Bunny Racing (バーニィレース, Bānii Rēsu?, lit. Bunny Race) is a recurring activity in the Star Ocean series that consists of participating in races with the series' mascot, the bunny, in order to obtain rewards.
Appearances[]
Star Ocean: Till the End of Time[]
The teleporters to the Southeast and Southwest on the Gemity circuit lead to the Bunny Races. Here, players can bet money on bunnies to win races, and it's all hosted by a large Bunny as well. Races involve four bunnies racing around a circuit, and before each race, the player picks a class, a bet type, and a bunny (or bunnies) to bet on. The only outcome that picking a class changes is the reward; The bunnies are always randomized. The Classes are as follows:
- Class A costs 300 Fol, awarding 3 points for winning 'Buy to Win' and 9 points for 'Buy Perfecta'.
- Class B costs 200 Fol, awarding 2 points for winning 'Buy to Win' and 6 points for 'Buy Perfecta'.
- Class C costs 100 Fol, awarding 1 point for winning 'Buy to Win' and 3 points for 'Buy Perfecta'.
The bet types are:
- Buy to Win - The player selects a bunny, and points are awarded if the bunny wins the race.
- Buy Perfecta - The player selects two bunnies, and points are awarded only if the two bunnies come first and second. The order does not matter.
The points awarded for winning the races can be exchanged at the counter for the prizes below:
| Prize | Points |
|---|---|
| Commemorative Prize | 1 |
| Laser Weapon | 10 |
| Giant King Crab | 50 |
| Bent Mystic Blade | 100 |
| Scumbag Slayer | 200 |
| Bunny Shoes | 350 |
| Pomello Juice | 500 |
| Bunny Race Trophy | 1,000 |
Spending points does not deplete your points, however each item can only be obtained once.
The Bunny Races are notorious for taking an insane amount of time and resources to complete, prompting many players to resort to Turbo controllers. Using a Turbo Controller with the X Button active will constantly put the player into a Class C, Buy To Win race with Bunny number 1. Players then leave their console for an amount of time, usually overnight. Even with this method, average luck will net the players 1,000 points in 3~5 nights.
Upon exchanging 1,000 points for the Bunny Race Trophy, the host Bunny will make a remark on the huge amount of time needed and congratulate the player - adding a sly remark about the use of Turbo controllers. The Bunny Race trophy has the same stats as the Victory Trophy, awarded for reaching the top of the Battle Arena Ranking Ladder:
- -40% Battle Skill HP Use
- -2 Fury Use
- +10 enemy Fury reduction when guard is broken
- 6% MP recovery at intervals during battle
- 1/2 casting time
- Raises normal attack decision by 2
- Freezing (attack effect)
- Shoots balls of light when attacking
Star Ocean: The Last Hope[]
There are 3 tiers of races (costing 5, 10, and 100 Fight Coins respectively to enter). The first two tiers are merely for fun and - aside from the Fight Coins gained from winning (1st or 2nd place) - don't count for anything.
A note on bunny racing. When you first are able to enter the Colosseum you don't have access yet to items to feed your Bunny to make it better. This means bunny racing isn't a viable Fight Coin farming option until later.
The third tier race will reward you with the Bunny Champion Medal the first time you win it. While not really anything special, it's really easy to obtain since you only need to win 1 race.
- +99 Def, +60 Hit, +2 Earth Resistance
- Nullifies damage from animals 20% of the time
- Creates a shockwave when guarding
- 20% immunity to all status ailments
- Increases chance of surviving incap via Fury
Finally, the third tier races count towards two PS3 achievements (win 50 and 100 races, respectively). Also, it's the fastest way to rack up Fight Coins in the colosseum.
- Preparation
The earliest you can do this is after returning to the Calnus at the end of your first trip to Roak and obtaining Sarah. Once she joins your party you will now have access to the recipes of the stat-increasing pies which you need to max out your bunny's stats.
Other than the recipes, you will need some money (you'll likely have more than enough at this point in the game unless you were speed running through or something), and the Lil' Vending Machine 2 (which vends several of the various pie ingredients).
You racing bunny maxes out at 200 per stat, and typically starts out with something like 20 or so in each of them. Here are the four pies which you can feed it:
- 20 Stamina Pies (+3 Stamina) - Cooking lv7; 2x Pie Crusts, 2x Raw Animal Meat
- 20 Speed Pies (+3 Speed) - Cooking lv8; 2x Pie Crusts, 1x Lemon, 1x Fresh Cream
- 6 Acceleration Pies (+3 Acceleration) - Cooking lv8; 2x Pie Crusts, 3x Sweet Fruit
- 20 Miracle Pies (+3 to a random stat that is not already maxed) - Cooking lv10; 2x Pie Crusts, 1x Common Egg, 1x Vegetables, 1x Rich Cheese
The number preceding the pie names is how many you can create with IC per trip to the Calnus. Here is how to obtain the ingredients:
- Tatroi (where the colosseum is located) is also home to Peppita's Store, which is the ground floor counter store of the two-storey building on the right just before the fountain on the way to the colosseum. You can buy the following ingredients from her: Raw Animal Meat, Common Egg, Vegetables, and Rich Cheese.
