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Dragonfire is the fiery breath attack used by most dragons, hence the name. While it can deal considerable damage to unprepared players, the damage may be negated with certain shields, (super) antifire potions and Protect from Magic.

Dragonfire can be thought of as a magic attack that can be typeless or not depending on its source.

Dragonfire from enchanted dragonstone bolts is completely negated by using Protect from Magic, and therefore treated as a standard magic attack
Dragonfire from Elvarg is always reduced by using Protect from Magic, regardless of which other methods of dragonfire protection you're using
Dragonfire from the following sources is sometimes reduced by using Protect from Magic, depending on which other forms of dragonfire protection you're using (see table below):
Dragonfire from the following sources are typeless and therefore are not reduced or mitigated by using Protect from Magic:

Overview

Adult dragons can deal up to 50 damage with regular dragonfire; stronger dragons, such as Vorkath, can hit up to 80 instead. Dragonfire damage can be reduced or fully absorbed when the player has the sufficient protection from it; see the table below for all means of protection, and the effective damage reduction of each method.

There are varying levels and tiers of dragonfire depending on the dragon in question. Standard dragons (such as common chromatic dragons and lava dragons), use plain dragonfire, which can be mostly reduced with Protect from Magic, and only use it in melee distance; thus, if the dragon is not able to attack the player, then it will be unable to use its dragonfire. If they are able to attack with melee, there is a 1/6 chance they may use it instead of a melee attack.^[1] Baby dragons are incapable of using dragonfire.

Uncommon and special dragons (such as brutal and metal dragons) instead use long-ranged dragonfire. Brutal dragons' dragonfire still function the same as a chromatic dragon would, while metal dragons' dragonfire ignores Protect from Magic.

The dragon bosses (e.g Vorkath) also use long-ranged dragonfire; they can use both the standard variant, and also have special variants that have a chance of causing an additional debuff on the player. These special variants of dragonfire are capable of dealing damage even with full dragonfire protection, though their damage is significantly reduced with proper protection. Protect from Magic works against them to a lesser extent.

Icy breath

Wyverns use a long-ranged icy breath instead of regular dragonfire, which can freeze the player for 6.6 seconds, preventing attacking and movement. The maximum damage of icy breath is reduced to 10 when an elemental shield, mind shield, dragonfire shield, dragonfire ward, or ancient wyvern shield is equipped; a regular anti-dragon shield and antifire potions have no effect. Using Protect from Magic without a shield reduces the max hit to 20.^[2] Furthermore, the freezing effect of the attack is only prevented by the ancient wyvern shield.

Frost dragons use plain dragonfire like common chromatic dragons, except that this dragonfire can also freeze players. The freezing effect can be blocked with an anti-dragon shield or its variants combined with an antifire potion, or with a super antifire potion alone.

Protection

Mechanics

There are several methods to protect oneself against dragonfire, which may be used in conjunction to grant an even greater degree of dragonfire protection. With no protective layers used at all, dragonfire attacks usually roll with the monster's Magic accuracy against the player's Magic defence. When the player wins the accuracy roll, the damage dealt is reduced and losing the accuracy roll means the dragonfire can deal significantly more damage.^[3]^[4]

If the player wins the accuracy roll, a game message will be displayed in the chatbox stating:
You manage to resist some of the dragon fire!

In case the player fails the accuracy roll however, they will be given the message:
You're horribly burnt by the dragon fire!

In certain situations, a Magic accuracy roll is also made when only a partial protection method is being employed, in which case the partial protection method will reduce the maximum damage of both outcomes. For instance, while it is still possible to be "horribly burnt" by a chromatic dragon while using a regular antifire potion (that is to say, to lose the accuracy roll), the antifire potion will still reduce the max hit of that attack from 50 to 35 points of damage. See the dragonfire protection table below for a more detailed breakdown of those conditions.

As a rule, dragonfire protection methods either dictate a lower possible damage range before the damage roll has taken place, or reduce the inflicted damage by a certain amount after a damage roll is carried out. Antifire shields and Protect from Magic fall under the first category, whereas the protection benefit provided by a (super) antifire potion is subtracted from the total after the damage roll occured.^[5]^[6]

Methods

Every method requires the player to have started Dragon Slayer I in order to be used, with the exception of Protect from Magic.

