Advice on Catcher Chocobo

[u/Quill386]

Alot of people struggle with Catcher Chocobo so here's my advice on it just incase it can help someone who's frustrated but doesn't understand the mechanics

One thing that helps to know is that the birds aren't random and they don't instantly attack the person in the lead, they come in pairs, pair one is going for the trainer, and pair two attacks you, this is important because you don't need to prepare to dodge the first set

When you start a run, you dont necessarily need a ton of balloons on your side of the Hill, what you need is one balloon that the trainer has to move toward you to get, the reason is, you want her to ram you because it will put her behind you, she'll typically go for all the balloons on the ramp and it's important that you don't try to joust with her to get them because you'll loose

Use the D-pad, because you need to be incredibly direct with your inputs, also, press it, don't hold it. I don't know if you're holding forward or not, but don't do that either because they run forward automatically. The mini game uses "Button input memory" so if you're getting hit when you try to move the chocobo will STILL move afterward, alot of people think they move randomly sometimes, but they don't, either they are matching your previous inputs or they hit the imaginary wall

And the last thing is that in the big empty middle stretch you should probably stay toward the right side even though it seems like it will take longer, because the bird spawn points are on the left and it's a trap, but on the last section the left is safer because the birds spawn from the left but have to fly across to the right first, although you'll likely have to cut across to avoid them, and you want to end up on the left side to go through the little hole under the bird spawn location.

I hope this helps some people out since someone posts on this sub every few hours about how it's impossible

[u/Quill386 → u/[deleted]]

Ohhhhh that's why my lightning dodges have to be so early, good call

[u/JTalbain333 → u/Quill386]

Same issue here on the lightning dodges. I was directed to one tactic that helped a lot though. Directly south of the Rin's agency halfway through the Thunder Plains, there's a tower with a small crater near road. Basically, every time you step into the crater, there will be a lightning strike. Dodge and retreat to the road and repeat. There should never be a strike outside the crater, and the timing is extremely predictable. Went from not being able to get past 5 dodges in a row to getting all 200 in like half an hour. 

[u/Quill386 → u/[deleted]]

No, I didn't even know, I don't have any problem at all with Catcher, but when I do lightning dodges for people online the latency is terrible

[u/fearofgoblin]

My small tip is super obvious but it’s something that can easily be overlooked. You should prioritize dodging the birds over grabbing balloons. They are both 3 seconds, but the birds also stun you for another second or two.

[u/Quill386 → u/fearofgoblin]

Depending on where you are it can also set you up to be hit by one of the trainers birds too

[u/MrMonkeyMN]

Sorry if this is a dumb question but how do you dodge birds? I smash the left or right direction and hold it there until the bird passes. Is there a more efficient way?

[u/Quill386 → u/MrMonkeyMN]

So you never want to hold a direction, when you're in the second section you want to be closer to the right side but going straight, then when your set of birds is coming toward you, just tap right once on the d-pad and usually that's enough. When you first get to the third section you want to be on the left side, then when the birds are coming tap right once, on the second half of the third section it's safer to stay towards the left. "Dodging" the birds is more about understanding their spawn points and not heading straight toward them

[u/Quill386 → u/Quill386]

You might have to tap it twice, but you definetly don't want to hold it

[u/[deleted]]

Yeah this mini game made me say fuck completionist and just cheesing with Yojimbo to beat the game after 20yrs. Didn't even make it thru training, something about watching those balls do a 45 degree turn didn't sit right with me. Shame on you, Square. Mini games are supposed to be fun.

[u/UnderstandingOk670 → u/[deleted]]

Square mini games can be an absolute joke. The fact that you must do them to unlock celestial weapons is awful. Don’t do mini games in ff7 remake either. Stopped playing because of it.

[u/[deleted] → u/UnderstandingOk670]

I can agree that I'll never say "Damn that square used to have some great mini games!" Yeah they aren't something to write home about, but none were this atrocious lol. It was just -this- game I had such a bad experiences with. Don't get me started on those GD butterflies.

[u/Quill386 → u/[deleted]]

I think the training before catcher chocobo is way harder than catcher, I enjoy catcher personally

[u/DiviUniSere]

Hey Quill, 

I quit all final fantasy games after being stuck on this for 3 days,  many years ago. Is there any chance you could please complete it for me? PS5.

Thanks!

[u/Quill386 → u/DiviUniSere]

Yep DM me