Top Five Mounts in SWTOR

Speed. All MMO players crave it, desiring to get their characters from point A to point B as fast as possible. Who wants to waste time running on foot from one end of Tatooine to another while there's a quicker, and not to mention more stylish, method to do so - mounts. Mounts in SWTOR take the form of speeders and there are three kinds of speeders available to players: hoverbikes, speederbikes, and landspeeders. No matter the different tags or appearance, all mounts in SWTOR do the same thing, allow the player to increase their movement speed so they can spend more time engaging in lightsaber duels or fulfilling bounties as opposed to hoofing it across the various planets in the galaxy? Another question is, which mounts are best in SWTOR? To that end, Swtorhub.com picks the top five mounts found in the game.

The top five mounts in SWTOR is, however, a subjective choice. With one caveat, all mounts do exactly the same thing - increase the movement speed of the player's character. What separates mounts is their rank (which determines their speed and armor), their appearance, and how they are acquired. Mounts in SWTOR can be acquired through simple vendor purchase, boss drops, minimum PvP valor ranking, minimum Light Side or Dark Side ranking, and completing certain flashpoints.

There are three ranks of mounts in SWTOR and become available at a specific level. To be able to use a specific rank mount, you will need to purchase the equivalent rank of speeder training from your trainer. Each rank of speeder has a higher cost than the lower rank, but the movement increase is higher. The three ranks of mounts are:

• Rank 1 - Speeders give a 90% boost in speed. Training can be purchased for 35,000 credits at level 25.
• Rank 2 - Speeders give a 100% boost in speed. Training can be purchased for 150,000 credits at level 40.
• Rank 3 - Speeders give a 110% boost in speed. Training can be purchased for X credits at level 50.

One important aspect of mounts in SWTOR to remember is that the higher the rank of the mount, the more armor it has. The more armor a mount has, the more damage it can take before a rider is knocked off. This translates into the fact that the higher the ranking of a mount, the less likely the chance that a player will be knocked off their speeder from enemy attacks while they're traveling around a planet. A standard mob of creatures can easily knock a player off a rank 1 mount, but will find it a considerably harder task to do the same to a rider on a rank 3 mount.

With all that background stuff out of the way, let's look at the top five mounts in SWTOR.

Rendili Fireball

Most hoverbikes don't look cool or even comfortable to ride. Most of the time when I'm zooming around on a hoverbike in SWTOR, I can almost feel my leg muscles withering just from looking at the painful stance my character is in. However, all that changes with the Rendili Fireball. This hoverbike just oozes cool. How can you not love the flame paint job sported on this bad boy? Everybody knows that vehicle plus flame paint job equals awesome. The Rendili Fireball is a rank 3 speeder, which means it'll give a 110% speed increase. This hot rod of a mount can only be acquired by doing The False Emperor on Hard Mode and is dropped by Darth Malgus.

Praxon Aero

The Praxon Aero speederbike was chosen to make our list because it looks both sleek and futuristic. I love the forward fins and the two thrusters in the back as it gives the mount a very aerodynamic look but also conveys a deadly spacecraft feel to it as well. However, you have to be a SWTOR goodie to lay your hands on this rank 3 sleek torpedo. You have to be Light Side level V or higher to buy this. You can purchase it from Mira, the Light Side vendor on the Republic Fleet for 300,000 credits.

Tirsa Elite

The Tirsa Elite is a rank 3 landspeeder that is gloriously red. As everybody knows, a red vehicle goes faster than a non-red one! (Actually not true, but many people believe that the police ticket more red cars than cars of other colors.) The Tirsa Elite mount drops from several different entities in SWTOR. It is dropped by Soa in The Eternity Vault and also from the last boss in Kaon Under Siege on Hard Mode.

Lhosan Stinger

A beauty of a speederbike, the Lhosan Stinger can be found on Voss. This gorgeous yellow and black mount just really looks cool (and reminds me of the band Stryper!). This rank 3 speederbike not only has the standard 110% movement increase, but also the sweet styling of an armored bumblebee. Players looking to add some "buzz" to their garage can pick up this mount for 150,000 credits from Honest Nuen.

Desler Turbo

The last mount in our list is the Desler Turbo landspeeder. Yet another SWTOR rank 3 mount, the Desler Turbo is a drop found in Karagga's Palace on Hard Mode or Nightmare Mode. The reason why this landspeeder makes the cut is that it looks damn cool. Unlike other landspeeders, it has a sharp, deadly look with the sides stretched out and the central body recessed. It also benefits from the red pin striping to add that extra touch of cool. All in all, a very sweet looking ride.

There you have it, my friends, our top five mounts in SWTOR. The main criteria for choosing them was due to looks as all mounts do basically the same thing in the game, only at different efficiency. I know that all the mounts I chose are rank 3, but I would argue that SWTOR, just like every other MMO out there, makes the highest rank (and hardest to get) items the best looking. Have any favorites that you felt should have made my list? Let me know in the comments below.