Ur-Dragon

"Then you have come...Very well, Arisen."


 * This article details the much stronger online Ur-Dragon, for the weaker offline foe, see Ur-Dragon (offline)

Legend tells of an immensely powerful undead dragon that appears in the Chamber of Lament in The Everfall beneath Gran Soren.

The Ur-Dragon encounter in Dragon's Dogma takes two forms, a static offline battle, and an asynchronous online encounter, where players and their parties from around the world both contribute and compete online to take down the Ur-Dragon. Defeating the Ur-Dragon online ultimately requires multiple encounters over the course of its life, but all players who inflict damage on the Ur-Dragon are eligible to receive rewards. Over time, as players contribute their effort towards the common goal, the Ur-Dragon's global health will decline. Eventually, when the Ur-Dragon is killed by the first Arisen, the Ur Dragon will go into a "grace period". The Ur-Dragon will appear with very little to no health and one to fifteen hearts will be brightly lit. If anyone enters the Chamber of Lament during grace period, they will have a chance to kill the Ur Dragon and gain great rewards, along with other loot, and have every item currently equipped on the Arisen Dragonforged. All active hearts must be destroyed in one round to get a kill; rounds may be repeated until either a kill is achieved or Grace terminates. This "grace period" is finite and when over, a new generation spawns.

All slayers of the Ur-Dragon have their names and play times recorded in the Hall of Fame. Offline players are able to take on the Ur-Dragon alone, but receive different rewards. The Ur-Dragon is essentially an optional end-game boss, located Beyond the Rift.

The Ur-Dragon's appearance is the same as The Dragon, but with a gray/lavender palette. However, unlike The Dragon, the Ur-Dragon has thirty "hearts" located all over his body, which will glow as the Arisen or their Pawns approach the area. Each time a heart is destroyed, the area around it will rot and fall, revealing the Ur-Dragon's true form. Destroying hearts is the most effective way to inflict damage to the Ur-Dragon, and doing so will make the Ur Dragon drop plenty of valuable materials.

If the player has participated in killing the online Ur-Dragon, the next time they enter the Chamber of Lament while online (or immediately if the player has achieved a kill) a cut scene pointing to the loot will play; loot not collected after exiting the Chamber of Lament will vanish.

When playing offline a weaker version of the Ur-Dragon is fought, which lacks some of the rewards of the online foe. For more details see Ur-Dragon (offline)

In both online and offline modes, the Ur-Dragon must be defeated within 10 minutes and will fly away once the allotted time runs out. Fortunately, the offline Ur-Dragon's health will not reset, though the online Ur Dragon's health resets back to 0.1 during Grace if it is engaged in multiple rounds.

Differentiating the offline from the online version is accomplished via its purple health bar. The Online Ur-Dragon will always display the current generation number appropriate to the console; the offline will not.


 * For vocation-specific tactics See Ur-Dragon Class Strategies.

Stats
Note! The above values are for the offline Dragon - the online Dragon may have different, possibly much higher values.

The online Ur-Dragon's health is unknown - it is thought to have increased from its first appearance to its one hundredth appearance, and after that its health stabilized, and/or any increase per generation diminished. On the basis of an estimated damage limit per round of 30 million, representing one tenth of a health bar, with ten health "dots" the Ur-Dragon's total health is around 3 billion (3,000,000,000).

The Ur-Dragon's defenses (both DEF and MDEF) have been observed to vary from generation to generation.

Online Dragon health and damage
With each new generation the Ur-Dragon grew stronger. However, a limit was reached on both consoles' online Ur Dragon between Generations 100-120.

The health bar of the online Ur-Dragon is not fully consistent between visits to the chamber.

Server speculation
There is a generally accepted theory that there are at least 4 versions of the Ur Dragon on different servers, each with their own health points, thus the varying amounts of HP when you enter the Chamber of Lament. When one of these versions dies, all servers will sync and a Grace Period will start. There are instances when there is a big difference between the health points of different versions. It is thought unexpected variations, including increases in health are caused by the servers synching with each other and averaging health and damage.


