Dragalia Lost / Tropes D to I

This page covers tropes in Dragalia Lost.

Tropes A to C | Tropes D to I | Tropes K To P | Tropes R to Z

D

• Damn You, Muscle Memory!: Among the changes in the November 2019 update is a change in the GUI. Home and Quests are separate buttons, while everything else moved over, with the menu moved to the top corner instead of the bottom corner. It takes a bit of an adjustment for veterans used to the original layout.
• Dangerous Phlebotinum Interaction: During the Fire Emblem Heroes crossover, it turns out that the Askran and Emblan dimensional powers from Fire Emblem interact very badly with the Dragalia world. The Prince and his allies already deal with rifts to the space between worlds on a regular basis, and the presence of Alphonse and Veronica together causes these rifts to open and shut uncontrollably, tearing the world apart. Emblem villainess Loki even set up the crossover for this very purpose, in order to mess with everyone for laughs.
• Darkest Hour:
  • The end of Chapter 5 and the first half of Chapter 6 deliver. The Other Body Surfs from Alberius to Zethia and almost kills Euden, but the now-free Alberius sacrifices himself to save his son. The now-possessed Zethia then ascends to the throne of Alberia and uses it to revive the Dyrenell Empire, declaring Euden and his crew enemies of the state.
  • Nearly the entire ending of Chapter 10 is this, as Morsayati regains his full power and ALL of Euden's siblings side with the demon against Euden, even Chelle, who pledged her assistance to her brother the Chapter before. The only thing keeping it from being an outright Downer Ending is Alberius' Heroic Sacrifice allowing the others to escape and giving Euden new powers.
  • Chapter 15 continues the tradition. Euden finds out he was adopted as a replacement for the actual seventh scion's early death, that Elisanne knew it all along and didn't tell him, and that the leader of the Agito is the thought-dead original Euden, now going by Nedrick. To make matters worse, Zethia is once again kidnapped almost immediately after saving her from Morsayati, and the group is completely waylaid by the combined power of the Agito. The only reason Euden and the group weren't killed right then and there was due to Zena transporting everyone away.
  • Chapter 23 saw the rise of Xenos, the Progenitor, thanks to Beren rejecting Euden's friendship and intentionally summoning him. Xenos merely existing allows him to bend reality however he sees fit, and even with the New Alberian group, the Apostles and Angels, and even the power of two Bahamuts, the group can't lay a single scratch on him. Xenos would have slaughtered all the heroes without breaking a sweat if it wasn't for Emile arriving and providing a distraction to allow everyone to escape. Even then, all that did was delay the inevitable, as the heroes still don't have a way to actually fight Xenos. Eventually, the group decides to head to Gatov's old homeland, in hopes of restoring the Greatwyrms' full power.
  • Chapter 25, befitting of the penultimate act of the story. Xenos manages to summon his fortress and the screen goes dark, with seemingly nothing and nobody able to stop him. He then boldly declares that dragalia is lost and that the world is his.
• A Day in the Limelight:
  • Adventurer Stories give focus to that particular character, detailing how they joined the Prince's group, shows a bit of their time at the Halidom, and may reveal some of their backstory. Alternative versions (such as the Gala and Summer variants) tend to be sequels to the original Adventurer Story and further their character development.
  • Dragon Stories typically focus on that Dragon's origins or a signature event from their past.
  • Events usually bring supporting characters to the forefront, like the Halloween event "Trick or Treasure!" giving Althemia and Edward a starring role.
  • Onslaught and Defense Battle Events typically give the spotlight to the recruitable Adventurers, with little to no involvement by the main cast.
  • Wyrmprints also have stories based on one or more characters on the card.
• Dark Secret:
  • Chapter 12's Interlude reveals the one that Elisanne found out in Chapter 11's Interlude. The actual Euden died from Wyrmscale 10 days after being born, and King Aurelius and another person named Finlorda made a pact that led to him adopting the Euden we've been playing as.
  • Gala Alex's story has one for the Ilian Church which involves the "Key to Perdition," something that the former archivist wants nobody to know about. That secret implies a deeper relation besides the goddess Ilia and the Other and the Key would release the seal on the rest of the Scrolls of Perdition. The only way to open the Key is the sacrifice of a maiden, in this case, Elisanne the Grand Paladyn.
    • Turns out there are multiple Keys to the Scrolls, and a sacrifice isn't neccessary, as the Keys themselves can open the gateway willingly. The scrolls themselves are actully Meene's diary, which Meene left behind in the care of multiple trusted confidants and their bloodlines because she wanted to pass on a message to Ilia in the distant future when she returned. At the end of "One Starry Dragonyule", while discussing the contents of the Scroll they had acquired from Ilia, Nevin and Ramiel realize that the importance of the scrolls themselves may have been blown completely out of proportion and that it's not the book of revelation that everyone believed it to be.
  • In-universe, Audric considers his true identity, King Aurelius made younger and from a parallel universe, one of these and purposefully hides the truth from everyone else unless they figure it out themselves (such as Cassandra).
• Developer's Foresight:
  • Tier 4 Elemental Orbs of all flavors are available via a Rare Random Drop from Void Dragon and Chimera fights. This, despite the fact that initially the only Adventurers to have the Mana Spiral are Flame or Shadow attuned.
  • The only way to defeat Morsayati for good in his raid battle is to use Zethia's holy power. Normally, this requires you to break the final four statues to power up the holy sword. However, if you manage to drain the last of Morsayati's HP using Zethia's Mana Strike side ability before then, it still counts as a KO just like any other boss battle.
• Dialog During Gameplay: Certain quests have Adventurers converse about recent story events. During Solo Quests, your party might make some general comments as well.
