Introduction
Awoken Liu Bei 
has been released in North America and has caused quite the storm with his arrival. However, his true power is not as apparent as other top tier leaders and I want to explore why Liu Bei is relevant and how you go about making a successful team for him.
Liu Bei at a glance
Liu Bei
Physical / Attacker
4,125 HP / 1,845 ATK / 103 RCV
816 Total
Active Skill:
Recover 20% Max HP and 2 turn bind clear
10 turn CD
Leader Skill:
2.5x ATK when matching 6 linked wood orbs. Max 4x at 9 orbs. 2x ATK / 2x RCV for Wood on turn skill used
64x ATK / 4x RCV
Sample gameplay
Awoken Liu Bei would normally be a lackluster leader due to the active clause for additional healing and recovery. Granted you would probably be needing an active to match 9 wood orbs, but we have seen from before that skill delays (or in the case of skill binds due to no SBR 
) can ruin these types of leaders. However, with the introduction of coop, we now have the actives from 10 different monsters as well as their awakenings. As such, Awoken Liu Bei teams are able to form a push button team to farm some of the most challenging content available.
Mythic Plus Linthia Descended:
Mythic Plus Devil Devil Rush:
You can do your own further research by using the search term 覚醒劉備
Pros:
- 64x ATK on full board changers while stacking wood rows
- Unbindable leaders
- Can make use of multiple Zeus Dios
for an easy button team - Zeus-Dios can also be skilled up via Hera-Beorc, God Rush, and Hera Rush
- Can button your way through some Mythic Plus content
- Next level of coop button farming
- Subs are mostly farmable and easy to acquire
- Active can clear binds along while forming wood orbs
- Can pair with other leaders
- Powerful as a sub due to the 3-part active
- Artwork worthy of an warlord and has simply fabulous hair
Cons:
- No HP multiplier
- Less applications outside of a button team
- Active skill reliant for both damage and recovery
- Only valuable in coop
- Low single player value
- Combo shields can be a problem
- Is Liu Bei really Bae?
What awakenings do I prioritize?
Awoken Liu Bei will mostly be regulated to a push-button farming team and will be trying to utilize as many Zeus-Dios as possible to hasten your progress. As such, the full board benefits the most from wood row awakenings.
Matching strategies
Your playstyle will be mostly using a full board changer, swiping right (no you are not playing Tinder), and cackling at your burst damage. As such, there is little thought required when playing an ideal Liu Bei team; however, if you are forced to match a non-full green board, you should try and connect 9+ wood orbs while triggering your row bonus.
Team Building Options
As discussed above, Awoken Liu Bei will mostly be regulated to a powerful push-button team that is capable of clearing some Mythic Plus content. In addition, you will need to bring as many Zeus-Dios as required to handle each floor (each Dios ensures a kill on a single floor). Furthermore, you will need to bring any utility required along with sufficient skill boosts to have your Zeus-Dios’s ready by turn 1. Thankfully, the core Liu Bei team consists of farmable monsters.
Farmable core subs:
Zeus Dios is your bread and butter card for Awoken Liu Bei teams. Every time you use his active you are ensuring you sweep the floor. In addition, he also has the multiplayer boost 
awakening along with two skill boosts to ensure massive damage and readily available actives. You will bring 2-4 depending on the dungeon and having them max skilled (or as close as possible) is required.
Tengu is a valuable sub on Awoken Liu Bei due to his 4 skill boosts and 4-turn base cooldown. This enables you to have your actives ready for turn one while acting as a base for skill inheritance should you require more utility.
Griffin is a collateral drop from farming Zeus-Dios Descended and is a powerful sub on Awoken Liu Bei teams. Griffin provides a single row, but their main appeal is the 3 turn base cooldown that can be used as a base for skill inheritance that has a strong possibility of being ready again for the boss as a wood orb enhance after using Zeus-Dios’s active for 30 enhanced orbs.
Hera-Beorc is a much prettier alternative to Griffin. However, she requires much more investment and only caps out at 7 turns which makes her a less desirable base for Skill Inheritance. Furthermore, she will not be ready for the boss to enhance the orbs if using her as a base for another active skill.
