Triple Stryke

"Now with your champion dragon, the fights are over before they start."

- The arena host talking to Ryker Grimborn about the Triple Stryke

The Triple Stryke is a medium-sized Strike Class dragon that first appeared in Dragons: Race to the Edge.

Official Description
"Vicious. Aggressive. Belligerent. These are only three of the words that describe the Triple Stryke in battle and the incredible fury it unleashes with its trio of braided tails. Displaying an ornery disposition from the beginning of their lives, Triple Strykes make the ideal champions in underground combat arenas. With their barbed hides that deflect attacks, their intense fire blasts that blind opponents, and their tail triad that braids into a single powerful weapon, a Triple Stryke wins most bouts on intimidation alone. But victory sometimes breeds vanity and exploiting this overconfidence is often the only way to defeat a Triple Stryke in battle. A Triple Stryke's braided tail is a force to be reckoned with, but each tail produces a unique venom: A sting from the first tail numbs combatants, the second disorients them with mild hallucinogens, and the third creates an agonizing of burning in your very blood."

- Dragonpedia

"This giant Strike Class Dragon's three tails can slash through its enemies or snake around its prey. When confronted by one, the best thing to do is turn tail and run! Beware of this Dragon, Vikings! Once it has you in its sights, it's nearly impossible to it shake off your tail."

- Dragons: Rise of Berk

Development
The Triple Stryke was mainly based on scorpions in terms of appearance. A piece of concept art depicts the Triple Stryke with an underbite, a characteristic which was later dropped. The ear-like appendages were intended to be much larger and the dragon had much more spikes on its head.

Egg
In Rise of Berk, Triple Stryke eggs are smooth and oblong shaped with some small nubs on it.

In School of Dragons, the eggs have the same appearance and color, but they more round, like most eggs in this game.

Hatchling to Adult
The Triple Stryke is a stockily built, arachnid-like dragon with armored plates on its back that resembles an armadillo's and two legs. It has two ear-like appendages on its head. The most notable feature has to be its thick, braided tail that can unwind and split into three thinner ones. Each tail is equipped with a stinger much like a scorpion. Their forelimbs act as pincers, which also resemble a scorpion.

Titan Wing
Titan Wing Triple Strykes now have two pairs of thorns on their heads, as well as larger and sharper dorsal spines. Their tails have silver, gold and bronze tones, with details on its orange wings and different designs on their body and wings.

Stinging
On the tip of each of the Triple Stryke's three tails, there is a stinger, each one producing its own unique venom: The first numbs opponents, the second disorients them with mild hallucinogens, and the third creates the agonizing sensation of your blood burning. Triple Strykes use their tails as their primary source of attack and defense, as they prefer not to use their fire as much, as it requires a lot of energy.

Tail Whipping
The Triple Stryke's tails can also be used as a whip if they are not in a position for stinging. When the tails are combined, they can effectively whip or smack the Triple Stryke's opponents. The Triple Stryke can whip a total of three Vikings with its tails, each is powerful enough to smack a Viking. Unlike stinging, which is mainly used for attacks, tail whipping is mainly used for defense, as seen when Sleuther was defending Dagur and Shattermaster from the Dragon Hunters in "Shell Shocked, Part 2". But they can also be used for offense, as when Sleuther smacked Stormfly in the face.

Prehensile Tail
The Triple Stryke's tail is prehensile, which makes it able to wrap around objects and grasp them with one, or more of its tails. This can be used to hold dragons or Vikings or other objects. If only one tail is used to grasp an enemy dragon, Viking or its prey, it can then devour them or use its other two other tails to sting them.

Firepower
Triple Strykes shoot intense, continuous streams of bright orange flames. Triple Strykes can release large jets of fire because of their wide jaws. They also appear to be highly concentrated in fuel, as the flame gives off a bright color. The flames can also be shot as short fire blasts that are more fit for destroying objects, as they have been seen to easily and quickly explode wooden shields. It is also said that the Triple Stryke's fire is able to blind its opponents.

Strength and Combat
The Triple Stryke has shown a lot of strength, especially in its tail. The lifting power of the Triple Stryke is strong enough to handle the weight of Toothless using only one tail without any struggle while grabbing him in the air. The Triple Stryke has also demonstrated this lifting power by using the combined strength of all its tails which acted like a hook to pull out a metal cage with a Razorwhip and Heather in it from the water and lift it out into the air during the events of "Sins of the Past".

The Triple Stryke is one of the few dragons shown to be able to take on a Night Fury even in a ring as small as the old dragon arena on Berk. According to the ringleader from the Dragon Arena, the Triple Stryke is able to defeat dragons in under five minutes. It was shown to have even beaten a Speed Stinger.

Speed and Agility
As a Strike Class Dragon, the Triple Stryke is an incredibly fast dragon. It shows great aerodynamics and agility during flight, being able to fly upside down and do flips.

