How To Couch Your Lance in Mount and Blade II: Bannerlord on XBOX and PlayStation

You’ve been doing it wrong.

All screen captures by author.

I’ve been obsessed with Mount and Blade II: Bannerlord by developer TaleWorlds Entertainment for over a week now and I just now learned how to actually kill people with my lance while on horseback. Here’s what you need to know.

Bannerlord has been out on PC for two and a half years while writing this, but it just came to the console on October 25, 2022. The secret about couching your lance has been out on PC since launch. The button is the X key on the PC.

Console players didn’t know how to do this until it was finally discussed on a Reddit thread. Ladies and gentlemen, the button you press to “couch” is RB (right bumper) on XBOX One and XBOX Series S/X. For PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 players, the button is naturally R1.

The Vlandian knight Davobard dey Dragmoor couches the lance in the charge towards Western Empire troops.

What is couching?

Our use of the word couching can be found under number three on this quick Google search. The example text it uses is from The Bard. A Pindaric Ode

Couching is when you duck down in a forward poised position on your mount to actually “lance” the enemies with your lance. Note that the polearm must be a lance that has the word “couching” on the item description page.

Notice the “Couch Lance” tag in orange on the item description.

Couching your lance is how you expected that little ‘ole spear to work when you first started, but the kills never came. This is because a spear can’t be used for lancing. Nor can the bladed “swinging” polearms. Only a lance can do the classic jousting “couch position.”

You’ll go from poking for 38 damage to plowing through enemy infantry for 380 and above, even at average speeds. You will finally feel like a hero in your army even on Bannerlord difficulty. Happy couching!