• Difficult, but Awesome: Soloing hard content and boss fights (especially timed ones) using one Adventurer. It requires the player to have some of the strongest Wyrmprints, a top-tier Weapon, and a powerful Dragon to do this effectively. But this requires precise timing on dodges, Skill activation, and animation canceling in order to solo a boss while still maintaining DPS. For ranged characters, this is generally easy to do, but much harder to perform with melee-based characters. The awesome part is that, in some cases, soloing hard content is more viable than taking an AI team with you due to massive Artificial Stupidity of the AI. And keep in mind that ANY Adventurer, even 3-Star ones, with reasonable DPS, can solo anything.
• Diminishing Returns for Balance: Only one copy of a Co-Ability can be active on a team. If multiple Adventurers have the same Co-Ability, only the highest value will be used, while the others will do nothing.
• Divided Deity: A long time ago, Xenos, fed up with how horrible humanity was, performed a Face–Heel Turn in which he literally discarded his heart. It turns out that this heart was Morsayati, and Morsayati ended up getting divided up even further. They would split into Mordecai and Morsayati, beings Made of Good and Made of Evil respectively. A thousand years later, and Morsayati would re-emerge, where their body would be used to create new life. One of these was Euden. In other words, Euden is a part of Xenos' heart.
• Don't Try This at Home: In "Elementary Escapades," Louise says this warning as the group goes to Sinoa's lab to age themselves down with an explosion, knowing it'll be dangerous.
• Doomed Hometown: While the Prince is off completing his task in the first Chapter, the Kingdom of Alberia falls and reforms as the Dyrenell Empire. Most of the soldiers protecting the kingdom have similarly converted.
• Double Unlock: There's quite a lot that needs to be double unlocked in terms of building units in your Halidom and also in crafting Weapons.
  • For leveling up your main Halidom, it involves increasing your Facility Level, which is done by leveling up your various Facilities. That requires both Rupies and various resources, and the higher level upgrades usually require endgame content such as Tier 4 Orbs or Greatspheres.
  • The Core Weapons require a fully upgraded copy of the previous level (3-Star, 4-Star, 5-Star Non-Elemental) to be made and your Smithy to be at Level 4 (4-star), 5 (5-Star Non-Elemental), or 6 (5-Star Elemental).
  • Void Weapons require a fully upgraded 5-Star Non-Elemental Core Weapon and the Smithy to be Level 7 or above.
  • The Chimeratech Weapons are the same as for Void Weapons, but the Smithy needs to be Level 8 or above.
  • To make a High Dragon Weapon depending on class and element, the respective 5-Star Core Weapon has to be made, along with making the Void Weapon of its matching type and element. The Smithy must also be at Level 7 or higher.
  • The 6-Star Agito Weapons require a 5-Star Non-Elemental Core Weapon, the Chimeratech Weapon of the same type and element, and the Smithy to be Level 8 or above.
  • The 6-Star Primal Dragon Weapons require that the Smithy to be Level 8 or above and that the equivalent High Dragon Weapon have been crafted beforehand.
• Dragon Variety Pack: Dragons come in a variety of forms including humanoid beings, bears, a whale, serpentine, Lovecraftian monsters, and the regular winged variety. It's even established that faeries are closely related to dragons.
• Draw Sword, Draw Blood: The flavor text of the Core Shadow Sword, Dáinsleif, tells that it's an evil weapon that it cannot be returned to its scabbard until it has tasted human blood.
• Dreadful Musician: A direct quote states that, while Euden tries to practice as much as possible he still sounds like he's strangling a cat the majority of the time he plays.
• Dude Magnet:
  • Once again, Euden finds himself here, with Orion, Naveed, Joe, and even Prometheus (a Dragon!) expressing their love for the young man.
  • While she has more female suitors, Elisanne still attracts the attention of Orion and Zace.
  • Cleo has both Rodrigo and Jakob in love with her. A Castle Story, "Once More, With Feeling" is even dedicated to it.

E

• Ear Fins: The Abyssians have these.
• Eastern Zodiac: The Twelve Wyrmclans of Hinomoto each represent one of the Zodiac animals. The Wyrmclan Leaders representing the Boar, the Rat, the Ox, the Horse, the Tiger, the Rooster, and the Monkey are playable, but the rest are seen in the Celestial Showdown event.
• Easter Special: "The Hunt for Harmony" is an Easter event involving not only a spring event, but also the Sylvans, a race of bunny people.
• Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors: Water beats Flame, Flame beats Wind, and Wind beats Water. Like Cygames' Granblue Fantasy, Shadow and Light are weak to each other in a fashion that always benefits the player (e.g., Shadow players deal more damage and take less from Light monsters, and vice versa).
• Elite Mooks: Regular quests have Menaces, which are stronger enemies that offer up extra bonuses. Exaggerated in the Kaleidoscape, which gives the Menaces a huge boost in stats, but greater rewards (namely more EXP and, in the higher levels, Dusk Amber) for defeating them.
• Elite Tweak:
  • A March 2020 update changed the way Co-Abilities worked in Co-Op so that your party's Co-Abilities applied instead of the Co-Op party's, and added Chain Co-Abilities to everyone, which usually gave more niche or conditional boosts. This added another layer of character building, as certain Adventurers can greatly benefit from certain Co-Abilities, e.g. Stacking buff time boosts on a buff-centric Adventurer.
  • A May 2020 update added Shared Skills. You can use certain Skills from other Adventurers in place of Weapon and/or Helper Skills, provided the Adventurer you're receiving Skills from is either a story character or is Level 80 with 50 complete nodes on their Mana Circles. With very few exceptions, Adventurers can greatly benefit from Shared Skills that complement their build.
• The Emperor:
  • Part of the backstory told in Wyrmprints and Jupiter's backstory involves a formerly kind Prince Dane who, after being shown the sights of the world by Jupiter and told to forge his own path, took it to mean "create an empire." With that, he became a bloodthirsty emperor who went onto conquer the world until his death.
