The standard horse grazing on the plains
Mounts are animals the Monarchs ride as they travel across the land.
Mount Mechanics
All mounts can stand still, walk or gallop; and some have a special ability. See game controls.
Speed
Different mounts can have different speeds. Additionally, one mount can have different speeds on different terrains, such as the open grasslands vs the forest. For example, the unicorn is slower in the forest than on open land, while the stag and bear are faster in the forest. And all mounts are faster galloping, but one mount compared to other can have a better performance walking and a worse performance galloping, and vice-versa.[1]
Stamina
Mounts also differ on their running duration which is limited by their stamina. Stamina levels are different for each mount. As a mount's stamina drops, the animal starts to breathe heavily, and upon total exhaustion it's limited to walking while it regains its stamina. An exhausted mount forced to gallop, may end up rearing. Mounts can regain the consumed stamina quickly and gain an extra stamina pool by stopping to graze.
Mount choice
Monarchs start their journey riding a horse with average speed and stamina, and no special ability. This horse can be replaced by a variety of mounts—each one with its unique preset advantages and disadvantages—as soon as they are found and/or unlocked.
The Monarch cannot dismount at any point except when changing to a new mount.
Swapping mounts in all games will leave the previous one wandering around the swap area, never disappearing or wandering too far away.
Template:Kingdom Classic – The Monarch may choose between two horses: the Standard Horse and the Black Horse. Swapping mounts cost three coins.
Template:Kingdom New Lands – There are a total of ten usable mounts (including the two holiday event mounts and counting each horse type separately). New mounts can be unlocked by finding signposts on the various islands, and mounts can be swapped for three coins at any of their spawn points. These spawn points can be found throughout any of the islands, although the Monarch is more likely to find a more varied selection of mounts on bigger islands. Swapping mounts always cost three coins.
Best Mounts (Two Crowns)
Template:Kingdom Two Crowns – There are two base horses with the same statistics, and the monarchs may unlock a total of nine other mounts (including the two holiday event mounts). They have to be unlocked with gems and switched to with coins. A few of the mounts have a special attack. See game controls.
Standard horse
The standard horse[2] is the one the Monarch begins their reign with.
It has average speed and stamina. It is:
- light brown in Classic and New Lands
- grey for the first player in Two Crowns
- light brown for the second player in Two Crowns.
Superior horse
A superior horse[3] is found on an open field with a fence. It has no special ability and has varied speed and stamina, which are listed below, always compared to the values featured by the starter horse of each game.
| Template:Kingdom Classic | ||
|---|---|---|
| HORSE | SPEED | STAMINA |
| Black horse [4] | faster | more |
The black horse is available from the start.
| Template:Kingdom New Lands | ||
|---|---|---|
| HORSE | SPEED | STAMINA |
| Black horse [4] | faster | a bit more |
| Dark brown horse [5] | much faster | about half |
| White horse [6] | slightly slower | about twice |
All superior horse variations are unlocked on the second island, after which they may spawn by pairs of two random horses (including the starter) on any given island.
| Template:Kingdom Two Crowns | ||
|---|---|---|
| HORSE | SPEED | STAMINA |
| Draft horse | a bit faster | much more |
The Draft-Horse[7] is unlocked on the third island. It is sandy with a dark brown mane in Europe and it is dark brown with a sandy mane in Shogun.
Stag
The stag[8] is found near two stone lanterns with a very small waterfall in between them. It can be unlocked with a signpost.
It walks slowly, but it gallops very fast when inside the forest, while its gallop speed is comparable to the black horse on open land. It normally has slightly more stamina than the original horse, but less so on open terrain. It can graze on grass to recover stamina, but is slightly slower than the horse on developed land.
The stag is also able to make deer follow it. By walking near a deer it will cause an attraction harp sound to play. Afterward, small love hearts will appear above the normal deer along with a notification sound and the deer will begin following. The deer don't gain speed, so they cannot keep up with stag.
Template:Kingdom New Lands – This mount is unlocked on the third island but can then be encountered on any island.
Template:Kingdom Two Crowns – It's always on the second island and costs one gem to unlock and three coins to ride it.
Reindeer
Also during Christmas, on almost all islands, it's possible to find at least one reindeer, a mount similar to the stag, used to take control over the sleigh.
Warhorse
The warhorse[9] is found in an abandoned battlefield with the remains of a fallen warrior (dressed in the colours of the previous kingdom's coat of arms). This mount is the second slowest, just a bit faster than the lizard, however it's endurance is matched only by the draft horse.