- If you have completed Ruddle's series of sidequests, you can now buy stuff from him also in Tatroi; he will be standing on the left side of the road just before the bend towards the colosseum - buy Sweet Fruit from him.
ALTERNATELY, take the barge to Astral and buy the Sweet Fruit from the first item shop stand (it's Whole Heart Foods, run by Madonna of the Greengrocers, the nearer one of two shops near the square of Astral, NOT inside any buildings - she also sells the other ingredients you can buy from Peppita, but obviously it's faster to buy from Peppita than come here). For obvious reasons it is recommended to complete Ruddle's sidequests as it will allow you to obtain everything in Tatroi.
- Lemons for the Speed Pies can be easily harvested from the two harvest points just outside the Calnus; all you have to do is just repeatedly enter and exit the ship then re-harvest the points again. You can harvest anywhere from 0 to 4 lemons per harvest point, although you typically get 1-2. Still, it doesn't take long since it's only a matter of seconds to dash to each point, harvest, then run back into the Calnus and repeat.
- Finally, the Li'l Vending Machine No. 2 which you place in the Calnus will vend Pie Crusts and Fresh Cream.
Since each pie adds 3 to a stat, it doesn't take long to hit the max of 200 per stat; 20 pies is 60 points, so 3 trips is 3 x 60 points = 180 worth of a stat (you likely need not go higher, as your bunny starts with some 20+ points in each stat already, not zero).
From the list we know Acceleration Pies can only be made at a rate of 6 per trip so it's likely the last stat to be maxed. Assuming 3 trips to max out the other 2 stats, this is 6 pies x 3 trips = 18 pies; 18 x 3 = merely 54 points, leaving 146 more to reach 200 (ignoring possible points from Miracle Pies for now).
You can still make Miracle Pies though - and with the other two stats maxed, all the Miracle Pies will automatically count in towards Acceleration since it's the only remaining stat left to max. That's 26 pies (6 Accel, 20 Miracle) for the remaining trips, making it 26 x 3 = 78 points per trip. Two trips is 156 points, more than enough for maxing out Acceleration.
Summary: at most it should take you 5 trips between the Calnus and Tatroi to max out your bunny's stats; you can usually get it done in 4.
- Racing
Once you've maxed out your bunny's stats, it's time to hit the races. There are several things to bear in mind:
- First of all, you can't control which way your Bunny goes, it moves literally on autopilot. You merely decide when to activate Dash and Jump. If this sounds like it sucks, it does, and is the whole reason we spent time maxing out the bunny's stats before playing even one race.
- Jumping: an offensive move, jumping will cause your bunny to twirl in the air and stun the other bunnies when it lands. The only spot you cannot jump in is when you're going under the overpass.
- Dash: this uses some stamina to give your bunny a temporary speed boost. If you empty the bunny's stamina bar, you will be stunned (just like when you get stunned by Jump) but afterwards you will be given a 20% stamina bar refill.
- Each bunny will have a corresponding icon displaying it's current state. The face icon means it is hopping normally, eyelashes up means it is dashing, blinking indicates it is performing a jump, and making a O_O face means it is stunned.
- Racing Tips
Disregard logic and common sense: the entire point of the race is the finishing position; time does not matter at all. Now combine this with the fact that jumping will stun every other bunny on the track regardless of where they are and the winning strategy can be boiled down to three words: jump, jump, jump.
As soon as the race begins, perform a jump. This will allow you to immediately pull ahead of the pack and avoid needless jostling. Run for a bit, and after several seconds jump again. Repeat this 2-3 times in order to widen the gap and cement your lead. Note the delay cooldown between jumps.
Now that you're far ahead of everyone you can afford to relax a bit. Pace yourself by dashing every few seconds or so, to maintain high speed while not burning through your stamina reserves too fast. Every once in a while, jump, even if no other bunnies are nearby - they will be stunned regardless. The minimap will show them freeze at their locations so you know this works.
The other bunnies can also jump and they will do so every once in a while. Not as frequently as you, but they do. Make sure to immediately retaliate with your own jump as soon as you recover so that any gains the opponent made will be negated. This means the other bunnies get screwed over twice but hey only winning counts.
It's possible to avoid stuns by jumping as soon as you notice an opponent doing it, either by the twirl sound effect or when you actually see them do it. If you manage to jump in time, you'll avoid getting stunned (since you were airborne when they landed) and instead you'll be the one stunning them. Generally this isn't easy to pull off so it's better to just return the favour and jump when you've recovered from being stunned.
Efficient racing can net you winning times below 1:27 but you may still be overtaken or hit by last-minute inopportune jumping. Forget that, you're not racing to be nice, you're racing to win: by following the tips here and jumping liberally you will normally clock anywhere between 1:40 to 2:00+ - but you will be guaranteed a win every single time, so it's not worth risking shaving off a few seconds off the clock just to race "normally".
Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness[]
Gallery[]