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 Strike Class dragon. The Triple Stryke made its first appearance in "Stryke Out".

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

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. Much like the Night Fury, 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's. Their forelimbs act as pincers, which also resemble a scorpion's.

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 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.

Behavior and Personality
"Triple Threat."

- Dragonpedia

Triple Strykes are merciless and formidable, stopping at no cost to destroy their opponents. Their sheer confidence and intimidating stature is enough to scare other dragons. With its incredible skills, these dragons are arrogant and sometimes, over-confident, loving to boast its abilities. These dragons are vicious and relentless, as displayed when it continuously attacked Toothless and attempted to kill a Dragon Hunter.

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 would 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 come closer and to touch its head.

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.

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, or else.

When Hiccup and Toothless were captured in a Dragon Hunter trap and sent to the fight ring, the manager finally found a way to boost attendance, which was to have Toothless battle the Triple Stryke. After a long battle, Toothless won and was about to kill the Triple Stryke, but noticed the pain and sadness in its eyes and allowed it to live.

It then helped Toothless, the Dragon Riders, and the other captured dragons break out of the ring and escape. However, unlike the other dragons, the Triple Stryke had been in captivity for so long, that it didn't know how to be free. However, with encouragement from Toothless, it finally left the ring. Flying back towards Toothless, the Triple Stryke revealed that it wanted to go back to Dragon's Edge with the Riders. Tuffnut named the dragon Sleuther, and they all returned 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.
 * It is the only dragon to have pincers.
 * It is the only dragon in which part of its name is the same as its dragon class, though off by one letter.
 * It 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 "Stinger" in its name.
 * The Triple Stryke is one of the 7 dragon species that doesn't have forked tongues. The others are the Woolly Howl, the Snow Wraith, the Death Song, the Razorwhip, the Flightmare and the Snaptrapper.
 * The Triple Stryke's head is quite similar to a shark or a ceratopsian.
 * The Triple Stryke's ears and stripes on its back are very similar to Pikachu from the Pokémon franchise, but with reverse colors.
 * Despite being venomous, the official stats for the Triple Stryke states that it has no venom. It has also the exact same stats as the Night Fury.
 * The Triple Stryke is the third dragon species that had a specific individual appear in Rise of Berk before the dragon itself did (Sleuther).
 * The first was the Catastrophic Quaken (Spikeback) and the second was the Gobsucker (Muddlehunt).