How to get a Diablo 4 mount and customize your horse

Getting a Diablo 4 mount will really help you speed up your travel and exploration, but you need to complete a quest at the end of Act 3 to get one. This means you'll be spending a significant amount of time horse-less and wandering the Diablo 4 map of Sanctuary on foot with a bit of Waypoint fast travel. If you're desperate to get your first mount as fast as possible, you should follow our tips on how to level up fast in Diablo 4 and power through the story as you'll basically need to hit level 25-30 to get 'Mount: Donan's Favor' added to your Diablo 4 quest log. Here's what you need to know about acquiring a Diablo 4 horse mount and how to customize it.

Diablo 4 Mount: Donan's Favor quest guide

You'll get the Mount: Donan's Favor quest when you're nearing the end of Act 3 in the main Diablo 4 campaign. When you're sent back to Kyovashad, meet with Donan at the Cathedral of Light and he'll give you the Diablo 4 mount quest.

With the quest in your log, return to Oskar the Stable Master (he's right near the city's main gate where you had to complete the Rite of Passage quest) and he'll give you your first Diablo 4 horse mount for free! It's a nice gesture, especially as other mounts will cost you a cool 20,000 Gold. Thankfully, every mount that you own is unlocked for all of the characters on your account. This means that any new characters you make after completing this quest can summon a Diablo 4 horse right from the start of the game.

Diablo 4 length

DIablo 4's Inarius close to smiting down a foe — (Image credit: Blizzard)

Wondering how long to beat Diablo 4? It's pretty lengthy, so it'll be a while before you even get a mount.

To use your Diablo 4 mount, press Z on keyboard or D-Pad Right on controller while exploring the open world of Sanctuary. Doing this will instantly summon your horse under you, so there's no need to manually climb onto your horse.

You should also know that while your horse can't die in Diablo 4, it can get scared and temporarily abandon you. Just above the avatar icon of your mount is a little bar which will gradually fill if they are around too many enemies – the speed at which this bar fills depends on the Diablo 4 World Tier you have selected. If it maxes out, you'll be forced to dismount and wait through a lengthy cooldown before you can call your mount back into action. A handy tip, if you're at risk of your horse getting scared, just click the dismount key and avoid the drama altogether.

When mounted, your Skills hot bar changes to a few mount-specific abilities. Your standard Evade becomes Spur, allowing you to use three bursts of speed that refresh on a cooldown. As well as just a regular dismount, each class also has its own unique Diablo 4 mount Skill, which you can use to quickly dismount and launch straight into attacks with massive AOE potential. For example, Barbarians get a powerful ground slam that stuns enemies, while Rogues fire off a volley of arrows.

How to customize your Diablo 4 mount

Diablo 4 mount pre-order bonus

Diablo 4 pre-order rewards — (Image credit: Blizzard)

Make sure you collect your pre-order bonuses for Diablo 4 to get extra mount customization options

You can customize your mount with barding (that's the proper name for horse armor) and trophies to show off your accomplishments. Some of these cosmetic items for your Diablo 4 mount can be purchased with in-game Gold at any of the Stable Masters in the major settlements, while others can be bought in the Diablo 4 store and seasonal Diablo 4 battle pass. Additionally, there is a small chance that horse customization items will drop from chests, rare enemies, and world bosses – these items can be held in your inventory and then applied to your horse via a Stable Master.

There are special mount customization options for those of you willing to deal in a little of the Diablo 4 PvP experience. The Stable Masters found in the towns adjacent to any of the Fields of Hatred will exchange cosmetic items for Red Dust rather than Gold – this rare resource is earned by collecting Seeds of Hatred from slain monsters in the PvP zones, which are then smashed into Red Dust at the various Altar of Extraction sites.

Diablo 4 Cry of Ashava Mount Trophy

If you reached level 20 in the Server Slam Beta and defeated the Diablo 4 Ashava World Boss, then you'll find the exclusive Cry of Ashava Mount Trophy can be equipped to your mount at any Stable Master. However, that mount trophy is exclusive to the beta, and Blizzard says that there's no way to get it now if you hadn't already earned it – no matter how many times you beat Ashava now in the final game.

Josh West is Editor-in-Chief of GamesRadar+. He has over 18 years of experience in both online and print journalism, and was awarded a BA (Hons) in Journalism and Feature Writing. Josh has contributed to world-leading gaming, entertainment, tech, music, and comics brands, including games™, Edge, Retro Gamer, SFX, 3D Artist, Metal Hammer, and Newsarama. In addition, Josh has edited and written books for Hachette and Scholastic, and worked across the Future Games Show as an Assistant Producer. He specializes in video games and entertainment coverage, and has provided expert comment for outlets like the BBC and ITV. In his spare time, Josh likes to play FPS games and RPGs, practice the bass guitar, and reminisce about the film and TV sets he worked on as a child actor.