Fire Dragon (2024)

Fire Dragons are one of the three species of dragons that roam the Overworld. They are most famously known for their deadly fire and flight abilities, as well as their formidable reputation. Fire dragons have nine natural attacks, all of which can dispatch a player with ease. As well as this, they progress through five stages of development, where they grow larger, stronger, and more terrifying.

Cave appearance

Fire dragons are large, quadrupedal reptiles with massive, leathery, bat-like wings, powerful hind legs with 3 prehensile, talon-tipped toes on each foot, a moderate-sized body with spikes running down their backs, a moderately long neck, a large head with 2 pairs of backward-facing horns as well as massive, toothy jaws, and a long, tapering tail just as long as the rest of their body. Male fire dragons differ from females by having darker-colored spots on their wings, while females differ from males by having curvier horns. although this difference is only present in more recent versions. Fire dragons come in 4 colors: Fiery Red, Emerald Green, Gold Yellow, and Smoky Black. Dragons grow from 2 blocks long at 0 days old to 50 blocks long when fully grown.

Spawning

Fire dragons can spawn in any biome that has a temperature above -0.5, save for Jungles, Savannas, and Badlands. Younger dragons are found on small roosts on the surface (Stages 1-3), whereas older ones (Stage 4 and rarely Stage 5) lurk in caverns beneath the ground. After the threshold of 10-15 species being killed, all fire dragons grow stronger based on number of invocations of the rule mentioned above.

Drops

Loot from a fire dragon generally depends on the stage of a dragon. All dragons drop either Dragon Scales, a Dragon Heart, and Dragon Flesh or, with a glass bottle, Dragon Blood. A Dragon Skull and Dragon Bones are always dropped. The most important loot a dragon corpse can produce are Dragon Eggs, which can only drop from a female Stage 4-5 dragon. Stage 5 female dragons may occasionally drop 2 or even 3 Dragon Eggs.

Instead of evaporating like normal Minecraft mobs, a dragon will fall to the ground as a corpse when it dies. To loot the dragon corpse, right-click on it repeatedly with an empty hand: items will drop off of it until it turns into a skeleton and, finally, disappears altogether. To obtain dragon blood, right-click the corpse with an empty bottle. Obtaining dragon blood will prevent you from obtaining scales, flesh, a heart, or eggs. Make sure to click in the dragon's hitbox; this is usually located near the middle of the dragon's body. Newly-hatched dragons evaporate upon death, falling as a skeleton after day 5 and only falling as a corpse after day 10.

Fully grown dragons drop about 46 bones, and either 12 vials of blood or 58 scales.

Behavior

Fire dragons are hostile, and will attack almost every mob that comes nearby, including players. When they spawn naturally, they are usually very hungry, and will search for farm animals to eat; they are capable of spotting prey from 64 blocks away. Dragons using flame attacks will scorch all blocks in the area (turning them into Charred Blocks), in addition to creating devastating fires. Wild dragons can be seen frequenting small roosts adorned with large piles of gold and many chests; they will sleep there during the night, but can be woken up if a player breaks a gold pile or opens a nearby chest. Dragons will rarely eat meat items that are dropped on the floor.

Abilities

First and foremost, fire dragons have the ability to fly very quickly, making melee combat an exercise of futility when fighting them. As well as this, they have the ability to incinerate players with their fire breath, killing them in a matter of seconds. Along with this, they are unfazed by unavoidable obstacles, and will simply break through them in order to get to their target. Dragons have nine natural attacks, which include the following:

• Roar: Upon spotting the player, the dragon emits a loud, piercing roar. Stage 4+ dragons can inflict Weakness for 14 seconds with their roars; this effect can be nullified by wearing earplugs.
• Super Roar: Rarely upon spotting the player, the dragon rears on its hind legs, spreads its wings, and emits an even louder and more powerful roar. Stage 4+ dragons can inflict Weakness II for 14 seconds with their roars; this effect can be nullified by wearing earplugs.
• Bite: If on the ground, the dragon simply bites its target.
• Grab-and-Shake: If on the ground, the dragon seizes its target with its jaws before shaking them to death.
• Tail Whip: If on the ground, the dragon swings its tail sideways in order to smack a target, dealing knockback.
• Wing Beat: If on the ground, the dragon rears up and violently flaps its wings, creating a powerful gust of wind that knocks back its target.
• Fire Breath: The dragon breathes a stream of deadly fire at its target, spreading large fires and scorching blocks in the area. If in the air, it flies overhead of its target while performing this attack.
• Fire Bomb: The dragon spews a large fire bomb that explodes on impact, leaving a scorched, flaming crater. If in the air, it flies overhead of its target while performing this attack.
• Aerial Tackle: If in the air, the dragon will swoop on its target with outstretched talons before smacking them down.

Combat

See also: Dragon Fighting Tips

Please note: Fire dragons will attack ice dragons and lightning dragons, so do not put a fire dragon with your other dragons on wander. Otherwise, you might find yourself with a dead body and lots of destruction.

