Awoken Archdemon Lucifer
1.82x HP / 16.4x ATK / 1.82x RCV (God & Devil  based team)
Arena 1 Strategy Guide

Awoken Archdemon Lucifer  is one of the most powerful leaders in Puzzle and Dragons as he combines both burst and survivability along with flexible team building. Dark monsters have historically been the strongest colour as they have amazing synergy and a deep sub pool. Unlike Yomi Dragon  or Awoken Pandora  , Lucifer can use both God and Devil type monsters which grants him access to subs that would otherwise not fully benefit from the leader skill. Furthermore, you are able to control your damage through dark row  activation as well as stacking actives to unleash some of the highest total burst damage in the game.

Pros:

• Ability to control your damage as this is becoming more relevant with specific absorption shields that require you to hit less damage
• Bolstered health and recovery allow for easier stalling and removes the need to bring damage mitigation
• Leaders have a combined 6 dark row  , 2 skill lock resist  , and 6 skill boost  awakenings
• God Killer  awakening is amazingly powerful as it allows your leaders to deal 3x damage to god type bosses
• Spectacular burst damage potential
• Team building is quite flexible as you can use God or Devil types

Cons:

• Vulnerable to binds. This is becoming a more relevant issue with unbindable leaders becoming more common and dungeons having more pre-emptive binds
• Bind removal sub options is quite limited and places too heavy an emphasis on Yomi Dragon 
• Row based teams face a tougher time against bosses with higher combo shield requirements as rows take up more space on the board. Also the leaders do not provide any time extend  awakenings
• Ideal team building is quite REM heavy as you wish to focus on  awakenings
• Reliant on actives to form multiple rows in order to achieve high burst damage
• Worse art compared to the inferior Lucifer 
• Not a pretty girl

Many people have asked what is the ideal number of  awakenings to have and it comes down to a bit of math:

• Each  awakening adds 10% damage
• Every matched combo adds 25% more damage
• However, a connected 6 match deals 1.75x your base attack value while 2 separate combos is 2x base attack
• Thus you need 4.2  to “break even” (instead of matching 2 unique sets of 3 dark orbs)

mischiefy1pad does a full explanation and you can check out their work HERE. This is excluding the ease of matching additional combos along side your row. Thus you wish to have as many  to help compensate for the loss of combo potential. However, your two leaders already provide 6 dark row  awakenings. Therefore, any sub you bring can be seen as an added bonus, but more is better.

SUB
Single orb changers:
Double orb changers:
Orb/damage enhance:
Full board changers:
Bind clearing:
Damage mitigation:
Gravity:
Delay:
Niche:
Orb changer combos:	/  +       +        /  +    /  +    +       +
Skill lock Resist :
Sample teams:

Single orb changers: 

These subs have low cooldowns and can convert a single type of orb into dark. One benefit to a fast orb changer is the ability to consistently form a row in order to sweep dangerous floors.

