How to Raise a Cloud Serpent in World of Warcraft

In World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria, Cloud Serpents are snake-like creatures raised by the Pandaren as flying mounts. The Order of the Cloud Serpent - a Pandaren faction - trains Cloud Serpents at the Arboretum in the Jade Forest. Players can visit the Arboretum and train to be a Cloud Serpent rider by becoming Exalted with the faction and doing daily quests to aid both the faction and their Cloud Serpent.

Cloud Serpents start out as eggs, which hatch into baby serpents. After doing dailies for the Order of the Cloud Serpent, players watch their hatchling grow into an adult serpent. Once your Cloud Serpent is old enough, you can compete in races with other Cloud Serpent riders and get prizes for winning. Raising your own Cloud Serpent is similar to the quests to raise your own Winterspring Frostsaber in Winterspring.

Raising a Cloud Serpent to adulthood is the only way to obtain it as a mount in the game. While Cloud Serpent mounts are account-wide, Cloud Serpent Riding is not; in order to ride Cloud Serpents, each character will need to complete the Order of the Cloud Serpent quest line to obtain the ability to ride Cloud Serpents. Reaching Exalted allows players to purchase the remaining two Cloud Serpent mounts if they prefer.

Once players reach level 90, they can raise their own Cloud Serpent mount by talking to Elder Anli at the Arboretum in the Jade Forest. After expressing your interest in becoming a Cloud Serpent rider, she will send you to Instructor Tong at Windward Isle, where Cloud Serpent Matriarchs mate and lay their serpent eggs.

Once you speak to Instructor Tong, he will give you a few quests to help out the Cloud Serpents and the baby serpents on the island. The island has been experiencing trouble with the Saurok, a race of lizard-people who are disturbing serpent nests and stealing eggs. The quests are simple, and show the player’s loyalty toward the Cloud Serpents and the Order:

• Beating the Odds: Kill 8 Slitherscale Rippers or Slitherscale Egg Drinkers

• Egg Collection: Collect 6 Serpent Eggs

• Empty Nests: Leash and return 6 Windward Hatchlings to their nests

Once the three quests are completed, Instructor Tong will reward you with the option to pick between three rescued serpent eggs: one blue, one green and one yellow. The blue egg will hatch into an Azure Cloud Serpent, the yellow into a Gold Cloud Serpent, and the green into a Jade Cloud Serpent. Other than their colors, the serpents are all the same model-wise and speed-wise - choose whichever color you prefer the most!

Returning to the Arboretum with your serpent egg will cause it to hatch, placing your serpent in a pen where you can visit it daily. At this point, daily quests with the Order of the Cloud Serpent will unlock, giving players the opportunity to earn reputation and raise their serpent hatchlings. There are several quests involving your hatchling, Windward Isle and Sri-La Village:

Once you reach Revered with the Order of the Cloud Serpent, your hatchling grows into an adult! More daily quests become available and are focused on defeating rival trainers and winning Cloud Serpent races. The trainer challenges require players to defeat five different cloud serpent trainers in battle; each trainer has a specific battle style that players must overcome:

• The Trainer’s Challenge: Ace Longpaw

• The Trainer’s Challenge: Big Bao

• The Trainer’s Challenge: Ningna Darkwheel

• The Trainer’s Challenge: Suchi the Sweet

• The Trainer’s Challenge: Qua-Ro Whitebrow

• The Sky Race

Instructor Windblade introduces players to the Sky Race, a daily quest that has the player race against the other cloud serpent trainers. She leads new fliers around the racecourse and points out where all of the cloud rings and checkpoints are. Flying through the cloud rings increases speed, and flying through the checkpoint flags activates them. Instructor Windblade teaches this through a series of “flight training” quests:

• Flight Training: In Due Course

• Flight Training: Full Speed Ahead

• Flight Training: Ring Round-Up

Winning the Sky Race can earn the player a Winner’s Reward, which contains Valor Points and Lesser Charms of Good Fortune. If grinding all of these dailies isn’t your thing, you can also search for Onyx Eggs on Windward Isle; these eggs do not sparkle like the others, and are more rare. Elder Anli takes these eggs in exchange for 500 reputation. You can do the quest as often as you have eggs.

Once you earn enough reputation to become Exalted with the Order of the Cloud Serpent, your questing is complete! You will earn the achievement “Order of the Cloud Serpent” and be taken to a ceremony where they are officially named a member of the order. Players also receive Cloud Serpent Riding for free, as well as their Cloud Serpent in their inventory to add to their mount collection. Congratulations!

Did you know that once you reach Exalted, you can catch Hatchlings in the Jade Forest for pet battles? Try getting the Wild Crimson Hatchling, Wild Golden Hatchling and the Wild Jade Hatchling.

While a Cloud Serpent mount alone is a perfect reward, don’t forget the other rewards you can purchase from the Order of the Cloud Serpent Quartermaster San Redscale. Aside from being able to purchase the other two cloud serpent mounts, players can purchase jewelcrafting recipes, pet vanity items and a celebratory tabard:

So once you’ve reached Exalted, pat yourself on the back and take a break! Try catching some Hatchlings to show off to your friends, or run your own Cloud Serpent races with Racing flags and finish lines. Feel free to leave any feedback or comments in the section below!