[Updated] Final Fantasty REM Review and Analysis

Introduction

The Final Fantasy Collab is one of the most popular and powerful collaborations available in Puzzle and Dragons. The various cards feature unique actives along with powerful leadership potential. Furthermore, GungHo has significantly buffed many of these cards to keep them relevant in today’s meta along with introducing new characters.

This post will cover all the changes that have been implemented for November, 2016 along with my thoughts and commentary for each of the monsters.

On a different note, all players above rank 50 will gain a free roll in the Final Fantasy Collab and you may get lucky.

Rolls overview
Final Fantasy REM Overview
6 Star Rolls Lightning Cloud Yuna Sephiroth Cecil 3299 3305
5 Star Rolls Squall Rinoa Zidane Tidus Bartz Terra Shantotto
Vaan 3294 3296
4 Star Rolls Vivi Ace Aemo Wol Rain 3303 3301
MP Shop 3306
Gift Fat Chocobo 2763

Note about Skill Inheritance

Any card that comes out of a Collab REM or REM that can achieve at least a 5-star form is able to be used as an assistant for Skill Inheritance. This means all the Final Fantasy cards can be used as assistants and you should think twice before vendoring any of them. For more information about Skill Inheritance, feel free to check out my guide HERE.

 Video commentary

—video goes here—-

6 Star Rolls

The following monsters are both the rarest and most powerful cards available from the Final Fantasy REM. However, each day of the Final Fantasy Collab will feature one 6-star having a higher than normal roll rate on a rotating basis:

28/11 (Mon): Tifa
29/11 (Tue): Noctis
30/11 (Wed): Cloud
1/12 (Thurs): Cecil
2/12 (Fri): Yuna
3/12 (Sat): Sephiroth
4/12 (Sun): Lightning
5/12 (Mon): Tifa
6/12 (Tue): Noctis
7/12 (Wed): Cloud
8/12 (Thurs): Cecil
9/12 (Fri): Yuna
10/12 (Sat): Sephiroth
11/12 (Sun): Lightning

jjjjjMonsterjjjjjjjjjjjj  Notes
 Cloud
Cloud
Attacker / Machine
Light Row TPA Skill Lock Resist
Skill Boost Devil killer Light Row
TPA
6 star base
—-
R Column Arrow Light + haste
7 turn CD
—-
2x HP & ATK for Attacker & Machines. 3x ATK on turn skill used
4x HP / 36x ATK
Cloud is one of the rarer pulls from the Final Fantasy Collab REM as he starts in a 6-star base form. His ultimate evolution granted him the Devil Killer Devil killer awakening which allows him to deal 3x damage to devil type bosses. Cloud is sometimes met with criticism as his active is somewhat underwhelming if you do not have a team full of haste cards and his sub viability is modestly low. Furthermore, his leadership potential is quite restrictive as his ideal team consists of an outdated “Cloud System.”

System teams consist of multiple dupes of the same monster who posses a haste component on their active. This allows for an infinite loop of actives as the haste chains with each other. The most common (and farmable) system team is a Scarlet Scarlet icon System which allows you to use 3 actives per turn. However, Cloud spawns light orbs in a fixed position and prevents you from using multiple Cloud actives each turn. This does not reduce the viability of running multiple Clouds on your team as you can use an active every turn and easily match a TPA from the 5 generated light orbs. In order to fully proc your multiplier, you need to use an active each turn and this can be challenging without heavily invested subs. A viable replacement for duplicate Clouds is Leonis Leonis who changes the right most column into light orbs along with 1 turn haste on a 7 turn cooldown. They also have double TPA awakenings and fulfils the system requirements while embracing a cyber-killer robot cat persona. Failing that, some other options include Superman 2824, Awoken Apollo Awoken ApolloAlcyone Alcyone, Baal Baal, Pollux Pollux, Thor Thor, Shedar Shedar, and Ilm Ilm. Just be aware that you may struggle with healing as most machine and attacker types have naturally low RCV and will be unable to deal damage without using an active.

With all that being said, a Cloud system predominately works only in solo mode and with the advent of coop, you have access to far stronger farming leaders.

Presently speaking, Cloud has limited uses as a leader and his best place may be as a situational sub on a Myr Miru team. Just be aware he can override existing heart orbs so proceed with caution.

Sephiroth
Sephiroth
Balance / Devil
TPA TPA Skill Boost
Time Extend Machine Killer 37
God Killer
6 star base
—-
Enhance all orbs and 2 turns haste
13 turn CD

2x ATK mathcing 4 colours, 3x when 5 colours. 3x ATK & RCV for Attacker and Devil types
81x ATK / 2.25x RCV
Sephiroth forms a powerful 81x ATK / 2.25x RCV rainbow leader who is somewhat similar to Ra Dragon Ra Dragon as both have a haste active, type restriction, and modest RCV bonus. Granted Sephiroth has inferior awakenings and lower damage multiplier, his activation requirements are lower. One key factor that sets Sephiroth apart from other rainbow leaders is the ability to heal and stall. Most rainbow teams only have an attack multiplier and this can cause them to falter in higher end content if stalling is needed. This allows Sephiroth to stay reasonably relevant in today’s meta along with the addition of Attacker 37 and God God Killer Killer awakenings. Combine this with his high base attack (2,302) and double Two Prong Attack TPA awakenings, you can achieve spectacularly high damage. Perhaps Sephiroth’s greatest asset is his sheer power in machine heavy dungeons such as Machine Zeus and Hera as your machine killer Machine Killer awakening simply tears through them like a knife in hot butter.

Another nice factor about Sephiroth is the ability to have some damage control. If you do not match 4+ colours, you only have 9x ATK. This becomes crucial in dungeons where damage control is needed. In regards to team building, you ideally wish to bring only Devil and Attacker type monsters and a brief list would include: Ichigo Ichigo, both Lucifers Lucifer / Awoken Archdemon Lucifer, Halloween Alraune Halloween Alraune, Awoken Yomi Awoken Yomi, Claire Dark Valk, Z8 Z8, Oku Oku/2985, Loki Awoken Loki, Durga 3072, and Halloween Kali HKali.

The biggest hurdle you face when team building is trying to optimize your dark subs while covering all your required colours (as Sephiroth offers no sub colour of his own). Furthermore, without a Skill Bind Resist Skill Lock Resist awakening, you must find a sub who has two in order to achieve 100% immunity. Using a sub who does not have either dark as their primary attribute or devil/attacker typing can be done, but it will diminish your output. Perhaps if you badly need to cover a specific two elements such as wood and water, you could use Awoken Isis Isis (who at least is still devil type). Granted a gap in utility can be addressed through skill inheritance, but it may still be challenging to field an ideal team. However, coop mode allows for easier SBR coverage as your partner also contribute’s their awakenings.

Overall, Sephiroth is a powerful rainbow leader who is capable of clearing end game content.

Yuna
Yuna
Attacker / Healer
Skill Boost Skill Lock Resist Skill Lock Resist
Time Extend Time Extend Time Extend
Time Extend
6 star base
—-
50% damage reduction for 1 turn. 1 turn haste
9 turn CD
—-
4x ATK when matching 4 elements, ATK increases with 6+ combos, up to 3x ATK at 9 combos
144x ATK
Yuna is not only beautiful (all of her icons are just glamour shots), but with her new buff, forms a powerful 144x ATK rainbow/combo team. She has a similar leader skill to Awoken Sakuya Sakuya in that they are both a rainbow and combo leaders, except Yuna has far less chance at orb troll as you can match ANY 4 elements (including heal orbs) to deal damage. In addition, your multiplier starts at 16x and ramps up to 144x at 9 combos.

This is a very forgiving leader skill as you should in theory be able to always match 4 elements along with 7 combos on every board. This translates to 64x ATK which should be sufficient for most content. The ample Time Extends Time Extend give you an additional cushion for forming combos and her dual SBR Skill Lock Resist help alleviate team building constraints in solo mode.

When team building Yuna, you should try to prioritize light cards who cover her various sub elements to better concentrate your damage as you are able to use orb changers to create light heavy boards. This means subs like Pollux 3060, Apollo Awoken Apollo, and Baal Baal can be successfully used as you can benefit from their orb changers.

Yuna’s main weakness is her lack of offensive awakenings (TPA, orb enhance, rows) and a vulnerability to binds. 144x is still amazing damage, but on a rainbow team, your damage is less concentrated and without any additional means to boost damage from your leaders, you may struggle to clear end game content. In addition, she does not provide any defensive multiplier and makes her far more vulnerable compared to the tankier leaders of today.

Active-wise, Yuna provides a 50% shield and haste which is quite powerful as you can cycle your subs skill’s faster and survive large preemptives without altering your team composition. As such, I would suggest using the RCV badge in solo mode.

