There's an impressive variety of mounts available in World of Warcraft. Owning a rare or unique mount is a major flex, and players who have earned their fancy rides like to show off. They are obtainable through questing, reputation grinding, dungeons, raids, and certain promotions. Plenty of completionist collect them just so they can say they have the rarest mounts in the game. While some mounts may no longer be obtainable, this does not diminish their rarity.

Updated May 18, 2024 by Paul Woodward: At the time of writing, there are over 1,000 mounts in World of Warcraft. With The War Within, Midnight, and The Last Titan, players can expect this total to go up even further. The mounts added over the course of the World-Soul Saga will, naturally, vary in rarity or difficulty to obtain, but many of the mounts mentioned below will remain rare for years to come.

13 Time-Lost Proto-Drake

Obtained by 8% of Players

• Guaranteed drop from Time-Lost Proto-Drake, a rare spawn in the Storm Peaks

Rare enemies have been in World of Warcraft since the very beginning. However, it wasn't until Wrath of the Lich King that rare enemies included a mount on their loot table. The Time-Lost Pro-Drake is a rare enemy that can be found flying around in the Storm Peaks. If players manage to find and kill it, they are guaranteed to get this rare as a mount.

Of course, there is a catch. It is estimated that the Time-Lost Proto-Drake respawns every two to eight hours. Not only that but there are several different areas in the zone where the Time-Lost Proto-Drake can spawn, making it difficult to get to before someone else does. To complicate matters further, Time-Lost Proto-Drake shares these spawn points with another rare known as Vyragosa. So when a rare enemy does spawn, it may not even be the Time-Lost Proto-Drake.

12 Kor'kron Juggernaut

Obtained by 7% of Players

• Drops from Garrosh Hellscream in Siege of Orgrimmar (Mythic only)

By this point, it is no surprise when the final boss of an expansion has a mount that only drops on the hardest difficulty. When the content is relevant and can't be trivialized with a higher level/better gear, the mount that drops off of the final boss has a 100% drop rate until the next expansion launches. At that point, the drop rate is adjusted to one percent.

The Kor'kron Juggernaut was no exception to this. This mechanical scorpion drops off of Garrosh Hellscream in Siege of Orgrimmar on Mythic difficulty. This fight was long and unforgiving during Mists of Pandaria, so not many players got this mount. Siege of Orgrimmar was also not soloable for many years, which has also contributed to the rarity of this mount. Now that there is an option to skip right to Garrosh instead of going through the entire raid, it is likely that the number of players who have this mount will increase.

11 X-45 Heartbreaker

Obtained by 6% of Players

• Obtained from the Heart-Shaped Box during the "Love is in the Air" event

This mount has some interesting history, to say the least. It was originally known as the Big Love Rocket and had a suggestive icon. After the Blizzard sexual harassment controversy in 2021, the name of the mount was changed along with the icon in Patch 9.1.5.

History aside, this mount had an extraordinarily low drop rate when it was first added to the game back during Wrath of the Lich King. The X-45 Heartbreaker could only be acquired during the Valentine's Day event in WoW known as Love is in the Air. It is estimated that the drop rate at the time was one in 3333, which meant it has less than a one percent chance of dropping. On top of that, the event only ran for two weeks. If players didn't get the mount during the event, they would have to wait until the next year.

The drop rate was dramatically improved with Patch 10.0.5. That said, this mount was very difficult to get for over 13 years which is why so few players have gotten it.

10 Gorestrider Gronnling

Obtained by 5% of Players

• Complete the Glory of the Draenor Raider Achievement

Since achievements were first added to WoW during Wrath of the Lich King, there has always been a meta-achievement for each raid tier. By completing the achievements listed under that meta-achievement, players would earn a special mount to show off that they had gone above and beyond.

In order to unlock Glory of the Draenor Raider, players have to complete all 17 achievements for Highmaul and Blackrock Foundry. These achievements are not unlocked by simply defeating the bosses, and players often have to do the boss fights incorrectly or in a non-conventional way to complete them. As such, players hoping to get this mount will need a well-organized team. Even though Warlords of Draenor is no longer relevant content, this can't be soloed since one of the achievements requires 10 players. This kind of coordination against bosses that can be one shot by one player makes it difficult to obtain the Gorestrider Gronnling, let alone any other meta achievement mount.