At about every fifteen seconds, making the horse gallop activates a protective spell that lasts for about twelve seconds. Its armour glows along with a limited number (around twenty) of nearby subjects (villagers, builders, farmers, archers and knights). They receive a temporary buff to their defences. This spell though doesn't increase the defenses of archers and builders against floaters, when they're on top of towers.
Template:Kingdom New Lands – This mount is unlocked on the fourth island but can then be encountered on any island. It has noticeably more stamina than the original horse (and slightly more than the black horse), but has the same speed.
The Warhorse (Two Crowns)
Template:Kingdom Two Crowns – The warhorse is slower here, and the special ability cooldown is longer, letting subjects exposed for some seconds between the spell castings. He's always on the third island and costs two gems to unlock and eight coins to ride it. With a few tweaks, it is the default horse on Plague Island.
Bear
The bear can be found near its den in the forest. It is a large grizzly bear that walks at an above average speed, and runs fast in the forest, but has incredibly low stamina, although it regains stamina fairly quickly. When it runs, it pounces forwards, potentially killing some greedlings or wildlife directly ahead of it. The bear can also safely kill greedlings that are fleeing with stolen coins, tools or weapons. Although only occasionally a grass eater in real life, this mount also eats grass to regain stamina. Charging past citizens does not injure them.
Template:Kingdom New Lands – This mount is unlocked on the fourth island but can then be encountered on any island.
Template:Kingdom Two Crowns – It's always on the fourth island, it costs three gems and ten coins to ride him.
- Attacking with the bear
The bear hunting.
The bear only attacks while running, and any valid target will be attacked. Stamina is used for running, but extra stamina is used when an attack is successful. The bear's attack is actually an AOE (area of effect), meaning that it will land its attack on everything in range. This is different from an archer's arrow, which only hits a single target. A well-fed bear is easily able to destroy a greedling horde in the first few days, giving monarchs a massive advantage in early exploring. The bear is also an excellent bunny killer, especially if your archers are unavailable (all claimed by towers, knights, or if you are in an area the archers do not patrol). Deer are also easy prey, but take two attacks to bring down. The bear can also serve as a wall defender. Careful positioning and timing will allow a monarch to attack from behind the wall into a greedling mass and then immediately retreat. Depending on timing, it's possible to land a AOE attack on a mass of greedlings without taking any damage.
Great Bear (Two Crowns)
Template:Kingdom Two Crowns – Instead of using extra stamina when attacking, The bear have a separate, three hits poll that it uses instead. This avoids the player accidentally wasting his main stamina when attacking. It's not possible to increase the limit over three hits as grazing will only replenish the pool. If the player uses all three hits, the bear will exhaust as if the main stamina ran out and won't be able to run. Once the extra stamina recovers over a limit the player is able to run again and will keep the graze buff if present. Since the limit for running is a slightly under the amount for the breathing animation, it's possible to have both the tired and graze buff effects play simultaneously.
Griffin
This section is about Kingdom Two Crowns.The griffin[10] devours a rat when grazing in any location. Since it grazes anywhere and during any season (especially useful for winter), the Griffin is a good mount for exploring and roaming. This is because it is one of the fastest mounts in the game. Ideal for larger maps.
It is always found in the first island, crashing the first time you approach its spot. It requires two gems to heal and eight coins to mount it. Since you can not get any gems on the first island you must first travel to any other island and then come back.
When its skill is activated by pressing sprint while standing still; it will stand up, spread and flap its pair of wings, pushing and paralyzing momentarily any greedlings (and only any variant of greedlings) within a short distance. The strength of the push and duration of the paralysis is stronger when invading a portal, compared to when it's used in defense.
The shogun griffin is red and black as opposed to blue and white.
The Griffin (Two Crowns)
Lizard
This section is about Kingdom Two Crowns.The lizard is a large and slow mount which is able to spit fire. It has very low stamina but a higher than normal walk speed. Instead of grazing, it sun bathes to recharge stamina (does not work in forests or anytime during the winter). It is always on the fourth island, it costs three gems to unlock and ten coins to ride it. Its habitat can be recognized by a fountain surrounded with rock formations bearing Aztec symbols and drawings. Under the fountain lies an egg which hatches into the lizard once the gems are paid.
