Mount

Mounts are the primary method of transport in the game aside from walking. Various mounts are available including horses, camels, elephants and donkeys. Horses are currently the most effective way to travel around Calpheon. Camels and Elephants are the only mounts capable of crossing desert zones. There are multiple tiers of horses ranging from tier 1 to tier 9. The higher the tier, the faster the mount.

Mounts can use Mount Equipment.

Besides riding a mount, travel can be facilitated via private vehicles pulled by mounts, private ships or public transport ferries.

Obtaining a Mount[]

Mounts can be

tamed in the wild (horses tier 1-5) using the Training Skill
bought with money when buying the game or in the real-money ingame Pearl Shop
bought from other player via the ingame Marketplace
bought from other players directly via the Trade option
Bred from a breeding pair using the Stables
Obtained from Events
acquired via quests (especially donkeys, early on in Balenos)

Life of a Mount[]

Mounts have stats and skills, tiers and levels just like player avatars and pets.

Every mount can die when attacked or drowning in water (they can't swim deep waters!). If that happens the Death count in the mount information (F3 when looking at a mount you own) increases by one and your mount will be at the Stable Keeper where you need to heal it.

To heal a mount communicate with it (does not work for donkeys) by standing in front of it and hitting F5. This will increase its HP immediately to some degree and a bit more over a certain short period. The other option is to feed it its specific food (carrots for horses or donkeys for example). This will both refill HP as well as Stamina. Different tiers of carrots give different amounts of HP and Stamina. To feed the mount, either stand in front of it and click "Use Item (F4)" or right click the food in your (!) inventory (works while riding the mount or vehicle too). Mount feed has a timer of 4 minutes so you can't just feed a nearly dead animal to 100% with lots of low tier carrots for example - but a high tier carrot might. Feed for mounts can be farmed or bought from the Marketplace from other players or bought (for high prices and of lowest tier) from Stable Keepers. Higher tier feed is obtained from high tier seeds by breeding the seeds to that tier and growing them within a fence via Farming.

You can always only have one mount active in the world. If you want to switch Mounts you have to check the previously active on into a Stable before you can check out another mount (or vehicle). You can check in a mount at a Stable Keeper and it is local with that Keeper in that case. But you can check in a mount from anywhere in the world, it does NOT have to stand next to this particular Stable Keeper. Keep in mind that if you check in a mount with a distance from the Stable Keeper that the Mount has to "travel" and as penalty will loose almost all of its HP, which will not automatically regenerate while at the Stable.

Training a Mount[]

A mount can be trained in

Level
Skills (no skills for donkeys)

Mount Level[]

The Level affects the speed, weight it can carry, hitpoints and the chance of acquiring a skill. The higher the training skill of the player is the faster a mount levels. Mounts levels by being ridden or used with vehicles. Not clear if they can level in combat but there is mounted combat and mount combat skills.

Mount Skills[]

Every horse (tamed, bred or otherwise) starts out with one random skill that can not be changed. Additional skills are obtained randomly while a mount levels up. It seems that higher training skills by the player riding the horse increase the probability of the horse learning a new skill - but horses still don't receive the same number of skills or learn skills at the same level.

The higher the horse skill the more frequently they seem to learn a new skill. Claims say T1 horses learn skills every 10 or so levels usually while T5 horse can learn skills every 1-3 level.

Some skills are automatic and immediately at 100% mastery, other you have to train your horse in to become safely usable. If you attempt to use a non-automatic skill by its keyboard combination the horse might perform it flawlessly or it might start a minigame where it raises and threatens to throw you off if you don't balance with the W and S buttons for example. Every time the skill is performed flawlessly or you succeed in staying in the saddle during the minigame the skill use is trained.

It seems that not only having the correct mount equipment helps in unlocking skill use and probability of staying in the saddle but the player training level might help too with not being thrown off.

Changing Skills[]

One can change a skill a horse has learned by paying money. A mount needs to be stabled to change a skill and the horse needs to have at least one skill that can be changed or deleted. The original skill the horse came with can not be changed. You chose the skill among the unlearned ones you HOPE the mount will receive. There is a chance that you will obtain THAT chosen skill but you always will loose the one you choose to change. And the new skill is always one of the currently unlearned ones.

To change a skill to one of the unlearned ones you stable the horse. Then you buy a Horse Skill Change Coupon available in the Pearl Shop. Click on the stabled horse, click on the "hope" button for the skill you like. Then you click the "change" button for the skill you don't like - and it will immediately switch the skill to one of the unlearned ones. The new skill is always an unlearned skill. So if your horse has learned all bad skills and only rare good skills are unlearned you will obtain a rare good skill for sure - it is just not sure WHICH of these. That means that the coupon is - despite paying real money for it - not very useful unless you use it on a high level horse with few unlearned and only rare skills left. The hope function increases the odds of this skill being chosen only slightly.

After a skill has been changed the previous learned skill becomes an unlearned skill and thus if you attempt another change the horse might re-learn it.

Available Skills[]

(Source http://forum.blackdesertonline.com/index.php?/topic/9160-horse-skills/)