I know it's shocking, but as of 6/30/2023 the game's going down forever. this guide will be useless as there will be no game to play and therefore no reason to read this guide. I thank all of you that read this and used my advice, and after 9 long years of playing this game I am heartbroken to say goodbye. I hope this guide was able to help you enjoy the game more than you would've before, and that you can continue to enjoy it until it takes its final breaths. Thank you.

-Wolf, Guide Creator

--NOTICE--
A lot of things have changed since I originally wrote this guide. I will attempt to update it as I learn more and am aware of more helpful hints.

If you haven't already picked a dragon yet, I would recommend a Gronckle. Your choice ultimately does not affect the rest of the process, though, so if you didn't pick a Gronckle, it's not the end of the world. If you haven't already picked your second dragon, here's some quick tips on what each of the eight options are good for.

-Sand Wraith
Great for racing and battle events (important later on). Some of the pro racers use them as their main racers and in their titan forms are quite the challenge. Also, it's good for some stable quests such as The Night's Terror Watch and Appearance Disappearance.
-Flightmare
Another good racer and decent battler. Not quite as good as the Sand Wraith but still a formidable opponent if you know how to race with it. Good for some stable quests, however i can't quite remember the names of the ones it's best for.
-Rumblehorn
Not a great racer but a good battler. Overall not my first choice but they are decent-looking dragons that are good for a handful of stable quests.
-Shockjaw
Not a great battler but an okay racer. These guys are kinda derpy looking and good for a couple quests, but other than that they aren't worth it.
-Gronckle
Terrible racer but an amazing battler. Their steady flying animation makes them great for sniping and makes easy points towards earning gold rewards (like gems!).
-Deadly Nadder
Okay racer and bad battler. They're nice overall but not my best pick for convenience.
-Monstrous Nightmare
Good racer, the best out of the original four in my personal opinion but not too great battle-wise. Their shots are steady but not easy to aim, making it harder for newer players.
-Hideous Zippleback
Zipplebacks are one of my favorites. They're great for a handful of quests but are terrible racers and terrible battlers(sorry, guys). I would recommend them if you're more of an idle player and want to get idle rewards from Stable Quests.

I would not recommend picking two of the same dragon unless you are obsessed with that dragon but even then that's a little much for just starting out. It's also not a great idea to miss out on one of the first four options as you can get all four "starter" dragons from Coin Chests.
If you haven't found how to obtain your second dragon, click the little map icon on the right side of your screen just under the map button and click "Dragon Care".

So, once you finish all of that, it's a smart idea to start out by doing a bunch of quests. It may take a while, but the rewards are well worth it. You'll need 5,500 coins total. Once you have saved up about 2,000 coins, buy all three of these:

-Icestorm Island Expansion Pack

-Battle For The Edge Expansion Pack

-Curse of the Hobgobblers Expansion Pack

Now, about the Gems- Save up and take all opportunities to get more. These gems are helpful in countless ways and the more the merrier.
Leveling up your baby dragon is a very smart thing to do. Take your baby dragon on quests instead of your adult, and level it up to level 5. Before it can become a teenager, you have to go to Hiccup cause he has a quest to age up your dragon. (don't fuss, it gives you extra coins. (it only happens once as well)) This way, it can glide, and not be totally useless.
After it's level 5, you just need to get it to level 10 and it can fly. Hiccup should notice when your dragon is level 10 and will basically force you to level it up (not that you wouldn't want your useless dragon to not be useless anymore). Now that both your dragons can fly, it's time to start talking about the expansions and their importance.

You may be questioning why I told you to flush 2,000 coins in the toilet for those Expansion Pack thingies. (also, if you couldn't find them in the store, they're under the world icon with the plus on it.) They each give you a dragon, all three of which are extremely useful in their own ways. That 2,000 coins just saved you about 1,250 gems. *mind blown*

The Groncicle is great for racing. it has good turning rate, good acceleration, and good speed. All of which are very important for being first. It's also a good battler as it uses the same animation as the Gronckle which is very steady and its fireballs are controllable. I'll explain how to do Battles later on within the guide.
The Armorwing is good for a few Stable Quests, as it has high heat which is important for multiple of the quests. Other than that, though, it's pretty useless. Sorry Armorwing!
The Smitten Hobgobbler (it's just a normal Hobgobbler but it can't age up into a Titan) is an amazing battler and I actually use it for battles most of the time. This dragon and the Groncicle are the reason I said your original two didn't matter on how good of battlers they were. However, if you like mixing it up or want a lot of options for when you might be in a pinch, it's best to have at least one of them as a good battler.