 * Synching happens approximately every half-hour, and has been consistently verified.
 * There is no guarantee the player will summon the same version/instance when commencing the next round.

Online Ur-Dragon's Damage Cap
The round ends when the Ur-Dragon flies away after 10 minutes of battle.

If "Accessing server ..." does not appear at the top right of the screen at the end of the round, the maximum damage cap has been exceeded. An exceeded round will have no effect on the online Ur-Dragon's health - the damage cap was implemented to avoid save-edited enhanced characters upsetting the balance of play.

The Online Ur-Dragon's damage limit was determined to be-- approximately--28 million in damage per round in December 2012. This translates to typically 0.10 to 0.20 of a health bar, which can vary slightly since the Dragon does not always spawn with the exact same Defense and/or Magick Defense from one generation to the next.

Attacks
In addition to the petrification spell, the Dragon's fire breath has a limited chance to inflict petrification.

Pawn Bestiary Knowledge
For full information, refer to the Pawn Bestiary Knowledge page or the according section on the Drake page. Enemy specific :
 * Weak to Holy
 * Witness it inflicting a debilitation on a party member

In addition to witnessing these techniques, it is necessary for Pawns to participate in killing (not driving it away) the Ur-Dragon 15 times, be it Online or Offline, regardless of who in the party delivers the last blow, either with their own Arisen or while travelling with others.

Drops
Destroyed hearts will drop two or three items randomly. Addionally when the Dragon is seriously damaged it will become disemboweled, dropping Ambrosial Meat.

Rewards on defeat
Merely taking part in the online Ur-Dragon hunt grants rewards. At a minimum, wakestone shards are gifted. The rewards depend on the amount of damage inflicted;  if limited damage was done no weapon will be rewarded.

If the player succeeds in killing the online Ur-Dragon, all the Arisen's equipped items will be Dragonforged and eight loot bags and twenty wakestones will appear: these loot bags will be four holy enchanted weapons randomly taken from the Ur's full weapon/shield loot table, the three items comprising the Abyssinal Armor Set, and any one out of the four facemasks.


 * Random rewards

Achievement/Trophy
The Messiah - earned by defeating the Ur-Dragon either offline or online.

Location
The Ur-Dragon is found in the Chamber of Lament, an extra-dimensional area, outside the world of Gransys. The chamber has two distinct entrances:
 * Via the physical entrance to the Chamber of Lament in the Post-Game Everfall.  If entering via the Everfall entrance, the player must exit the Everfall via the Pawn Guild gate or by Ferrystone in order to re-spawn the Ur for the next encounter.

Tactics

 * See Ur-Dragon Class Strategies for vocation-specific tactics for the Arisen.

