Reins of the Red Shado-Pan Riding Tiger

Reins of the Red Shado-Pan Riding Tiger is a ground mount from the Mists of Pandaria expansion (patch 5.5.0). It is a massive striped tiger in the scarlet battle harness of the Shado-Pan order; on such steeds the monk defenders of Pandaria march to war against the mogu and the mantid. All three of the order's riding tigers share the same model, differing only in harness color — red is considered the most expensive and prestigious of the three.

The mount is sold by the quartermaster Rushi the Fox at the Shado-Pan Garrison (Townlong Steppes) for 2500 gold. The main requirement for the purchase is Exalted reputation with the Shado-Pan faction. So in practice the entire guide comes down to the fastest way to max out reputation with the order.

• Collection value — it completes the set of three Shado-Pan riding tigers together with the Reins of the Blue Shado-Pan Riding Tiger and the Reins of the Green Shado-Pan Riding Tiger
• Unique model — a large tiger in plated harness, a rare color scheme among the game's tiger mounts
• Speed like any ground mount — +60% or +100% depending on your riding skill
• Unlocks account-wide — after purchase the mount appears in the collection of all your characters, regardless of faction
• Side rewards — on the way to Exalted you also gain access to a quest that rewards the Reins of the Heavenly Onyx Cloud Serpent mount, and to epic MoP enchanting recipes.

The Shado-Pan Garrison is located in the southwest of the Townlong Steppes in Pandaria, roughly at coordinates 48, 70.

The fastest way to get there:

1. Open the world map and select the continent of Pandaria. If you have never been to Pandaria before, first pick up the introductory quest from your faction leader in Stormwind or Orgrimmar.
2. Fly to any flight point in Kun-Lai or in the Valley of the Four Winds and head toward the Townlong Steppes.
3. Alternative: through the Portal to Shado-Pan Garrison from the Shado-Pan Monastery in the Kun-Lai mountains.
4. In the garrison itself, find the quartermaster Rushi the Fox by the trade tents in the central part of the camp.

What to Unlock First

The Shado-Pan daily quests do not open right away. To gain access to them, you need to:

1. Reach max level, or at least level your character high enough that Pandaria is not gray in difficulty (in the current patch the content scales).
2. Start building reputation with the Golden Lotus faction in the Valley of the Four Winds.
3. After reaching Honored with the Golden Lotus, the "Shado-Pan Onslaught" quest chain leading to the Shado-Pan Garrison opens up at Master Snowdrift in the Shado-Pan Monastery (Kun-Lai).
4. Complete the garrison's starter quests — after them, daily quests become available from Lin of the Six Ponds, Master Snowdrift and Ban Bearheart.

Daily Quests

Each day at the Shado-Pan Garrison one of three sets of daily quests is available:

• Omnia Mystics at Shan'ze Dao
• Blackguard Defenders at the Deathspeaker Plateau / at the Gai-Cho Battlefront camp
• Wu-Kao Killers in Sra'vess

Each set has four warm-up quests plus a fight against an elite enemy — 5 daily quests in total. Each grants 250 reputation, meaning 1,250 reputation per day when you complete the full cycle. If a Shado-Pan veteran quest pops up, you gain an additional 350 reputation.

How Many Days to Exalted

From Neutral to Exalted you need to accumulate 42,000 reputation. At a steady 1,250 per day this is about 34 days of pure grinding. With the Grand Commendation of the Shado-Pan and additional veteran quests, the timeframe shrinks to 15–20 days.

Grand Commendation of the Shado-Pan

After reaching Honored, the Grand Commendation of the Shado-Pan opens up at Rushi the Fox — an item that doubles the reputation gained with this faction for all characters on the account. Buy it as soon as it becomes available. With the Commendation, daily quests grant 2,500 reputation instead of 1,250.

At Exalted, all three riding tigers are available from the quartermaster. If your goal is the collection, grab them all:

The total for the whole set is 4,500 gold. That is an affordable sum at level 80, easily earned back over a couple of evenings of farming any current zone.

• Don't skip the dailies even for a single day — reputation builds up slowly, and every missed day noticeably pushes back the finish.
• Pick up the Shado-Pan Tiger Helmet after Exalted — it is a replica of the order's helm for transmog.
• Unlock the Commendation as early as possible — the more days it is active, the bigger the time savings.
• Combine farming with the quests of the Golden Lotus and the Order of the Cloud Serpent — the zones overlap, so you can advance several MoP factions in parallel.
• At max level Pandaria scales — mobs die in a couple of hits, and the elite enemies in the daily quests pose no threat either.
• Watch the zone phase — part of the Townlong Steppes is tied to the progress of the Shado-Pan campaign. If the dailies do not appear, check whether the introductory chain at Master Snowdrift is complete.
• Stockpile gold in advance — 2,500 gold is a trivial sum in 2026, but if you are farming mounts as a series, it is easier to have 5,000 on hand and grab all three tigers in a single visit to Rushi the Fox.