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Horse taming is a life skill in Crimson Desert that lets players capture wild horses from across the open world of Pywel. Tamed horses become usable mounts with stats that vary by individual animal. Producer Will Powers confirmed horse taming as one of the game's life skills alongside cooking, fishing, mining, and astronomy.
Finding wild horses
Wild horses roam freely across Pywel, grazing in open fields and grasslands in herds or as solitary animals. The green highlands of Pailune and the open plains surrounding Hernand offer the best opportunities for finding wild horses, since the terrain supports large herds. Arid regions like the Crimson Desert have fewer horses due to harsh conditions.
Individual horses have their own stat profiles. Horses from different areas may have different stat distributions, giving players a reason to search across multiple regions for an ideal mount.
Taming mechanics
Horse taming has been confirmed as a gameplay system, but Pearl Abyss has not demonstrated the exact mechanics in any trailer or press demo. Based on footage glimpses and press descriptions, the process appears to involve approaching a wild horse carefully, mounting it, and keeping control while the horse resists. The predecessor game Black Desert Online used a similar feature, so players of that game may find the system familiar.
Specific details on button prompts, difficulty scaling, and success conditions will be added after the game launches.
Horse stats
Each horse has individual stats. While the exact stat names have not been officially listed, preview coverage describes horses varying in:
Speed How fast the horse can gallop
Stamina How long the horse can maintain a full gallop
Courage How the horse reacts near enemies or predators
Health The horse's durability. Horses can be injured or killed in combat.
Mount equipment
Tamed horses enter the player's stable. Based on preview footage and Pearl Abyss's history with mount systems in Black Desert Online, horses are expected to support equipment such as saddles, horseshoes, and armor. Mount customization including color schemes has been confirmed in the Features Overview #3 trailer, which showed dye and cosmetic options.
Other ways to obtain horses
Taming is not the only way to get a horse. Horses can also be:
Purchased from NPC vendors in settlements
Received as quest rewards
Summoned by whistling, calling the horse from its last known location
Taming wild horses may provide access to animals with stat distributions not available through merchants.
Mounted combat
Horses are not just for travel. Mounted combat lets players fight from horseback using melee weapons and bows. Features Overview footage showed mounted archery for kiting large enemies and horseback sword combat. A horse sliding mechanic lets you power-slide your mount around corners.
Beyond horses
Crimson Desert features a wider mount system beyond horses. Gameplay footage and trailers have shown:
Bears Rideable mounts that attack independently while the rider swings their weapon. Confirmed in Features Overview footage.
Mechs Missile-firing combat mechs built by dwarven engineers in Delesyia. Confirmed in gameplay footage.
Dragon riding Shown in trailer footage, allowing aerial movement
See Mounts for all mount types and mounted combat mechanics.
Connection to camp
Tamed horses are managed through the player's stable at the Greymane Camp. As the camp grows through resource investment, stable facilities may expand to accommodate more mounts.