Mount Farming

Collecting mounts is one of the most satisfying pursuits in World of Warcraft—whether you’re chasing a rare ground mount, a flying drake, or a unique novelty. This guide covers every major avenue for acquiring mounts, from repeatable farms on live servers to soloable dungeon runs and timed events. Use the sections below to chart your path toward a diverse and enviable stable.

1. Why Farm Mounts?

Mounts serve both functional and cosmetic purposes. Beyond increasing your travel speed, unique mounts showcase time investment, luck, and dedication. Some mounts are earned through simple reputation grinds or vendor purchases, while others drop at low rates from raid bosses or rare mobs. Understanding the methods behind each category is essential: rather than aimlessly grinding, you’ll focus your efforts on the highest-yield activities that match your time availability.

2. Categories of Mount Sources

While there are hundreds of mounts available, most fall into these broad categories:

  1. Vendor- or Reputation-Purchased Mounts
    • Earn gold or reputation with a faction, then exchange currency or tokens for a mount.
    • Examples: Vicious Saddleback (Vicious Saddlebag reputation), Enchanted Fey Dragon (Dragonflight reputation).
  2. Farming Rare Mobs and Timed Events
    • Certain elites or world bosses have a small (often <1%) chance to drop a unique mount.
    • Timed events like Darkmoon Faire bosses drop mounts only during specific windows.
  3. Dungeon & Raid Drops
    • Previous-expansion raid bosses or dungeon bosses sometimes drop BoE mounts.
    • Examples: Viscidus in Naxxramas drops Black Qiraji Resonating Crystal.
  4. World Quest, Achievement, and PvP Rewards
    • Completing specific achievements unlocks associated mounts (e.g., “Glory of the Raider” achievements).
    • High PvP rank can reward mounts like the Reins of the Astral Cloud Serpent.
  5. Professions & Crafting
    • Some professions yield mounts—Engineering can produce Mekgineer’s Chopper, Tailoring yields Vial of the Sands.
    • Cooking or Fishing can sometimes yield mounts through rare recipes.
  6. Event-Exclusive or Promotion Mounts
    • Holiday events (e.g., Hallow’s End, Children’s Week) offer limited-time mounts.
    • Promotional codes or expansion preorders occasionally grant unique mounts.

Understanding which category each mount belongs to helps you choose the most efficient route. For example, if your goal is a vendor mount tied to a faction you already rank up, it may cost you a few hours of dailies rather than dozens of random-farm hours chasing a low drop rate.

3. Vendor & Reputation Mounts

3.1 Reputation Grinds

Many expansions include mount rewards at specific reputation thresholds. These are often the most predictable and controllable farms:

  • Valdrakken Accord (Dragonflight)
    • Reputation with Valdrakken Accord (maximum rank “Exalted”) unlocks Reins of the Obsidian Worldbreaker at Renown 40 and Reins of the Molten Wyrmhunter at Renown 70.
    • Achieve Renown by completing Dragon Glyph world quests, crafting-related world quests, and weekly Renown calls.
  • Cataclysm Factions
    • Baradin’s Wardens / Hellscream’s Reach: Exalted grants Reins of the Red Drake or Reins of the Blue Drake.
    • Therazane / Ramkahen: Reaches Reins of the Drake of the East Wind and Reins of the Drake of the South Wind.
  • Legion Factions
    • Wyrmrest Accord (Exalted): Reins of the White Polar Bear (also dropped by Warforged bosses but vendor mount is guaranteed).
    • Valarjar / Dreamweavers / Court of Farondis: Each has unique mounts like Reins of the Fiery Warhorse.

Focus on one or two reputations at a time to unlock the faction-specific mount rather than grinding faction reputation purely for mount acquisition alone.

3.2 Straight-Up Gold Purchases

Some mounts can be bought outright with gold once you meet prerequisites:

  • Horde / Alliance Riding Trainers (level 20, 40, 60 riding) offer basic ground and flying mounts for 20–1,000 gold depending on expansion and expansion riding requirements.
  • Darkmoon Faire Vendor (Varies by Expansion)
    • Purchase tokens using Darkmoon Prize Tickets, then exchange for mounts such as Son of Animus or Spectral Porcupette. Completing Faire dailies yields tickets weekly.
  • Seasonal PvP Vendors
    • For example, during the Season 1 of Shadowlands PvP, weekly Conquest points could be spent on Reins of the Starlight Rose if you achieved a high rating. These vendor-offered mounts appear on a rotating schedule each PvP season.