But, in order to get these amazing dragons, you must first complete a boatload of quests, most of which involve following slow NPCs and getting annoying-to-obtain farm items. Some also require dragons that can fly, so that's why both your dragons needed to be able to fly before getting to the Expansions. After you complete all the quests, the Armorwing, the Groncicle, and the Hobgobbler are yours. (Keep in mind the Groncicle is level 5 when you get it and the Armorwing and Hobgobbler are level 10. The Armorwing and Hobgobbler are adults, but the Groncicle is only a teen.) Before you can fly on them and stuff though, you need Stable Slots for them. That's where UDT points come in. (More free stuff! yay!)

You have to have stables to keep your dragons in. You currently have 2 stable slots, but if you remember earlier i mentioned you need 5,500 coins. Those extra 3,500 go into buying the UDT stable. UDT stands for Ultimate Dragon Trainer. Before you can buy the stable, you need 2 things-

-15,000 UDT points
-3,500 Coins

UDT points are gained fro things like Racing, Dragon Tactics, Battle Events, etc. I'll fill you in on all of those later. It will be a little while before you get your desired beautiful Armorwing and Groncicle, but it will be worth it in the end. Another important thing you should be keeping up on is your Gem amount. When you get 500 (from various resources like Dragon Tactics and Daily Rewards) you can get a Titan Wing Dragon. These Titans can do special Stable Quests for gems or even more Dragon Eggs. (I've gotten at least 4 dragons from the one quest that gives a Mystery Box of dragon eggs.) Most Stables have 4 slots, but the Dream Stable has 5. They all used to be the same price but now dream stables are 75 gems more. UDT points are helpful for getting free dragons, but before you can get any more dragons you'll need yet another stable because of the Eruptodon code and the 3 expansion dragons.

!!! VERY IMPORTANT !!!
GET THE BEWILDERBEAST STABLE ASAP!
this thing is wonderful to have, it gives you a bunch of perks such as bewilderbeast armor pieces and also gems, so within a few weeks it pays for itself! it's incredibly convenient and it's a necessity to have.

There are a variety of Stable Quests that you need certain dragons to do. Every dragon type has 2 Abilities: For Example, the Hideous Zippleback has Burst and Gas, Gronckle has Armor and Agile, Deadly Nadder has Speed and Razor, and the Monstrous Nightmare has Aura and Focus. Fishlegs often tells you what icon is required for certain quests, so make sure your dragon has the matching icon to get 100% chance of success. Some quests require a certain type of dragon, and that type of dragon only. Examples of these quests involve Tunnel Run, which only accepts Speed Stingers, and Gronckle Iron, which only accepts Gronckles. Another quest is Eels! which only accepts the Death Song, the Slithersong, and the Typhoomerang. There are also the Toothless Quests, some of which award huge bundles of gems (anywhere from 100 to 400). I'll explain how to unlock those in a bit.

Fishing. The first thing you want to do is buy the Advanced Rod. Press Space when you see STRIKE appear on your screen. With the Advanced Rod, you'll have a DRAG button, and you'll want to keep your mouse on it. Keep the little icon off of the red bars at either end, and reel the fish to you. When the fish gets close enough to you, you'll receive it. You'll need to do a lot of fishing for some of Phlegma's stupid quests which is the most ANNOYING thing in the game, but other than that fishing is pretty enjoyable(And also completely unnecessary, I'l explain in a minute). I do, however, know a glitch that will allow you to speed up the fishing process INSANELY as it makes you capable of instantly catching the fish. It does require some skill and speed, but other than that it is relatively easy. I'll walk you through the steps:
-Respawn. Get caught by a guard on Glacier Island and before you respawn, go somewhere else.
-Once your character is invisible (completely invisible or it won't work), go fishing anywhere you please.
-Fish like normal except the fact your character is missing.
-boom. easy fish
the way this works is that fishing uses a certain radius around your character to register the fish being caught. if your character's gone then it panics and gives you the fish instantly.
NOTE: IT DOES NOT WORK IF YOUR CHARACTER IS FLASHING. your character needs to be completely invisible for it to function (im)properly.
FIX: press ESC and hit Viking List, then log back in as normal. It'll reset your character.