  • As of Chapter 14's Interlude, Emile, of all people, managed to slither his way into becoming the new Emperor of the Dyrenell Empire in the void left behind after The Other's defeat, Zethia's kidnapping, and Euden going after her.
  • During "Dawn of Dragalia," the Emperor of Dyrenell is the Sacrificial Lamb that's killed by Cardinal Lambert to bring back The Other after 700 years of being trapped in the Otherworld.
• The Empire: The backstory of the game has the Dyrenell Empire, as it was infamous for crushing countless peoples underfoot. Alberia suddenly renaming itself after this Empire and declaring war on the world is the first sign that something has gone seriously wrong with the status quo. Chapter 10 reveals that the original Dyrenell Empire originally started as a religious retreat from the rest of the world with a currently unknown gap in-between the people who wished to isolate themselves from the world to followers of Morsayati who wished to Take Over the World.
  • In the Adventurer Story of Emile, it turns out that out of a sense of laziness, Emile has effectively turned the Dyrenell Empire into a borderline democracy, letting the people govern themselves and Emile just checking in once in a while just to minimize the work he has to put into ruling his people. And after establishing some laws to make the citizens' lifestyle more peaceful, if only to make them more appreciative of his artistic talents.
• Equal-Opportunity Evil: The Agito include humans (Volk, Ayaha & Otoha), a Qilin (Kai Yan), a Sylvan (Ciella), and a Dragon (Tartarus).
• Equipment Upgrade:
  • Weapons and Wyrmprints are leveled up by using dedicated items.^note (Whetstones for Weapons, Holy Water for Wyrmprints)
  • Weapons can be upgraded up to eight times, giving new Skills and, for Core and Void Weapons, unlocking new skins and abilities. The Agito Weapons can be upgraded an additional ninth time using materials from the Legend fights.
  • Wyrmprints gain stronger effects if they're fully unbound. After the April 2019 update, it was buffed so that they have upgrades every two unbind levels, making a fully unbound version even stronger.
  • The July 2019 update introduced Augments. These give bonuses to the HP or Strength of whatever it's applied to. Adventurers are boosted using Fortifying (HP) and Amplifying (Strength) Crystals, while Wyrmprints are powered up using Gemstones of the same names. Dragons and Weapons were intended to have Augments of their own, but only 10 Augments for each have ever been released, and the Version 2.0 update got rid of Weapon Augments completely, though Dragon Augments were eventually brought back. Augments can also be taken back and reset, but it costs a lot of Rupies to do so.
• Evolving Credits: Starting with Patch 1.12, the title screen changes depending on story progress.
  • When starting a new game, it has all the main cast along with Zethia.
  • Clearing Chapter 1 has Zethia removed.
  • Clearing Chapter 3 adds Mym to the title screen.
  • Clearing Chapter 8 adds Alex.
  • Clearing Chapter 10 changes Euden to his Gala form.
  • Clearing Chapter 11 adds Laxi.
  • Clearing Chapter 14 adds Zena.
  • Clearing Chapter 16 adds Chelle.
  • Chapter 17 is now one big splash screen involving every main hero and enemy involved in the Grams/Sacred Tree storyline.
• Excuse Plot: In homage to the older Mega Man games, the crossover plot for the "Chaos Protocol" Event can be pretty much summed up as "Dr. Wily crossed over to another dimension and brainwashed the Greatwyrms. Go beat them up with Mega Man who is also here now." There is no dialogue from any of the Mega Man characters or any significant interactions between them and the Dragalia Lost cast, outside of the Wyrmprint sidestories.
• Expendable Alternate Universe:
  • Audric's Adventurer Story reveals that no one is safe in his Bad Future. The worst case is Notte, the innocent cute fairy companion, who is killed by angry mob, along with Cassandra. By the time it's over, literally everyone shown on-screen that Zodiark and Audric have met is dead.
  • Zena's backstory reveals that her own world is likewise also decimated by Morsayati, and that there's really nothing left to save anymore. Upon finding the Dawnshard, she uses that to transport her soul to different timelines in order to prevent the same thing from happening again, eventually settling on the player's universe.
  • Once again in Harle's Adventurer Story. He was sent to an alternate universe by Loki, one where Leonidas succeeded in destroying every last Dragon. As a result, Grastaea is dying, with no one able to save it. Rather than lament the doomed world, Harle doesn't care at all, just using their resources to try and find a way back in his old home.
• Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: In the "Chalice Raiders" Castle Story, Pietro and Marty do this after the former steps onto a trap.
  Pietro: "Say Marty? If you don't mind me picking your brain for a quick sec, what was that sound just now?"
  Marty: Why, it was the sound of a trap-activation switch! ...Oh, right. GET DOOOOOOWN!"
• Experience Booster:
  • The Prince has an Ability that increases player experience received if he participated in the quest. This effect can trigger in Co-Op, even if he isn't the lead Adventurer, by having him in the same team as the chosen Adventurer.
  • Some Wyrmprints increase Player Experience, but they don't stack with each other or the Prince's Ability.
  • The Bronze Fafnir increases Adventurer experience for everyone in the party, and its effect can stack with other Bronze Fafnirs, especially if each one is max unbound.
  • One of the Fafnir upgrades on the Kaleidoscape allows you to gain up to 10% more experience when defeating enemies.
• Exposed to the Elements:
  • Chapter 18 has the group head into the snowy mountains and get caught in a blizzard. Elisanne and Luca, the two main party members with the most exposed skin, only bother to wear a heavy cloak to keep warm rather than actually fully covering up.
  • Adventurers can traverse through snowy levels just as well as they can other climates, no matter what they're wearing. Including the Summer variants.