General

 * The offline Dragon is good to test and practice against, as the damage being given registers clearly on the health bar.
 * Vulnerable to holy-based spells and holy-enchanted weapons.
 * Resistant to Dark.
 * Immune to all debilitations (Torpor, Silence, Blind, etc.).
 * Immune to Exequy.
 * To maximize the party's damage output, consume strength and/or magick boosting potions (i.e., Tagilus's Miracle and/or Salomet's Secret).  Up to four of each can be consumed, and will stack with each other. The Magic Archer skill Magick Rebalancer is also an option; one use of Magick Rebalancer is the equivalent of one boost to both Magick and Magick Defense and also stacks up to four in use at one time.
 * Focus all attacks on the brightly-colored glowing hearts spread throughout its body (see chart above). Hearts are slightly hidden purple spots at first, red when exposed, and upon being destroyed, will glow white temporarily and then vanish while depositing two to three item drops on the ground.
 * Hearts are revealed by doing damage - if the skin is fresh and purple there is a live heart somewhere nearby.
 * The heart itself does not need to be hit - striking live areas around the hearts does just as much damage. This is particularly true for the wings -which present a large target.
 * Most hearts will require Fighters & Warriors to climb the Ur-Dragon.
 * The wing tips are generally unreachable by climbing - however the tips can be hit from the ground when the Ur lowers its wings during spell-casting, which allows Fighters & Warriors to target them.
 * Fighters may hit the tips by climbing to the extremity of the Dragon's wing 'knuckle' - and flailing.
 * Observe the color of the blood that comes out when attacking the weak spots. If it is purple, then damage is being done. If it is white/gray then no damage is being done. Brown blood is spilled when attacking a dead area.
 * The Stability augment is very useful against all Draconic enemies. All wind attacks are nullified, meaning that one cannot be blown over backwards or interrupted while casting spells or charging skills. Bitterblack Isle L3 Armor, specifically Boots and Greaves, can have the enhancement "Prevents wind from affecting mobility" which can take the place of Stability.
 * Stamina augments like Potential, Endurance, Athleticism (for running), Arm-Strength (for climbing) and Proficiency (non-arrow physical attacks) can be helpful since this battle is a grueling marathon, not a sprint. Gloves of Might add speed and grip when climbing. Stamina curatives like Mushroom Potage, Sour Ambrosial Meat, Staminal Drench, and Giant Rank Fish are also recommended.
 * Try to engage the Dragon exclusively from the West side of the arena as it lessens the chance the Ur-Dragon will fly up to its roosting perch and launch fireballs at the Arisen. Roosting wastes precious time in an Online encounter, especially during a Grace Period.
 * Roosting can be terminated by several specific actions: Blast Arrows used together with 4x strength-boosted Mighty-Bend, Tenfold Flurry, Comet Shot, or 4x magick-boosted High- or Grand Ingle will be successful, as long as a live heart is successfully hit. In a like manner, the Ur-Dragon can be shot down out of the air if a live heart is hit or if its mouth is struck while breathing fire.
 * The Holy Furor spell can be blocked with a shield provided the Arisen has sufficient stamina; executing a Perfect Block will Deflect or Reflect damage back at the Ur-Dragon. A Perfect Block consumes no stamina.
 * The wing buffet attack can also be Perfect Blocked or blocked by a Shield or Magick Shield, preventing knock down from the high winds generated by its wings.
 * The Ur's Frigor can also be perfect blocked.
 * The Ur-Dragon's left arm can be easily staggered while it attempts to cast a spell; the Ur-Dragon's right arm can be easily staggered when attempting to Possess a pawn. This interrupts the Ur Dragon's attempts at Possession or spell-casting.
 * Target the head area to make the Dragon reel. High Maelstrom or a Blast Arrow head shot will reliably do this.

Maker's finger
The Maker's Finger can do lesser or more damage to the Ur Dragon depending on the concentration of HP in the targeted heart.
 * Example : The most HP is concentrated in the Center Back, Chin, Rear Lower Leg and Ribcage (under the wing joints) hearts. Hitting lesser hearts with a Maker's Finger may only affect the health bar by 10%; however if a greater heart is hit then the Ur-Dragon's health can lower as much as half a health bar.
 * Do not use a Maker's Finger prior to the online Ur Dragon's introductory rear and roar. It can and will ignore its effect.
 * During the Grace period, it is easier to destroy a heart and then use a Maker's Finger on a heart in a difficult location such as the tail or chin, since while it is writhing on the ground, the more difficult hearts are significantly easier to hit.

Tactics (Pawn-specific)

