Elden Ring Mount: Torrent, the Spirit Steed

Elden Ring Mount

How to unlock Mount in Elden Ring?

Unlocking the Spirit Steed in Elden Ring is very simple: Explore the world to find Sites of Grace all around the map. These Sites work as the classic Bonfires in the Dark Souls Games, some work as fast travel points. Anyway, after you find at least three Sites of Grace. When you find the third one, Melina will give you a Spectral Steed Whistle. This Key Item can be equiped as a quick Item to summon Torrent, and then use it again to dismount.

• Steed Summons: You can summon Torrent (your horse / spirit steed) by equipping the Spectral Steed Whistle that you get from Melina in your quickslots and pressing square (like a consumable)
• Multiplayer: Torrent cannot be called upon during PVP or Co-op. However so far, Torrent does not seem to be essential. This decision was made for the sake of balance.

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How to heal a Mount?

Torrent has his own health bar, and he may die before you do, knocking you to the ground. As you can imagine, this is especially troublesome in the middle of a boss fight.

Luckily, you can heal Torrent by feeding him Rowa Raisins. You can make these with the Rowa Fruit you'll find on bushes throughout the Lands Between. You can even feed him while still running, making it a handy tool for healing him mid-fight. Rowa Raisins don't require a recipe to unlock, and you can use your crafting menu to make them once you acquire the Crafting Tools from Kale the Merchant in the Church of Elleh. If Torrent dies too much, you'll have to use one of your Flasks of Crimson Tears to heal him. 

The upside is just as Torrent can lose health, you can also kill enemy and boss mounts which often makes it easier to defeat them.

Torrent Spirit Steed and Jumping Platforms

These were first shown in the Summer Game Fest Trailer in 2021 and were available in the Closed Network Test. It is advised that you learn how to use horse combat, as it can make fights exponentially easier, as well as being very enjoyable.  You can summon your Spirit Steed while out of combat and can use certain platforms to impulse the horse up to reach higher areas. They look like a blue whirlpool on the floor and are often found at the foot of tall structures. You are propelled very high into the air and can move your character in whatever direction you want, allowing you to reach multiple tall structures. Torrent does not take fall damage when landing on (or near) these pads; Torrent has a special landing animation for when landing on these Jump pads. There is a notable segment in the CNT where you can do a mounted platform segment, jumping across multiple pads.

The world is so vast and open that Mounts are pretty much necessary to shorten the distances and save time. You can summon Torrent while roaming around the world, When using the Spectral Steed Whistle, you quickly jump up as Torrent forms from blue energy under you, without losing any momentum, satisfyingly all in one movement. You can also make Torrent rush forward in a burst of speed to escape faster attacks.They can be dismounted normally but you can jump off your horse for a jumping attack. Fall damage still occurs and hurts both you and Torrent. 

Torrent is very capable of climbing rocky cliffs by using the double jump. Double Jump is a Mount-Only Feature that is can be useful to dodge area attacks by staying off the ground, and it can be used to reach certain locations that cannot be reached other than using the mounted double Jump. Torrent can be summoned anywhere in the open world, but not in Legacy dungeons or smaller dungeons and catacombs. 

Mounted Combat

You can fight enemies on torrent as well. Weapons have different movesets when on horseback. The camera is independent to the direction towards the mount is moving, this gives the possibility to aim and perfom ranged attacks to any direction while the mount is running around, adding a lot of action and movement to battles. Performing a spell will slow Torrent down. 

Although, Mounted Combat cannot be abused. The way some enemies fight makes Mounted Combat not always convinient. Mounts also need a lot of space to run around, meaning that in some scenarios it may not be the best idea to fight on a Mount. After taking enough hits, you will fall off Torrent, and will be susceptible to critical damage for a long period of time, so you must ensure you avoid enemy attacks. There are also mounted enemies that you can fight against. 

Lock on is sometimes effective and allows you to easily encircle your target

Torrent excels against larger enemies with slower attacks. Your mount's attacks have a short delay to them, so timing is important. After attacking, you should continue moving forward, past the enemy, then turn back and repeat. This is essential because if you stay near an enemy for too long, they will attack and knock you off your horse. These attacks cannot be rolled through or blocked; instead you must use spacing and place Torrent so that they are away from the attack radius. Against hordes of weaker enemies, stick to the sides of the group and use your charged heavy attacks. If in the middle of a group. you will most likely be knocked off. Against ranged enemies, lock on to them then encircle them quickly so you can get closer whilst dodging their projectiles. Against enemies with faster attacks, it can be quite difficult, as getting close to them means you will probably get hit before you can attack. Against enemies that move faster or more wildly, it can be difficult to aim your attacks. In tight spaces, manoeuvrability is limited so it would be advised to proceed on foot. 

You can fight bosses on Torrent, if they are open world field bosses. For example, against Flying Dragon Agheel or Tree Sentinel, horse combat is effective at dodging certain attacks that are harder to dodge on foot, and quickly racing in to punish their attacks. 

If Torrent takes damage, he can be healed with Rowa Raisins, crafted from Rowa Berries. If torrent dies, you will fall off and be stunned for multiple seconds. In most cases, Torrent can be re-summoned, unless in a boss fight. 

Mounted Attacks

As reference, I will use the Playstation controls. Your R1 (light attack) becomes a short swing with your weapon to the right. Your L1 (guard) becomes a short swing to the left. you R2 (Heavy attack) becomes a charge attack on the right. This is good to initiate encounters with. This can be charged, and while it charged, It can also damage enemies. Your L2 (Weapon Skill) becomes the same attack as the R2 but on the left. These attacks use stamina but no FP (unless using a spell) . You can only attack with one weapon and it will be held in one hand, so weapons you can only hold whilst two-handing will not be effective on mount, and you would be better off levelling those stats so you can wield it. As with regular combat, your stamina is not used outside of combat.

Spiritspring Jumping

While riding you Spirit Steed, you may come across large, twister-like entities that are constantly spinning at a place. These vortexes are Spiritspring Jumping spots, visible within range. You can jump while on horseback near a Spiritspring to ride its current high into the air. These will launch you into the air but you won't take damage from jumping into a Spiritspring while on horseback, even from great heights.