  • All of the female Dragonyule variants employ this to an extent. Nefaria is wearing essentially two straps and a loose dress^note Though with her it's actually justified, since she's essentially a zombie who doesn't feel warmth or cold, Cleo downplays it slightly, but still has an exposed navel and thighs, Lily has only a thin pair of stockings on her legs, and Malora has both cleavage and thin strips of cloth up and down her legs.^note Also justified, since her trade requires her to seduce any man she comes across. Ilia's Dragonyule outfit covers up the most, but then she has a nice, big Cleavage Window in her top. All of the male Dragonyule Adventurers are fully covered up, except for not wearing a hat in some cases.
• Eyes Do Not Belong There: The Dáinsleif and Mistilteinn, the Core Weapons for Shadow Sword and Lance, respectively, have eyes on their bodies as well as dark backstories.

F

• Face Death with Dignity:
  • Nidhogg's Dragon Story tells the tale of a noble who was cast out and exiled to Nidhogg's toxic swamp. Rather than despairing over his situation, he uses his last moments to ask the dragon about the afterlife. His last words before he passes away are of excitement as to what may come next.
  • Audric, due to being of a different universe, cannot survive long in Euden's universe, but after forming a pact with this universe's Zodiark, he becomes severed from any universe and only has a brief time left. Once he finishes helping Zethia and Nedrick, he lets himself go and begins to disappear. Before dying, he gives one final speech to Euden, Chelle, and Valyx before vanishing into mana.
• Face Doodling: Luca and Euden do this to each other in the "Hanetsuki Rally" Wyrmprint.
• Fairy Companion: Notte, a faerie the Prince and Zethia met when they were young.
• Family Theme Naming: Members of the Alberian royal family tend to have skills that contain the words "circlet" (or another word related to crowns) and "exalted" (or a synonym) in their names.
• Fanservice:
  • The amount of female Adventurers that DON'T employ fanservice in some fashion can be counted on one hand. Even the women who are otherwise fully covered up will often be posed in a very suggestive way. Elisanne is a very frequent target, as most of her outfits leave her shoulders bare, three of them emphasize her toned legs, and most of them are backless.
  • Male Adventurers that fit this are fewer, but there are examples. Ranzal's outfits always show off his muscles very well, while Zhu Baije's top only really covers his left arm and a quarter of his chest.
  • Sylvans as a whole lean towards this due to all of them (sans Cleo and Francesca) employing bare midriffs. Gala Luca goes even further with his open shirt and unzipped pants.
  • Human-esque Dragons, both male and female, tend to employ this quite often. Notable examples include Gozu Tenmo, Phoenix, and Jeanne D'Arc.
  • The Summer variants feature all of the cast in swimsuits.
• Fantastic Firearms: Manacasters are guns in all but name. True to their name though, their ammo is essentially concentrated mana.
• Fantastic Fruits and Vegetables: In their Valentine's story, Ranzal and Luca look for somnium apples which are meant to be sweeter than any apple. Turns out they have better luck looking for them at night since they glow with moonlight. Now they just have to avoid eating them all before Euden gets a taste.
• Fantastic Race Weapon Affinity: Bows and Daggers appear to be the most favored weapons among Sylvan, as a majority of playable Sylvan wield either one of them (some of them are even capable of both). Even Ciella, the evil Sylvan member of Agito, wields a bow.
• Fantasy Counterpart Culture:
  • Hinomoto is a fantasy version of feudal Japan. It's an island nation, has a hierarchical structure reminiscent of its country of inspiration, samurai are everywhere, and the Twelve Wyrmclans are based off the eastern Zodiac.
  • The land of Taiwu, where the people of Peng Lai come from, is based on China.
  • Sventila, the country Victor, Noelle, Kirsty, and Joachim come from, is strongly evocative of Russia.
  • The Holy City of Grams is this game's version of Vatican City.
• Festival Episode:
  • "Rhythmic Resolutions" takes place during the Bon Festival in Quinbell, which borders Hinomoto.
  • The Onslaught Event "Twinkling Twilight" also takes place during a small town festival.
  • Yaten and Natalie are specialists in organizing festivals, and anytime they get focus, such as Adventurer Stories, it will involve them creating or maintaining a festival.
• Fishing Episode: The Castle Story "Anglers' Day Off" has three of the Halidom's best fishers (Musashi, Thaniel, and Jiang Ziya) in a contest. Musashi starts Dual Wielding fishing rods, Jiang Ziya uses Qilin artifacts to bring the fish into the bucket, and Thaniel uses his maritime knowledge to fall into a spot where he just grabs them by the handful. By the time Ebisu gets there, they've caught every last fish.
• Fish out of Temporal Water: During the "Forgotten Truths" Event, Zethia's spirit is sent to the era of the First Binding War by The Other to learn about the Truths of the Ilian Church.
• Five-Second Foreshadowing:
  • While doing pulls for Adventurers or Dragons, there's a visual cue to let you know if you got a bum pull (no cue), an okay pull (doves flying), a 5-Star Adventurer or Dragon whether they’re new or a dupe, (two Gold Fafnirs), and one to show you got multiple 5-Stars (a rainbow).
  • In the Kaleidoscape, most Exploration floors have treasure chests, but not all of them will have Menaces. In floors that have both, there is usually a small alcove early on that might have the treasure chest in it. If it's there, then there is a Menace on the floor. If not, then the chest is in the spot where the Menace would have been. Similarly, you can tell if Pumpking is the Menace of that floor because you'll likely have a giant boulder flying in your face as soon as you enter the floor.
• Fitness Nut: Celliera serves as the Halidom's fitness instructor, and though she's no Drill Sergeant Nasty, she's very passionate about her position. Most of her appearances consist of her trying to rope other residents into one of her training sessions, or leading one of the training sessions.
• Flavor Text: A lot of the world's lore is found in Weapon and Wyrmprint descriptions or in unlockable Dragon Stories.
