*Sarasvati’s full guide can be found HERE*
Introduction
You Yu 
has been released in North America, but his debut was somewhat marred by the announcement of Uuevo Sarasvati 
. Both leads focus around matching numerous water combos along with either a 5o1e or row to trigger their full multiplier. Both are capable of achieving spectacular levels of damage but suffer from fragilty and a certain degree of orb-hungriness. The purpose of this article is to compare and contrast the two leaders while highlighting their weaknesses and strengths.
Overview
You Yu and Sarasvati can be best categorized as glass-cannons. This means that they are able to deal a amazing amount of damage at the cost of no HP/RCV multiplier. Thus, they are at the mercy of dungeon mechanics when they are unable to sweep the floor/activate. The lack of HP can be compensated through coop and that does help address that weakness. However, you will still need to find a way to heal up after an attack or bring some sort of sub dedicated to utility to compensate.
You Yu
|
Sarasvati
|
|
|
Stats, active skill, awakenings
You Yu
|
Sarasvati
|
|
| Attacker | Typing | God, Healer, Physical |
| None | Sub Attribute | Water |
| 3,655 | HP | 3,815 |
| 2,606 | ATK | 1,300 |
| 325 | RCV | 608 |
| 995 | Total | 844 |
     |
Awakenings |  |
| 1.5x ATK Attackers 3    6 turn CD |
Active | +15% water skyfall 3 turns 2 6 turn CD |
| Aspiring deodorant model | Appearance | Pretty girl with prominent |
| 300,000 Monster Points | How to Acquire |
5-Star REM roll |
It becomes apparent that You Yu wins out in the total weighted stats department; however, the vast majority of those are located in Attack and that is arguably less important when dealing with sky high multipliers. In addition, You Yu lacks a sub attribute which is an automatic loss of 10% damage (per leader) along with poor recovery and average health. Furthermore, You Yu’s active is quite underwhelming and he is usually used as a base for Skill Inheritance.
On the other hand, Sarasvati has three different typings, superior recovery, and a much stronger active. Dual Sarasvati leads are able to have a permanent Skyfall buff when max skilled. However, a lack of Skill Bind Resistance can place constraints in team building when playing Solo. This can be compensated/corrected with subs such as Andromeda 
, Alrescha 
, I&I 
, Multiplayer (where a large shift in focus is being placed), or the future Badge System.
Both leaders suffer from a lack of HP or RCV multipliers and causes them to become glass-cannons. You are able to correct the HP deficit through multiplayer as both team’s subs will be contributing health; sadly, this does nothing to address the non-boosted recovery. As such, if you are ever forced to stall or heal, you must prioritize high recovery subs.
With all that being said, we need to compare their leader skill/activation requirements to determine who is more viable to run.
Leader Skill Comparison
Both You Yu and Sarasvati have scaling multipliers based on the number of water combos matched. In addition, they also have a secondary condition in which you either match 5 orbs, 1 enhanced (5o1e) or a 6+ connected water orbs to trigger an even higher multiplier. The following chart will showcase the various damage outputs for differing number of water orbs and combos along with the additional damage trigger.
C = number of water combos
5o1e = 5 orbs, 1 enhanced
5 link = 5 linked water orbs with no enhance
= 6 connected water orbs to proc row awakenings
= Two Prong Attack
Do note that You Yu cannot hit his full 156x multiplier if you match a row due to the spacing issue of 5o1e. However, he can skyfall into it but it may still not be worthwhile to form a row due to no awakenings on your leaders.
You Yu
|
||||||
| # orbs |
5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
|
|
1 C 5o1e 25x |
1 C 5o1e 25x |
1 C 5o1e 25x |
2 C 5o1e 56.25x |
2 C 5o1e 1 56.25x |
2 C 5o1e 1 56.25x |
|
|
1 C 5 link 2.25x |
2 C 6.25x |
2 C 1 TPA 6.25x |
2 C 5 link 14.06x |
2 C 1 25x |
2 C 1 1 25x |
| — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| # orbs |
11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 |
|
You Yu |
3 C 5o1e 100x |
3 C 5o1e 1 100x |
3 C 5o1e 2 100x |
4 C 5o1e 156x — 3 C 5o1e 1 100x |
4 C 5o1e 1 156x |
4 C 5o1e 2 156x |
Sarasvati  |
3 C 5 link 56.25x |
3 C 1 100x |
3 C 1 1 100x |
3 C 1 2 100x |
3 C 2 100x |
3 C 2 1 100x |
From the data shown above, it becomes clear that You Yu is superior when dealing with fewer water orbs/clearing trash floors as he is able to quickly scale his multiplier compared to Sarasvati. However, once you achieve 12+ water orbs, Sarasvati will begin to deal more damage due to the power of row awakenings. Unlike TPA, rows affect the entire team and water has arguably the best synergy of subs to draw upon. You Yu is forced to match a 5o1e combo and this places constraints on how he is able to generate damage. You Yu is able to form rows, but he will naturally have fewer than Sarasvati (and cannot form as many) and has to rely on a water skyfall to trigger the fourth water combo for 156x ATK.