Battle Events are where Vikings team up at the Training grounds to fight a Scouting Ship that is invading the Training Grounds' Waters. After the Ship is destroyed, Vikings who participated (depending on how many shots they hit) get a Mystery Box of random Rewards.
These Rewards often include:

-Farm Items (decorations, livestock)
-Fish
-Stables
-Dragon Eggs
-Saddles (Defenders Saddles)
-Warpaint
-Gems(a lot of gems)

There are certain dragons that are great for battle events(and one of them you can get straight from the start!!!) and others that arent so... great. One of the best ways to tell if the dragon you're using would be good for a battle event is to go to the Training Grounds, go to one of the respawn places that recharge your dragon's fire, and blast away. Pay attention to the accuracy of the shots, time between shots, and whether or not the angle from the dragon's mouth would hit the battle ship. The Titanwing Deathgripper is really good for part of it, but so is the Titan Gronckle.

With the right dragon, you can easily get the Gold ranking and get gems, stables, and eggs with no sweat. Lots of people use sniping as their tactic, but there is another way to do Battle Events. You can fire at the ship, fly back to a rest spot, reload, and go back. This way is less effective than sniping, but if you don't have a good sniper dragon, this would be the way to go. If you have lots of dragons like me, you could keep swapping dragons to keep firing at the ship while in the water next to it, but that'd be a last resort. Battle events occur every hour, and lots of people show up to each one.

This is how I get my gems. I do battles as much as I can; I've earned over half of my dragons from gems earned from battle events. Gronckles, Groncicles, Seastormers, Flightmares, Hobgobblers, Adult Night Lights, Snaptrappers, Deathly Galeslashes, and Thunderdrums are all great options. Any dragon that has a steady flying animation and has a focused area of where its fireballs land is good for a Battle. You can test out a bunch of different dragons and pick out the one that's right for you. With these tactics, getting dragons will be fairly easy, so you won't have to worry about waiting months for a single dragon like you used to with the daily login being your only source of gems.

Dragon Tactics- You and other characters team up against a bunch of enemies and complete all the objectives to win! you can get cool rewards from this game (like gems, new armor sets, cool weapons, and boatloads of coins), and requires certain answers to questions (so you better get memorizing and researching!) and also certain expansion packs give you new fun levels to play (example- Icestorm Island Expansion gives you new levels)!

Thunder Run Racing- Here, you race against other Vikings to be first place. Your dragon has to be an adult to play. Fly through all the green glowing hoops to finish the race, and if you miss one, you gotta turn around and fly through it. Some tips are in the racing section below.

Fireball Frenzy- You fire at targets (dragons ignore their shot limit for a short period of time) and try to get the highest score. You can use teenager dragons here. It's pretty fun in single player and i hold the best record in it, but if you want to try and challenge me go for it. I'm obviously not going to post my secret here because I want to keep my spot, but if you feel adventurous I can't stop you from trying.

Flight Club- You can use teenager dragons here, to learn to fly your dragons better. Ideal for mastering racing. Also, you can ride any of the dragons in the series, but you have to buy them. (hookfang is free) You can earn gems from getting 45 A+'s in this minigame, so it might be worth your time to crush some of these once you get both dragons to adults.

This IS the ultimate guide to getting good, so I must include everything you need.

For Thunder Run Racing, you'll want to get a decent dragon. Commonly used dragons are the Sand Wraith, the Flightmare, any of the Night Lights, Toothless, and the Light Fury. I am aware that most of these dragons either require membership or a certain time of the year to obtain, and I am here to inform you that the Sand Wraith and Flightmare are starter dragons you can get. You have a 50/50 shot at getting a good racer from the start. If you don't, don't worry about it! Both of these dragons are some of the cheapest available and will not take long to save up for. Some tips on earning gems below.

Turning: Press Shift for about half a second while turning, this will make the turn sharper and easier to control.
Speed: Don't let go of spacebar. Just hold it down, so you go fast. Speed is your key to winning. Getting fired at and running into green clouds will slow you down. Running into mystery boxes that are red and have upside down question marks will make you spin out of control.
Slowing others down: Fire at others occasionally to slow them down. Place green clouds in small shortcuts. Use shields when being shot at/going into a small shortcut with a green cloud.
Shortcuts: Watch and learn. Take shortcuts that others take. It'd take way too long to point them all out, so that's the best advice i can give. Memorize these shortcuts and use them for your own benefit.