4. Rare Mob & World Boss Mounts

4.1 Classic & Burning Crusade Rares

  • World of Warcraft Classic:
    • Ashes of Al’ar: Drops from Kael’thas Sunstrider in Tempest Keep (– 1% drop).
    • Reins of the Raven Lord (Darkflight): Drops from Anzu in Sethekk Halls (– 0.6%).
    • Reins of the Blue Drake / Reins of the Bronze Drake: Rare world drops in The Nexus (– ~0.6%).
  • The Burning Crusade:
    • Reins of the Onyxia Drake: 0.8% drop from Onyxia (can be soloed at high level).
    • Reins of the Black Qiraji Resonating Crystal: Can only be obtained via the Gates of Ahn’Qiraj world event—requires 40,000 Scepter of the Shifting Sands keys.

4.2 Wrath of the Lich King & Cataclysm Rares

  • Reins of the Spectral Tiger: Extremely low drop from Blanchy (fishing; <0.1%).
  • Reins of the Drake of the South Wind / Reins of the Drake of the East Wind: Exalted vendor options or Warforged drop in raids.

Farming tip:

  • If you’re soloing a raid boss for a mount drop, queue as a raid finder or run on a max-level character. Some bosses may still stand in place once wiped; you can reset and tag the boss quick enough to outpace other groups farming on the same server.

4.3 Mists of Pandaria & Beyond

  • Timeless Isle Rare Mounts:
    • Reins of the Heavenly Onyx Cloud Serpent: Drops from Huolon (5% chance), Ordos (3%), or Kazra’jin (3%) on the Timeless Isle.
    • Reins of the Astral Cloud Serpent: Locked behind “Glory of the Timeless Raider” achievement (complete 8 raid achievements on the Timeless Isle).
  • Draenor
    • Reins of the Talbuk: Random rares in Tanaan Jungle have a small chance to drop Talbuk mounts.
    • Astral Cloud Serpent: Available via a long reputation grind with your Garrison to build the Spirit Lodge.
  • Shadowlands
    • Reins of the Shadowrend Dreadsteed, Reins of the Enchanted Runebound Ram: Rare spawns in Ardenweald or Maldraxxus (drop rates ~5–10%).
    • Reins of the Soulbound Construct: Drops from world boss in Zereth Mortis (5% chance), week rotation.
  • Dragonflight
    • Reins of the Obsidian Worldbreaker: Crafted through Dragon Isles professions but requires rare motes dropped from world rares.
    • Valdrakken Accord rare: Certain new-world rare elites have a chance to drop unique drakes (2–5%).

5. Dungeon & Raid Mount Drops

While most raid mounts come from older expansions, they remain popular due to nostalgic appeal and nostalgia for transmog:

  1. Dungeon BoE Mounts
    • Tunnel Trogg Trousers yields Reins of the Underrot Crawg from Underrot dungeon (BFA).
    • Swift Shorestrider: Rare drop from Princess Theradras in Maraudon (Classic; 0.10% chance).
  2. Raid BoE Mounts
    • Invincible’s Reins: 0.20% drop from Sindragosa (ICC 10/25).
    • Reins of the Pentified Frost Wyrm: 1.5% drop from Frost Queen Malúm (Durotar in Shadowlands).

Farming strategy:

  • Queue multiple alts into Random Raid Finder or Heroic/Mythic raids for a given target boss. Even if your main is still on lockout, alts can run looped attempts to increase drop volume.
  • Use addons like HandyNotes: Dragonflight Raids to mark rare respawns and caching points.

6. Achievement & World Event Mounts

Many mounts tie directly to achievement completion. These often require a series of steps, but guarantee the mount once finished:

  • “Glory of the Hero” Series (varies by expansion)
    • Completing a suite of raid-specific achievements yields a unique mount. For example, “Glory of the Icecrown Raider (10-player)” rewards Reins of the Icebound Frostbrood Vanquisher.
    • Collecting all five “Glory of” meta-achievements in Warlords of Draenor yields Reins of the Draenor Onyx Hippogryph.
  • Darkmoon Faire Achievement Mounts
    • “A Million Gold Coins”: Collect enough Darkmoon Prize Tickets to buy Swift Forest Strider.
    • “Darkmoon’s Twenty”: Win 20 Pet Battles on the Faire island to unlock Sand Scarab, an ultra-rare mount.
  • Holiday-Specific Mounts
    • Hallow’s End: Complete “Tricks and Treats of Azeroth” achievements to earn Riding in Halloween meta mount.
    • Pilgrim’s Bounty: Purchasable with Pilgrim’s Bounty Tokens: Reins of the Long-Forgotten Hippogryph.

