Cue the fan boy screams, Awoken Archdemon Lucifer   is here. UUevo of both Baal  and Amon  were also released, but the majority of the attention will be on  due to his amazing increase in power and viability.

 Awoken Archdemon Lucifer is the only awoken evolution to be released of the 3. Being an awoken evolution,  received a revamped active and leader skill along with new and powerful awakenings.

Starting with his active skill, Oblivion Nova,  is able to inflict precisely 150k damage to a single enemy while ignoring their element and defence. This plays a critical role in high end content as it allows you to seamlessly bypass high defence monsters with ease. It can be used to execute a 10M defence PreDRA  , annoying Piis  that frequent Alt coop dungeons, or any other problematic monster you can think of. In addition,  also spawns 3 dark orbs at random. The randomness of the spawn is perfect for mono dark teams as you can use it in conjunction with any other orb change to produce an ideal amount of dark orbs. Furthermore, it can also spawn on poison, jammer, and mortal poison orbs (provided they are not locked) which can be somewhat of a life saver.

 ‘s leader skill is fantastic as it provides a combined 1.82x HP / 16.4x ATK / 1.82x RCV for god and devil types when you clear 6+ linked dark orbs. We have all seen the strength of other row based tank teams in Ryune  / I&I  or Thor  / Saria  (my detailed team building guide for Thoria can be found HERE) as their durability combined with active and row stacking unleashes massive damage. However, their teams cap out at 10.5x damage when using an active, so you can only imagine the magnitude of power  can bring. In addition, dark monsters are somewhat considered the strongest due to a deep and diverse sub pool along with abundant dark row enhance  awakenings. Dual  already bring 6  to the team which already surpasses the soft cap of 3 needed to be more efficient than combos. (each combo is +25% damage while a row adds 10%). Another great aspect of  ‘s leader skill is the ability to control your damage as it is nearly impossible to accidentally match 6 connected dark orbs. Conversely, you can match your 6 orbs in a non row manner (think and L or T shape) to prevent the  awakenings from taking effect while preserving your 16.4x damage. Lastly, the extention to devil types as well as gods opens up new subs that Yomi Dragon  was unable to utilize. Some examples would be Awoken Hades  (who’s 25% gravity can be used to bypass perseverance or large health pools), Zaerog Infinity  (powerful skyfall active, stats, and awakenings), and Awoken Yomi  (full board enhancer with time extend).

Lastly,  awakenings are amazing with 3 skill boosts  , 3 dark row enhances  , skill bind resist  , and the new and powerful God Killer  awakening.  grants that monster 3x damage when facing god type enemies and with the latest patch we can now press on a boss’s face to show their typing. This awakening is extremely powerful as it  to effectively have 49.2 (16.4*3) multiplier in addition to multiple  . This will allow you to mow down even the most challenging bosses and that alone gives  immense power. The only fault to be found in his awakenings is a lack of bind immunity. If your leaders become bound, you lose your 1.82x HP and RCV multiplier and become as fragile as a normal team. As such, you should have a bind clearer as one of your subs to quickly clear the binds to regain your durability. Some examples of a pseudo bind clearer would be Yomi Dragon  or Pandora  who both have the recover bind  awakening and heart generating actives.

Overall, I am very excited to use  and look forward to the resurgence of dark rows.

 Resolved Demon Lord, Amon is an ultimate evolution of an already existing evolution. This means he receives more awakenings, gains a third typing, augmented base stats, but no rework of his active. First of all,  ‘s active is poorly designed as it starts at 17 turns and can be painfully max skilled to 7. As of now, we currently do not have a feasible way to skill  up. However, we should be receiving the Ancient Fire & Lake Dragons dungeon at some point, when that is, I have no idea. This will at least give a 50% drop chance for his skill up that does not require evolving. If max skilled, he provides a red to blue orb change (that does not synergize with either Karin  , Ryune  , or Skuld  ‘s full board change) along with providing a 3x counter attack damage. That counter attack can prove valuable in niche situations such as killing off a boss with perseverance provided you can survive their 1% ability.  Awakenings wise,  gains a total of 3 water rows  , unbinability, skill lock resist  , and the new Machine Killer  awakening.  provides 3x damage against machine types for this monster only. Currently, we do not have too many machine type bosses with the exception of the extremely difficult Machine Hera descended in coop. Overall, I do not feel this new evolution will boost  ‘s viability until we receive either an active rework or easy to acquire skill ups. But do keep in mind that he is probably the buffest owl you will ever meet.

 Baal has questionable artwork, but his newest evolution provides an amazing 3 light rows  along with unbindability,  , 2  awakenings, and Multi Boost  awakenings.  provides 1.5x boost to all stats in multiplayer dungeons for this monster.   From an awakenings point of view, he looks amazing; however, I would still delegate him into a niche sub role due to his active being problematic. When max skilled (8 turns), it provides light counter attack damage for 3 turns along with converting water orbs to light orbs. Like,  ,  does not synergize with the common light board changers (Apocalypse  , Raphael  , or Saria ). The counter-attack can prove to be invaluable as it will allow you to kill a boss with perseverance should you be able to survive their 1% damaging ability. However, skilling him up is a challenge as  requires 10 successful attempts and his skill up fodder takes a lot of effort to evolve or farm. Until his active is reworked or a more feasible method is available, he will be outclassed by other subs. However,  may have some uses as a leader because he provides 1.56x HP / 16x ATK for attacker and devil type monsters when your health is above 50%. This can be great for mindless  farming with no pre-emptives, but may be challenging to find friends.

Let me know your thoughts and impressions of these new evolutions. I am open to constructive feedback and will try to reply to everyone in due time.

Happy Puzzling!