Another interesting aspect of Sarasvati is her ability to have a permanent skyfall buff. This reduces the need to run Awoken Hermes 
and removes any need to bring Scheat 
. In addition, she has no restriction on matching her connected water orbs as she does not require an enhance. This is important when dealing with full board changers who fail to produce a plussed water orb or when refreshing after a full poison board (think Beelzebub).
You Yu is able to hit 100x with one less water orb, but Sarasvati will be able to trigger a row once you are able to have 12 water orbs on the board.
156x TPA or 100x Rows?
In all honesty, both hit incredibly hard and will most likely obliterate any current content the game has to offer (strong chance to one shot Arena Kalis etc). I have a lot of experience playing with Awoken DQXQ 
who is capable of hitting 100x through 7 connected orbs and 3 other elements and have never had any issue with damage. Thus, I am confident that a mono-colour team will be able to deal even more damage and in the case of Sarasvati, be able to form 2 rows more consistently. One thing to keep in mind is that You Yu lacks a sub element and this equates to a few million damage in lost damage along with no TPA awakening. It can also be problematic if facing floors with too much defense (rare case) as your team will only be pinging away for 10 instead of 12 damage.
Both leaders require orb changers to achieve large damage so the argument of orb hungry is largely moot in either case and only applies to the smaller multipliers when dealing with trash floors in which You Yu wins out. I am uncertain how to factor in the permenant skyfall buff from Sarasvati into the damage equation as it will add considerable damage and frees up a sub slot for either more utility or orb changers. You Yu’s active will seldom be used and he will most likely be a base for Skill Inheritance.
However, I just want to reiterate that Rows > TPA for overall damage and Sarasvati will win out in damage starting at 12 orbs (possible exception at 14) as your team will most likely hit the 10 row enhance soft cap which is a 100% damage increase. Being able to clear trash floors with fewer orbs is less relevant when doing Challenge 10s, Rushes, etc. as that damage would probably be insufficient to sweep and you would be required to use an active any way.
Conclusion
Both You Yu and Uuevo Sarasvati are powerful glass-cannon water leads who are capable of dealing out spectacular damage at the cost of survivability. The lack of SBR from Sarasvati is addressed via coop, the right subs, or the new Badge system. As such, ideal teams of either You Yu or Sarasvati would be on par in terms of defensive awakenings.
You Yu is superior in dealing damage with fewer water orbs and will allow you to sweep easier floors without the use of an active. However, that damage would be insufficient for true end game content that has millions upon millions of health and you will need to use an active any way. I only envision you playing either lead in this context as there are better options for less challenging stages.
At 12 water orbs, Sarasvati is capable of achieving 100x damage with a single water row. This is where she begins to eclipse You Yu in terms of damage output as you will not be running subs with 2+ TPA awakenings to compensate (and even if you did, may not be more damage especially at 15 orbs where Sarasvati can hit 2 rows). Granted You Yu can play a row-based team and skyfall (skillfall) into 156x, but that is a big if and he will naturally not have many row awakenings and will most likely be better off pursuing the 156x multiplier.
If given the choice, I would choose to use Sarasvati for end game content as she can deal amazing damage, has a permanent skyfall buff, no dependency on running Awoken Hermes or Scheat , along with no extra orb manipulations to ensure there is a 5o1e after an orb changer.
Let me know how you feel about this comparison and who would you use if given the choice.
Happy Puzzling!
Mantastic Puzzle and Dragons 
I have Sarasvati but have not skilled her. But yeah I have a fairly ideal team for her with I&I, Blonia, Alrescha, Hermes (he’s still good for her), etc. Well basically all the row subs but Andromeda.
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Hopefully you are able to make good use of her =) Also, better get to work on skilling her up!
