Guides/Mounts
Skyscale: two routes, and one costs a third as much
Through Secrets of the Obscure the dragon costs 15 gold and one evening. Through Living World Season 4 it costs 41 gold, six currencies you cannot buy, and a minimum of three days of waiting. And when the long way is still worth it.
On this page
The Skyscale is the only mount that hovers in place and climbs sheer walls. Once you have it, Tyrian terrain stops being an obstacle. Where you used to hunt for a way round, you go up.
The catch is that there are two ways to unlock it, they differ by a wide margin, and the wiki describes both without telling you which one is yours. So I will.
Short answer
If you own Secrets of the Obscure, take that route. 15 gold, one evening, no waiting.
The long Living World Season 4 route has exactly one reason to exist, and it only matters if you are building a particular legendary. More on that below.
The Secrets of the Obscure route
Finish the story chapter Hell Breaks Loose. That opens the collection A New Friend.
What it takes off you:
- 15 gold
- 12 × Piece of Skyscale Food
- 30 × Provisioner Token
- 375 × Pinch of Stardust
- 375 × Static Charge
- 500 × Fine Rift Essence
Rift Essence and Stardust accumulate on their own from rifts in the SotO maps while you play, so there is usually nothing to farm separately. There is effectively no time gate: with the story already done, this is a single evening.
The Living World Season 4 route
Needs Path of Fire and every episode of Season 4. The collection is called Newborn Skyscales.
The bill:
| Item | Amount |
|---|---|
| Gold | 41 |
| Karma | 5,390 |
| Volatile Magic | 1,700 |
| Trade Contracts | 520 |
| Kralkatite Ore | 250 |
| Difluorite Crystal | 250 |
| Inscribed Shard | 250 |
| Lump of Mistonium | 250 |
| Branded Mass | 250 |
| Mistborn Motes | 260 |
| Piece of Skyscale Food | 12 |
| Grow Lamp | 1 |
The gold figure is lower than the short route once you price its materials. Gold is not the trap.
Trap one: six currencies you cannot buy. Kralkatite Ore, Difluorite Crystal, Inscribed Shard, Lump of Mistonium, Branded Mass and Mistborn Motes are all account bound and earned on specific Season 4 maps. None of them exist on the Trading Post, so “I’ll just buy the rest” does not apply. You go to Sandswept Isles, Domain of Kourna, Jahai Bluffs, Thunderhead Peaks and Dragonfall, and you collect them by hand.
Trap two: the clock. The Skyscale Care stage runs on daily resets, at least two of them. No amount of gold makes it faster than three days, and in practice it is three days and eight hours.
When the long route is still the right one
One reason, and it is a real one: the short route does not unlock the Living World Season 4 mastery track. That track is required for the legendary trinket Vision.
So:
- building Vision → take the long route, and start it now rather than twice;
- not building Vision → short route, no second thoughts.
There is a softer argument too. If you were going to work through Season 4 anyway for the story and the achievements, most of those currencies arrive as a side effect, and the collection stops being a separate job.
What not to do
Do not buy SotO for the Skyscale alone. The expansion costs more than any amount of farming, and the long route gets you the same mount, only slower.
Do not start the long collection “and figure it out later”. Six currencies at 250 apiece is not something that accumulates in the background over a week of ordinary play. If you commit, look at which of those maps you want for other reasons and plan the route around them.
Do not chase the Skyscale as your first mount. The Raptor, the Springer and the Griffon buy you more freedom of movement for less, and the Skyscale after them feels like a fine addition rather than the only way to travel.