Monster	Notes
Claire       —    5 turn CD	Claire combines style, grace, power, and beauty all into one amazing monster! Sporting 2 dark rows  and 2  awakenings along with the often overlooked enhanced heart orb  awakening. .  significantly increases your healing potential along with retaining the enhanced status when converted into dark orbs. Only drawbacks of using  is a lack of  and removing heart orbs with her active. Granted this synergizes well with most other actives, but you may need to heal and deal lethal damage in the same turn.
Castor       —-      haste 7 turn CD	Castor  is part of the new mechanical Star God series and offers 2  ,  , and  awakenings. This eases team building as you only require 1 additional sub with  to achieve 100% immunity. The passive damage from the enhanced orbs and augmented healing can come in handy, but a lack of  or  lowers their damage contribution.  ‘s active is quite powerful as it provides heart, poison, and jammer orb conversion to dark and 1 turn haste on a 7-turn cooldown. Lastly,  has not received an ultimate evolution so there will be room for growth and may become more viable in the future.
Anubis         —-      8 turn CD	Awoken Anubis is another viable single orb changer that converts jammers, poison, and wood orbs to dark. This provides some synergy with Zuoh  along with preventing the need to bring other actives to remove full boards of poison. The 5x counter attack has niche uses versus bosses with perseverance provided you can survive their 1% execution ability. Unfortunately,  ‘s awakenings are not very synergetic unless you are in need of extra  or baiting out fire binds.
Hanzo      —-    5 turn CD	Hanzo is a powerful and synergetic orb changer as he can be combo-ed with most popular board changers to create dark heavy boards. Unfortunately, his low base stats and  a lack of  can place constraints on team building.
Vampire    —-    5 turn CD	Vampire is  a farmable option for a fast orb changer. Sadly his awakenings and base stats are quite  poor and will most likely be a placeholder until you have a stronger sub. On the bright side, his active can be combined with many other orb changers to create a dark heavy board.
Grisar       —-    + haste 7 turn CD	Grisar is a luxury farmable sub sub who is now more easily obtainable through coop and Mythical Plus Devil Rush. Once max skilled,  provides a light to dark orb change along with haste on a 7 turn cooldown. Awakenings wise,  provides 2 dark rows  along with the coveted   which eases team building. Furthermore, his base stats and art are top notch. The main downside is  his active competes with other popular orb changers and cannot be used in conjunction with any dark board changers.
Summer Valkyrie       —-    5 turn CD	The Summer Valkyrie is Hot with a capital H. Furthermore, she comes in 2 colours to suit your tastes. Looks aside,  functions like her regular REM sister,  , except you have the highly desired  instead of  .
Halloween Vampire    —-    5 turn CD	Halloween Vampire is essnetially a less pretty and powerful version of  due to less awakenings, lower base stats, and lower sex appeal. Bright side, his hair is pretty fabulous.

Double orb changers:

These subs convert 2 different orbs to dark and either heart or dark orbs and allows for easier matching as you are dealing with only 4 elements. It is wise to bring at least 1 of these subs as they provide power through their awakenings, actives, and some utility.

jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj	Notes
Eschamali          —-       + 4 turn skyfall 10 turn CD	GH Employee: How many  should we give  ? GH Boss: Yes jjj No the 7  are not a typo and everything about  makes her one of the best dark monsters in the game. Her active pushes the envelop of power creep as she combines both a double orb changer, poison/jammer removal, and enhanced skyfall on only a 10 turn cooldown. Furthermore, the enhanced skyfalls synergize perfectly with her 7  awakenings to ensure massive additional damage. The only real fault you can find in her is the fact she is a new 6-star godfest exclusive and very rare and hard to obtain.
Pandora       +   or  —-       8 turn CD 9 CD + haste	To help you better chose which Pandora is right for you, please read my comparison post HERE. Regardless of which evolution you choose, Pandora is an amazing sub as she offers dark and heart orb generation along with powerful and utility oriented awakenings. You can combine her heart making with a horizontal row of hearts to trigger 3 turns of bind removal through  and is one of the few options for removing binds Lucifer teams have. Granted Pandora can be bound, but it is at least an option.
Persephone       —-     8 turn CD	Persephone was far prettier in her dark/fire form and is only evolved to dark/wood because of the additional awakenings and most notably 2  . In addition, the 2  awakenings add significant increase to healing that should not be overlooked. Furthermore, the enhanced heal orbs will be converted into enhanced dark orbs. Row based teams love actives that can flood the board with dark orbs and  is an amazing candidate. Main drawback is that she lacks a  awakening and may place constraints on team building. Furthermore, she should be receiving an awoken evolution in the near future which may make her even more powerful.
Akechi    —-          8 turn CD	Despite not having an ultimate evolution, Akechi is one of the most powerful dark subs in the game. This is because he combines both a double orb changer and damage enhance into a single active. Furthermore,  has incredible synergy with Haku  as you will create a 2/3 board of dark orbs that are enhanced. An overall amazing sub should you be lucky enough to own him and will only grow in power with an ultimate evolution.
Hamal      —-      + haste 9 turn CD	Hamal is part of the new mechanical series 2 pantheon and brings a powerful double orb changer that is similar to  . However, being able to transform poison orb in addition to a single turn of haste provides added benefit even though  lacks an ultimate evolution or  awakenings. In addition, the 2  awakenings add significant flexibility when team building as you only require 1 more to achieve 100% immunity.
Yomi Dragon          —- 4    4   + haste 9 turn CD	Yomi Dragon is one of the 300k Monster Point Dragons and plays a critical role in your  team. This is because  is the best option for bind clearing in high level content as she is both bind immune and can manufacture heart orbs to form a horizontal row to remove 3 turns of binds via recover bind  awakening. In addition to the bind clearing ability, the other awakenings add valuable utility as well as being able to use the active in conjunction with other orb changers as it will guarantee 4 dark orb generation.
Gryps Rider       —-       7 turn CD	Gryps Rider is technically a double orb changer, but his net effect is changing hearts to dark with a longer cooldown. However, he has low base stats and awakenings that are reasonable, but a bit scattered in their focus. The main hindrance in using  will be the challenge in max skill him.