• Foreshadowing:
  • Characters hailing from North Grastaea, like Noelle and Kirsty, have been slowly building up towards their homeland's entrance into the main story, as Chapter 13 reveals that the Dyrenell Empire, as led by Valyx, will clash with encroaching troops from the north.
  • Cover art for Caged Desire showed Notte wielding a tiny dagger. Come the second half of Chapter 18, Notte gets a size-up... and keeps the dagger. Turns out the dagger is a Laser Blade, since her second stage extends it into a full-length sword.
• Fountain of Youth: The "Elementary Escapades" Event has Sinoa create a de-aging bomb, which allows random members of the group to shrink back into a child for a few days, with this Event specifically having Ranzal and Louise turn back into kids. They still keep their adult minds, however.
• Free-Sample Plot Coupon: Whenever the game introduces a new mechanic with Adventurers, expect a free Adventurer to be given in order to test it out.
  • Midgardsormr is this for the Dragons as a whole, as you'll get him at the end of Chapter 1. Outside of the first copy of the other Greatwyrms, all other Dragons must be gotten either by the Treasure Trade, older Raid Events, or Summoning.
  • When the Dragondrive mechanic, which gives your Adventurer a massive boost in Strength instead of shapeshifting into a Dragon, was released during the "Scars of the Syndicate" Event, Aldred was made the Friendship Adventurer to highlight it.
  • Upon the release of the Manacaster Weapon in Version 2.0, everyone was given Sharpshooter Joe, a 3-Star Adventurer, automatically. He was then added as part of the base set of Adventurers for any new players.
  • When Cygames introduced the fifth unbind node on older Dragons to increase their power, everyone gained hundreds of Essences for all of the High Greatwyrms, allowing them to unbind up to the fifth node immediately.
• Friendly Local Chinatown: Peng Lai (the place, not the dragon) is an Alberian town established by Taiwu immigrants and modeled after Taiwu cities.
• Funny Background Event: The refined vestige for the "Such High Spirits" Wyrmprint has Ebisu pulled into the water by a Sunrise Snapper.
• Future Self Reveal:
  • At the very start of the game, Euden and Zethia run into a mysterious masked girl who stands in their way. Upon removing the mask, they notice she looks like Zethia. Come chapter 5, it is revealed that this Zethia is from the future trying to prevent a calamity just as present Zethia gets possessed by a being known as the Other, who blocks the Future Zethia's ability to return to the time period up until Chapter 14.
  • In the "Fracture Futures" raid event, Euden meets a dragon named Chronos who offers to take him back to prevent the Other from possessing Zethia and Aurelius. However, during his efforts, he runs into a man calling himself Audric who makes sure things go as they are supposed to, eventually revealing it being because Chronos was using Euden to get an opportunity to kill Future Zethia. Come the end of the event, as Euden and Audric part ways, Euden realizes Audric is Aurelius from an alternate future.

G

• Gameplay and Story Integration:
  • Before the 2nd anniversary update, while you sell Weapons and Wyrmprints, you part ways with Dragons instead. Parting ways was functionally identical to selling, but it maintains the idea that the Dragons are just lending you their power.
  • Certain characters will shapeshift into specific personal Dragon forms regardless of the actual Dragon they have equipped, if there's a story reason for it. In addition, certain variants of these Adventurers can bypass this somewhat by having the Dragondrive mechanic instead of standard shapeshifting.
    • Chelle, Leonidas, Valyx, Nedrick, and Bondforged Euden have their own dragonpacts with Cat Sith, Mars, Thor, Bahamut, and Primal Midgardsormr respectively. Lathna has a similar relationship with Nyarlathotep.
    • Mym and the Humanoid versions of Midgardsormr, Mercury, and Jupiter are Dragons who shapeshift into humans. Thus, when transforming, they turn into their true selves. Similarly, Ayaha and Otoha always turn into their beast forms.
    • Mega Man doesn't transform, but instead rides on Rush in Jet Mode.
    • Notte, Tiki, and Sandalphon all have personal alternate forms that are as big as the Dragons, but they otherwise act like normal Adventurers, with recharging Skills and the like.
    • Some Adventurers instead get "Dragondrive," where they get a massive stat boost but don't shapeshift. These include Aldred, Bellina, and Farren (who were Syndicate test subjects), Yurius (presumably due to messing with shapeshifting that went bad), Nino (who has faerie magic), the Summer versions of Mym and Leonidas (no story reason given, but they're Shadow Adventurers while their locked-in Dragon forms are Fire, so Dragondrive is probably used to avoid the contradiction), Izumo (wields Amaterasu's Eight-Span Mirror instead), Emile (who has no pact and is just that incompetent) and Phares (whose pactwyrm is dead).
    • Instead of turning into dragons themselves, the Persona 5 Adventurers summon their Personas as separate entities, making them sort of a cross between standard shapeshifters and the Dragondrive Adventurers. Gala Zethia does the same thing with Bahamut and summons a copy of him instead of shapeshifting, as story-wise it's too dangerous for her to let the real thing loose.
  • Comedically, in Dragalia Life #129, when Mym tries to wait in the Prince's bed to make him sleep with her, she falls asleep first since she doesn't have a Sleep Res Ability.
  • Laxi is one of the commander units of the android army. The Elite Imperial Soldiers in the Imperial Onslaught quests have an attack wherein they send shadow clones of themselves to perform an attack with a purple indicator, a technique that Laxi also uses in her boss fight. Therefore, it is safe to assume that the former has the technique programmed into her, based on the latter.
  • Unlike other Event welfare characters, Sharena in "Fire Emblem: Kindred Spirits" instantly joins your permanent roster, without having to max out a friendship meter. Fitting, given that she wants to be friends with everyone.
