Strider: From Hatchling to Riding Dragon

Fancy a breezy ride across the world of Lineage 2 - no traffic rules, no solid lines, no traffic lights? Since Chronicle 2: Age of Splendor, players can raise their hatchling into a riding dragon (Strider) and ride it to their heart's content. As usual, it takes a little time, a little patience and a little knowledge.

Leveling the hatchling to 55

First you need a level 55 hatchling. And right away the most pressing question: how do you level this small, gluttonous creature that dies very, very quickly?

• Since C2 the experience a hatchling needs per level has been greatly reduced, and the experience it loses on death has been lowered to 10%.
• However, where a high-level Prophet outside the party and a level 20 character used to be able to take a dragon from 35 to 55 in 2-3 days, it now takes at least a month.
• The only way to level a hatchling is to keep monsters off it while still letting it take part in the fight a little. This works best in a party with a tank who holds aggro well. The more hits the hatchling lands, the more experience it gets.
• A hatchling used to get all the experience it was due by killing a monster on its own; now it gets no more than 30%.
• Monsters have become smarter: they attack not only whoever is highest on the aggro list, but also whoever is closest, or the lowest-level opponent. Most likely that will be your hatchling, which is why leveling drags on for weeks.

The easiest way for the lazy is to buy a fully grown dragon. But riding dragons are very expensive on the market, sometimes costing as much as a top B-grade weapon.

The strider as a pet

When you are not riding the strider, it is controlled just like a hatchling. If your strider is killed, you have 3 minutes to resurrect it before it disappears. Otherwise the same rules apply as for all pets.

To mount the dragon, summon it and type /mountdismount in chat.

Riding rules

Stats

• The riding dragon and its rider are one unit. Speed and physical attack come from the dragon; all other parameters (base and combat) come from the character.
• If the level gap between the strider and the character is more than 5, physical attack is reduced by 50%, plus another 5% for each additional level of difference.
• With a level gap of 10 or more, movement speed is halved.
• If the strider's fullness is below 50%, movement speed is also halved. Speed penalties multiply: a hungry dragon 10 levels above or below its rider runs slower than any golem.
• The higher the strider's level, the faster it runs; if it loses a level, its speed drops too.

Combat and experience

• You can fight monsters and other characters while mounted. The character takes the damage, but if the character dies, the dragon dies too.
• All experience from kills while mounted goes to the character. To level the dragon, you have to dismount.
• Many skills and spells are unavailable while mounted. The character's equipment and buffs do not affect the strider's combat stats. However, you can still cast buffs and heals and use skills like Hate or Confusion.
• You can use escape and resurrection scrolls and healing potions. Potions restore the character's health. An escape scroll takes both character and dragon to the nearest town, and the character stays mounted.

Fullness

• A dragon eats less than usual while ridden.
• If fullness is below 50%, you cannot mount the dragon - or dismount from it.
• If fullness drops to 0 and the dragon stays that way for a long time, it disappears. If the character was riding it at that moment, the dragon does not disappear but returns to its binder; however, on the next summon its fullness will be 0, and you will have very little time to feed it before it disappears.

Other restrictions

• If you try to swim across deep rivers or lakes while mounted, a breath bar appears; when it runs out, the character starts slowly losing health and can die.
• While mounted you cannot use emotes, set up a private shop, buy or craft in other players' shops, or enchant items.
• Trying to open the dragon's inventory opens the character's instead; to access the dragon's inventory, you have to dismount.
• When the character dismounts, the dragon is automatically recalled to its binder and must be summoned again. The strider is also recalled when you log out or lose connection to the server.

The strider quest

To turn a level 55 hatchling into a strider, you will have to sweat - and your pet will have it far worse than you.

Step	What to do
1	Teleport to Hunter Village and summon your hatchling. Find Wiseman Cronos and talk to him.
2	Teleport to Ivory Tower and run to the northern entrance of Enchanted Valley; once inside, turn east right away. Find Fairy MyuMyu and talk to her - you receive Leaf of Star Tree, Leaf of Wind Tree, Leaf of Twilight Tree and Leaf of Abyss Tree.
3	Find the 4 trees matching the leaf names, one after another. They grow along the mountains south of Hunter Village.
4	At a tree, summon the dragon and order it to attack the tree. The nearby Tree Guardians will start attacking the dragon - keep them away from it (details below).
5	After a little over 100 hits from the hatchling, the tree stirs and begs for mercy and help, and one of the leaves disappears from your inventory.
6	Do the same with the remaining trees.
7	Use SoE, teleport to Ivory Tower and return to Fairy MyuMyu. Summon the hatchling, talk to the fairy, recall the hatchling and talk to the fairy again. The hatchling disappears, and you receive a Dragon Bugle of the same type as your hatchling. You are now the proud owner of a strider. Quest complete.

Tactics at the trees

This is a fairly hard quest. You need at least one healer of any level and a group of fighters, or a high-level mage with mass sleep.

• Fighters or mages must quickly kill or put to sleep the guardian spirits so they leave the dragon alone. Killing them is less effective: the spirits respawn in 2-5 seconds, while sleep lasts 30 seconds. Keep the spirits away from the dragon by any means.
• Only the dragon may attack the tree - you must not hit it yourself. The tree must not be killed under any circumstances. The healer works on three fronts: healing the dragon, the tree and those dealing with the guards.
• If you accidentally hit the tree, it casts Poison of power 10 on you, which cannot be removed. If you or the hatchling do kill the tree, it respawns in 5-15 minutes, and an unpleasant surprise awaits you.
• Better not to give the dragon attack buffs so it doesn't accidentally kill the tree; give it attack speed, defense and HP regeneration instead.

Walkthrough notes

• Talking to NPCs: choose the QUEST option and click through all dialogues; if no line choice is given, it does not matter (or the description is incomplete).
• Travel: teleports are optional - you can walk. SoE is the Scroll of Escape; in C1 you need the SoE Map patch to know your return point, in C2 you can use the /loc command.