Name	Effect	Requirement
Protect from Magic	Significantly reduces damage from dragonfire, except from metallic dragons.	37 Prayer
Anti-dragon shield	Significantly reduces the damage taken from all forms of dragonfire.	Partial completion of Dragon Slayer I
Dragonfire shield	Compared with the anti-dragon shield, it also reduces wyverns' icy breath damage to 10. Can be charged with absorbed dragonfire attacks or bottled dragonbreath to greatly increase its defensive bonuses, and enable its special attack.	90 Smithing, an anti-dragon shield, and a draconic visage to create
Dragonfire ward	Ranged variant of the dragonfire shield.	90 Smithing, an anti-dragon shield, and a skeletal visage to create
Ancient wyvern shield	Magic variant of the dragonfire shield, which also blocks the freezing effect of wyverns' icy breath attacks.	66 Smithing, 66 Magic, an elemental shield, and wyvern visage to create
Elemental or mind shield	Does not protect against dragonfire. Reduces wyverns' icy breath damage to 10.	Elemental Workshop I and II respectively
Antifire potion (or extended/mix/extended mix)	Lasts 6 minutes, or 12 when extended. Provides a small amount of dragonfire protection. Provides immunity against regular dragonfire attacks when used in combination with an anti-dragon shield or Protect from Magic.	69 or 84 Herblore to create
Super antifire potion (or extended/mix/extended mix)	Lasts 3 minutes, or 6 when extended. Provides immunity against dragonfire spewed from regular and metallic dragons by itself, without requiring any other protection layer.	92 and completion of Dragon Slayer II to create

Damage reduction

The following tables shows the maximum damage of dragonfire attacks for each combination of protection layers.

Protection used	Maximum damage
	Chromatic^[a]		Vorkath^[b]		King Black Dragon		Elvarg

Unprotected	50	30	80	50	65	50	70
	5		20		15	10	10
	10		30		20	15	55
	5		20		15	10	7
	35	15	70	40	50	50	55
	0		60	30	0	50	0
	0		10		0	10	7
	0		0		0	10	0
	0		20		5	15	40
	0		10		0	15	0
	0		10		0	10	4
	0		0		0	10	0

Legend
	Player failed the accuracy roll: You're horribly burnt by the dragon fire!
	Player won the accuracy roll: You manage to resist some of the dragon fire!
	Fiery breath
	Icy/toxic/shocking breath
	Anti-dragon shield
	Protect from Magic
	Antifire potion(4)
	Super antifire potion(4)

^ Chromatic dragons, brutal dragons, lava dragons, frost dragons, and reanimated dragons all share the same dragonfire mechanics.
^ The max hit is reduced by 5 for the green and purple dragonfire attacks.^[7] Dragonfire protection does not defend against Vorkath's one-hit fireball.

Metallic dragons, Drakes, and Galvek are unaffected by Protect from Magic.

Protection used	Maximum damage
	Metallic		Galvek		Drake^[a]

Unprotected	50	30	66	42	32
	5		18		16
	35	15	51	27	16
	0		46	22	0
	0		3		0
	0		0		0

^ Drake breath can be dodged by moving one or more tiles negating all damage regardless of dragonfire protection.

Using dragonfire

Players can also use dragonfire in combat through the use of certain attacks. This kind of weaponised dragonfire looks similar to the dragonfire used by dragons, but does not use the same mechanics as regular dragonfire.^[8] However, they use a simplified form of those mechanics, which comes down to certain of the protection methods described above offering full protection against these attacks.

Players are able to discharge a blast of dragonfire with the dragonfire shield variants by right clicking the shield, dealing approximately 25 damage on hit. Another way to use dragonfire is by firing enchanted dragonstone bolts, which will occasionally hit the opponent with a blast of dragonfire, adding extra damage to a bolt hit equal to 20% of the attacker's visible Ranged level.

These methods will not cause damage if the opponent is both a fiery and draconic creature. In PvP situations, if the opponent has an anti-dragon shield or dragonfire shield equipped, is under the effects of an antifire potion, or has Protect from Magic activated, the enchanted bolt effect will not activate and the dragonfire shield will deal no damage.

The following potions give full immunity against the enchanted dragon bolt special attack for indicated amount of time:

Potion		Minutes (per dose)	Cost/Minute
Potion		Minutes (per dose)	1 dose	2 dose	3 dose	4 dose
	Antifire potion	6	55.00	51.75	47.83	54.79
	Extended antifire	12	17.00	18.83	13.19	9.25
	Super antifire potion	3	1,863.67	1,809.67	2,066.78	1,942.83
	Extended super antifire	6	969.67	964.67	977.72	864.46

Trivia

In the Tower of Life quest, the player has to answer a question to the Homunculus about how dragons can breathe fire. One of the answers suggests that this is done with the power of 'magical dragonstones.' The other answer states that it happens through the ignition of gas when the dragon exhales. It is possible that the ignition of dragonfire is mediated through some magical property of dragonstone crystals.

