Lightning Dragon

**Lightning Dragons** are one of the three Dragon species that roam the Overworld. They are most famously known for their ability to breathe streams of lightning, as well as their flight abilities. Like fire dragons and ice dragons, lightning dragons have nine natural attacks that can decimate players effortlessly. They also progress through five stages of development, where they grow larger, stronger, and more terrifying. They are considered by some to be the most powerful of all dragons!

## Appearance

Like fire dragons and ice dragons, lightning dragons are quadrupedal reptiles with massive wings, long tails, spike-laden backs, and massive jaws. However, they have 3 pairs of backwards-facing horns instead of 2, the spikes on their back are longer and stand taller, and their tails are tipped in 3 pairs of long spikes. Male lightning dragons differ from females by having darker-edged wings, while females differ from males by having curvier horns. Lightning dragons come in 4 colors: Amethyst Purple, Dark Black, Copper Brown, and Electric Blue. Dragons grow extremely large, from 2 blocks long at 0 days old to 50 blocks long when fully grown.

## Spawning

Lightning dragons can spawn in Jungle, Savanna, and Badlands biomes. 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.

## Drops

Loot from a lightning 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 2-3 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, or a heart. 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

Lightning 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 lightning attacks will electrify all blocks in the area (turning them into Crackled Blocks). Wild dragons can be seen frequenting small roosts adorned with large piles of copper and many chests; unlike other dragons, they will sleep there during the day, but can be woken up if a player breaks a copper pile or opens a nearby chest, or if a thunderstorm starts. Dragons will rarely eat meat items that are dropped on the floor.

### Abilities

Like other dragons, lightning dragons have the ability to fly very quickly, making melee combat extremely difficult when fighting them. As well as this, they have the ability to electrocute players with their lightning breath, killing them in mere 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.
* Lightning Breath: The dragon breathes a branching stream of lightning at its target, electrifying blocks in the area. If in the air, it flies overhead of its target while performing this attack.
* Lightning Bomb: The dragon spews a large lightning bomb that explodes on impact, leaving a crackled 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: Lightning dragons will attack fire dragons and ice dragons, so do not put a lightning 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 lightning dragon cannot be tamed, and a tamed dragon can only be achieved through hatching an egg. Lightning Dragon eggs must be placed in rain to start the hatching process. Once the egg starts moving, it will take a few minutes to hatch.

It is noted that the rain must continue until the egg hatches. Please also note, that, once the egg hatches, a bolt of lightning will strike it, and the dragon will burn, it's best to keep watch and have water on hand.

### Breeding

Two lightning dragons can be bred if they are opposing genders and stage four or higher, by crafting and utilizing Lightning 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.

### Growth

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. At maximum size, their health is 500. Their growth can be accelerated with Dragon Meal, which adds a day to their age, or stopped altogether with Sickly Dragon Meal. Each piece of dragon meal grows the dragon by one day. For males, wing spots grow in on day 10 of stage 1.

After they are fully grown, they still age with days and can still eat dragon meals, but they do not gain size nor health.

Dragon Stage Growth By Days

### Tamed Behavior

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 breath lightning, 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 lightning at an active Lightning Dragonforge if near one, powering the multi-block structure and allowing it to turn iron ingots into Lightning Dragonsteel Ingots.

Like Fire and ice dragons, a tamed lightning dragon's Roar will give the owner strength for 100-150 seconds.

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

## Gallery

Original April Fools modelA lightning dragon roost in the jungleA sleeping female lightning dragonThe lightning ball attack of lightning dragonsA player riding a lightning dragon to kill a wandering cyclopsA lightning dragon attacking some animals with its shocking breathA lightning dragon shooting a pig with ball lightningA lightning dragon flies over the savannahA player attempting to slay a lightning dragonA midnight lightning dragon roars to assert it's dominance over the jungleA lightning dragon and a fire dragon about to fightA blue lightning dragon using its lightning breath attackLightning Dragon making dragonsteelMale (left) lifgning dragons have more ombré/gradient wings than their female (right) counterpartsLightning Dragon powering a Dragonforge at sunsetSunset with a Baby Lightning Dragon on my Shoulder.The true size of a stage 4 lightning dragon (T-rex and human for scale)
## History

* 2.0.0:
	+ Introduced.

## Trivia

* Like fire dragons and ice dragons, lightning dragons have unique death messages for killing the player; in addition to this, these messages include 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"
	+ However, there are currently no unique messages that display whenever the player gets killed by the dragon's electric breath.
* Lightning dragons have much different vocalizations from the other dragons, emitting more high-pitched hisses and trills underlaid with some electric sizzling.
	+ ToteMeistarinn, one of the official modelers and sound designers for the Fossils and Archaeology: Revival and one of Alexthe666's co-developers, provided all the sounds for the lightning dragons.