Cursed, but devastatingly powerful wingless dragon that engulfs enemies with fire and poison. Grants Gold to its slayer. Exceptional against human soldiers and buildings.
Andvari's Curse (Passive): Grants 300 gold to its slayer.
Billowing Smog (Passive): Toxic smog damages all nearby enemies.
Nature's Eyes (Passive, requires Eyes in the Forest): Animals and natural objects within the unit's Line of Sight reveal their surroundings (30-tile radius) for 6 seconds.
The Fafnir has 1,300 hit points (which can be boosted to 2,730 in the Wonder Age with Freyr's Gift researched), plus high hack and pierce armor, making it tough to kill. Furthermore, its toxic smog damages all nearby units, making it risky to engage with melee units. The Fafnir fires six projectiles per flame breath, dealing a total of 60 hack damage and 30 crush damage per attack cycle, making it useful for wrecking buildings and eliminating human soldiers and other myth units, especially when supported by other myth units and heroes. However, the Fafnir is also notably expensive, requiring 35 favor and taking up 5 population slots, making it difficult to mass.
Ranged heroes and myth units are the best counters to Fafnirs, as they can keep out of the range of both the Fafnirs' toxic smog and flame breaths and can simply keep their distance if the Fafnirs decide to get closer. Medusai and Perseus are especially effective, as their Petrification ability not only erases almost one-third (one-fourth in the case of Perseus) of a Fafnir's health, but also immobilizes it, allowing further follow-up attacks from supporting units like heroes and other myth units without the Fafnir being able to fight back. Melee heroes are still viable; while they will take damage from the toxic smog, it is less of an issue considering the Fafnir's damage penalty versus heroes.
Whichever player slays a Fafnir gains its gold cost, noted by a colored text saying "+300 Gold" above the Fafnir when it dies, alongside an accompanying animation of its body turning to gold. A player running low on gold may prioritize killing any enemy Fafnirs they see, which can provide a good source of gold in return. However, if the Fafnir player deletes the unit, the gold cost is equally distributed amongst all their opponents (e.g. +100 gold each for three opponents). This is most especially useful for the Egyptians, due to their heavy reliance on gold.
Fafnir was once a dwarf: he had two brothers, Ottar, who was killed by Loki, and Regin, a smith. Their father Hreidmar possessed a large amount of gold, which he would not share with his two remaining sons. Thus, Regin and Fafnir decided to kill their father to take the gold. Fafnir then refused to split the gold with Regin, and instead made himself a lair in Gnita-heath. Through his greed, Fafnir transformed into a mighty wyrm (wingless dragon) and laid upon his hoard. Outraged by his betrayal, Regin recruited a young hero named Sigurd to try to reclaim his wealth. He instructed Sigurd to dig a trench in the path that Fafnir took every day on his way to slake his thirst. Sigurd, using a superior sword named Gram, waited until Fafnir slithered over the hole and stabbed him in the belly, thus killing him.
Sigurd's victory was prophesied in the Eddic poem Gripisspa: 'You alone will kill the shining serpent / the greedy one who lies on Gnita-heath.'
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—In-game help section
Trivia[]
When a Fafnir dies, it turns into gold. Lumps of gold also appear around its body.
It also briefly has a golden appearance during its birth animation.
The name of the ability related to its death is based on the Dwarf named Andvari who had cursed the gold stolen from him.
Gallery[]
Views of the Fafnir
A Fafnir breathing fire on an enemy force inside a cave
Closeup; its golden belly, horns, spines, and green poison smog can be seen.
NEW Fafnir vs Every Myth Unit - (Equal Resources) Age of Mythology- Retold