Dragon Zombie

The Dragon Zombie is a recurring boss or powerful enemy in the Castlevania series. It lost its magic, but has become mindlessly violent.
==Description==
The magically reanimated remains of a dragon. Dragon Zombies have appeared in varying amounts of decay thorough the games that comprise the Castlevania series, still being full of flesh (although in an advanced rotten state) in games such as Castlevania Legends and Castlevania: Circle of the Moon, and more skeleton-like in Castlevania Chronicles and Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin.
According to its description in Castlevania Legends, the Death Dragon –as it is referred to in that game– was slain by Count Dracula himself and then brought back as a living corpse to guard his castle.
==Appearances==
===Castlevania Chronicles===
The boss of the second level. Simon Belmont passes the dragon's remains while trekking through the Underground Aqueduct. It returns at the end to attack while Simon is stuck on a small raft. The dragon remains hovering on the right side of the screen, attacking in two ways: it will either tip the raft with its tail, or breathe fire at Simon. It can be avoided by remaining on the left side of the raft and constantly attacking its head.
===Castlevania Legends===
This dragon was actually killed by Count Dracula himself and then granted it new life to be a part of his own army. The dragon is huge and only its front half is shown onscreen. Its fire-breathing ability is ever-present, but it chooses to spew individual flame blasts sporadically as it moves its head up and down between three possible positions to keep the player guessing while moving. It can also jump and crash its bulky body onto the ground, causing debris to fall from the ceiling to further disrupt Sonia Belmont's movements.
===Castlevania: Circle of the Moon===
A pair of Dragon Zombies appear as the bosses of the Underground Gallery in Circle of the Moon. Both dragons lie on the ground, unable to move anymore due to their bodies being so bulky and in an advanced level of decay that they must resort to attack using only their heads. The left dragon attacks by spewing a series of fireballs in a spreading manner, while the right dragon attacks with aimed balls of energy; both attacks deal Fire damage. Both dragons have the ability to slam into the wall and cause debris to fall from the ceiling. When one dragon dies, the other will devour its companion's remains, regaining 300 HP in the process; however, doing so also leaves it open for attack while feeding, allowing the player to possibly deal even more damage than the health it regains.
Once both Dragon Zombies are defeated, the Heavy Ring can be obtained from the next room, which allows Nathan Graves to push wooden boxes out of the way and access new areas of the castle.
===Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin===
In this game, the Dragon Zombie is not a boss but a large, uncommon enemy. It can bite, jump forward, wail its tail at the player, and more importantly, either breath a large poisonous fume or shoot a large laser-like beam from its mouth, both which cover a large area of the room. An almost endless horde of Mummies usually spawn from the ground in areas where these monster dwell.
One can be encountered in the Buried Chamber, another in the Sandy Grave, and yet another one also makes an appearance in Boss Rush Mode (Course 1).
==Item Data==
==Gallery==
Chronicles-dragonskeleton.gif|Simon fighting the Skull Dragon in Chronicles.
Legends - Death Dragon - 01.png|Death Dragon from Legends.
Twin zombie dragon.PNG|Nathan fighting the Dragon Zombies in Circle of the Moon.
==Trivia==
*In Castlevania: Circle of the Moon, the right Dragon Zombie can be defeated even before the boss room's door has closed. As a result, by exploiting the Dual Set-Up System, Nathan Graves can transform into a skeleton (Pluto + Black Dog) and start spamming bones. Since one hit with a big bone will likely kill the dragon and the fact that the right dragon will always be there every time Nathan enters the room, as long as the left dragon has not been killed, Nathan can gain big amounts of EXP quickly by repeating this process.
*In Castlevania: Circle of the Moon, the right Dragon Zombie can be defeated with minimal effort, although over a very long period of time, by using Dual Set-Up System to create ice orbs that circle Nathan (Jupiter + Serpent), then simply standing still atop the platform directly above the right Dragon's head. This will cause the Dragon to take damage gradually as its head sways back and forth through the ice orbs' path, while the orbs will protect Nathan from falling debris, requiring Nathan to only jump periodically to dodge fireballs from the left Dragon Zombie and occasionally deactivate the power in order to allow Nathan's Mind Points to regenerate. However, this method has been observed to require a considerable amount of time due to the low amount of damage caused by the ice orbs, potentially requiring an excess of 40 minutes to defeat the dragon.
*In Castlevania: Lament of Innocence, in the first room of the Pagoda of the Misty Moon, the skeletal remains of a winged dragon appear on the floor.
*The Dragon Zombie that appears in Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin has a greatsword that resembles a Zweihander pierced through its mouth (among other weapons bored along the rest of its body). Interestingly enough, its rare drop is precisely the Zweihander.
*In Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, Gabriel Belmont fights a Titan boss near the end of the game called the Dracolich, which are the reanimated remains of a dead dragon. Interestingly enough, the Castlevania Legends Death Dragon is said to have been slain by Dracula, while Gabriel defeated the Dracolich not long before he became Dracula himself.
*A Yu-Gi-Oh! card (also by Konami) is based off the concept of this creature, although it's unknown if there's a direct connection between both.Dragon Zombie card from Yu-Gi-Oh!
COTM 08 Underground Gallery 20b.PNG|Using the Skeleton Form exploit in Circle of the Moon.
Lament of Innocence Zombie Dragon Texture.jpg|Texture of the remains at the Pagoda of the Misty Moon in Lament of Innocence.
Dracolichdetail.png|Dracolich concept art from Lords of Shadow.
==See also==
*Dracolich Titan
*Dragon
*Zombie
==References==
==External links==
*Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin - Bestiary by Darth Nemesis at GameFAQs
*Mr. P's Castlevania Realm
Category:Dragons
Category:Fire Bosses
Category:Fire Enemies
Category:Flying Bosses
Category:Flying Enemies
Category:Skeletal Bosses
Category:Skeletal Monsters
Category:Zombies
Category:Chronicles Bosses
Category:Circle of the Moon Bosses
Category:Legends Bosses
Category:Portrait of Ruin Enemies