Dragons (Skyrim)

"Most Nords of Skyrim believed Dragons were only a legend. Until now."

- -The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Dragons (Dovah, or Dov plural) are a large and powerful, avian-reptilian race from Akavir that were once widespread throughout Tamriel. Although seeming rather beast-like, they are profoundly intelligent, capable of speech, written language, and comprehending other languages. Their spoken language can be used to cast powerful magic known as Thu'um or Dragon Shouts. They were rendered almost extinct, until 4E 201 when they have resurfaced in Skyrim with the return of Alduin.

Dragon Types
Common Others
 * Dragon: The first Dragons encountered in Skyrim; they are brown and are often the Fire variant.
 * Blood Dragon: The second weakest dragon type, they are green with a spade-shaped tail.
 * Frost Dragon: They have shiny white scales with massive black spikes. Exclusively use Frost shouts.
 * Elder Dragon: They are bronze-scaled with arrow-shaped tails and are second in power only to the Ancient Dragon.
 * Ancient Dragon: The most powerful common dragon type in Skyrim. They are red and black.
 * Skeletal: A Skeletal Dragon appears in Labyrinthian during The Staff of Magnus (Quest).
 * Red Dragon: See: Nafaalilargus and Odahviing.


 * A Dragon's level is not necessarily the exact level a player must be to encounter one, but it is an approximation.

Named Dragons
These are Dragons encountered throughout Skyrim. Essentially identical to random nameless Dragons in terms of gameplay, these Dragons are usually encountered during the main quest with individual names and dialogue:

Alduin: The first-born of Akatosh has resurfaced in Skyrim. He is raising the dragons throughout Skyrim so that he may feast on the souls of the dead and the living. One of the few black dragons. He is also called the "Eater of the World".

Paarthurnax: Leader of the Greybeards and follower of The Way of The Voice, Paarthurnax is Alduin's younger brother and was part of the cause for thousands of deaths but betrayed Alduin and helped in the original "defeat".

Odahviing: Alduin's right hand Dragon, Odahviing, was captured by the Dovahkiin and then was pledged allegiance to him in return for his freedom. He can be called to aid of the Dovahkiin by using the Call Dragon shout. One of the few red dragons. His name means "snow wing hunter" in the dragon language.

Mirmulnir: The first Dragon encountered by the player (other than Alduin). He attacks the Western Tower of Whiterun.

Sahloknir: An incredibly old Dragon with the ability to breath both fire and ice, was resurrected by Alduin only to be killed shortly after by the Dovahkiin.

Viinturuth: A dragon that has been observed speaking in native tongue to other dragons. This dragon can be randomly encountered while wandering Skyrim. After completing The Throat of the World you can witness Alduin resurrect this dragon from his burial site west of Anga's Mill.

Nahagliiv: Encountered near his burial site just outside Rorikstead. After completing A Cornered Rat you can witness Alduin resurrect this dragon at his burial site.

Vuljotnaak: Encountered near his burial site north-west of Bloated Man's Grotto, south-west of Sleeping Tree Camp, and south of Broken Fang Cave. Was being resurrected by Alduin when encountered. Can be found after completing Diplomatic Immunity.

Vulthuryol: A dragon encountered underground in Blackreach, underneath Alftand. To trigger this dragon attack the player must use the Unrelenting Force shout on the massive orange globe hanging above Blackreach.

Locations
Dragons can attack the player almost anywhere outdoors in Skyrim. Random encounters are scripted to take place after a certain amount of in-game time has passed without a Dragon appearance. Thus, fast traveling to an outdoor location is a reliable way to cause a random Dragon encounter.

Listing every location a player could possibly encounter a Dragon would be futile. There are, however, places where dragons are scripted to appear. Dragons are commonly perched atop word walls, typically at mountain peaks, guarding Thu'um words. These locations appear as a Dragon's Head on the map and are listed here:


 * Ancient's Ascent
 * Autumnwatch Tower
 * Bonestrewn Crest
 * Dragontooth Crater
 * Eldersblood Peak
 * Lost Tongue Overlook
 * Mount Anthor
 * Northwind Summit
 * Shearpoint
 * Skyborn Altar

Dragon Behavior

 * Although most commonly hostile, occasionally dragons will fly around as if you're not there, but eventually dragons will catch sight of something they wish to attack (Excludes Alduin).
 * Their combat patterns usually involve fly-overs while shouting flame or frost, hovering while shouting at you, and ground attacks. Ground attacks involve swinging their tails, using shouts, and attempting to bite with their jaws. If dragons successfully do enough damage to a player they will perform a finishing move by grabbing half player's body with their mouth, swinging them back and forth a couple of times, then launching them in the air like a rag doll.
 * Dragons may crash land after sustaining enough damage, becoming unable to fly and scarring the ground in the process.
 * A useful piece of information to remember is that usually when a dragon lets out a high pitched roar, they are about to hover or land to unleash their fiery or in some cases, icy breath. If you turned on subtitles, the Dragon's Shout will appear in the subtitle bar before it's going to Shout, and if timed properly you may be able to charge up a ward for defense. Time your attacks carefully!