 * Pawns can land the final blow to slay the Ur-Dragon (online and offline). The Cursed Dragon can also be slain by a pawn, however all other Dragonkin will only die by the Arisen's hand.
 * Fighter and Warrior pawns are not recommended as party members due to their lack of effective ranged attacks. Mages are not recommended as party members for this fight because of a lack of effective offensive spells and support orientation means they do not contribute to the party's success.
 * Strider pawns are the fastest climbers and should ideally wield Heaven's Key daggers, Thousand Kisses and the climbing augments Adhesion and Opportunism for this fight. If the pawn also has a strong magickal dagger attack, remove the bow to encourage climbing over bow use. Re-hire to return the pawn's bow.
 * Ranger pawns are excellent at long range attacks.  The Revenant Wail longbow is more effective here than the Dragon's Glaze due to its permanent Ice enchantment. If possible, equip the pawn with Tenfold Flurry as their sole bow skill, as it is the most practical Ranger bow skill against the Ur-Dragon. Equipping two strength rings to enhance the power of Tenfold Flurry is recommended. If the pawn also has a strong magickal dagger attack, the bow can be removed to encourage climbing over bow use. Re-hire to return the pawn's bow. A Ranger is particularly effective in the Chamber of Lament because it will not be missing dagger strikes due to Brain Splitter's less-effective targeting on the Ur Dragon's fast-moving legs; Cutting Wind is a superior skill in this fight.
 * Stamina replenishing Ranger strategy: If the player has access to potent group stamina curatives in quantity like Mushroom Potages, a strategy may be employed to replenish the stamina of the entire group. Equip a main pawn with Great Gamble or enlist a support pawn with Great Gamble equipped. Great Gamble can be the only bow skill or it may be equipped with other bow skills. Provide the pawn with ample Mushroom Potages--recommended in the 30-50 range. The pawn will use Great Gamble because it is a very effective attack. Great Gamble will deplete the Ranger's stamina who will then be compelled to replenish it with the Mushroom Potages. This will also automatically replenish the stamina of other party members, allowing them to use their most powerful attacks without interruption. Less potent group stamina curatives like Rousing Incense, Rousing Perfume, or Finest Herb Ale may be substituted for the Mushroom Potages. These less potent curatives will, most likely, be adequate to satisfy the stamina needs of the party. However, it should be noted that the less stamina available to the Ranger, the less powerful the Great Gamble Shot will be. Note that pawn inclinations will have some influence on the use of Great Gamble and the use of group curatives. In short, this strategy is designed to provide the party with a very powerful offensive weapon--Great Gamble--while also ensuring that other party members are well supplied with stamina so that they have no constraints regarding the use of their best skills.
 * Sorcerer pawns equipped with High Fulmination can add considerable damage when other party members climb the Ur-Dragon. High Bolide is also an effective Sorcerer spell for pawns against the Ur-Dragon. High Maelstrom, despite its ability to block the player's view, can easily stun-lock the Ur-Dragon.
 * Mage pawn attack spells are of little use against the Ur-Dragon, so if a Mage accompanies the party, Holy Affinity and High Anodyne should be their primary function in this fight, but unless the Ur-Dragon is continually stun-locked by climbers, a Mage or Sorcerer will not cast affinities during an Ur Dragon round. A Legion's Might staff will make a Mage pawn virtually immortal with its unique ability to auto-resurrect a Mage wielding it. This allows the Arisen to focus on attacking and not running around to revive this particular pawn. A Mage is not a good choice as a party member for this fight as the need for high damage outweighs the Mage's support duties; if the party has group healing curatives, pawns will instantly and automatically use enough of them to save a party member from a blow that would ordinarily result in death.  This happens faster than a Mage can cast a spell or a human hand can open inventory.
 * Be sure to give pawns health and stamina curatives so the party may press the attack unabated. Giving pawns group curatives (like Mushroom Potage and Balmy Incense) will automatically refresh the party's health and stamina during the battle. This will allow the Arisen to focus on attacking, interrupted only to periodically buff the party's strength and magic with Tagilus's Miracles and Salomet's Secrets and attacking or monitoring climbers' stamina to refresh them with Mushroom Potage.

