Smothering Smokebreath

The Smothering Smokebreath is a small Mystery Class dragon that first appeared in Dragons: Riders of Berk.

Official Description
"Smothering Smokebreaths are elusive creatures that prefer to stay hidden. While not inherently aggressive, Smokebreaths will attack Vikings that intrude on their territory. Rather than breathe fire, these dragons instead exhale plumes of thick black smoke. Being communal creatures, these individual smoke clouds often combine into what appears to be a large fog bank. Many a Viking ship has been scuttled due to these dragon-made fogbanks, which suits the Smokebreaths just fine, as they scavenge the wreckage for bits of metal to use in building their nests. The Smothering Smokebreaths' greatest hidden ability is actually their supernatural reputation. Entire Viking villages have cleared out at the sight of their unique black smoke, misattributing the haze to ghosts or fjord phantoms. With the village streets and homes empty, the Smothering Smokebreathes then have free reign to pillage for every bit of metal they can find."

- Dragonpedia

"Wondering where you left your favorite axe? It might have been snatched by this sneaky Mystery Class metal hoarder (hidden in a cloud of smoke). Where there's smoke in battle, there might just be a fire-breathing Smothering Smokebreath nearby!"

- Dragons: Rise of Berk

Development
Originally, the Smothering Smokebreath took on a more ghostly appearance, featuring a flatter skull, darker skins, and casts a larger ghostly, translucent, shadow-like smoke over themselves, as seen in early concept art. Artists also depicted them with more frills and spines, and the 'shadows' emitted a stream of smoke encircled by rings.

Egg
The egg of a Smothering Smokebreath is dark brown with several, large and small, brown bumps all over it, with a crack in the middle of the shell. There appears to be a strange purple color underneath the egg. The egg in Dragons: Rise of Berk is more spherical than the ones in School of Dragons which appear to be oval.

Hatchling to Adult
The Smothering Smokebreath is approximately the same size as a Terrible Terror (maybe a little larger), and it is entirely gray. The head and mouth are almost as big as its body, and it has no discernible neck. It has short, stubby legs and a wingspan equivalent to over twice its body length (though in its debut its body was longer than its wingspan). Its tail is long, thin, and very spiky.

Titan Wing
Titan winged Smothering Smokebreaths have a shiny green and grey coat. Their snout, wing edges, and belly is green, while the rest of their body is grey. These titans have blue stripes on their wings, similar to those of a tiger. The spines on their back, neck, and tail are larger, longer and sharper too. Overall, this dragon has increased in size.

Smoke
This dragon can create a veil of smoke to hide from enemies or victims. They excrete this dense fog from their skins. Because of this ability, it was thought to be a kind of "Fog Monster" and became legendary, to the point that, although the Book of Dragons had information about it, Fishlegs believed it was just a myth. It is classified as a Mystery Class dragon. According to Valka, scratching a Smokebreath under the chin will cause it to produce large amounts of smoke.

Firepower
Although they usually breathe smoke, they can breathe a very hot fire, since it is capable of melting metal in a matter of moments. A large swarm may appear as a strange smoke cloud. The Book of Dragons in Wild Skies says the smoke is pumped out of their skin.

Hunting
Smokebreath packs have the habit of collecting treasures and "shiny things" to merge them together to create their nests, in order to defend themselves from other dragons. They often go to extremes to collect treasure, as shown when they all formed a cloud of smoke and chased the riders for their metal. When flying in groups, Smothering Smokebreaths make a noise similar to a bat sound to communicate with the other dragons.

Another of their characteristics described in the Book of Dragons is that they are very territorial. A group of them live in caves on an island called Breakneck Bog (which is the thumb of five islands that look like a hand).

Stealth
These creatures hunt in complete stealth. Hidden by the smoke, they surround their prey and close until it cannot see anything, so they attack.

A single Smokebreath by itself is relative of little consequence, but an entire swarm is powerful enough to tear apart a fleet of Berserker ships or bring the Isle of Berk to the brink of defeat by stripping it of nearly all the metal available.

Strength
They are much stronger than Terrible Terrors, as one was able to pull Hiccup into the air and carry him at great speed to catch up to its swarm. Entire swarms can lift whole ships filled with cargo out of the ocean and relocate them to great heights, provided the target is close enough to their home.

One of this dragon's greatest abilities is its legendary reputation. At the first sign of its smoke, many Vikings will clear out of a village, leaving all the metal free for the Smokebreath's to plunder.

Behavior and Personality
Smokebreaths are social creatures. They live in large packs and work together as a team. Together they create nests out of materials, preferably metals, which they weld together with their flame. When traveling together they fly in groups and use their smoke to keep themselves concealed from potential predators. They are elusive and prefer to stay hidden. They are not aggressive, but they are territorial and will defend their homes from any threat, large or small, including Vikings. They won't hesitate to plunder the precious metals from Viking ships and nearby villages. Their method of concealment has given them an infamy, often referred to as a "Fog Monster", "Fjord Phantoms" and even ghosts.

Weaknesses
Their strength is through their numbers. One Smokebreath alone isn't enough to keep themselves concealed. They are extremely vulnerable when by themselves.

Training
Create a fancy nest, made of the best scrap metal you can find. Whether they decide to move in or take it apart is up to them, though.

