THE ELEMENTAL BREATH
Every dragon has the same single attack: the Elemental Breath. It can cut a rival in half or end it with one precise shot to the head. Learning when to tap, when to charge and when to dodge is what separates a good dragon from a great one.
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Charging and firing
Hold the Breath button to charge and release it to fire. The longer you hold, the stronger the shot, up to a full charge after 1.2 seconds. Even a quick tap fires once a small minimum charge has built.
| Quick tap | Full charge | |
|---|---|---|
| Reach | Short | About twice as long |
| Width | Narrow | Wider, easier to land |
| Slice depth | Cuts up to 20 % of a dragon | Cuts up to 50 % of a dragon |
| Can headshot? | No | Yes (from about 60 % charge) |
| Spirit cost | 16 | 33 |
While you charge, your dragon slows to half speed and turns a little slower, and a dashed aim line appears in front of you for everyone to see. After each shot there is a 1.8 second cooldown before the next charge can start.
Only the front hits. The beam stays on screen for half a second, but only its travelling front deals damage. Flying through the glow after it has passed is safe.
Body hit: the slice
When the Breath touches a rival's body, it cuts the body at the first point it touches. Everything behind the cut is severed and breaks into orbs along the tail – orbs anyone can eat, starting with you.
- A cut near the tail removes little; a cut near the head removes a lot. The deeper the charge, the more of the dragon one slice can remove.
- A slice never kills: a dragon cannot be sliced below a minimum size. To finish a dragon you need a headshot, or for it to crash into a body.
- Most of the Might cut away (70 %) falls as orbs, so slicing is also the fastest way to grow.
Head hit: the headshot
If a Breath charged to at least about 60 % touches a rival's head, it is a headshot: the rival is defeated on the spot and drops its loot. The head counts first – if the same beam crosses both the head and the body, the headshot wins.
Landing a headshot refunds a full shot's worth of Spirit, so a good shooter can keep firing. A head hit with too little charge simply counts as a slice just behind the head.
How to land headshots
- Shoot the path, not the head. Aim where the head will be when the beam arrives, especially against fast or boosting dragons.
- Use head-on approaches. A rival flying straight toward you has its head in line for longer.
- Punish turns. A dragon that turns away from your aim line shows you the side of its head.
- Release early. A charge at two thirds is enough for a headshot and gives your target less time to react.
Armor and cracks
A giant cannot be ended by one lucky shot from a tiny dragon. If the target has more than twice your Might, your first headshot cracks its armor instead of ending it. For the next five seconds, a headshot from anyone on that cracked dragon is fatal.
That makes cracks a team effort in a crowded arena: one dragon cracks, another finishes. An Ascended dragon ignores armor completely.
Dodging the aim line
Every charged Breath is announced by the aim line, and you have up to a second to react. The best dodges:
- Turn sideways out of the line rather than flying away along it – the beam travels along the line.
- Boost briefly across the line if you are already committed to a turn.
- Don't hide behind another dragon: a Breath does not stop at the first dragon it touches – it can slice or headshot every dragon along its path.
- Watch the cooldown. Right after a rival fires, it cannot fire again for 1.8 seconds. That is your window to attack.
Do elements matter?
Every dragon breathes one of four elements – Inferno (fire), Glacier (ice), Thunder (storm) or Gale (wind). The elements look and sound completely different, but their rules are identical: same damage, same range, same width, same cost. Pick the one you like to look at.