Dyeable Mounts to Come to Wizard101

Wizard101 has confirmed that dyeable mounts are on their way to Wizard101, and they may even be part of the summer update. But what should wizards be expecting from this newest feature?

Wizard's Clue

Yes, we do indeed have confirmation for the dyeable mounts. Wizard101 noted this in the update notes for the latest Test Realm:

Dye Shops will now have a tab for mounts. Please note: no currently available mounts are dyeable, but the tab is added in preparation for a future dyeable mount to be added to the game.

Upon further inspection of the Wizard City dye shop (perhaps there will be more in the future given that they use "shops"), it's easy to see that there is definitely a tab for mounts.

Green Horses and Blue Tigers

What kind of possibilities exist for current mounts (or future ones)? The sky is the limit at this point, given how little we know. We might find that our tigers can suddenly change colors with a small gold payment or that those old horses are a little bit more colorful after the update.

Looking Forward

When dyeable mounts are finally introduced to Wizard101, I not only expect new mounts that can change colors, but also some abilities to dye old ones. I am recalling one Wizard101 commercial that shows a black Manta Ray, and I'd guess that'll be just one of our options in the future.

New Crown Shop Mounts

When we can initially change the colors of our favorite rides, it'd come as no surprise to me that KingsIsle would fill up the Crown Shop with new mounts with the options to be dyed. This is a great opportunity for Wizard to pull you in, and, like hairstyles, you can probably save what will likely be a slightly more costly color change by picking your mount color initially from the shop when purchasing.

Dye Shop Options

When it comes to crazy colors, they're fun to imagine and interesting to look at, but I'd suspect that it'd be more realistic to image that colors would be more subtle (though effective) than that. Perhaps our dragons can pop in pinks or rock out the reds, but a green tiger doesn't fit as well.

What KingsIsle may choose to do instead is provide limited color palettes as they do on some gear currently. Many school-specific pieces only have those colors available as options, while universal gear allows you to dye it any color. But full color options doesn't necessarily mean crazy mounts. They might be as simple as a Scorpion Stalker mount which is shaded slightly by the color choice and the poison tips of its legs and stinger change with your options.

Notice the very slight differences. The left is green, the middle purple, and the right red. This is probably a more realistic look at what we'll see in colored mounts.

So When Do We Start?

Wizard101 Senior Software Engineer Gary Scott Smith confirms a summer update on Twitter, which will likely also see the fix of the invisible Hawk mount glitch, and I'd say it's safe to assume that we'll see colored mounts as early as that update. It's not an overly-complicated feature and there's lots of potential with existing rides. This will provide wizards with yet another way to customize their character, and it means that your mount can match your outfit regardless of what you're wearing.

It also introduces the potential for new drops. As with the latest one-shot gauntlets, we may see the same mount drop in different colors, and may not only seek out one of the mounts, but try for both!

What do you hope to see with dyeable mounts?

Thanks for reading and see you in the Spiral! Note: If you couldn't figure it out, the images in this posts are edits and are not actual Wizard101 content, nor are they planned to be added to the game.