Skyscale

This article is about the mount. For other uses, see Skyscale (disambiguation).

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“

Thanks to your training, the skyscale species now has an innate steed-rider instinct and a desire to soar to new heights.

— In-game description

The Skyscale is a mount released with the Episode 6 of Living World Season 4, War Eternal. It is the third new mount added to the game since the release of Path of Fire.

Unlocking[edit]

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First, complete Descent, the final story step of the War Eternal episode. Once you're back at Lion's Arch, you'll receive mail from Gorrik, inviting you back to Dragonfall. Once there, you can find him next to the Skyscale Eyrie point of interest. Talk to him to begin the collection achievements.

Unlock achievements[edit]

War Eternal: Newborn Skyscales — Something is wrong with the skyscales. (5)
- War Eternal: Skyscale Scales — Collect skyscale scales to help Gorrik discover what is ailing the new species of dragon. (1)
- War Eternal: Skyscale Medicine — Obtain ingredients for Gorrik's broad-spectrum medicine. (1)
- War Eternal: Skyscale Fever — Feed Gorrik's medicine to each skyscale. (1)
- War Eternal: Skyscale Eggs — Recover all the skyscale eggs. (1)
War Eternal: Saving Skyscales — Hatch a skyscale egg. (5)
- War Eternal: Skyscale of Water — Infuse your skyscale egg with water. (1)
- War Eternal: Skyscale of Fire — Infuse your skyscale egg with fire. (1)
- War Eternal: Skyscale of Ice — Infuse your skyscale egg with ice. (1)
- War Eternal: Skyscale of Earth — Infuse your skyscale egg with earth. (1)
- War Eternal: Skyscale of Air — Infuse your skyscale egg with air. (1)
- War Eternal: Skyscale of Life — Infuse your skyscale egg with life. (1)
- War Eternal: Skyscale of Blood — Infuse your skyscale egg with blood. (1)
- War Eternal: Skyscale of Growth — Infuse your skyscale egg with growth. (1)
- War Eternal: Skyscale of Death — Infuse your skyscale egg with death. (1)
- War Eternal: Skyscale of Spirit — Infuse your skyscale egg with spirit. (1)
- War Eternal: Skyscale of Fear — Infuse your skyscale egg with fear. (1)
- War Eternal: Skyscale of Courage — Infuse your skyscale egg with courage. (1)
War Eternal: Raising Skyscales — Care for a hungry skyscale (5)
- War Eternal: Skyscale Care — Care for your baby skyscale until it's large enough to leave the nest. (1)
- War Eternal: Skyscale Treats — Defeat creatures around the world to find treats, and feed them to your skyscale. (1)
- War Eternal: Skyscale Toys — Purchase toys from around Tyria to give to your skyscale. (1)
War Eternal: Troublesome Skyscales — Teach a troublesome skyscale. (5)
- War Eternal: Skyscale Lost — Track down your skyscale. (1)
- War Eternal: Skyscale Reflexes — Play catch with your skyscale in Sun's Refuge. (1)
- War Eternal: Skyscale Stealth — Play hide-and-seek with your skyscale in Sun's Refuge. (1)
War Eternal: Riding Skyscales — Learn to fly on your skyscale. (25)
- War Eternal: Skyscale Saddle — Gather components for Gorrik to make a saddle so that you can ride your skyscale. (5)
- War Eternal: Skyscale Flight — Help your skyscale get accustomed to flying with you, and help Gorrik investigate various tears in reality that have appeared in the air across Tyria. Find Flying Lesson nodes near the tears to call your skyscale to you. (5)

Notes[edit]

Unlocking the Skyscale requires access to all episodes of Living World Season 4.
These collections are time gated. Some steps, such as unlocking another of the five main collections requires waiting for 2 hours after the previous step. The total minimum time needed to unlock the mount is 3 days plus 8 hours.
- The effect Waiting for Gorrik tracks how long until you can progress to the next step.
You must be logged in on a character that has finished the Descent story and the epilogue to receive a mail to unlock subsequent achievements, but any character can complete the collections after they are unlocked.

Requirements and costs

Achievement (#)	Requirement or cost
Newborn Skyscales (1)	Summary: Run around Dragonfall findings Scales, Skyscales and Eggs. Buy Medicine. Requirements: Completed 10 events in the three different areas of Dragonfall Costs: Karma: 5390, Volatile Magic: 200, 20 Trade Contracts, 10 Mistborn Motes Time gates: None
Saving Skyscales (2)	Summary: Treasure hunt across Tyria for trophies including LWS4 maps. Costs: None Time gates: 2 hours or daily reset after completing previous tier.
Raising Skyscales (3)	Summary: Feed the skyscale crafted food, hunted food and purchased food. Costs: Coin: 6 , Crafted or bought on TP: Piece of Skyscale Food x12, Grow Lamp x1 Time gates: Can only be fed 4x per day for a total of 3 days of time gate. 2 hours or daily reset after completing previous tier. If crafting a Piece of Skyscale Food, it requires 1 Charged Quartz Crystal per piece, requiring an additional 12 days. If crafting the Grow Lamp, it requires an additional 10 Charged Quartz Crystals, requiring a further 10 days.
Troublesome Skyscales (4)	Summary: Another treasure hunt across zones in Tyria, this time hunting for your skyscale. Costs: None, however any zone can be skipped by crafting Extra-Pungent Skyscale Treat. Time gates: 2 hours or daily reset after completing previous tier.
Riding Skyscales (5)	Summary: Buy materials to craft a saddle, then ride a borrowed skyscale on a treasure hunt. Costs: Coin: 35 , Map currency: 250 Kralkatite Ore, 250 Difluourite Crystal, 250 Inscribed Shard, 250 Lump of Mistonium, 250 Branded Mass, 250 Mistborn Mote, 1500 Volatile Magic, 500 Trade Contract Time gates: 2 hours or daily reset after completing previous tier.
Total time gates:	3 days plus 8 hours

