Black Dragon

Black Dragons were part of the original group of dragons first released on the site in 2006. They are one of a select few breeds (Dark Green Dragons, Sweetlings, and Undine Dragons being the others) to possess an "alt" (alternate forms of the same species). Alts of any breed are rare. With the exception of Honourable mention prizes distributed in 2011 and TJ09's cave born Thuweds, alts can only be obtained from bred eggs. All glitches producing Cave Born alts in previous years have since been fixed.

Black alt hatchlings come in both sitting and curled varieties, though both types grow up into the standard Black alt adult. The rarity of these two hatchling forms changes periodically, so many users choose to freeze the hatchlings in order to prove they have had both. Prior to mid-November 2008, eggs for alts and regulars were slightly different, allowing the user to tell before hatching whether or not the dragon was an alt. However, this has been changed, and now users must wait for eggs to hatch to reveal this. At one point, Black eggs did not have a green glow, but this was added to the egg sprite in January 2009.

Prior to Dimorphism, the only sprites used for common and alt Blacks were the ones currently used for males. The old male sprite recieved a small update during Dimorphism, however.

Users often play the "Alt Lottery", where they catch a Black egg and raise it until it hatches. They have no intention of keeping it if it turns out to be of the normal variety and abandon any normal hatchlings. Only one of the two possible alt hatchlings is available at a time (both result in the same adult and different hatchling sprites tend to be desired so players can freeze each for collecting purposes). There have been several rumors that float around (such as if you breed blacks to rares like golds you're more likely to get an alt or if you breed purebreds you're more likely to get an alt), but these are completely unfounded and ignore bias that comes in to these hypotheses. If you breed blacks to rares or to each other, you're more likely to get more black eggs than anything else, so you'll have more black eggs hatched and therefore more chances for an alt just because you have more black eggs. There isn't anyway to up your chances of getting an alt - just keep trying!

There is a regular Black Dragon with the code 90JT, which is TJ09 backwards.

Egg
"This egg has a faint green glow around it."

Hatchling
"Aww... It's a cute baby dragon. Its eyes glow brightly at night, and it enjoys attacking insects and small animals."

Mature Hatchling
"Aww... It's a cute baby dragon. Its eyes glow brightly at night, and it enjoys attacking insects and small animals. And look! It's grown its wings! It must be close to maturing."

Adult
"Black dragons are warriors. They are strong and capable in battles of force, but also ample magic users, capable of devastating opponents with their spells. Their bright eyes give them excellent night vision, which is why they generally hunt during the night."

Normal

 * Silverdrak (Adults & Hatchlings)

Alt

 * Kitoxa - (Both Hatchlings, Adult)
 * Shikaru (Sitting Hatchling)

Trivia

 * The original black dragon sprite is a recoloured version of a sprite from Breath of Fire II.