Hamfruitcake once again giving you a thrilling trip through final fantasy IX. Final Fantasy XIII out tomorrow.
Choco Hot and Cold[]
I know it sucks but getting this over with now will get you some relatively good equipment now and some useful cards to add to your collection. For all this (and more!) head to my newly vamped up Choco Hot and Cold Page! Get off the boat and summon up Choco on the tracks outside of Lindblum and if you'd like take a detour to Qu's Marsh (which will be covered after this section) and head to Chocobo Forest. When you get there play chocobo Hot and Cold until Mene alerts you to the fact that there are no more chocographs to be found here. I'm serious.
At this point you should have 10 chocographs. You will have already found your 1st one but here is how to get the rest. You should not be able to access Chocograph 3 Uncultivated Land at this point so don't worry about that one for now. Here are the rest.
Healing Shore grants Choco with the Reef ability allowing him to walk in rivers and the shallows. This will allow you access to more chocographs, which I have used a blue colour to let you know which ones you need that ability for to find. It grants you access to the Chocobo Lagoon. More on that later though. For now:
| Number | Name | Picture | How to get to it | Where to Dig |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Streamside | 
|
Mist Continent by Choco Forest | Across the Bridge and by the beach in the corner. |
| 2 | Between Mountains | 
|
Mist Continent Past Dragon's Gate | From the Dragon's Gate go left around the mountain past the beach and you'll see it. |
| 4 | Healing Shore | 
|
North Mist Continent. | Park the Blue Narciss on the Beach north of where Cleyra used to be and summon Choco and dig around to the left. |
| 5 | Abandoned Beach | 
|
Outer Continent, by Qu's Marsh | Dig around the Beach directly opposite the forest to Black Mage Village. |
| 6 | Cold Field | 
|
Lost Continent, North Most Continent. | The far left of the beach directly opposite the chocobo tracks. |
| 8 | Faraway Lagoon | 
|
Sail around the big continent to the left of the map and anchor on the first green island you come across that you can (it has a long beach) when you're heading southwards on the far left. | Summon choco and ride in the reef and keep going around the edge of the continent until you find it. It's in the curve of the continent just keep digging. |
| 10 | Bird's eye lagoon | 
|
Back to the Mist Continent, summon choco near dragon's gate again. | Swim out from the beach opposite the tracks until you find the island shaped like the one in the picture. Not hard to find. |
| 11 | Small Beach | 
|
Anchor right outside Chocobo forest and use the tracks there. | Worm your way around the reef and land on the first island you can, directly opposite Chocobo Forest. It's on the corner of that. |
Here is what treasure you will find in each location.
| Chocograph Number | Treasure |
|---|---|
| 1 | 2 Elixir, 3 Hi-Potion, 4 Ethers, 2 Germinas Boots |
| 2 | 5 Potion, 5 Hi-Potion, 2 Tent, 2 Cotton Robe |
| 4 | Reef ability |
| 5 | 9 Phoenix Pinion, 5 Phoenix Down, 12 Peridot, 1 Diamond Gloves |
| 6 | 5 Echo Screen, 7 Hi-Potion, 3 Tent, 1 Theater Ship Card |
| 8 | 37 Potion, 6 Magic Tag, 1 Shield Armor, 1 Gaia Gear |
| 10 | 8 Potion, 4 Phoenix Down, 3 Ether, 1 Magician Robe |
| 11 | 4 Remedy, 2 Elixir, 8 Rising Sun, 1 Oak Staff |
Ok so that's all the chocographs you can get for now. Having gotten small beach go in and find Mene is missing and then she promptly appears and tells you we should use chocobo to seek paradise. Sounds good to me. Now what? I here you ask? Well Mene has a plan and if you hate Chocobo Hot and Cold you're not going to like it.
Leave the forest and head to the south most island directly opposite the mist continent to the west. This is Palmnell Island. If you're having trouble finding it Mene has helpfully marked it on the map for you so just hit Select to bring it up.
Let's sail on over there and get this party started!
Chocobo Lagoon[]
Unfortunately once you come across the big Basking Shark shaped island it will clearly have the Chocobo Lagoon on it but no tracks for you to summon Choco. You have to go to the smaller island north of it to do this and then starts the fun of riding around the reef until you hit an orange part then head south again and the reef will take you to the cave which allows you to enter Chocobo Lagoon. You'll get a little intro with the colourful bubble writing and somehow Mene will join you too so it's time to start playing Choco Hot and Cold.
To give you an example of how much space you will have to play just ignore Mene for a minute and run towards the black part of the Lagoon. Choco will give an over dramatic squawk and this will give you and idea of how little room you have to work with here. Luckily Mene offers you half the space half the price.
