As you may remember, the client data for a zhevra (or zebra) mount showed up in WoW back in patch 2.4.2. But we haven’t heard much about it … until now.

Today Blizzard announced their new Recruit-A-Friend program. And one of the rewards for recruiting a friend is … *drumroll* … a zhevra mount!

Here’s the relevant quote from the Recruit-A-Friend FAQ:

How can I earn the exclusive in-game mount?

For each person you refer who upgrades to a retail version of World of Warcraft and purchases two months of game time, you will be able to give a character on the account you sent the invitation from an exclusive in-game zhevra mount. This unique mount can be claimed through the website, is only available to Recruit-A-Friend participants, and can only be applied to a single character.

If you’re interested in this deal — and I definitely am! — make sure that you read the rest of the Recruit-A-Friend FAQ so you understand exactly how this works. There are other neat rewards as well, including triple experience, free summons, and even free levels! But mostly I just want that zhevra …

There are several different color variation of the zhevra mount available in the WoW client data, but from the FAQ I am guessing that we don’t get a color choice — we just get the black & white zhevra shown in the screenshot Blizzard has posted. We won’t know for certain, though, until the first recruits start signing up for two months of game time.

(Many thanks to Riri for cluing me in about this!)

Patch 2.4.3 goes live today, and that means that (as soon as the servers come up) we’ll be able to buy our first mounts 10 levels earlier and for about half the cost we paid previously!

Here’s the details:

• All of the mounts that previously had a level 40 requirement now have a level 30 requirement.
• The base price of the mounts is still 10 gold (minus any reputation discounts).
• They still require the Apprentice (75) level riding skill.
• Apprentice (75) Riding now costs 35 gold (base) instead of 90 gold (base). And you can still subtract reputation discounts when appropriate, of course.
• The first class mounts for the paladin and warlock are still bought from the class trainer, but now they can be purchased at level 30 instead of 40.
• Level 60+ mounts are unchanged.

So we get our first mounts sooner and cheaper! With a 20% Exalted discount, learning to ride and buying your first mount could cost as little as 36 gold (28 gold for the skill + 8 gold for the mount).

Of course, you now have 10 fewer levels to get to exalted, either to buy a cross-race mount or to get the best reputation discount. But even in the worse case the cost is cut in half. This is great news for all mount collectors! (And normal players too.)

You can find the current patch notes on the official WoW site, although as I write this they haven’t been updated yet. Mania’s Arcania has a copy of the notes from the patch download, however.

Update: Warcraft Mounts is now updated with Patch 2.4.3 data. Enjoy!

As I type this, the Public Test Realm is currently down for another update. But I was able to get on briefly earlier this evening and found that Hallow’s End, the Halloween event, has been activated on the PTR.

And why is that exciting, you ask? Because apparently the Headless Horseman now drops the Headless Horseman’s Reins, which summons the Headless Horseman’s Mount. And yes, it’s a fast flying mount. And yet it only required Apprentice (75) Riding and level 60.

Yup — a level 60 mount that flies! That’s new! Of course, it may well change before Patch 2.4.3 makes it to the live realms. But we’ll definitely have to keep an eye on this one regardless.