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I Definitely enjoy sarasvati over You yu. The factor of incorporating an automatic row into her leader skill while requiring 2 other water combos becomes more than apparent for damage, and having higher HP plus rcv adds up overall in the end.
Perhaps You yu has power to demolish ranking dungeons in an instant, but sarasvati for late to end-game content is what I’ll favor over. I guess I’m just biased with her since she was an old monster and at first stripped of a “better” evolution when you yu came out, but gungho now delivering and making her on par to be compared with a MP monster is something to not sneeze at any time at all.
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Yeah, the extra HP and RCV do make significant gains when your teams are fully maxed. Not having to gimp your roster with a shield to reach HP thresholds is valuable as it gives you an extra active.
YY does have a unique advantage in the current Satan Ranking Tournament, but that will probably not persist without the extensive water skyfall buff
I intend to only run Sarasvati as a viable option to my DQXQ team for end game content that needs explosive damage
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i have sumire and skuld as well as sarsvarti, so there is no way i’m buying You Yu!
Would be cool if you included sumire and skuld int he orb table.
might do it myself to satisfy my curiosity 😀
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i’m an idiot, they are both flat multipliers (to an extent)
skuld: 27.5x
sumire: 20.25x
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Skuld and Sumire just don’t bring enough damage and somewhat defeats the purpose of a glass cannon leader =(
If you have Sarasvati, there is no need to buy YY
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I’m surprised you didn’t mention combining Sarasvati with a Blonia friend. Together they have,
Higher HP due to physical typing in water monsters
37.5 attack (still powerful due to rows)
2.5 rcv
Water also has many inherently bulkier monsters, including Amon, Andromeda, Awoken SQ, and Awoken I&I. Thoughts?
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This is what I’ll be running with BF’s Blonia. Plenty of actives between the two (though won’t be able to keep up constant skyfall) but “fixes” Blonia’s problem of bursting. RCV will still be above other tankier teams such as FALucifer.
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Well the higher HP may still not be sufficient to survive large hits in solo. Fully maxed Blonia teams only have that much health due to the giant chunk she provides (and dupes).
2.5x RCV will only become impactful on fully plussed teams
Thus, you would not really be a tank team and may still struggle for damage (maybe) and if you need to bring I&I, it somewhat defeats the purpose of a glasscannon team. Blonia+Sara will not be that tanky. I would never pair my Sara with a Blonia due to the large loss in damage and no more skyfall (which is pretty key) for a bit more HP (could just be the dif between a Sara and Blonia) and more RCV
Perhaps if you did not own a Sara, this could be more viable, but I would not suggest going the other way.
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Nitpick! “mute” should be “moot” I believe.
This is the best analysis of this debate I’ve seen yet, great work 🙂 As much as I’m loving You Yu, I’ll probably need to get Sara hypermaxed. The key point here is “lotuses” > armpits 🙂
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I have a strange feeling I have made that mistake before lol
Glad you enjoyed my analysis! It’s bizarre (but wonderful) they made a regular REM evo on par with a 300k MP dragon. Hopefully you smell like a flower and not a….
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If I were a betting man, my money would be on REM cards being stronger/on par with MP cards from here on out. ALB + co-op makes farming MP too easy; if MP cards continue to be the be-all, end-all, GH would see REM pulls take a huge drop IMO.
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That’s an interesting theory I had not considered. They still have to make the MP cards appealing, but making them less overpowered would be better imo. Ra Dragon somewhat ruined the game as it was too powerful for so little effort
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It would be great if you had done some team examples
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Perhaps in a subsequent post for Sarasvati (as YY already has his own completed along with team building templates/suggestions)
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Definitely seems like gungho is trying to pull away from tank teams back to glass cannons. Thoughts on this?
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Makes for much more exciting and faster gameplay. With coop you address the HP issue (to a certain extent) but still struggle to recover. Makes you think more and I like it
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One random thought since you’re doing the comparisons here. What is better, Sarasvati or ADQXQ? They’re both 100x row teams. Sara needs 12 blue to get 100, ADQXQ needs 7 (really 8 to get a row in it) plus 3 other matches. Sara should have higher health given blue monsters health advantage, ADQXQ has a bit more recovery, Light likely has better utility options while blue just gives delay mostly.
