The Abyss Dragons are a modified version of the original Amphibian Draconian - they're best considered another breed or subspecies of Draconian Norn. If you have raised Amphibious Draconians, you should do fine with these. If you have NOT raised Amphibious Draconians, here's a rundown of the basic stuff you need to know.

1.) Babies and children are pretty fragile, but adults are quite tough. In the case of Abyss Dragons, they're all pretty resistant to direct attack compared to basic Draconians and normal Norns, but they are no more resistant to disease or other problems. They are difficult to use for feral or wolfling runs for this reason, but not at all impossible. They make good pets for more nurturing players because of this, too, since the babies -can- survive on their own but will profit from direct attention. Once they're Adults and older, they have developed more resistance to toxins and diseases than average for Norns.

2.) Draconians and their related breeds are predatory omnivores. They can eat fruit, seeds, and food, but they receive far more nutrition from eating critters, pests, and bugs. Therefore, you should keep them in a room with a lot of critters and bugs available to eat, such as the Norn Terrarium, or else add a lot of critter and bug agents to your world. 

3.) They have much longer lifespans than typical C3DS Norns and spend more time in each life stage. 

You can read more about Draconians on the Creatures Wiki, but to sum it up - babies are fragile but adults are tough, and feed them bugs/pests/critters.

Anyway, most of the Abyss Dragons' genes are identical to the original Amphibious Draconians, but this breed has two additional organs and several other changes, so it is advised to keep the two separate to prevent genetic problems such as sliders and stillbirths in hybrids. As their name suggests, this genetic breed was largely tested in and works very well with the Deep Abyss metaroom, but they should do fine in any aquatic room. (Devil's Reef would be a good fit for them. I had lot of fun with them in the Flooded Norn Terrarium, too, as it offers more fast-moving prey plus, if you don't hide the doors, opportunity for occasional interaction with Grendels - probably negative, but hey.) 

Note that they should not be allowed to mate with other aquatic breeds unless you want damaged specimens for genetic or other study, as the offspring may commonly be sliders or otherwise damaged. I have had a few Colortrue Pearl Mermaid x Abyss Dragon (or related) crossings, and while some offspring are viable, stillborns and sliders are too common for me to recommend crossing the two. (See my upcoming Arcus Merdragons if you like the idea of Norns with Draconian upper parts and Pearl Mermaid legs/tails.)

In addition to the .gen file, which you can load into the Creatures 3 Genetics Kit and use to spawn new first-generation Abyss Dragons into your world, this pack also includes six first generation babies; three are male, three female. They have been taught language and given names (feel free to change them) but are otherwise more or less fresh, unexperienced, and untrained. Have fun with them! 

Important Abyss Dragon modifictions:

- Has a swim bladder so they can lay eggs in water. (Getting eggs to hatch in water requires either an agent or .cos file changes, though, which I haven't done myself yet as of typing this so cannot advise you on - sorry!)

- They can swim from birth using the same SWimmeragent as normal Amphibious Draconians (I included the agent in this pack - just extract or copy it into your Docking Station/My Agents folder to install.) They also sometimes teleport, though they're usually content to walk or swim. Still, don't be surprised to see one suddenly pop across the metaroom (they often do this instead of using an elevator, instead just popping up a level). If that wasn't enough, the little buggers are telekinetic too, though they do not often use this ability. If you take something away from one, they might take it back from a distance, though. I've also seen them stand on land and levitate fish out of the water onto land and then pick them up normally. Occasionally they'll pull a distant object right into their hand. But for some reason they do not use this ability much, not even when hunting. I have no idea why they're so sparing about the teleporting and telekinesis - I can tell they do it deliberately, so why not do it more often? No idea, but it'd be something interesting about them to study.

- Color has been altered to a very dark blue. This may mutate in future generations, but individuals should hold their color throughout life, unlike standard Amphidracos, who get lighter with age and have genetic sex-related color differences. For Abyss Dragons the only sex-related color difference is caused by the color differences in the underlying sprites; genetically the sexes have the same dark blue color.