Valuable REM subs:
Balboa offers a 100% defense void which enables you to easily bypass PreDRAs 
or any other high defense encounter. Allows you to simply match a single set of wood orbs or sub attribute colours to bypass.
Algedi is an often forgotten sub for Awoken Liu Bei due to her disappointing debut months ago. However, the meta has changed with Skill Inheritance allowing subs with low base cooldowns to act as bases for more powerful actives. As such, Algedi can be max skilled to 3-turns and provides two wood rows and God Killer 
awakenings. The main difference between using Griffin and Algedi is if you are able to reuse their base active in time for the final floor (Griffin is superior in this sense due to full enhanced board).
Awoken Freyja offers 2x damage for wood cards for two turns. This is fantastic as it allows you to easily destroy two floors. Furthermore, her two skill bind resist awakenings make it easier to achieve 100% immunity should the dungeon have these preemptives.
Awoken Artemis has a skill that is similar to Liu Bei and can be used in lieu of additional Zeus Dios to form a 64x wood rows.
Green Sonia has an amazing array of awakenings and an active that spawns wood and dark orbs. This is a feasibly Dios replacement as you are most likely going to spawn over 9 wood orbs. However, just keep in mind that her distribution is random.
Perseus deserves mentioning due to his helpful wood/heart active. However, it is his double SBR that propels him higher as Awoken Liu Bei teams tend to struggle hitting 100%.
You can honestly use what ever sub you please provided you can have your Zeus-Dios actives ready by turn one. You may not be able to cover all the utility required and will have to dip into Skill Inheritance to do so.
Sample teams
Your team roster will vary according to what dungeon you are trying to button farm; however, you should always bring 2+ Zeus Dios (usually 3) to ensure easy kills. I am going to presume you are always going to play in coop so you and your partner can work out the finer details. As a final piece of advice, you should arrange your subs from left to right in order of usage to allow for more mindless button mashing.
Skill Inheritance
Due to the majority of your team comprising of Zeus-Dios, you will need to look towards Skill Inheritance to offer the utility required to counter the various dungeon mechanics. It is also common practice to use Tengu or Griffin as a base for Skill Inheritance.
 Liu Bei |
Recover 20% Max HP and 2 turn bind clear 10 turn CD |
| Inheritance Options | |
| Damage Enhance |   |
| True Damage / Poison |
         |
| Board Changer |     or just use Zeus-Dios |
| Damage mitigation |
          |
| Delay |           |
| Orb Changers | Should not really need as Liu Bei already provides a great orb changer |
| Bind Clear |                  |
What you choose to use will depend on the cards you have at your disposal along with the requirements of the dungeon. I highly recommend you read my Skill Inheritance: Advanced Strategies article as it will provide you with a wealth of information on how to make the most of your actives.
Latent Awakening set-up
Due to the fact you are planning on push-buttoning your way to victory, latents are of lower concern. I would simply use them as you see fit. You may benefit from Skill Delay 
latents as a means to protect yourself and your actives. You can of course use skill inheritance, but that may become costly considering Skill Delays are now a rare invade in PreDRA Infestation.
Alternative leader pairings
If you are like Mantastic and are not fortunate enough to own Liu Bei, you can still form a powerful push button team by utilizing a different leader. Just be aware you will have a lower multiplier so make sure you can Dios-nuke the floor. One nice benefit of a different leader is you gain access to a new active and utility. Just note that Australis only grants the higher end of multipliers to machine types.
Awoken Liu Bei
|
||||
Sylvie |
Green Odin |
A Freyja |
Perseus |
 Australis |
| 2x HP 30x ATK 2x RCV |
28x ATK 2x RCV 80% dmg red. |
30x ATK 5x RCV |
40x ATK 2x RCV |
32-48x ATK 2-3x RCV |
Conclusion
Awoken Liu Bei is the next step in push-button dominance due to the sheer power of 64x while stacking wood rows combined with a full 30-wood orb board. While it may not be as puzzling as other teams, you cannot deny the sheer power and potential of a Liu Bei / Zeus-Dios team in coop. I would suggest you try to assemble the team as fast as you can because there will be a powercreep answer in the future. It is always best to try and stay as close to the current meta to take advantage of this glorious and mindless button team.
