Neglected Dragon

Neglected Dragons, also known as Sick Dragons, are part of the site's original species. They were released on June 2, 2007, alongside Bright Pink and Gold Dragons. They are extremely rare as they cannot be caught in the cave or bred. This dragon has been the subject of many rumours due to it's unique creation process as well as having been on the site for so long, with many users having believed it was discontinued. They are also occasionally mistaken for Undead Dragons. When sorted by "Breed", they are listed as "Sick Dragon" on a user's scroll.

Neglected dragons have a chance of growing from eggs or hatchlings that have been deprived of views and clicks until the last few seconds of their life - essentially, they have been neglected, which is where their name comes from. Unfortunately, this process has a high chance of killing the egg or hatchling, as it usually does not receive enough clicks and views in the last moments of its life to survive. Hatchlings can be turned into Neglected dragons, but it is far more difficult than changing an egg. It is also worth noting that the change for a normal egg to Neglected is still a chance, even if all criteria are met.

There are several different outcomes that can arise from attempting to create a Neglected dragon: the egg or hatchling running out of time and dying, the egg hatching just before death as a normal hatchling, a hatchling growing up into a normal adult just before death, or ultimately the egg or hatchling turning into a Neglected but not receiving enough views and thus dying.

With the method used to obtain this dragon, it has been theorized that Neglected dragons were created as a punishment to terrible dragon owners for taking poor care of their dragons. However, due to their rarity and the long process involved in attempting to create them, they are now coveted by members and are considered one of the most valuable dragons to have. Discussion about how to create Neglected dragons is not allowed on DC forums or in DC chatrooms- a rule that was originally imposed across all dragon breeds during the initial years of DC, but has remained with this dragon alone due to its true process of creation never having been confirmed.

Egg
"This egg is very sickly looking, like it has a disease."

Hatchling
"Aww... It’s a cute baby dragon. It looks very sick, as though it wasn't very well looked after..."

Mature Hatchling
"Aww... It’s a cute baby dragon. It looks very sick, as though it wasn't very well looked after... And look! It has grown wings! It must be close to maturing."

Adult
"This breed of dragon results from eggs or hatchlings that have been neglected. They are usually rebellious, not obeying their masters, sometimes even attacking them. However, their neglect as a hatchling leaves them crippled, and they are weak compared to other breeds, causing them to stay with their masters for protection."

Creation Process

 * Show/Hide Process

Users start by picking an egg which will be aimed to turn into a Neglected dragon. The egg can be caught from the cave, the Abandoned Page (AP) or be self-bred. Whichever method is chosen, the exact Time of Death (ToD) needs to be known in order to be successful (required to be accurate to the second). This is easiest to work out using self-bred eggs or ones caught from the cave- the ToD will be exactly 7 days from the time it was caught or bred. An AP egg will require calculations in order to work out a ToD, which requires the user to be online and refreshing the view page to see exactly when the timer changes, then subtract the remaining time shown on the view page to get a date as well as a time. An AP egg must also have its view count checked- if it has received more than ~10 unique views already, it should be changed for a different egg.

While waiting for the egg's timer to go down, it is standard for users to fog the egg(s) in order to ensure they will not receive any views at all during this time. During this waiting time, users may also choose to Incubate the egg(s) in order to reduce the timer by a day, as well as participate in one of the possible hatching methods. Users may also choose to influence the egg(s) during this time as part of the process to obtain ungendered Neglected dragons.

With approximately 3-5 minutes of time remaining on the egg, users should start adding their egg to sites to receive views. Some users prefer to "viewbomb" the egg with as many views and unique views as possible, while others seek to maintain a ratio where the views are constantly held at their maximum value, and slowly control how many unique views are given (the Allure of Neglected Dragons' Auto Refresher (an AR) is designed to help with this particular strategy). Usually ~1 minute before death is when an egg may turn into a Neglected egg.

If an egg turns Neglected, there are several different strategies users may employ in an attempt to save the egg. Due to the short amount of time left, it is highly unlikely that the egg will be able to hatch normally using fansites. At this point, users can choose to use the kill function to force the egg to hatch early. Just like its use on any other egg, this action may kill the egg, successfully hatch it or hatch it but send the hatchling to the AP. Alternatively, but with the same set of possible results, users can use Earthquake to force-hatch several eggs on their scroll at once (note that unlike Kill, Earthquake has a chance of missing altogether).