- The 'wallbonk' gene (a gene that caused wounding and other effects if the creature walked into a wall) is deactivated due to a problem I had on my machine with swimmers. It is supposed to be deactivated anyway but for some reason was not on my end, so I had to silence this gene in all my aquatic genomes.

- When Quiescent, they no longer gain Coldness as do standard Amphidracos. I also added a chemical reaction that converts Coldness into Hotness at a controlled rate. As creatures adapted to the deep sea, they are inured to cold water and should therefore not be shivering a lot, hence this change. Their Pain reduction is also heightened when Quiescent. 

- Silenced 'swearing lets off steam' and 'swear when angry' genes to reduce the 'express' looping problem.

- These armor-hided creatures are less fragile than their surface-dwelling kin. They take less pain and wounding from being hit, both by other creatures and by the hand. They can definitely still die of beating, but they are not as easy to kill as standard Norns or even typical Draconians. They are also much less frightened by being hit (although they do still get a small hit of fear), and more angered by it. In a fight with a standard Jungle Grendel, assuming the Hand does not say 'hit grendel', the Abyss Dragon wins (meaning the grendel dies from the Abyss's attacks) more than 50% of the time but loses (meaning the Grendel kills it) often enough that Grendels remain a credible threat to them, although not a major one. If you explicitly order them to 'hit grendel', a standard Jungle Grendel has very little chance to win, especially if multiple Abysses gang up on a single Jungle Grendel. Tougher Grendel species may be capable of wreaking more havoc among Abyss Dragons, but Jungle Grendels should be able to exert a meaningful selective pressure on Abyss Dragon populations (especially if modified to be amphibious themselves) but should not pose enough of a threat as to kill off all your Abyss Dragons unless you get very unlucky.

- They enjoy hitting more than most other Norns (in other words, it reduces their Boredom more), and they do not get Tiredness from hitting; instead, their bravery when fighting is reflected by the fact that landing a hit reduces their Fear. Hitting does also reduce their Anger and Crowdedness more, so they will not necessarily be violent a lot, but if attacked they should be willing to defend themselves, especially if cornered and unable to flee.

 - They are more responsive to positive reinforcement from the Hand, getting slightly more Reward, Fear reduction, and Loneliness reduction from being tickled. (I did not specifically modify them to be responsive to spoken commands, but they're usually pretty obedient, especially if it's something they'd be inclined to do anyway but are currently distracted from.) They receive Boredom reduction instead of Anger reduction, meaning you cannot soothe an enraged Abyss Dragon by tickling it, but you can take the edge off their typically high levels of Boredom that way, and the tickle is a useful tool in training them. 

- On the other hand, being patted/tickled by another creature gives them slightly more reduction to Fear, Loneliness, and Anger than usual. And instead of feeling Crowded, they tend to get a few randy thoughts, gaining a mild hit of Sex Drive.

- Toughened by countless years of life in the deep sea, Abyss Dragons (rather like sharks IRL) have a strong immune system as adults, and in addition, have a remarkable ability to heal themselves when hurt simply by withdrawing to a safe place and becoming still. Their Pain relief while Quiescent is heightened above normal. When Resting they do not become hungrier or more bored (since I am unfortunately limited to four chemicals per stimulus); instead, their Pain goes down, though much less than when Quiescent. This is because a resting Abyss Dragon is also regenerating - that is, reducing Wounded at a slow rate. This rapid-healing process is intrinsically painful but not as much so as actually being hit. Hence they get less pain relief than when Quiescent, but their Wounded goes down faster than it would otherwise. Abyss Dragons will learn that resting will have this result the first time they do so after being hurt. Experienced Abyss Dragons often learn to alternate between Quiescence and Resting when hurt depending on whether the Pain or the Wounded is higher at the moment. 

- When actually asleep, they do not gain Boredom or lose Crowded as with normal Norns. Instead, they release Prostaglandin, which helps repair and maintain their organs, and Chemical 163, which by a further chemical reaction is slowly broken down into Arnica and Antihistamine. This gives them some ability to deal with organ damage, glycotoxin, and a couple of minor diseases by simply shutting down and letting their body's resources go to work on the problem. 

