How to Play the Dragonkind Game

Unofficial fan guide · Last updated October 4, 2026

◆ What is the Dragonkind experience?

dragonkind.com is an official, free interactive website created by Yarros Ink, Inc. — Rebecca Yarros's company — and launched October 1, 2026, two days after the release of the new collection Threshing Day.

It's a short, atmospheric game where you play a candidate at Basgiath War College on Conscription Day. You enter the Rider's Quadrant, brave Threshing — the ceremony where dragons choose their riders — and walk out bonded to the dragon that chose you. Like the books, the dragon does the choosing.

It takes about ten minutes, it's designed to be shared (players post their dragon "assignment" cards everywhere), and it's free — you sign up with nothing more than an email address. For most players the dragonkind game is their first trip into the Rider's Quadrant, and this walkthrough gets you through it — and the threshing game inside it — on the first try.

The credits are worth a look, too: story by Rebecca Yarros, website by Infantree, background art by Andreas Rocha and dragon art by Arancia Studio. Demand at launch was enormous — the author shared on Instagram that half a million people entered on day one — and the site queued players during the busiest stretches. If you hit a waiting screen, that's the fandom, not a bug.

◆ Step-by-step: from candidate to bonded rider

1. Sign up with your email

Open dragonkind.com and you're greeted with "Let Conscription Day Begin" and a single question: Dare to enter the Rider's Quadrant? The site asks for exactly one thing — an email address. No password, no profile, no payment. Hit "Send me a code".

2. Enter the verification code

The code lands in your inbox within seconds, and the site keeps the flow moving — copy it in and you're cleared to proceed. If nothing arrives, check your spam and promotions folders first; an address the site can't deliver to silently blocks the whole process, so a working inbox matters more than anything else here.

3. Enter the Rider's Quadrant

With your code verified, you're in: a candidate inside the Rider's Quadrant on Conscription Day. From here the path runs straight to the Valley, and the atmosphere does the rest — banners, crowds, and the sense that everyone around you has made it this far for the same reason.

4. Cross into the Threshing Valley

This is where the experience proper begins: you're a candidate walking the Valley, and the dragons are watching. From this point on, the outcome appears to be decided — which is why the battery trick and the approach choices in the next step matter. See the black dragon guide for the battery mechanic in full.

5. Approach the dragons

Early player reports agree on one thing: how you approach matters. You'll make choices about how to present yourself to the dragons, and players are still mapping exactly how each choice feeds into which dragon decides you're worthy. Two things to know before you go in:

• The approach protocols from the books appear to carry over — the same rules riders are taught at Basgiath. We've collected them in the dragon colors & approach guide.
• The most famous trick so far: your phone battery level may influence which dragon you get. See the black dragon guide for the full story.

6. Meet the dragon that chooses you

At the end of the Valley, you're presented with the dragon that bonded with you — a result card you can screenshot and share. Players are comparing dragon "assignments" across the fandom the way cadets would compare signets. When your card appears, note your battery level and your approach choices: that data is exactly what the community is using to map the mechanics.

7. Share your assignment

Half the fun is the aftermath. Post your result, compare with friends, and argue about which den is best (it's obviously the black one — ask anyone). The website is built to be shared, and the author has confirmed there are secrets tucked in for people who look closely.

◆ How to get a dragon on Dragonkind

The honest answer is the one the books give: you don't get a dragon — a dragon gets you. There is no menu, no difficulty setting, and no way to pick your den before the run starts. What you can do is shape the odds, and this is what players have worked out so far.

1. Finish the run. Everyone who completes the Valley ends up bonded. Being turned away isn't one of the outcomes the experience offers — the variation is which dragon, not whether you get one.
2. Choose your approach deliberately. The way you present yourself to the dragons appears to feed into the result. Multiple players report that different approaches produce different matches.
3. Mind your phone battery. The community's most reproduced finding: entering the Valley at 76–90% charge is linked to a black dragon match. Unconfirmed by the studio, widely replicated by players — the full write-up is in the black dragon guide.
4. Replay it. The experience can be rerun, and players report different outcomes across runs. If you're chasing one specific den, treat it as something to iterate towards rather than a single shot.

If you'd rather find out which den suits you without touching your phone settings, the Dragonkind quiz matches on temperament instead — seven dens, two minutes, no battery involved.

◆ Confirmed mechanics so far

Here's what the community has verified in the first days — separated clearly by what's confirmed and what's still a theory:

Honest status: this list will grow fast. New mechanics are surfacing every few hours as hundreds of thousands of players test the Valley, and anything not listed here should be treated as an unconfirmed theory for now. We update this page as the picture firms up.

◆ Approach protocols from the books (and the game)

The Empyrean books give riders a set of approach protocols — rules for how to behave around each den so you don't get incinerated before Threshing even starts. Fans are testing whether the game encodes them, and early results suggest it does. One caveat first: these are the rules the books teach, and players believe they carry into the game — but the exact encoding is still being mapped, so treat them as likely-influential rather than guaranteed. A quick cheat sheet:

• Green dragons — lower your eyes in supplication and wait for their approval. Never back down from one; they respect strength and will test you.
• Red dragons — never look one in the eye, and approach from the left, from the front.
• Black dragons — the most discerning of all; they don't just bond with anyone. (And, per the fandom's latest discovery, maybe not at any battery level, either.)

See the full breakdown of every den — colors, protocols and the dragons that belong to each — in the dragon colors guide.

◆ Easter eggs & what to look for

• Public Notices. The author has confirmed in-world "Public Notices" are hidden around the experience — keep an eye out on your first pass, and check back after replaying; fans are still cataloguing all of them.
• Lore references. Lines and images echo the books; sharp-eyed readers have spotted callbacks to the dens, the wards, and characters' dragons.
• The launch date. dragonkind.com went live October 1 — the same date the Threshing takes place at Basgiath in the books. Whether it's a wink or a mechanic, it's the most on-theme detail of the whole launch.
• Replay value. The Valley is designed to reward a second (and third) visit — players report different experiences across runs, which is exactly how the fandom keeps surfacing new details.

◆ Threshing Day on Dragonkind

Search for Threshing Day Dragonkind and you get two different answers, because the phrase points at two related things at once: the day the experience is set on, and the companion book that shares its name. Here's how to keep them apart.

The day inside Dragonkind. In the books, Threshing is held every year on October 1, and that single morning is what the dragonkind.com experience recreates: you are a candidate in the Valley on that date. The site went live on October 1, 2026 precisely to match it. So when people search for Threshing Day on Dragonkind, they usually mean either the day the experience is set on, or the annual date the fandom has adopted as its own.

The book. Threshing Day (Wing and Claw Collection) is a separate release — a 2026 collection of thirteen first-person stories about the same ritual, published two days before the site launched. Thirteen riders narrate, Violet is not one of them, and no dragon gets a point of view. It is a companion to the series rather than an entry in it.

The pairing is deliberate: the collection tells you what that morning was like for the cadets who lived it, and the site lets you take your own turn in the Valley. If you want the book rather than the browser tab, our Threshing Day guide covers the contents, the editions and where it fits in the reading order.

◆ Frequently asked questions