Overview
An AutoHotkey script that simply encounters enemies and flees from them, for the sake of building up the damage dealt by the elusive Chocobuckle enemy skill. 9999 damage for the cost of 3 MP? Sure, why not?!
What the heck is Chocobuckle, and how do I get it?
Chocobuckle is a hard to find enemy skill that can only be learned from, you guessed it, Chocobos. Most players will probably miss this enemy skill entirely, unless you’re going for 100% on achievements, or you just like filling out your enemy skill materias. To learn this magic, it’s best to read the “Obtaining the spell” section from the Final Fantasy fandom wiki:
Or even the enemy skill materia page if you’re not clued up on enemy skills:
Just be warned that to learn Chocobuckle you first need to learn L4 Suicide from the mole enemies, Mu[finalfantasy.fandom.com], and those little devils can take a long time to show up…
What’s unique about Chocobuckle is that it deals 1 point of damage for every time you’ve fled from a battle. With this in mind, if you grind away for long enough you can deal the max damage of 9999, for only 3 MP. This arguably makes it the strongest single target attack in the game, for the lowest cost.
Short answer, probably not.
Running from 9999 battles takes a very long time…
Even getting the damage up to about 1000 will take a fair number of hours, and that’s if you decide to do nothing but encounter and run from battles over and over again. Furthermore, later in the game there are better alternatives that allow you to do multiple attacks in one turn, such as double-cut, w-magic, w-summon, quadra magic, and of course Knights of Round (all hail the king!).
In case you’re still determined to max your Chocobuckle damage after reading all that, I’ve prepared just the script to do all the tedious grinding automatically!
Getting started with AutoHotkey
Bear in mind I’ll be explaining these steps for a Windows 10 PC since I don’t own a Mac, and don’t even know if the game works on Apple machines.
Before the script can be run, you’ll need to download and install AutoHotkey from the following URL:
The download and installation shouldn’t take long at all, and is pretty much standard fare. You can go through the express installation, though I’d personally pick custom, install the 32bit unicode version, and ensure all options are ticked.
Once you’ve hit install, it should be over in a flash and you’re even presented with the option to read a tutorial on writing your own AHK scripts. You can do this if you want to make other scripts, though it can be a bit daunting if you’re not into coding.
Once everything has installed, either go to your desktop screen or open up/ create a folder where you want your script to be saved. Next, right click on an empty space and select “New -> AutoHotkey Script” to create a blank script. You can name this file whatever you like, just don’t delete the “.ahk” part if your PC settings are set to show file extensions.
Right click on your newly created script file and select “Edit Script”. This should open up the script in notepad, and you should see some text already there. You can delete this code if you want, but otherwise just paste the following code below it. It doesn’t seem to make a difference either way.
Once you’ve pasted the above code into your script, remember to save by going to File -> Save, or by hitting Ctrl + S. Well done, you’ve created your auto-flee script!
You can change the sleep values and keys used if you aren’t using the default keyboard configuration. The keys used are in this script are c, PgUp, PgDn, Right, Left, and Space (should all be self explanatory, but C, Page up, Page Down, Right and Left directional keys and Space bar). If you have changed any of your in-game controls, here’s a page listing all of the non-alphabetical key/ button names used by AutoHotkey:
So here’s what the script does:
- After hitting space once, the script will automatically hold down the C, Page Up and Page Down keys altogether. The C key makes the character run onscreen, whereas Page Up and Down are the keys for fleeing from battle. The script then enters a loop alternating between holding down and releasing the Right and Left directional keys, to make the player run back and forth.
- Hitting the space bar a second time will pause the script and release all held keys.
- Finally, hitting the escape key also releases all held keys, before closing the script down altogether.
Using the script
Before you get into grinding, there’s a few things you will probably want to get/ make sure of in-game:
- Chocobuckle enemy skill – Although you don’t need it straight away, having the spell already will allow you to see how many times you’ve fled from battle. I really can’t stress enough how long this takes, even with this script running, so it’s good to be able to keep track. If you don’t know when/ where to get it, there are plenty of walkthroughs online, as well as the wiki link I provided earlier.
- Enemy Lure materia – This materia increases the encounter rate of enemies whilst you’re running about. It’s handy if you’re trying to level up, so it’s a good thing to have in general. Since you need to reach the Gold Saucer area to obtain it, it’s best to wait until you’re able to race your own Chocobos, which is close to the end of the game. The only way to get it sooner is by betting on the Chocobo races, which means relying on your gambling luck.
- HP Plus materia/ High stats – even though you’ll just be running away, you’ll be going through a lot of battles and taking a fair bit of damage. The amount of HP/ defense your party members have will dictate how often you’ll need to stop the script and heal up, so at the very least high HP stat is a good idea (ideally 9999). If you’re a little lacking, HP Plus materia can be bought in Cosmo Canyon’s materia shop. High luck stats are also a plus since it helps your party members dodge attacks, but it’s not a necessity.
- Sneak Attack, Exit, HP<->MP and Cover materias – This combination of materias can greatly speed up the whole process. Linking a maxed out Sneak Attack with a brand new Exit materia will automatically use the spell and escape from battle without having to waste time running. HP<->MP swaps your HP and MP stats, meaning you can have a max MP of 9999, whereas a maxed out cover materia equipped to another character can protect them from any attacks in case sneak attack fails (since the caster’s max HP will now be 999). Putting multiple Sneak Attack and Exit materias also increases the odds that the sneak attack will succeed, whilst slotting them into a no-growth weapon (e.g. Cloud’s Ultima Weapon) will prevent Exit from levelling up, and using “Remove” instead (removes one enemy from battle). It’s a bit more roundabout and time-consuming to prepare (and involves some end-game materia/ equipment), but saves a lot of time running.
Now you have a script, running it is very simple, and you have two options open to you:
- Right click on your script file and select “Run Script”. With this method you’ll need to keep AutoHotkey installed, and is better if you want to test your scripts out in case you need to make any tweaks.
- Alternatively, you can right click on the script file and select “Compile” to create a .exe file, basically making your script into a standalone app within the same folder as the script. Then anytime you want to run it, you just need to double click auto-flee app you’ve created. Choosing this method means you don’t need to keep AutoHotkey installed, since it has everything self-contained.
Sit back and enjoy!
If you’ve managed to get everything working properly, then all you need to do now is let the script do it’s job and walk away from the computer! As I say, you’ll want to check in every now and then to heal up and save your progress, but with any luck you should be able to ramp up your Chocobuckle damage without losing productivity.
At any rate, sorry for the long guide. It might not be the most useful script, but if it’s helpful to anyone then I’m glad I posted it.
Thanks for reading anywho!