Damage enhancing:

These subs provide you with the ability to augment your already impressive burst damage. This can be used to conserve orb changers to to ensure a particularily dangerous floor is killed safely.

JJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJ	NOTES
Awoken Loki        —- 2x ATK Dark & Light + haste 12 turn CD	Awoken Loki is hands down the strongest option for damage enhancing subs as he has amazing awakenings (most notably 2  and 2  ) and the ability to enhance your damage for 2 turns. The 2 turns is critical as it allows you to conserve actives on dangerous floors before the final boss.  was my key to achieving a significantly higher Arena 1 consistency and will be found on all high end teams.
Dark Metatron        —-    35% Shield 5 turn CD	Arbiter of Judgement, Metatron has one of the coolest names and artworks, but is only okay overall which is disappointing for a 6-star Godfest Exclusive. The damage reduction is mostly not needed on  teams so you are essentially dealing with an orb enhance on a 5 turn cooldown. This can still be powerful when used in conjunction with other orb changers, but unfortunately, the majority of  ‘s awakenings go to waste.  leads already provide 6  awakenings so everyone should be ready by turn 1.
Durga    —- 2x ATK God & Devil. Reset HP to 1 8 turn CD	Durga unfortunately received a buff to her leader skill with her ultimate evolution which is a shame because her viability as a sub was hurt due to only 4 awakenings. Perhaps a buff will come in the future. Regardless,  will provide your team with 2x damage for one turn. Just be careful with resetting your HP to 1 if it is not the final boss floor.
Nephthys         —-    1.5x ATK Dark Atr 10 turn CD	Nephthys is a cute option for damage enhancing as she combines both orb and dark attribute enhancement. Her awakenings provide a significant damage increase when actives are not used (because every orb will fall down enhanced) but will provide no additional damage when forming rows or using actives. Enhanced skyfall mechanics provide the most value for  awakenings, but it may cause your team to have insufficient orb changers. Regardless,  is adorable and viable damage enhance.
Akechi    —-          8 turn CD	Despite not having an ultimate evolution, Akechi is one of the most powerful dark subs in the game. This is because he combines both a double orb changer and damage enhance into a single active. Furthermore,  has incredible synergy with Haku  as you will create a 2/3 board of dark orbs that are enhanced. An overall amazing sub should you be lucky enough to own him and will only grow in power with an ultimate evolution.
Okuninushi       —- 1.5x ATK dark Atr. 1 turn delay 8 turn CD	Okuninushi does not provide any  , but instead provides significant utility through his active. With both a damage enhance and delay component, you can circumnavigate dangerous bosses with perseverance. Furthermore, the double   awakenings coupled with high base attack can allow you to punch through high defence bosses that exceed 300k HP.
Awoken Yomi         —- Enhance all orbs. +5s movement time 8 turn CD	Awoken Tsukuyomi provides significant utility and an amazing 3  awakenings.  This is important for row based teams as it can sometimes take longer to manipulate scattered orbs into position. The  provide a modest damage increase to existing orbs, but for the most part has low synergy with  based teams.  ‘s active enhances all existing orbs along with 5 additional seconds to move orbs. This ensures large burst damage along with a fully maximized board due to bonus movement time.
Goetia       —- 3       6 turn CD	Goetia combines some dark orb generation with orb enhance on only a 6-turn cooldown. Unfortunately, the 4  have less potency on a  based team and are slightly diminished by the active enhancing all dark orbs. Furthermore, a lack of  may place constraints on team building.
Lu Bu       —- 2.5x ATK Devil, reset Hp to 1 12 turn CD	Chaotic Flying General, Lu Bu has an awe-inspiring name along with powerful awakenings. The 2  add modest damage along with being bind immune. It can give you and extra turn in the niche situation of fire binds. However, it is his active that is of your main concern. 2.5x boost to devil types is significant considering most of your subs are devil, just be careful about resetting your HP to 1 if unable to sweep or there is a pre-emptive on the following floor. Just note the lack of  as it may place constraints on team building.
Batman       —- 3x Dark ATK for 1 turn 11 turn CD	D/W Batman is a rare pull from the BatREM (Batman Collab REM) and is essentially a weaker form of Awoken Loki  . This is because he provides less helpful awakenings, no haste, and only 1 turn of damage enhance. He is also near impossible to acquire so that also diminishes his value.

