DragonSword: Awakening Familiars Guide: How to Unlock All Mounts

The best way to explore the huge open world of DragonSword: Awakening is to use rideable pets, known in the game as Familiars. In this guide, we will explain how many Familiars are available, what abilities different mount types provide, how to unlock them, and which pets are worth getting first.

Familiars are special creatures that let you move quickly through the world of DragonSword: Awakening and unlock additional abilities for map exploration. The game features 29 Familiars of different types: some help you swim and dive faster, while others improve flying, climbing, or ground movement. Below, we will go over every Familiar type, their abilities, and how to obtain them.

The very first Familiar, the Robust Stag Beetle, is given to all players after completing Chapter 1, "The Beginning of the Adventure." In total, the game has 29 different Familiars to find, although some of them are available only through DLC or the Deluxe Pack.

All Familiars are divided by type, and almost every type is tied to a separate movement ability:

Below, we have explained how to get every Familiar of each type and which ones you should pick up before the others.

Since insects do not provide special movement abilities, these Familiars are much easier to obtain. As mentioned above, the first Familiar, the Robust Stag Beetle, is awarded for completing Chapter 1. The others can be unlocked in the following ways:

These Familiars are best used in the early stages of the game or until you obtain more useful mounts with movement abilities. After unlocking birds, cats, sky wolves, or gryphons, insects usually become a temporary option rather than your main way to explore the world.

This Familiar type is great for climbing high ledges, since its climbing jump ability significantly speeds up vertical movement. Squirrels are worth unlocking if you actively explore cliffs, towers, and hard-to-reach parts of the map. In total, you can get 4 different squirrels in the game:

Despite the common idea that cats dislike water, in DragonSword: Awakening this Familiar type has an ability that lets you dash while swimming. Cats are useful when exploring rivers, lakes, and coastal areas, where regular swimming quickly becomes tedious. Cats can be obtained in the following ways:

This Familiar type will come in handy during water travel and help you reach your destination much faster.

These Familiars will help you conquer the skies, and their unique air dash ability lets you reach the right spot much faster. To unlock every bird, you will need to:

Flying mounts are almost always among the most useful options in open-world games, since they let you bypass many obstacles and significantly shorten the route to your destination. That is why we recommend getting a bird Familiar as soon as possible: Bright Crow Tit is especially useful early on, because it gives you an air dash at Beginner Mercenary Corps rank.

This Familiar type is useful for underwater travel, since its ability lets you perform an underwater dash, search for resources and chests beneath the surface faster, and take fewer risks from running out of oxygen.

Sky Wolves are unlocked in the following ways:

These mounts are useful for gathering various resources and finding underwater chests, so do not delay unlocking them. If you do not want to spend 300,000 gold on the Sandstorm Sky Wolf, it is better to progress through quests and unlock the Snowstorm Sky Wolf for free.

Unlike Sky Wolves, this Familiar type lets you move faster on land by using an enhanced jump ability. Direwolves are especially useful on rough terrain, where a regular jump is not enough for quick climbing or route cutting.

Stormy Direwolf can be unlocked by reaching Veteran Mercenary Corps rank, while War Direwolf, Abyssal Direwolf, and Flame Spirit Fox are DLC Familiars.

These Familiars let you perform a charged jump, which is useful for climbing onto ledges and other elevated areas. Gryphons become especially helpful once you start exploring vertical parts of the map more often and collecting rewards in hard-to-reach places.

Holy Knightage Griffon and Exploration Squad Griffon are unlocked by purchasing DLC.

Guardian Gryphon can be obtained by defeating 30 World Bosses, while Knightage Griffon unlocks after reaching Elite Mercenary Corps rank.

This Familiar type has only one representative: Brave Baby Dragon, which can be obtained through the Deluxe Pack.

Its ability lets you accelerate in any direction while flying, making it the most mobile Familiar in the game.

After unlocking several Familiars of the same type, you will be able to use their passive ability regardless of which mount you are currently riding. For example, if you have unlocked several gryphons, the charged jump ability can be used with another suitable Familiar as well.

Because of that, we recommend first unlocking several Familiars of the types you need to gain important movement abilities, then using whichever pets you like most visually.

We recommend spending time farming Beginner Mercenary Corps rank to gain access to Bright Crow Tit and the air dash, which makes travel noticeably easier. After that, choose based on which abilities you need at your current progression stage: for water, cats and Sky Wolves are useful, while for vertical exploration, squirrels, Direwolves, and Gryphons are better.

Not every Familiar can be obtained without purchasing DLC: some pets are tied to additional packs, while the Brave Baby Dragon is available through the Deluxe Pack. Even without extra purchases, you can still unlock enough Familiars for the main movement abilities, including air dash, underwater dash, swimming dash, and enhanced jumps.