Getting your first mount

[Slapped_Silly]

When can you use mounts?

Is it automatically unlocked it level 20 or is there a quest that needs to be done to be able to access it.

I already have a mount from the recruit a friend program, but I can't use it..

[patseguin]

You have to do a quest chain and then join a guild, do that quest, get the 2,000 seals, then you get your Chocobo license. Once I got the quest, it took me a little less than an hour to get the 2,000 seals and then get my mount.

[Slapped_Silly]

Thanks for the info! That means I got to get on the story line then.. It's been a chore..
However, it would be nice to get the mount before continuing with other things.

Was the 2,000 seals for the mount it self or the ability to use it?
How much did the mount itself cost?

[ExiledOne]

the 2000 seals are for a permit to get a mount, the Chocobo will be given to you.
I don't know if that Chocobo is yours to keep, for example if you change Grand Companies.
I imagine the mount you received as a promo will be usable as soon as you unlock "mounts" by doing the quest. That mount is yours to keep.

[Garlyle]

Steps to get a mount:

1. Reach level 20
2. Progress your main story. After the level 20 trial "The Bowl of Embers", your next story quests will involve you choosing your Grand Company allegiance.
3. Select one and officially join it, and a quest will appear at your GC's HQ (I believe it's entitled "My First Chocobo"). You'll need to accept that quest.
4. To purchase the Chocobo Issuance for the quest, you'll need to gather 2000 Grand Company Seals. These can be obtained through GC Leves (try Moraby Drydocks for the first GC levemete), through fulfilling the Grand Company section of your hunting log (Try going to the optional dungeon Halatali for a bunch), or through completing FATEs (higher level FATEs give more seals). Turn the seals in at your HQ for the Issuance, then complete the quest.
5. After naming your chocobo and completing the quest, your ability to ride all mounts will be unlocked (including your new chocobo, but also any Collector's Edition bonuses, etc).

[Slapped_Silly]

Wow. I thought you needed to spend a butt ton of gil or something to get one. I didn't know that when you can actually ride anyone that you get one at that point.
Glad I didn't get the collectors addition.

If there a movement speed difference in mounts?

[Enkidoh]

I think from a technical position, all the mounts are programmed to run at the same speed. However, due to individual aspects of certain mounts, some seem to run slightly slower or faster than others (this is most noticible with mounts that are low to the ground, like the cavalry drake and coruel - because they're closer to the ground it seems they're faster. However, the taller ones like the goobbue and magitek armour seem to be much slower due to their size.

And for reasons I haven't yet deduced, my Legacy Chocobo seems to run slightly faster than the default Grand Company chocobo, but that just might be me looking for things that aren't there.

[Garlyle]

I think from a technical position, all the mounts are programmed to run at the same speed. However, due to individual aspects of certain mounts, some seem to run slightly slower or faster than others (this is most noticible with mounts that are low to the ground, like the cavalry drake and coruel - because they're closer to the ground it seems they're faster. However, the taller ones like the goobbue and magitek armour seem to be much slower due to their size.

This is correct. All the mounts move at the same speed - some will just look faster/slower because their model is larger, but they're covering the same amount of distance in the same amount of time.

Your choice of mounts is purely cosmetic.

[Bellarose]

I am new to game ( but not MMOPGs), and was wondering what the acronym Leves, stands for. I am assuming it is something short for GC quests. If so, are they repeatable?

[Lollie]

Cannot verify but leve can be interpreted as meaning "to give" and is what most people and npcs shorten from the full name of it levequest or "to give a quest"