Congratulations on your new T8 Courser! Whether you acquired it through breeding or the challenging process of skill changes, the journey doesn’t end there. The next exciting, and sometimes frustrating, step is training your horse’s skills, particularly crucial ones like Sprint and Instant Acceleration. This guide will walk you through effective methods to level up your horse’s abilities, drawing from practical experience and community-shared strategies.
Understanding Horse Skill Progression
Every time your horse levels up, it has a chance to learn a new skill. While some skills are learned automatically, the most vital ones for effective gameplay, such as Sprint and Instant Acceleration, require active training. You can view your horse’s learned skills by pressing “P” while mounted.
To level a specific skill, you need to repeatedly use it. For instance, to train Sprint, you must equip a saddle and press “W” while riding. However, at lower levels, there’s a chance of skill failure. When this occurs, you’ll need to engage in a mini-game by pressing “W” and “S” to regain control. Failing this mini-game results in being thrown off your horse, which can be a significant setback and time-consuming.
Effective Horse Skill Training Methods
To streamline this process, several community-tested methods can help you train your horse skills more efficiently.
1. Utilize Wall Training
A highly effective technique, recommended by many players, involves training your horse against a wall. As long as you are actively using the skill, you don’t need to be galloping around. This method allows you to focus on repeated skill usage in a confined space.
2. The Jump Technique for Skill Failures
When a skill fails, the mini-game can be a major annoyance. Fortunately, by timing your jumps correctly, you can often bypass this mini-game entirely. This is especially useful when training essential skills like Sprint and multiple Instant Accelerations, saving you considerable time and frustration.
3. Manage Streak Jump to Conserve Stamina
If your horse possesses the Streak Jump skill, it’s highly advisable to lock it off during training. Constantly jumping, especially with Streak Jump enabled, will drain your horse’s stamina at an alarming rate, far exceeding the benefits. This rapid stamina depletion will force you to spend excessive amounts of silver on stamina restoration items.
4. Strategic Cornering in Buildings
Find a quiet corner within a building in a safe location, such as a city or settlement. By nudging your horse’s head into the corner, you can effectively immobilize it while still allowing for skill usage and leveling. This method can take several hours to yield significant results, but it’s a consistent way to train.
5. Stock Up on Stamina-Restoring Items
While Oasis Carrots were previously a popular and incredibly cheap (1 silver each) option for stamina regeneration, they have since been removed from the game as of November 2021. Players will need to rely on other readily available stamina-restoring items to keep their horses performing during extended training sessions.
Navigating the Fail Game
Should you find yourself in the skill failure mini-game, the key is to be as hands-off as possible. Lightly tap the directional keys, or in some cases, remove your hands from the keyboard altogether. Surprisingly, this passive approach can often lead to success in the mini-game. While the jump method is excellent for Sprint and Instant Accelerations, other skills like Drift might still require you to engage with the fail game. However, for most players, these less critical skills can be trained at a later time.
By combining these strategies, you can significantly improve the efficiency and reduce the tedium of training your horse’s skills, bringing you closer to achieving your ultimate gaming goals.