Cecil
Cecil
Attacker / Devil
TPA Skill Boost Skill Lock Resist
Time Extend Time Extend TPA
Dark Reduction Dark Reduction Dark Reduction
6 star base
—-
All Arrow Light Dark Heart
9 turn CD
—-
2x ATK & RCV for Dark att. 2.5x ATK at 2 dark combos. 4.5x ATK with 3 dark combos
81x ATK / 4x RCV

Cecil
LD Cecil
Attacker / Physical
TPA Skill Boost Skill Lock Resist
Time Extend Time Extend TPA
Auto heal Auto heal Auto heal
6 star base
—-
All Arrow Light Dark Heart
9 turn CD
—-
2.5x ATK & RCV for Light Cards. 3x ATK with light and dark combos
56.25x ATK / 4x RCV
Cecil is unique amongst the 6 FF Collab REM in that they do not have an ultimate evolution, but have a branched evolution tree instead. Their dark form is still the stronger option as a leader, but both use the same active skill.

The dark form of Cecil has become a Zaerog Infinity Z8on sterioids as they now provide 81x ATK with only 3 dark combos along with 4x RCV. This almost puts them on par with Sarasvati 3069 as you are trading a slightly smaller multiplier for a massive amount of recovery. This means Cecil will be able to stall and recharge for actives provided they can survive an attack. Their dual TPA awakenings is pushing for a more prong heavy team and you can run a single Eschamali Eschamali for the the orb enhance and skyfall buff. After that, you are pretty free to do as you please as you already have two board changers and a board flood/skyfall active.

With the passive 30% damage reduction from dark monsters from dual leaders, you have the potential to survive a DQ Hera preemptive and you can further improve your chances with the +15% HP badge in solo mode.

Cecil’s active is very powerful for a tri-colour board changer as he creates two useful orb types. The heart orbs allow you to heal and deal damage while having great synergy with the variety of heart breakers available. In addition, they can be used as an inherit on light teams (most notably Myr Miru) as you can have beautiful synergy with DQXQ Awoken DQXQ and Elia Elia.

The main downsides to leading with Cecil is a vulnerability to binds and a somewhat difficult time in controlling your damage.

As a sub, Cecil can be used on most dark teams due to their powerful active and utility oriented awakenings. Furthermore, their devil typing allows them to be used on both Awoken Pandora Awoken Pandora and Awoken Lucifer  Awoken Archdemon Lucifer teams due to the powerful synergy with heartbkreakers or Grisar Grisar to form 2/3 dark boards. Even without a row enhance Dark row, the additional time extend can be vital to helping you form better combos. Perhaps their best fit would be on a Gremory Gremory team as his devil typing paired with an ideal board changer can get your out of trouble. Furthermore, the two Time Extends greatly improve your matching on what is normally a time starved team. You could also use Cecil on an Awoken Oku 2985 team to capitalize on the board change, TPA, and Time Extends.

Overall a powerful card to own and a very desirable active for Skill Inheritance.

Lightning
Lightning
Attacker / Healer
Skill Boost Skill Boost Skill Boost
Time Extend God Killer Light Row
Light Row
6 star base
—-
Question Orb Arrow Fire Water Green Light Dark Heart + 10,000 true damage to all enemies
10 turn CD
—-
4x ATK when matching 4 colours, 5x when matching 5 colours. 2.5x ATK / 2x RCV when clearing 5 connected light orbs.
156.25x ATK / 4x RCV
Lightning combines free-flowing flowers, 156x ATK, and Valkyrie/Minerva fashion into one amazing card! The first thing that jumps out is the incredibly high 156x ATK multiplier that can utilize light row Light Row awakenings. Her playstyle is very similar to Awoken DQXQ Awoken DQXQ as both are rainbow leaders who can control their damage via matching chains of connected light orbs. The ability to control your damage from 16-126x is invaluable in high end content where numerous bosses have damage absorption shields. Furthermore, it is nearly impossible to go over 20.25x ATK as you need to match a chain of connected light orbs. If you wish to feel insecure about your matching skills, please watch Reco’s video of using Lightning as a means to gain a better understanding of how she works.

As a leader, Lightning is amazing for her burst potential, but faces gaps in her awakenings that requires you to create interesting teams to accommodate a lack of SBR Skill Lock Resist and vulnerability to binds. Furthermore, you have to find subs to cover the other 4 elements as Lightning is not dual colour. If you are able to address all these issues, you will still have to deal with a lack of an HP multiplier. Thankfully, Lightning comes with a built in full board changer that also has a true damage component to deal with high defense monsters such as PreDRAs Fire PreDRA. One notable sub worth mentioning is Pollux Pollux who has 2 skill bind resists and an active that provides light orb generation. Lastly, the God Killer awakening God Killer allows Lightning to burst for incredible values versus god type bosses.

With her leader skill buff, Lightning has improved her damage output along with gaining a massive 4x RCV component. This helps put her more on par with higher tier leaders as you are able to sustain yourself after taking damage. A lack of HP will still be a drawback, but you can help compensate for that with the +15% solo badge or coop.

As a sub, Lightning may be overlooked for other full board changers due to a lack of diverse awakenings that help true rainbow leaders. In addition, her active is on a 10-turn cooldown and this feels painful compared to Dark Kali Dark Kali who is only 7 turns. The true damage component goes largely to waste in most dungeons and the additional 3 turns on the cooldown may cause you to elect other options. However, with all that being said, Lightning is perhaps one of the strongest board change inherits for Ra Dragon 3265 teams as you come with a built in PreDRA execution along with offering 10 turns of delay protection if used on your Dark Kali.

Overall, Lightning is an incredibly potent leader if you are able to build a team to address her weaknesses and with Skill Inheritance, you can further cover her shortcomings. However, most of her value may be through her role as an assistant on Ra Dragon teams.

Tifa
3299
Attacker / Physical
Light Row Light Row Light Row
Light Row Light Row Time Extend
Time Extend Skill Lock Resist Skill Boost
6 star base
—-
Heart Arrow Light
35% damage reduction for 3 turns
8 turn CD
—-
5x ATK, 2x RCV when erasing 7+ connected fire or light orbs. 7×6 board
25x ATK / 4x RCV
Tifa is a literal game changer as she transforms your board into a 7×6 pattern. An enlarged board means you are able to form additional combos and make a more powerful row with 7 orbs. This is a new mechanic and will become popular when running niche leader that require either additional combos/space. However, Tifa requires 7 connected light orbs for her own activation, so pairing with Kenshin Kenshin or other colour cross leaders is unwise. Thus, we need to find an appropriate pairing as 25x ATK with dual TIfa is not relevant in today’s meta.

First off, we need to find leaders who also enjoy light rows in order to not let Tifa’s 5 and leader skill go to waste. Off the top of my head, Awoken DQXQ Awoken DQXQ, Lightning Lightning, future Ilm 3236, and Xiu Min Xiu Min come to mind. DQXQ is normally played as a 64x row leader as it is usually more beneficial to form the row and trigger the awakenings bonus instead of a 7 light blob. This solves the problem as a row is now 7 orbs. This means Tifa + DQXQ will yield a 50x ATK / 2x RCV leader. This is respectable, but you also have to take into consideration the enlarged board and additional damage you yield from more combos. Lightning can follow a similar train of thought and is perhaps a stronger pairing as you can achieve 62.5x ATK / 4x RCV. With an enlarged board, it is easier to activate these rainbow/row leaders as you are more likely to have your required elements.

On the other hand, Xiu Min Xiu Min may find a new friend as Tifa solves his RCV problem along with being able to utilize a larger board.

Outside of a leadership role, Tifa can be utilized on any mono-light team as her awakenings and active provide both utility and damage. Tifa is able to convert heart orbs to light (bad in a heart cross meta) along with providing a 35% damage reduction on an 8 turn cooldown. This is amazing value as it blends two components into a relatively short cooldown. Granted the actives are somewhat counter-intuitive (shielding but removing heart orbs), but it is powerful nevertheless. Tifa can also act as the fire sub on mono-light oriented rainbow teams.

Noctis
3305
Physical / Attacker
TPA TPA Skill Lock Resist
Time Extend Time Extend Time Extend
Skill Boost Skill Boost Devil killer
6 star base
—-
4 Question Orb Arrow Dark
+1 combo for 1 turn
7 turn CD
—-
1.5x HP/ATK/RCV but cannot erase 3 connected orbs. 3x ATK with 3 combos. 6x with 6+ combos
2.25x HP / 81x ATK / 2.25x RCV
Noctis will be a powerful leader in the hands of a skilled player as he restricts your ability to form combos. This combo restriction comes in the form of not being able to match 3 connected orbs (which is the norm) and forces players to connect at least 4. This naturally makes Noctis a TPA TPA oriented leader and is capable of dealing amazing damage while retaining  a large defensive multiplier. Noctis passively provides 2.25x HP / RCV to all cards and this is fantastic as it helps him keep abreast to the lower shielding heart cross leaders. This also puts him inline with Ra Dragon 3265 and Krishna 3068 from a defensive point of view if you discredit the matching restriction. However, Noctis can still be bound and is vulnerable to gravity based attacks.

