Egg

An egg is the first stage of a dragon's life cycle. Eggs that have been cared for by gaining views and clicks will eventually hatch into a hatchling.

Eggs can be stolen from one of the habitats of the cave, adopted from the Abandoned Page, or produced by breeding two adult dragons. Eggs seen in the habitats display a mystery egg icon, although their identity can be determined by the description. Other ways of obtaining eggs are from trading with other users, and from certain Breed Specific Actions.

Users are limited to the amount of eggs that can hold at any given time, determined by the trophy badge of that user. A user who is at this limit will sometimes be referred to as "egg-locked" and cannot acquire any new eggs until their current eggs hatch or are abandoned. Killing an egg, whether by the kill action or a side effect of a Breed Specific Action will cause that egg to count toward a user's egg limit for 24 hours after death.

Eggs stolen from the cave cannot be abandoned or teleported for 5 hours after they are caught, a period usually referred to as "cooldown". Bred eggs or eggs caught from the AP can be abandoned or teleported immediately.

Actions

The following actions may be performed on eggs:

Action	Effect
Abandon	Sends the egg to the Abandoned Page, where other users may adopt it. This action may not be performed for 5 hours after obtaining an egg from the cave.
Hide	Surrounds an egg with magical fog. The egg cannot gain views or clicks in this state. This may allow an egg to heal from sickness.
Kill	Kills the egg. The egg will continue to take up one "slot" toward a user's egg limits for 24 hours after death.
Earthquake (BSA)	Shakes all eggs on your scroll with an earthquake. This may "force" eggs to hatch early, though it may kill eggs on your scroll.
Incubate (BSA)	Warms an egg, allowing it to grow faster. Removes one day from the egg's timer.
Influence (BSA)	Allows a user to change the gender of the egg. Using Influence will guarantee the dragon will match the gender of the Pink Dragon casting the action. This effect is removed by abandoning or trading the egg.
Precognition (BSA)	Shows the user what gender the egg will be, and whether the gender can be changed.
Teleport (BSA)	Allows a user to send an egg to another user, or trade the egg with others.
Ward (BSA)	Protects an egg from dying of sickness for 6 hours. This does not prevent sickness, only death from sickness while the action is active.

Growth

Eggs require views, unique views, and clicks to grow and hatch into a hatchling. The best ratio of views, unique views, and clicks is unknown, but seems to be influenced by the breed of the egg, whether the egg is on the same scroll as its parents, and the time remaining on its "time until death" timer. Eggs will not hatch naturally before this timer falls to 4 days remaining or less. An egg will live for 7 days, and if it does not acquire enough views to hatch in that time, it will die.

If an egg receives too many views in a short amount of time, it will become sick. Continuing to gain views while sick may cause the egg to die. This sickness can often be cured by hiding the egg. If an egg dies of sickness, the following message is shown on the egg's view page:

"Unfortunately this egg has died of sickness."

Sickness in eggs is often referred to as "softshell" due to the description that appears on the egg when it is sick. Eggs are more susceptible to sickness in their first 24 hours of life. It is recommended that eggs, especially important ones, be hidden and kept off click sites until they are at least a day old.

When it is close to hatching, an egg will visually display cracks. These cracks will gradually become larger and later turn into a gaping hole when the dragon is nearly ready to hatch. There are six stages of an egg hatching: the first stage is the regular egg sprite, and the last is when the egg has a gaping hole.

Non-standard egg mechanics

Certain dragon breeds cannot be found as eggs in the cave or by breeding, but instead require use of a Breed Specific Action. Vampire eggs can only be obtained by biting an existing dragon egg. The has a chance to be transformed into a Vampire egg, though it may be killed in the process. Similarly, Neglected Dragon eggs must be created from an existing dragon egg, which is then kept from gaining views until it is very near death. Guardian of Nature eggs can only be obtained through the "Summon" BSA.

Sinomorphs and Undead Dragons do not have an egg stage. Sinomorphs are always summoned as adults, and Undead Dragons are created using the revive action, which is only available to hatchlings and adults.

Leetle Trees are technically listed as eggs, although they remain permanently frozen on the user's scroll as they are.

Egg sequences

When an egg is hatching, it displays a cracking sequence. Most eggs follow the same cracking sequence, but some eggs have unique cracking sequences, such as some of the ones listed below.

Every egg cracking sequence has 5 stages of cracks, gradually getting bigger until a hole forms.

Dragon	Stage 0	Stage 1	Stage 2	Stage 3	Stage 4	Stage 5	Dead	Characterization
White								Common cracking sequence for all standard eggs.
Ochredrake								Common cracking for all Drake eggs.
Common Pygmy								Common cracking for all Pygmy eggs.

Dragon	Stage 0	Stage 1	Stage 2	Stage 3	Stage 4	Stage 5	Dead	Characterization
Aeon Wyvern								Light fades from the egg before it shatters open.
Antarean								Cracks are more jagged than the common sequence.
Arcana								Cracks outlined in green form before green flames erupt from the egg.
Celestial								Egg 'opens up' to release the hatchling.
Desipis								Slightly different cracking than the common sequence.
Ember								While cracking it looks more and more like a piece of live coal.
Erador Lindwyrm								Sections of the feather fall away while cracking.
Fire Gem (Blue Variant)								Features crystal veins and glowing fire from within. Has additional red and green variants.
Galvanic Wyvern								Purple energy crackles from within, growing denser each stage.
Geminae								Minute cracks outlined in yellow creep across the egg as it breaks open.
Gemshard								The gems on the egg start to come off while cracking.
Glystere Wyrm								Cracks like ice.
Kohraki Dragon								Cracks spread in a more jagged fashion.
Mistra Dragon								Glass-like cracks appear on the right side of this egg and appear more precise than normal cracking.
Magma								It seems like molten lava is coming through the stone-like egg shell.
Nexus								Shatters rather than cracking open.
Omen Wyrm								A flame grows from within the egg.
Paper							File:Old Paper dead egg.gif	The egg looks like it's peeled open.
Shadow Walker		File:Halloween crack 1.png	File:Halloween crack 2.png	File:Halloween crack 3.png	File:Halloween crack 4.png	File:Halloween crack 5.png		Common sequence, but the egg fades while going through the different stages.
Spirit Ward		File:Spirit Ward crack1.png	File:Spirit Ward crack2.png	File:Spirit Ward crack3.png	File:Spirit Ward crack4.png	File:Spirit Ward crack5.png		Common sequence, but the egg cracks glow and light shines from inside the egg in the final stage.
Starsinger Dragon								Cracks are straighter and sharper than those in the usual sequence.
Staterae Xenowyrm								Cracks are finer than the standard hatching sequence.
Winter Magi		File:Christmas 2001 crack 1.png	File:Christmas 2011 crack 2.png	File:Christmas-2011 crack 3.png	File:Christmas-2011 crack 4.png	File:Christmas-2011 crack 5.png	File:Winter Magi dead egg.png	Common sequence, but the snow falls off of the egg while it cracks.
Witchlight								Along with custom cracking, this egg's 5th stage is animated.