V Rising: How to get a horse mount and keep it alive

Exploring the world of V Rising can be a tough ordeal considering that you can’t use teleporters if you’re carrying items in your inventory. Worse, some early-game transformations will completely prevent you from attacking foes. However, there’s still a way for you to travel a lot faster on the road. Here’s our V Rising guide to help you get a horse mount, as well as how you can keep it alive.

Note: For more information, check out our V Rising guides and features hub.

V Rising guide: How to get a horse mount and keep it alive

Getting a horse in Dunley Farm

As far as I can tell, there’s no horse in Farbane Woods, the first zone in the game. To eventually get one, you’ll need to make your way to Dunley Farmlands. You can reach this region by heading to the northeastern portion of Farbane Woods and crossing the grasslands further north.

Once you’re in Dunley Farmlands, you should see several spots with horses (i.e., farms and militia outposts). It’s a lot easier to get the ones in farm stables compared to guarded outposts, as villagers will just cower when you approach.

Anyway, to get a horse in V Rising, simply approach the animal and hold the “F” key to mount it.

Horse controls

Horses in V Rising tend to have fairly clunky directional controls. The “W” and “S” keys make it move forward and backward, respectively. But, the “A” and “D” keys cause it to rotate. This can be a hassle especially when you’re moving through narrower pathways on the road as you can bump into obstacles often.

Other controls include:

• Left-click – You can still attack foes with your weapon, but you can’t cast vampiric spells and other abilities.
• Q – Dismount.
• Spacebar – Gallop.
• Shift – Your horse can jump if you’re on the edge of a platform.

Note: You can use waygates/teleporters to fast travel while mounted, though you still need an empty inventory to do that.

Horse stats and survival

Enemies can still attack your mount, often causing you to get unhorsed due to damaging hits. Moreover, you’ll want to make sure that your faithful companion isn’t going thirsty. To check, simply press the tab key while mounted. You should see a second panel with your horse’s stats (i.e., max speed, acceleration, and rotation speed).

There are also three small slots where you can place Water-filled Canteens. Each one adds +7 hours to your horse’s thirst meter, ensuring that you can keep it alive longer.

Note 1: Press the tab key and click on the crafting panel to make an Empty Canteen (4x Leather and 20x Plant Fiber). To fill it, go near a body of water such as a pond or river and use the item. You can then add this to the horse’s slots to increase the timer.

Note 2: The thirst timer will get depleted if you’re playing on a live server (i.e., the host or other players are online) or dedicated server. You won’t need to worry about it if you’re playing solo since the timer will stop if you’re not in-game (just like crafting workbenches).

Note 3: If your horse in V Rising dies to damage or thirst, you’ll need to get another one from a stable or outpost in Dunley Farmlands.

V Rising is available via Steam. For more information, check out our guides and features hub.