When trying to team build Noctis, you should try to prioritize dark TPA cards such as Satsuki Baby Satsuki, Awoken Haku Haku, Lumiel Lumiel, and Persephone Awoken Persephone. These cards will provide wonderful damage along with beneficial orb changers who help provide sufficient dark orbs for comboing. It may be challenging to form 6+ combos for full activation, but you can use Noctis’s active to add one more. However, the inability to easily form combos will also mean you can have a larger degree of damage control as a skyfall is far less likely to occur. This can be advantageous when stalling or when facing absorption bosses. Finally, the ample time extend will greatly aid in matching

Noctis will probably not see much usage as a sub due to his lackluster active (in most scenarios). However, if you can capitalize on his devil killer or require him as a sub on Sephiroth teams for the light coverage, he may work out.

5 Star Rolls

The 5 star rolls vary in power and some are quite strong due to their awakenings and active skill. None make stellar leads, but can be used on a variety of teams and all qualify for skill inheritance.

jjjjjMonsterjjjjjjjjjjjj  Notes
 Squall
Squall
Attacker
Enhnaced Fire Orb TPA Time Extend
Skill Boost Enhnaced Fire Orb Enhnaced Fire Orb
Enhnaced Fire Orb
5 star base
—-
Heart Jammer Arrow Fire + 1 turn haste
7 turn CD
—-
1.5x ATK for fire. 1.5x ATK at 4 combos, max 8x at 17 combos
2.25-144x ATK
Squall has a similar leader skill to non Awoken-Kush Kush as he is a high scaling combo fire lead. He can be a great leader for beginners as you will be forced to learn orb matching patterns to deal damage. Unfortunately, Squall is somewhat unrealistic for high end content as he lacks any defensive multiplier and will be inconsistent in dealing lethal damage as 7 combos is only 20.25x damage for fire attribute monsters. This pales in comparison to Ace Bastet Cross Bastet and if you are skilled enough to consistently match 7+ combos each turn, you would probably be using a different lead.

Looking at Squall’s active skill, he is a poor man’s Antares Antares as he does not convert poison orbs into fire. This combined with a lack of skill bind resist Skill Lock Resist may diminish his sub potential. However, haste is always valuable as it allows you to cycle actives faster and can still be successfully used on mono fire teams. With his awakenings buff, he is now able to  guarantee 80% of all fire orbs that fall down come enhanced. This provides a reasonable amount of passive damage and may make him a more appealing sub.

Overall, Squall is a reasonable roll from the Final Fantasty Collab and can make appearances on various fire teams.

Rinoa
Rinoa
Healer / Devil
blue + orb Bind Immune Bind Immune
Skill Boost blue + orb blue + orb
blue + orb
5 star base
—-
5,000 HP heal
3 turn binds cleared
1 turn haste
7 turn CD

2x ATK for water ATK. Up to 3x for 3 water combos
36x ATK
Rinoa has a leader skill very similar to Sarasvati Sarasvati in that they both are water combo based leaders without a HP or RCV multiplier. Unfortunately, Rinoa deals significantly less damage and does not have a water orb generating active. Her team is quite orb hungry as you require 9 orbs for full activation and with both leaders lacking any generation, you may be pressed for water orbs.

Looking beyond her leadership role, Rinoa is a viable hard bind clearing sub for mono water teams. With her awakenings buff, she begins to close the gap on Awoken Isis Isis, but still lacks a skill bind resist Skill Lock Resist. A lack of an additional sub colour means Rinoa will have less value on rainbow teams and would be better suited on a mono water team to better capitalize on the enhanced orbs.

Zidane
Zidane
Attacker
Enhanced Wood Orb Skill Boost Skill Boost
TPA Enhanced Wood Orb Enhanced Wood Orb
Enhanced Wood Orb
5 star base
—-
10% increase chance for wood and light orb skyfall. 1 turn haste
7 turn CD
—-
1.5x HP/ATK/RCV Attacker types. 4-6 connected wood orbs 1.5-2.5x ATK
2.25x HP / 14.06x ATK / 2.25x RCV
Zidane is an interesting monster as they have a dual colour skyfall and a haste component. Unfortunately, the light orbs are relatively wasted and dilute the potency of his active. If it was only wood orbs, he would be similar to a green Zaerog Infinity Z8 and could  make a viable Vishnu replacement Vishnu. Regardless, you can still effectively use Zidane on Ace Bastet Cross Bastet, Parvati Awoken Parv, Artemis Awoken Artemisor Spica Spica teams as they enjoy the additional skyfalls and TPA playstyle. The haste component is valuable for cycling your skills.

One often overlooked benefit of an enhanced skyfall active is the ability to overwrite other colour debuffs done by various bosses. This will not overwrite jammer or poison debuffs, but can at least turn the skyfalls into a more favourable colour.

Zidane forms a pretty durable team as he boosts all stats along with a modest 14x ATK multiplier. Granted TPA based teams may suffer in higher level content, but should be sufficient for most older dungeons. Also, if both leaders are max skilled, you will have a permanent skyfall buff.

Tidus
Tidus
Physical
blue + orb Time Extend Water Row
Water Row blue + orb Water Row
5 star base
—-
1.5x water ATK + 1 turn haste
7 turn CD
—-
1.5x HP Physical type. 3x ATK when clearing 6+ water orbs
2.25x HP / 9x ATK
Tidus has fantastic awakenings for mono water teams if you discredit a lack of skill bind resistance. Many of the top water teams rely on row enhances, and the triple enhanced orb awakenings augment your passive damage further. Tidus’s active is quite short at only a 7 turn cooldown and the haste component can be useful for recharging your more powerful orb changers. This also means you can be more liberal with his active usage. Tidus can find a home on Blue Sonia Blue Sonia, I&I I&I / Ryune Ryune, Lakshmi Awoken Lakshimi, or other mono water teams as a viable, quick damage enhancer.

They are naturally outclassed by I&I I&I under most circumstances, but being on a 7 turn timer can be beneficial. Overall a pretty solid 5 star roll from the Final Fantasy REM.

Bartz
Bartz
Balance
TPA TPA Time Extend
Skill Lock Resist Skill Lock Resist
5 star base
—-
R&L Column  Arrow Green
1  turn haste
10 turn CD
—-
1.5x HP Balance type. 3x ATK with 2+ wood combos
2.25x HP / 9x ATK
Bartz may only have 5 awakenings, but his active is amazingly powerful. He guarantees 10 wood orbs and has them nicely arranged for easy two prong activation. However, you can utilize these 10 wood orbs to form two crosses for Acala 3202 teams. This is perhaps his best use as you guarantee a 180x ATK multiplier. Granted his awakenings are not synergistic with Acala, but he can be easily inherited

Outside of the ideal Acala usage, Bartz can be used on various mono wood teams if you require guaranteed orb generation. One nice aspect of the generated wood orbs is the ability to easily form TPA matches.

Terra
Terra
Attacker
5 star base
Enhnaced Fire Orb Enhnaced Fire Orb +light orb
+light orb Skill Lock Resist Skill Boost
+heart +heart
—-
L Column  Arrow Fire
R Column  Arrow Light
1 turn haste
8 turn CD
—-
1.5x HP Attackers. 3x ATK fire/light combo
2.25x HP / 9x ATK
Terra is a flaming hot roll and has a wonderful orb generation active that has incredible synergy on Tsubaki Ult Tsubaki teams as you instantly generate the required orbs for your leader skill activation. Furthermore, the haste component goes wonderfully with your two leaders and you are nearing a system-like team. Outside of Tsubaki (and a lesser extent Leilan Awoken Leilan), you can utilize Terra on mono fire teams as her active and awakenings are quite powerful. In addition, you can use Terra on an Ilm 3236 team as a means to generate your needed light and fire orbs. One nice aspect of a guaranteed fire orb generation is you can use Terra’s active in conjunction with any board changer to ensure you have sufficient fire orbs.

Overall, Terra is a powerful card who can be used effectively on most mono fire teams.

 Shantotto
Shantotto
Attacker / Devil
Dark row Dark row Dark row
Dark row Dark row

5 star base
—-
T Row  Arrow Dark
B Row Arrow Green
1 turn haste
12 turn CD
—-
2.5-3.5x ATK for matching 5-7 connected wood or dark orbs
12.25x ATK
Shantotto has an amazingly high base attack value, modest health, and horrible base recovery. Furthermore, Shantotto has an incredible 5 dark row Dark row awakenings. However, this comes at the cost of no additional awakenings, but should not be a problem as you can find a way to compensate for those shortcomings. Shantotto has a powerful active as they generate a guaranteed dark and wood row. Due to the dark row spawning at the top, you are able to pool dark orbs in the second bottom and middle row and unleash two rows worth of damage with ease. Furthermore, you can combo their active with Pandora Awoken Pandora to transform the bottom row into more dark orbs. The added haste component allows you to further cycle your skills and tends to be stronger on dark teams as numerous dark monsters have haste built into their active.

Shantotto makes a stellar sub on both Awoken Pandora Awoken Pandora and Awoken Lucifer Awoken Archdemon Lucifer teams due to the row synergy and devil typing. You will have to bring subs who provide more utility oriented awakenings along with higher base recovery to ensure you can restore your health when stalling.