- Being around Grendels gives them a bit of Adrenaline but not Fear; that is, they are aware of the potential danger of Grendels but do not intrinsically fear them. This makes sense for an aquatic species that can venture onto land and encounter Grendels if they choose but who mostly spend their time in a place where Grendels do not exist. (Of course, they do have instincts that specifically deal with grendels, so if they are attacked they are capable of self-defense and will usually fight back, though some will attempt to flee first, especially if the grendel opened up with multiple fast hits that gave a lot of pain all at once; as soon as the Anger drive gets higher than the Pain drive, though, the Dragon will generally lash out if the Grendel is still hanging around.)

- The 'sit still when in pain' gene has been silenced. This allows them to be more aggressive if they want to when under attack rather than being forced to try to hold still to reduce pain even while still being hit (a problem I have noticed with other projects I have worked on). 

- The 'retreat from Grendels when scared' gene has been altered to use the Pain drive instead of Fear, and its intensity has been lowered. This reflects the bravery (and/or ferocity) of Abyss Dragons and their willingness to engage an enemy, yet also allows them to back off if their pain level gets too intense (meaning they should also retreat before they take a dangerous amount of damage, since they suffer slightly more pain than wounded from being hit by creatures.)

- While they are meat-favoring omnivores for simple nutritional reasons primarily, Abyss Dragons also enjoy the act hunting and will hunt for fun as well as for food. When hunting for fun, they often pursue, grab, and hold a critter for some time. If they also happen to be hungry, they will eat the critter sooner or later (the hungrier they are the quicker it gets eaten), but if they are not hungry they will, as a rule, eventually let the critter go. They have several instincts that reinforce approach and get behaviors for bugs, pests, and critters, plus stimuli changes to reinforce those instincts, but contrary experiences can still undo this, so actively encouraging them to 'get critter/bug/pest' as well as to 'eat' such is a wise training decision. This means that they are motivated to hunt, and enjoy the act of chasing and grabbing their prey, in addition to being motivated simply to eat as in normal Norns. If your Abyss Dragons are bored, try encouraging them to 'approach' or 'get' prey animals as well as encouraging them to 'push/pull toy'. Also, they get a heightened reduction of Boredom from the act of eating compared to normal, which helps remind them they need to also eat the stuff they're chasing and grabbing (ensures they eat what they catch more often than not, though you will still observe catch-and-release behavior on a fairly regular basis.) 

- Abyss Dragons are not timid. If attacked they will generally stand up for themselves and may well kill the aggressor if it is a Grendel. They are not instinctively compelled to dislike Grendels or even fear them but if given reason to they will quickly learn to be aggressive toward Grendels and to be a little mentally obsessive (which I read as a Norn version of suspicion) about Grendels if any are within eyeshot. Can be used to defend more fragile Norn species if carefully trained not to attack other Norns. 

- In spite of the above, while Abyss Dragons do fight amongst themselves reasonably often, they don't fight constantly or even all that commonly, and murder is quite rare, at least of each other (more fragile Norns and Ettins might not do so well if they happened to get in a physical disagreement with a Dragon...) They do sometimes hit each other, and the aggrieved party almost always hits back, but these exchanges almost never continue to the death as they do with Grendels. Individual Abyss Dragons may learn (or, with breeding, mutate) into all-around killers, but the 'default' Gen1 Abyss is not dangerously violent and can be kept with other Norns or Ettins relatively safely (and even Grendels, if said Grendels never hit the Abyss Dragons.)

- An organ called the Carbuncle (also known as a Dragon Stone) holds several of their genes, including the chemical reaction that transforms 163 into arnica and antihistamine, the genes that make them enjoy hunting, and a couple of temperature regulation things to enhance their resistance to cold. This represents a magical organ that dragons were sometimes said to have in mythology, taking the form of a stone or jewel embedded somewhere in its body, either internally within a fleshy sac as a more literal organ, or visibly on its forehead, belly or chest. I used this idea as a convenient organ to store several of their modifications.


DEVELOPER'S/GENETIC ENGINEER'S NOTE: I did not create the original Dragon Norns, the original Draconians, or the Amphibious Draconians. I am very grateful to the people whose fine work I am building on in making the Abyss Dragons. Thank you to all of you for your contributions to the Creatures community.