Saddle Up! R49 - Release Notes

Hey Paxians!

It’s time to saddle up! After a few weeks on the PTS, R49 is now live on all shards! Huge thanks to everyone who tested the update, reported bugs, and shared feedback during the PTS phase. Your F9 reports and direct feedback helped us identify and fix issues much faster.

From crafting your first saddle to exploring Pax Dei on horseback, there’s now a whole new way to travel. And horses aren’t coming alone: this update also brings road-following auto-run, player titles, the ability to follow Party members, and a collection of quality-of-life improvements.

More good news: unused Plot Tokens no longer expire!

Last but not least, to celebrate Pax Dei’s first anniversary, we’re planning a special long-weekend boost in about a week, with extra Skill XP for Combat, Gathering, and Riding, increased Grace gains, and a higher spawn chance for named NPCs. We’ll share the exact timing and full details very soon.

Now, let’s take a closer look at everything R49: Saddle Up! includes.

Plot Tokens No Longer Expire Before Use

Previously, you had 12 months from the acquisition date to use your Plot Tokens or lose them. This is no longer the case! You can now keep your unused Plot Tokens for as long as you like. Once you use a Plot Token to claim or extend a plot, it still provides 30 days of plot time, as before. This applies to all Plot Tokens, including those you already own. This change is already live.

Mounts

Horses have arrived in Pax Dei!

To get a horse, first craft a saddle through Leatherworking. Equip it by double-clicking it like a piece of gear, and it will appear in your Equipment view. Then use the horse button next to your Health and Stamina bars (default: G) to call the horse bound to it.

Summoning: The first time you call the horse tied to a new saddle, you’ll be asked to perform a Summon Miracle and spend Grace to bring it through the Veil. For the Tier 1 saddle, this costs 500 Grace. Once you’ve brought your horse forth, calling it again is free.
Grace costs: Costs increase with saddle tiers. Tier 4 horses cost 950 Grace.
Dismounting and dismissing: Use the same button (default: G) to dismount while riding or dismiss your horse when on foot.
Restrictions: Horse summoning and calling are not available in combat or inside dungeons.

Saddles & Horse Types

There are nine saddle recipes, all crafted through Leatherworking:

Tier 1: Farm Riding Saddle
Tier 2: Hardy Riding Saddle and Hardy Pack Saddle
Tier 3: Bred Riding Saddle, Strong Pack Saddle and Swift Courser Saddle
Tier 4: Highborn Riding Saddle, Great Pack Saddle and Highborn Courser Saddle

Each saddle recipe unlocks alongside the corresponding leather armor tier. The type of saddle determines the type of horse bound to it:

Riding Horses are balanced and versatile.
Pack Horses sacrifice some speed for additional cargo capacity.
Coursers focus on speed and Stamina.

Higher-tier saddles also require higher Riding skill: 10 for Tier 2, 20 for Tier 3, and 30 for Tier 4.

You can trade a saddle before or after calling its horse. A saddle already bound to a horse carries that specific horse.

Crafting limits: You can’t Mastercraft or enchant saddles.

Riding

Horses can walk, trot, gallop, jump, and even swim!

Movement: Switch between walking and trotting (default: Period), or hold Shift (default) to gallop. Galloping and jumping consume your horse’s Stamina.
Roads: Galloping on roads consumes roughly two-thirds less Stamina, and traveling on roads reduces saddle wear by about half.
Mounted auto-run: Start auto-run while facing along a road, and your horse will follow its bends, slow down for sharp turns, and try to steer around obstacles. Start auto-run facing away from a road, and your horse will continue straight ahead.
Hands-free galloping: While auto-running, tap Shift (default) to gallop without holding the key.
Water crossings: Auto-run stops when you enter water but can be re-enabled once you are swimming, both on foot and while mounted.
Galloping under attack: Taking damage prevents you from galloping for a short time. Ongoing damage effects can therefore prevent you from using gallop to escape.

Riding Skill

Riding is a new Skill.

Earning XP: Riding XP is based on the distance you travel on horseback. Standing still earns nothing, and every horse type grants the same XP per distance. Faster horses therefore earn Riding XP faster because they cover more ground.
Progression: Increasing your Riding skill unlocks higher-tier saddles and improves your effectiveness as a rider, increasing the Speed and Courage you can draw from any horse within its natural limits.