References

^ Jagex. Mod Ash's Twitter account. 8 February 2024. Archived from the original on 16 February 2024. Mod Ash: "[Are you able to share exactly how regular Chromatic dragons (Green, Blue, Red, Black) decide to breath when in melee range? (...)] 1/6 chance of the breath attack, if that's what you mean."
^ Jagex. Mod Ash's Twitter account. 26 August 2020. Archived from the original on 31 December 2022. Mod Ash: "If you didn't have a suitable shield it'd look at your Protect from Magic prayer, capping the damage at 20 rather than 30. So it's acting a bit like a mage attack that way."
^ Jagex. Mod Ash's Twitter account. 8 December 2020. Archived from the original on 2 January 2023. Mod Ash: "They may not all be the same across the game, but it's checking your magic defence for the KBD and skeletal wyverns - if you don't have some protective thing that takes priority, such as suitable shield."
^ Jagex. Mod Ash's Twitter account. 22 January 2022. Archived from the original on 2 January 2023. Mod Ash: "If you "manage to resist", that sounds like you won in the accuracy roll, regardless of what the damage roll ended up being."
^ Jagex. Mod Ash's Twitter account. 17 October 2020. Archived from the original on 4 January 2023. Mod Ash: "It rolls 0-20 since you have the shield, then subsequently subtracts 10 for the potion."
^ Jagex. Mod Ash's Twitter account. 29 January 2021. Archived from the original on 4 January 2023. Mod Ash: "From what I can see of my colleague's code, the max hit of that attack is 80, accompanied by a "You're horribly burnt..." message. The super antifire potion would reduce it by 20, giving the "Your super antifire potion helps..." message."
^ Jagex. Mod Ash's Twitter account. 27 December 2020. Archived from the original on 4 January 2023. Mod Ash: "If it's *just* from that prayer, the dragon rolls 0-30 damage. The result would then be modified by potions, if there had been any active. Then the result is reduced by 5 if it's the 'corrupting' or 'venomous' breath."
^ Jagex. Mod Ash's Twitter account. 15 September 2020. Archived from the original on 13 March 2023. Mod Ash: "It's not calling actual dragonfire code. It's a ranged attack with a dragonfire sound effect."

[7] Chromatic dragons, brutal dragons, lava dragons, frost dragons, and reanimated dragons all share the same dragonfire mechanics.

[9] The max hit is reduced by 5 for the green and purple dragonfire attacks.^[7] Dragonfire protection does not defend against Vorkath's one-hit fireball.

[10] Drake breath can be dodged by moving one or more tiles negating all damage regardless of dragonfire protection.

[1] Jagex. Mod Ash's Twitter account. 8 February 2024. Archived from the original on 16 February 2024. Mod Ash: "[Are you able to share exactly how regular Chromatic dragons (Green, Blue, Red, Black) decide to breath when in melee range? (...)] 1/6 chance of the breath attack, if that's what you mean."

[2] Jagex. Mod Ash's Twitter account. 26 August 2020. Archived from the original on 31 December 2022. Mod Ash: "If you didn't have a suitable shield it'd look at your Protect from Magic prayer, capping the damage at 20 rather than 30. So it's acting a bit like a mage attack that way."

[3] Jagex. Mod Ash's Twitter account. 8 December 2020. Archived from the original on 2 January 2023. Mod Ash: "They may not all be the same across the game, but it's checking your magic defence for the KBD and skeletal wyverns - if you don't have some protective thing that takes priority, such as suitable shield."

[4] Jagex. Mod Ash's Twitter account. 22 January 2022. Archived from the original on 2 January 2023. Mod Ash: "If you "manage to resist", that sounds like you won in the accuracy roll, regardless of what the damage roll ended up being."

[5] Jagex. Mod Ash's Twitter account. 17 October 2020. Archived from the original on 4 January 2023. Mod Ash: "It rolls 0-20 since you have the shield, then subsequently subtracts 10 for the potion."

[6] Jagex. Mod Ash's Twitter account. 29 January 2021. Archived from the original on 4 January 2023. Mod Ash: "From what I can see of my colleague's code, the max hit of that attack is 80, accompanied by a "You're horribly burnt..." message. The super antifire potion would reduce it by 20, giving the "Your super antifire potion helps..." message."

[8] Jagex. Mod Ash's Twitter account. 27 December 2020. Archived from the original on 4 January 2023. Mod Ash: "If it's *just* from that prayer, the dragon rolls 0-30 damage. The result would then be modified by potions, if there had been any active. Then the result is reduced by 5 if it's the 'corrupting' or 'venomous' breath."

[11] Jagex. Mod Ash's Twitter account. 15 September 2020. Archived from the original on 13 March 2023. Mod Ash: "It's not calling actual dragonfire code. It's a ranged attack with a dragonfire sound effect."

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