  • Summer Euden, from the "Stranded Scions" Event, also instantly joins your party without needing to build up a meter. Given his Regular version is your Starter Mon, he is thus already great friends with the player.
  • Eventually, the beast versions of the Agito Volk and Ciella were released as "Dragons" that the player can shapeshift into. In terms of the story, they're not the real thing, but just residual mana manifesting as nearly-mindless copies.
  • Gala Emile's Skills do not cause any damage whatsoever. Instead, they power up the rest of the team, which makes sense because, by his own admission, he had no talent for fighting or military warfare. Likewise, his skills at shapeshifting are basically nothing, so not only does he have a Dragondrive gauge instead, but he can't actually use it to stay in a Super Mode-like state, instead using it to summon Mercury in order to launch an attack before disappearing. He also has a special gauge called the Ego Gauge because, well, he has a huge ego. Also, Emile can only damage opponents using Shared Skills, essentially letting his subjects fight for him, and said attacks are powered up, inspired by his Rousing Speech abilities. Finally, Emile's a Wand unit because he literally doesn't have the talent to use any of the other weapons nor does he have the ability to heal.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation:
  • Especially with regards to the gacha mechanics. Gameplay-wise, you get most Adventurers by summoning them. Story-wise, they join the Prince's group through a variety of other circumstances.
  • Once a character is playable, they will always be available even if, canonically, they wouldn't be around all too often. This is most clearly seen with Crossover Event Adventurers, who explicitly return to their homeworlds at the end of their Events. Other Event Adventurers (such as the Hinomoto clan leaders) are implied or stated to be up to their own things elsewhere and only visit the Halidom occasionally. Eventually, some events started devoting themselves to backstory and featured historical characters (like Meene and Alberius) that are long since dead, yet they're still playable.
    • Ilia and Mordecai are exceptions, since they are alive and well in the present day due to otherworld shenanigans.
    • Come the end of Chapter 22, Audric falls in this category as well with his becoming Ret-Gone. Despite this moment having him Killed Off for Real in the story, he is still just as usable as he ever was.
  • After Version 2.0, any Wyrmprint you collect that you already one a single copy of is automatically converted to Eldwater instead of being added to that Wyrmprint's "Copies" total.
  • Some Dragons are available to use in battle despite the fact that they cannot form pacts with Euden, due either to being pacted to another (the royal family's pact Dragons; the Wyrmclan Dragons, the Angels, and Arsene) or to being antagonists that would never join the heroes willingly (Fatalis, Chronos Nyx, and Elysium).^note The Beast Agito would be in this latter group, but as noted in Story And Gameplay Integration, a story excuse was made to justify it.
• Gag Series: As a counterpart to Grand Blues! from Granblue Fantasy, this game has Dragalia Life which also focuses more on comedy, particularly various character and event-related gag skits.
• Genre Roulette: While it's normally a High Fantasy game, the themes in each event are where the roulette comes in from holidays (Halloween and New Year, for example), horror ("The Accursed Archives"), and on literature ("Echoes of Antiquity").
• Giant Space Flea from Nowhere:
  • The antagonist of "The Accursed Archives" is taken out in a story sequence. The boss you fight in the repeatable quests at the end is one that doesn't show up anywhere in the Event's story and has no explanation for its presence.
  • Chapters 10-14 of the main story have inexplicable giant cubes that can be found off the beaten path, all of which have bizarre attack patterns, come in different elements, and have names solely consisting of question marks. Their attack names appear to be utter gibberish, but using the Epithets for fully clearing their fights as a hint reveals that all of them are actually ciphers. They're all named after spacecraft and have vague ramblings about themselves, which muddle the mystery even further. It's eventually revealed that they contained the mana of the Progenitor, Xenos.
• Godzilla Threshold: Faris's Adventurer Story reveals an Apostle's Sigil-bound dragon can sever their link willingly, but it has to be something either mortally dire or their Apostle having crossed the Moral Event Horizon. Ramiel's story demonstrates that an Angel-class dragon will eventually perish without a Sigil-bound Apostle, which is why they don't just trade off Apostles at the first sign of disappointment.
• God and Satan Are Both Jerks: Elysium and Morsayati have this dynamic, as revealed in the Forgotten Truths and Dawn of Dragalia events. Though Elysium's status as "God" is left up to debate, especially with Bahamut's presence being confirmed in Chapter 18 of the main story.
• Goldfish Scooping Game: The Wyrmprint "Indelible Summer" has Cleo trying, and failing, to play this while her unknown companion, most likely Euden, has gotten seven of them.
• Green Aesop: Surprisingly, one exists: destroying an entire species is impossible without invoking a restructuring of the natural balance. Harle's Adventurer Story has him cast by the Progenitor into a parallel world where Leonidas drove dragonkind to extinction; given how important dragons are to the world in regards to balancing the flow of mana, it becomes clear quickly why this is a bad idea in hindsight.
• Grin of Rage: Xuan Zang tends to have a serious look on her face most of the time. Wu Kong knows though that whenever she does smile, it means that he is in big trouble.
• Guest Fighter: Dragalia Lost occasionally runs collaborations with other series which can also bring characters from those series as playable Adventurers.
  • From Fire Emblem Heroes: Alphonse, Veronica, Fjorm, Marth, Sharena, Chrom, Tiki, and Peony.
  • The Mega Man crossover brings over the Blue Bomber himself, with Rush cameoing as his Dragonform.
  • While no specific Adventurers from Monster Hunter are playable, Rathalos, Dreadking Rathalos, and Fatalis are equippable Dragons.
  • Persona 5 Strikers brings us Joker, Panther, Mona, and Sophie, along with Arsene as a Dragon.
  • Pecorine from Princess Connect! Re:Dive pops in.
  • Another Cygames product, Rage of Bahamut, gives us Vania and Grimnir.