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Main issue comparing Sara and DQXQ is top end damage. It can be challenging/problematic to form a 100x light row with DQXQ, let alone 2 rows. On the otherhand, it is quite simple for Sarasvati to form 2 or even 3 unique water rows while having a skyfall buff. Sara will be capable of hitting a much higher damage ceiling, but does require actives more often to hit 100x compared to DQXQ
A lot of utility can be addressed via skill inheritance. For now, I would say DQXQ is a safer team and I would only use my Sara on Arena+ content where I need huge burst on a consistent basis (and no issue of damage control)
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I plan to run Sarasvati … because I have a Sarasvati and a woefully underutilized water box. 😛 (This will be my first water team to build!) I have I&I, Andromeda, Famiel, Hermes, 3x Karin, 2x Isis, Lakshmi, 2x Sun Quan … even a max skilled Alrescha and dupe Mori. I look forward to the future post where you explain HOW I’m supposed to use them all! 🙂 Cheers!
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I will make a subsequent post dedicated to her own team building closer to her release date =D I am still planning my own teams lol
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ok im torn. have scheat,hermes,orochi,u&y,isis,skuld.. with these subs, should i opt for you yu?
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i am too. i was all hype to buy you yu but luckily i havent spent my mp. have a near ideal team rip
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To the first Anonymous comment, what kind of content would that allow you to clear that you couldn’t before? If he is clearing the same level of content as your current end-game team, there is no pressing need.to spend 300k MP
As for the second reply, do you own a Sarasvati?,
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i am the second anon and yes, i do. i am planning to use her over you yu
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Well I am glad you managed to resist the urge to spend the 300k MP
Sidenote, GH could have padded their wallets more if they had delayed the Sara announcement by even a week lol
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Last pull of a 15 pull godfest!!! Got Zuoh and Sarasvati so it was worth it!!!
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Wow! Congrats on the Fantastic rolls! Now you will have a splashing success =P
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Sarasvati,Ryune,A.Karin,Andromeda,A.Isis 9 Rows,4OE,4SRB (orz) other options could be Sumire,A.I&I, Nut or U&Y (Maybe) so hard to decide which combination could be good unless that award system comes out where i can have 50% SRB on the team …
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The badge system should be coming soon (possibly same time as Sara’s release) so I wouldn’t worry too much
As for your team roster, I wouldnt run two board changers as you lack a combo for either of them. Nut is a reasonable option as the orb enhances and quick CD can somewhat act as a board fixer. Isis should only be used when you need bind clears and an orb changer is more useful on the glass cannon Sarasvati
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I rolled two Eschamali from the summer REM somehow (I only rolled 6 times!). I also have Scheat that I could inherit, so I can pretty much get 100% uptime on skyfalls. I don’t have Sarasvati though. How would You Yu compare to Sarasvati damage-wise with all the orb enhance that Eschamali brings? Would YY be worth buying?
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That is Myraculous! I am not a huge fan of YY as he cannot clear THAT much content outside of short dungeons with high dmg requirements
What other blue leads do you have and how inclined are you for Summyr?
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I don’t have any top blue leads, my best one is I&I. Summyr is not an option because my only good blue heart maker is Gabriel. But you’re right, YY is not a good idea. I’ll keep my MP for something else later on! It’s just a waste to have two beach Eschamali and no top lead for them, but they’ll still be there once I get a good blue lead in the future. Thanks for the answer!
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You are very welcome, just be patient. Who knows what the next wave of MP cards will bring =)
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At the time you posted originally posted this, I didn’t have Sarasvati and hadn’t thought too much about You Yu so I merely glanced over. Since then, I had contemplated saving up for YY as my next 300mp creature. I pulled Sarasvati not that long ago and then her uevo came out yesterday and once again, your analysis couldn’t be more relevant or spot on. I definitely won’t be buying YY any time soon, thanks again for your infinite knowledge =3
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You are very welcome and glad I could be of help! The need for YY is at an all time low due to Sara and the lower value of pure glass cannons. I wouldn’t be using Sara for most content, only short dungeons with high dmg requirements. (I did A1 in coop and it was a lot harder than I wanted it to be)
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I have a bunch of good blue monsters but, lacking Hermes, I have always felt like pursuing a blue team was less than ideal. I am particularly intrigued by this new evo especially if your assertion that you don’t need Hermes plays out. Needless to say I am anxiously awaiting your writeup on teambuilding with her.
Keep up the great work.
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Thank you for the encouragement! I plan to write about her tmr or this weekend as things have been piling up. Hermes is nice, but not as needed as the skyfall buff is somewhat pointless
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I rolled a Sara last month, so I was waiting for this =) Unfortunately, no one in my friend’s list has her (or making use of her), so I need new Sara friends! (795346234 if anyone’s looking).
