A dergon is a fairly ridiculous creature, which somewhat resembles half of a dragon. They generally have only one leg, and up to three wings, each centered at the midline of the body, and usually one sticking straight out of the back end of them! They don't usually have tails or front limbs, and commonly have horns. Their wings spin fully around their bodies, like a propeller. They have a wide range of colors and markings, and a few wilder mutations have recently been seen, as well! You can find information about the dergon subtypes in Species Information! 

There are a few options! You can get three free genos from different sources, and more are available with some group participation. 

• New Player Genos: If you have three or less uploaded imports (genos you own don't count), you can get a semi-randomly rolled geno! You'll have the option to choose a group-owned starter as a parent to this geno, though you may ask for it to be fully randomized. This geno will have a lineage! 

• Starter Semi-Custom: This will be available for each player to claim once, regardless of how many genos or imports you have! It's a fairly limited but fully customizable geno, which can have items added to it to increase the number of markings or presence of mutations. This semi-custom will not have a lineage!

• Mountaintop Nursery: You can get a dergon geno from an available list once every two months; the nursery will have new genos added around the same time frame! These may be fully random, have Starter parents, or may be other players' donations, up for re-adoption. 

Beyond these, you can find Wild eggs through normal activities and events, you can complete Aerial Displays and pair your dergons up, and you can trade with other players! You might even be able to create new dergons through the powers of dark science...

Your geno will have a lot of information, so let's take a look at it all! Once you're familiar with everything, finding your specific design options will be easier.

Dergons have a markings and genetics system which is (extremely) loosely based on real life genetics. Hence, you’ll see genes referred to as “Het” (Heterozygous) or “Hom” (Homozygous), referring to whether a gene has one copy or two. Dergon genes also have a form called “Super”, meaning that gene has three or even four copies in the dergon’s genetic code! You don't have to know how to read the string of gene codes in your geno, but it helps you know what options you have. Het looks like one copy of the gene's code (/Gn), Hom looks like two copies (/GnGn), and Super looks like three or four (/GnGnGn or /GnGnGnGn). The two options for Super don't affect your design options, but do affect passrate if you plan to breed the dergon in the future! 

Genetic system aside, let's break down what a dergon geno can look like, and line by line what you'll be doing. 

Common Flapflap - Mountains Habitat
Healthy- Horned
ww/Bb/xx+cy/Blc/Fl/Un/Scl/Wmk+[Hrn]
Forest with Bleached, Flagged, Unders, Scalemarks, and Wildmarks

Horned Common Flapflap - Mountains Habitat
The first line has your breed (flapflap), meaning which particular set of import lines you'll be working on. Different subtypes look, well, different! And the import reflects that. Your body type is Common (which is the default), though other body types such as Feathered or Armored will replace Common if they're present. You'll set up your import with the Body Type layers off, to start with. There are folders which organize additional lineart for Body Types and Variations; you're welcome to rearrange the layers themselves to make it easier for you, as long as lineart stays above color layers!
The Habitat of your dergon just indicates which background the import will be shown against. Mountains is one of the three basic ones, along with Floating Islands and Sea Cliffs, and you can freely swap between these three. (They appear on the geno and import information because your dergon gets a bonus to activities done in their home territory!) 

Healthy
Now this line, for most dergons, won't be anything bad! Your dergon's Health line will show any Variations or Random Mutations they have, along with if the dergon is suffering any inborn penalties from their parentage, or arcane or radioactive influence. Usually this line just contains Variations, which add new physical features, such as horns or whiskers, to your import! This geno has horns, so the Horned layers in your import will be visible.
If something is wrong, however, the Health line will show it. A dergon can have a set of numbers indicating problems from their lineage- either through related parents, or a strange energy influencing their development. Dergons can have an Inbreeding Coefficient (Coi), Arcane Coefficient (CoA), or Radioactive Coefficent (CoR), indicating any hatchlings they produce have a chance for extra mutations or penalties. There are ups and downs to Arcane and Radioactive, but Inbreeding just adds risk. 