Achieve these over the course of multiple years—the achievements stack, and once you’ve ticked off each step, the mount is yours forever.

7. Profession-Crafted Mounts

Several professions unlock mount recipes that can be crafted with hard-to-find reagents:

  1. Engineering
    • Mekgineer’s Chopper: Requires Swift Spectral Tiger and Handful of Cobalt Bolts (rare drops), plus 1,000g.
    • Mecha-Mogul Mk2: Crafted end-of-patch when Kyrian or Night Fae gear produce excess Arcane Crystals.
  2. Tailoring / Inscription
    • Vial of the Sands (Tailoring/Alchemy transform): Consumes Sands of Time, Netherweave Cloth, and Dream Shards. Traditionally, a gold sink for transmuting your work into a flying mount.
    • Felsaber (Inscription): Crafted recipe from a rare drop in Tanaan Jungle, requiring 250 Nethershard and 20 Felblight.
  3. Cooking & Fishing
    • Dubious Cannon Fish: Rare catch in Mechagon’s underwater ponds. While not a mount recipe itself, cooking multiple Dubious Cannon Fish can yield the Reins of the Tideskipper, a slim chance when feeding large schools of fish.
    • Heavenly Cheesecake (Cooking): When consumed, has ~0.01% chance to reward Soaring Spelltome—which teaches Vibrant Flutterwing.

Crafting mount recipes costs time or gold to gather materials, but once made, they belong to your account.

8. Event & Promotional Mounts

8.1 In-Game Events

  • Timewalking Mounts
    • Completing Timewalking dungeon achievements can reward mounts such as Naval Battle Bots or Timewarped Rider’s Reins.
    • Only available during Timewalking weekends; stock up on hundreds of Timewarped Badges to trade at the Timewalking vendor.
  • PvP Seasons
    • Each rated battleground season provides unique mounts (e.g., Vicious War Wolf for achieving certain honorable kills and rating thresholds).
    • These become unavailable once the season ends, so push for them during the current season.

8.2 Promotions & Codes

  • Digital Deluxe Editions
    • Preordering expansions often comes with a promotional mount, such as Obsidian Worldbreaker (Dragonflight), Heart of the Aspects (Mists of Pandaria), etc.
    • Codes for these mounts occasionally reappear in specialized promotions (e.g., buying specific gaming hardware bundles).
  • Twitch Prime / Blizzard Shop
    • Twitch Drops occasionally reward mounts (e.g., Enchanting Dreamlight Dragon).
    • Blizzard promotions—like buying 30 days of game time—may include a mount code (e.g., Summon your Ears bunny mount from previous years).

Always check official Blizzard channels to verify code eligibility windows and avoid paying third parties for expired mounts.

9. Efficient Farming Strategies

9.1 Multiboxing & Raid Finder Loops

  • Multi-Account Farming
    • Running the same dungeon on multiple accounts simultaneously increases your odds of dropping a mount like Reins of the Ironbound Proto-Drake from the Icecrown Citadel raid.
    • Assign each account a different boss-kill rotation to diversify potential drops across the raid wing.
  • Raid Finder / LFR Loops
    • Many mount drop rates remain consistent in Looking-for-Raid difficulty. You can run LFR on multiple alts in a 30-minute burst and potentially net several mounts if you’re lucky.
    • Example: Reins of the Waking Nightmare from Cenarius in Emerald Nightmare.

9.2 Bonus-Event Stacking

  • World XP / Honor Buffs
    • Some events (like Darkmoon Faire or Recruit-A-Friend weekends) grant double XP or bonus Honor. While not directly a mount buff, faster leveling or reputation gains translate to faster mount gating (e.g., leveling Alts to farm reputation mounts).
  • Holiday Buffs
    • During anniversary events, rare elites may respawn faster or loot tables may be adjusted—this can increase drop rates for rare mounts such as Reins of the Molten Corgi from Molten Core.
  • Seasonal Discounts
    • If a vendor mount is discounted during an event (e.g., a 10% discount on Hallow’s End mounts), schedule your farming accordingly.