The last alternative is to use Teleport- this method requires the use of Incubate several days earlier as mentioned previously, and also requires to be set up prior to the egg receiving views as there will not be enough time left to set up a transfer. This method is the most difficult to use as it requires a trusted user to be online and to receive your egg, but it is the most successful method in keeping a Neglected alive. Because Incubate's effects disappears on an egg once abandoned or transferred, once the other person accepts your Neglected egg, it will gain an extra day to its timer and can be hatched at the user's leisure. They should only accept the egg once it has turned; if the egg is teleported too early, this will effectively stop the egg from turning into a Neglected egg.

To obtain an ungendered adult today, users must first influence an egg male or female while it still has 3 days or more as mentioned previously, and then proceed to teleport it to another scroll after it has turned into a Neglected but before the egg has hatched. This process confuses many members as for all other dragons, the use of influence is removed from an egg upon teleporting or abandoning it.

General Notes

 * Users should not attempt to use any Pygmy, Two-Headed, Drake or Category:Non-Dragon eggs as these are known to not turn Neglected due to the unique breeding, or lack of breeding, mechanics they possess.
 * Vampire Dragon and Holiday Dragon eggs can be turned into Neglected dragons.
 * Different breeds of dragons require more or less views in order to hatch, and this is the same when attempting to create a Neglected dragon. Prize Dragons require higher than usual view counts in order to hatch- this mechanic remains when attempting to turn one of these dragons into a Neglected, and can prove to be difficult as a result.
 * Some users recommend using self-bred eggs while others discourage it. Because self-bred eggs utilize different mechanics on the scroll they were bred on, it is possible that this may make the egg easier or harder to hatch and turn Neglected as a result.
 * More users have reported experiencing success in turning an egg Neglected when they controlled the views and unique views the egg(s) received. It is recommended to note down your chosen duration and mark at what times you will add the egg(s) to fansites; the egg(s) should have their view count maximised through the use of an Auto Refresher, and their unique views slowly increased during the initial stages, and then rapidly increased when the ToD is around 1 minute till death.
 * Users are recommended to collect Red, Pink and Magi Dragons before beginning to experiment as a single experimental egg may require the Breed Specific Actions of all 3 of these dragons.
 * If attempting to turn various eggs into Neglected ones in one sitting, it is recommended to space out the eggs' ToDs in order to be more manageable.
 * Many users recommend checking your timing accuracy a day or more before the egg's ToD to ensure that you have the correct time recorded, as the recorded ToD needs to be accurate to the second. This can be done by monitoring the egg's view page via constant refreshing; the second the time changes on the page is the time that the egg will die at.
 * If using fansites to give your egg(s) their required views, it is worth keeping in mind that traffic levels for fansites can change depending on a number of factors such as how popular they are, any issues they may be experiencing at the time, or if DC is in the middle of an event of some kind.
 * It is highly unlikely that having dead eggshells on a scroll will help increase the chances of creating a Neglected egg. This rumour was most likely perpetuated by the fact that those users who have successfully created a Neglected had to attempt to do so many times before being successful, resulting in their scroll having many dead eggs.
 * Neglected's descriptions of sickness have no relation to Dragon Sickness- an egg is not required to become sick in order to be turned into a Neglected dragon.
 * Once turned into a Neglected dragon, the egg cannot revert back to the breed it previously was.
 * Previously, an egg's timer would still retain up to 30mins on it despite reading that it had "0 days and 0 hours" left to live. This has since been corrected, and that message now indicates that the egg is seconds away from dying.

Sprite Artist(s)

 * Marrionetta (All)
 * Komodo Gallant (Adult)

Trivia

 * A large community project named Neglected Science dedicate themselves to investigating methods that may be used to obtain this breed of dragon, as well as helping new members to create their own Neglected dragons. Many externally linked resources may be found on their article page.
 * Genderless adults were originally the result of a glitch, particularly from the 2008 site-wide glitch where Holly Christmas Dragons were bred out of season and resulted in creating a Neglected dragon instantly.
 * This dragon's past descriptions used to be as follows:
 * Show/Hide


 * Egg
 * "This egg is very sickly looking, like it's diseased."


 * Hatchling
 * "Aww... It’s a cute baby dragon. It looks very sick, as though it wasn't very well looked after."


 * Mature Hatchling
 * "It looks very sick, as though it wasn't very well looked after, and look! It's grown its wings! It must be close to maturing."


 * Adult
 * "This breed of dragons results from an egg or hatchling that has been neglected. They are usually rebellious, not obeying their masters, sometimes even attacking them. However, their neglect as a hatchling leaves them crippled, and they are weak compared to other breeds, causing them to stay with their masters for protection."