9 Heavenly Onyx Cloud Serpent

Obtained by 5% of Players

• A rare drop from the Sha of Anger in Kun-Lai Summit.

World bosses were removed from the game when Cataclysm launched. They finally returned two years later with the launch of Mists of Pandaria. At the start of the expansion, there were two world bosses. The first was Salyis's Warband and the second was the Sha of Anger. Heavenly Onyx Cloud Serpent was a rare drop from the latter. Players could loot Sha of Anger once per character per week.

The drop rate for this mount was roughly one percent, like with most rare mounts. What makes this mount rare is that it was bugged and didn't drop for a long time until Blizzard finally fixed it. Even after a bug caused this mount to have a 100% drop rate for Evokers before the launch of Dragonflight, not many players have this mount.

8 Mighty Caravan Brutosaur

Obtained by 4% of Players

• Obtained from the Black Market Auction House

Mounts are often available to players as a gold sink, as there are players who have a ludicrous amount of gold to burn, especially with the WoW Token allowing players to legally buy gold. Some early examples of this include the Traveler's Tundra Mammoth (16,000 to 20,000 gold depending on reputation) and the Grand Expedition Yak (120,000 gold).

The Mighty Caravan Brutosaur takes the cake by being the most expensive item that could be purchased from an NPC. Back when this mount was released during Battle For Azeroth, it cost 5,000,000 gold to purchase. Even with the ability to purchase WoW Tokens, not many players have that kind of gold just lying around. Nowadays, the Mighty Caravan Brutosaur occasionally appears at the Black Market Auction House.

Naturally, anything valuable like this will start a bidding war. Players who want to get this mount should make sure they are gold-capped (9,999,999 gold, 99, silver, 99 copper at the time of writing) as it is very likely the mount will hit the aforementioned gold cap once the bidding starts. The number of players who have this much gold is astronomically low, which is why a mount that can simply be purchased is so rare.

7 Swift Zulian Tiger

Obtained by 2% of Players

• Purchased From the Black Market Auction House

The first raid instance to have mounts in the loot table was Zul'Gurub, which was first released back on September 22, 2005. Blood Lord Mandokir dropped the Swift Razzashi Raptor while High Priest Thekal dropped the iconic Swift Zulian Tiger. The Swift Zulian Tiger was especially attractive for Horde players since they didn't have nightsaber mounts like the Alliance did. Both mounts were rare drops, but they were taken out of the game when patch 4.0.3a was released.

Nowadays, the Swift Zulian Tiger occasionally shows up at the Black Market Auction House. Just like with any other mount that is no longer obtainable, players should expect to pay millions of gold if they want to try and get this mount. Obtaining the Swift Zulian Tiger certainly wasn't easy back when Zul'Gurub was released, as it would require not only being in a 20-man raid group that was geared enough to do Zul'Gurub, but also winning the roll on the mount if it dropped.

6 Silent Glider

Obtained by 2% of Players

• Drops from Soundless in Nazjatar.

Similar to the Time-Lost Proto-Drake, this mount drops off from a rare that takes awhile to respawn. The rare is known as Soundless, and it can be found roaming around in Nazjatar. The difference, however, is that Soundless can only be looted once per day.

Frustratingly, the drop rate on this mount is less than two percent. So, even if players do manage to find this rare, there is no guarantee that it will even drop the mount to begin with. In short, getting this mount will require no small amount of patience and time.

5 Big Blizzard Bear

Obtained By Less Than 1%

• Acquired by attending Blizzcon 2008 or having a Direct TV ticket for the event

With every Blizzcon, there has been some sort of in-game bonus for players who attended the convention. For Blizzcon 2008, attendees received a code for this mount. Those who purchased the Direct TV coverage of the event also got this mount. Not only is it a cool looking mount, but it also has an adorable murloc tadpole who joins players on their travels.

While this mount wasn't exactly hard to get, it was limited only to US-based Direct TV customers or those who could afford to travel to Anaheim, California where Blizzcon 2008 was held. For this reason, only a small percentage of the 11.5 million subscribers that World of Warcraft had at the time were able to get this mount. While unused codes for this mount can be found, they typically sell for $200 or more.

