Hi! I am new to the game and currently playing Heart of Thorns. I am having a fun time figuring things out as i go, but am stymied on how to get a mount. I am currently level 24 and have seen lower level players on mounts.

What am i missing and how do i go about getting a mount?

You have to have Path of Fire and then to get the first mount, the raptor, start the Path of Fire story and complete the fist chapter Sparking the Flame. As for the other mounts:https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Mount

You need to be level 80 or be carried by a level 80. I think that's possible.You get your first mount on the first instance of PoF expansion story. The other mounts are harder and you defintely have to be level 80.

Those low levels you see, are just other characters that veterans are playing. They already have 1 or more level 80s

BTW, If you're only level 24... you're absolutely not playing HoT at the moment but core Tyria. You may already have the HoT expansion, but that is level 80 content. You recieve a glider with the first HoT story instances, but you can't get mounts.

Mounts are a feature unique to Path of Fire, the second expansion.

How to get a mount

You need a lvl 80 character for this.Start the Path of Fire story in your Hero panel and complete the 2nd instance. It takes you to Elona and unlocks the Raptor mount. Other mounts are unlocked by completing heart quests and buying the saddle from the heart vendor. Exceptions are the griffon and the roller beetle, which are unlocked via a series of achievements and collections.

Why are low-lvl players using mounts then?

Once unlocked, the mount is unlocked for your entire account. Every character you create will be able to use all mounts you have unlocked as soon as he gets out of the starter instance.

Awesome and thank you all for taking the time to direct me.. I am allowing the story to lead me where it goes and I will get a mount in due time it appears.

1000 Thanks!

@"DeHauk.2518" said:I am allowing the story to lead me where it goesAmong the most fun ways to play the game :)

Don't hesitate to keep asking questions about the game. The game does teach some stuff (mostly by accident, some deliberately), but there's a host of details that get missed.

Bonus tip: in game, you can type /wiki to visit the fan-written encyclopedia of all things GW2 and it's chock-full of interesting details about nearly anything you can think of. You can shift-click a skill or item and then prepend it with /wiki to look up a specific item or location, for example.../wiki Basic Salvage Kit takes you to the relevant article

@DeHauk.2518 said:Awesome and thank you all for taking the time to direct me.. I am allowing the story to lead me where it goes and I will get a mount in due time it appears.

1000 Thanks!

When I first started, many players told me I could use one of my LV 80 boosts to get a character to 80 and then go to Path of Fire and unlock the mounts. I chose instead to level my character in Tyria and through the personal story, but once I did hit LV 80 and had completed the Personal Story, I skipped Heart of Thorns and quickly did 1st quest in Path of Fire to unlock the Raptor. I then went back to get the needed mastery points for the Raptor and then unlocked the Springer (the bunny). Both made leveling new characters, and my time in Heart of Thorns way way easier.

So if you're already in HoT content (and LV 80), if you don't mind getting slightly confused (and slightly spoiled) on the overall story of GW2, I'd head to Path of Fire and get the Raptor at least. Really helps to zip past the groups of annoying mordrem, etc that infest HoT maps.

@DeHauk.2518 said:Awesome and thank you all for taking the time to direct me.. I am allowing the story to lead me where it goes and I will get a mount in due time it appears.

1000 Thanks!

Get a mount first as it makes your life easier and the game a lot more enjoyable

Like others said, you need to have PoF to obtain mounts and you don’t need to be level 80 to get your first (raptor) mount. A level 80 player can simply run the mission for you while you just tag along. It takes around 30~40 minutes, IIRC. I got my raptor mount before level 10.

Getting the Glider in HOT, prior to Mounts, helped me immensely.

Sorry to hijack, but it's closely-related enough question that I think it belongs here. I just got Path of Fire and have unlocked the raptor, bunnyroo, skimmer and jackal and am looking to unlock the beetle. Do I have to pay an extra 200 gems to unlock a single episode of the PoF story (when I haven't seen any of the other ones and will have no idea what's happening in the story) and get the beetle? Is that really right? Please tell me there's a way to do it that doesn't punish people who just got back after a long time, already spent money on the expansion, and are especially excited for the beetle but weren't around for short time it was available... x.x

@"Teekachu.8137" said:Sorry to hijack, but it's closely-related enough question that I think it belongs here. I just got Path of Fire and have unlocked the raptor, bunnyroo, skimmer and jackal and am looking to unlock the beetle. Do I have to pay an extra 200 gems to unlock a single episode of the PoF story (when I haven't seen any of the other ones and will have no idea what's happening in the story) and get the beetle? Is that really right? Please tell me there's a way to do it that doesn't punish people who just got back after a long time, already spent money on the expansion, and are especially excited for the beetle but weren't around for short time it was available... x.x

You have to have s4e3 for the beetle in that you are correct.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Roller_Beetle

EditHow are you punished by not having the beetle?

