For want of a tier 5 horse, a kingdom was lost — or so the saying goes.

Some Black Desert players are quite upset that Daum apparently pulled a bait-and-switch with one of the pre-order packages, as the company advertised a tier 5 horse as part of the sale. However, players noted that the animal functioned as a tier 3 horse when breeding it in the game, which led some to claim that Daum sold a tier 3 horse with a fancy skin.

The studio came back to the players and defended the pre-order horse’s sale, saying that its stats were comparable to other tier 5 beasts. “After bringing your feedback and concerns to the developers, they looked into this matter and it was determined that there will be no compensation for the difference as the pre-order horse has better HP and better stats in general,” Black Desert CM Jouska said. “Also they clarified that the chance to learn skills is higher for the pre-order horse than for other horses while leveling up.”

The response to this statement on the forums has been less-than-kind, as the community pointed out that many of the stats are worse than T5 horses and that this did not answer the principle concern of the animal not breeding the way it should.