Endurance
The Triple Stryke has a barbed hide, which protects it from attacks. As it was able to take the attacks from Toothless, it was able to fight for a long period of time and able to fly a long distance with him.

Defense Roll
The Triple Stryke has been seen to often perform a fast spinning roll as it comes into battle, similar to Hideous Zippleback dragons. The roll can be used for defense as it has a thick hide, and its underbelly won't be exposed.

The Triple Stryke can also use this for an ambush attack, as its spins really fast before landing and striking its opponents with its tails, without being noticed or harmed. It can also be used if the Triple Stryke needs to get near its opponents without getting injured.

Tail Rattle
In Dragons: Rise of Berk, it is stated that Triple Strykes are capable of creating a loud rattling noise reminiscent to a rattlesnake from their tail tips. As of now, this has only been seen by the individual Syringaca, and it is unknown if the rest of his species are able to do this.

Acid
The Champion Triple Stryke seems to be able to breathe acid mist, and to shoot the same mist from their tails. It is unkown if other Triple Strykes can do this. It is possible that the mist from the tails contains the venom.

Weaknesses
Triple Strykes can be very vain and over-confident, and these can result in their own downfalls during combat.

As seen in "Blindsided", the Triple Stryke makes a clicking sound with its tail right before it attacks. Those who can hear the sound can anticipate the Triple Stryke's next move.

Also, its underbelly is weaker than the rest of its body.

Behavior and Personality
Triple Strykes are merciless and formidable, stopping at no cost to destroy their opponents. Their sheer confidence and intimidating stature are enough to scare other dragons. With its incredible skills, these dragons are arrogant and sometimes, over-confident, loving to flaunt its abilities. These dragons are vicious and relentless, as displayed when it continuously attacked Toothless and attempted to kill a Dragon Hunter. They are also rather scrappy willing to pick a fight with any other dragon.

These dragons, however, are quite misunderstood. While seemingly merciless, these dragons do repay their debts and are incredibly grateful. They will stop at no cost to express their gratitude and respect. This is shown when Sleuther was spared by Toothless. Instead of killing him, he stood up and cast a seemingly confused yet thankful look. When the Hunters broke in, he immediately prepared to defend Toothless, but when the latter told him not to kill a hunter, Sleuther obeyed with respect.

Training


"Hiccup, maybe we should make room for the possibility, that the Triple Stryke is just untrainable."

- Astrid, upon noticing how hard it was to train Sleuther

These dragons are fierce and vicious, thus presumably hard to train. However, these dragons do repay their debts. If shown mercy and kindness, the dragon will too treat you with respect, compassion and will stop at nothing to protect you.

As seen in "Blindsided", the Triple Stryke can also be trained by clacking objects together, as it sounds like the click that the dragon itself makes. As Triple Strykes usually do not welcome humans near them, the tricky part is getting close enough to one to train it. Clacking the objects ensures that the Triple Stryke will calm down and allow the Viking to come closer and to touch its head.

Season 3
In "Stryke Out", a Triple Stryke was the champion of a Dragon Fighting arena owned by the Dragon Hunters. However, fans got tired of the Triple Stryke's constant quick wins and attendance began to drop. Ryker demanded that the manager find a way to make the fights entertaining again. It was rescued by Hiccup and Toothless later on, returning with them to Dragon's Edge

Dragons: Rise of Berk
Sleuther first appeared in Rise of Berk first. Following its release, the species was introduced into the game-play, along with its Titan Wing form.

School of Dragons
The Triple Stryke was introduced in this game in the expansion "Rise of Stormheart" in August 2017. Sleuther and Nikora's Triple Stryke also appear in the game.

Trivia

 * The Triple Stryke appears to be a combination of a scorpion, a wasp, and a bat.
 * The Triple Stryke is the first dragon to have pincers, with the second being the Deathgripper.
 * The Triple Stryke is the only dragon in which part of its name is the same as its dragon class, though off by one letter.
 * The Triple Stryke is the third dragon to have a stinger, with the first being the Speed Stinger and the second being the Stinger.
 * Out of three, it is the only one that doesn't have the word "stinger" in its name.
 * The Triple Stryke is one of the eight dragon species that doesn't have forked tongues.
 * The others are the Woolly Howl, the Snow Wraith, the Death Song, the Razorwhip, the Flightmare, the Dramillion, and the Snaptrapper.
 * The Triple Stryke's head is quite similar to that of a shark or a ceratopsian dinosaur.
 * The Triple Stryke's ears and stripes on its back are very similar to Pikachu from the Pokémon franchise, but with reverse colors.
 * The Triple Stryke is the third dragon species that had a specific individual appear in Dragons: Rise of Berk before the dragon itself did (Sleuther). The first was the Catastrophic Quaken (Spikeback), the second was the Gobsucker (Muddlehunt), the fourth was the Eruptodon (Magmadon), the fifth being the Windwalker (Skykarver), the sixth being the Grim Gnasher (Gnasteeze), and the seventh being the Slitherwing (Toksin).