Undead Dragon

Undead Dragons, also known as Zombies, are a special breed of dragon only obtainable by users killing (or purposefully allowing to die) their adults and/or hatchlings, and then attempting to revive them on the 31st of October (Halloween). They cannot be obtained on any other day of the year. Due to the death of dragons involved in creating them, the breed has been the focus of some controversy.

In the past, it was possible to make an Undead dragon during any time of the year, with a rumoured 1 in 100 chance of success. The only known Undead dragons not created on 31st October are the 2 owned by TJ09 (Qemrao Thuwed and 0eidw Qemrao Thuwed) and one undead hatchling created in July 2007 on a hidden scroll, with an inappropriate code (entering the F-word all in capital letters brings it up). There are also a couple of others on user scrolls which have been shown to the users in this thread on the DC forums. It is unknown when the circumstances of being able to create Undeads on Halloween only began, but rumours still continued that creation all-year long was possible. These subsequent rumours were proven false in the IRC on the 22nd of December, 2012.

The chance of creating a successful Undead on 31st October is somewhere between a 1 in 2 to a 1 in 6 chance. It's not necessary for a Dragon to die on the 31st October in order to become an Undead: they can die or be killed within 14 days before but the revive action can only be used on the 31st for it to have a chance to be successful. There are three potential outcomes from using the revive action: reviving as a normal dragon, reviving as an Undead dragon, or permanently dying.

Undead dragons used to only be visible on scrolls between 12AM and 6AM DC time (EST) but now they are always visible in the form of a tombstone. Undeads cannot breed and will not appear on an Incubator. There used to be a glitch that caused Undead Dragons to "roam" on scrolls despite being repositioned or re-sorted; this has since been fixed since the new tombstone sprites were added. Undead dragons are now visible on sorting pages as well as on scrolls.

All Dragon breeds can be zombified, even DC drakes, Vampires, pygmies and two-headed dragons (the last two have a regular zombie sprite, even if their size/aspect isn't like other dragons). Unbreedables such as Papers and Cheeses have been confirmed to be able to become Undead Dragons, albeit ungendered. Dinos can't be zombified since they have no revive option. It has not yet been discovered if Holiday Dragons, Guardians of Nature and Neglecteds can be zombified. However, if a Limited Breed Dragon was zombified, the player cannot take another one for replacement as the Undead will still be counted as its original breed.

Undead dragons, at one point, could not be removed from the scroll. Now with the Soulpeace Dragon and its Expunge BSA, that has changed. Undead hatchlings do not grow; they are auto-frozen upon being killed. In the Dragon Cave community, dragons raised solely for the purpose of being killed in attempts to create Undeads on Halloween are called "zombie fodder." Common dragons and inbred dragons are generally used for this because they are easy to replace.

Undeads used to permanently take up the kill slot used to create them. However, this was an unintended occurrence, and since the beginning of October 2011, zombie-held kill slots have been released. Currently, any kill slot used to create an Undead will return after 2 weeks, exactly the same as a kill slot used for any other purpose.

These dragons are often confused with Neglected Dragons and Vampire Dragons.

Undead dragons are considered very rare and currently have no breed specific action.

Egg
None

Hatchling
"It's an undead baby dragon, produced by a failed magical spell. It probably would be cute if it weren't partially decayed."

Mature Hatchling
"It's an undead baby dragon, produced by a failed magical spell. It probably would be cute if it weren't partially decayed. And look! It somehow managed to grow wings despite being dead."

Adult
"Failed attempts to experiment with magic often result in transforming dragons into these hellish creatures. They are extremely dangerous, and will mindlessly kill any living creature without regard to friend or foe."

Sprite Artist(s)

 * Shikaru (All)
 * TJ09 (Tombstones)
 * TheCompleteAnimorph (Tombstones)

Tombstone
As of November 18, 2014, caveborn Zombies received a special tombstone specific to their biome. Bred Zombies and Zombies from the time where only one cave existed also received a new special tombstone.

Trivia

 * The original undead adult sprite uses the Necromancer boss from Breath of Fire II.