Hatching

See also: Dragon Egg

A wild fire dragon cannot be tamed, and a tame dragon can only be achieved through hatching an egg. Fire Dragon eggs must be placed within a fire to start the hatching process. Once the egg starts moving, it will take a few minutes to hatch.

It is noted that the fire must be kept burning until the egg hatches, so netherrack is recommended as a block to place an egg on.

Breeding

Two fire dragons can be bred if they are opposing genders and stage four or higher, by crafting and utilizing Fire Lily Mixture, They are bred in the same manner as other vanilla animals.Upon breeding, female dragons will create a nest and lay their eggs in there. Give the mixture to the male, then the female.

Usage

Equipment

A dragon's inventory can be accessed via interacting with them while sneaking. It has 5 slots; the first 4 slots are each for a different part of Dragon Armor, while the last slot is for a banner.

Tamed Behavior

Baby dragons are very small creatures no longer than a single block. It takes 25 days for a dragon to progress from a stage, and 125 for them to reach maximum size.

Their growth rate can be improved by feeding them Dragon Meal. Each feeding will grow them by 1 day. Not only that but if you are in creative there is a special type of dragon meal that you can use to tame wild dragons. All though it will either slow down the growing process or stop it completely.

If a dragon is Stage 1, it can be clicked on with an empty hand in order to put the baby on the owner's shoulders. To get a baby dragon off one's shoulders, press X (default key). A player can have a maximum of three dragons on their shoulder at a time. At Stage 2, the dragon can no longer be picked up. Dragons Stage 3 and up can be mounted by interacting with them with an empty hand. Like with any rideable mob, WASD controls are used. Spacebar makes the dragon rise if it is in the air; if held for over a second while it is on the ground, it makes the dragon start flying. X lowers the dragon, and Shift is used to dismount. R (default key) makes it breathe fire, and G (default key) makes it use a strike attack, attacking the mob the player is currently looking at.

A Dragon Command Staff can be used to order the dragon to either stay, wander, or escort their owner from above. Dragon Horns can be used to summon and desummon the dragon via an item. A Dragon Bone Flute can be used to call a flying dragon down to the ground. A Dragon Summoning Crystal can bind the dragon to itself, so that the owner can teleport the dragon should it wander off into the distance.Sneaking while interacting with a dragon with a stick or a Dragon Command Staff will set a home position where it is currently at, and it will not go far away from that position. The home position can be removed by sneaking while using the Dragon Command Staff again.

Dragons Stage 2 and up will breath fire at an active Fire Dragonforge if near one, powering the multi-block structure and allowing it to turn iron ingots into Fire Dragonsteel Ingots.

A tamed fire dragon also will try to attack tamed ice dragons and lightning dragons of other players, but not of their owner.