 Vaan
Vaan
Attacker / Physical
TPA TPA Light Row
Light Row Skill Boost
5 star base
—-
T Row  Arrow Light
B Row Arrow Fire
1 turn haste
12 turn CD
—-
2x HP / 1.5x ATK for Light attribute. 2x ATK clearing 4+ connected fire orbs
4x HP / 9x ATK
Vaan follows a similar pattern and potency as Shantotto in that they generate two rows of different colours on a 12 turn cooldown with haste. Thankfully, Vaan spawns light orbs in the top row which allows you to pool spare light in the middle of the board to ensure you can trigger two row activations. In terms of sub potential, Vaan makes a wonderful sub on Saria Saria / Thor Thor, Superman 2824, Awoken Apollo Awoken Apollo, Leilan Awoken Leilan, Ilm Ilm, and Tsubaki Tsubakiteams. With both row and TPA awakenings, you can choose how you wish to focus your damage. Just be aware that Vaan has only 28 base recovery.

However, with the advent and popularity of Awoken Liu Bei A Liu Bei and Dios Ult Zeus Dios boards, Vaan may make a more desirable inherit to easily overcome combo shields as you can easily separate the orbs.

Overall, Vaan is a powerful monster to own and will make combo shields easier for Awoken Liu Bei teams.

 Y’shtola
3294
Healer / Attacker
Skill Boost Skill Boost Time Extend
Time Extend Bind Clear awakening Bind Clear awakening
Bind Immune Bind Immune
5 star base
—-
Dark Arrow Water
Fire Arrow Heart
9 turn CD
—-
3x ATK clearing 5 heal orbs, Up to 6x with 8 connected. 50% damage reduction matching heart cross
36x ATK / 75% damage reduction
Y’shtola is another 5 star monster in the Final Fantasty Collab REM and possesses a powerful active that is similar to Andromeda Bankai Andro and Gabriel Gabriel as they all spawn water and heart orbs. Prior to this update, Y’shtola’s awakenings were quite lackluster as she provided very little benefit and is missing a skill bind resist Skill Lock Resist. However, with their new evolution, they become one of the best soft bind clearers in the game. Their bind immunity combined with a heart generating active and 6 turn bind clear gives them amazing utility. You may not always run Y’shtola in every instance, but provides an alternative to Awoken Isis Isis for water bind clearing.

Y’shtola’s active can be used in conjunction with both Ryune Ryune and Karin Awoken Karin‘s board changer to form a 2/3 water heavy board. This will allow for spectacular burst damage even though Y’shtola provides no offensive awakenings.

Onion Knight
3296
Balance
TPA TPA Skill Lock Resist
Skill Lock Resist Skill Lock Resist

5 star base
—-
Green Arrow Fire
Dark Arrow Light
7 turn CD
—-
3x ATK when Fr/Fr/Lt 3+ combos. 2x ATK when 4+ combos
36x ATK
Onion Knight is the newest 5 star to be added into the Final Fantasy Collab REM. At first glance, his active may be confusing as double orb changers that produce two unique colours are usually problematic. However, Onion Knight does not remove heart orbs along with producing the perfect colours for Tsubaki Ult Tsubaki and future Ilm 3236. You will most likely not use Onion Knight as a sub and instead inherit him to take advantage of his powerful active.

Outside of an assistant role, Onion Knight may not see much gameplay as a mono fire sub as he does not offer much as the dual orb change has diminished value. However, Awoken Liu Bei A Liu Bei teams may wish to take advantage of the 3 Skill Bind Resist awakenings. Awoken Liu Bei teams are somewhat vulnerable to skill binds and finding a card that can cover 60% is amazing.

4 Star Rolls

Rounding out the Final Fantasy Collab REM is the silver 4-star rolls. These cards are okay and mostly for nostalgia. To further diminish their value, they have no farmable skill up material and requires py investment if you wish to max skill.

jjjjjMonsterjjjjjjjjjjjj  Notes
 Vivi
Vivi
Attacker
Dark row Skill Boost Dark row
4 star base
—-
10x dark counterattack + 1 turn haste
7 turn CD
Vivi is the first of the 4-star rolls from the Final Fantasy Collab REM and is mostly kept for nostalgia purposes. The awakenings look reasonable for the lowest tier of a collab REM, but they essentially have a non-existent active. The counterattack aspect is only useful versus bosses who have resolve and you plan to use their 1% execution ability to kill them. This only works if you are able to survive yourself. Furthermore, without an means to skill them up, their uses are slim to nil.

However, you cannot discredit the nearly 2k base attack value which is somewhat unheard of for their rarity. Maybe use as a temporary Dark Metatron dtron sub to capitalize on his double dark rows.

Ace
Ace
Balance
TPA Enhnaced Fire Orb Skill Boost
4 star base
—-
2x ATK Fire/Dark. 2 turn haste
15 turn CD

3x ATK fire type when HP >50%. Recover 2x RCV
9x ATK
Ace has a surprisingly powerful active that is similar to Freyr Freyr in that they enhance fire attribute monsters. The two turns of haste is quite powerful, but adds additional turns to the cooldown. This will most likely prevent more than 1 usage per descend, but should not be an issue as you usually need only  one turn of burst damage. Ace has low stats and poor awakenings so you may only use him for Skill Inheritance.

Ace may also make a modest leader for low level content as you have an unconditional 9x multiplier provided you can keep your health above 50%.

Aemo
Aemo
Healer / God
Skill Boost Time Extend TPA
4 star base
—-
1 turn haste
Free orb movement for 8s
12 turn CD
—-
1.5x HP/ATK/RCV Healer types.
2.25x HP / ATK / RCV
Aemo is cute and sadly one of the weaker pulls form the FF Collab REM. A change the world active is fun to use, but somewhat impractical with the advent of multiple time extend awakenings. The one turn haste is always helpful, but if the active triggers like a Change the World, you cannot use any other active after as you will only be able to move the orbs freely for 8 seconds.

Overall, Aemo is a pretty trophy.

Wol
Wol
Attacker / Physical
TPA Skill Boost Light Row
4 star base
—-
Fire Light Arrow Enhnaced Fire Orb +light orb + 1 turn haste
7 turn CD
—-
3x ATK Physical and Attacker
9x ATK
Wol has quite a powerful active that is similar to Athena Athena as they enhance two colours. However, Wol also provides 1 turn of haste. Haste is great, but the timing is a little odd as you cannot use his active to charge up your orb changers because you would not have the enhanced orbs. Thus the ordering in which you use your actives matter. The fire and light orb enhancement go wonderfully well on Tsubaki Tsubaki or Awoken Leilan Awoken Leilan teams. In addition, you can use him as a stand in for rainbow teams as a fire sub with most notable value on Awoken DQXQ Awoken DQXQ as she benefits from the light row Light Row awakening.

Wol is mostly a potential skill inheritance monster, but without access to farmable skill ups, may just be kept as a trophy. His cape also looks like it is made of bubble-wrap.

Rain
Rain
Balance
Enhnaced Fire Orb Fire Row Fire Row
4 star base
—-
75% dmg for one turn. 1 turn haste
10 turn CD
—-
Fire cards 2x HP / 1.5x ATK / 1.5x RCV
4x HP / 2.25x ATK / 2.25x RCV
Rain has quite amazing actives for a 4 star Collab roll, but his greatest asset will be his active for skill inheritance. If you compare him to Kush Kush, you are trading two extra turns on your cooldown for a turn of haste. Both provide 75% damage reduction and essentially allows you to survive any (reasonable) attack in the game. Other than skill inheritance, Rain may not make an apperance on fire teams due to a lack of uses for a large shield (the times you need one are quite rare), but keep at least one for skill inheritance.
Penelo
3303
Attacker / Healer
Bind Immune Bind Immune Skill Boost
4 star base
—-
Heal 30% max HP
3 turn Awoken Bind clear
Jammer Poison Dark Arrow Heart
6 turn CD
—-
2x HP / ATK for wood type. 5x RCV healed after match
4x HP / 4x ATK
Penelo has hardly any value as a sub; however, their true value shines as a niche inherit via Skill Inheritance. Presently, the only inheritable awoken bind clear available is the five star GFE, Green Odin Green Odin. Green Odin takes 9 turns to full recharge while providing 5 turns of binds and awakening clear along with a minor heal. By comparison, Penelo takes only 6 turns to recharge while providing a stronger heal and heart orb generation on a much shorter cooldown. This is fantastic moving forward as it gives players an alternative option for awoken bind removal as Penelo is faster charging by comparison as you may not always need the monster bind removal all the time.

Perhaps the only place Green Odin outshines Penelo for awakening bind removal is against Linthia who has a 5 turn bind.

Auron
3301
Attacker / Physical
42 44 Devil killer
4 star base
—-
75% defense break for 1 turn
Question Orb Arrow Fire
Question Orb Arrow Dark
6 turn CD
—-
2x HP / ATK for Physical types. 1.5x ATK on turn skill used
4x HP / 9x ATK
Auron is a card that makes little sense as the Enhance and Evolution material Killer awakenings have essentially no purpose at this point in time. These encounters are mostly farmed in coop via a push button team that instantly executes them.

