Riding, training and stabling mounts

Bring out, Ride and Dismount

In Adventure, use a mount item from the pack to bring it out. You must be in the overworld and out of a boat, with no other mount brought out. A calm mount starts in Lead mode. A mount still within its fear deadline stays skittish. Right-click yourself or the led animal and choose Ride. Dismount returns you to leading it. Bring out, Ride and Dismount take no turn. Ride is allowed in the overworld, The Old Mouth and the Plane of Heroes. You cannot mount up while sailing, sneaking or still skittish.

Read base speed as a starting value

A ridden mount uses the higher of its terrain base speed and the tile’s walking base. Terroir, companion passage and ordinary speed buffs can then change movement. Weather, snow and Slowed can reduce it. Major and minor roads use the mount’s road base. A Footpath or beaten trail uses its off-road base. Riding in a shared hub does not grant overworld mount speed. Speed reduces the time paid for movement steps. Ordinary attacks and other full-turn actions keep their ordinary turn cost.

Leading can sometimes be faster

While riding, you forgo the pack animal’s road speed bonus and the vampire road speed boost. Those apply while leading on foot. A low-speed mount can therefore be slower than leading in a strong road-speed combination, despite the walking-base floor. The floor compares the underlying terrain base before those separate road bonuses.

Saddlebags and weather protection

A mount’s listed extra backpack slots apply while it is brought out, whether led, ridden or skittish. Carrying the mount as an item gives no saddlebags. Its weather and deep-snow immunities only work while riding. Highland Yak and Barded Charger ignore both slowdowns. Post Courser ignores the ordinary weather penalty. Stamped roads, including Footpaths, avoid the deep standing snow penalty. Bare beaten trails can still pay it. Terroir or companions can offer their own protection.

Panic and calming down

A creature hit with positive damage after mitigation has a 30% chance to spook a ridden mount. You dismount, and it refuses Ride for 50 turns. The panic roll can still happen when temporary health or Rind absorbs the entire hit before ordinary health is lost. Choose Ride again after the deadline. Stabling and bringing a mount straight back out preserves its fear. The same absolute deadline keeps running while it is packed away.

Stable keeps the animal

Choose Stable on yourself or the animal in the overworld or a shared hub. This is a free action. The animal becomes an item in your backpack. If it does not fit, the game attempts to leave it on nearby ground. Losing saddlebags or a pack animal’s carrying bonus can also spill cargo. The capacity check still includes your other carrying bonuses and Seed Pouch. Check the ground before leaving. This action is separate from paying to retrieve a stabled companion.

Train a Granary Hamster

Stand beside an owned Granary Hamster, including diagonally, and choose Saddle-train. It needs at least 80 happiness and 150 gold, and you must have no mount brought out. Success costs one turn, removes that animal from the livestock herd and makes it your led Riding Hamster. Its name carries over. Its former livestock health, happiness, feeding and breeding clocks do not transfer to the mount item. At exactly 80 happiness it can train, although ordinary breeding still needs happiness above 80.

Win a Wild Stag

A calm Great Stag offers a separate Befriend route. Give it a Heartwood Bolete, or a flora item marked Legendary that uses the mushroom symbol. You need the offering in your pack and must stand within 5 tiles in either direction. A fleeing stag refuses, as does an attempt while you already have a mount brought out. Success takes one offering and one turn, then gives a led Wild Stag. This route’s offering search does not skip Protect or Retain.

Entering, resting and returning

Dungeon and trial entrances dismount a ridden mount and remember that you were riding. On returning to the overworld or a shared hub, the game tries to mount you again if the animal is led, you are out of a boat and you are not sneaking. Sleeping in an overworld bed also dismounts you, before sleep begins. Stable your mount before boarding a boat or swimming into deep water.

Finding mounts for sale

Full-game Herders offer a Moor Pony from tier 1, Saddle Horse from tier 2, and Post Courser and Barded Charger from tier 4. Each has one item per vendor restock, subject to earlier purchases and vendor price modifiers. The Dune Strider, Highland Yak and Riding Hamster are currently not sold through normal settlement Trade. Riding Hamster can still be obtained through saddle training. Wild Stag uses its Befriend route.