4 Magic Rooster

Obtained by Less Than 1% of Players

• Obtained from a code on a loot card in the WoW TCG Fields of Honor set.

At one point, every single mount obtained through the old WoW TCG could be considered rare. Through the Trading Post and promotional programs like Amazon Prime Gaming, several of these mounts are no longer as rare as they once were. Some TCG mounts remain exclusive to this day, and the Magic Rooster is one of them.

The Magic Rooster could be redeemed from a code that was on a card called "El Pollo Grande". Once the code was redeemed, players could take the mount and sell it on the Auction House if they wanted to as it wasn't Bind on Pickup. Nowadays, it is rare to see the Magic Rooster show up at the Auction House. Source aside, this is the only chicken mount in the entire game. While there was a promotional event in Taiwan that allowed players to get this mount, that offer never reached the EU or US versions of World of Warcraft.

3 Prestigious Bloodforged Courser

Obtained by Less Than 1% of Players

• Obtained from the Honor Level 500 Achievement

There is no shortage of rewards that players can obtain by dedicating themselves to PvP. But for those who want to spend a lot of time playing PvP, then the Prestigious Bloodforged Courser is for them. Of all the Courser mounts obtained through PvP, this is easily the rarest and most time-consuming mount to obtain.

It takes a lot of honor to reach Level 500. In order to level up Honor, players must earn 8,800 honor from various PvP activities like Arena and Battlegrounds. So, if a player started from scratch and went all the way to Level 500, they would need to earn 4,400,000 honor to acquire this mount. With just casually playing PvP, it would take several years for players to get this mount. Even for a hardcore PvP player, getting this mount is no simple task.

2 Black Qiraji Battle Tank

Obtained by Less Than 1% of Players

• Only available during the Gates of Ahn'Qiraj world event

When Temple of Ahn'Qiraj and Ruins of Ahn'Qiraj were added to World of Warcraft in Patch 1.9, Blizzard did something truly unique. These raids were not available from the get go, and players had to complete a server-wide event to open the gate that barred entry. Both Alliance and Horde had to gather massive amounts of resources as part of the war effort.

But that was just one part of this event. In order to open the Gates of Ahn'Qiraj, one player needed to complete an insanely long questline to rebuild the Scepter of the Shifting Sands. This was not an easy questline, as it required the support and backing of a guild capable of clearing Blackwing Lair and beating numerous world bosses that spawned as part of the questline.

With the Scepter of the Shifting Sands in that players inventory, a new quest would appear at the Scarab Gong in Ahn'Qiraj. The reward for this quest was the Scarab Lord title and the Black Qiraji Battle Tank, the first legendary mount ever put into the game. Once this quest was completed, it was only available for 10 hours. During this time, anybody who had managed to get the Scepter of the Shifting Sands could get the Black Qiraji Battle Tank. Once the 10-hour event had concluded, this mount became unobtainable.

Considering the amount of effort it took for even one player to get the Scepter of the Shifting Sands, not many players got this mount back during pre-expansion World of Warcraft. While there were some bugs and server transferring shenanigans that allowed players to get this mount in The Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King, the Black Qiraji Battle Tank is not a mount that is seen often.

1 The Original Epic Mounts

Obtained By Less Than 1% of Players

• Purchased from mount vendors prior to Patch 1.4

If there is one mount that is almost never seen, it would be the original epic mounts that launched with World of Warcraft. Using Black Nightsaber as an example, these faster mounts could only be purchased once you had reached level 60. Not only that, but these mounts also cost 1,000 gold. This may not seem like pocket change in modern World of Warcraft, but back then almost nobody was that wealthy, and it would take a very long time to get that much money.

Ultimately, Blizzard removed and replaced these mounts with armored mounts in Patch 1.4, which was released on April 19, 2005. World of Warcraft was released on November 23, 2004. Essentially, players had a little under six months to get a character to level 60 and save up 1,000 gold to purchase this mount. Very few players ever got one of the original epic mounts, and they are easily the rarest mounts in the entire game for that reason alone.