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Dragons play a big role throughout The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. But did you know that instead of fighting them, you can mount them and make them fight alongside you? This guide will tell you how to ride a dragon in Skyrim.
First, let’s have a look at what’s necessary to unlock dragon riding, and we’ll get into its uses afterwards.
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Skyrim: How to Unlock Dragon Riding
Foremost, dragon riding is a DLC feature. It comes with the The Elder Scrolls 5: Dragonborn DLC. To unlock it, you’ll need to learn all three words of power of the Bend Will shout. The last word of the shout is learned in the DLC main questline’s last quest, so the feature is unlocked almost at the end of the questline.
Now that you have dragon riding unlocked, read on as we’ll teach you how to mount and ride a dragon, as well as what dragon riding is useful for.
Skyrim: How to Mount and Ride a Dragon
To mount a dragon, you’ll have to find and tame one first. Look for them either by roaming the open world or in a Dragon Lair. Named dragons, except Odahviing, cannot be tamed.
Once you find a dragon to tame, use the Bend Will shout on it, and it’ll land next to you, allowing you to mount it using the interact button. As soon as you get on, the dragon will fly into the skies. You’ll notice that you can’t control the dragon’s movements, but we’ll teach you every use for dragon riding besides that.
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Skyrim: What Dragon Riding is Useful for?
Dragon Riding is useful for combat and travel. You can lock onto an enemy and make the dragon attack them. Here’s how to do that:
- Lock onto a target on the ground. Use the Y button for Xbox, the Triangle button for PlayStation, and Space, 1 and 2 on PC. A health bar will appear, indicating that the dragon has locked on.
- Order the dragon to attack. Press down on the left stick on Xbox, L3 on Playstation and Ctrl on PC.
The dragon will then approach the target and attack them with one of its 4 attacks:
- Fire breathing onto the enemy while either hovering or flying by.
- Landing next to the enemy and either biting or breathing fire on them.
- Finisher - if a human target is close to death, the dragon will grab it with its jaws and fling it.
- If you lock onto animals, or an enemy on a tower, the dragon will grab the target with its claws, fly upwards, and drop it from high up.
To dismount, press A on Xbox, X on PlayStation, and E on PC. The dragon will usually fly away, but might become hostile and attack you.
Apart from combat, dragon riding is also somewhat useful for travel. Please note that you can’t travel between the islands of Skyrim and Solstheim or to any big cities/holds like Winterhold or Whiterun, though.
