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Griffon

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Griffon (art).png
Disambig icon.png This article is about the mount. For other uses, see Griffon (disambiguation).
“

Glorious and noble beasts, the art of taming griffons for flight has only been recently recovered.

— In-game description

Griffon (overhead icon).png

The Griffon is a mount first introduced in the Crystal Desert in Guild Wars 2: Path of Fire that can be unlocked after completing the Path of Fire storyline.

The griffon's special movement ability is flight. While it cannot gain altitude above its starting point, apart from a substantial hop at the start, it can flap its wings periodically to regain some of the altitude lost in gliding, allowing near-level flight. By hopping on to structures or elevated terrain, it can quickly gain height. This makes it in many aspects a more effective version of the glider introduced in Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns.

Unlocking[edit]

Griffon unlock banner.

Requirements[edit]

PoF Texture Trans.png Path of Fire
  1. Complete the Path of Fire story.
  2. Complete Crystal Desert.png Open Skies: Sunspear Sanctuary, Crystal Desert Rare Collections.png Open Skies: Sunspear Wisdom, and Crystal Desert.png Open Skies: On Wings and a Prayer.
    • A total of 250 Gold coin is required.

Walkthrough[edit]

Path to Seeker Kandake.
Path to Remains of the Last Spearmarshal.
Learning about the griffons

After completing the Path of Fire story, players will begin to find strange items: Strange Pellet of Bones and Fur, Strange Droppings, and Strange Feather, which direct them to Beastmaster Ghazal in The Menagerie within Garden of Seborhin, in the northern Domain of Vabbi. He'll point players to his assistant, Seeker Kandake, at Spearmarshal's Lament on Yahnur Plateau in the southeastern part of the Domain of Vabbi. These items, however, are not required to start the collection, and serve purely as hints.

To reach Seeker Kandake, players can start from Waypoint (map icon).png Vehtendi Academy Waypoint — and move southeast toward Point of interest (map icon).png Vehtendi Vineyard — , then turning east before reaching the vineyard. The path continues through a brandstorm, the Fury of the Brand lightning strikes can be negated by riding a skimmer. Following the path, players will reach a jackal portal. Quickly switching from skimmer to jackal to avoid the lightning and taking the portal will take players right to Kandake on Point of interest (map icon).png Spearmarshal's Lament — .

After talking to Kandake, players can mount on a springer and reach the ledge right above her. Slightly to the left is a jackal portal (the one high above, not the one at the bottom near the mastery point. If players fall down they can climb back up with a springer). Players should dismount their springer, await a small break from the brandstorm, mount their jackal, and take this jackal portal to enter the Yahnur Plateau, which is safe from the brandstorm. From the plateau, players can mount on their springer and jump to reach the Sunspear Sanctuary.

There are several other ways to reach the sanctuary, this is merely one of them.

Unlocking

Players must reach the Sunspear Sanctuary after completing the Path of Fire story. There, they can interact with the Remains of the Last Spearmarshal and answer "I'll see what I can do." This unlocks the "Open Skies" collections which, once completed, unlocks the griffon mount. Players will also be given a Spearmarshal's Plea, which will teleport them back to the Last Spearmarshal.

With the Open Skies collections unlocked, players are now able to mount any griffon from a Griffon Roost.pngGriffon Roost for as long as they stay mounted, there are several in the sanctuary, and others throughout Crystal Desert maps. Each collection consists of collecting runestones from events, finding and collecting griffon eggs scattered across the map, and buying items from Renown Heart Merchants. There are 10 items in total that must be purchased. Each item costs 25 Gold coin, for a total of 250 Gold coin to unlock the mount. It's a good idea to begin the collection even if one doesn't have the gold yet. There's a lot of exploration to be done outside of the items to be bought.

If the Sunspear Sanctuary is accessed prior to completing the story, e.g. by using a Teleport to Friend, nothing there can be interacted with. Players who arrive there after completing the story can interact with the Remains of the Last Spearmarshal to unlock the "Open Skies" collections, whether or not they have followed the "strange items" that lead them there.

