All Mounts Comparison

Overview

Crimson Desert has a wide variety of mounts spanning rideable creatures, flying mounts, mechanical vehicles, and utility transports. This guide provides a comprehensive comparison of every mount in the game, organized by category.

Each mount type offers distinct strengths. Horses excel at speed and versatility, bears dominate in ground combat, raptors specialize in hit-and-run tactics, dragons rule the skies, and mechanical mounts deliver overwhelming firepower. Mounts are obtained through various methods including taming, story progression, crafting, purchasing, and defeating bosses. Some mounts are available early in the game, while others require reaching late-game chapters.

Horse Mounts

Horses are the most common mount type and the first one players encounter. They excel at long-distance travel, support full mounted combat, and can be equipped with Champron (head protection), Barding (body armor reducing incoming damage), Saddle (improving handling and stamina efficiency), and Stirrups (increasing rider stability and mounted attack power) to improve performance.

Your first horse, Herspia, is given automatically after the prologue during the Unknown Space quest. Herspia is a reliable all-around mount that levels up through riding, gaining improved defense, speed, stamina, and other attributes over time. Wild horses can be found roaming open areas, particularly in the river areas east and south of Hernand. Each wild horse has randomized stat distributions, so players who invest time in taming can search for horses with ideal stat spreads.

Horse Breeds

Legendary Horses

There are three legendary horses in Crimson Desert, each with significantly higher stats than regular breeds. You need at least 6 Stamina attribute points to realistically tame any of them. It is recommended to save before each attempt, as the taming minigame is quite demanding.

Legendary Horse Stats

Royler's superior stamina and speed combination makes it the best general-purpose mount for everything Crimson Desert asks you to do. Rokade is a dedicated war horse that can absorb enormous punishment in battle but is noticeably slower. Camora strikes a balance between durability and raw offensive power, making it ideal for aggressive mounted combat encounters.

Bear Mounts

Bear mounts are heavy combat mounts with massive HP pools, strong damage output, and independent attack actions. Bears can perform claw swipes, bite attacks, and body slams without rider input, effectively doubling the offensive pressure in any mounted engagement. When ridden, bears also unlock hidden movesets including long slashes, rising bites, and heavy forward charges.

Large animals like bears can be beaten into submission and temporarily ridden. Keep attacking until the creature stops moving and a prompt to ride appears. However, these are only temporary mounts that revert to hostility once you dismount. Permanent bear mounts require completing specific taming encounters.

Raptor Mounts

Raptor mounts are reptilian creatures that serve as the fastest land combat mounts, ideal for hit-and-run tactics. Raptors have high speed and decent stamina with movement-related special abilities. They can be obtained through taming encounters in open terrain.

Dragon and Wyvern Mounts

Flying mounts are the most powerful mount category in the game. The Blackstar Dragon is the primary dragon mount, obtained as an unmissable part of the main story. See the Dragon Riding article for detailed aerial combat mechanics.

Blackstar (Abyssal Dragon)

Players first encounter Blackstar in Chapter 9: The Sage of the Desert, roughly 50 hours into the game. However, you cannot actually ride it until completing Chapter 11: Truth and Reality. During the Foreboding Shadow questline, you travel to Delesyia and face the Golden Star Mecha Dragon boss. After depleting the boss's health, Blackstar swoops in to aid you, and upon completing the quest you permanently acquire it as a summonable mount.

• Abilities: Dragonfire breath, fireballs, dive bomb, barrel rolls, sharp evasive dives

• Active duration: Approximately 15 minutes per summon (real-world time)

• Cooldown: Approximately 50 minutes before re-summoning (real-world time)

• Both timers run in real-world minutes, not in-game time. There is no known method to reduce the cooldown.

Mechanical Mounts

Mechanical mounts are late-game vehicles offering the highest raw firepower of any mount category. The ATAG is the primary mechanical mount.

ATAG (All-Terrain Armored Gear)

The ATAG becomes available during Chapter 10: Counterattack, roughly 50 to 60 hours into the game. During the Hidden Ace questline, you learn how to operate the ATAG while defending Gorthak, the bastion of the Ironflame Orcs, from mechanized attackers.

• Weapons: Rapid-fire machine gun, wide-area blast cannon, EMP discharge, ramming maneuver

• Upgrades: Customizable with lasers and heavy plating for additional offensive and defensive capability

• Functions as a walking tank. The most devastating land-based mount in the game.

• is your primary offensive mount during the Blackstar dragon's 50-minute cooldown window.

Vehicles and Transport

Vehicles serve utility roles such as cargo transport, aerial exploration, and regional traversal. Unlike combat mounts, vehicles are focused on reaching areas or carrying goods rather than fighting.

Pywel Wagon

Wagons are essential for the trading system, as they are the only way to transport large quantities of trade goods across the map. To build a wagon, you must first recruit Brice to your Greymane Camp on Howling Hill. This requires progressing the Greymane 'Grounds of the Sunrise' questline until you complete 'Rumor in Glenbright Farm'.

Once Brice is recruited, you need a Freesword with the Engineer skill (such as Arnold or Otto). Speak to Ross and choose Mission Dispatch, then select the Timberturner Wainwright task. You can craft different wagon sizes: Old Wagon, Freight Wagon, or Trading Wagon. Bigger wagons have more cargo slots but require more workers, longer crafting times, and more resources.

Alternatively, you can steal NPC wagons you encounter on the roads, though this carries crime penalties.

Cloudcart (Hot Air Balloon)

The Cloudcart is a hot air balloon used primarily to reach altitude rather than spanning large distances. It proves useful for accessing previously unreachable elevated areas and discovering fast travel points before fuel runs out.

