Movement defines the early hours of Where Winds Meet. The map opens up quickly, and without a mount, you spend a lot of time sprinting across plains and forests. The game solves that faster than many MMOs: you can be on horseback within the first hour, and you have several ways to upgrade from there.
How to get your first guaranteed horse
The most reliable first mount comes straight from the main story in Chapter One: Heaven Has No Pier.
Shortly after the tutorial, the quest sends you toward the General’s Shrine with Ruby. As you close in on the shrine, you encounter Roundy, a loudmouthed NPC who has just stolen a horse. Once his dialogue ends, a side objective appears telling you to chase him down.
Close the distance, then interact with Roundy while he’s mounted to pull him off and claim the horse. When it works, a “Horse Obtained” notification appears at the top of the screen, and the mount is added to your stable. From that moment on, you have a permanent horse and full access to the basic mount system.
How to get a mount even earlier
You don’t have to wait for Roundy if you want to ride as soon as possible. Very early in the story, before you reach the General’s Shrine, mounted NPCs begin traveling the roads.
| Early method | How it works | Risks and notes |
|---|---|---|
| Snatch a passing horse | Run up to a mounted NPC and press F (PC) or R2 (PS5) to steal their horse. |
The rider will fight back or chase you; sprint away immediately to avoid a brawl. |
| Stick to the road near General’s Shrine | On the road between the cliffside and the river east of the General’s Shrine, mounted NPCs spawn frequently. | Running that stretch up and down gives you repeated chances to grab a mount before the Roundy encounter. |
If you fail the snatch, the rider usually dismounts and tries to fight. While they are getting off the horse, there is a brief window where you can still grab it and ride away. Otherwise, you can defeat them or simply disengage on foot.
Stealing repeatedly has consequences. Take enough horses, and the law system kicks in: you can receive a bounty and be chased by hostile NPCs acting as authorities. You can stand your ground, but in the early game, it is usually safer to ride away until they lose aggro.
Other ways to acquire mounts
Once the story and systems open up, horses stop being a simple binary of “have or have not” and become a collection game. Mounts differ in rarity, traits, and special skills, and they come from several sources.
| Acquisition method | What you get | Where it appears in menus |
|---|---|---|
| Story and scripted encounters | Baseline horses, like the one taken from Roundy. | Shows under the basic mount list in the Mount tab. |
| Snatching from NPCs | Random horses with different looks and trait combinations. | Counts toward “Exploration Rewards” mounts that can be stolen. |
| Horse Capture | Wild horses that can be captured and tamed at Stallion Ranch–type locations. | Also falls under “Exploration Rewards”. |
| Exploration rewards and events | Special mounts unlocked by exploring regions or time-limited events. | Listed in the “Exploration Rewards” category with specific obtain hints. |
| Ingenious mounts (cash shop / draws) | High-end mounts with strong, sometimes unique skills. | Appear in the “Ingenious” category of the Mount tab. |
To see the full mount lineup you can reasonably aim for at any point, open the Appearance interface from the menu, then switch to the Mount tab. There you find two sections:
- Ingenious – generally premium mounts obtained through purchases or gacha-style draws.
- Exploration Rewards – mounts tied to open-world stealing, capturing, and exploration milestones.
Highlight a mount in the Exploration Rewards section and use the “How to Obtain” option. You can then choose “Horse Capture” or “Snatch Horse” for eligible mounts, which brings up a map marking nearby areas where that specific horse can be acquired with the chosen method. This is the most direct way to target a particular coat pattern or trait set without guessing where it spawns.
How to ride, dismount, and summon horses
The core controls for mounts are straightforward but differ slightly between PC and console.
| Action | PC key | PS5 button | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mount a nearby horse | F |
R2 |
Interact with a horse you are close to and climb on. |
| Dismount normally | Q |
L2 + Square |
Step off your horse and remain near it. |
| Hop away when dismounting | – | L2 + X |
Perform a small leap as you leave the saddle, useful for quick positioning. |
| Summon current mount | 6 |
Touchpad + Square |
Call your selected mount to your side from nearby. |
After you dismount, your horse does not vanish; it lingers in the world. Summoning brings it back if you have moved away. Summon range is generous but not unlimited, so if you die or travel far enough, you may need to respawn or fast travel before calling it again.
