Go and do The Wild Hunt. Everything else on this page depends on it.
It is a secondary quest from Vannaka in Fellhollow, and until you finish it you do not have a mount at all. Fourteen of the twenty one mounts in Dragonwilds list it as a hard requirement, and the one it hands you directly is the plain Terrorbird, which you call with the ALT key.
Correction to something we published two days ago, while we are here: we said Dragonwilds had two mounts, the pair that drop from Tok-Xil and the Kalphite Queen. That was wrong. Those are two of twenty one.
The Wild Hunt, start to finish
Where: Vannaka, west of Cathan in Bleakfields Valley, Fellhollow.
Requirements: partial completion of Withering Heights, which is what gets you into Fellhollow in the first place. Bring real armour, weapons and food, because the targets are not pushovers.
What you do: hunt nature spirits, which appear as white glowing terrorbirds, in the willow groves of western Fellhollow. The wiki points at three places: near the northwestern druid's circle in the Emberwood, in Dragon's Run, and in the southern Witchwillow Range. You need three primordial hearts from three kills.
Reward: the terrorbird mount, plus 50 soul fragments for every extra heart you hand in. Kill more than three.
The two types are not cosmetic variants
This is the actual decision, and it is about where you are standing.
Terrorbirds give +200 carry weight. That is the one everyone underrates. Dragonwilds is a game about hauling ore for the Artisan tree and essence for Runecrafting, and two hundred extra weight is a round trip you do not make.
Magic carpets give no carry bonus at all. What they give is movement: much faster than anything else in the desert, far less fall damage, and higher jumps. In the Umbral Sands they turn a miserable crossing into a short one. Anywhere else they are a worse terrorbird.
Both make your stamina last longer while mounted.
The catch, for both: the mount vanishes the moment you are attacked, take damage, or start building Wither. It is a traversal tool, not a warhorse. Do not plan on riding into a fight.
The currencies
Four of the mounts are bought rather than found, and the prices are steep enough to plan around.
| Vendor | Currency | What they sell |
|---|---|---|
| Death | 2,000 Soul Fragment | Mossbeak hunter, Oakfeather raptor |
| Evil Emporium (Postie Pete) | 2,000 Infernal Fragment | Coastal sunbeak, Astralbeak warbler |
| Domri the Merchant | 9,999 Garou Chit | Infernal blightbeak, Zamorakian pledgesaddle |
Soul Fragments drop from green dragons, Infernal Fragments from blue dragons, and both are things you will be killing anyway. The Wild Hunt's surplus hearts pay 50 Soul Fragments each, which is a real head start on Death's stock.
Domri's 9,999 Garou Chits is in a different league. Budget accordingly.
Terrorbirds: all sixteen
| Mount | How to get it |
|---|---|
| Terrorbird | Automatic on completing The Wild Hunt |
| Springdown runner | Drop: green dragons, zogres, soulstone sentinels, or Fellhollow chests |
| Grassfoot screecher | Drop: green dragons, zogres, soulstone sentinels, or Fellhollow chests |
| Leafwood strider | Source not documented |
| Mossbeak hunter | Buy from Death, 2,000 Soul Fragment |
| Oakfeather raptor | Buy from Death, 2,000 Soul Fragment |
| Eclipseborn sharpbeak | Drop: blue dragons, lesser demons, elite Black Knights, or Dowdun Reach chests |
| Sunkissed clawfoot | Drop: blue dragons, lesser demons, elite Black Knights, or Dowdun Reach chests |
| Summerbellied wagtail | Drop: blue dragons, lesser demons, elite Black Knights, or Dowdun Reach chests |
| Coastal sunbeak | Buy from Evil Emporium, 2,000 Infernal Fragment |
| Astralbeak warbler | Buy from Evil Emporium, 2,000 Infernal Fragment |
| Crimson crybaby | Drop: red dragon, KotHaar-Kal, kalphite guardian, or Umbral Sands chests |
| Scorchsummer ashbeak | Drop: red dragon, KotHaar-Kal, kalphite guardian, or Umbral Sands chests |
| Applefeather mosstail | Drop: red dragon, KotHaar-Kal, kalphite guardian, or Umbral Sands chests |
| Infernal blightbeak | Buy from Domri, 9,999 Garou Chit |
| Zamorakian pledgesaddle | Buy from Domri, 9,999 Garou Chit |
The pattern is clean once you see it: terrorbirds come in sets of two or three per region, from that region's headline enemies and chests. Fellhollow birds drop from green dragons and zogres, Dowdun Reach birds from blue dragons and Black Knights, Umbral Sands birds from red dragons and kalphites. If you are farming a region's bosses anyway, you are farming its mounts.
Most of the later ones also want partial completion of that region's story quest, so the quest order gates mount access the same way it gates everything else.
Magic carpets: all five
Every one of these needs partial completion of Icthlarin's Little Helper, the Umbral Sands story quest.
| Mount | How to get it |
|---|---|
| Magic Carpet | Automatic partway through Icthlarin's Little Helper |
| Uzzerian umber | Study the MOUNT: Uzzerian Umber vestige, dropped by Tok-Xil |
| Moonsilk Weave | Study the MOUNT: Moonsilk Weave vestige, dropped by the Kalphite Queen |
| Manafem midnight | No known source |
| Scorchweave Rug | No known source |
Two of those have no documented acquisition method at all. They exist in the game, nobody has published how to get them, and I am not going to invent a route. If you find one, the report widget on our wiki pages is the fastest way to tell us.
The two vestige carpets are the ones worth going out of your way for, and they are a single trip: Tok-Xil (power 7, 7,000 health, weak to Water) and the Kalphite Queen (power 7, 5,500 health per phase) are both in the Umbral Sands, both want the same gear, and both sit on the road to Fuzan. Clearing them before the region boss leaves you over-levelled for him and holding two carpets.
So which do you actually ride
Terrorbird everywhere except the desert, magic carpet in the desert, and stop thinking about it.
The +200 carry weight is the single most useful number in this system, and it applies during the parts of Dragonwilds you spend the most hours on: gathering ore, hauling essence, and walking materials back to a base. The carpets are a specialist tool for one region that happens to be the worst region to cross on foot.
For where the mount-dropping bosses sit in the campaign, the boss order guide has the full run, and the beginner's guide covers everything before Fellhollow.
