A very basic Dragonflying guide

Community General Discussion
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So a lot of people are saying they have trouble with this and very few people are actually trying to help them with it.

So, here’s a very basic guide.

When you mount your dragon use double jump to go up into the air.
Use it again if you need more height. Usually 2 double jumps are enough to start you off. This ability is also called “Skyward Ascent” and you can keybind it to anything if you choose to do so.

Now aim your dragon slightly angled downwards and you’ll notice that you start gliding forward and slowly speed up until you get white streak effects. This is your cruising speed.

If you repeat this and angle yourself downwards at a steeper angle you’ll go even faster and get blue streak effects. When you move at this speed you will recharge stamina. This is VERY important. Reread this paragraph.

You will slow down when you are angled upwards or straight but will maintain your speed or speed up when you are angled downwards.

This means that you can ascend and then angle downwards to reach blue streaks speed, then level off to a very slight downwards angle and maintain blue streak speed and regenerate your stamina while you fly.

While you do this you’ll slowly lose height because your angled slightly downwards, but you can use that regenerated stamina for extra Skyward ascents (the double jump) to make yourself regain this lost height.

This will let you glide pretty much indefinitely at very high speed. Once you pick up the upgrades from the world and fill out the dragonflying skill tree (There are mods like handynotes that make this trivial) it becomes much easier to do so. I would recommend just looking at the achievements under dragonriding and noting the areas the missing runes are in, then exploring them yourself because this is great dragonflying practice.

As you progress you’ll notice that there are two other abilities you can activate in flight “Surge Forward” and “Whirling Surge” which both expend stamina to send you forward at higher speed. If you’re reading this guide, don’t worry about those yet because they eat up stamina you can otherwise use to gain height.

Think of them as Stamina Dumps that make you go faster when it’s inconvenient to angle downwards for a dive or something to burn when your just regenerating stamina faster than you need for Skyward ascent (double jump) to maintain height.

And… that’s about it.

There’s nothing wrong with screwing up and having to sit for a minute to regenerate stamina. This is normal.

Dragonflying is clearly not for everyone but if you’re in this group hopefully this mini-guide will help. This is not meant to be a guide to master dragonflying or win races, it’s a guide to get someone started who is having difficulty with the fundamentals.

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Whenever you press skyward ascent you should be facing directly upwards. You will gain much more height.

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If you are running out of vigor charges just find somewhere to fly downwards. They recharge every 5 seconds when your tree is maxed. The Dragon Isles were designed for dragonflight so there are almost always places to fly downwards. Remember to watch your pitch so you’re always aiming your drake slightly down. And watch for the Thrill of the Skies buff. Keeping that up unless using skyward ascent is the key to staying in the air forever. Sometimes to gain lots of altitude very quickly, up a waterfall for instance, I’ll point upwards, use surge forward, then skyward ascent. It maintains speed as well as gives you altitude. You can run out of charges fast this way tho so use wisely.

TLDR: Fly downwards to fill vigor, maintain a slightly downward pitch to cruise around, use skyward ascent to gain altitude. Keep Thrill of the Skies buff up at all times other than trying to gain altitude.

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Here’s my even more basic guide.

Point your camera up when ascending. Ascending builds speed, and can be used to go straight upwards.

Surge is good for weird turns or just getting momentum fast when you’re already high up.

Whirling surge is best used to murder flying gnomes.

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Step 1) Get max tree
Step 2) Get on dragon, angle camera directly up, press skyward button 6 times
Step 4) Press skyward button a 7th time or start your descent and press speed boost.
Step 5) Angle yourself in a direct line to the location you’re trying to go to and adjust altitude as needed to reach it.
Step 6) Keep a downward angle to retain speed buff throughout.

You can get literally anywhere from anywhere using this, unless you’re in one of the towers that are basically a large hole or at an extremely low point on the map.