- Spitting fire
Its special ability is to spit fire onto the ground in front of it (covering an area spanning the same length of the lizard). This lasts for five seconds, burning any greedling which steps on it. Greedlings which make contact with burning greedlings (not in its dying animation) will catch on fire as well, making it extremely powerful for base defense where greedlings are clumped up behind walls. Greedlings which are on fire take damage after every second. One tick of damage is enough to incinerate a greedling. Masked greedlings take around three to five ticks of damage. Breeders and crown stealers take significant damage from the fire.
To activate ability, double tap a directional key or hold shift then tap a directional key. On Xbox/PS4 hold a trigger/sprint button. Once the ability is activated, the lizard will be immobile for a second to charge up before performing the ability (this may lead to dangerous situations if being chased). The direction of the ability can be changed an unlimited amount of times during its charge up animation (be careful not to change direction before ability is resolved). The ability can be used up to two times in quick succession (before running out of the required stamina). If the ability is activated twice without letting the first activation resolve, the result will be the ability releasing one second after the latter activation, and the two activations merge into one (this proves to be a waste as both duration of the fire as well as a greedling's burning instance do not double, but would require twice the amount of stamina).
To sprint without activating the ability, hold a directional key first, then hold shift. This is important due to the fact that the ability uses up stamina, and immobilizes you for a second.
The fire does not affect wildlife (rabbits or deer) or structures (walls, portals or greed nests). It also does not interact with snow (during winter). The fire will not harm subjects, but will instead immobilize any caught in the fire for its duration. Subjects will also be immobilized before walking into the fire. This may turn out to be counter productive when attempting to save subjects being chased by greedlings.
The fire does not affect floaters even when swooping down to pick up subjects.
Unicorn
The unicorn is a rare mount that poops out three coins every time it grazes—and it can graze every fifteen seconds. The unicorn runs faster than the original horse on open land and has the same stamina.
Its habitat can be recognized by a large tree with blossoms and mushrooms on the ground, along with a magic-like chiming sound in the background.
Template:Kingdom New Lands – This mount is unlocked on the fifth island but can then be encountered on any island.
Template:Kingdom Two Crowns – It's always on the fifth island, it costs four gems to unlock and twelve coins to ride it. Its Shogun campaign variant is a kirin.[11]
The Unicorn (Two Crowns)
Undead horse
This section is about Kingdom: New Lands.
During the days of the Halloween event, Monarchs can find the undead horse on all islands, except the first. It looks like the standard horse in Dead Lands, but it has infinite stamina.
Dire wolf
This section is about Kingdom Two Crowns.
History
A poster for New Lands, w/ the goat that was cut for launch
- The game does not allow players to choose or customize the horse in the menu. However, as of 1.2 Beta, the Monarch can find a new steed in game to purchase with three coins.
- A goat mount was planned in addition to all the others in Kingdom: New Lands but eventually didn't make it to the final release. The goat had no special ability. On Twitter Noio wrote that : "one of the ideas was 'worse in every way but cute'. Like a 'hard mode' for the game."[12]
References
- ↑ [A Complete Guide to Kingdom: New Lands. Retrieved January 22, 2018.
- ↑ Also known as default horse, basic horse, light brown horse/grey horse, starter horse, or regular horse ("Horse Regular" in game files).
- ↑ "Superior horses" is a generic—and still meaningful—name adopted by the community during the New Lands first years (e.g.1 and 2) to designate alternative horses. The adjective "superior" is generic because in New Lands the standard horse may also be found on the superior horses' habitat. The expression remains relevant while considering this equine mount group found on the plains, whose simple availability puts the Monarch on a "superior" situation if compared to that of only having the starter horse and no choice.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 "Horse Fast" in game files.
- ↑ "Horse Burst" in game files.
- ↑ "Horse Stamina" in game files.
- ↑ Also known as workhorse, hairy horse, stamina horse or chunky horse.
- ↑ As found in the game files. Aka the great stag.
- ↑ As found in the game files. Aka armored horse.
- ↑ As found in the game files. Aka griffon or gryphon (Greek: γρύφων, grýphōn; Latin: gryphus).
- ↑ From Japanese 麒麟 (hiragana きりん, katakana キリン, rōmaji kirin) • From Mandarin and Middle Chinese, the original etymology, 麒麟 (麒 qí + 麟 lín, pinyin qílín) • Variant obsolete forms: 麒麐, 騏驎 or simply 驎.
- ↑ Noio on Twitter.