Unfortunately your beak level won't be too high here and it will take a lot of effort to even pull a potion out of the ground. This will of course send your beak level sky rocketing if you play enough so keep at it. There will be countless times where you will scream at the screen as you just about dig something up with about 4 depth left and then time runs out. My coffee table got a thumping with my feet every time this happened, it was SO frustrating!
Keep playing once again until you lose patience or find all four more chocographs. Move onto the next parts of the page if you do or keep going until Mene alerts you to there being no more Chocographs once again. Dusk Plains is one you will find and not one you can actually get to at this point in the game so let's just ignore it...
Here's the next bunch and the prizes you will recieve:
| Chocograph Number | Treasure |
|---|---|
| 3 | 10 Antidote, 1 Jade Armlet, 3 Wing Edge, 1 Cargo Ship Card |
| 7 | 8 Gysahl Greens, 5 Ether, 7 Hi-Potion, 1 Dragon's Claws |
| 9 | 6 Soft, 4 Ether, 1 Feather Boots, 1 N-Kai Armlet |
| 12 | Mountain Ability |
And here's where to find them!
| Number | Name | Picture | How to get to it | Where to Dig |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 | Forgotten Lagoon | 
|
Go to the Lost (Icy Continent) and Summon Choco | Head South from the island working through the reef directly South until you find the Point of the Continent that looks identical to the picture and dig in the corner of where it bends. |
| 9 | Abandoned Lagoon | 
|
Outer Cointinent, land on the southern part of the island past the Iifa Tree. | Summon Choco and go off the beach to the west until you find a tiny cove. Dig there. |
| 12 | Dawn Lagoon | 
|
Go to Chocobo Forest | Ride around the moutains east ward and exit off a beach where it gets all orange, then head out into the sea and dig around the oblong shaped island. |
After this you should be able to get to the third Chocograph.
| Number | Name | Picture | How to get to it | Where to Dig |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | Uncultivated Land | 
|
Once you have the Mountain Ability climb over the mountain past Treno and down into the Valley. | Run along the river until you find the swamp land and see some Choco footprints and just dig about there for a bit. |
For now once again you will have to settle with going back to the Chocobo Forest and look for more chocographs if you wish. But for now it's practically impossible to find any of them without the help of an Airship so by all means go ahead and dig them up but I'm pretty fed up with Chocobo Hot and Cold right now so let's move on!
Esto Gaza[]
If you've been following Choco Hot and Cold then you'll have visited the Lost Continent before but if not just sail north to the top of the map where the icy continent happens to lie. It only has two beaches and east from them would be Esto Gaza. It's a pretty weird circular place squeezed in the mountains and will have a weapon shop containing every Mythril Weapon and Armour available in the game. The only one worth picking up would be the Mythril Racket for the summoner girls and this is the only place in the game you can buy the Mythril Sword I've been told.
Apart from that there is very little else to do here unless you want to meet Mogrika, the most beautiful Moogle in all the land but she doesn't have tmuch to say for herself.
Outside you can engage in random encounters with Whale Zombie on the beach which can be eaten by Quina to learn Level 5 Death which will be essential when level grinding against the mighty Grand Dragon. You will also come across Feather Circles which can teach Quina Level 4 Holy, it's not effective unless it's against an undead/shadow fiend who is level 4... But hey let's fill up his skill slots.
Qu's Marshes[]
That's right! I've got you frog catching! Go to the one outside of Lindblum to catch some frogs. There is also one right outside of Black Mage Village so you can pop in there before you progress the story line if you wish. There is also a 3rd Qu's Marsh available to look at right now (there are four in total) which can be found on the far west of the map on one of the outlying islands. It's not far from Chocobo Lagoon. You can land your boat on the beach and head straight on in. On this island you will find Anenomes on the beach which can teach Quina Bad Breath, an invaluable skill to use which inflicts Confuse/Darkness/Poison/Slow/Mini on an enemy or whatever it is weak to out of these. Adamantoise can also teach you Earth Shake if you're interested. Beware though, there are Grand Dragons on this island and without Level 5 Death at this point you will be destroyed by them.
For frog catching I've been told that the females have red feet and males have yellow feet. Just so you keep track. This has led to much shouting and screaming from my housemates who have nothing better to do on a Monday night when I can't be bothered. To be honest, I can't see it but they can so they're happy to do frog catching for me.
You should have about 30 at this point, if you've been keeping track. 33 will grant you the Bistro Fork from Quina which is highly useful at this point.
Ok, I've spent the good part of a day doing all this before I go out and buy Final Fantasy XIII tomorrow... this may fall by the wayside but maybe not, we'll see, it's probably going to be a good distraction from when I should be doing my essay on my laptop We'll see amigos!