• Guest-Star Party Member: Certain Events introduce new Adventurers for the game's lore. They can be permanently added your roster if their Friendship Meter is filled before the end of event^{special cases} Sharena, Summer Euden, and Harle become permanent party members instantly in their respective events without the need to fill a friendship meter. When an Adventurer's event is added to the Event Compendium, however, that Adventurer can become permanent just from playing the event.

H

• Halloween Episode:
  • The "Trick or Treasure" Event is a Facility event with Althemia, Edward, Silkie, and Elisanne getting dressed as vampires to get closer to the fiends attacking them.
  • "Postmortem Panic" is an Onslaught Event that has Akasha (dressed as a vampire) and Melsa (in a mummy/zombie costume) fighting off a zombie invasion that has besieged the Halidom.
  • "Clockwork Heart" is another Facility event focusing on Sylas and Laxi helping a playwright to perform his masterpiece for Halloween.
• Handmade Is Better: Happens in Sharpshooter Sarisse's adventurer story, where she comes across a craftsman who's closing up shop to work in a factory. When she asks if he still values his work, the craftsman agrees, but making ends meet is more important to him than Doing It for the Art. Sarisse counters by saying handcrafted accessories have a charm to them that mass production lacks, which would bring about an eventual shift in public opinion. This causes the craftsman to reconsider his choices.
• Hand Wave: In-universe, only the descendants of Alberius, such as Euden and his siblings, as well as certain other Adventurers like Lathna, can transform into a Dragon. After defeating Midgardsormr, Elisanne notes that Euden can share his powers with his allies, which is how everyone else is able to transform despite not having Dragonblood.
• Harder Than Hard:
  • The rerun of "Resplendent Refrain" introduces the Nightmare difficulty, which is even tougher than the EX version.
  • The first anniversary added the Omega difficulty, which is even harder than Nightmare.
  • The second run of "Loyalty's Requiem" added a second level to Omega difficulty.
  • "Forgotten Truths" adds the Omega-3 difficulty, in case Omega-2 wasn't hard enough.
  • The higher levels of Mercurial Gauntlet are this, where you need to have a gameplan to beat the short amount of time given to beat Fafnir Roy III.
  • Patch 1.12 does this to the Advanced Dragon Trials, which were already harsh enough even with the best teams possible, adding in Expert and Master difficulties.
  • Legend difficulty was added to the Agito bosses, which makes the fight not only much more brutally insane than they already were, but now locks it to the element meant to oppose them to keep out off-element cheese parties.
  • Morsayati Reckoning is added alongside the Legend Agito battles, and requires a whopping 40K Might to even attempt it. To compare, the Omega Morsayati battle in the Event Compendium requires 25K Might. Those who expected to be able to jump in right away after completing Forgotten Truths in the Event Compendium are either going to be disappointed or destroyed.
  • March 2021 introduced the Rise of the Sinister Dominion quests, featuring demons who are fallen angel counterparts of the Northern Grastaea angels. Standard is doable so long as you have a decent enough party, but Expert and Master are as hard as Legend Agito thanks to some nasty effects the bosses toss out. Master even requires you to compose two completely separate teams in order to defeat it!
    • As if that wasn't hard enough, November 2021 saw the addition of a Legend Difficulty.
• Healing Boss:
  • Volk can cast an undodgeable arena-wide life-drain. On higher difficulties of the fight, he can heal a massive amount for each adventurer he hits with it, but this can be prevented if the adventurer is currently affected by his plague, and he'll absorb the plague instead.
  • Kai Yan will occasionally summon Supreme Spheres. If one is allowed to touch him before being destroyed, he'll be granted various buffs which may include HP regeneration.
  • Fallen Angel Gabrial and the archdemon Jaldabaoth occasionally cast incantations to buff themselves and the Mooks they summon. One of the buffs they grant is HP regeneration. The incantation can be interrupted by attacking the weak points that appear while they perform it.
• Hello, [Insert Name Here]: The main character, canon name Euden, is re-nameable, though he is often referred to by his title of Prince.
• Hidden Elf Village:
  • The "Hallowed Mountains" Wyrmprint show that the Qilin clan are heavily isolated and rarely make contact with humans.
  • The Sylvans are very reclusive due to their lifestyle of living with nature. Due to the Dyrenell Empire attacking Luca and Sarisse's village, the siblings are aware of the danger of this isolation and try to warn other Sylvans of the potential threat, as seen in "The Hunt for Harmony."
• Hitbox Dissonance:
  • Notte's hitbox in "Notte's Slumber Shot" is only the size of the dot centered in her. This is necessary because the higher difficulties are Bullet Hells where the gaps in the enemies' attacks are smaller than Notte herself.
  • The Axe Templars in the Kaleidoscape have a spin attack that lasts a half-second longer than it seems, able to hit you even when their axe comes to a stop.
• Holy Ground: The player's base of operations, the Halidom. Its name is even literally an archaic word for "holy grounds." Exploited in Cursed Connections where Doman sought it out explicitly for his own malevolent agenda.
• Holy Water: Holy Water is a common material used to upgrade Wyrmprints and come in Bronze, Silver (Blessed Water), and Gold (Consecrated Water) varieties. Though with the Version 2.0 update, Blessed Water isn't used anymore.
  • Ricardt's second Skill, which provides HP replenishment and regenerative healing, is called Holy Water.
• Horned Humanoid: Besides Dragons that have a human appearance, there are two races that have horns.
  • The Qilin have antler-like horns.
  • The Rokka have curved horns.
• How We Got Here: The whole "Flames of Reflection" Event is Ramona reminiscing on how she and her sisters joined the Halidom. It provides the in-universe explanation of how the Smithy Facility is added to the Castle Grounds after completing Chapter 2 of the main story.
• Hu Mons: A fair number of dragons are human-like in appearance. Certain fiends also look humanoid, these fiends often being raid bosses.