She makes a nice alternative to my I&I and DXDQ teams, I just need 4 more Bubpys to max skill her.
Here’s the team I have for her currently:
Sara
I&I (+297)
B.Valk (+297)
Alrescha
Andromeda
I’ve had no luck with the Island REM, so no Summyr for me =(
It’s pretty much my I&I team minus Awoken Sakuya (who I’ve been using for grav+bind clearing). Other possible subs?
Navi
Hatsume
Blodin
Tidus
Rinoa (Max skill for bind clearance?)
Saintly Ocean Newlywed, Ruka (another potential bind clearer?)
What do reckon Mantastic? Keep the team as is, or train up one of the others?
Keep up the great work!
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I would suggest you try to max skill her via the Water Insect Dragon from the coin dungeons (25/stamina per attempt and quite easy in coop) to save your bubpy
As for your team, there is no need to run I&I as her active is overkill. INstead you could run Hatsume as it is a faster orb changer. You really need water orbs and need 11+ to sweep most floors
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I completely overlooked that dungeon! Thanks =)
Looking forward to the article!
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Article is now live =) https://mantasticpad.com/2016/08/26/sarasvati-new-100x-row-leader-review-and-analysis/
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Here I go again mantastic =)
As I was a previous awoken bastet with 2 vishnu player I can say for sure that those skyfalls help but half the time it clears away the extra orbs so you don’t get that much saved on average.
While I haven’t tested sarvati yet so idk the damage output but needing 9 orbs for x25 is a lot. True end game are all short aside from arena. I beat descend and special descend rush with YY without much hardship at all. My YY team is Nut, Skuld, A.Hermes, and a flex.
With YY I hit average 600k+ with 5 orbs, more than 1.2mil with 8orbs, and well over 3mil with 11 orbs. Just 8 orbs make team averase 6 mil total damage which is more than enough to clear most Arena bosses.
Sarvati on the other hand as you said needs 12 orbs for x100 with row, 9 only become x25 with row, and x56.25 with 11 no row . That might be compensated with the skyfall but as I mention before, it’s quite random and if I were to average it’s less than 12 orbs each turn. Sarvati might do more damage but it needs much more orbs and it is mostly overkill anyways. As for high defense floors, YY breaks predra bursting 1-2 actives with absolute ease.
Now with bescha, adding that to both teams increases YY outpout tremendously. The numbers of YY i gave are without TPA. On sarvati it would make sarvati active worse than YY since bescha would overtake that roll.
The 1 enhance can be a problem but that is only on board change burst. Even then I have a A.Yomi inherit YY even tho i rarely ever use it because of no enhance.
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Also statistically, a entire board clear only nets 9.5 water orbs with sarvati active skyfall. Which is x25.
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Actually my numbers were off, 8 orbs is 2-2.5 million. I don’t even need to state anymore orbs since that is already super overkill in total team damage.
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That’s true that Bescha is more valuable on YY teams; however, due to the orb hungry nature of Sara, the double orb change is somewhat mandatory to ensure sufficient water orbs
Sara is sometimes frustrating to play due to the way skyfalls help and hinder stalling. It is challenging to conserve 12 water orbs without dying to mechanics and most of the time, I find myself using actives to kill a floor anyway. Once you have enough orbs, things do die and that is why I stressed she is meant to be used in short, end-game content.
YY does have some advantages, but also shares the same weakness of fragility, thankfully he can sweep most content with only 8 water orbs. For players who own Sara, I would not recommend buying YY as they essentially fulfill the same role
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Now that Sarasvati can achieve 100x with just 9 water orbs, does this change how much damage she can output in comparison to You Yu?
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Sara is still a 100x leader but is able to hit her full multiplier sooner makes her more appealing than YY once you have 9+ water orbs
YY still has an advantage with 8 or less
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Great info Mantastic. I finally got Saravati but have a serious problem. I can’t get 100x kill only at 25x with 3 combo. What I am doing wrong or the monster got modified or reduce her ability by Gunho. Please advise. Keep up the good works. Very good stuffs.
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Sarasvati was slightly reworked to have a flat/passive 4x multiplier to water types. Thus, hitting 3 water combos will only display 25x, but you are actually hitting for 100x
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Thanks for the clarification. It was confusing when I saw your video with 100X hit and wondering where is my 100X instead of 25X. You are one of the best in the PDX scene – kudos!!!
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You are very welcome and that video is modestly old =)
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