Final Fantasy IX - Chocobo Hot and Cold

Chocobo Hot & Cold

Chocobo Hot & Cold is a long and involved but entertaining mini-game in Final Fantasy IX. It is first available to you when you enter Chocobo's Forest after leaving Lindblum. You must speak to Mene, the moogle there. Exit the forest, stand on the chocobo tracks nearby, and use Gysahl Greens to call Choco. Ride him back into the forest. Talk to Mene, and he will explain how the game is played. It costs 60 gil per 60-second game, and you can keep whatever Choco digs up.

To play, pay the fee and press the square button until you see yourself riding Choco. Run around the area pressing the square button to make Choco dig in the ground with his beak. The things Choco says will indicate how close you are to an item.

You will get points based on what things you find and how fast you find them. The points can be traded in to Mene for rewards. You can earn extra time and extra points by finding several items, or by finding items in quick succession. Sometimes it is a little hard to find them, so you might want to back up a little and come at the spot from a slightly different direction.

You can dig up gil, medicines, greens, and chocographs. Chocographs are stones with pictures of other places along with clues to their location. You can ride Choco to look for these places. When you find one, by digging just as you would in the forest, a buried treasure chest will surface. These chests contain items, equipment, and even rare cards. Mene will let you know when you discovered all the chocographs currently available.

To look for chocographs, exit the forest and press the triangle button to access a special menu. It will allow you to select a chocograph to search for. Each chocograph will tell you what chocobo abilities are necessary to find that particular treasure chest. Some Choco can do immediately, as they only require the Field ability, which he already has, but some will acquire him to gain new abilities. A few of the treasure chests at the chocograph locations will contain new abilities for Choco rather than items for you.

When you find one of these, Choco will get sleep and travel to a place called "Chocobo's Dream World." He will be congratulated and then change color - blue for Reef, red for Mountain, dark blue for Sea, and gold for Sky. Blue with allow him to walk in shallow water, red will allow him to walk over mountains, dark blue will allow him to walk across deep water, and gold will allow him to fly. He must always exit and enter land at a shore when walking on the ocean, and must always take off and land in a forest when flying. As he gains new abilities, the number of chests you can search for will increase.

Later in the game, with the Reef ability, you can search for Chocobo's Lagoon, which is on the side of a small island in the lower left corner of the world map. Mene will be there, and will explain that since some of the cave is covered with deep water, Choco can only search in a small portion of it. Therefore, the game will cost half as much and last half as long. You can dig up chocograph pieces here, also, which give clues to locations where you should search for treasure. After you have dug up all the available chocographs here and have the Mountain ability, try Chocobo's Forest again, where you can now travel up to the small plateaus on the left and right sides of the area. Digging up all the chocographs here and finding the Sea ability will allow you to travel back to Chocobo's Lagoon and search in the deeper areas. The game will then be full price and full length again in that area.

When Choco has the Sky ability, Chocobo's Air Garden will be available to you. You can see a dark spot on the land or the ocean, and if Choco is given a Dead Pepper over the spot while flying, he will shoot up in the air and arrive at the garden. The Air Garden can appear at one of several possible locations. A few more chocographs can be dug up here. (There is also an optional boss up here, but you probably shouldn't even think about fighting Ozma till the end of the game.) Once you have all the chocographs, you can leave the Air Garden by walking to the lower left where you entered and choosing to go back down. After you have found all the buried treasure chests at the 24 chocograph locations, take Choco around the world and use Dead Peppers at cracks on the land and bubbles in the ocean to find a few more chests. In these cases, the Dead Peppers must be used while Choco is on the ground. After all the treasures have been found, take Choco to an island north of the outer continent and find the crack that leads to Mognet Central. You will need to come here to complete a side quest later.

When you have found everything there is to be found, fly to the upper left corner of the map, and land Choco in the forest here. There is a crack which leads to Chocobo's Paradise. Choco is expected to stay here in this dream world, having accomplished everything he could in your world. However, his ties to Mene are too strong, and he declines to live here. His decision to return with Mene will make him available to you for the rest of the game. You can come back here whenever you like, and can challenge the chocobos here to card games. If you have lost any cards from treasure chests because you already carried 100 cards, Fat Chocobo will have those cards, and will give them to you if there is room in your inventory. The chocobo to the left of him will also replenish your supply of Dead Peppers.

After you have completed Chocobo Hot and Cold, you can gain the ability to completely restore your party's HP and MP and remove status conditions. After finding every treasure in the Hot and Cold game, visit Chocobo's Paradise and challenge Fat Chocobo to a card game. He will give you a clue about visiting the beaches. Go back and ride Choco to a beach, and then dismount. Press the O button and you will hear a chime. Do this on every beach - you will get a message after you have covered them all. After doing so, you will be able to heal your entire party by visiting any beach and pressing O.

These are the items that can be obtained through
trading in your Chocobo Hot & Cold points:

Points	Reward
10	Gysahl Green
150	Phoenix Down
250	Ore
450	Ether
1800	Viltgance Card
3500	Wing Edge
8500	Protect Ring
10000	Robe of Lords

Here is a map of the world with the general locations of all things chocobo. "A" marks Chocobo's Forest, "B" marks Chocobo's Lagoon, "C" marks Chocobo's Paradise (which is accessed through a crack), "D" marks the possible locations of Chocobo's Air Garden, and the numbers represent chocograph treasure chest locations, in the order that they appear in the Chocograph Menu. The red spots (cracks), and the blue spots (bubbles), both of which are marked with lower case letters, require Dead Peppers.