Mount management lives inside the same Appearance → Mount tab used for browsing. From there, you can:
- Set which mount is active for summoning.
- Lock valuable horses so you don’t accidentally release them.
- Inspect traits and skills once you have more than a basic horse.
How stealing affects the law system
Horse theft is not just flavor. The game’s wanted system tracks repeated crimes and escalates the response.
Stealing a single horse early in the story usually draws only the immediate owner into combat or a short chase. The more brazen you become, the more the world reacts: bounties can be placed on your character, and multiple NPCs can coordinate to chase and attack you as enforcers.
This doesn’t permanently block horse acquisition, but it turns the area into a soft danger zone for a while. If that happens, the simplest response is to leave the region on horseback and stay away until things calm down, instead of trying to melee through waves of guards while undergeared.
What mount skills do and why they matter
Mounts are not only cosmetic. Each one can roll one or more skills that change how you move, gather, or navigate the world. These skills fall into three broad rarity buckets: Legendary, Epic, Rare, and Uncommon.
| Skill name | Rarity | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Swallow Steps | Legendary | Press jump while riding, then press again in mid-air to perform a double jump on your mount. |
| Collection | Epic | When Follow mode is on, a following horse automatically picks up loot dropped by enemies. |
| High Speed | Epic | Boosts speed by 5% while running in a straight line continuously. |
| Lightness (Epic) | Epic | Greatly reduces the impact from long falls while mounted. |
| Pecking Non-Stop | Epic | Triggers a special emote toward a chosen player. |
| Petals Collection | Epic | Commands the horse to automatically gather nearby resources within a certain radius. |
| Ride Together | Epic | Lets nearby friends ride together with you on the same mount. |
| Shapeshift | Epic | Toggles a special visual effect for the mount in the appearance configuration. |
| Treasure Seeking | Epic | When used, the horse leads you to the nearest chest within its search range. |
| Wayfinder | Epic | Enables the “Wayfinder” function, automatically riding to your marked destination. |
| Lightness (Rare) | Rare | Moderately reduces the impact from falls while mounted. |
| Surging Vitality | Rare | Increases stamina recovery by 10 points per second. |
| Vitality (Rare) | Rare | Shortens the delay before stamina starts recovering by 2 seconds after using a skill. |
| Water Affinity | Rare | Makes the horse calmer and a bit faster while swimming, reducing Fear gain in water. |
| Energy | Uncommon | Raises the maximum Energy limit by 50. |
| Vitality (Uncommon) | Uncommon | Reduces stamina recovery delay by 1 second after using a skill. |
| Water Affinity (Uncommon) | Uncommon | Improves water comfort and lowers the chance of Fear while swimming. |
Ingenious mounts tend to have the headline skills: auto-pathing via Wayfinder, chest tracking via Treasure Seeking, or resource sweeping via Petals Collection. Exploration Reward mounts usually come with more grounded abilities, such as stamina or fall mitigation, that still make everyday traversal smoother.
Some non-horse mounts showcased around launch, like huskies or a giant goose, also plug into this same system. They can support multiple riders, act as mobile resource vacuums, or serve as treasure detectors in exchange for being harder or more expensive to obtain.
Standard vs premium mounts
The mount ecosystem splits cleanly between what you earn in the field and what you aim for in the premium store.
| Category | Typical obtain path | Skill profile | Who it suits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard / Exploration Reward | Story quests, horse theft, wild captures, open-world exploration, limited events. | Practical skills (stamina, fall resistance, water comfort, basic gathering). | Players who prefer to stay free-to-play and enjoy chasing specific horses. |
| Ingenious | Cash shop purchases or draw systems using premium currencies. | High-impact abilities like auto-looting, pathfinding, and treasure tracking. | Players who value convenience or unique cosmetics enough to spend currency. |
Most premium mounts can eventually be reached without paying cash, through currencies obtainable in-game, but that route is longer. If you only want one upgrade, a resource-gathering or treasure-seeking mount provides the largest functional benefit for time spent exploring.
Once you understand how early theft, story progression, and the Mount tab mesh together, you can secure a horse within the opening quests and steadily trade up. Whether you lean into being a notorious horse thief or a law-abiding ranch tamer, the right combination of traits and mount skills quietly reshapes how you cross Jianghu, how fast you farm, and how much the world pushes back.
