Final Fantasy IX

Emulator Notes

This is where I am parking the emulator-specific machinery so the main walkthrough can stay focused on the game itself.

Choco Hot and Cold, Chocobo Forest (First Visit)

Each time you begin a game of Choco Hot and Cold, the first time you press square and make Choco search, the game randomly decides where the first treasure is. That means you can start the game, press square, then use the emulator to save the game state. From there, you can search at your leisure until you find where the treasure is. Once you’ve found it, load the game state and head straight to where you found the treasure. Once you’ve dug it up and received your points, press square to search and then save the game state and repeat the process of finding the treasure, loading the game, and going straight to the treasure.

There’s an added bonus to this as well. The game doesn’t choose what the treasure is until you find it. That means you can keep reloading the save state, running to the spot, digging it up, and then deciding if you want to keep it or not. You can find all the Chocographs really quickly this way. I think I was able to complete the entire first forest in about 10 minutes or so. As an added perk, you finish each round so quickly that Mene gives you massive bonus points for early finishes - leveling up Choco’s beak really quickly.

If you want the and/or early on in the game, practicing this can be an effective way to do that. With a little practice, you’ll find you can end with over 40 seconds still on the clock, netting you between 250 and 350 points every game. My record is finishing with 53 seconds left, which netted me 375 points. But really, this is all about how far away each of the digs are from each other.

If you can earn 250-350 points each time, it’s only 30-40 attempts to get the 10k points you need for the . I spent around 2.5 hours and earned enough points to buy both the robe and ring, and I also found a , a , and tons of other items and Gil. If you do opt to leverage this knowledge, you probably won’t need a lot of money. You will dig up so much Gil that it pretty much pays for itself without you having to go sell stuff off. In fact, one time I managed to dig up 5,000 Gil. I don’t think that’s very likely for most folks, though. I’ve played through this game at least 10 times, and I can only remember getting that once. In any event, speed is the most important factor. The faster you complete the attempt, the more points you can earn.

So why would you want to go through all this trouble to earn a piece of equipment this early on? The reason has to do with a hidden game mechanic. When your characters level up, some equipment can grant stat bonuses. Specifically, you can get stat bonuses for Speed, Strength, Magic, and Spirit. The is unique in that it grants stat increases to ALL these attributes. So if you keep your characters at a REALLY low level the whole game, you can equip the Robe to them and by the time they level up a lot, they’re at a HUGE advantage over enemies. Since it can only be equipped by Vivi, Dagger, Quina, and Eiko, having more than four is not generally considered to be helpful.

Eiko/Marcus Stat Bug

If you’re playing the game on a PS1 emulator, the Eiko/Marcus stat bug described on the Leveling Up page can be easier to use because save states make the setup less brittle. This bug is fixed in later remastered versions.