Onyx Cloud Serpent
Find a character at the top of the page to see whether your account has this mount, and where that character stands on what it asks for.
Look it up on WowheadHow to get it
Reward of Surprise Attack!, the second of two quests that Master Snowdrift gives at the Shado-Pan Garrison in Townlong Steppes to a character that is Exalted with the Shado-Pan. Mogu Incursions comes first (kill the Shan'ze Spymaster on the bluff at 48.8, 58.6); Surprise Attack! then sends the character over the bridge to Niuzao Temple (42.6, 63.9) to beat back the mogu and kill the cloud serpent Hei Feng, and Ban Bearheart hands over the reins back at the garrison.
Time there about 15 min a visit
Guides Wowhead: Guide to the Shado-Pan (2018; the insignias it puts at 1,000 now give 6,000) · wow.gg: Onyx Cloud Serpent
Before you go
- Exalted with the Shado-Pan, 42,000 reputation from Neutral. Stolen Shado-Pan Insignias give 6,000 each and drop from the Zandalari Warscouts and Warbringers on Pandaria's coasts; the five daily quests at the Shado-Pan Garrison give about 1,350 a day; the ordinary quests of Kun-Lai Summit and Townlong Steppes give about 5,000 once · about 5 h
- If Master Snowdrift offers nothing at Exalted, his one-off quests first: players who reached Exalted without the daily quests had to finish two of his Challenger's Ring duels at the garrison before Mogu Incursions appeared · about 0.2 h
- The two quests: Mogu Incursions, then Surprise Attack!, in which Hei Feng lands about two and a half minutes into the fight at Niuzao Temple · about 0.3 h
In all: about 5.5 h of play, starting from nothing.
Getting there
/way Townlong Steppes 49.5 70.5 - Take the portal from Wizard's Sanctum to Jade Forest*
- Fly the rest of the way
- Take the portal from Pathfinder's Den to Jade Forest*
- Fly the rest of the way
/way is for the TomTom addon. Travel times are estimates: flying at 55 yards a second in a straight
line and 30 seconds for a portal. A star marks a portal that needs a quest or other unlock done first.
Notes and sources
The reins are the reward of the quest Surprise Attack! (31277), the only source on Wowhead's item page; a 2023 comment confirms they come straight from handing it in. It is started by Master Snowdrift (npc 63009; Wowhead's tooltip position 49.4-49.6, 70.4-70.6, the wiki's 49.5, 70.5) and ended by Ban Bearheart.
The journal names only the quest. The Exalted standing with the Shado-Pan is on the wiki's pages for the reins and for Mogu Incursions ('becomes available at exalted reputation with the Shado-Pan'), in Wowhead's guide and in every comment. The quest asks for level 25 (Wowhead), the reins for level 35 and Apprentice Riding. Cloud Serpent Riding, and with it any standing with the Order of the Cloud Serpent, has not been needed since patch 6.0.2 (wiki; comments of 2014 to 2022 agree).
What makes the quest appear is the soft part. Comments on Wowhead's quest page:
- 2024, confirmed by a reply of 2026: a character that had not done dailies had to do The Challenger's Ring: Tenwu of the Red Smoke and The Challenger's Ring: Hawkmaster Nurong, then Mogu Incursions
- 2025: The Challenger's Ring: Lao-Chin the Iron Belly and Chao the Voice instead
- a reply of 2026 found Master Snowdrift with no quest at all until that day's daily quests were finished
The wiki lists six Challenger's Ring quests at the garrison, 350 reputation each.
The fight: comments of 2024 (written in Mists of Pandaria Remix) say the Shado-Pan who fight alongside wait at the stairs by the bridge and have to be spoken to and kept close, or the mogu arrive without them. Comments of 2019 and 2021 say that killing Hei Feng as he circles gives full credit at once.
The reputation: the Zandalari drop insignias for four factions, so only some are the Shado-Pan's, and they bind to the Warband (wiki), so any character can gather them. Their spawn points, from the wiki as listed for the Blue Shado-Pan Riding Tiger:
- Jade Forest 52.6, 18.8
- Krasarang Wilds 38.8, 63.3
- Kun-Lai Summit 75, 67
- Townlong Steppes 36.5, 85.8
- Dread Wastes 47.3, 62.1, which a 2019 comment on the item's page favours
The Grand Commendation of the Shado-Pan (50 gold from the quartermaster Rushi the Fox) doubles the gains; it is sold at Revered by the wiki and Wowhead's guide, at Honored by wow.gg. The wiki's Shado-Pan page still says in one place that the dailies wait on Revered with the Golden Lotus, a condition its own patch 5.3 notes and Wowhead's guide say was removed.
Guides: Wowhead's Guide to the Shado-Pan was last changed in 2018, so it has the daily hubs, the commendation and this quest but still gives an insignia as 1,000. wow.gg's page (updated 2026) covers the dailies and the two quests but not the insignias. How long the reputation takes in the current game was not measured, and whether the standing is shared across the Warband was not established.
Confidence in this entry: medium. Looked up in 2026.
Sources