Following the Early Access release of Fellowship on Thursday October 16th, players have been unraveling an in-game mystery. This mystery revolves around the Legendary mount, Sir Bombastic. Sir Bombastic was seen previously in Fellowship’s Next Fest playtest this past Februrary. Previously, he was obtained by completing a +15 dungeon during Steam Next Fest, but he was not included along with the Ael’dethi Prowler that would come with us into Early Access.
Traveling to the Stronghold…
When we take a look at how the available mounts are obtained, Sir Bombastic is the only one without a clear method of obtaining.
The tagline might simply be a reference to the Stronghold loading screen that many players have become familiar during the first few days of Fellowship’s release. Some say that this mount is currently unobtainable and is on its way to the Stronghold. Other players theorize that it’s a clue to unlocking the mount, one that points to something within the Stronghold, hidden from plain view.
The Mysterious Skulls and Their Messages
There are jump puzzles within Fellowship that allow you to reach high vantage points within the Stronghold. With the clue from the Sir Bombastic mount listing, we can infer that the beginning of a jump puzzle is located at the iconic Stronghold gates. Following this platforming puzzle leads you to the top of a tower. At the top of this tower is a Hero’s Skull with a tooltip that reads: “It’s dangerous to go alone…” A nod to the Legend of Zelda series also potentially doubling as a clue to another puzzle location.
While some players look within the Stronghold for clues, others take their search deeper into the game files. By looking into the game files, they might be able to discern the true method for unlocking Sir Bombastic and decrypt the puzzle surrounding the skulls.
Dataminers discovered a “Liar’s Skull” in the files and a message meant for the dataminers that says “Cheeky dataminer… This is not the rat you are looking for.” This is a reference to a Star Wars quote where Obi-wan uses suggestion to convince Stormtoopers that, “These aren’t the droids you’re looking for,” when they in-fact were the droids they were looking for.
The Liar’s Skull may exist in the game, but many share the sentiment about the skull being a red herring and/or a jab meant for the dataminers.
All Known Skulls
Below is a list of all the known skulls, their tooltip information, locations, and the games they refer to.
| Skull Name | Tooltip Description | Location | Game Reference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hero’s Skull | It’s dangerous to go alone… | At the top of one of the Stronghold gate towers. | Legend of Zelda |
| Miner’s Skull | Rock and Stone! | In a net held up between trees. | Deep Rock Galactic |
| Treasure Hunter’s Skull | The Legendary is a lie. | In the tower with the pile of gold and treasure | Portal |
| Adventurer’s Skull | Never could his greed be sated. Forever with despair was fated. | In the Stables, behind the Stable Master. | N/A |
| Hoarder’s Skull | Greed is good! | Tower behind the training dummies. | Warcraft 3/World of Warcraft |
| Unnamed Skull | N/A, not highlightable/interactable. | In the tent behind Master Craftsman Braggi. | N/A |
Theories and Themes
When examining the different tooltip quotes together, there seems to be a few themes running throughout them: reward, greed, and cooperation. The adventurer’s skull seems to point towards the Wraithtide Vault dungeon, possibly referring to the spirit of Bael’Aurum who was known to have caused the collapse of empires due to greed.
The Miner’s Skull could be referring to one of the new dungeons, Godfall Quarry, since that map is set in a quarry mine. To uncover more, we might need to go to these locations to see what there might be there to discover.
Some theorize that we could uncover a message by unscrambling the first letter of each skull name and that we just need to discover all the skulls to do so. Others are saying that the Sir Bombastic mount is directly related to the Gunpowder Rats that spawn during Bilerat’s Vermin Tide ability. Perhaps the only link Sir Bombastic has to the Gunpowder Rats is a similar character model.
Mount Variations Traveling to the Stronghold
In the Early Access trailer, we saw additional mount variations that are currently not obtainable in the game. This includes a dreamy, armor-less horse variant and a green, undead variant of Sir Bombastic. It’s not confirmed when these mount variations may make their in-game appearance.
In a developer blog posted on the playfellowship Youtube channel, Chief Rebel’s Community Director Hamish Bode said, “Sir Bombastic will not be granted to you for [your achievement during] Steam Next Fest, but there are ways and he still does exist. So make sure you check out how to get that mount ’cause we know it was a fan favorite.” However, Hamish Bode also stated during a more recent livestream on the playfellowship channel on Twitch: “I don’t think there’s any way to unlock [Sir Bombastic] right now.“ Despite this, players continue on with their search for Sir Bombastic and the conclusion of the skull puzzle.
