How to keep a dragon

The egg

• Your first egg hatches the morning after you join. Aemvyra shows you the map of the Vale, then takes you home to meet it. Friends who warm it from its link make it hatch sooner.
• An egg from a pairing takes about four days, and likes six turns in that time. Tap the nest to turn it. Turns shape its personality; it hatches on time either way.
• Stoke the fire when the room cools. Candle the egg once a day for a hint.
• Miss a turn and it still hatches on time.
• Other Dragon Keepers can warm your egg. Who visited shapes its temperament.
• When it is ready, the nest says so. You name what hatches.

Care and bond

• Four needs: hunger, spirit, preening and warmth.
• Three acts: feed, play, preen. Tap your dragon in the room.
• Each act earns a little silver and bond. Needs fall over hours, not minutes.
• A dragon left alone gets hungry and sulky, never hurt.
• Once a day it wants one thing. Meeting it earns double bond.
• Bond climbs through five bands, from wary to inseparable, and never falls.

Life stages

• Egg, hatchling, drake, dragon, elder.
• Hatchling to drake: seven days. Drake to dragon: three weeks. Real days, no shortcuts.
• Elder is your choice, after seventy days as a dragon. Elders give advice to visitors.
• Each stage has its own body and its own level cap in the ring.
• Clothes are cut to size. Outgrown pieces stay in your storage.

Your lair, coin and the shop

• Tap a tile to walk there. Your dragon follows.
• The workshop under the room holds your purse, storage and today's shop.
• The shop has six pieces a day. New stock at your midnight.
• Buy a piece and it goes to storage. Place it, turn it or put it away in the room.
• Nothing you buy is ever lost. The shop buys most things back at half price.
• Silver comes from care, errands, work, expeditions and fights. It buys the everyday shop.
• Gold comes from the story, bosses, the Lists, every fifth level, or the Treasury. It buys the finest tier.
• With enough silver and Building skill you can dig more rooms.

The World

A map of places to walk into with your dragon. Chat with whoever is there. The places:

• The Hollow — A fire that is nobody's. Tap a tile to walk, and whoever else is here will see you do it.
• The Warm Springs — Water warmed by the rock it rises through. Slip in; whoever else is soaking will see you arrive.
• The Overlook — The world from above it. The wind does most of the talking, and the fire disagrees.
• The Shore — Where the wood runs out of land. Cold water, a warm fire, and driftwood that remembers being taller.
• The Sky Lift — A timber lift at the foot of a great mast. Step into the cage and ride the open sky.
• The Terrarium — A garden under one great glass. The weather never gets in, and whoever else is walking the green will see you arrive.
• The Great Forest of Mercer — An old forest and a fire that was never lit. Tap a tile to walk, and whoever else is here will see you arrive.
• The Arena — A sanded ring. Your dragon fights; you call the moves. Spar with whoever is here, or climb the ladder.
• The Sunken Warren — Cold caves under the ridge. Walk up to a wild dragon to fight it. Beat them all and the boss rises.
• Thornback Ridge — Wind and scrub. Wild dragons stand about the ridge; Bramblejaw holds the crest.
• Ashfall Gullies — Hot ground and old kilns. Kilnmother waits at the far end for anyone who clears the way.
• The Frostmoor — Snow country past the Wolfhold. Wild dragons stand about the moor; Old Winter lies under the cairn.
• The Elder Stand — The oldest trees in Mercer's wood, and what was under them before the fire. The Eldest waits at the heart.
• The Highwall — A red fortress city on the headland. Three wards climb to a keep that has never been taken.
• The Wolfhold — A grey castle in the snow. A great yard, an old grove with a hot pool, and a Great Hall. The snow does not stop.
• Lairhalla — The capital, where every road ends. Twenty wards inside one wall: the Great Market, a fairground, the Old Town, a cathedral and the Citadel.
• The Library — The colleges' reading room. Tap a shelf and the books come down.
• The Cathedral of the First Flame — The nave behind the great door: two rows of piers, pews, and the First Flame burning at the far end. Light a candle, read the Founder's stone, listen at the crypt stair.
• The Observatory — A round room under a dome on the Overlook. The great telescope shows where the next stars will fall.
• The Thieves' Guild — The Thieves' Guild, called the Lamplighters by day. Nan Quickset runs it. Join to learn to find things, go unnoticed, and work in the dark.
• The Wardens' Hatchery — The dragons' guild. Aud Ferrow runs it and judges your dragon, not you. Join to be ranked on how well you raise it.
• The Wayfarers' Map Room — The travellers' guild. Sable Marrow runs it. Join to be sent to every fire and down every road, and ranked for coming back.
• The Masons' Lodge — The builders' guild. Hob Greaves runs it. Join to be ranked on your lair: what you place, what you dig, how you build.
• The Warriors' Sword Hall — The fighters' guild. Brand Halloran runs it. Join to be ranked on fights won, ladder rungs beaten and hunting grounds cleared.
• The Assassins' Quiet Room — The guild of the night. Vesper Kell runs it. Join to fight after dark, sit at the night fires, and earn the rank nobody hears coming.

• Each place drops something once a day for whoever walks over it.
• Expeditions send your grown dragon away for hours. It comes back with silver or a trinket.

Neighbours, friends and trades

• The neighbours page lists every lair. Visit one to leave warmth, sign the guestbook or warm the egg.
• Ask anyone to be friends at a lair door or any fire.
• Friends can send parcels from the post, up to five a day.
• Trade pieces and silver at the Trading Post. Both sides are held until both agree.
• Two friends' grown dragons can be paired. An egg follows for each house.
• Every dragon has a public page and a family tree.

Fights and levels

• Your dragon fights; you call the moves. Pick up to four in the training panel.
• The Arena: a ladder of eight Dragon Keepers, one rung at a time.
• Five hunts, opening in order: the Sunken Warren, Thornback Ridge, Ashfall Gullies, the Frostmoor, and the Elder Stand. Beat the wild dragons to reach the boss. Resets daily.
• Spar with a friend in the ring. Both dragons learn; no coin moves.
• Level comes from fights only. Caps: hatchling 12, drake 25, dragon 40, elder 50.
• Fights cost vigour. It comes back with rest: about an hour for a hatchling, two for a drake, three for a grown dragon. Care brings it back faster. A healing potion brings it back at once; fights drop them now and then, and nobody sells them.
• Losing never leaves the dragon flat: a lost bout is a few minutes' breather, then back in.
• Under a third vigour the dragon is winded and the ring refuses it. Losing costs nothing else.

The story and quests

• The quest log sits under your lair and on the Quests page.
• The Unlit Fire is the main story, told in chapters by people in the world.
• Chapters come in order. Steps complete on their own as you do them.
• Wagers are side quests, in any order.
• Every step links to the place it means.

Each day

• Three errands on the World map each morning, paid in silver.
• A fresh shop counter.
• Tend the hearthfire and it grows a little. Miss a day and it shrinks a little. No streaks.
• Everything resets at your midnight. Change your time zone on the account page.

Your account

• Your account page: password, email, time zone, sign out.
• Turn off email news there too. Password resets always come.
• Your look, and your dragon's, is in the wardrobe.
• Something broken or someone unkind? Write to contact@lairlings.com.
• The Terms of Use and Privacy Policy say what we keep and promise.