Outside of the strange awakenings, you may find some niche value in the 75% defense break against high defense monsters. The 3 randomly spawned fire and dark orbs have little value as it is a low impact active as there is no haste component.

Monster Point Exclusive

Glauca 3306 is available for purchase from the Monster Point shop for 200,000 MP. This also means you cannot inherit his active as he did not come out of the REM.

jjjjjMonsterjjjjjjjjjjjj  Notes
 Glauca
3306
Balance / Devil
Dark row Dark row Dark row
Skill Boost
—-
Deal damage equal to 25% of boss’s maximum HP
23 turn CD
—-
5x ATK Balance type
25x ATK
Glauca is a Monster Point exclusive card in the Final Fantasy Collab and has some of the best artwork available. He also features a unique gravity-style attack as he deals damage based on the boss’s maximum HP (not current). This means you will always deal exactly 1/4 of their health and have the capacity to execute a boss completely.

For example, using two 30% gravities from Machine Hera 2526 leads will push the boss below 50% HP. This can be followed up with 2 Glaucas to instantly kill any boss in the game. Granted this is a niche scenario, but is worth considering. Outside of a cheesy execution, you can use a single Glauca to guarantee damage when dealing with resolve bosses as you will always be able to remove 25% of their maximum health. This means you can bypass dangerous executions or troublesome mechanics.

The main downsides of Glauca is the inability to be inherited, a 200,000 MP price tag, and a long 23 cooldown.

Gift Monsters

These monsters are given out as a gift alongside the Final Fantasy event and everyone will acquire them. They cannot be used as assistants via Skill Inheritance and instead must be used as subs if you wish to utilize them.

jjjjjjjMonsterjjjjjjjjjjjj  Notes
Fat Chocobo
Fat Chocobo
Physical
+light orb +light orb Poison resist
Poison resist Skill Boost Dark Reduction
Dark Reduction Light reduction Light reduction
—-
All  Arrow Fire Water Green Light Dark Heart + 1,000 Hp heal
10 turn CD
Fat Chocobo is a free gift given to all players during the Final Fantasy Collab and is a surprisingly powerful monster. His active is like Dark Kali Dark Kali as he generates 3+ of each element along with a 1,000 HP heal. Unfortunately, his cooldown is significantly longer to compensate for his easy access. Regardless, this is the best option for players who have not been fortunate with the REM in acquiring a full board changer for their rainbow teams.

Chocobo can be found as a budget sub on Awoken Ra Ra, Sakuya Sakuya, Sherias Roots Sherias Roots, Ronove Ronove, and Ra Dragon 3265 teams as a stand in sub until better options are rolled. In addition to providing a board refresh, Chocobo also provides a massive 5,000 base HP and 10% damage reduction from light and dark attacks. This can be invaluable in surviving large preemptives, but his lack of attack and 0 RCV can place some constraints on team building. Furthermore, a lack of skill bind resist Skill Lock Resist can place constraints in solo mode. Just be aware of a lack of God/Dragon typing which means Chocobo will not be benefiting from the full leader skill on some teams.

If you were fortunate enough to have acquired a Chocobo in the previous FF Collab and are considering using two for a rainbow team, I must caution you because your team will have a difficulty time recovering, surviving skill bind attacks, and to a lesser extent, dealing damage.

Overall, Chocobo is a great addition to the Final Fantasy Collab and makes a wonderful stand in board refresh on rainbow teams.

Moogle
2763
Healer/ Physical
Blind Resist Blind Resist Poison resist
Poison resist Jammer Resist Jammer Resist
Skill Lock Resist Time Extend Skill Boost
—-
Question Orb  Arrow Heart
3 turn CD
Moogle is another gift monster from the Final Fantasy Collab and grants players a cute and defensive budget sub for Myr Miru. The 40% resistance to blind attacks, jammers, and poison is helpful when it procs, but unneeded in most cases. All of those mechanics can be easily countered and loading up on 6 awakening slots is somewhat wasteful. However, their main appeal is their three turn heart generating active.

Moogle’s active functions like Myr in that you spawn 3 heart orbs at random from non-heart/light orbs. This can be wonderful for helping correct a poor board changer or providing just enough heart orbs to form your defensive cross.

Unfortunately, this utility comes at a steep price: 10 base attack and a total of only 503 weighted stats. This means Moogle will be hitting as hard as a wet tissue along with providing no offensive awakenings.

Some people will swear by their Moogle, but you should merely view him as a budget/placeholder sub for your Myr team.

Conclusion

The Final Fantasy Collab REM is one of the strongest to date as the depth of powerful monsters to be rolled combined with a relatively timely North American release grants these monsters some preservation from Powercreep. When deciding to roll in Collabs over Player’s Choice Godfest or 5x GFE events, you need to consider how much value you can gain. Final Fantasy features numerous unique actives and monsters that are not able to be replicated by normal monsters. This adds a certain dimension of depth to your monster box and is worth rolling in the Final Fantasy Collab.

Let me know who you are most excited for and how many stones you have saved up.

Happy Puzzling!

157 thoughts on “[Updated] Final Fantasty REM Review and Analysis”

  1. Hey Mantastic!
    I got a Spehiroth from the early collab and now he’s a awoken… but i can’t decide how to make a team for him! I have loki, oku and etc but i cant decide… can you help me make the team?

    Like

    1. Loki is somewhat needed to cover both the light attribute as well as 2 skill bind resist awakenings. Oku is also another amazing choice for water coverage and even though you have 2 enhances with them, you can use Oku for his delay component.

      What else do you have in your box? You may have to go into non-dark primary cards to fulfil your colour requirements

      Like

  2. Nice post as usual 🙂

    I like yuna, But I think I’ll pass.
    I saw a guy pulling 30x on FF and getting like 10 dupes and a lot of 5*.

    Like

  3. great insight. thanks!

    I’m trying to build a team other than my Shiva team, and have been considering building around my Spica. You mention there are a couple good subs for her in this collab. do you think it is worth rolling for them or wait for a goddess with a stronger leader? (I’ve got Osiris, a couple Michaels, Vishnu, and various lesser subs)

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    1. The cards mentioned that could fit on a Spica team are okay/consolation at best. You have a much better chance at rolling something stronger from a favourable godfest. Your listed subs are quite powerful, especially Vishnu if you can max skill him

      Like

  4. Great analysis as always, Mantastic! One addition to the Clous section that I’ve seen is Leonis we hope is basically mid-stage Cloud so can replace Clouds to make the System. (Also giant metal cat!). 😊

    I have all the previous FF golds, so here’s hoping for a Lightning and a Cecil!

    Like

    1. Great point! I added the fierce cyber cat into the analysis =) At least there is a budget option lol

      Yeah I hope you get lucky! Lightning and Cecil are quite wonderful cards to own and give a nice twist on leader skill requirements

      Like

      1. haha – for values of “budget”. Still easier to get multiple Leonises…Leonisses… Leoni? Cyberkitties! than I expect it would be to get multiple Clouds. (or Supermen, or some of the others on the list!). It’s great that the system has broader options now than it used to.

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        1. Cyberkitten! Haha XD

          They should technically be easier as GH loves to roll out those troll golds. Yeah I agree that its great we now have options on making a system or at least subs to make a team that may not be a true system, but still capable of clearing content

          Like

  5. Hello! I rolled Tidus and Cecil, and I noticed that you said Cecil’s active is very desirable for Skill Inheritance. I happen to have Apocalypse as one of my first few rolls in the game (still not skilled, evo’d, or leveled lol) and I’m wondering if Apocalypse would be better for skill inheritance since he provides a 1 turn haste for only 1 extra CD turn. Thanks!

    Like

    1. Apocalypse would be the stronger choice for skill inheritance as haste for only one additional turn is much better.

      Don’t get me wrong, Cecil is strong, but if you have apocalypse, they would be the better choice to use for SI

      Like

  6. Hi man, i got 3 Yunas out of 20 pulls and decided to hypermax her, so question is: What latent awakenings would you recomend for her?
    Thanks.

    Like

    1. If you are planning on doing the highest tier of content, you would want dark resists (place rainbow on a sub who is unbindable) even with a shield as there are plenty of scary dark monsters and even if you mitigate DQ hera preemptive, you will still need to dance around with other spawns.

      Time extend can be a placeholder if you have them in excess, but the fact you already have 2 on each Yuna makes it somewhat mute.

      You could also arguably place 2 skill delay latents alongside the 3 dark as you can use the haste to speed up your other subs if you have your skills delayed.