Naming & Appearance

Naming: Name your horse through the Homestead category of the Miracles menu (default: K). Horse names can include spaces. Naming a horse for the first time is free; renaming it later costs100 Grace.
Appearance: When you call a horse for the first time, the game randomly generates its appearance from many possible combinations of coat colors, patterns, markings, and manes. Some variations are rarer than others.
Permanence: Your horse’s appearance is permanent. Once you call it for the first time, the saddle tooltip also describes its appearance.

Hydration

Horses need water during long journeys.

Hydration: A newly summoned horse starts fully hydrated. Its Hydration gradually decreases while riding.
Thirst: You’ll receive warnings as Hydration gets low. At 0%, your horse becomes thirsty, and its maximum Stamina is reduced until it drinks.
Drinking: Horses can replenish Hydration in natural bodies of water such as rivers and lakes. Fountains, buckets, basins, and similar water sources do not count.

Courage & Combat

You cannot fight while mounted, but enemies can certainly fight you.

Courage: While riding, hostile attacks reduce your horse’s Courage instead of your Health. Effects already affecting you, such as poison or bleeding, still damage you normally.
Getting spooked: If Courage reaches zero, your horse bucks you off, runs away, and disappears beyond the Veil. You can call it back after a short delay once you’re out of combat.
Unattended horses: A horse left standing without a rider can also be spooked by hostile attacks and run away.
Death: If you die while your horse is around, it returns beyond the Veil.
No permanent loss: Horses cannot be killed or permanently lost. In PvP, players cannot steal or loot horses or saddles.

Saddlebags

Horses can provide additional inventory space through their saddlebags, with Pack Horses specializing in carrying cargo.

Capacity: Saddlebag capacity varies significantly by horse type and tier. A Tier 1 Horse has 8 inventory slots, while a Tier 3 Courser has only 4. By comparison, a Tier 3 Strong Pack Horse offers a whopping 40 inventory slots!
Looting: Your backpack is always filled first. If it is full, items you pick up from the world or loot from enemies can automatically overflow into the equipped saddlebag.
Full inventory: If both your backpack and saddlebag are full, excess loot is left on the ground as usual.
Worn horses: A worn horse can no longer carry cargo, but items already stored in slots that become unavailable are not lost. They remain accessible and can be removed.
Fast Travel: You can Fast Travel while carrying items in your saddlebag. If your backpack and saddlebag together contain more than 40 occupied slots, each additional slot adds a Grace load fee of 1 Grace. This also applies with the Petra Mea miracle.

Wear & Ageing

Wear: Horses grow older as you travel. Wear depends on distance traveled, whether you walk, trot, or gallop. Traveling on roads reduces wear by about half.
Worn horses: Your horse does not gradually lose performance as it ages. Once the saddle reaches the end of its lifetime, the horse becomes worn. It remains yours and can still be ridden, but has reduced performance and can no longer carry cargo.
Lifetime: A saddle will never break or disappear from riding.
Riding XP: A worn horse no longer grants Riding XP.

Other Changes and Quality-of-Life Improvements

Grass Removal: Added a (not so) small Grass Removal piece.
Player titles: Completing certain Achievements now unlocks one of 81 titles you can display on your nameplate. Localized titles support both feminine and masculine forms. You can select your title and change your gender in Settings > General.
Crafting quantities: You can now craft X items, not just 1 or All.
Split stack: Improved stack splitting with a number selector you can adjust with the arrow keys or keyboard.
All Artisan processing crafters: Increased queue slots from 8 to 12.
Follow a Party member: You can now follow a Party member using the proximity menu on their character. This option is also available while mounted.
Hide health bars out of combat: Added a new option in General Settings, enabled by default. When active, players who are out of combat and at full Health and Energy no longer display their Health, Stamina, or Energy bars. The bars reappear if either the viewer or that player enters combat, or if the player’s Health or Energy drops. Stamina loss alone does not reveal them, so sprinting will not make the bars appear.
Display your character name: Enabled by default. You can now toggle your character name and title above your character on or off in Settings > General.
Chat moderation: We are introducing automated moderation for in-game chat. When it detects violations, the system can issue warnings through System Messages and temporarily mute players for 1 hour. We are starting cautiously and will adjust the system based on its performance and community feedback. Automated moderation will never suspend a player from the game; our Customer Support team will always manually review and issue game suspensions.