Dragonfire

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A dragon spewing forth dragonfire. Its blue/purple color makes it distinct from common fire.

Dragonfire is a very powerful form of fire that is produced by dragons.

Characteristics

The dragonfire seen here was aimed at a dwarf 1 z-level below, and can be seen affecting both that z-level and the z-level above.

Dragonfire forms a rough cone shape from the dragon's front, with a range of approximately 20 tiles and a spread of 10 tiles^[1] which can span through up to two z-levels, igniting anything flammable caught in the radius. It can be told apart from common fire by its vibrant blue/purple color, though any fires it causes from contact with flammable objects will be the regular red color of flame.

Dragonfire can reach temperatures up to 50000 °U . At that temperature, almost all materials should be destroyed. However, research has shown that dragonfire is quite particular about which objects it affects. When in a tile with dragonfire, organic materials will ignite, even including nether-cap wood with its fixed temperature. Non-flammable common stone, glass, and ceramic items will melt and boil away. Dragonfire is similarly ineffective against water, producing no steam or evaporation. Buildings (but not constructions) are affected by dragonfire on their tile, making non-dragonfire-safe doors immune as long as they remain closed. Objects and buildings (and creatures) made out of slade are also immune to dragonfire, since the raws do not define a specific heat for slade, not that you can realistically build anything out of it in the first place.

Objects ignited by dragonfire drop to and continue to burn at their standard combustion temperature. However, repeated blasts of dragonfire can sustain much higher combustion temperatures, sufficient even to eventually melt nearby adamantine.

Defense

Dragonfire can be extremely dangerous due to its wide spread potentially causing expansive fires in patches of grass or cave moss that may consume and melt dwarves in moments. The rate at which a dragon can breathe dragonfire is also rather quick, allowing the beast to continuously spam the attack so long as it is in combat.

Despite its powerfully destructive nature, dragonfire can be blocked by a simple shield better than 99% of the time, though this will do nothing to stop the surrounding flames from consuming the creature almost instantly if they are standing on flammable ground. Because of this, the best way to fight dragonfire is to confront the dragon while in non-flammable terrain such as stone; at this point, you just have to contend with the dragon, who may be a fierce opponent in its own right.

Dragonfire is powerful enough to burn and kill creatures who are immune to conventional fire, like fire imps or magma crabs. The only creatures immune to dragonfire are dragons themselves (to keep them from killing themselves with their own breath), cave dragons, and certain deep monsters.

Dragonfire-safe materials

There are very few materials which can withstand the immense heat of dragonfire. Here is the full list:

Type	Material	Appearance	Melting point	Solid density	Specific heat	Value multiplier	Notes
Metal	Divine metal	Varies	None	1000	7500	300	Found mostly in vaults
Leather	Fire imp leather	ß	None	500	420	3
Bone	Fire imp bone	²	None	500	1000	3
Bone	Dragon bone	²	None	500	30000	15

Trivia

"Dragonfire" in other Languages Dwarven: måmgoz-ziril Elvish: vutheni-inira Goblin: kusnath-zedan Human: tamun-usmok

• Dragonfire's temperature of 50000 °U is the highest set temperature in the game. In comparison, it is about four times hotter than the surface of the Sun.
• Dragonfire is the highest temperature option that can be picked in the object testing arena.