No.	Chocograph	Picture	Abilities Required	Description	Treasure Chest Contents
1	Streamside		Field	Go check where the river meets the ocean, kupo.	Germinas Boots x 2
2	Between mountains		Field	Go look near the mountains facing the ocean on the southwest side of the Mist Continent.	Potion x 5, High Potion x 5, Tent x 2, Cotton Robe x 2
3	Uncultivated land		Field	The treasure is buried near a river, kupo, but I don't think it'll be easy to find.	Antidote x 10, Jade Armlet, Wing Edge x 3, Cargo Ship Card
4	Healing shore		Field	I've seen a beach that looks like this near a city with high winds, kupo.	Choco's Reef Ability
5	Abandoned beach		Field	I think there's a beach near a huge dying forest. That might be it, kupo.	Phoenix Pinion x 9, Phoenix Down x 5, Peridot x 12, Diamond Gloves
6	Cold field		Field	Looks like a very cold place, kupo...	Echo Screen x 5, High Potion x 7, Tent x 3, Theater Ship Card
7	Forgotten lagoon		Field, Reef	Kupo! Why not go play in icy-cold water?	Gysahl Greens x 8, Ether x 5, High Potion x 7, Dragon's Claws
8	Faraway lagoon		Field, Reef	I heard there is a long stretch of reef... That might be it, kupo.	Potion x 37, Magic Tag x 6, Shield Armor, Gaia Gear
9	Abandoned lagoon		Field, Reef	I hear there's a sunken treasure near a peninsula in the southern part of the Outer Continent, kupo.	Soft x 6, Ether x 4, Feather Boots, N-Kai Armlet
10	Bird's-eye lagoon		Field, Reef	There are so many small islands surrounding the Mist Continent, kupo!	Potion x 8, Phoenix Down x 4, Ether x 3, Magician Robe
11	Small beach		Field, Reef	It's a beach on a small island! A great place to vacation, kupo.	Remedy x 4, Elixir x 2, Rising Sun x 8, Oak Staff
12	Dawn lagoon		Field, Reef	It's near a city where the night never ends.	Choco's Mountain Ability
13	Forbidden forest		Field, Reef, Mtn	The forest lies where many mountain ranges merge, kupo!	Ether x 7, Elixir x 2, Wing Edge x 10, High Mage Staff
14	Green plains		Field, Reef, Mtn	There are treasures on the high plains, too, kupo!	Choco's Sea Ability
15	Dusk plains		Field, Reef, Mtn	What a beautiful sunset, kupo!	Phoenix Down x 12, Ore x 14, Kaiser Knuckles, Iron Man Card
16	Forgotten plains		Field, Reef, Mtn	The long peninsula sort of points to the location of the treasures, kupo.	Ore x 17, Ether x 5, Opal x 14, Demon's Mail
17	Sea at dusk		Field, Reef, Mtn, Sea	There must be more treasures deeper in the ocean.	Phoenix Pinion x 15, White Robe, Diamond, Masamune Card
18	Ocean		Field, Reef, Mtn, Sea	Look carefully! There's a small reef, kupo!	Ore x 27, Light Robe, Whale Whisker, Alexander Card
19	Cold lagoon		Field, Reef, Mtn, Sea	What a complicated cove. The water looks very cold, kupo.	Peridot x 11, Opal x 9, Sapphire x 15, Topaz x 19
20	Mist ocean		Field, Reef, Mtn, Sea	Look around the small islands located in the northeastern shore of the Mist Continent.	Choco's Sky Ability
21	Outer island		Field, Reef, Mtn, Sea, Sky	Kupo. It isn't a very big island.	Amethyst x 21, Garnet x 16, Genji Armor, Ragnarok
22	Outer island 2		Field, Reef, Mtn, Sea, Sky	I think there's a desert nearby, kupo.	Sapphire x 11, Circlet, Pumice Piece, Hilda Garde 3 Card
23	Fairy island		Field, Reef, Mtn, Sea, Sky	There's a mountain on the middle of the island.	Potion x 33, Annoyntment x 15, Holy Miter, Dark Matter Card
24	Forgotten island		Field, Reef, Mtn, Sea, Sky	What a strange shape for an island, kupo.	Ribbon, Rebirth Ring, Amethyst x 13, Ark Card

Letter	Location	Description	Treasure Chest Contents
a	Lost Continent (crack)	Northeast side of the continent, near the ocean	Lapis Lazuli x 41, Rosetta Ring, Protect Ring, Airship Card
b	Between Lost Continent and Outer Continent (bubble)	Midway between the continents	Potion x 50, High Potion x 25, Ether x 9, Elixir x 7
c	Mognet Central (crack)	Island above Outer Continent	N/A (Side quest)
d	Shimmering Island (bubble, Disc 4 only)	Where the Shimmering Island used to be	Aquamarine x 10, Ultima Weapon, Maximillian, Invincible Card
e	Below Outer Continent (bubble)	Below southeast corner of Outer Continent	Straw Hat x 8, Pearl Armlet x 8, Aloha T-shirt x 7, Sandals x 8
f	Forgotten Continent (crack)	Northeastern part of Forgotten Continent	Eye Drops x 19, Madain's Ring, Genji Helmet, Hilda Garde 1 Card
g	Forgotten Continent (crack)	West-central part of Forgotten Continent	Maiden Prayer, Dragon's Hair, Gauntlets, Odin Card
h	Forgotten Continent (bubble)	Southeast corner of Forgotten Continent	Remedy x 10, Black Robe, Genji Gloves, Blue Narciss Card
i	Quan's Dwelling (bubble)	Accessed from balcony at back of cave	Ore x 9, Topaz x 15, Tiger Racket, Red Rose Card