Beginner's guide to horse crafting in Fallen Earth
When you think of post-apocalyptic mounts, you probably imagine a gas-sipping motorcycle, an armored truck or the last of the V8s, right? Yet, a very practical way to get around when society falls is on horseback. In Fallen Earth currently, a horse mount is probably your best option -- especially considering the fact that you can get one very early in the game.
With all other mechanized mounts in Fallen Earth, you need to assemble them from scavenged parts and fuel them with gasoline. As you can imagine, gas isn't exactly available on every corner after the apocalypse. Repair is done through costly repair kits, and some of the vehicles have some fairly steep limitations when it comes to accessibility around town and up hills (the ATV, for instance, stops dead at every curb). With a horse, you have a whole different set of options and features. Even though you fuel them with sacks of horsefeed, they can slowly regenerate their stamina when they're not being used. Plus, you have the choice of healing a horse with either a veterinary kit or the same bandages you use on yourself.
Want to learn how to get your very own horse at level 3? Keep reading below for our tutorial.
When you've left Fallen Earth's initial tutorial, you'll soon find that running everywhere is no fun. Not only does your character run slowly, but everyone else on the block is zipping right by you on their own mount. Luckily, it's not too difficult to get your first horse. Since money is not easy to get in this game, we're going to show you how to craft a horse, rather than purchase one.
Scavenge
Your first step is to scavenge for materials and a bit of cash. You'll need 5 pieces of Ragged Leather, 3 Sacks of Horsefeed and an Untrained Horse (purchased later) to craft a Horse Bridle. This Horse Bridle is the object you'll need to initially call your horse (referred in-game as a Vehicle Generator Trigger), which can not be "put back" once called. The leather can be found on animals and reptiles in the starter areas and the horsefeed can be crafted also, but the Tainted Grain component needed is a bit hard to find at such a low level. At 28 chips a bag, it's worth it to just buy the sacks from the Horse Merchant NPC. You'll find one right outside of each starting city, but the prices vary throughout the game.
Craft
Once you have your scavenged materials, head to the Horse Merchant NPC and purchase an Untrained Horse. At current market value, these horses go for 284 chips. You can also outright buy the Horse Bridle for 573 chips if you want to completely skip the crafting process, but what fun is that? Once you have your components, press "L" to open your recipes window and select the Nature tab (it looks like a leaf). Under Horse Training 1, you'll find Horse Bridle, which is what you'll want to craft. If you don't have the Horse Training 1 option, you can purchase the tradeskill book from the Horse Merchant NPC for 11 chips.
Upgrade
At this point, you have a decision to make. The normal Horse Bridle that you will craft is your starting horse with starting stats. You can use that bridle as a component to craft a more advanced horse, known as the Riding Horse (along with another Sack of Horsefeed) if you'd prefer a better horse. This is an obvious choice, although you'll need to have your Nature tradeskill up to level 15 to do so. This process of using lower bridles to upgrade to better bridles continues up through the rest of the horses in the game. So it's very important to realize what horse you really want before spending the chips. Would it be worth leveling the few extra points in Nature and spending a few more chips to get that better horse?
For example, let's say you want one of the better early horses in the game, the Improved Riding Horse. You will need to craft a Horse Bridle that will be used to make a Riding Horse Bridle that will be used to craft the Improved Riding Horse Bridle (after you read the Improved Horse Training 1 tradeskill book). Any of these bridles could be used on their own as a horse, but once they're used, can't be "refunded" as a component for a better horse. You'd need to start all over again.
Later, you'll get more advanced components such as the Untrained Stallion, Untrained Draft Horse or the Untrained Thoroughbred to make your new horse.
If you want to check out some wonderful charts detailing and comparing the available horses, check out this page at Globaltech Atlas. This info is from beta, and has changed slightly, but you get a general idea of what's available.
From here, there are many options available with your horse (or horses), but this is a general outline of how "crafting" a horse works in Fallen Earth. When you get up there in levels, you'll find that crafting these upgraded horses is fairly cheap and they can be used as pack mules in your stable to extend your character's storage capacity. It sure beats creating character mules and fumbling around with dual-boxing.
We hope you've enjoyed this handy guide, and you can look for more just like it as we approach the launch of Fallen Earth and beyond!