To craft the Cloudcart, you must first find the blueprints hidden in Glenbright Manor's secret basement. Once you have the blueprints, the crafting option becomes available at the Emberwind Workshop. The crafting requirements are:

• 5 Greymane comrades (one must have the Engineer skill)

• 75 Stone

• 75 Timber

• 150 Food

• 2,500 Coin

The Cloudcart can be upgraded through camp research projects:

• Cloudcruiser: Unlocked via the "Enhanced Cloudcart Efficiency" research project. Costs 9 silver and takes 6 hours to complete.

• Skystreaker: Unlocked via the "Enhanced Cloudcart Altitude" research project. Costs 100 silver and takes 18 hours to complete. This is the top-tier variant with the highest altitude capability.

Delesyia Train

Once you reach the Delesyia region in the southeastern part of the continent, you can find railroad tracks running through the countryside. Follow the tracks to find an active train, then grapple onto it or climb aboard to ride it across the Delesyia countryside. The train follows a fixed route, serving as an alternative form of regional traversal.

Skiff

Skiffs are small rowing boats found at docks and shorelines throughout Pywel. They allow water traversal across rivers, lakes, and coastal waters, opening access to waterfront locations that are otherwise inaccessible by land. Skiffs are not permanent mounts; you board them at specific locations and leave them when you reach shore.

Red Dodo

The Red Dodo is a rideable bird mount. Specific details about how to obtain it are still being documented.

Mount Comparison by Role

Use this quick reference to find the best mount for each situation:

Taming Mechanics

Most creature mounts are obtained through the taming system. Horses, bears, raptors, and other tameable creatures all use the same core mechanic. The basic process works as follows:

1. Approach the creature without startling it.

2. Jump onto its back to initiate the taming minigame.

3. A taming progress circle appears on screen. You must fill the circle with yellow energy by countering the mount's movements.

4. Hold the movement input toward the creature's tail (press the opposite direction of the mount's movement). On PC, use W/A/S/D keys; on controller, use the left analog stick.

5. Fill the taming circle completely before your stamina depletes. If your stamina runs out first, you get bucked off and must try again.

Taming difficulty varies by mount type. Regular wild horses are the easiest, while legendary horses require at least 6 Stamina attribute points. It is strongly recommended to save your game before each taming attempt, especially for legendary mounts.

Environmental conditions also affect taming difficulty. For example, taming Camora in the hot Tashkalp region drains stamina faster, so wearing heat-resistant clothes helps. Rokade is generally considered the easiest legendary horse to tame because the Steel Mountains have no extreme heat or frost penalties.

Horse Leveling and Equipment

Horses level up the more you ride them. Each level boosts their defense, speed, stamina, and other attributes. This means that even a basic starter horse like Herspia can become a capable mount with enough time invested.

Every horse has eight stats: Health, Stamina, Attack, Defense, Movement Speed, Acceleration, Handling, and Jump Power. Wild horses come with randomized stat distributions, meaning no two wild horses are exactly alike.

Horses can be outfitted at stables with four equipment slots:

Horses can also be healed using Force Palm: Healing, Horse Tonic, or by having them retrieved at a stable.

Cloud Cart Family (Patch 1.04)

Patch 1.04 turned the Cloud Cart and its two upgrade tiers into permanent, summonable mounts. Previously, the balloon behaved as a one-shot vehicle tied to its crafting mission. Now all three tiers live on the same D-pad up swap as horses and other mounts, so you can call them in anywhere there is open ground around you. The crafting mission that grants the base balloon can only be completed once per save, but the vehicle itself stays with your character permanently afterward.

Operation is shared across all three tiers. Hold R2 to maintain altitude once you reach the desired height; release to descend. The Cloud Cart family is slower than a dragon mount for crossing long distances, but it is the only aerial option that works in regions where dragons are on cooldown or unavailable, and it is the most reliable tool for reaching high ledges, spires, and mountain peaks without climbing.

If you are upgrading through the research tree, the Cruiser tier is the meaningful step for day-to-day traversal, while the Sky Streaker is worth chasing once you start hunting for hidden locations at elevation.

Naming Horses and Mounts (Patch 1.04)

Patch 1.04 added a rename function for all horses and pets. Open the pets tab, highlight the animal you want to rename, and trigger the change-name prompt at the bottom of the panel (press the left stick in on controller) to type a new name. The option applies to horses, bear mounts, raptor mounts, the newly tameable Heuklang cats, bird pets gained through the Sotdae of Bond, and the Cloud Cart family. Names persist across sessions and are visible whenever you swap between your stabled companions.

Tips

• Keep multiple mount types available. No single mount excels at everything, so switching between mounts based on the situation is the key to efficient gameplay.

• The Blackstar dragon and ATAG Mech complement each other perfectly. Use the dragon when it is available, and switch to the ATAG during its 50-minute cooldown.

• For general exploration, horses are still the most versatile option due to their speed, stamina, and mounted combat capability.

• Invest in Stamina attribute upgrades early. Many late-game mount encounters require high stamina to complete taming minigames. You need at least 6 Stamina for legendary horses.

• Royler is widely considered the best general-purpose mount in the game. Its stamina and speed combination outperforms every other horse for everyday travel and exploration.

• Save before every legendary horse taming attempt. The minigame is punishing, and a failed attempt wastes time repositioning.

• Upgrade your Cloudcart to the Skystreaker variant as soon as possible. The increased altitude makes it far more useful for reaching hidden locations.

Related Articles

• Mounts

• Horse Guide

• Horse Taming

• Bear Mounts

• Raptor Mounts

• Dragon Riding

• Dragon Mount

• ATAG Mech

• Hot Air Balloon

• Mounted Combat

• Trading

• Greymane Camp