Lost Pages of Taborea: Lions and tigers and bears, oh... mounts!

Summer is starting to wane, and the cold winds will soon be blustering through the city streets. Kids with chattering teeth and blue fingers will be sitting in front of stoves or fireplaces, rolling their eyes as grandpa proclaims that he had to walk to and from school barefoot through snow uphill both ways. While our grandfathers fantasize about the pride of hardships, we can slip off to the computer and live in our fantasy worlds that provide mounts to make traveling a bit more fun.

Runes of Magic has a wide variety of mounts that can run, hover and float over water. Some of these mounts are more rare than others, like those seen only on holidays or during special fundraisers, while some are two-seaters. From the sleek and vicious to the large and powerful to the just plain wacky, RoM has a mount for all occasions. In this week's Lost Pages of Taborea, I go over the mounts that are available, their rarity, their speed, and some ways to give your preferred mount a boost.

I'm not going to list every single mount in the game. To begin with, some mounts, such as your basic horse, are essentially the same in every way except in color. There are also different rental options that aren't worth listing. Whether you get the mount for 30 days or you buy the permanent one, both versions are identical.

It's worth mentioning that most mounts can be obtained through in-game means. A simple exchange of gold will net you a 15-minute or two-hour horse in every zone. Spending honor points (gained from battlefields) at the NPCs in Obsidian Stronghold's mercenary wing will get you most of the special mounts for seven days a pop. There are other specialty mounts that can be gained through collecting of prizes in minigames. Finally, horse rental tickets are obtainable in minigames and can be bartered for on the auction house.

Ground, hover and waterborne

While there still aren't any flying mounts to let you soar through the Taborean skies, there are a few different ways mounts can carry you across zones. The original batch of mounts were of the four-legged variety that followed the law of gravity, but later patches brought floating mounts that hovered just above the ground. These hovering mounts were mainly for aesthetic purposes until we got ones that could hover over land and water.

Since the first ones were released, there have been many hovering and waterborne mounts to choose from. Flame and star are winged horses that switched from limited to permanent availability and can effortlessly glide over water. The flying rune disk, witch's broom and the recently released magic carpets are among the many that are now able to cross water. It's not surprising that there's such an increase in the number of H2O-resisting mounts -- they shave off a lot of time normally spent circumventing lakes and crossing streams.

Two-player mounts

I don't often find the need to take advantage of the option to use them, but when I do, I'm really glad two-player mounts are in RoM. It's really nice to be able to quickly take someone to a location he doesn't know how to get to or help low-level players get through dangerous territory, and it's just nice to get to be the passenger once in a while. It's also really helpful for friends or party members who don't have mounts of their own -- even if anyone can rent mounts for some gold.

Limited mounts

Over time, some mounts that were once limited are now available permanently in the cash shop, but there are still plenty of limited mounts. The moa and wolf steed are fairly rare and have only been available during Frogster's yearly Save the Children fundraiser. Since we've only had two of those events so far, the moa steed has come around twice, while the wolf mount has only been offered once. There are some limited edition mounts that have been relegated to purchase deals. The storm hippogriff is a highly prized hovering mount that players can get for buying the boxed verson of RoM, and the snow ferret -- a variant of the shadow ferret -- can be temporarily obtained by buying official RoM diamond cards. Still, there are others available through purchases of different types of game cards and some mounts that are limited for no specific reason.

Holiday

By definition, holiday mounts are also limited mounts, but they've become expected every year and they are holiday-themed. Halloween gave us the witch's broom and the drag-3000, a pimped-out version of the witch's broom. This past Easter saw giant anime-like wabbits hop onto the ever-growing list and the reindeer mounts are a staple of Christmas now. I'm pretty sure I still have three seven-day reindeer mounts sitting in a chest somewhere.

Faster, faster

All speed bonuses that mounts provide range from 55-75%, but there are various methods to add to those numbers. The slowest mount in RoM has been the rhinoceros, and the fastest -- for a long time now -- is the flying rune disc. Ten percent, limited-usage speed potions are offered in the cash shop; they will stay in effect for seven or 30 days. There's also a special 30% speed potion that can occasionally be obtained by buying special packages or other mounts. The guild stable bonus stacks on top of these potions, as do holiday speed buffs. I had my flying rune disc up to 110% during this past spring rain festival -- and that wasn't the fastest I could have made it.

Conclusion

The list I posted shows most of the different types of mounts, but it doesn't include the many variations that are also available. The nightmare mount actually comes in four varieties that are a little more than just different colors. Some mounts can't be colored, so the only way to get different colors is to buy the variations.

There are so many mounts now that the new mount and pet storage was a welcome addition in chapter 3. At the rate Runewaker keeps putting new mounts into RoM, I wouldn't be surprised if I have a new list twice as long for you this time next year.

Each Monday, Jeremy Stratton delivers Lost Pages of Taborea, a column filled with guides, news, and opinions for Runes of Magic. Whether it's a community roundup for new players or how to improve versatility in RoM's content, you'll find it all here. Send your questions to jeremy@massively.com.