Dragon: Not a Waste of Widgets
by Rggcd
5 min read
When asking about the Dragon, there are usually two responses. It is either a terrible unit, or a great unit.
Is it actually good, and is it worth the widgets?
Stats taken from BN Wiki.
Firepower
Discussion around the Dragon inevitably leads to its poor damage stat. Its atrocious value at Rank 1 turns off many players from even considering it.
We will use 3 checkerboard strike units in this comparison:
- Rocket Truck
- Dragon (Duh)
- Brimstone
All stats are R6, though the ratio between units should remain relatively constant through the other ranks.
| Unit | Damage | DoT | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rocket Truck | 90 | - | 90 |
| Dragon | 83 | 41 | 124 |
| Brimstone | 128 | - | 128 |
If the Dragon rolls its DoT, it’s a very powerful unit. It can just about match the Brimstone on the initial strike, and that’s not even accounting for the two extra turns of damage.
The 3 turn fire DoT works as follows. If the DoT runs for the full duration, the attack does a total of 2x damage - 1x from the attack and 1x from the DoT.
| Turn 0 | Turn 1 | Turn 2 |
|---|---|---|
| 1/2 | 1/3 | 1/6 |
Unfortunately, the DoT isn’t guaranteed. I have accounted for that here by reducing the DoT damage by 20%. Yet even after that, it only lags behind the Brimstone by 12 average damage. After an extra turn, this 12 damage deficit turns into a 10 damage surplus on average.
| Unit | Damage | Total (DoT T0) | Total (DoT T1) | Total (DoT T2) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dragon | 83 | 124 (41) | 152 (28) | 166 (14) |
| Dragon (20% reduction) | 83 | 116 (33) | 138 (22) | 149 (11) |
There is also the case of enemy resistances. The Rocket Truck and Brimstone do explosive, a damage type not commonly resisted at Level ~40-50. The Dragon does fire damage, which things like Tanks have a 25% resistance to. However, many units also have a vulnerability to fire, like critters & infected. As such, the benefits and negatives equal out on average.
The issues with the Dragon’s firepower are not from its damage output. Instead, the issues come from its inconsistency and inability to focus fire enemies without losing damage. If there are particularly dangerous enemies, using two Dragon volleys in a row forfeits quite a lot of damage - damage that it needs to match the Brimstone.
The inconsistency of the 80% DoT application is also problematic. You won't be getting freak 0/3+ DoT applications, but the odds of igniting every enemy are against you after 5. At worst, the odds of igniting all but one enemy is 68%, which isn't too bad.
| Enemies | 0 DoT | 1 DoT | 2 DoT | 3 DoT | 4 DoT | 5 DoT | 6 DoT | 7 DoT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 20% | 80% | ||||||
| 2 | 4% | 32% | 64% | |||||
| 3 | 1% | 10% | 38% | 51% | ||||
| 4 | ~0% | 3% | 15% | 41% | 41% | |||
| 5 | ~0% | 1% | 5% | 20% | 41% | 33% | ||
| 6 | ~0% | ~0% | 2% | 8% | 25% | 39% | 26% | |
| 7 | ~0% | ~0% | ~0% | 3% | 11% | 28% | 37% | 21% |
Using Dragons effectively involves alternating the fire pattern every turn. This way, you only give up the last tick of fire (12.5% of the initial damage, so around 10). If you can alternate, the Dragon matches the Brimstone on average. If not, it still beats out the Rocket Truck by quite a bit.
Though the Brimstone is more consistent and offers more versatility from its triple strike, it costs nanos. Because of this, the Dragon has value.
Defenses
The Dragon tops the charts in regards to survivability.
Unlike most artillery and backline units, the Dragon gets armor. Not only that, the armor also has tank-level resistances - with a twist. With a 75% resistance to piercing, crushing, and fire, enemies like Sandworms (Spit & Tunnel), Bullfrogs, and Dust Walkers become non-issues. You can even rank it solo in Bigfoot Country if you have enough.
As the Brimstone/Rocket Truck have no resistance to common backline attacks but have high defense, their effective resistance varies based on offense. Both units have 70 defense at R6. Deflect damage can vary, so I will use 10% as the best case. Using the currently accepted deflect chance formula of
\[\text{Deflect chance (\%)} = \text{Defense} - \text{Offense} + 5\]
| Unit | Offense | Deflect Chance | Damage Modifier |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wolf Bombadier (Explosive) | 46 | 29% | 74% |
| Wolf Bombadier (Frag) & Earthshaker | 68 | 7% | 94% |
At best, the evasion of the Brimstone grants it a 26% damage resistance against 46 offense attacks, and hardly any at all against 68 offense. Dust Walkers have 56 offense, but I'm not sure on the Dodge formula and I've never seen a them deflect.
Among checkerboard strike units, the Dragon's defenses are the best. It also has the most health at 360, compared to the Brimstone's 270 and Rocket Truck's 210. The health combined with its resistances allow it to survive random crits from attacks that would otherwise kill the other two.
The survivability of the Dragon is incredible and lets it stand out from the other backline units.
Price
The worst part of the Dragon. It costs the same number of widgets to make a Dragon as it takes to make a Heavier Tank. As Heaviers are the best non-nano tank and Dragons eventually get outclassed (Plasma Artilleries), it would make sense to save all your widgets for Heaviers.
Rocket Trucks are not a bad alternative as they cost less than half gears wise, but you're essentially using a unit from level 23 (Heavy Recon) at level 46. At that point, I'd just keep using TF2 Soldier.
Speaking of, the TF2 Soldier puts the value of the Dragon into serious question. Though their attacks are quite different, both are indirect fire units that soften up the enemy. Despite being better value, I have simply gotten sick of using them for the last 30 levels. If you can stomach using TF2 Soldier + Heaviers until PAs release, go ahead and skip Dragons.
If you have ranked Supers or plan to wait for Megas, it would not be too bad of an idea to make ~4-6 Dragons and rank them.
Conclusion
The Dragon is absolutely a powerhouse of a backline unit and is way stronger than people think. With great damage on average and incredible resistances, it is a capable unit for most encounters. Despite what the middling damage numbers claim, the actual damage dealt can match its nano-costing counterpart.
Unfortunately, its widget cost means many people will opt to skip it in favor of Heavier Tanks. As it is not a top meta unit, skipping it isn't that big of a deal.
However, those who opt to train their Dragons will find a very capable unit.