I

• I Don't Like the Sound of That Place: An Evil Empire named Dyrenell. Notte even lampshades it.
• I Have Many Names: In Mistilteinn's flavor text, it's described as not the name of a single weapon. It's been a sword, a lance, and the sprout of a plant.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: In Cupid's Dragon Story, he is approached by a lady who wants to fall in love with an amazing man. When Cupid learns that the lady wants to be with a gardener, he's about to object, but stops when he realizes that he was only going to mention himself, and knowing fully that the two were perfect for each other. He hooks the two up as promised and redoubled his efforts to spread love to others.
• Idiosyncratic Difficulty Levels:
  • The difficulty levels in Notte's Slumber Shot are Sweet, Sassy, and Molassy, named after a phrase Notte said back in the "Trick or Treasure" Event.
  • The difficulty levels in the "Lost Heroes" Event are Normal, Hard, Lunatic, and Infernal, like Fire Emblem Heroes. "Kindred Ties" keeps the same naming scheme.
• Improbable Weapon User: Invoked using Weapon Skins and some Adventurers' built-in Weapon overrides.
  • For Weapon Skins, Staff users can carry a Halloween lantern, Sword users can carry a hanetsuki paddle or a golden fish, Wand users can carry a lucky cat paw, and Blade users can carry a komatsu.
  • For specific Adventurers, the following stand out: Nadine uses Clix and weaponizes selfies, Catherine orders around bodyguards instead of using a Lance, and Meene summons butterflies from a lamp in place of a Bow.
• In Medias Res: "Persona 5: Caged Desire" opens with an Action Prologue of Joker breaking into a Jail to rescue the prince. It then rewinds back to a few days before that to show how they got to that point.
• Indy Escape: Discussed as a case of Tempting Fate in the Castle Story "Chalice Raiders," until it happens to Pietro and Marty.
  Pietro: "Oh come on! There's no WAY something as cliché as a rolling boulder would ever— AAAAAAAAGH!"
  Marty: "IT'S A HUGE ROLLING BOULDER! LIKE, FOR REAL!"
  Pietro & Marty: "RUUUUUUUUN!"
  • Later on in the same story, they trigger ANOTHER boulder trap while a stream is blocking them. Marty plans to use Pietro's tank skills and his own to climb onto the boulder and ride it over the stream.
• Infinity -1 Sword:
  • The Fólkvangr Sword that you can get during the "Fire Emblem: Lost Heroes" Event is outright stated to be just a replica of Alfonse's sword and is only slightly better than a fully unbound and leveled up 4-Star Core Sword. It does have the bonus of increasing Strength once the wielder has their HP under 50% health. Though the Version 2.0 update turns it into a Weapon Skin instead of its own equippable Weapon.
  • The 4-Star Strength Dragons obtained by summoning (Ifrit, Vodyanoy, Roc, Lindworm, and Juggernaut) provide a 45% Strength boost when fully unbound, making them very effective for late game content while being fairly easy to obtain and power up.
  • The Chimeratech Weapons lack a Weapon Skill, but they're fairly easy to obtain, since the Chimera aren't very hard bosses, and have more than double the Might of the 5-Star Elemental Core Weapons.
  • The High Dragon Weapons aren't as powerful as the Agito Weapons, but they are actually preferred in some fights due to their Weapon Skills being better for that situation.
• Infinity +1 Sword:
  • Weapons crafted from materials dropped by defeated Agito bosses have a six-star rating and far higher stats than any five-star or lower weapon, even with no unbinds when their level is capped at 40. They also all have a skill that toggles between an offense buff and a support buff that lasts until it's toggled or suppressed by Curse of Nihility, which gets even more potent when the weapon is unbound for the fifth time.
  • Weapons crafted from materials gathered by winning Primal Dragon Trials are slightly stronger than Agito weapons, but their real power comes from the Primal Dragalia buff their skills provide. Primal Dragalia increases strength significantly and attack rate slightly, and it also bypasses Curse of Nihility.
• Informed Equipment: Chapter 18 has the gang travel along North Grastaea, a cold, wintery place with frequent blizzards. In art created specifically for the Chapter, it's shown that everyone is wearing heavy brown cloaks for warmth, but the normal character portraits aren't updated to reflect that. This gets especially amusing since the first half focuses on Luca, who only wears a tight sleeveless top that bares his midriff on his upper half in his character portraits, to wearing proper elemental gear in the custom art.
• Innocuously Important Episode: The Interludes added to each episode one month after release may seem like world building fluff, but it sets things up that the main party doesn't find out until later on. For example, Harle reveals to Elisanne in Chapter 11's Interludes some documents that show the original Euden died as a baby from Wyrmscale and the one we've played as is adopted. The main party doesn't learn this info until Nedrick, the original Euden, spills the beans until Chapter 15.
• Interface Spoiler: All the Agito Weapons require the respective Chimeratech Weapon of the same type and element to be crafted beforehand. Therefore, players knew when a new Agito boss was going to drop when that element's Chimera boss became available a few weeks beforehand.
• Interspecies Romance: It's not unheard of for Dragons, even non-humanoid ones, to be attracted to or fall in love with humans or Sylvans, and several Dragons you can summon will express attraction to or fall in love with the Prince.
• Invulnerable Attack: Attack Skills, such as the Prince's Blazing Circlet, leave the user mostly invulnerable during the attack animation. This can be exploited to power right through most large area-effect attacks without harm. However, attacks marked with a Purple area indicator will bypass your invulnerability and must still be physically avoided. The only way to tank through those specific ones is timed Dragon transformations, unless you're fighting Dragonform Tartarus, who has an ability that can abort shapeshifting via his attacks.
• Item Crafting: The game's stronger Weapons can be created at the Smithy using various Materials and Rupies.