange Race Silks - Increases riding duration by +10 minutes for a rented chocobo.
Chocobo Wand - +30 minutes. May be dual wielded for +60 minutes.
Chocobo Torque - +4 minutes.
Chocobo Gloves or 
Chocobo Boots, +4 minutes for 
Chocobo Hose, and +5 minutes for 
Choc. Jack Coat.
Red Race Silks - Increases riding duration by +10 minutes for a personal chocobo.
Red Rock, etc.) and Elemental Ores are determined by an area's current weather. Elemental Ores may only be obtained when the Moon Phase is on the first 7 Vana'diel Days of Waxing Crescent (7%-21%), there has to be elemental weather, and they can only be found in non-expansion middle lands zones. It also seems to specifically be zones in the vicinity of Jeuno (e.g. Fire Ore can be obtained in Rolanberry Fields but not Eastern Altepa Desert or Valkurm Dunes).
Chocobo Whistle or via the "/mount chocobo" command, have a few bonuses. These bonuses depend on their stats, which only update when you re-register them for riding at a chocobo trainer NPC.
Gysahl Greens.