ww/Bb/xx+cy/Blc/Fl/Un/Scl/Wmk+[Hrn]
This is your Genotype line- not the whole geno, just this line. This is where the nitty gritty of genetic codes reside, showing you just what makes up your dergon. The first few gene codes (ww/Bb/xx) show your dergon's white and black base genes (having both would make grey!) and whether your dergon has a genetic color mutation such as Leucism. The next (+cy) shows Vibrant genes, which together with white and black genes make your dergon's base color what it specifically is. In this case, a Black base with blue (+c) and yellow (+y) Vibrant genes make a dark green base called Forest. You can read more details on the Base Colors page!
Your marking gene codes come next. They're all het, as shown by only a single copy of them showing up. Genes are arranged first by rarity, then alphabetically; the first three are common, and the next two are uncommon.
Next are the Variation and Body Type genes. Horned is shown as +Hrn, and body type genes would be listed here as well as replacing Common on the first line. Variations and Body Types show up after all marking genes, as they'll dictate what lineart you use; mutations such as Chimera would show up before these codes! 

Forest with Bleached, Flagged, Unders, Scalemarks, and Wildmarks
This is your Phenotype line, and basically, it reviews most of what your Genotype line says, but in plain english. Het and Hom genes look the same here, but Super markings will be indicated; they're just called Super in the pheno as well. Instead of codes, you can see your marking names, which makes them easier to find on the Marking Guides list. Each marking has its own rules regarding color, edge type, and range it can appear in; most of these are pretty open to interpretation! The goal isn't for every dergon to look the same, but to provide a jumping-off point for unique designs, even with the same markings. 

At the end of it all, you'll have a design that's a visual interpretation of your geno! 

Well, in a nutshell- get creative!
Dergons' gameplay is based around making art- be it drawing, writing, sculpting, or more, your dergon will collect points for each time they're featured in a drawing or writing piece. With more and more art, they'll level up, accessing skill increases (to find cooler rocks) and other perks!
You can find your currencies and items in the Vault Under the Mountain!

Activities
Dergons spend their time hopping about, looking for interesting things to try to bite- Hunting, Fishing, Scavenging, Spelunking, and Mountaineering give them a wide range of items to collect! Most of these items are useful in some way. 

Crafting & Alchemy
These are ways for your loot collection to go to good use! Items such as decorations, geno editing ability, and even new dergon eggs can be created through these tasks. (These are still in overhaul, sorry!)

Quests
Dergons spend a lot of time trying not to fall over. Aside from that, they can interact with starters and other characters, finding new friends and enemies along the way!

More is in the works! We're coming out of a huge overhaul focused on new imports and an entirely redone genetics system, so a lot of things to do really need a good polish and coat of paint. For now the activities above link to our DeviantArt group journals, but we plan to move as much information to this site as possible, with offsite options for activity submissions! 

There's a few options to get more genos to play with!

Mountaintop Nursery
Yes, you can get another!...Later. You can adopt one geno every 2 months! You can also surrender unwanted genos for a small item or in-game currency reward, or you can trade a geno you have for one of equivalent rarity already available in the Nursery.

Eggs & Underground Hatchery
You can find eggs through normal Activities, as well as through official group events or raffles! These can be hatched to give you a new geno.

Breeding
Where did you think dergons came from? If you thought it was the laboratory of a mad scientist who only had approximately 47% of a dragon to experiment on. . . You know too much. New dergons, however, continue to hatch out of eggs, and romantic couples teach hatchlings that look like them how to balance on one leg. Breeding will give you new genos to design or trade, and can even result in new mutations! 

Don't panic! Game admins are here to help. The best way to ask for help is through Discord- we have a dedicated Dergons server and a chronically online owner!
If you have questions about rules, mechanics, or where to find stuff, you can ask in #questions-and-help in the Discord server, or comment at the Help Desk.
If you think you made a mistake in a design submission or activity roll, you can edit or reply to your comment with any necessary additions or fixes.
If you've noticed a mistake in a geno, roll result, or a typo on the website, you can report it in #admin-fixit-n-typo-report in the Discord Server.
If you're having a problem with another player, you can DM an Admin, especially Cosmic (cosmicshenanigans) on Discord, note the group, or note the masterlist account. (These all amount to DMing Cosmic.) It'll do its best to help you find a solution, including taking action against players attempting to scam or abuse the group.