How to get and upgrade your horse in Rise of the Ronin

Rise of the Ronin is here, marking a new chapter in the storied history of developer Team Ninja’s games. This evolution brings with it a lot of new expectations, and introduces features and mechanics you may be familiar with from other games, which aren’t typically made by the Japanese team: including horses.

Rise of the Ronin is an open-world game through and through, so you can definitely count on a few genre staples to show up here. Sometimes they take a familiar form, but that won’t always be the case. In this guide, we’re going to answer a few common questions about your horse - one of the core new ways of traversal.

We’ll cover how to get it, upgrade it, and explain a neat feature Rise of the Ronin has that we wish more open-world games would adopt.

How to get your first horse in Rise of the Ronin

To get a horse in Rise of the Ronin, you don’t actually need to do much. The world of the game is large; much bigger than you may be used to from Team Ninja. This is why the game tries to give you a horse as early as possible.

This will not be the best (or only) horse you can get over your time with the game, but it does the job. Your first horse is a reward earned by liberating the first town you come across in Honmoku, the region of the game where you start. This is when Rise of the Ronin will teach you about Public Order - essentially its version of the outposts which you may be familiar with from many Far Cry games.

Once Public Order has been restored to that town/area, you’ll get the horse, as well as a flute to call it pretty much anywhere in the world. The flute is an item you equip to a quick slot (loadout), much like you would any other healing/buffing item. In other words, if you do not equip it, you’ll have to open your inventory screen and look for it in order to use it and call your horse. While you do have a limited number of slots, it’s important to assign the flute to one.

We found that leaving the third page to items like the flute, camera, and pocket watch worked well. You’re unlikely to stumble upon the third page by accident, which leaves the first two open for any other item you might want to equip. To change shortcut groups, hold R1 and move right or left using the d-pad.

How to have your horse automatically follow the road in Rise of the Ronin

Rise of the Ronin offers a Witcher 3-style road-following feature. This allows your horse to simply navigate on its own to the spot you mark on the map. It’s not perfect, and the horse will sometimes get stuck, but it’s a good way to enjoy the scenery while having minimal input. Outside of stopping it, you can also gallop, but the rest is automated.

To do this, you’ll need to first set a point on the map for the horse to go to. Open your map, and click L2, move the marker anywhere you want and toggle Set Auto-Run Destination. The point chosen will be marked with an orange horse icon, so it can be literally anywhere, not just a specific mission/location.

Once you’re back in the game, your horse will be automatically summoned, and it will begin moving towards that destination. You can pause the journey by hitting the Touchpad - such as when you want to pick something up - and resume by hitting R1 and the Touchpad together. You can also gallop by hitting Circle if you want it to go a little faster.

How to upgrade your horse speed in Rise of the Ronin

In Rise of the Ronin, you can upgrade your horse by purchasing a new one from a stable master, and by buying accessories to upgrade its tack.

Your starting horse is actually fairly fast - but you can do much better. Over the course of your time with the game, you’ll be able to change the horse entirely, as well as its tack (saddle). Usually, the main point of doing either of those is to improve the speed of the horse.

Depending on the rarity, however, you could find other bonuses such as more accurate aim on horseback, better damage for ranged weapons and so on. To get better horses and tacks, simply visit any Stable. When you talk to the stable master, you’ll be able to browse their horses and saddles, and quickly compare them (by hitting R2) with the one you have.

Stock varies, but generally speaking, the higher-level areas of the map have stables with better/faster horses, and more interesting tack options - even if they may not outright offer better speed. The good news is that you can visit any Stable to select which of the horses you own is active.

Your other major means of traversal in Rise of the Ronin is, of course, the glider (Avicula). Hit the link for how to get it. And for even more wisdom, we have a host of crucial Rise of the Ronin tips.