Defense

 * You will often hear a dragon long before you see it. They roar on a regular basis and they make a distinctive sound when flying. Use this to your advantage to either avoid or track them.
 * If you are a Vampire you are more resistant to ice, but vulnerable to fire, this might be good or bad depending of the dragons you encounter, if you are a Dunmer and a third grade Vampire you will be very resistant to all elemental damage, and have no problems at all fighting Dragons at low levels.
 * It is possible to find gear in game that protects against a percentage of elemental damage. This percentage stacks, so if you have the right gear it's possible to nullify up to 85% of elemental damage. Unfortunately, 100% resistance to any elemental damage is impossible. Unless you have equipped a shield with another resistance against frost or fire, however you will still receive damage.
 * Spellbreaker can deflect the breath attack of any dragon up to ancient dragons without its ward breaking.
 * Be aware of your surroundings when combating Dragons; NPC's may get in your way and can get hit and become hostile or wild animals might engage you from behind.
 * Using Dragonrend right before a dragon shouts will make the dragons shout disappear and also cause them to land. (Not true when fighting an Ancient Fire Dragon)
 * Become Ethereal is helpful when you are low on health and a dragon shouts at you with Yol Toor Shul (Fire) or Fo Krah Diin (Frost), it can give you enough breathing time or when a dragon lands far away you can use the shout to get closer without being bombarded with the Yol or Fo.

Offense

 * With the correct perks and powerful weapons, Dragons can be instantly killed with sneak attacks from a melee weapon or bow.
 * When landed, a dragon will let out a long roar when an attack causes it to reach 50% health (the same point where it can no longer fly). While doing its roaring animation, the dragon is incapable of attacking. Using the Slow Time shout can give you enough time to finish it off before it even stops roaring.
 * Shield bashing a dragon on the head will cause it to recoil its head and stop breathing fire or frost prematurely. Power attacks can give the same result, albeit less reliably.

Loot

 * Dragon Bone
 * Dragon Scales
 * Dragon Heartscales (Can be collected using Kavohzein's Fang)
 * Common items

Trivia

 * Remember that a dragon can only land near you if there is enough flat, open space. If you find yourself fighting a dragon who simply refuses to land on the ground, consider moving somewhere more open.
 * A dragon's flame or frost breath may harm you even if submerged in water.
 * When a dragon corpse is burning, the effect can be seen from the world map.
 * Later in the game dragons appear more often than before, at Gjukar's Monument you may see two dragons in the distance after starting The Fallen.
 * If a dragon corpse is in an awkward place and you wish to remove it, simply cast a fireball or a firebolt at the dragon and it will fly off into the air!
 * If lightning spells are used enough, the dragon may be unable to shout. So it seems that dragons use magicka to shout (verification needed)
 * On rare occasions, dragons can attack you if you are inside one of the five large hold capitals
 * At the end of the main quest, if you keep Paarthurnaax alive, there will be some dragons non-hostile to you while some are not.
 * Exiting the underforge seems to attract dragons, and you can kill multiple dragons just by using the exit. Some players have never encountered dragons after exiting the Underforge, despite having done so dozens of times across multiple characters.
 * If a giant and a dragon are fighting each other, the dragon may instantly kill the giant by flying over its head and grabbing it with its talons, dropping it immediately thereafter.
 * Dragons were ruled by the Tsaesci and flew west to Skyrim.
 * A low flying dragon may push you around by flying into you especially on horseback.
 * Dragons may fly underwater and emerge seconds later, as they are impervious to drowning.
 * If you can't absorb a dragon soul, use Dragonrend on the selfish soul-keeping lizard and it should start the animation.

Bugs

 * Several different spells are capable of launching dragon corpses if cast on a dead dragon. Spells that work include Raise Zombie, Frost Spike, and Magelight.
 * A Wabbajack bolt is also capable of launching dragon corpses
 * Prior to patch 1.3 dragons had been known to become glitched into mountains and other textures, which caused them to fly backwards and spin around wildly.
 * Despite patch notes to the contrary, even after patch 1.2 it is possible you won't absorb a dragon's soul (this is most often the case with Blood Dragons) Also, the corpse will remain and no other dragon will spawn at that point. It is also possible to encounter a random dead dragon corpse that the player did not kill in which the player cannot absorb the soul.
 * Skyrim can sometimes fail to render the dragon's texture, leaving the player to fight the untextured model. The texture will appear once the dragon is dead.
 * At several locations at the edge of the map, dragons can land beyond the mountains and will slowly lose health. You will be unable to absorb their souls, as they are out of bounds.
 * Rarely, after you kill a dragon it may fall through the ground and be teleported to another location. This also happens with already dead dragons whose souls have already been absorbed, causing their skeleton to get flung around as the player loads and unloads the area.
 * Even when standing behind columns or large structures dragons perform their execution move, reaching through and grabbing the player in their mouth and tossing them aside for a one-hit kill. Likewise, dragon breath attacks such as Yol (Fire) and Fo (Ice) can usually damage the player through cover and obstacles if what the player is hiding behind isn't thick enough. This is more common with higher level dragons and in the area of The College Of Winterhold.
 * Very rarely, when the dragon landed sometimes they'll be stuck on the ground when he had a full health
 * In some instances, when two dragons are encountered simultaneously one may die instantly upon landing. However, in other cases, both are able to land without dying.