How to play DragonWar

Your first battle in 6 steps

1. Press Play now

   Open dragonwar.app/play in your browser. You start as a guest with no download and no sign-up, and a first-match tutorial walks you through the basics.

2. Set the angle

   Drag on the battlefield or on the angle ruler, tap the up and down buttons, or use the arrow keys. Shots inside your dragon’s true-angle zone deal full damage.

3. Read the wind

   The compass at the top shows the wind’s direction and strength, from 0 to 26. A tailwind carries your shot further; a headwind needs more power.

4. Charge the power

   Hold FIRE (or Space) to fill the power bar from 0 to 400 in two seconds, then release to shoot. A faint mark shows the power of your last shot.

5. Pick your shot

   Choose shot 1, shot 2 or the SS special. SS unlocks when your Rage reaches 100; you build Rage by dealing and taking damage.

6. Win the battle

   Bring every rival’s health to zero or knock them into the sea. The last team with a dragon still standing wins.

Controls

Play with a mouse and keyboard on a computer, or with touch on a phone or tablet.

Wind and terrain

Wind blows from any direction with a strength from 0 to 26. In 1v1 it changes every turn; in team battles, every two turns. Light shots drift more than heavy ones, and every dragon’s shots have their own wind sensitivity.

Your dragon stands on uneven ground, and the slope under its feet is added to your aim. Explosions dig craters: if the ground under a dragon disappears, it falls, and falling into the sea or off the map knocks it out. There is no fall damage. Slopes steeper than 55° make you slide.

Turn order and delay

DragonWar uses delay instead of a fixed turn order: the rider with the lowest delay acts next. Every action adds delay. Shot 1 adds 700, shot 2 adds 820, SS adds 1100 and skipping adds 300, plus extra for items, moving and time spent thinking. Small shots let you act again sooner; big shots cost tempo.

You have 20 seconds per turn (15 in Ranked). If the timer runs out, your turn ends.

Shots, damage and elements

Damage is highest at the centre of the blast and falls off towards the edge. Shots fired inside your dragon’s true-angle zone deal full damage; outside it they deal 70%.

Each element adds its own effect. Fire burns for two turns, Lightning chains to nearby targets, Ice freezes a dragon in place for a turn, Wind and Water push or pull, Shadow hides your shot, Plasma can grow stronger in flight and Stone–Crystal can raise new ground.

Great hits earn bonus Gold and big on-screen calls, and high-angle shots that stay in the air a long time build extra Rage. Hitting your own teammates costs you.

Items

Before a battle you fill 6 item slots: light items take one slot, heavy items take two. You can use one item per turn, before you fire, and every item adds delay. Items are free; they are never sold.

• Fire twice in one turn
• Fly to the spot where your shot lands
• Heal 10% of your health
• Add 33% damage to a shot
• Flip the wind for the next turn

Weather and sudden death

Each map has its own weather, 28 effects in all: tornadoes that bend shots, lightning zones that add 30% damage, a low-gravity moon, meteor showers, sandstorms and more. A three-turn forecast shows what is coming, and dangerous events are always announced at least one turn ahead. Weather never changes a shot by more than 30%.

Long matches enter sudden death after turn 15 (1v1) or turn 30 (team battles): from then on, explosions are 50% larger.

Game modes

In Training, the Campaign and battles against bots you see the full aim guide. In online battles only the first quarter of the path is shown, so reading the wind is up to you.

• Training: drills with still targets, the power table and a first-match tutorial
• Vs bots: Easy, Normal, Hard and Very hard
• Solo: free-for-all for 2 to 8 riders
• Team: 2v2 and 4v4
• Score: the first to 30 points wins
• Boss: up to 4 riders against a legendary boss
• Ranked: normalised stats, 15-second turns, seasonal GP ranks
• Play with friends: private rooms with a 6-character code
• Campaign: 12 chapters and 126 stages

Tips for beginners

• Start with an easy dragon such as Pebble: lots of health and heavy shots that barely care about the wind.
• Use Training to learn your dragon’s power table: the power that hits each distance at each angle in calm air.
• Against the wind, add power; with the wind, use less. The stronger the wind, the bigger the correction.
• Stay inside your true-angle zone for full damage.
• Aim at the ground under a rival standing near an edge: one crater can drop them into the sea.
• Thinking and moving both add delay. Move only when it really improves your shot.
• Save SS for a moment when it can hit several rivals or finish one off.
• Check the weather forecast before you commit to a long-range shot.

Guest or account?

You can start right away as a guest. The guest trial lasts 3 days and includes Training and battles against bots, so you can learn the game for free.

Create a free account with a username and password, or with Google, to unlock online battles and Ranked, private rooms with friends, the Egg Hunt and the Dragon Market. If you sign up from a guest session, your progress is kept.