The Dragon's Dilemma is a prisoner's dilemma style mini-game. It has been a recurring feature of April Fools' Day events since its introduction in 2017, occurring annually on April 1st. For the first two years, no official announcement or message was made of this event and no new dragon was released either. In 2019, TJ made a formal announcement of the event.
Players could head into any of the biomes and attempt to steal an egg as normal, and this would trigger the event.
You've been caught! A dragon noticed you tresspassing in her territory, and is accusing you of stealing their gold. If you don't come up with a way out of this, you' [sic] most definitely going to be lunch.
But there's a single ray of hope; someone else has also been caught in the cave. If you blame them for the missing gold, then you go free and they will be left to face the dragon's wrath. However, if you both blame each other, you'll both be eaten. If neither of you say anything, the dragon won't have enough proof to do anything, and you both go free.
The Rules
You've been paired with a random user. Both of you are presented with the same choice: Blame the other person, or say nothing.
If one person blames and one person says nothing, the person that blamed gets a special egg.
If you both say nothing, you both get a normal egg.
If you both blame, you both get nothing.
Choose wisely!
Only players who were not scroll-locked were able to participate, those locked would get the following message:
You can’t participate in this “event’ while at your egg limit.
Don’t worry, you’re not missing out on much. Really. Trust me.
Upon stealing an egg, the following options were given, that then led to different results:
Blame the other person. (SUCCESS)
After what feels like an eternity, the dragon thanks you for your honesty. She points you in the direction of a special egg that is yours for the taking- as long as you take care of it.
(This option gives you an upside-down egg.)
Blame the other person. (FAIL)
You're not sure what happens next, but bystanders would later describe it as "savage", "unpleasant" and "kind of like my uncle Stan at Thanksgiving."
YOU HAVE BEEN EATEN
Say nothing. (SUCCESS)
After what feels like an eternity, the dragon backs away, leaving you free to go. As you scramble away, you grab the first egg that catches you [sic] eye.
(This option will give a regular egg.)
Say nothing. (FAIL)
You're not sure what happens next, but bystanders would later describe it as "savage", "unpleasant" and "kind of like my uncle Stan at Thanksgiving."
YOU HAVE BEEN EATEN
If either of these selections are successful, the player was given an egg to keep, that has either a regular sprite or an upside-down egg sprite. Both sprite versions will have their locations marked as "Cave", regardless of which biome the player was originally hunting in. If they were unsuccessful, they were eaten by the dragon and weren't able to trigger the event anymore. Many have speculated this to be inspired by the prisoner's dilemma.
As reported by players on the forum, only Mint Dragons and Balloon Dragons were given as prizes, and only Mint eggs were given upside-down. The upside-down eggs have been confirmed to hatch into upside-down hatchlings and subsequently grow up into upside-down adults. While they appear normal when viewing a person's scroll, accessing the dragon's view page will show the sprite upside-down.
Trivia[]
- While the event was meant to be accessed only once by each person, the initial release had a glitch whereby players could re-try and get multiple eggs as a result.
- As of 2019, upside down Mints cannot be traded.