      Hope this helps =)

      Liked by 1 person

    1. They make quite a strong sub (and I am going to put in a bit of that in my analysis). Their active is powerful and has great synergy with heart breakers or Grisar. Only downside is a lack of row awakenings, but your team should be able to absorb that. The 2 time extends can be a godsend to row teams as it is sometimes challenging to form additional rows with only 4s to move orbs

      Like

  7. Hi Mantastic! Really helpful analysis! Thanks for doing all of this.
    However, I have some off topic questions.
    1. What do you think about Dantalion’s potential compared to the new buffed Tsubaki? I originally planned to sub 3 Tsubaki’s (dragon killer form) with various inherits, but now it seems that Tsubaki (76.25/2.25) may actually be on par or better than Dantalion.

    2. I know you said that you don’t do monster box reviews or analysis, but if you could help out it would be great. I have 300 MP but I really don’t know who or when to actually invest it in. The obvious choice would be NepDra, but that would leave me hoping that he gets a buff to be viable. Summyr would have been amazing, but I can’t get her anymore. Should I just hold onto my MP?

    My Box: https://www.padherder.com/user/145/monsters/#31,0,31,8191,4294967295_63,0,,0,0,0,eq,0,0,0,0,;boxatt,0

    I understand if you aren’t willing to answer this kind of question, but I would greatly appreciate it if you could.

    Like

    1. Dantalion hits much harder, but is more cumbersome to use and Tsubaki has better durability due to the RCV boost. Dantalion will struggle with combo shields and longer dungeons by comparison and if you have a silk, Tsubaki does more than enough damage on bosses

      With Neptune Dragon’s buff, he is a stronger/harder hitting Krishna so if that is appealing to you, may be worth bpursuing as you do have numerous water gods with a large pool of inherits. I was thinking Mori, Andromeda, Blue Odin (inherit bind clear or board change), Kundali. You can inherit Scheat or Blue Sonia as they have powerful actives.

      Neptune would probably be your best team based on your box shown and if you like that playstyle, i’d say go for it

      Like

  8. Man, it’s so sad that the thing I care most about here is Zeromus. Rolled most of the old cards last time since Y’shtola, the only card I wanted, decided to take 23 rolls before coming out. Just going to do the free pull this time. Probably on a Tifa rate-up day but, I might be tempted to try for Lightning or Cecil instead.

    Like

    1. Got Vaan as a free pull, my Tsubakis are happy 🙂

      I’ve got 25 stones, what to do? Spend them all on thursday hoping for Cecil/Terra, or save them for the upcoming godfest (or saving them without spending none)?

      Like

          1. Well, I think Cecil would be useful for my Gremory/APanda/ALuci and Terra/Onion Knight for my Tsubakis. Tifa would be nice for my main.

            With 25 stones, I’m not that confident I can get one of them (10 rolls on the last PAD Island machine = disaster). I can go with one-two to go rolls on thursday as I’m not interested in the 4* :/

            Like to try Vaan with Tsubakis, what about comboing him with Sanada in a Gadius team?

            Like

  9. Just a quick editing note: it looks like your links for Tsubaki (like in the Terra section) still link to her evo and not uevo. Along the same lines, your links for Ilm point to her sub version and not leader version.

    And yes you are correct, Gungho confirmed on facebook that the free pull is not affected by the drop rate up schedule.

    Like

    1. Thank you for the keen eye! Not sure how sometimes icons get mixed up. I have had them link to completely different monsters in the past and idk how it happened

      I also saw on the GungHo FB page that the special rank 50 pull is a separate machine so no bonus rates

      Like

  10. Going to stupidly roll for Tifa just because I am a big fan of hers since FF7 launch. Going to burn all 120 stones I have banked come tomorrow @_@ lolz. On my alt, hopefully a Lightning, about 90 stones saved up, so I can play with myself like that 😀

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          1. Hallo! Do you happen to know by how much the chance of rolling a 6-star on its increased rate day is increased? I really want a lightning, am at rank 202, but don’t know how many rolls to do. I have 31 stones currently, and am conflicted between pcgf and ff collab, but I still really want that Lightning.

            Like

            1. Btw, is there a way to contact GungHo? Because I want to ask them to come out with Reincarnated Yomi quickly, because I just got Awoken Yomi.

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              1. You can try their twitter, but I doubt it will change very much

                As for the increased rates, I am not sure how dramatic they are as GH never releases that kind of information

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                1. I probably had the best luck for a long time. I rolled 14 times, and in those 14, I acquired Noctis, Lightning, Tifa, Cecil, 5-star Vaan, Rinoa, and other clutter, which was sold for 30000 mp. But I’m not sure if I can get this lucky again on the PCGF.

                  Like

                    1. Are you going to roll in PCGF? If you should, you should do a video because your rolling videos are always funny and amusing.

                      Like

          2. Lol, well update on this. Main account, 1st roll Lightning bam! Surprise, surprise to it. As for alt… 50 stones down… no Lightning… but 5 Noctis =.= It’s like my alt is on Noctis day wth is going on. I am unsure if I want to keep rolling, have 28 stones left on that account.

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                  1. Didn’t end up as how I hoped. Rolled the last stones I had on the alt account to try get Tifa. But happy ending still, the last roll came out to be Lightning…. lol on a Tifa boosted day, Lightning. Alas, the story of my PAD x FF Collab rolling…

                    On hindsight though, I got really lucky on this collab, must’ve been the Mantastic wishing the best thanks!

                    Like

          1. she is awesome but i have tons of other water as well hmm just need to look for which one i can change her or i could swap her for A.Isis on lets say khepri and do a team with Khepri,A.Karin,Andromeda,Ryune,Yshtola,Khepri

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            1. The thing about Yshtola is their unique kit. No one else can create hearts, clear 6 turns of binds, and be bind immune. She is a niche option that is very powerful on Sumire or Byr teams

              Like

  11. I just want Noctis and Sephiroth for the feels. I’m not rolling though.

    On the other hand, last time around I got Cecil and never skilled it. I’m so glad FF is back in conjunction with x4 skill up. I had been thinking about pying him for my Gremory team.

    Like

  12. In my opinion moogle is good as a near perfect counter to MAthena in co-op, but otherwise I dont see much use for him. His active is nice though.

    Like

  13. Hey, fairly new player here (just over level 20ish), just found this site and already love it. Anyways, I actually pulled a Tifa on my first try and I was super happy about it as I only had enough for just one pull. Not to mention my team isn’t that great right now, but I think I might be on the right track. So far my team consists of Tifa (awoken 1), Loyal Deity Guan Yu, Cursed Dragon, Artemis, and an Ice Golem as filler until I get a better replacement. Any tips on where to go from here or what to do as a free player? Currently on Sea Cave Mercury in the dungens but still seem to be moving along slowly but surely. Sorry for the long comment btw.

    Like

    1. Congrats on your Tifa and glad you enjoy my site =D

      As for farmable subs, you should try and acquire a Valkyrie as she it at least another orb changer and in the future, Elia for a dark -> light

      For now, just use your strongest cards while you acquire new cards from Godfests

      Like

  14. hi sorry to spam your post! I just wanted to ask some team building and ff collab stuff- Should i roll in pcgf or ff collab?

    Sorry that I couldn’t post my pad herder, I’ve resort to using imugur, my monster box’s link is below: http://imgur.com/a/ytbWd

    Right now, I’ve been using Oda/ Lubu with great sucess to farm various mythical descended, and sometimes use a.sakuya in special dungeons or ones which have no dark orbs (such as to farm z8).

    Question is- what endgame team should I be aiming to build? I have 450,000 MP, and recently rolled “good” GFE like ronove- only that I don’t have his ideal subs. All ideas welcome!!

    Like

    1. Taking into consideration the new MP Dragon buffs, you may find modest success with Yomi Dragon as you have lots of dark gods such as Oku, Pandora, Haku, and Diza if required. However, you are still missing many top subs like Eschamali or Akechi, but you ahve some things. However, I would not make the purchase unless you can either farm up more MP or roll other subs.

      Ronove is a great leader and Ragnarok Dragon is one of his best subs, but can be harder to justify as you are missing Kaede and Rozuel.

      You dont have any pieces for any true end game leader as Ronove or Myr would be your best bet.

      Like

  15. Got Lightning with my free pull. Rinoa was my only other gold. I don’t have Isis, so Rinoa will be useful for my water teams.

    The lack of SBRs i throwing me off with Lighting.

    Lightning, Valkyrie Ana, L/D Pollux, Awoken Venus (Sherias), ?

    For Red I have Ra (though he will be L/G eventually), Christmas Archangel (no SBR), and Dark Kali or I could team with a Tifa friend lead to cover red and have a shield. I really wish I had Wedding Izanami

    I could remove Venus since her reincarnated version will be L/L and go with Thor for the double SBR or Sakuya for bind clear.

    I’ll stick with ADQXQ until I figure it out, but I do like the rcv part of Lightning’s leader skill.

    I hope FF returns next year, I really wanted Tifa, Yuna, and Cecil. I got Lightning, so I can’t complain. GungHo seems to put effort into this collab unlike Fist of the North Star, so I am hopeful.

    Like

    1. Congrats on such a good pull!

      Dark Kali is almost always a good default choice as she has the recover bind alongside of another powerful board changer.