Book of Dragons
A group of Smothering Smokebreaths can be seen in Book of Dragons short, once Gobber opens the book. (They are in the upper right corner just behind the big, gray, unknown dragon, which could be another Red Death).

Dragons: Riders of Berk
In the episode "Breakneck Bog", everybody believed that Breakneck Bog to be haunted by some kind of "Fog Monster". The Riders found an unconscious Trader Johann on a wooden plank. He says he was attacked by the "Fog Monster". When they investigate, they discover that Johann's merchant ship is on top of a tree. After the ship drops, the "Fog Monster" chases the dragons and their Riders. They are revealed to be Smothering Smokebreaths after the dragons used their wings to clear the smoke.

A little later they see the dragons welding metal objects along with their fire to build their nest and Hiccup is also present in the cave. Fishlegs says they do it to protect themselves from larger dragons. Using a bright gold necklace Snotlout had found at the ship to distract the Smokebreaths, Hiccup escapes and recovers the box that was on Johann's ship. The dragons and Riders chased them and threw all their metal objects that the Smokebreaths have taken and returned. A Smokebreath attacked Hiccup's Prosthetic Leg but Fishlegs attacked and turned back, but is still afraid of him. The Riders and dragons returned safely to Berk.

Dragons: Defenders of Berk
In "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes", Johann then bought a scrap metal pile from a Berserker, which he then sells to Gobber. Unknown to anyone, there was a Smokebreath nest in it, and soon the dragons took all the metal in Berk. Shortly after the village was almost completely stripped of its metal, including weapons, Dagur and his fleet were making their way to Berk. Fortunately, Hiccup and the other Riders were able to attract Smokebreaths to the vessels, where they took the metal, causing them to sink. After the metal was recovered, the Smokebreaths were later taken to Breakneck Bog, courtesy of Johann's ship.

Season 2
When Bandit stole Snotlout's axe in "Snotlout Gets the Axe" and placed it on its back, Snotlout decided to get it back with some help from the Smokebreaths. A group of them that lived on a nearby island (possibly Breakneck Bog) followed Hiccup, Astrid and Snotlout to Iron Isle and tore the armor off of Armorwing. When the situation got out of control, the Riders lured the Smokebreaths away with one giant melded piece of metal.

Season 6
A group of Smothering Smokebreaths was summoned by the Berserker Bewilderbeast during the final fight in "King of Dragons, Part 2". They lift a Dragon Hunter and throw him in the ocean.

DreamWorks Dragons: Wild Skies
The Smokebreath is one of the Mystery Class dragons in Wild Skies, along with the Changewing. They are also the only Wild Skies dragon to be displayed in groups. They can be found in the Monstrous Nightmare's lair on Lava-Lout Island when offered mutton or crabs. Training this dragon unlocks the 'Pickpocket' achievement.

Dragons: Rise of Berk
The Smothering Smokebreath and its Titan Wing form appeared in Rise of Berk. The Exotic Smokebreath, Rattling Smokebreath, Dustbrawler and Gritpicker appeared in it too.

School of Dragons
The Smokebreath also became available in this game, and there is a Viking jacket inspired by its design. They also appear in the quest "Honey, I Stung Snotlout" in which Valka uses one to smoke a beehive for honey.

Trivia

 * Smothering Smokebreaths were speculated to be in a Halloween episode.
 * The Smothering Smokebreath is similar to both a bat and a magpie, because a bat likes to live in caves and in large groups, and magpies like to collect shiny objects to build their nest.
 * The original image of the old Wild Skies Smokebreath looks much like a Monstrous Nightmare, but when the dragon was released the game's image in the book was changed to coincide with the dragon. It is possible that this was concept art, but the designers decided to change it because it was too similar to the Monstrous Nightmare.
 * They are similar to the Terrible Terror, as they travel in groups, are smaller than most dragons, as well as bringing objects together. This is seen when two Smokebreaths try to snatch Tuffnut.
 * While a whole group of them appeared in both of their episodes, the Smothering Smokebreath is one of the few known species not to have any differences in color.
 * In Wild Skies, however, they are black in color instead of smoky gray.
 * It would be logical that the Smothering Smokebreath is extremely rare. This is evidenced by even Fishlegs thinking they were a myth.
 * It is the second dragon which Vikings doubted its existence. The first was the Boneknapper.
 * These dragons may have been the reason for the fog around Dragon Island, but this was not confirmed.
 * Even though the Smothering Smokebreath is seen breathing smoke, the Dragon Tracker Part 2 claims that the smoke comes from its skin.
 * In Rise of Berk, the Smokebreath baby is slightly larger than the adult version.
 * In School of Dragons, Smothering Smokebreaths are rideable dragons, despite their small size.
 * It is possible that Smothering Smokebreaths used to gather raw ore to make their nests. With the arrival of Vikings to the archipelago 300 years earlier, they may have then adapted their behavior to also scavenge Viking metal as it would be easier to collect.
 * According to Dragonpedia, the Smothering Smokebreath's smoke contains extremely hot air. Making the smoke itself extremely hot. This is the second dragon that shoots extremely hot air, the other being the Windstriker.
 * The concept art of the Smothering Smokebreath and their shadows looks very similar to the Night Terror flocks.
 * The Smothering Smokebreath is currently the only small dragon species that is not a member of the Stoker Class.
 * Smothering Smokebreaths and Armorwings are found to be enemies as they fight over and steal scrap metal.