How to catch a Chocobo

[Ayen]

How difficult was catching the chocobo for you and did you get the summon materia while you were at the farm? I never got it before and only ended up with it this time because I talked to a random chocobo and they did a little dance before giving it to me. I love how it switches between normal and fat depending on the enemies. I love this game, years later and I'm still discovering new things about it.

I was low on money when I got to the ranch so I had to go out and do random battles to get the 2000 gils needed to buy the Lure. Then I only had so much left over for the greens to keep the chocobo there so I ended making things harder than it would have been if I saved more. Then I got fed up and used a summon hitting the wild chocobo too. That was a mistake. Ow. Ow! OW!

I finally got enough money to buy better greens to distract the chocobo longer to catch it and get across the swamp. Still my least favorite part of the game. That I can remember.

Discuss.

[Carl the Llama]

You don't actually need a chocobo to cross the marsh, simply start crossing, when the Zolom gets near open the menu and save the game, then reload, each time you save/reload it regenerates the Zolom at random points in the marsh thus slowly allowing you to cross without a chocobo.

[Ayen]

You don't actually need a chocobo to cross the marsh, simply start crossing, when the Zolom gets near open the menu and save the game, then reload, each time you save/reload it regenerates the Zolom at random points in the marsh thus slowly allowing you to cross without a chocobo.

....Well then!

Carl is the superior FFVII player.

[Sephex]

I did this last playthrough when I realized I forgot to get the Chocobo summon. I was mad, but the Midgar Zolom was more upset with me. We hashed things out later and he added me back on Facebook.

[Pumpkin]

I got the Chocobo summon, tried about 12 times to beat the big snake, gave up and crossed with a chocobo, and came back a short while later after I learned one of the metra magic spells and beat his butt repeatedly because I hate that stupid snake.

[Carl the Llama]

Carl is the superior FFVII player.

I'm glad someone finally recognises my brilliance, it IS my favourite game after all, if the game has it, I have done it.

[Sephiroth]

You don't actually need a chocobo to cross the marsh, simply start crossing, when the Zolom gets near open the menu and save the game, then reload, each time you save/reload it regenerates the Zolom at random points in the marsh thus slowly allowing you to cross without a chocobo.

You forogt to tell him not to save and reload but to defeat the Midgar Zolom.

[Jiro]

I always get the materia straight away. I don't know what prompted me to examine them the first time I played but I have always done it since.

I never seem to have a shortage of gil by this point, so I just buy my lure and ten Gyshal Greens and then hop to it.

[Ayen]

I kept buying weapons and equipment to increase my stats when upgrades became available, so yeah. I threw away a lot of my gils on that and items.

[Bubba]

so I just buy my lure and ten Gyshal Greens and then hop to it.

How long do Gyshal Greens hold the chocobos attention for? I normally use Tantal Greens as they just munch on that forever until you've defeated all the monsters.

Anyone know the best greens to use to keep their attention the longest?

[Formalhaut]

I picked up the materia, bought some greens and...

went and killed that snake anyway. The Beta enemy skill is just that damn powerful I went and got it straight away.

[Flying Mullet]

The part that chaps my ass is that after you leave Midgar you cannot save until you enter Junon if you want any chance of reviving Aeris. Throw on top that you have to get the Lure materia, beat the Midgar Zolom and have Yuffie join your party while en-route between Midgar and Junon without saving it makes for a tall order to bring back poor Aeris.

[Karifean]

Once you get a little into how absurdly broken FF7's combat system is even in early game, the Zolom actually isn't much of a threat. Back Row + Sadness is already pretty sick damage reduction and if you use Mindblow he can't use Beta. Of course you probably want to LEARN Beta so this is counterproductive, but if you just want to beat him this is a good way to do it. If you do want to learn Beta, Elemental+Fire in your armor is a godsend.

[VeloZer0]

Back on the topic of catching chocobos. I find the easiest way is to just have two characters with limit breaks already full at the start of battle. As soon as both characters have their turns qued up unleash them on the two other enemies. Since Limit Breaks have the highest priority for turns even if the chocobo wants to run away after the first one it doesn't get a chance to before the second one goes off.

(It goes without saying to use single target limit breaks.)

[Karifean]

When it comes to catching chocobos, you'd usually want to use Gysahl, Tantal or Curiel Greens since they keep them occupied for a decent time (2 turns, 3 turns, 5 turns respectively) and cost a reasonable amount of Gil, although with 1000 Gil apiece, Curiel is pretty expensive. At the start of the game, Gysahl is a cheap and rather safe option, and once you can afford them I'd recommend Curiel.

Other greens mainly reduce the chocobos' chance of running away, which is nice, but you can usually kill off the other enemies before the chocobo eats up if you just use a green type that occupies them for a set time. Mimett and Sylkis being the exceptions are their main purpose is to give you a way to learn Chocobuckle.

Later on, Odin is great for catching chocobos. The chocobos themselves are immune to Death so Steel Bladed Sword will always miss them while it (mostly) safely takes care of the other enemies.