      Pairing with Tifa is not a terrible option as you do gain a larger board to help offset the lower multiplier; however, you do lose your board changer so its up to you if that is worthwhile.

      Like

  16. Forums are down a few days, apparently due to the admin forgetting to renew the domain. Does anyone have a link handy to the pull rates?

    Like

      1. Yshtola is critical since I have a water heavy box, other than that, everything else is just novelty with 6* obviously being very desirable no matter the box. Do you have estimated roll rates? Been trying to find them but no luck.

        Like

  17. Mantastic, I pulled Yuna, Lightning, and Noctis today!

    My question is, what would the ideal Yuna team? I’ve been thinking about it all day and need your help. Please!!

    Like

    1. Congrats on your rolls Oak Smote!

      As for ideal team, you should have a bind clear as your main form of utility as you already have shielding. A full board changer helps such as (D)Kali

      You can also use orb changers to help produce a light heavy board such as Pollux, Elia, etc. You will need TPA subs or killer awakenings to make up for her lack of offensive ones

      Like

        1. hey mantastic! I love your blog!

          currently i use teams like oda/ lubu and a.sakuya. Recently, I pulled a sephiroth, but don’t know how to assemble a team for him ! My current thoughts are sep/oda nobunaga (inherit l.meta)/ zaerog 8/ awoken yomi (inherit l.kali)/ awoken loki/ sep.

          What are your thoughts on this team? I also have others like Okun, horus (can ace evo), the dark cyberbeast, zuoh)- please suggest me a good team and inherits please?

          Like

          1. Ace Horus is a wonderful natural board changer, but your team is well situated for mono dark power, but I would swap out z8 for D/B Oku as the delay and extra TPA is better than the skyfall active . You may want to inherit a board changer on your Seph as well

            You team would look like: Nobunaga, D/B Oku, Awoken Yomi, and Awoken Loki.

            Like

            1. thanks for the reply! However, nobunaga although is d/r, has a sbr, and is unbindable- he’s a row leader- is he still worth using? (fyi i have him hypermaxed; is there a good active like l.meta i should inherit on him for utility?)
              I inherited one of my l.kali on awoken yomi, and saving the other for farming z8. should i then evo and inherit ace horus on sephiroth? another other honorable inherit mentions?

              fyi here’s my unupdated box: since then i have pulled sephiroth, a few other ff golds, farmed myr and linthia etc.) http://imgur.com/a/ytbWd

              THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!

              Like

                1. Nobu can run Zuoh, Pandora, Haku, and Loki/LuBu and that team if fully invest should be able to clear a1 with reasonable consistency. Zuoh+Pandora is your kill combo and you have ample orb generation along burst potential

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                  1. thanks!

                    I was wondering if a team like lubu/zuoh/pandora/haku/oda/ oda could clear a1 (haku skill level 3). There are a lot of plus eggs on the team. Would this team be better than sephiroth at clearing it? Any good inherits?

                    Also, would i be able to make a ronove team? I have around 450,000 mp for rag dra.

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                    1. That team would be capable of clearing A1 (barring human error and terrible spawn luck) and would be much more consistent than Sephiroth as you are tankier. Your team has strong base skills and inherits are not required

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          1. reply to your comment: “That team would be capable of clearing A1 (barring human error and terrible spawn luck) and would be much more consistent than Sephiroth as you are tankier. Your team has strong base skills and inherits are not required”

            I had a brainwave just now and realised that I had ronove
            would a team without his ideal subs be better than my current team rn? I have 2 ronoves, ace horus, a.sakuya, a.orchi, a.susano no kaede, no ragdra (but have 450,000 and can eventually get his evo subs) but have and can farm linthia, takesumi (wood/ heart orb drop enhance 5 turns) would that team be worth investing pluses and piis in?

            if i were to use my devil row team, should i inherit something like kaeda onto lubu (the only time to use his active would be for kali; but would reduce health to 1).

            thanks for the advice!

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            1. Ronove is a much more powerful leader, but you do need subs to support him.

              If you are able to acquire a linthia or RagDra, your team would be significantly stronger

              Sakuya is a good bind clear (and light coverage), orochi is nice utility, Ace Horus does not produce hearts so not ideal

              With Sakuya and Orochi, you only need to cover dark and fire (which can be done via linthia and A susano)

              If Ronove team is plussed out it would have more consistency than a dark devil team

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              1. i thought ace horus does make hearts? if not, would a team like ronove/ a.sakuya/ a.susano/ linthia/ ragdra/ ronove work out for me? worth investing mp, pluses, and piis? where do i put my orchi in there (do i even need him; i have his colors covered)? would this team be better for late game than my previously mentioned sephiroth/ devil row team? any inherits needed ? when should i roll to invest in this team (presumably for r/b sub and kaede?) i also have vishnu (not skill maxed)

                thank you so much! i have also subscribed and shared your channel!

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                1. Ace Horus is a Light Kali-style active

                  Your proposed Ronove team looks solid and it would be hard to accommodate Orochi, but if you had to drop a sub, it would be Linthia first as she covers the same colours as RagDra.

                  Ideally you replace Susano with another fire sub but his wood based tpa are strong. You can also inherit an better active over his shield

                  RagDra and Ronove should be your priority for plus eggs and investment

                  Also, glad you enjoy my work and have spread the word!

                  Like

  18. Hey Mantastic! Really awesome FF Collab guide! Would you consider Ace Horus a good sub for Sephiroth? He’s an Attacker with LKali’s active and he covers fire and light 🙂

    Like

  19. Hey Mantastic, great review as usual.
    I just rolled Noctis and I was wondering what you think the ideal team for him would be. I’ve seen some teams with 2 yomi dragons, but is more than 1 really necessary? He seems rather lenient with board changers and his team also seems pretty flexible. Any ideas on skill inheritance and latents on Noct lead though?

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    1. Noctis is quite flexible in terms of team building (mirrors Krishna) as you can use any card so you should pick your best dark subs and adjust based on the dungeon.

      In terms of awakenings, you should try and look for cards with TPA, then orb enhances. You should already have ample time extend on your team due to your leaders. Using Yomi Dragon does work as you do gain +2 combos from the 8 orbs, but she offers no real offensive power. Full board changers such as Awoken Haku work wonderfully well as she has the ideal awakenings and the board change should guarantee 6 combos

      Latent wise, have 1 rainbow resist and fill rest with HP/RCV to benefit from the LS

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      1. Alright thanks for the suggestions. Just wondering your thoughts on the board changers specifically; I’ve seen some people gravitate towards Lumiel instead of Haku or Cecil. I’m having a hard time deciding between the three since they offer different things to the team. At the moment I’m running Satsuki/Cecil/UUVO Pandora/Yomidragon as subs. Would haku be better in Cecil’s place? Maybe the heart meta has spoiled me.

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        1. Cecil has a better active (any tri-colour heart maker is the best), but Haku has a better body. Thus, in an ideal world, inherit Cecil on Haku to better take advantage of the favourable stats and awakenings.

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  20. Hi, just wanted to say that this blog is great. This actually got me back to playing more and opened my eyes to a whole new way of playing…Thank you! I was wondering how I might be able to share my box and get feedback from everyone to building teams?

    Like

    1. Glad you enjoy my content! As for your box, you can either upload it to PADherder or imgur (sort by Fav) and post on the respective section/article. Eg. If you wanted to make a Myr team, post on her team building page =)

      Like

  21. Myr has officially become un-fun for me due to being the only team I have capable of clearing higher powered content (aside from Krishna but it appears I’m really really bad at Krishna), and having only Krishna makes it hard for me to find him fun either… That combined with my extremely high level of hype for FFXV plus Noctis securing the throne as my current top favorite video game character ever made me desperately want Noctis more than I’ve ever wanted a card in the history of Puzzle & Dragons.

    Needless to say it hurts just a little bit to want a card so badly for the first time ever and not get him after 22 rolls.

    That being said, if Kaede AND Gremory popped out of the REM on Player’s Choice, I doubt I’d use either.

    Or I just might be trying to console myself. I literally felt so shocked I skipped class and couldn’t get out of bed. Talk about overreaction! It’s a good thing I have therapy on Tuesdays…

    I got two Y’shtola though I guess? And I did get one 6*…but it was Yuna. If there was a 6* swap exchange I’d gladly swap in…

    Like

    1. I find myself only using Myr for the hardest content and try my best to use other leaders whenever possible. Myr is fantastic, but not always the best choice for easier content.

      I have been using Krishna in A3 for the past week or so and after working out the kinks on the first day, I’d say I have ~70-75% win rate. By comparison, Myr is probably around 95% but it at least offers variety and also shows me just how much stronger Myr is overall

      Lately, I have been using Sarasvati to farm for Skill Delay Latents so there is more variety there.

      As for rolling Grem or Kaede, you may not have a stronger team. Kaede is on par with Myr, but you need 3 of her to be fully effective. Myr is a lot more flexible and lenient and that is one of her strongest aspects

      I hope your tuesday perks up and Y’shtola is arguably the strongest 5-star!