Happy Puzzling!
Mantastic Puzzle and Dragons 
I have the appropriate cards, but I’m not sure I have the perseverance to do this… Also, I’m pretty anti-green, so these would not be usable on other teams.
That said, the efficiency of farming myth+ stuff so quickly is very tempting. So jury is still out for me.
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I would say it is worth the effort due to sheer power and ease you would have in farming. Also, skilling up Dios is quite simple and something to do during slower days =)
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Wow you read my mind sir. I was thinking about asking you about a liu bei analysis this morning and especially about what other leader I could pair it with since my alt is unfortunate like your main and haven’t pulled liu bei yet. I’m sold for the mythic plus farming. I hope the RNG God will grant me liu bei this coming godfest on my alt :p Thanks for another awesome post. Wonder if Gungho can promote your guides on their homepage like they do for PuzzleBoss’s beginner guide. Wish more people could benefit from them
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I am secretly working on my mind-reading capabilities XD
Perhaps in the future they will promote me more, they do retweet some of my posts and help advertise my stream there too so it’s something =)
Hopefully I keep growing overtime!
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Couple things here. One you missed Algedi as a really good sub. Superior version of griffin. Second it’s not really just coop. It’s also a good choice for any dungeon without big preempts and a ton of floors since you can just one shot every floor easily. I agree gets nuts in coop, but even single player he’s quite good.
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For example the current C10 is a reasonable clear for Liu Bei.
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I added in a section for Algedi, thanks for the feedback =) I sometimes overlook cards that had disappointing debuts, but regained relevance through SI
As for his single player prowess, you will not be using a Dios nuke per floor and instead have to play like a normal team (due to insufficient SB for the most part as there is no badge, 3 Dios = 6 SB, Tengu = 4, Liu Bei = 4, total 14 so you need to stall) but active clause ATK and RCV can become problematic. You would be better of using other options in most scenarios.
C10 runs the risk of light skyfall on floor 3 (main concern) but he can work =)
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Most of the time you bring griffin because you can use the inherited skill and then benefit from very quickly being able to use his base skill to enhance for a burst board on a boss. Algedi, while a decent card, is not too great of a substitute in this regard because as I said, if you are bringing griffin, there is a good chance you plan to use his base active after the inherited once to make a full enhanced board. Though if you’ll never use the base skill, god killer and rows isn’t too bad, though I’d opt for a better overall sub like aartemis, perseus, or something with plenty of great awakenings.
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That is a very good point! Thank you for your input and I edited the various sections accordingly =)
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and that is also one reason why a lot of those jp videos have griffin rather than canopus or uvo hera-beorc.
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Any reason why Gronia was left off the list? I plan to use two of her paired with 2 Artemis or 1 and an Australis. Until I get at least 1 Dios.
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Any reason you left Gronia off the subs list? She is a pretty awesome option in place of Dios if you don’t wanna farm him out. I plan to use two of her on my team with either AArtemis/DG Artemis/Australis filling out the last spots.
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Good call! I added in a section for her =)
Also, glad to see you commenting!
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Any reason you left Gronia off the sub list. She seems very viable. I plan to use two of her.
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As pairing leader, Australis also not bad. With 5 row awakening, he works as a poor man’s A.Lui Bei.
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Thank you for reminding! Added them in =)
Just need to be conscious of skill boosts is only concern, but otherwise a very powerful pairing
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Not Optimal color change, but Avalon drake is also an option, especially nice with the 3 skill boosts.
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Indeed, 3 Skill Boosts, 3 wood awakenings, and 1 SBR is a pretty good substitute option for Awoken Liu Bei team. Avalon Drake can definitely be used as a Dios replacement, but random orb troll can be a problem. More useful as a Tengu replacement or if you need to bring a floor that has a combo preemptive.
