In medieval Bohemia horses were your main mode of travel, just as it is in Kingdom Come: Deliverance II. Not only are horses used for travel, but combat as well. This allows you to attack your enemies on horseback with mounted combat. Read on to find out the best way to level Horsemanship, and what Perks you should go for first.

Table of Contents¶

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Horsemanship Uses and Effects¶

Horsemanship is used to travel around the world in Kingdom Come Deliverance II, but a lot of the perks favor horse racing, of which there is a fair amount of them or mounted combat. As the skill increases, your horse will use less stamina and become less likely to throw you off it in threatening situations. At first, your horse will run out of stamina fairly quickly, which makes winning horse races almost impossible, and if you get into a battle while on it, it is more likely to throw you off. As the level increases, both of these become a lot more manageable.

You can level up Horsemanship by riding considerable distances or by defeating enemies in mounted combat. However, using fast travel won’t accomplish this, so only fast travel if you don’t care too much about leveling the skill.

Finally, when you unlock certain Perks, you’ll be able to increase the damage you do from horseback, get head starts in races, and reduce the amount of stamina consumed on various terrains, to name a few. Later on, you can even use your horse to intimidate your enemies, winning a battle before it’s even started.

Leveling Horsemanship¶

As with many of the skills in the game, putting it into action will see you gain experience points. There are a couple of ways to level the skill more efficiently. The first is to go to a road, and lock your horse onto it, increase the speed a little, and go watch something on a second monitor while the horse rides itself automatically. The other is to defeat enemies (bandits) on horseback. The only problem with this method is finding the bandits as they appear in random locations outside of quests and tasks.

Fortunately, if you fast-travel far distances, you’ll almost always get into a couple of bandit encounters along the way, and you can repeat the process until you get bored. The final time for leveling the skill is to manually ride everywhere instead of using the fast travel system.

The final method for leveling your Horsemanship skill, like with every other skill in the game, is by making use of Skill Trainers. There’s not much to know about Skill Trainers beyond discovering their location and paying the requisite coin per rank you want to learn. You can find out how much each one costs below:

A lot of Skill Trainers can be found by discovering new areas, some will become a Skill Trainer after completing a quest for them. Alternatively, the Scribes in Troskowitz will offer opportunities to sell Skill Books, with which you can read to learn specific skills.

Best Horsemanship Perks¶

Every time your Horsemanship skill reaches a new even level (so 6, 8, 10, etc.), you’ll get a Perk Point to spend, with each of these thresholds offering new Perks available to learn. While it is entirely possible to grab every Perk, that involves a massive amount of investment and, as such, you’ll want to prioritize specific Perks. With that said, these are the Perks you should be looking to unlock as soon as possible:

Knight Training¶

Melee attacks from horseback will cost you 15% less stamina and it will be harder for enemies to unseat you.

Not only does Knight Training reduce the stamina cost of melee attacks on horseback, it’s also needed as a prerequisite for three perks (Towering Menace, Trample, and Into the Fray). It’ll also make it harder for enemies to knock you off the horse. A must-have perk if you plan on doing any type of mounted combat.

Head Start I and II¶

If you use a quick start (sprint) (sprint), your horse will briefly run faster than the wind! The effect will last 10 seconds.

Both Head Start and its advanced version are must-haves if you plan on any horse racing. Considering a few side quests have objectives where you need to beat them in a horse race, we recommend getting them both to bolster your chances of winning.

Ride Like the Wind I and II¶

Your horse will consume stamina 5% slower while galloping.

Stamina consumption is one of the reasons you’ll lose a race. The reason for this is that when your horse gets low on stamina, you’ll have to slow down to a crawl to replenish it, which allows your competitor to catch up and overtake you. This perk also allows you to travel far distances quicker, as you won’t need to slow down as often.

War Horse¶

Every enemy killed from the saddle increases your horse’s morale, so it won’t falter easily, in battle.

This is a great perk if you do a lot of mounted combat, especially when you’re fighting multiple enemies. When your morale is higher, you’ll get your stamina back quicker, and you’ll have less chance of getting kicked off your horse when it comes under duress.

Trample¶

If you charge into someone with a horse, their morale will drop significantly, and they will suddenly be an easier opponent. Unless they run for the hills.

Another great perk for mounted combat. This is similar to War Horse but the opposite. When you charge into an enemy on your horse, you’ll give them various debuffs to their stats (Strength, Agility, etc.), thus making them a far easier opponent.

Special - Good Old Pebbles¶

If you’re lucky enough to get Pebbles as your first horse, its stats will be underwhelming. However, after using it for a while, you can unlock this secret perk that considerably raises all of its stats, putting it on par with some better horses in the game. You can get Pebbles from the Wedding Crashers side objective The Jaunt (Blacksmith Path), or at Semine Stables.

List of Horsemanship Perks¶

The table below will list all the Perks you can find in the Horsemanship tree, along with what level and other requirements they may have:

There you have it; you now know how to level the Horsemanship skill in Kingdom Come: Deliverance II along with knowledge on what the best Perks are to learn as soon as possible.