Health Status Tracking (Online)
There are online communities that provide helpful health tracking, generation level, and/or grace period for the Ur-Dragon:
 * The official Dragon's Dogma Japanese webpage tracks the Ur-Dragon generation number. It states that the page will update every hour so there will be differences in the actual condition that players see.  It also states that allowances should be made for server maintenance.  The PS3 and XBox 360 generation information is provided in separate links.  Each link provides the generation and the time of the most recent update.  There is also an Arisen recruiting slogan that changes periodically such as "The Ur-Dragon has descended.  Are Arisens going to appear to challenge it?" or "Many Arisens are in the midst of a challenge.  They are seeking additional support."
 * Capcom's Pawn Community Website
 * The wiki's front page

The following Gamefaq sites currently maintain/communicate active updates through individual forum posts:


 * PlayStation 3 Updates
 * Xbox 360 Updates

Grace Period
Once the online Ur-Dragon has been slain by the first player, it will initiate a special period known as the Grace period. When the Ur-Dragon is summoned during Grace, it will have about 0.1 health showing on its healthbar and randomly have anywhere from one to fifteen hearts. If all hearts are destroyed in one round, that player has killed the online Ur-Dragon. There is no limit as to how many players can kill the online Ur-Dragon when it is in Grace. The Grace Period has historically changed in length from time to time; currently the PS3's Grace period is 40 minutes, and the Xbox Grace period is two hours. Grace terminates automatically and the next generation of Ur-Dragon spawns.

There is no difference in terms of reward between taking the first kill that sends the Ur Dragon into Grace and taking a Grace kill other than the position of the player on the Speed List, which is the first list that appears when accessing the statistics slab in the Chamber of Lament. The Speed List is populated in reverse order; the last Arisens to have killed the previous Generation are listed at the top of the Speed list. Once the player achieves the first online Ur-Dragon kill, the second list ranks their achievement against all other successful Ur hunters on that console. Prior to achieving the first online Ur-Dragon kill, the second list will display only the top nine hunters.

If the player is unsuccessful at slaying the online Ur-Dragon, the Grace Dragon can be re-summoned for another round until Grace terminates and a new Generation's Ur-Dragon spawns. The online Ur-Dragon cycles from one Generation to the next automatically; the triggering event is the first death from an Arisen's hands that starts Grace.

Bugs

 * There are some reports of the Wakestones not appearing next to the Rankings tablet if the loot cutscene that is shown after the Ur-Dragon's defeat is skipped. The cause of this still unknown, and isn't guaranteed.
 * It is advised to just let the cutscene play out in its entirety before continuing. Saving in the Chamber of Lament and then reloading will usually cause the Wakestones to reappear.
 * Note: With a little luck you can tap even 40 Wakestones with this method, though there are reports that there will be no Wakestones awarded with the next kill.
 * It is possible that, when the Ur-Dragon does his special attack "Fiery Drive By" and is shot from the air by a ranged attack, he will fall to the ground and clip through it completely making it impossible for the player to attack the Ur-Dragon. Exiting the chamber and re-entering will restart the fight as normal. This can also happen while airborne from and towards the faraway tower from where he will use his "Long Range Fireball" attack.
 * If too many loot pieces are on the arena floor when the online Ur-Dragon is killed, one can receive less than eight loot bags. Capcom has said there is a finite number of objects that can appear in the Chamber of Lament. This was a particular problem during the two festivals since the Ur-Dragon's hearts were so easily destroyed.
 * The online Ur-Dragon can be interrupted right in the middle of its leap backwards, only to hang in the air flapping its wings and flinching/screaming. This puts the Ur-Dragon out of effective range of shortbows and all Warrior/Fighter attacks. If the Arisen is on the Ur Dragon, simply stop attacking for a moment and it will land.

Trivia

 * The Ur-Dragon's health is very approximately as much as 36 thousand Drakes.
 * The alternative weapon rewards Angel's Fist and Dwells-In-Light have different attack stats, but do the same damage per hit on the Ur-Dragon, within 1 hit point.
 * In this context "Ur" probably means "earliest" or "original" - or "proto". So literally "proto-Dragon".

Quotes

 * The Ur-Dragon has multiple pieces of dialogue it can speak when arriving in the Chamber of Lament.
 * "Arisen... I know you well..."
 * "You would rise against me once more?"
 * "Then you have come...Very well, Arisen."
 * "Accept your fate."
 * "Cede your life to me..."
 * "Madness calls, my puppet." (When trying to possess a Pawn)
 * "You...Truly, you are worthy...." (Death)
 * "Even I cannot stay you..." (Death)