Game Mechanics

Alright, so you are just getting into the game Dreamworks Dragons: Raise of Berk and are a bit lost as to what goes on in the game.

The beginning tutorial is an amazing place to start but here you will find a more in depth idea of what you need to know in order to take to the skies with your dragons.

Toothless
You will start out with one dragon, Toothless the Night Fury. He will be able to leave Berk and search for dragons. Though he will not always come back with a dragon egg. He will come back with Fish, Wood, and some times even Runes. This means this one dragon can get you four different things!

You can have him leave with up to three saddle bags. The first bag is always free and for the other two you must pay a fee of Runes. The amount of Runes you need is dependent on the location you are sending him to. The higher the level of the location, the more runes it will cost.

Time is also a factor. The higher leveled locations will take longer for the search. You can have Toothless return early however at the cost of some runes, the price is determined by how much time is remaining.

Toothless acts much like any of the other dragons you will get in the game. You feed him fish and train him at the academy to level him up. The fun thing is he does not add to your total dragon count.

Eggs
Eggs are hatched in The Hatchery found near the Mead Hall. This area can be upgraded with the help of runes. The first level allows you to have one egg at a time, level two allows for two eggs, and level three for three eggs. Level three is the highest you can get this area, and the appearance of it changes slightly for each upgrade.

The Hatchery is already in place on Berk and cannot be moved.

Meade Hall
The Meade Hall is fairly important. The level of your Mead Hall determines how many Vikings and dragons you can have on Berk. You will be able to purchase various homes and other add ons that increase your Viking Population from your Mead Hall. These purchases and upgrades to your Mead Hall require wood.

The Mead Hall also requires certain things before you can level the building up. Mostly requiring a certain amount of wood and a select number of your dragons being at a certain level. Leveling this building up does have appearance changes.

This building is already in place on Berk and cannot be moved.

The Academy
An important place for leveling up dragons. The level of this building determines the highest level your dragons can reach. To level up this building requires wood and a certain Viking Population. Leveling this building up does have a few appearance changes.

Your dragons will need to be sent to the Academy every third level and their training requires wood. The amount needed is based on the dragon's species, level and if they are named or not. Named dragons are special as they are the dragons seen in HTTYD. They often times require more materials than their more common counterparts.

This building is already in place on Berk and cannot be moved.

Wood
Wood is required for upgrading most buildings, training dragons at the academy, building Viking buildings, unlock new pieces of land on Berk, and clearing stones. The wood is stored in the Wood Stack. The amount of wood you can hold at one time is determined by the level of the Wood Stack. The higher the level, the more wood you can have at any given time.

The Wood Stack is upgraded with fish. One of only two types of buildings that are upgraded this way, the other being the Sawmill.

There are four ways in which you can get wood. The easiest being buying wood with your runes. The next easiest would be to clear trees on Berk, this however does not have the greatest yield when it comes to wood. You can also get wood from the trips Toothless is sent on, the amount of wood is dependent on the location he is going to. One of the most reliable methods though is sending dragons who have the wood collecting skill to the sawmill. The duration and amount of wood they collect is determined by the dragon's species and level.

Berk has a total of three sawmill locations. Each sawmill can have up to three stations going at a time. To begin with you have on sawmill with one slot available. To open up more slots and locations you need fish and higher Viking Population levels. You cannot move the sawmills from their locations.

Fish
Fish is required for most of your dragon leveling, clearing patches of forest, and leveling up the wood stack and sawmills.

Fish are stored in the Fish Basin which is found near the Wood Stack. Both cannot be moved from their locations. The level of the Fish Basin determines how much fish you can have on hand. This item is upgraded with wood and levels are unlocked based on the Viking Population.

There are four ways to get fish. Again the easiest being to buy fish with your runes. The next would be to wait until a new egg hatches and release the dragon that emerges. The amount of fish gotten from this method is dependent on the dragon's species. You can also take time to raise a dragon and then release it, this will increase the amount of fish received, yet might not prove itself a sensible way of getting fish. Toothless may also bring back fish from his journeys, the amount is once again determined by where it is he is sent. There is also sending dragons with the fishing skill to the docks to fish.

Berk has three fishing locations, all with up to three slots available to fish with. Much like the sawmills you have just one dock and fishing spot open to you at the beginning. To get more of these slots and buildings open you must spend wood and have a certain Viking Population. The dock locations cannot be moved from where they are at the start.

Runes
I urge major caution when using runes for things. Runes can be used for all manor of things, buying dragons, buying wood, buying fish, speeding up building, speeding up training, speeding up Toothless, and skipping requirements on various features.

Runes are hard to come by though. While you can find runes by clearing stones or having the luck of Toothless returning with them, the main way to get runes is to spend real money. This can be quite costly as you can imagine.

You do get some rune bonuses though. Getting the dragons belonging to the teens of Berk will grant you a rune bonus, this bonus will often times outweigh the cost of buying the dragon with runes, more so if you buy the dragon during the first day discount.

If you play the game on mobile, you do have the option of earning runes through Tapjoy by completing tasks. These can range from watching short videos to downloading apps to making purchases from certain websites.

There seems to be no limit to the amount of runes you can have, but once again, the main way to get runes is to spend money. Use caution in your rune spending and they might last you a while so you can spend them on a unique dragon found only in weekend events.