The game takes place after the movie, when the Vikings hold their annual Thor's-day Thursday festival, culminating in a large dragon tournament. Players take on the roles of human characters Astrid or Hiccup, both featured in the film.
Gameplay involves three main elements: exploration, training, and combat with other players. During combats, dragons are controlled directly, fighting in a 3D environment using melee and fire attacks. Fire builds up through a meter for each successful attack, resulting in powerful fire-based strikes. The exploration phase requires Hiccup or Astrid to train the dragons, which can be customized to make them unique. Training and winning tournaments improve statistics such as strength and speed, while completing quests and collecting food keeps key parameters like hunger, health, mood, rest, and trust at a high level for optimal combat performance.
Multiplayer modes focus exclusively on the fighting aspect of the game, allowing dragons from different console versions to be imported for challenging friends.