Unlock achievements[edit]

Mechanics[edit]

  • A griffon has 5932 base health.
  • It reaches a maximum speed of 2000 units per second making it the fastest mount in game.
  • Applying a dye on the griffon will change the color of its feathers, primarily those along its wings, along with its ears, back, top of its neck, tips of the feathers on its forelegs, and tail.
  • The griffon's endurance regenerates in approximately 4 seconds; however, it regenerates faster if it is diving or grounded and is further shortened to about 1 second when performing dodge jump dive.
  • A fully-upgraded griffon is the fastest mount available in the game, able to cover significant ground in flight following a boosted dive.
  • Once the collection has been unlocked, players can get a temporary griffon from one of 5 Griffon Roosts.
  • You can hold spacebar to continually command the griffon to flap its wings to stay into the air, which it will do each time your endurance is full. However, you can manually command the griffon to flap as soon as your endurance bar is filled at 3/4, which will not reduce the altitude gained compared to a full-endurance flap.
  • The third Mastery introduces the ability to use wing flap while rising after a dive. The height gained from this varies depending on how fast you are currently going.

Movement/Controls[edit]

A Griffon in flight, ridden by a player character.

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

Directional movement (horizontal) - Mouse
Dive - V
Flap - Spacebar
Climb - C

Once the griffon 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 griffon, these keybinds translate to Dive and Climb respectively. By default, your character can Dive using the V, and Climb using C. If the "Disable Conditional Mount Movement Ability Input" option is selected (under General Options), the Move Backward keybind (default S) may also be used to Climb, overriding in certain situations its usual functionality to slow the griffon down.

Diving

Diving downwards does not consume your endurance bar and generates a small bit of speed. Flapping while diving will give you a significant speed boost and consume your endurance. You can dive manually when your endurance is at 66% and automatically at 100%, similarly to flapping. Simply let go of your Mount Ability 1 key to stop diving and level off. A longer dive results in more speed. Flapping just once during a dive instantly puts you at the maximum speed.
Pressing and holding Flap Spacebar shortly after pressing and holding Dive V (when initial dive animation is still in progress) will shorten endurance regeneration further to about 1 second.

Climbing

Climbing may only be accomplished after successfully diving. Simply hold your Mount Ability 2 key to climb. Instead of endurance, Climbing takes your momentum and speed in exchange for height. You will regain roughly the same amount of height as you dived if you Climb fully. You can usually only hit this once or twice before you've lost too much momentum to continue climbing.

Tips to sustain speed and height
  • You can flap while diving or while gliding at 66%. Holding down the spacebar will flap at 100% intervals.
  • While participating in adventures, flying through a circle replenishes your endurance bar fully.
  • Quickly pressing Dive>Flap>Climb will generate a small burst of speed without generating height, allowing you to fly quickly, though not as fast as a full dive.

Related masteries[edit]

Griffon Mount[edit]

Mastery XP required Points Description
Soaring Rescue Soaring Rescue 571,500 3 Path of Fire mastery point Learn to mount the griffon midair to save yourself while falling.
Aerial Prowess Aerial Prowess 609,600 4 Path of Fire mastery point Learn to gain aerial prowess with your griffon. Use Swoop to dive rapidly and engage foes below you. Use this momentum to pull up from a dive to fly forward at great speeds, or even directly upward.
Aerial Finesse Aerial Finesse 698,500 5 Path of Fire mastery point Master the griffon by learning to use its Wing Flap ability, which allows you to gain a burst of speed while diving or climbing into the sky.
Total 1,879,600 12 Path of Fire mastery point

Other masteries[edit]

Path of Fire
Living World Season 4
Living World Season 5 (Icebrood Saga)
End of Dragons
Secrets of the Obscure
Janthir Wilds
  • Warclaw (map icon).png Well Rested (mastery).png Well Rested: Increase endurance regeneration by 20%.

Skills[edit]

# Skill Activation time Recharge time Description
 Griffon (skill).png Griffon Summon and mount your griffon.
1 Mount skill Swoop (griffon).png Swoop Engage. While on the ground; jump into the air and swoop down, crashing into nearby foes. While in the air; dive toward the ground, engaging foes upon impact.
Deals increasing damage when striking at higher speeds.
Mount skill Climb.png Climb While airborne and moving at high speed, hold to climb. Release to level out.
Mount skill Dive.png Dive While airborne, hold to dive toward the ground and accelerate. Release to level out.
Mount skill Dismount.png Dismount Dismount your mount

The update Through the Veil (November 7, 2023) added a toggle skill to disable ley-line riding F1 after learning Ley-Line Acclimation.