Full board changers:

These subs provide a means to randomly transform the board into specific colours. This can be used to generate dark orbs or remove unwanted poison or jammers. Furthermore, they can be used in conjunction with another orb changer to create dark heavy boards that can be broken up into multiple rows.

JJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJ	NOTES
Awoken Haku         —- All      + haste 9 turn CD	Awoken Haku was once a critical dark sub to own due to her utility and active. Thankfully, other options have opened up, but should not diminish her value. Furthermore, her exceptionally high base recovery dramatically increases your healing potential. Even without any  awakenings,  can still warrant a slot on your  team due to her utility and explosive combo potential with Akechi  .
D/D Haku       —- All      9 turn CD	D/D Haku deserves special mentioning separately from her Awoken Sister as she has more synergetic awakenings provided you can absorb the loss of  ,  , haste, and recovery. The 2  adds significant damage. Furthermore,  is an amazing sub for Awoken Pandora  teams. Unfortunately,  has more flexibility in terms of sub usage on other teams so be careful before investing into her D/D evolution.
Zuoh      —- All      9 turn CD	Zuoh will become a powerhouse sub with the release of his ultimate evolution  which adds  ,  , and dragon killer  awakenings along with amazing artwork. His orb change is less synergetic compared to Haku, (as  will not spawn hearts) and lacks haste. However,  ‘s awakenings are far superior and makes a great alternative as a full baord changer. You can also yell “Unleash the Beast” to great effect when using his active.
Lumiel       —- All       9 turn CD	Lumiel had more amusing artwork in her non ultimately evolved form. Regardless,  is an okay option for a full board changer. Her active generates 4 orbs and almost always needs another monster to combo with to ensure sufficient dark orbs are present. Furthermore, the 3  awakenings go largely to waste on  based teams and a lack of  will cause strain in team building for 100% immunity.
Dark Kali          —- All         7 turn CD	Blazing Goddess of Power, Kali is one of the most coveted monsters in the game and shines brightest on rainbow teams. However,  can still be used on your  team as a full board changer. You can combo her with any other orb changer to ensure adequate dark orbs required for a row. One unique feature is her bind immunity along with recover bind  awakening. Granted  ‘s active will most likely not produce enough heart orbs, but it is at least something to keep in mind.
Cauchemar    —- All      & 30% shield 12 turn CD	Cauchemar is a farmable monster who shares the same board change as Zuoh  but with a (mostly redundant) 30% damage reduction shield included.  ‘s awakenings provide no synergy to  teams but is at worth least mentioning as he is farmable.
Red Sonia       —- All    12 turn CD	Ronia is an old 5-star Godfest exclusive who provides an amazing full board change that should generate at least 2 dark rows. Unfortunately,  ‘s awakenings are a bit lackluster along with having fire as her primary attribute. The  makes little sense as her active cannot generate hearts and  is not bind immune.

Bind clearing: 

One of the largest weaknesses for your  team is having your leaders bound. When bound, you lose your health and recovery multiplier. This causes your team to lose their durability and become very fragile to most attacks. As such, bringing a bind clearing sub is almost mandatory for pre-emptive leader binds. However, if the floor will only bind at certain health thresholds or on their first turn, it is better to bring a burst active sub to try and one shot them instead. As a general rule, bind clearing subs bring little damage to your team as they lack offensive awakenings and their active for the most part is defensive in nature. Unfortunately, the depth of subs that can clear binds that are dark gods/devils is quite small and almost places a dependancy on Yomi Dragon  .

JJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJ	NOTES
Yomi Dragon          —- 4    4   + haste 9 turn CD	Yomi Dragon is one of the 300k Monster Point Dragons and plays a critical role in your  team. This is because  is the best option for bind clearing in high level content as she is both bind immune and can manufacture heart orbs to form a horizontal row to remove 3 turns of binds via recover bind  awakening. In addition to the bind clearing ability, the other awakenings add valuable utility as well as being able to use the active in conjunction with other orb changers as it will guarantee 4 dark orb generation.
Sleeping Beauty       —-    & 3 turns bind clear 6 turn CD	Sleeping beauty is perhaps the most readily accessible dark bind removal from the REM and has reasonably strong awakenings. On the bright side, the bind clearing active also generates heart orbs. You can use the newly created heart orbs to combo with a heart breaker for added burst damage.
Aamir    —- +4k HP, 4 turn bind clear 8 turn CD	Aamir is a farmable solution to bind clearing and also comes with the added benefit of being bind immune. Unfortunately, the benefits stop there as he does not contribute to the team otherwise.
H Alraune    —- 4 turn bind clear + haste 7 turn CD	Halloween Alraune is a rare pull from the Halloween REM and comes with a very helpful 2  awakenings along with bind immunity. She also provides an impressive 717 RCV and will greatly help when recovering from attacks/stalling. Unfortunately, she lacks any offensive awakenings and will mostly be used for her bind clear.

Shielding / damage mitigation:

In all honesty, you most likely do not need a shield as your health pool should be large enough to survive any reasonable attack.

JJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJ	NOTES
Dark Metatron        —-    35% Shield 5 turn CD	Arbiter of Judgement, Metatron has one of the coolest names and artworks, but is only okay overall which is disappointing for a 6-star Godfest Exclusive. The damage reduction is mostly not needed on  teams so you are essentially dealing with an orb enhance on a 5 turn cooldown. This can still be powerful when used in conjunction with other orb changers, but unfortunately, the majority of  ‘s awakenings go to waste.  leads already provide 6  awakenings so everyone should be ready by turn 1.
Dark Izanami      —- 35% shield for 3 turns 6 turn CD	Dark Izanami is considered one of the best farmable monsters in the game. This is largely due to the fact her shield can be max skilled to 6-turns along with dark monsters having ample access to haste. This can allow you to repeateldy chain  ‘s active to essentially allow you to have a permenant 35% damage reduction. Unfortunately, on  teams, you should not be needing the damage reduction nor having much benefit from the 1,500 auto heal.
Cauchemar    —- All      & 30% shield 12 turn CD	Cauchemar is a farmable monster who shares the same board change as Zuoh  but with a (mostly redundant) 30% damage reduction shield included.  ‘s awakenings provide no synergy to  teams but is at worth least mentioning as he is farmable.

Gravity: 

Gravities are coming back into style as end game bosses are starting to have gigantic health pools or the resolve/perseverance ability. By using a gravity, you can easily push a boss into a certain health percentage to bypass various mechanics. Furthermore, as you are playing a “slower” paced team, you can take your time in charging up your actives if they are not skilled up.

JJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJ	NOTES
Awoken Hades         —- 25% gravity & +5s movement time 13 turn CD	Awoken Hades has the most useful awakenings of any gravity sub and the double  can be used to pierce through high defence bosses that have more than 300k HP. The dual blind resist  awakenings provide a 40% chance to resist blind attacks may have niche uses, but blind attacks are of less of a threat due to your augmented health pool. The 5 additional seconds to move orbs will also guarentee perfectly matched boards for maximum damage.
Zeus Stratios    —- 35% Gravity 20 turn CD	Zeus Stratios is a farmable monster who provides the critical 35% gravity necessary to push Arena Kalis out of their >65% danger threshold. In addition, his 2  and high base attack can be used to pierce through high defence monsters that exceed 300k HP. Unfortunately, aside from his gravity,  brings little to the party and will only be used in niche situations.
Zera         —- 45% Gravity 23 turn CD	Zeus & Hera has the single largest gravity in the game at a whallopping 45%. This can allow you to bypass most perserverance abilities including Ilsix after resurrection. They also have impressive base stats along with numerous (albeit unhelpful) awakenings. Main downsides are being off colour along with a long cooldown even when max skilled.
Awoken Hera-Is    —- 30% Gravity 15 turn CD	Hera-Is is the poster girl of farmable gravities but is off colour for your   team.  offers modest base stats, but poor awakenings as GungHo is encouraging you to ultimately evolve her into orb enhancing, 10% gravity form  . Regardless,  has a 30% gravity that can be easily (albeit time consumingly) max skilled to 15 turns. This can be used to easily bypass many boss mechanics as well as remove perseverance or resolve.
DQ Hera    —- 30% Gravity 15 turn CD	Divine Queen Hera is one of the most feared boss encounters in Puzzle and Dragons due to her incredibly high pre-emptive damage. However, you can only harness a fraction of her dungeon power as a sub. With only 3 (mostly non helpful awakenings) she will mainly be used for her 30% gravity.

