If you are searching for how to get mounts fast in Dragon's Dogma 2, the short answer is that Dragon's Dogma 2 does not feature traditional rideable personal mounts like horses or saddles. Director Hideaki Itsuno and Capcom designed the world without personal mounts, forcing players to navigate the map on foot or utilize public and magical transit systems. However, you can move across Vermund and Battahl exponentially faster by mastering the Oxcart network system, collecting Portable Portcrystals, stocking up on Ferrystones, and using wild Griffin transport tricks. Combining these mechanics allows you to cross massive distances in seconds without spending hours walking back and forth through dangerous roads.
Does Dragon's Dogma 2 Have Mounts? The Travel System Explained
Many players coming from modern open-world RPGs expect to unlock a personal mount early in the campaign. In Capcom's official Dragon's Dogma 2 website specifications, the developers intentionally omitted rideable horses, camels, or tamed beasts to emphasize emergent combat encounters on wilderness roads. Attempting to locate a horse vendor or mount skill will yield nothing.
Instead, the game replaces mounts with four primary fast-movement mechanics:
- Oxcart Routes: Scheduled ground travel between fixed hub cities for cheap gold fees.
- Permanent Portcrystals: Fixed teleport beacons located in major capital cities.
- Portable Portcrystals: Rare deployable teleport anchors you can place anywhere in the open world.
- Air Transport (Griffin Taxiing): Clinging to wild flying boss monsters to ride them directly back to their mountain nests.
Mastering these travel mechanics early prevents frustrating back-and-forth slogs while executing quests. If you are just starting your journey through Vermund, review our detailed Dragon's Dogma 2 beginner tips and tricks to handle early encumbrance and stamina management before taking long road trips.
How to Use Oxcarts for Cheap and Fast Transit
The closest mechanic to an automated mount service in Dragon's Dogma 2 is the Oxcart network. Oxcarts operate along established trade roads, carrying passengers between fixed settlements for a low cost ranging between 100G and 200G per ride.
To take an Oxcart, visit the designated Oxcart Station marked on your map with a wagon wheel icon—such as the Northern and Western stations in Vernworth. Speak to the driver, pay the fare, and take a seat on the bench inside the cart. Once seated, press the designated prompt to "Doze Off." Dozing off skips the real-time travel sequence, instantly arriving at your destination city within seconds of game time.
Main Oxcart Transit Routes:
- Vernworth Western Gate to Checkpoint Rest Town: Departs early morning; links Vermund to the border of Battahl.
- Vernworth Northern Gate to Melve: Essential route for early-game questing and returning to starting areas.
- Checkpoint Rest Town to Bakbattahl: Accessible once you clear border access requirements or sneak past the gate inside a noble carriage.
Warning - Oxcart Ambushes: Dozing off carries a chance of an monster ambush along the road. Goblins, Wolves, Ogres, or Minotaurs can attack the carriage. To safeguard your transit, immediately step off the cart when attacked, pull monster aggro away from the wooden cart structure, and eliminate threats fast. If the ox or cart breaks during a raid, you will be forced to walk the remainder of the path on foot. Pair your journey with optimal setups from our best party compositions guide to protect your cart against sudden boss spawns.
Unlocking Portcrystals and Farming Ferrystones Fast
For true instant fast travel, you must acquire Ferrystones and deploy Portable Portcrystals. A single Ferrystone item consumes one charge to warp your entire party instantly to any activated Portcrystal on the world map.
Where to Find Permanent Portcrystals:
Permanent Portcrystals exist inside major hubs and require a quick interaction to activate permanently:
- Vernworth Grand Portcrystal: Located just south of the main plaza near the Merchant Quarter.
- Harve Village Portcrystal: Located on the coastal dock after completing the "Monster Culling" storyline quest.
How to Get Portable Portcrystals Fast:
Portable Portcrystals can be picked up, carried in your inventory, and set down anywhere in the wilderness to create custom fast-travel waypoints. You can place up to 10 portable Portcrystals active on the map simultaneously. You can acquire them through specific story milestones and side tasks:
- Feast of Deception Quest: Main quest reward given by Captain Brant in Vernworth.
- A Trial of Archery Quest: Complete the Elf storyline starting with Glyndwr in Vernworth to earn a Portcrystal reward.
- The Sphinx Riddles: Solved at the Mountain Shrine. The Riddle of Madness grants a Portcrystal, and the Riddle of Conviction duplicates any item you offer—give her your Portcrystal to duplicate it into two.
- Forested Griffin Nest: Found inside a high-altitude Griffin nest located in Mistveil Forest south of the Sacred Arbor.
Ferrystones can be purchased from general merchants like Philbert’s Sundries in Vernworth for 10,000 Gold (restocking every few in-game days) or looted from chest rewards throughout dungeon runs. For precise map locations of rare loot chests, consult our secret locations guide.
The Griffin Taxi Trick: Flying Across the Map Early
While standard mounts don't exist, players can hijack wild Griffins to fly massive distances across the continent. Griffins spawn regularly in the open plains of Vermund and near the Checkpoint Rest Town roads.
To use a Griffin as a makeshift flying mount, initiate combat with a wild Griffin until its health bar drops down to roughly 50%. When a Griffin takes significant damage or decides to disengage, it will perform a distinct screech animation and flap its wings to initiate a vertical takeoff, fleeing back to its primary high-mountain nest.
Step-by-Step Griffin Riding Procedure:
- Equip skills that reduce stamina consumption or pack stamina consumables like Harspud Roborants.
- As the Griffin prepares to take off, jump onto its back and hold the grab button (R2 / RT / Grab Key).
- While the Griffin is flying level, release the grab button and simply **stand upright on its back** to allow your stamina bar to regenerate fully.
- Re-grab its feathers whenever the Griffin tilts, rolls, or initiates a steep incline/decline.
- Ride the monster all the way back to its nest—typically high atop inaccessible peaks in Battahl or Mistveil Forest—granting access to high-tier loot chests and instant cross-region transit.
Make sure to unlock proper mob-clinging augments detailed in our best skills to unlock first guide to prevent falling to your death mid-flight.
Infinite Stamina & Speed Builds for Fast Sprinting
When moving on foot between Oxcart stations, optimizing your character's movement speed and stamina burn rate acts as a permanent, passive mount upgrade. Movement speed in Dragon's Dogma 2 is directly dictated by your total carried weight class and equipped vocation augments.
Optimizing Weight and Sprinting Speed:
Keep your character encumbrance at **"Very Light"** or **"Light"**. Heavy and Very Heavy weight classes dramatically increase sprinting stamina depletion while reducing base running speed. Transfer heavy monster drops, ores, and spare weapons directly to your Pawns' inventories or deposit them into storage at inns.
Best Augments for Foot Speed:
- Athletics (Fighter Vocation): Substantially reduces stamina consumption while sprinting out of combat.
- Diligence (Mage Vocation): Accelerates stamina recovery speed when recovering from complete exhaustion.
- Fitness (Thief Vocation): Reduces stamina consumed when grabbing, climbing, or clinging to terrain and beasts.
By pairing lightweight gear found in our best armor sets guide with the versatile mobility skills of late-game builds like the best endgame Warfarer build guide, you can cross entire sub-regions on foot at top speed without running out of breath.
For additional details regarding updates, patches, and game mechanics, check out the official Steam Store page and community documentation on the Dragon's Dogma 2 Wiki.