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I agree that avalon Drake is a viable replacement for tengu or a Dios replacement.
I agree that the combo shield hurdle is perhaps his biggest asset
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Well that was fast ! Thank you so much for this !
This is a very good reading for my morning coffee 🙂
I expect so much from this new awoken dude, since i’m quite disappointed with my Xiu Min team. (a team not fully skilled, i guess that is the main pb..) Anyway, thanks again Fantastic 🙂
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Glad you enjoyed it and nice to know I have readers all over the world if you posted it on your morning!
You will get the skill ups in time Dawnbringer =) what kind of yr do you run for xiu Min. Lastly, how progressed are you on your liu bei team?
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I love PaD and still playing after 1100+ days, but Awoken Liu Bei and Dios worries me. He flatout kills coop, and the puzzle in Puzzle and Dragons. It’s like playing a modded bejeweled but there’s only one color on the field.
Thanks for the review, but I just hope (considering most of the Discord and multiplayer population run him) that this doesn’t end up boring the majority of users who play PaD.
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Well liu bei is another prime example of powercreep. He is able to clear out lots of content, but he will still falter in harder content. Yes mythic rogue descends are tough, but are still much easier than arena (who he cannot farm).
In addition, there will be new content coming out that will gatekeep liu bei and prevent this button fun. It’s best to enjoy him while it’s new as he will eventually be replaced. Remember when awoken ra came out? He eventually fizzled out
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Wouldn’t armadel be a better option than griffin as well? …maybe…
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The SB and row go a bit further compared to Armadel. Also, Griffin is way way easier to skill up and 3 turns may be ready for the boss if using them at beginning for their SI active
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Couldn’t Awoken Parvati be another potential green orb enhancer? She has a relatively low active cooldown (max at 5 turns) and she can easily be used as a base for SI. She also has some decent awakenings (e.g., unbindable). One of the major downsides is that she is REM unlike Griffin and Hera-Beorc that are farmable.
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The TPA goes largely to waste and unbindable is not as important due to Liu Bei. As for a base for SI, she has a 5 vs 3 turn CD against Griffin which means it is unlikely you will have her ready again for the boss if using near the beginning of the dungeon
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why did u forgot avalon drake he got full board change to wood & light max 12 turns + 3 rows,3 SB and 1 SRB
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Avalon Drake is there! He is the first monster in the full board changer section. I am using his highest evo icon =)
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destroying star angel ruel aint a board changer she just give u randomly 3 wood and dark orbs from non wood and dark orbs xD
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Whoops. Got her and the other green guy mixed up XD
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and my fail didnt saw him there xD
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Hi Mantastic,
Can you comment on green/dark Artemis vs awoken Artemis as sub for awoken liu bei? I feel like the extra row enhances outweigh the sky fall mechanic but I don’t know the exact math
Thanks!
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G/D adds more damage when no skyfall and skyfalls are random. Also, if you are purely going for speed, the skyfalls slow you down and it is rare you won’t have enough dmg on a Dios board swipe
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Listing sbr subs would be nice such as Perseus. You list Freya, I think it was now, but no one else.
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I added in a small section for Perseus =) thanks for the reminder!
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I’m glad I found this guide I think the people in the Facebook group global us/jp to busy to help out, anyways I appreciate the write up it will be a great help to me thanks I appreciate it
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You are very welcome julian and glad to be of help!
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Is there a way to clear scarlett Mythical using ALB and Perseus(or Australis) as sub lead?
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There is most certainly a way, but I am not sure as I had already made my scarlet system prior to ALB.
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Farm legend with
P1 alb, 2 orb changer such as avalon, 3 zeus
P2 alb, 3 zeus echidna
Myth can be done too but need to get to work.
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Is there a point to Restrained Dragon Hero after Awoken? I have two Liu Beis and I’m salivating over those TPAs…
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RLB(cameo)+dios1+dios2+dios3+australis+RLB+Parner=shittons of damage….
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Even before Reincarnated he did so much dmg =P
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