A mount is an essential part of the experience no matter what MMORPG you play, and in Final Fantasy XIV that means getting your own chocobo mount like any Final Fantasy protagonist needs. Of course, like most things in the game, you have to progress the story to a certain point to get your first mount.
Your chocobo isn't just a mount in FFXIV. We'll cover how to get your chocobo, as well as what you can do with it.
FFXIV: How to Get a Chocobo Mount
As you progress through the early levels of the game, be sure to follow your main quests. These are referred to as MSQs by much of the community, and will be referred to as such throughout the rest of this guide.
You'll want to follow MSQ perpetually throughout your time with Final Fantasy XIV as they essentially unlock the entire game. I can't stress that enough.
The quest you are going to want to look for is a level 20 quest named My Little Chocobo.
This is a blue quest that unlocks once you've gone to each of the three major cities and chosen a major company to line up with. The quest can be picked up from the Great Company you have chosen. Also, be sure to do any Great Company quests as they come up.
Once completed, you will be able to name and ride your bird in areas outside of towns.
Note: Even if you buy a mount from the Mogstation, you won't be able to ride it until you complete My Little Chocobo.
FFXIV: How to Make Your Chocobo a Companion
So you have your chocobo and you heard that they can fight with you. It's true! They are your trusty FATE farming companions later in the game specifically.
To turn your chocobo from a useful mount to a trusted companion, you'll need to do another quest. This one unlocks at level 30 and is called My Feisty Little Chocobo.
This quest can be picked up from an NPC named Luquelot in the Southern Shroud, in Bentbranch Meadows specifically. It's hard to miss because it's a blue quest. Make a habit of always accepting quests with blue icons.
As a companion, your chocobo will join you on the battlefield for 30 minutes after you feed it Gysahl Greens. Although not in any type of instanced content, including independent tasks or dungeons.
Familiarize yourself with the Companion menu under the Character tab in the Miscellaneous menu options at the bottom of the screen. There are a few things you can do with your chocobo once you've completely made it your companion.
- Bring it into battle — Simply feed it Gysahl Greens and it will join you in the field. You don't really need to do any staging for your chocobo.
- Dress Him Up - You have three slots on your chocobo for cosmetics. One for the head, one for the body and one for the legs. These are called bards and are obtained through content, or simply by purchasing them from the market.
- Teach it Skills – You can teach your chocobo certain combat abilities through the Skills tab in the Companion menu. Most of them are passive stat increases, but there are active ones. Choose what you like, there is no meta for your bird.
- Dye it - This requires a chocobo stable, which you'll either need an apartment or a free business with a house to make. If you do, use this chocobo color calculator to determine the order of fruit to give it to achieve the desired color.
Something to note that confuses a lot of new players is that your chocobo companion is not related to your racing chocobo at all. They're completely different systems, so don't worry about whether or not you can stabilize your bird unless you're trying to dye it or improve its rank via Thavnairian Onions.
That's about all you need to know about how to get a chocobo and what you can do with it in FFXIV, as the systems around the series' iconic birds as companions aren't particularly complex and should be fairly easy to handle.