# Skill Activation time Recharge time Description
F1  Disable Ley-Line Riding.png Disable Ley-Line Riding 1 Click to toggle off ley-line riding on your flying mount.
F1 Redirect Arrow.png Enable Ley-Line Riding.png Enable Ley-Line Riding 1 Click to toggle on ley-line riding on your flying mount.

Lore[edit]

“

Despite weighing as much as a dolyak, the elusive giant griffon can glide at high altitudes and even take off briefly from the ground. The Mordant Crescent is acting to suppress recent rumors of griffon riders in the desert skies, and you have quite a journey ahead if you’d like one for yourself.

— The Griffon

Section-stub. This key section of the article is incomplete. You can help the Guild Wars 2 Wiki by expanding it.
Reason: Missing lore.

List of Griffon skins[edit]

See also: Gallery of Griffon skins

(*) The mounts in the marked rows either don't appear in API:2/account/mounts/skins and API:2/mounts/skins and/or don't have an ID set. Therefore it cannot be checked if they have been unlocked.

Gallery[edit]

Concept art
  • Griffon Concept Art 1.jpg
  • Griffon Concept Art 2.jpg
Screenshots
  • A Griffon ridden by a player character.

    A Griffon ridden by a player character.

  • Riderless Griffon mount.

    Riderless Griffon mount.

  • A Griffon ready to defend itself.

    A Griffon ready to defend itself.

  • One of the Griffons idle animations.

    One of the Griffons idle animations.

Notes[edit]

  • Once the collection has been unlocked, players can get a temporary griffon from one of 5 Griffon Roosts.

Trivia[edit]

  • While idle, the griffon will perform several animations:
    • The griffon and its rider will look either left or right for a few seconds.
    • The griffon will stretch out in a very feline manner, first stretching its fore- and hindlegs, before arching its back up high, lifting the rider while they also stretch.
    • The griffon will turn to preen some of the feathers on its right wing.
  • The griffon's theme is known as "Legendary Ascent" in the Path of Fire soundtrack.
  • There is a miniature of this mount.
  • Unlike griffons in Central Tyria, the griffon mount possesses more avian features, including avian-style hindfeet and feathers along the base of its tail, along with a much thicker tail in general. Additionally, it is the only species of griffon to have predominately webbed wings, along with two digits on each wing.
  • Lore-wise, the mountable griffons in Elona are counted as universally rare, thus leaving the average Elonian without access to it. Even the wealthiest Elonian noble would find it nigh impossible to obtain a griffon by simply purchasing one. However, it is also possible that the more common and accessible griffons have the potential to become mounts through training.[1]
  • Unlike the other four mounts released with Path of Fire, the griffon's existence was not confirmed by ArenaNet until after the release of the expansion. As such, information about it was only made available once players found it in game. Some official material from before the launch of Path of Fire has retroactively had information about the griffon added.
  • The walking animation of the Griffon uses a pacing gait which is uncommon in nature.
  • According to its 3D designer, the owl-like features of the griffon were inspired by the barn owl, noting especially its heart-shaped face, which is also commonly seen in many species of barn owl. [2]

Related achievements[edit]

Unlocking these achievements will grant access to the corresponding Griffon Expert and Griffon Master adventures.

External links[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Comment by Scott McGough, Reddit.com
  2. ^ Kate Pfeilschiefter's artstation page, Artstation.com
Mounts

Raptor (map icon).pngRaptor•Springer (map icon).pngSpringer•Skimmer (map icon).pngSkimmer•Jackal (map icon).pngJackal•Griffon (map icon).pngGriffon

Roller Beetle (map icon).pngRoller Beetle•Warclaw (map icon).pngWarclaw•Skyscale (map icon).pngSkyscale•Siege Turtle (map icon).pngSiege Turtle

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