Basics
Chocobo digging possesses an invisible rank, similar to that of other crafts. The way to determine ones rank is based upon the time (in seconds) a chocobo must wait after zoning in before it may begin digging.
The delay between digs also decreases as ones digging rank increases. The daily limit is successful digs and is not total dig attempts. Most successful digs count as 1 fatigue but as you level, your bird may get an occasional free dig. Daily maximum dig is 100 items. You need to move away (>2 yalms) from previous dig or you will fail to dig. There may be a longer history than 1 dig, so it's best to walk around the zone.
The items available in a zone also change as you rank up.
Rank
Equipment
The chocobo digging experience may be enhanced using either Duration gear and by using a few one-off pieces of 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 Suit reduces 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 chocobo digging pool.
- This can be used to increase the odds of digging something up if seeking skillups.
NPC Rented Chocobo Duration gear:
Personal Chocobo Duration Gear:
- Red Race Silks - Increases riding duration by 10 minutes for a personal chocobo.
Personal Chocobo
Personal Chocobos, raised in the stables and called by 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
- 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.
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- However, bore increases the odds and certain zones will not reward certain ores without the trait.
- A chocobo may learn Treasure Finder to reduce the chance of receiving nothing upon digging.
Chocobo Attriubute Effects on Digging
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Strength
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Determines the reward amount of Beastmen caches. E.g. Conquest Points, Allied Notes, etc
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Endurance
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Maximum number of digs before fatigue cap. Rental Chocobos are 100, and Raised are up to 200.
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Discernment
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Increases rate a Chocobo digs without consuming Gysahl Greens.
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Receptibility
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Increases the rate of obtaining rarer items.
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Monthly Adventurer Campaigns
There are two types of campaigns that may run any given month.
Chocobo Digging Skill Increase Campaign
- When this Monthly Adventurer Campaign is active, your Chocobo's Chocobo Digging skill increases faster.
- 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.
Hyper Chocobo Digging Campaign
- When this Monthly Adventurer Campaign is active, Chocobos can dig faster between intervals.
- The delay between subsequent digs and the time you need to wait between zoning and your first dig will both be decreased.
- If your Chocobo Digging skill is already at its maximum, this campaign does not apply.
- Note: As mentioned above, this is not a "Plus!" campaign. these are two entirely different campaigns, even though the name does not imply that.
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 do not count against your daily quota.
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 quota.
Colored rock ( Red Rock, etc) and Elemental Ore is determined by weather. Elemental Ore can 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 phase previous determined the availability of items in a zone. Historically, zones were able to be dug clean by multiple players and little to no items would be left until replaced at a certain moon phase. This was removed in the June 7th 2016 update. Thus there is no longer a universal item limit per zone, and only a personal fatigue limit similar to fishing.
Digging Rewards
References
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