Undead Dragon

Undead Dragons, also known as Zombies, are a special breed of dragon only obtainable via a creation process, as well as being an original species of Dragon Cave. Attempting to revive a deceased dragon or hatchling (either killed or purposely allowed to die) has a slim chance of resulting in an Undead Dragon.

Undeads cannot breed and have been subject to controversy due to the death of dragons required to create them. They are only visible on scrolls between 12AM - 6AM (EST); at all other times, they take the form of a tombstone sprite. As of May 21, 2016, Undeads now have sub-type specific sprites, an update that was part of Dragon Cave's 10th Birthday release, with different appearances depending on their original breed's morphology.

In the distant past, Undead Dragons could be made during any time of the year, with a rumoured 1 in 100 chance of success. A few examples include two owned by TJ09 (Qemrao Thuwed and 0eidw Qemrao Thuwed). There have also been reports of others, but the forum topic once used to discuss them has since been deleted. Eventually, Undeads were changed to only be able to be created on October 31 of a year (Halloween); 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 Dragon Cave IRC on the 22nd of December, 2012.

As of a site update on August 14, 2016, Undeads can now be created any time of the year again, with a scaling chance of success based on the time or date (lowest to highest success: day time, night time, 31st of a month, the week of Halloween breeding, and Halloween itself). These chances do not overlap; the odds of success are the same on a 31st whether it is day or night, for example. Based on collected data, the odds are approximately 1/15 for nighttime, 1/10 for 31sts, and 2/5 for Halloween. Daytime and Halloween week remain unknown.

There are three potential outcomes of the revive action: reviving a normal dragon, reviving an Undead dragon, or permanent death. In order to obtain the different stages of Undead hatchlings, the dragon must be in that particular stage when it dies or is killed; Undeads cannot grow up themselves, and the dragons are automatically frozen upon death.

All breedable dragon breeds can be zombified, including Drakes, Vampires, pygmies and two-headed dragons. Unbreedables such as Papers and Cheeses originally could become Undead dragons, albeit ungendered, but now are labeled as Enchanted Constructs and will no longer become undead. Dinos cannot become Undead due to the lack of a revive option for them.

Although having Undead "Limited Breed" dragons, such as CB limited release dragons or Guardians of Nature, originally prevented players from reclaiming replacements, a later update removed this limitation and allowed players to replace dead or undead limited dragons.

Despite being displayed as Undead Dragons, they are internally labeled with their original breed name and will sort with that breed. In the past, despite the breed differences, all Undead used the same "western" dragon sprite. They now have separate variations based on the subspecies and body type of the original breed's information in the encyclopedia. The Undead sprites can be unlocked by clicking on them at any time, even if they appear to be tombstones.

Undeads used to permanently take up the kill slots used to create them. This was an unintended occurrence, and since 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. At one point, Undead dragons could not be removed from scrolls. This has changed with the Sophrosyne Dragon and its Expunge BSA.

Undead dragons used to only be visible on scrolls between 12AM and 6AM DC time (EST), but now are always visible in the form of a tombstone, taking on their Undead sprite during the hours where they would previously only appear. 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 after the addition of new tombstone sprites. Undead dragons are now visible on sorting pages as well as scrolls.

These dragons are often confused with Neglected and Vampire Dragons. When using Breed sort on a scroll, these dragons actually sort as whatever their original breed was before being turned Undead.

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.''

New sprites
Western series Wingless series Eastern series Wyvern series Sea serpent series Wyrm series Lindwyrm series Amphiptere series Pygmy Western series Pygmy Eastern series
 * Odeen (Adult)
 * Marrionetta (Hatchling)
 * Odeen (Adult)
 * birdzgoboom (Hatchling)
 * birdzgoboom (All)
 * Odeen (All)
 * birdzgoboom (All)
 * birdzgoboom (All)
 * Odeen (Adult)
 * Odeen (Adult)
 * birdzgoboom (Hatchling)
 * birdzgoboom (All)
 * Odeen (Adult)
 * Odeen (Adult)
 * Marrionetta (Hatchling)
 * Odeen (All)
 * Marrionetta (Hatchling)

Pygmy wyvern series Pygmy wyrm series Pygmy lindwyrm series Drake series Two-headed Western series Two-headed Eastern series Two-headed sea serpent series Two-headed wyrm series Two-headed lindwyrm series Two-headed amphiptere series Tombstones
 * Odeen (All)
 * Marrionetta (Hatchling)
 * TCA (All)
 * Odeen (All)
 * Marrionetta (Hatchling)
 * Odeen (Adult)
 * birdzgoboom (Hatchling)
 * Odeen (All)
 * TCA (All)
 * Odeen (All)
 * Odeen (Adult)
 * Marrionetta (Hatchling)
 * Odeen (All)
 * birdzgoboom (Hatchling)
 * Mewtie (All)
 * TCA (All)
 * TJ09 (All)

Old sprites

 * Shikaru (All)

Tombstones
As of November 18, 2014, caveborn Undeads received a special tombstone specific to their biome. Bred Undeads and Undeads from the time where only one cave existed also received a new special tombstone, which is now also shared by Undeads obtained from dragons bought at the Market. When a caveborn Undead is created, its biome-specific tombstone won't appear until two weeks have passed since it died, the same amount of time for a permanently dead dragon's tombstone to disappear.

Trivia

 * The original adult sprite was the Necroman from Breath of Fire II.
 * "Zombie fodder" is the term used to refer to dragons users collect exclusively to let die or kill, in order to revive as an Undead dragon.
 * The Pygmy Wyrm sprite was originally incorrectly attributed to Odeen on the site, but has since been corrected.