Gallery

History

• 1.16.201
• 1.0.0:
  • Introduced.
• 1.0.1:
  • Nerfed block-breaking ability; when set to "weak", it cannot break anything harder than stone.
  • No longer starts flying when placed with a Dragon Horn.
  • Can no longer spawn in cold biomes.
• 1.1.0:
  • Can no longer ascend as sharply as it did before.
  • Wing-flapping noises are no longer ridiculously loud; how loud they are can now be edited in the config.
  • Stage 1 dragons are now unable to use the Grab-and-Shake attack.
  • Tamed dragons can now be ordered to descend with the newly-added Dragon Bone Flute.
  • Now follows the mobGriefing game rule.
• 1.1.1:
  • Shift-clicking it now opens its inventory; normal clicking mounts it.
  • Now turns aggressive towards players who break gold piles or open chests nearby when untamed.
• 1.2.0:
  • Added new textures and sounds.
  • Added new flight AI.
  • Is now as implacably aggressive as it was intended to be.
  • Grab-and-Shake attack has been nerfed.
• 1.3.0:
  • Has undergone a complete overhaul.
    • Added new model (now has 3D talons).
    • Added new animations.
      • Added walking and flying cycles.
      • Added a sitting animation.
      • Tail now has delayed body movement during its turning animation.
    • Added new wing-flapping noises.
    • Can now roar; stage 5 dragons can inflict Weakness for 14 seconds with their roars.
    • Now has 2 new attacks: Wing Beat and Aerial Tackle.
    • Search radius has been increased; it can now see the player from twice as far away as it did before.
      • Added a config option for how wide the search radius is.
    • Can now target prey while flying.
    • Now targets a multitude of mobs, including animals from the Animania mod.
    • Can now be bred with Lily Mixtures again.
      • Upon breeding, female dragons will dig a hole made out of Dragon Nest Blocks and lay their eggs in there.
  • Now attacks more relentlessly than it did before.
  • Can now be hurt with arrows again.
  • Added a config option for whether dragons can despawn or not.
• 1.4.0:
  • Roars are now louder.
  • Will not use the Aerial Tackle attack unless prey is out in the open.
• 1.5.0:
  • Movement speed is now slower by default.
  • Now rarer by default.
  • Can now be given a home position by shift-clicking with a stick or Dragon Staff.
  • No longer leaves its roost or den when flying.
  • Can now "dig" by deleting blocks in its way when stuck.
  • Tamed dragons no longer attack villagers from village mods.
  • Now becomes tamed to the player that placed its egg, not the player closest to it.
• 1.5.1:
  • Players riding atop a dragon can change their third-person camera perspective by pressing F7.
• 1.5.2:
  • Added a new, more graceful flying cycle.
  • Now has natural armor points (with fully grown Stage 5 dragons reaching 20 armor points).
  • Now receives extra armor points when equipped with Dragon Armor.
  • Animals and NPCs now flee from dragons.
  • Growth can now be permanently stunted by Sickly Dragon Meal.
  • Will automatically take flight if a prey item is more than 5 blocks above it.
  • Added a config option for far dragons can generate from a player's spawn point.
  • Can now be fed while being ridden.
  • Will now teleport to its owner when dismounted (fixes it randomly disappearing when dismounted).
  • Feeding a dragon meat heals more hunger points now.
• 1.6.0:
  • Can now draw drops from a configurable loot table.
  • Now has multiple hitboxes for its head, wings, and tail.
    • Hitting its head or tail will do extra damage to it.
  • Roars are now stronger.
  • Added a config option for whether tamed dragons can grief blocks or not.
  • Added a config option for whether tamed dragons attack nearby mobs or not.
  • Baby dragons are now immune to swords' sweeping attacks.
• 1.6.1:
  • Now has new experimental pathfinding AI.
• 1.7.0:
  • Attacks now have more range.
  • Will now use Fire Breath and Fire Bomb attacks while targeting prey from the air.
  • Tweaked flight mechanics (details are coming soon).
• 1.7.1:
  • Fire Breath is now less accurate.
• 1.8.0:
  • Has undergone another complete overhaul.
    • Added new model (now has a longer neck, curved horn tips, a longer tail, and larger wings).
    • Added new textures.
    • Attacks have been redone.
      • Grab-and-Shake now tilts its target to appear as if they are in its jaws.
      • Fire Breath is now more visually appealing, is less resource-intensive and destructive, and deals less damage.
      • Fire Bomb is now less destructive and can no longer be used on the ground.
      • Aerial Tackle is now much faster due to the new flight AI.
    • Added new flight AI (flight AI is now more similar to that of the amphithere).
    • Added new animations.
      • Idle animations are now smoother.
    • Now flies overhead of a target's position while using aerial fire attacks.
    • Now has sexual dimorphism; males have darker-colored spots on their wings, while females have curvier horns.
    • Tamed dragons now have an escorting mode, where they will follow their owner from above.
    • Larger dragons now make wider turns than smaller ones.
  • Tamed dragons are now used to power the newly-added Dragonforge.
  • Can now be instantly tamed with the newly-added Creative Dragon Meal.
  • Can now be equipped with Silver and Dragonsteel Armor.
  • Can now break lily pads.
  • Can now render from 256 blocks away (before, it could only render from 64 blocks away).
  • Path navigation and model animation code have been optimized.
• 1.8.1:
  • Now uses A* pathfinding algorithms.
  • Tweaked flight AI.
• 1.8.2:
  • Is now much more aggressive than it was before.
  • Now uses a new pathfinding code that replaces the failed A* algorithm.
  • Added a config option for how strong dragon breath attacks are.
  • Added a config option for how long the cooldown for dragons' block-breaking behavior lasts.
  • Model now generates less lag.
• 1.8.3:
  • Added a configurable block-breaking whitelist.
• 1.8.4:
  • Player-controlled flight has been reworked.
  • Now has an inventory slot for banners, which can be displayed on its back.
  • Now only drops blocks 10% of the time it breaks them, as well as if they are not blacklisted.
  • Riding a dragon now enters a zoomed out third-person view automatically.
  • Code is now genericized to aid any possible addons.
  • Now has better pathfinding behavior.
  • Dragon Armor now renders on a separate layer.
  • Roar can now be nullified with Earplugs.
• 1.9.0:
  • Added a config option for whether dragons can launch blocks with their breath; explosive breath is off by default.
  • Idle animations are now smoother.
• 1.9.1:
  • Can now be bound to the newly-added Dragon Summoning Crystal so that it can be teleported by its owner.
  • Stage 2+ dragons can now walk over fences.
  • Sleeping animations are now slower.
• 2.0.0:
  • Can no longer spawn in Jungle, Savanna, or Badlands biomes.
  • Will now use Fire Bomb attacks more often when targeting prey from the air.

Trivia

• Fire dragons have unique death messages for killing the player, including 2 "mundane" death messages and 1 comical death message.
  • When the player gets killed by the dragon's grab-and-shake attack, one of the following messages will display:
    • "<playername> was split in two by a dragon"
    • "<playername> was torn to shreds by a dragon"
    • "<playername> was devoured by a dragon"
  • When the player gets killed by the dragon's fiery breath, one of the following messages will display:
    • "<playername> was turned into KFC by a dragon"
    • "<playername> was incinerated by a dragon"
    • "<playername> was turned to ash by a dragon"
• Fire dragons are able (if allowed via the configs) to spawn in other dimensions, including the End. This isn't a bug, it's a feature.