Guides/Mounts
Griffon: 250 gold and no waiting
The biggest direct price tag of any mount, and the most honest one: you pay once and fly the same evening. What you have to finish first, where the collections start, and why 250 gold is not the hard part.
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The Griffon costs 250 gold, the largest sticker price among mounts. It is also the only one that does not make you wait for it: no daily resets, no “come back tomorrow”. Gather the sum, walk away with the bird the same evening.
It flies differently too. Less flight than controlled falling: you dive, trade height for speed, then convert the speed back into height. Crossing maps is out of reach, but clearing a canyon that a Springer cannot even see is trivial.
What you need first
Path of Fire, with the expansion story finished. Not partly. All of it.
Then head to Domain of Vabbi, to Sunspear Sanctuary, and interact with the Remains of the Last Spearmarshal. That is the starting point.
Three collections
You will open Open Skies: Sunspear Sanctuary, Open Skies: Sunspear Wisdom and Open Skies: On Wings and a Prayer. Those in turn give access to five regional collections across the Crystal Desert maps.
The work itself is undemanding: you fly around the desert, find spots, talk to NPCs. No fights at the edge of your ability, no group content. It is a long walk rather than a challenge.
Where the 250 gold goes
Not in one payment. It is ten items at 25 gold each, bought from Renown Heart Merchants scattered across the Crystal Desert.
Two practical consequences follow.
You can pay in instalments. No need to bank all 250 first. Buy one item, advance, go earn another 25.
Open the relevant hearts first. A merchant only sells to you once you have completed their heart. People turn up with a full wallet and stall on an unfinished heart on a map they still have to reach. Check the list in advance.
Why the gold is not the hard part
For a player who has just closed Path of Fire, 250 gold is a real sum. But it is one-off and completely predictable: you always know how much is left.
The harder part is finishing the Path of Fire story in full. People stall there for months: they get halfway, drift into Living World, come back and cannot remember where they stopped. If you want the Griffon, treat the story as the main body of work and the gold as the side quest.
A sensible order
- Springer to mastery rank three. Cheap, and it covers most vertical problems until the Griffon shows up.
- Path of Fire story to the end. It also opens the maps where the collections live.
- Crystal Desert hearts, at least the ones with the merchants you need.
- Gold. Since the payment splits into ten, farming and collecting run in parallel and 250 never feels like a wall.
After the Griffon the next useful bird is the Skyscale, which hovers and climbs vertical walls where the Griffon only glides. Different story, very different price tag.