@"Teekachu.8137" said:Sorry to hijack, but it's closely-related enough question that I think it belongs here. I just got Path of Fire and have unlocked the raptor, bunnyroo, skimmer and jackal and am looking to unlock the beetle. Do I have to pay an extra 200 gems to unlock a single episode of the PoF story (when I haven't seen any of the other ones and will have no idea what's happening in the story) and get the beetle? Is that really right? Please tell me there's a way to do it that doesn't punish people who just got back after a long time, already spent money on the expansion, and are especially excited for the beetle but weren't around for short time it was available... x.x

If you logged in at any point between june 26 and sept 18 (an almost 3 month span, wouldn't call that "short time") you have the episode unlocked whether you played it or not. If you started the game in the last 4 weeks, definitely focus on experiencing its content before worring about further mounts.

The Beetle is definitely a "bonus" mount - it's best for traversing long routes fast. However, it's too fast for most exploration, since you'll barrel headlong into hazards. For new terrain, the Jackal will likely be the best option. Likewise if you want to gather materials along the way, Raptor or Jackal is better.

If you want to work toward an impactful mount beside the base four, go for the Griffon!

As other people have said the beetle is very much a bonus mount. It's only really useful if you're going a long way in a straight line because until the boost charges up its slower than the raptor and after that it's too fast to see much of what you're going past and difficult to stop or turn.

So the answer is you do need S4 E3 to unlock it (and you need to do part of the story and complete a few collections to unlock it) but you're not punished by not having it because the only map where you need it is S4 E3.

The beetle is easily my least used mount, so if I was in your position I think I'd not only want to complete the PoF story before worrying about playing season 4 (in order), I'd prioritise getting the griffon too because I use that a lot more than the beetle.

@"Danikat.8537" said:As other people have said the beetle is very much a bonus mount. It's only really useful if you're going a long way in a straight line because until the boost charges up its slower than the raptor and after that it's too fast to see much of what you're going past and difficult to stop or turn.

If you're beetling along at purple/orange speed, and you want to stop ===> there <=== to do something, just dismount - that works even at full speed, unless the boost is still "live".

And to steer, yeah, that can be a problem, although getting the hang of drifting will help a lot there. But it remains an awful tool for moving around Dredgehaunt, Lornar's, or northern Timberline.

@Steve The Cynic.3217 said:

@"Danikat.8537" said:As other people have said the beetle is very much a bonus mount. It's only really useful if you're going a long way in a straight line because until the boost charges up its slower than the raptor and after that it's too fast to see much of what you're going past and difficult to stop or turn.

Yeah, but that still requires recognising that a place you want to stop is coming up and pushing the button at the right time to stop there. Which works if you're going to a story step or something else you know in advance. Not so much if you go "ooh, what's that? I should go have a look" - by then it's 5 miles back.

@Danikat.8537 said:

@Steve The Cynic.3217 said:

@Danikat.8537 said:As other people have said the beetle is very much a bonus mount. It's only really useful if you're going a long way in a straight line because until the boost charges up its slower than the raptor and after that it's too fast to see much of what you're going past and difficult to stop or turn.

You're not wrong there. It's still great fun just tooling around on Petey. But for "twisty passage" areas like Lornar's and north Timberline, Griffy is much better. I guess it's the price we pay for having a jet-powered ball-wheel unicycle that can break 130 mph.

I highly recommend getting the Raptor and Springer mount (mostly the later). They will make your lvling experience much easier and not because of the extra movement speed they give but their abilities which will make Vistas and other landmarks much easier to get to.

@"Steve The Cynic.3217" said:And to steer, yeah, that can be a problem, although getting the hang of drifting will help a lot there. But it remains an awful tool for moving around Dredgehaunt, Lornar's, or northern Timberline.

Timberline is the place I end up using the beetle the most. For some reason that zone loads slow as molasses for me. If I'm there for the anomaly and I guess wrong about where he's going to spawn, I might miss him if I wait on a WP. The beetle is the only way to cross an entire map and still make it to the event on time without a WP.

That said, the beetle is useless for just about everything except getting from one end of the map to the other. If you really want to get one, you will have to buy the story chapter, and unfortunately, you don't get it right at the beginning, and there's a decent amount of spoilers, without many way to avoid them. I'd say, if you care about the story, take your time and get the first two chapters first. There's no rush for the beetle, and the only "content" you're missing without one are a few generic chests and a handful of volatile magic behind breakable walls in the current chapter.