Start a New Story: from farmer to fighter

In this map, you need to hatch, raise, and tame your own dragons before exploring an expansive Overworld, and venturing into dungeons to fight orcs. Before loading up this adventure, I’d rather hoped that the focus would be more on the dragons than on fighting orcs. I had visions of creating a huge fence – thirty blocks tall – and turning this epic map into one enormous farm… 

I’ve done it again, haven’t I?

Luckily, Pixelbiesters saw me coming, and taught me a swift lesson! This map is all about combat. Without fighting, you won’t be able to collect the materials you need to trade for dragon eggs. This lesson hit home (literally) as soon as I spawned into a dark cave with a stone sword in my hand and met a green monster with eyes like flames.

I hadn’t expected to face such a terrifying dungeon boss so quickly, and while I could tell you my panicked button-mashing made swift work of the beast, that would be a lie. As a farmer, not a fighter, it took a little while before I defeated this most epic foe, but defeat it I did! I cackled with glee and power as I turned and hit the button upon the wall marked "Victorious One, Click Here."* And then my laughter faded as I realised that was not, in fact, a dungeon boss but merely… a goblin. 

*Or something to that effect!

My bravery did win me something though: resources! In Advanced Dragons 2 you can trade items dropped by enemies for dragon eggs, which is very good motivation for diving back into battle! After fumbling around trying to hatch said hard-won egg, out popped my new best friend! As an experienced farmer, I knew I’d have to feed my dragon something to help it grow, but these fire-breathing, scaled cuties don’t eat wheat, apples, or carrots. No! They eat rotten meat! Which gives me another reason to wield my sword. 

After a false start trying to equip my new best friend with a saddle (I might’ve dropped it down a ravine) my now full-grown dragon (named Habanero) and I were ready for our next challenge: more goblins. Bigger goblins! And... goblin dogs?

I figured out quickly enough that my dragon could fly me out of harm’s way, but to progress to the next stage of the adventure, we needed to win! Armed with my newfound courage, I also learned that you can accidentally dismount your dragon mid-air, which lead to me losing another battle – this time against gravity. Once I’d respawed with my blocky feet firmly on the ground, I took up my stone sword and decided to try my best. Luckily, I had Habanero fighting beside me! Habanero was happy to scorch our foes while I gave them thwack after thwack with my sword. I’m getting the hand of this fighting thing! Oh no, I died again…

After hours of gruelling battles, trading, upgrading, decorating, and re-coloring my dragon (fine, that’s what took me so long. I couldn’t pick the best color for Habanero!) I exited the grand, other-worldly kingdom named “The Tutorial” and found myself in the depths of an enormous castle. With Habanero at my side, I gazed upon the walls, and the dozens of incredible dragon posters, and a voice in my mind whispered: hatch them all… and then build an enormous, open-air dragon farm… 

It had taken me at least seven foes to hatch Habanero. How many foes would I have to defeat to gather all the materials to trade for a Unicorn Dragon egg? Or a Light Dragon egg? I wasn’t sure yet, but I was sure about one thing: I needed to get better at combat. Fast. Lucky for me, there’s an arena in the in-game marketplace! All you need to do is hit a button, and foes spawn for you to sharpen your sword with! I was feeling brave, so I hit the button marked "Easy", and made quick embarrassingly slow work of four fast-footed goblins. 

This time felt different, though. This time I was determined. I wanted to collect all the dragons and fly across the rooftops of one of the most visually delightful marketplaces I’ve ever seen on each of them. I wanted to explore the distant snow-capped mountains, and the land that lay beyond them, and the bases that seemed to sprout up everywhere. I wanted to gather my dragons in the gardens of all the cute houses with crooked roofs, and I wanted to swap my avatar’s skin to match each and every one of them.

I’ve started my new story, and I’m excited by the prospect that it’ll take me a good few weeks to finish it! So far, I’ve learned that closing your eyes during a fight isn’t optimal, that orcs with bows are really tricky, and that I’m actually pretty good at flying around on my dragon. That’s what I’m having the most fun doing at the moment – exploring! And becoming a bit braver during my explorations, so I can eventually build my enormous, epic, dragon farm…

Whether you fancy trying something completely new, or exploring something similar to your current gameplay interests, there’s an entire marketplace filled with doors for you to step through. If you’re not sure where to begin, you can join my adventure and play Advanced Dragons 2 or check out one of the new themed content bundles, the Skyblock Pack or Dragon Pack! Perhaps, like me, you’ll discover some new strengths (or some new farm-spiration). Besides, with fourteen dragons at my side, what wolf would ever dare come for my chickens ever again?

Start your own new story this January. Head down to Minecraft Marketplace!