Lore[edit]

Skyscales are a new species of lesser dragons born from the Mists out of the disturbances caused by Kralkatorrik and Aurene.^[1] Similar to other lesser dragon species, like wyverns and drakes, while they are capable of consuming magic, they are not capable of ascending into Elder Dragons.^[2] The original Skyscales were "born" from the Mists fully grown, resulting in an accelerated growth rate that eventually killed them prematurely. However, the next generation were born from eggs normally and do not suffer from this accelerated aging.^[3]

Related masteries[edit]

Name	XP req.	Points	Description
Air Rescue	571,500	3	Learn to mount the skyscale in midair to save yourself while falling.
Rift Repair	609,600	4	Learn to use your skyscale's magic resources to close rifts. This will draw out the magic trapped within and reveal new flight paths.
Wall Launch	698,500	5	Learn to launch off walls with your skyscale, providing a moment of respite and the ability to fly to greater heights.
Total	1,879,600	12

Skills[edit]

	Skill		Description
	Skyscale		Summon and mount your Skyscale.
1	Blast	2	Engage. While on land, leap into the air and breathe fire ahead of you. If in the air, descend toward the ground before attacking.
	Dismount		Dismount your mount

Movement/Controls[edit]

A Skyscale in flight, ridden by a player character.

After learning the three masteries, general movement is controlled by the following default controls:

Directional movement - WASD + Mouse

Dash - V

Increase altitude - Spacebar

Decrease altitude - C

Increase/decrease pitch - Mouse up/down

Cling to wall - W (hold)

Wall Launch - (while clinging to a wall) Spacebar

Once the skyscale is fully unlocked, the player will have additional control options available as keybinds. In your Control Options menu, under Mounts, you will find Mount Ability 1 and Mount Ability 2. For the skyscale, these keybinds translate to Dash and Decrease altitude respectively. By default, your character can dash using the V, and decrease altitude using C. Alternatively the engage skill can be also used to decrease altitude, but this will cause the player to dismount once they reach the ground. The skyscale has a minimum altitude in which it can maintain flight; flying under the threshold will cause the skyscale to slowly descend to the ground.

Players can control the pitch (approximately 30°) of the skyscale by aiming the movement direction up or down with the Mouse while in flight.

Flight Mechanics

A full flight meter (top) and a depleted flight meter with a red bar (bottom)

The flight of the skyscale can be described as a cylinder of 1350 units height (300 units higher than the Springer)^[4] and zero width. Flying laterally in any direction will reduce the maximum height of said cylinder, until it reaches the minimum altitude, in which the skyscale will be forced to land (or go below if possible). The current maximum height of the cylinder can be tracked by the green flight meter above the Endurance bar.

This means that the skyscale's flight is limited by a "canopy" of about 9,400 units (the length of a Keg Brawl field). However there are a number of ways to refill the flight meter temporarily, and therefore allow rider and skyscale to exceed the canopy.

Exceeding the canopy

Currently the methods for allowing the skyscale to fly higher and further include

The Dash (default V) action, which consumes Endurance to propel the skyscale forwards, temporarily ignoring the maximum altitude;
The Crystal Champion Mastery skill Bond of Vigor will refill 50% of the flight meter, and refills the Endurance bar completely;
The Skyscale Mount Mastery Wall Launch can be used to convert one Endurance bar into about 66% flight meter while the skyscale is clinging to a wall;
Touching nodes from the flight paths formed after a Rift Repair node will refill the flight meter;
Touching an Volatile Magic node will refill (and reset) the flight meter; and lastly,
Be propelled upwards by a Branded Tornado.

However, using any of these means to exceed the limits of the canopy will reduce the maximum possible flight meter that can be subsequently recovered, as indicated by a red bar that fills from the right side of the meter.

This red bar will force a rapid decrease in altitude until it's depleted.

Besides landing, the only way to reduce the red bar is by touching a Volatile Magic node. Using Bond of Vigor doesn't reduce the red bar, but fills flight meter on top of it.

While both bars of the flight meter coexists, the red one will deplete the green one, but pressing Spacebar to increase the altitude will take priority, consuming the green bar while increasing the red bar.

Wall clinging

The skyscale can cling to walls by holding W, or activating autorun. While clinging, the Endurance bar and the flight meter won't recharge, and skills such as Bond of Vigor will have their cooldown frozen. Releasing the key will make the mount bounce backwards, releasing the grip to the wall.

If Wall Launch is unlocked, it can be used by holding Spacebar while clinging to a wall. This will convert one Endurance bar into about 66% flight meter. Releasing Spacebar will cause the skyscale to launch upwards, expending about 20% of its flight meter.^[5] As stated before, using the newly obtained teal gauge will increase the red one.

To avoid the automatic wall grab in order to land on small ledges, it's possible to move using only A, S or D, decreasing altitude with C if required. Using the dash at an angle will produce a similar result, it won't trigger the automatic grab even against a wall.

Anomaly:

Using Air Rescue after the player has been propelled by upwards ley lines or a branded tornado over a certain altitude will cause the flight meter to start red instead of green, causing a very fast descent.

Gallery[edit]

Concept art

Concept Art
Concept Art

Renders

Concept Art

Screenshots

Idle animation.
A skyscale egg.
A skyscale hatchling in her nest.

Notes[edit]

Like all mounts, the Skyscale can be dyed before being unlocked. The dye will affect any borrowed Skyscale around Dragonfall.
During Skyscale Care, the skyscale hatchling will visibly grow after every reset according to the event progress bar.