The Leaping Kuku Bird was added to Crimson Desert as a permanent mount as part of Update 1.06.00 and then updated to begin with the Kuku Bird Chick in 1.10.00. Here’s how to tame yours.
The taming process is unusual. You can’t just steal one from a member of The Blinding Arrows; those are the “Fleeting Companion” version that have been in the game from day one. To get your own permanent Kuku Bird mount, you’ll need to hatch one from an egg and grow it into an adult.
Step 1: Get Egg
There are several locations where you can find a Kuku Bird Egg, though the ones by normal Kuku Birds at Rocca’s Hill remain useless.
Bloodsteel Camp
You can find a Kuku Bird’s Egg inside a tower at Bloodsteel Camp in the Steel Mountains near the south part of the border between Hernand and Demeniss.
The tower with the egg in it is right behind where you defeat the leader of the Blinding Arrows, Bradie Gu. There’s a little trapdoor that you have to Cling → Resist → Force Palm to open. If you’re playing as Oongka or Damiaine, the same input as Force Palm also works.
The egg is just lying there in a makeshift nest, but there’s also a Leaping Kuku Bird Research Journal on the table beside it that details the next step.
Steel Mountains Coastal Ruins
You can find another egg in a nest at unmarked ruins on the Steel Mountains southeast of Bloodsteel Camp near the border between Hernand and Demeniss.
This egg respawns in case you want to make your own flock.
Step 2: Reunite Egg with Nest
To hatch the Kuku Bird Egg, you have to take it to a special nest like the one you use for hatching a Baby Wyvern. That nest is beneath a dead tree near the cliff to the east of Bloodsteel Camp. You can see this location drawn in that research journal you picked up as well.
The nest is perfectly sized to incubate Kuku Bird Eggs and looks more well-built than the ones made out of sticks you find elsewhere.
It does not work to take the egg to any Kuku Bird nest; it has to be this one, and make sure the nest isn’t scorched. Make sure you have an available slot in your Pets list before trying to hatch your Kuku Bird Chick.
You can just press the Use button (A | ✖ | SPACE) on the egg in your inventory to take it out. It will look like it got silently consumed, but don’t worry, when you exit your inventory, you’ll be holding it. You don’t need to go into the sub-menu and select the Take Out option like you normally would.
Step 3: Hatch Egg
Parts of the egg should begin to glow faint red as soon as you place and eventually start wobbling a little bit. If they don’t, you may have put it in the wrong nest or something.
After 1 hour of in-game time, the egg will be ready to hatch, and you should see a prompt pop up if you’re close enough.
The egg will hatch into a Kuku Bird Chick, but it will not hatch properly unless you have a spare slot. I suspect this bug will have already been fixed by the time you read this.
Step 4: Feed the Bird
You can pick up the li’l fella and then feed them fruit and bugs to level them up by selecting the Feed option on relevant food in your inventory.
Their favorite fruits are Pineapples and Desert Melons, both of which are much harder to come by than the bugs that offer the same amount of nutrition. You can only feed them 3 times in a day to increase their level.
Once the Kuku Bird Chick grows to level 3, you can press the Grow button that pops up when they’re out to transform them into a Leaping Kuku Bird Mount. If you want both a Kuku Bird Chick and a Leaping Kuku Bird, you best get two eggs.
Step 5: Upgrade Bird
Kuku Bird Chicks hatch with Small Kuku Bird Eggshell hat already equipped, but it has no bearing on the adult Kuku Bird Eggshell hat. When you elect to Grow your Kuku Bird Chick into an adult, the eggshell will be automatically unequipped.
You can purchase a Kuku Bird Saddle and adult Kuku Bird Eggshell from the Demeniss Saddlery in the region’s capital city.
Devastatingly, the Egg Helm takes up the same equipment slot as the Saddle, so you have to make a difficult decision regarding the regalia your spring chicken will don. Somehow, the Kuku Bird Saddle provides a bit more Defense.
There is a Kuku Bird Hatchling Saddle in the files that offers much higher defense, but we haven’t yet found a way to obtain it. Perhaps this will be released in a future update, potentially to the nearly useless third Demeniss Contribution Vendor in town (outside the castle).
Regardless of your choice of attire, it’s worth noting that Leaping Kuku Bird is no roadrunner, but their li’l wings enable them to land with grace and poise after a fall from any height, making them an excellent choice for traversing mountains.
You can also continue to feed the adult Leaping Kuku Bird the same bugs and fruits to make it grow more but leveling it up doesn’t seem to do anything (yet).
At the time of publishing, the Leaping Kuku Bird mount and Kuku Bird Chick are only available in crimson, but smaller, Kuku Birds do come in a rainbow of colors, so we can still hope for a brighter tomorrow.
