The Night Fury is the one dragon in the mod that punishes shortcuts. It will not eat from your hand while you are wearing a chestplate, it will not stay put while you are holding a sword, and it flees the moment the night vision effect drops. Every rule is checked continuously, not just at the first interaction.
Why this species has different rules
Most dragons in the mod use a straightforward feed-and-wait loop. The Night Fury layers extra conditions on top of that loop specifically to make it an end-game target rather than something you stumble into on day three.
It is a state check, not a one-time gate
The conditions are evaluated the whole time you are near the dragon. Re-equipping a helmet halfway through the sequence breaks it. So does swapping to a pickaxe to clear a block in your path.
Progress is tracked per dragon
Each wild dragon holds its own taming counter. Walking away and coming back later does not necessarily wipe it, but scaring the mob into fleeing means you may never find that particular one again.
Preparing before you go looking
Half the failures happen before the player even sees a dragon. Sort the preparation first.
Secure a night vision source
You need the effect active and comfortably long. A potion of night vision at the extended duration is the reliable answer; a beacon does not help you out in the field. Brew several, because the attempt often takes longer than one potion lasts.
Strip your gear properly
Remove every armour piece, including the helmet slot. Clear your main hand and your off hand of anything that reads as a weapon or a tool. Elytra and shields count against you too.
Bring the right food
Fish is the currency here. Salmon, cod and tropical fish are the items the mod's dragons respond to, and you want a full stack rather than a handful — the taming counter climbs per successful feed, not per attempt.
Set up a safe fallback
Place a bed and a small shelter nearby before you start. If the attempt goes badly you want somewhere to retreat to that is not a thirty-second sprint away while unarmoured.
Finding one in the world
Night Furies are rare by design, and they do not announce themselves.
Search at night
The species is most reliably encountered after dark, which is part of why the night vision requirement doubles as a practical necessity rather than an arbitrary rule.
Cover ground from the air
Scouting on a tamed Gronckle or Deadly Nadder dramatically improves your odds. Dismount well before you approach, because arriving on another dragon spooks the target.
Use creative to test first
If you are unsure whether your setup is correct, summon one in a creative test world and confirm the interaction prompt appears. It saves a lot of wasted potion.
The approach itself
This is the part that rewards patience over reflexes.
Close the distance slowly
Walk, do not sprint. Sprinting registers as a charge and pushes the dragon into its wary state. Crouching helps you control your speed and keeps you from accidentally clipping into it.
Read the dragon's mood
A curious dragon holds its ground and watches you. A wary one backs off, shifts its posture and will bolt if you press further. Stop moving the moment the posture changes and let it settle before you continue.
Feed and check progress
Offer fish from your hand. Then right-click with a stick to read how far along the taming counter is. The stick is a diagnostic tool during taming and a command tool afterwards.
Repeat until it accepts you
There is no single magic feed. Expect several cycles of feeding, checking and waiting before the dragon flips to tamed.
After the tame
The work is not quite over once the dragon is yours.
Saddle it immediately
A tamed dragon accepts a saddle, which unlocks riding and gives you access to its inventory. Until then it will follow you around but you cannot mount it.
Learn the two ability keys
The primary ability — the plasma blast — fires with R by default. The secondary ability triggers with X. Both are rebindable in the controls menu, which is worth doing if those keys already do something in your setup.
Set its behaviour with the stick
Right-clicking a tamed dragon with a stick cycles it between sitting, following and wandering. Set it to follow before a long flight so it catches you if you dismount in midair.
Taming rules differ slightly between the original mod and the community ports. If you are playing a continuation build, check its in-game Book of Dragons — later versions ship documentation directly in the item.