      Like

      1. I’m just super bummed because I’m very unfamiliar with the feeling of rolling neck deep to come away with nothing since I haven’t rolled in a committed manner to the Rare Egg Machine since January’s PCGF (18 rolls or something).

        I comforted myself knowing that YamaP rolled 21 times trying to get Noctis to buff him and got Lightning and Tifa instead. And at the very least I don’t have to worry about agonizing over inheriting Apocalypse on anyone (which I can’t b/c I use him) and I’ll inherit Cecil on someone instead. And I’ll be playing FFXV for real this weekend!

        I’ll try to cobble together more stones for Tuesday…my fiance is trying to persuade me to let him buy me a pack, I don’t want him to because spending money makes me cry inside and I don’t want to get addicted to the REM. But if I clear a bunch of coin dungeons, I might have 10 stones.

        Who knows, all those rolls YamaP got might get really good buffs. He did mention he was going to buff Rinoa.

        Here’s what I got total:
        Shantotto x2
        Aemo
        Cecil
        Penelo x2
        Terra x2
        Zidane
        Auron x2
        Onion Knight
        Vaan x2
        Bartz
        Rinoa
        Rain
        Ace
        Squall
        Yuna
        Y’shtola x2

        You wouldn’t happen to have any ideas of what constitutes a good Yuna team, would you?

        Like

        1. Well if your Fiance is giving you a gift, accept it as that. They are trying to make you happy and take it as a kind gesture. I plan on going over the FF buffs in a new post and updating this one accordingly.

          As for Yuna, you mostly want to run light based cards and bring at least one bind clearing option. You are able to use light orb generators such as Pollux, Wukong, or even Apollo and it is mostly a matter of balancing your colours and utility required for the dungeon.

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  22. Hi Mantastic! Love your videos haha ^^
    I recently rolled Sephiroth, and I’m trying to make a good team for him out of DKali, Loki, Yomi, Satsuki, vishnu, orochi. Can you help me? And should I put off the team until i roll some better attacker/devils?
    As always, thanks for your insight and help!

    Like

    1. Glad you enjoy my videos =D

      When team building Sephiroth, you should always use Devils or Attacker subs. Otherwise, you lose out on the majority of your multiplier. Do you have any other viable options?

      Like

  23. Great article, I was considering spinning for Lightning too but I just rolled a Noctis! However having a hard time finding Noctis friends. Not many on padhearder.

    Feel free to add me (this is to anyone as I know that Mantastic isn’t playing him?, I have like 100 slots free!), I’ll be keeping him up for a bit.

    355 749 377

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  24. Omg! So happy for the rinoa buff man! Will take some time to arrives in NA but is good news to my main account. Now I’ll get 80x with rinoa/Sara’s and bind fearless. Awesome

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  25. Hey Mantastic! Always appreciate your blog. 🙂

    I ended up with two of Noctis (my only 6 star pulls). My first Noctis is almost max skilled, and I’ll +297 him shortly (since I figure he’s a big upgrade over Yomidra, haha), but I’m puzzled over what to do with the spare. Is he worth skilling down/using as a sub on his own team? Or leave him unskilled and inherit his skill onto the main Noctis to protect against skill delay? Is he doomed to gather dust? Thanks!

    Like

    1. Hard to place him on a team as a sub as his awakenings are not too spectacular and the active is underwhelming for the most part. His special buff was only for his leadership potential so his sub uses have not improved

      I would probably inherit the second which is at least a viable option =)

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  26. Rolled 5 times (including the free roll):

    Aemo, Aemo, Ace, Rinoa, Aemo.

    Wanted Yuna, Seph, Tifa but will take Rinoa especially after her buff. The rest make good MP fodder 😛

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  27. Sephiroth can’t even make a TPA against Sopdet now (while light), crazy! I’ve always been a rainbow team fan and even with super RADRA on the way I know I’ll always have a team slot for this guy. I hope when he gets his next evolution he changes your orb move sound to the final fantasy version (cmon).

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  28. Great breakdown on the collab, though I wish there would be more critizising undertones here and there. For example what they did with Sephs awakenings is pretty stupid (closes more doors for him than it opens) and the new Onion Knights AS should have a 6 turn cooldown like the riders (because balance of utility and stuff).

    Will your post get an update after strean buffs? Value of some cards changed quite a lot, especially looking at Bartz, Tidus and Lightning.

    Like

    1. This post will be updated soon, I did a follow up post highlighting all the FF changes already and will transfer that info over.

      Seph was never meant to be an endgame leader that could clear a wide variety of content and his main selling point was being able to farm certain dungeons due to his killers. You create a very specialized team which may not work outside that dungeon. Gaining more killers opens more doors for him although it is rare to have two of his killers work on the same boss. He is still very proficient in M Zeus and may gain more relevance with future dungeons

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  29. I rolled Noctis on day 1 (which was concurrent with my birthday) I didnt think much of him until i used him on normal mythic descends. I then remembered that mythic FF was surprisingly more difficult than other less popular collab dungeons… just slightly. I ran Lightning and Yuna back then and still run them despite having all the tier lists greatest leads. Only when i started using Noctis to farm did I just accidentally S-rank the dungeon and many others. Noctis is really fun, easy, and already strong before the upcoming buff. Hes a great sub on TPA/Combo based teams (A.Okuni) and his awakenings are great for what he does… -ALL THE TPA. ALL THE COMBOS.-

    also, i just wanted to say, Lightning is great. I love her more now with rows than i did 6 months ago. what did you mean when you said “it is nearly impossible to go over 20.25x ATK as you need to match a chain of connected light orbs.” ?
    I’m not poised to disagree or anything. I just like to hear analysis and opinions from others about lightning. I’ve had nothing but fun using her… but farming skill ups for her is depressing and horrible… I am skilling my third one even at this moment.

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    1. Happy belated Birthday!

      Lightning has a great damage control as you can match all 5 elements and be very unlikely to skyfall a connected blob of light orbs to trigger the massive multiplier. Follows a similar train of thought as DQXQ as she is also reliant on large chains of linked orbs for full multiplier

      Noctis can be a powerful sub, but it is mostly a lack of viable homes for him to truly capitalize on the awakenings as his active is somewhat lackluster outside of combo teams. However, Noctis is going to be an even stronger leader in what I presume is to be soon =)

      Like

  30. Rolled a Tifa yesterday, I’ve been playing both Collins constantly for over a week especially on the 2 x days. Do Tifa’s gloves actually exist. I haven’t seen them at all

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  31. Hey Mantastic, really appreciate your constant work and analysis on this blog!

    I have a couple of questions regarding some of my pulls for this collab:
    1. I pulled two Noctis and a Sephiroth, among other rolls. Would the dupe Noctis and/or Spehiroth fit well on a Noctis team? Also, is Noctis able to clear end-game content reliably well, if at all?
    2. I also pulled a Rinoa. Would she work on a Sumire system as a temporary replacement for an Awoken Isis? Currently, my team is two Sumires, Nut, and Skuld, so I’m trying to get Isis and hopefully another Sumire to complete the system. The one weakness I see with using Rinoa is that I won’t have 100% SBR…
    3. Finally, would Tifa work as a good sub on a ADQXQ team? I randomly pulled her, then thought she might not be so bad for ADQXQ considering her awakenings and her heartbreaker and shield active.

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    1. Sephiroth is a niche sub at best on Noctis if you need his killer awakenings, otherwise, he is quite weak due to a poor active

      Noctis can clear end game content as he is both tanky and hits amazingly hard. Dark also has a great sub pool

      Rinoa is a good alternative to Isis and has more passive damage (more OE) at the cost of a longer CD, but the haste helps complete your system. However, without full SBR, you may be quite vulnerable

      Tifa is a good sub for DQXQ as she is a row oriented Wedding Izanami =)

      Like

  32. Hi!

    I know this is way past the collab but I just found this post and this is amazing! Thanks so much for putting it together!

    I rolled a Yuna during the FFCollab but I’m not sure what subs to bring with her. I’ve been using a ADQXQ team with LKali, Wedding Izanami, Baal, and Ami. I’m thinking I can use a similar team for Yuina, maybe switching out Wedding Izanami with DQXQ if Yuna is my new leader since she already comes with a shield… What do you think? Should I use Pollux or Valk instead to just get more light orbs?

    Thanks! 🙂

    Like

    1. I still receive notifications from any comment so don’t worry about timing =)

      Wedding Izanami is always a great sub on those types of teams so I would use her.As for your other subs, they seem synergistic as you do not have any over the top orb changers so you can always proc Yuna

      The choice to use heartbreakers is based on the dungeon and if you need those colours covered (Baal covers dark already etc.) But from an awakenings POV, Pollux is better than Baal due to OE

      Generally speaking, you would want a bind clear for Yuna as that is her biggest weakness

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  33. between yuna and lightning, who makes a better leader? i’d say yuna is much easier (and more fun) to play but lightning has rcv boost and higher atk multiplier.
    thanks!:)

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  34. I’ve been patiently waiting for this collab to return. Yuna is like the ultimate missing piece to the Yusuke puzzle…

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