WoW has secretly added a new mount. MeinMMO reveals in the guide how to quickly unlock the “Bound Shadehound”.
Not all content from Patch 9.0.5 is listed in the patch notes. A more or less “secret” mount has snuck into World of Warcraft: Shadowlands. This is a Bound Shadehound. A mount that you often see among the Maw’s servants. You can’t just buy the mount, as it’s hidden behind a little puzzle. We will show you step by step how to unlock this mount and then ride it in the Maw!
The images shown in this article are from wowhead.
1. Buy the Stygian Tensor
First, you need to buy the Stygian Tensor from Ve’nari in Ve’naris Refuge. It costs a staggering 1,500 Stygia and will only be offered to you if you have already reached maximum reputation with her. If not, you need to gather more reputation by completing daily and weekly quests or defeating rare enemies in the Maw.
Anyone who has been gathering reputation since the launch of Shadowlands should have long since reached the maximum with her.
With the Stygian Tensor, you can locate small green clouds everywhere in the Maw. These are usually in hard-to-reach places (like on towers, behind strong enemies, or at the end of caves).
Use the Tensor to extract Stygia Shards and Stygian Dust from the clouds. Collect at least 200 shards and dust each.
The small clouds will also be displayed on the minimap as soon as you are nearby – if you are carrying the Stygian Tensor.
2. Off to the Torghast Fortress
Now you need to travel to the Torghast Fortress and go to the coordinates 23 / 68. There you can see a hook that you can select to pull yourself up onto a platform gradually until you reach coordinates 24 / 76. This is a tower with a green cloud. Use the Stygian Tensor here to switch to another phase.
A box with 6 runes will now appear, floating above the box. By clicking on the runes, you can swap the positions of any two runes.
Focus on the tips of the tower surrounding you. At the tips, you will see the identical runes that are also floating above the box.
You need to ensure that the runes above the box are in the same order as the runes at the tips. The first rune corresponds to the tip left of the hook point, then proceed clockwise.
But be careful! You should not simply click wildly. If you take too many steps or take too long, this part of the puzzle will be locked for two hours. Then you will have to return later and try again.
Once you have solved the puzzle, you can open the box and receive a Crumbling Stela.
3. Ve’nari and the Codex
Once you have the Crumbling Stela in your inventory, you can return to Ve’nari. She now has a new item available, a not yet complete Rune Codex. It costs a whopping 2,000 Stygia and sends you on the next mission.
You need to complete the Codex by finding the missing pages. These can be found at the following coordinates:
- Page 1 can be found in a cave of the Beast Maze. The entrance to the cave is at coordinates 49 / 85.
- Page 2 can be found in the Torghast Fortress, on the platform with the rare enemy Tanassos. The page is located at coordinates 27 / 72.
- The last page can be found in the Tremaculum on one of the towers where Anduin was held at the beginning of Shadowlands. The exact coordinates are 27 / 13.
Once you have collected all the pages, you can transform the Codex into its complete version. The Codex basically tells you how to solve the rest of the puzzle.
4. Crafting the Metals
For this step, you need to have farmed a significant amount first. You will need:
- 200x Stygian Dust
- 200x Stygia Shards
- 1x Soul Smith’s Tools
You obtain dust and shards from the aforementioned green clouds, while the Soul Smith’s Tools can be obtained from Soul Smith Rhovus, a rare mob at coordinates 36 / 42.
Once you have collected the items, head to the coordinates 23 / 68, where you can select a hook point again. Work your way up the fortress with multiple hooks until you arrive at the Soul Steel Anvil at coordinates 20 / 67.
Process the dust and shards into 20 Stygian Bars and then the bars with the tools into “Armored Shell”.
5. Catch the Stray Soul
This step is quite simple. Go to the Soul River Gorgoa and look for a stray soul. This is the soul of a wolf that wanders south from the north through the river. After a while, it reappears in the north and repeats its route. You just need to click the soul and you will receive a Wolf Soul.
6. Bind the Soul
The last step is also simple. Travel to the coordinates 45 / 48 and click the altar. This creates a “Wild Shadehound”.
This is a quest starter that provides you with the final step of this puzzle. Once you use the item, you will mount the wild shadehound that will panic and run in all directions. You now need to click the runes in the correct order to successfully bind the mount to yourself.
The correct order of the runes can be found on the stela that you received in step 2 of this puzzle.
Is the mount worth it? Especially for players who want to ride in the Maw without relying on luck or wanting to play through the winding corridors of Torghast. The “Bound Shadehound” is a good alternative to the other two mounts and can be earned relatively quickly with comparatively little effort.
Is the mount needed in the long term? No. Starting with Patch 9.1 Chains of Domination, players will have the opportunity to unlock all mounts for the Maw. However, this patch is still at least a few months away, so you will have to wait a long time for the unlocking of this ability. If you don’t want to travel permanently on foot through the Maw until then, you should at least consider acquiring the Shadehound.
Have you already obtained the new mount? Or is that too much effort for you?
