Terraria 1.4.5 new mounts: the transformation mounts and how to use them
Version 1.4.5, "Bigger & Boulder", added four transformation mounts alongside its 650 new items. These are not saddles — they turn your character into an animal, and the update's own naming ("Bigger and Boulder") hints at how they are meant to feel.
What a transformation is
| Normal mount | Transformation mount | |
|---|---|---|
| What happens | You ride it | You become it |
| What you get | Speed | A form, and form-specific abilities |
| Examples | Celestial Horse, Goat Skull | A bat, a mouse, and others |
| Best for | Long flat travel | Situations where your form is the point |
The distinction matters more than it sounds. A normal mount is a speed tool. A transformation is a capability, and the useful one depends on what you are trying to do rather than on any tier list.
The four added in 1.4.5
Version 1.4.5 brought four transformations, including a bat and a mouse. The animal forms are the memorable part of the update — the 1.4.5 release notes also mention the ability to become a bat or a mouse among the new transformations, alongside the other new content in the same update.
How transformations sit with the mount system
Transformations and mounts share the same general slot, so you swap between them rather than using both at once. That makes the practical question simple: what is this form good at?
- Travelling long distances → a normal mount, because raw speed is what you need
- Getting somewhere specific → the Soaring Insignia, because permanent flight beats every ground option
- Fighting or navigating something a form handles better → a transformation, because that is what it is for
The Goat Skull is a good middle case — it is a normal mount with a double jump, which is neither pure speed nor a transformation. See the Goat Skull guide.
Practical use
| Situation | What to use |
|---|---|
| Crossing a flat desert | Celestial Horse — raw speed |
| Crossing a vertical cave | Goat Skull, or just fly |
| Getting past a wall of enemies | Whatever transformation handles that biome |
| Screenshot value | Whatever is the strangest form you own |
Getting them
Like the pets from the same update, transformations are mostly found rather than crafted, and the routes differ per item:
- Some are enemy drops — ordinary farming, and the drop usually appears while you are doing something else
- Some come from the crossover content introduced in the same update
- Some are tied to the hotfix-era items that 1.4.5.7 added in bulk
The practical route for a collector is the same as for pets: find each one once, then duplicate it in Journey Mode. The duplication guide covers that, and the 1.4.5 new pets guide has the companion collection order.
Version note
This guide is written against 1.4.5.8 on PC. Console, mobile and Switch run 1.4.5.8.1, and Switch usually trails the others by about a week. Check the version in your main menu before assuming something changed — the version differences page has the detail.