Delays / menace:

Even with the advent of more bosses having status void shields, delays are still valuable as you can use them to safely bypass different floors while conserving other actives or restalling for skills. In addition, it can be a way to avoid perseverance mechanics as you can bring the boss down to 1 HP and kill on the subsequent turn without being punished by their special execution abilities.

JJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJ	NOTES
Okuninushi       —- 1.5x ATK dark Atr. 1 turn delay 8 turn CD	Okuninushi does not provide any  , but instead provides significant utility through his active. With both a damage enhance and delay component, you can circumnavigate dangerous bosses with perseverance. Furthermore, the double   awakenings coupled with high base attack can allow you to punch through high defence bosses that exceed 300k HP.
Batman       —- 2 turn delay 9 turn CD	D/L Batman is the only devil delay monster and is a rare pull from the BatREM or Batman Collab REM.  His awakenings are a somewhat strange considering he has only a 50% chance for bind immunity. Regardless, the  and  add a modest amount of damage, but his main selling point will still be his 2 turn delay.

Niche / situational subs:

These subs have harder to define roles, but may come in handy under the right situation.

JJJJJJJJJJJJJjjjJ	NOTES
Zaerog Infinity         —- 3 turn dark skyfall + haste 7 turn CD	Zaerog Infinity was once heralded as a super star monster upon his initial release. Sadly his star has somewhat fallen as his active, albeit powerful, is not as instrumental as orb changers for more dark teams, especially those focusing on rows  . However,  ‘s base stats and awakenings are very powerful. You can use his skyfall mechanic to override the appearance of other orbs which can be invaluable under the right situation.
Lilith    —- 1x ATK poison + 1.5x ATK devils 10 turn CD	It would be incredibly rare you would need to bring Lilith as your 2 leaders should posses enough true damage to handle the dungeon; however, if you want to conserve their actives through a farmable monster,  is your answer. Furthermore, the 1.5x boost to devil types may help provide a small amount of damage provided the majority of your team is devils.
Chester       —- 10% Gravity +     8 turn CD	Chester is an interesting monster as he brings an amazing 3  awakenings. This allows for the most sub flexibility as your 2 leaders and  provide 100% immunity. Furthermore, the ability to convert jammers and poison to hearts can be valuable under the right scenario as you can combo with a heartbreaker for higher burst.

Team Building:

Team building for   generally revolves around maximizing your  awakenings along with orb changers, dungeon mechanics, and adjusting your skill lock resistance accordingly. Keeping this in mind, there is no “perfect” team that can clear all the current content and needs to be fluid and dynamic to adjust to new challenges. One of the key strengths to playing a 1.82x HP / 16.4x ATK / 1.82x RCV team is your inherit tankiness and ability to stall on what would normally be dangerous floors. This grants you flexibility with  subs as you may be able to grind it out instead. However, a large part of your damage multiplier is tied to using an active and it may be beneficial to try and bring a sub who has a 5 turn cooldown to more readily proc your full multiplier. When deciding if you need to bring a bind clearing sub, you need to determine the nature of the binds: is it a preemptive, are you capable of stalling it out, and is it possible to burst through the floor and thus bypass the bind? As a general rule, bind clearing subs lack damage output so it may be advisable to bring a burst oriented sub instead if the bind only occurs at certain health percentages. Furthermore, binds on your subs are usually not as important and it is only when your leaders are bound that danger arises due to losing your tankiness.

  Arena 1

     Arena 2

Any Arena worthy team requires both Yomi Dragon  and Awoken Loki  as they are the best subs for their respective roles (it is of course possible to clear without them, but your consistency dramatically declines). You also need a means to remove poison/jammer orbs and this is where Haku  and Eschamali  shine. Do note that Akechi  is superior to Pandora