I would give out my clan's secret for racing, but I've been told not to, so unfortunately I cannot. I apologize.


On to the achievements!

You want Achievements? You Got Achievements.

-If you complete the training course in Dragon Tactics, you get 50 gems.
-As I stated earlier, Flight Club will give you 150 gems for getting 45 A+'s.
-Completing all the Cogs and Contraptions levels will get you either 150 or 200 gems each. I can't remember which one.
-Most of the other achievements are pretty self-explanatory. You can find them in your Journal.

If you wander around the area a bit, you might come across some random mystery boxes that cost gems or coins to open.
DON'T.
If you want to get more dragons, you need to save up for a stable. If you have already bought the Boulder Stable UDT, feel free to buy whatever you want. Also, Dragon Tactics grinding makes you SUPER rich, and if you've already bought all the necessary stuff that costs coins, you can go opening these things for hours without concern. Don't do it until you're rich.

You probably want membership, right? Well, I have discovered a way to earn it for free. Save up 300 gems and buy the 7 day trial membership. It will give you discounts on EVERYTHING (except for age-ups), There's six Toothless Stable quests it unlocks (two of which give LOTS OF GEMS) and it unlocks the member-only Stable Quest slot too. It also gives you Toothless and the Light Fury, and is totally worth its cost. Once you get it, you can get gems through the Toothless Quests, and if you have a mobile device with School of Dragons, you can watch ads to speed up the 96-hour quests. However, it is VERY annoying when it runs out as it will constantly pester you to renew it. Make sure you either save up another 300 or keep 300 on hand when it's about time for it to run out. Battle Events are one of the best ways of earning gems. Also, you keep the Toothless Slot, so if you get a bunch of Night Lights, you could use them for the gem quests and earn bonus gems there.

Psst! there's some fun promo codes from like 800 BC that still work in this game because SoD is lazy and doesn't make their codes expire!
In game, go to Settings then to Redeem Code, then to the website it gives and enter these codes:
https://www.schoolofdragons.com/promotion/default.aspx?lang=en (if you need it)
-takeflight
-lavaeater
-cloudcover
-skrillthrill

The website will probably prompt you to login which is okay because it's the official site that works with the game. Once you do it'll give you the following items:
-Eruptodon Egg
-Freedom Flight Suit
-Rust Stormcutter Armor Set
-Red Skrill Armor Set
Enjoy your new free stuff! The armor sets are particularly helpful for Dragon Tactics but do take up a lot of your inventory slots. :(

New players often don’t know some of the secrets that veterans like me do. I am here to tell you that everything I have accomplished is possible without spending a single cent on the game. However, to make getting everything I have a much faster process, do not spend your coins/gems on random things. Battle events and daily rewards are your friends, try to attend as many battle events as you can. If you get random luck (like me) you may find yourself with a few unexpected dragon eggs and stables. The real key to being a good dragon racer is knowing(and mastering) the controls. Try Gronckle Run and Hidden Lights as they’re both good for mastering quick turns and have no shortcuts for you to worry about missing. Speaking of shortcuts, you want to take every single shortcut except for the one on Nightmare Tide, right above the cavern. It is harder to maneuver and generally slower than taking the normal path. If you have a mobile device that has SoD downloadable on it, download it. You can watch ads to get double rewards from battles, extra gems, open chests that may give you a stable of a dragon egg, and a lot of other things. I must warn you though, racing is a LOT harder on mobile devices. You have to get used to it, that's for sure. There are many clans you can join with Discord communities and they are usually pretty nice. I'm a part of UC (UnConquerable) and I'm on every now and then. If you want, you can check the clan in the list to see if I'm online, and if I am, you can go around and look for me if you want.

You can continue your journey of saving up gems, buying dragons, getting Titans, adventuring in Expansion Packs, and much more. This Guide was to help propel you through the basics and into the actual fun stuff. You can keep playing this game to your heart's content, and enjoy this game beyond this guide. i REALLY hope this helped. Thank You for reading, Have a nice flight. ;)

Thanks to everyone throughout the years of this game's existence. I am so thankful for the hundreds of you who viewed my guide, and I couldn't be more proud to have spent all the time I did playing this game. I'll miss my dragons, and I'm sure you'll miss yours too. Thanks to BrudenBlud for being my best friend who I met through this game, and thanks to all of you who gave me feedback as I tried to keep this guide updated over the years.

Soar on,
Wolf Spider