It is easy to file pets and mounts under cosmetics and move on. Do that and you leave stat lines, farming time and travel speed on the table. A well-chosen pet feeds you passive bonuses and picks up loot while you fight; the right mount collapses the walk between your training spot and the next dungeon door. This guide covers what each system gives you, how you actually earn them, and the handful of upkeep rules that decide whether they help or just sit in your bag.
Raise just one combat pet and a single utility companion, not a whole menagerie, and keep them fed so their passives stay live. Grab your first mount from story or vendor unlocks for the speed, then chase MVP mounts later for prestige. Do not sink resources into extras until your main gear is around +7.
What pets and mounts buy you
Both systems are utility dressed as flair. A pet is a passive companion: depending on its species and how far it has evolved, it can hand you stat bonuses, gather drops automatically, and occasionally chip in during a fight. That makes the choice a build decision, not a beauty contest. Tanks and supports tend to run sturdier pets that pull threat in low-level dungeons, while damage dealers reach for pets that push attack, critical rate, or elemental damage.
Mounts, meanwhile, are about the map. They raise your open-world movement speed and turn long treks between field spots, town, and dungeon entrances into short ones. Speed is worth more to a merchant or a dedicated farmer than to someone parked on a boss for an hour, so the smart move is to treat your mount choice as something you rotate by activity rather than set once.
Where they come from
There is no single storefront for either system. They trickle in from different corners of the game, and it helps to know which corner to watch.
| Source | How | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|
| Taming items | Used on eligible field monsters | The classic capture route; species decides the passive |
| Event eggs | Hatched from limited-time rewards | Often the only way to grab seasonal species |
| Loyalty pets | Redeemed from login calendars | Free over time; no combat gamble required |
| MVP mounts | Contribution rolls or post-kill auction | Low drop chance; account-wide once learned |
Beyond the prestige MVP variants, plenty of mounts arrive quietly through story beats, reputation vendors, and the cash shop, so you are rarely stuck on foot waiting for a boss to be generous. Watch the tooltip before you get attached, though. Some event mounts are trial versions with a time limit baked in. And note that claiming a mount uses up its item from your bag, so double-check you are on the intended character first, since a few variants bind to whoever learns them. If you split time between the PC and mobile clients, sync your account properly so unlocks show up on both.
Feeding and evolving pets
Every active pet eats over time, and this is the rule new players trip on. Let a pet go hungry and it does not vanish. It simply switches its bonuses off until you feed it again, so a neglected companion is dead weight rather than a permanent loss. The cheap fix is to hoard food when login events bundle food crates, which they do often enough that you should rarely have to buy it.
Evolution is where pets earn their keep long-term. Reaching the required level milestones plus feeding in evolution stones (pulled from dungeons or crafted) pushes a pet into a stronger form with better passives, and some evolved stages even grant a touch of mount-adjacent movement speed before you own a real ride. Because stones are finite, plan a pet's evolution path on your main before you scatter them across alts. One thing worth doing before any expensive session: swap to a pet whose passive helps, since certain pets grant luck or cost-reduction effects that quietly improve your odds when you refine or enchant. See our equipment guide for where that fits in a gearing plan.
Mount speed and where it stops
Mounts are an out-of-combat convenience, and the game enforces that. In most zones you ride only while you are not fighting, and taking a hit knocks you off, so when you are sprinting across open fields, route around aggressive monsters rather than through them. Indoor and instanced spaces such as the Time Corridor disable mounts outright; there is no trick around it, you travel those on foot.
When mounts are allowed, their speed stacks with other sources: garment cards, skill buffs, and a few pet passives all pile on, which is how speed-focused farmers get genuinely quick. PvP is the exception: those zones may normalise mount speed so nobody kites purely on a better ride. If you plan to sell surplus loot from your travels, our auction and economy guide covers turning farm runs into zeny.
Chasing MVP mounts
The showpiece rides come off MVP bosses, and they are deliberately hard to get. A qualifying MVP has a low chance to drop a mount item: a saddle, reins, or contract, awarded to contribution-ranked participants or rolled after the kill. The reward structure favours regulars: drop rates lean toward players who show up to hunts consistently rather than someone who snipes a single kill. Even on a dry run you are not empty-handed, since participation tiers still pay out materials, and MVP loot tables often share space with rare cards, so one hunt can feed two goals at once.
Once learned, MVP mounts are usually account-wide, which softens the grind across your roster. A few practical notes: some seasons add mount tokens you can buy with excess MVP materials, or bad-luck protection currencies that blunt a long losing streak, so check whether your patch has a vendor for either. On tradability, it depends on the specific item. Some contracts are bind-on-pickup, others stay tradable right up until someone learns them, so scan the auction house categories before you pay a player for one.
Spending order that won't waste resources
The single biggest mistake is spreading yourself thin. Commit to a single combat pet and one utility companion instead of levelling every species evenly. Underfed combat pets plateau fast, while a utility pet that widens your pickup radius or bag space pays off every single session. Hold off on raising extra pets until your main character clears roughly +7 gear, because those points are better spent on your own kit first.
For mount hunters, treat it like any other farm: track MVP respawn timers with a guild spreadsheet and run the mount and card goals on the same table together. And once your first ride is earned, it is worth doubling back through zones you already cleared: cliffs and shortcuts that were out of reach on foot open up with the extra speed, which quietly ties the mount system into exploration. New here? Start with the getting-started guide, then browse the full items and systems section for the surrounding mechanics.
Common questions
What is the fastest way to earn a mount?
Most players get their first ride from story progress or a reputation vendor long before an MVP one drops. For the prestige MVP mounts, join a guild-run hunt on a boss that lists a mount in its table and show up consistently. Contribution rewards and repeated rolls beat lucky one-off attendance.
Do mounts do anything besides look good?
Yes. MVP and story mounts add real open-world movement speed, and some carry small stat passives on top. Purely decorative mounts do exist, but the collection screen tags those separately so you can tell them apart at a glance.
Will my pet die if I stop feeding it?
No permanent loss. A hungry pet simply switches its bonuses off until you feed it again, and any evolution progress it has banked stays intact. Keep a stack of food on hand. Login events regularly bundle food crates.
Can I ride inside dungeons?
Usually not. Instanced spaces such as the Time Corridor turn mounts off entirely, so you travel those on foot. Open fields and larger outdoor zones allow them; watch for the notice when you zone in, since it flags any restriction.
Which pet should a new player raise first?
Pick one that matches how you actually play: pickup radius for farmers, an ATK or MATK pet for damage dealers, defence for solo grinding. Just do not spread investment across several species before your main character reaches +7 gear.