9.3 Addons & Macros for Efficiency

  • NPCScan / SilverDragon
    • Tracks rare mob spawns you’re farming for a mount (like Skull of the Man’ari for Felsteel Annihilator). Adds an alert and map arrow when the rare is nearby.
  • HandyNotes & TomTom
    • Use map markers and waypoints for roaming elites—mark spawn points, so you can route around efficiently.
  • Macro: Reset Instance
    • /run ResetInstance();
    • Allows you to quickly reset a dungeon or raid lockout on an alt (if you didn’t kill a boss or the raid is empty), facilitating multiple attempts.

10. Rare Mount Hotspots

Below are some of the most coveted mount drops and their farming avenues:

  • Reins of the Time-Lost Proto-Drake
    • Source: Rare elite (Time-Lost Proto-Drake) in Storm Peaks (0.2% drop, spawns very rarely).
    • Tips: There are dozens of spots where this rare can spawn. Use NPCScan and coordinate with other farmers on realm Discord channels to watch kill tags.
  • Reins of the Ashes of Al’ar
    • Source: Kael’thas Sunstrider in Tempest Keep (Magister’s Terrace in Classic-era, LFG in retail for BC Timewalking).
    • Tips: Solo on a max-level character. Clear the bridge, reset to Sunwell scenario boss, tag the kill as early as possible to avoid LFG competition.
  • Reins of the Vicious War Fox
    • Source: Weekly Conquest reward for rating or purchased with Conquest.
    • Tips: Focus on earning enough Conquest points through rated battleground wins and arena matches. Group up with a consistent duo/trio to push ratings more efficiently.
  • Reins of the Spectral Porcupette
    • Source: Developed by the Discovering Battlefield Museum quest chain on Zandalar during BfA.
    • Tips: Complete world quests in Vol’dun and Nazmir to unlock the quest line, then beat the final Rare spawn in Drustvar.
  • Reins of the Azure Drake
    • Source: Rare drop (0.2%) from Naxxramas boss Kel’Thuzad in Icecrown Citadel 10/25.
    • Tips: Run on LFR difficulty as soon as Naxx wings unlock. Multiple attempts per lockout drastically raises odds.

11. Mount Collection & Organization

Once you’ve amassed dozens (or hundreds) of mounts, keep the following organizational habits:

  • Use the Mount Journal Filters
    • Sort by Source (Vendor, Drop, Achievement) or Expansion. This allows you to see at a glance which categories remain incomplete.
  • Favorites & Favorites Groups
    • Mark your “core” mounts—the ones you use often (hearthstones, gathering, etc.)—so they appear at the top of your Journal.
  • Mount Trainers / Collectible Addons
    • Addons like CollectMe or MrPvP help you track mounts you don’t have yet, showing requirements and current completion percentages.
  • Account-Wide Mount Sharing
    • Remember that once you bind a mount on one character on your account, it becomes available to all characters on that same Battle.net account. Focus on farming mounts on just two or three to reduce redundancy.

12. Final Tips & Best Practices

  1. Set Realistic Goals
    • Instead of chasing a single mount with a 0.1% drop rate, balance your time between reliable vendor farms, achievement-related mounts, and occasional rare-drop attempts.
  2. Join Mount Farming Communities
    • Many realms have “mount farming” Discords where farmers coordinate rare mob tags. Being in a larger network of hunters means more eyes on each spawn point—pings when the rare is up let you jump in quickly.
  3. Use “Always-On” Farming
    • Queue your character for a Mythic+ key or Rated PvP match, then farm rares or spawn points while waiting. If you’re summoned, you jump into the instance or match. This maximizes idle time.
  4. Don’t Overlook New Expansion Zones
    • Every new expansion unveils world rares that drop mounts (e.g., Reins of the Pale Thorngrazer in Zereth Mortis). As soon as patch notes announce a new rare mount, plan to scout popular spawn locations.
  5. Leverage Cross-Realm Zones
    • If a rare is spawn-locked per realm but cross-realm visible, log into multiple toons on different realms to increase your chance of finding it first—although many zones are now cross-realm, boss tags can still be realm-specific.
  6. Patience Is Key
    • Some mounts take months. Maintain a steady routine—reserve an hour per week to farm rares, complete reputations, and cash in mounts at the vendor or AH. Celebrate small wins (Veteran’s Hearthsteed from Northrend rep, for instance) to keep motivation high.