Introduction
North America has finally received the +297 Zeus “Gift” Dungeon today and it presents a unique challenge for players to overcome. I am well aware that there are many different teams that can clear this, but I wish to showcase how I have successfully cleared with my Dark Metatron 
team along with my strategies and checklist of utility. Do note that this dungeon must be completed in solo mode.
Video clear
Team used
I decided to go with my Dark Metatron team due to the colour advantage, ease in which to activate her multiplier, and ample Skill Boosts 
to allow for the much needed Skill Inheritance actives being ready in time. For reference, Dark Metatron forms a 2.25x HP / 36x ATK team when under 50% HP. I also used the +5% Attack 
Awoken Badge as it was the one that provided the most benefit. My subs were mostly chosen for their synergy with each other through Skill Inheritance as well as being my strongest options.
Inherits:
Dungeon mechanics
+297 Zeus is a reasonably tricky dungeon as it has numerous mechanics that can trip up the average team and careful planning is critical to avoid failure. Universally, every team requires:
- A board reshuffle to remove the 20 locked orbs spawned by Zeus. This can include the Pierdra Badtz-Maru
(from my early days of pulling the Hello Kitty Collab), Mastering 
. or Keiji 
. If you fail to bring this, you are most likely going to fail unless you have a very large shield to withstand the attack. - A really big shield can be used in lieu of a board reshuffle. This will give you time to remove the jammer orbs and re-optimize your set up. This is where complete immunity comes in handy such as Raphael
or Thanatos 
comes in handy. - Ability to hit 62 million damage. This may sound daunting, but it is vital to your success as you do not wish to play around with Zues once you reshuffle your board. Remember that dark teams deal double damage and anyone with God Killer
will be very powerful. Remember, you can inherit over their active so you can still make use of those niche cards (Fenrir 
, Acubens 
, etc.). For mono colour teams, it is vital you bring a means to form a 2/3 primary colour board for optimal burst damage. - A way to bypass the masks. You may choose to do this via large burst (have to overcome 8 million defense) or true damage/poison.
If you can address all these points, you should be able to succeed and you can be creative with your team compositions. You can do your own YouTube research via the link provided HERE.
Dungeon strategy
The dungeon is relatively straightforward once you can overcome the hurdles mentioned above and I simply want to provide a bit more clarification on a floor-by-floor basis.
+297 Zeus |
|||
Floor |
Monster |
HP/Def |
Comments |
| 1 |    |
651,666 623,335 595,002 |
Blue Chimera cannot be killed on turn 1 |
| 2 |    |
114 / 1.2M 300 / 8M 114 / 1.2M |
1-3 turn skill delay preemptive. Very high defense. Possible to stall a bit |
| 3 |    |
1,482,432 1,530,102 1,577,766 |
Preemptive 20% Jammer skyfall debuff |
| 4 |    |
10,478,468 10,386,132 10,292,802 |
Random 2 (can be same colour. Just under 11k preempetive. Given 2 turns to kill after. |
| 5 |  |
62,313,636 | Preemptively locks 20 orbs. Very very ideal to board reshuffle them away. Vulnerable to God Killer awakenings. Should try to one shot after you correct your board. |
Conclusion
+297 Zeus “gift” dungeon provided a nice change of pace in terms of content difficulty. It can be a daunted encounter, but I am confident with my guide you will be better prepared to face him and enjoy another +297 reward. It was also fun giving him a good Spanking 😉
Happy Puzzling!
Mantastic Puzzle and Dragons 
Cleared it on the first try with YY. The team I ran with was YY(Scheat), Hermes, Andromeda, Nut(Susano), Skuld, YY(Urd). Only scary part was Zeus himself and even that would’ve been a joke if I had a board reset to use. That mask floor is an absolute godsend.
LikeLike
Did you have to stone once on Zeus as you are missing a board reshuffle?
LikeLike
Nah, I managed to clear enough orbs to pop my board changer and kill turn two against Zeus and could have tanked another hit if at full HP. It’s not something I want to have to repeat in the future though.
LikeLike
Zeus does kill you when he is low HP so I am glad you managed to spank him before then!
LikeLike
I was able to do it with an inherited Raphael shield, as well as getting lucky and his 20 spawned orbs working well for Roots (wasn’t perfect but wasn’t bad either). It’s very easy to stall on the masks for skills, as the middle one doesn’t do significant damage and will waste a turn resurrecting one of its fallen buddies (who reset to 5 or 6 turns). I hope we see more of these types of dungeons in the future! Challenging, low stamina, high reward. Thanks for the guide!
LikeLike
Yeah I love how it was low stamina to enter. Doesn’t hurt as much if you fail lol. I know there is a 297 hera to look forward to!
Also, congrats on your roots clear =D did you burst or true damage down the rainbow mask?
LikeLike
Thanks for the guide. Had a friend lead with a Luci/Maeda inherit, and used Awoken Vritra for the God Killer + 2x spike. Easy to stall on floor 2 for ages if you immediately kill the two weak masks, allow to mystic mask to resurrect one, then Oblivion Nova on the mask. The remaining mask will just bind you and give you 6 turns to heal and ping it down.
LikeLike
Congrats on your clear =D so many God killers! I didn’t need to stall and I can use lucifer for his oblivion nova but I am glad you found a way!
LikeLike
For me, I used A. Lucifer team. I didn’t have a board refresher. So, at the Zeus floor, I tanked first hit and cleared locked orb as much as I could. Then killed in one shot in the second turn.
I had 4 god killers in the team, one of them was A. Vritra. So, it wasn’t a huge deal.
LikeLike
Cleared it with:
Awoken Lucifer (Castor skill), Summer Claire, Summer Pandora, Akechi, Lu Bu, Friend Lucifer (Red Sonia Skill).
Just needed to clear enough locked orbs in the first turned.
LikeLike
I really liked this dungeon. It was difficult for me (1 year playing), but the 25 stamina cost allowed several attempts.
Cleared it with:
Awoken Lucifer (Castor) [Bind Immunity Badge], Beach Pandora, Beach Claire, Akechi, Lu Bu (only one not +297), Awoken Lucifer (Red Sonia)
F1; any skill but Lucifer
F2: Killed both light masks with the two Lucifers. Charged all skills while saving orbs.
F3: Used saved orbs
F4: Red Sonia Skill on turn 1, Castor Skill on turn 2 (Not enough hearts for Claire).
F5: Cleared as many locked orbs on turn one. Used Panda + Akechi + Claire + Lu Bu on 2nd turn. It was enough for 2 Rows and 1 TPA.
Hopefully I didn’t post this twice as my first post isn’t showing up.
LikeLike
I also enjoyed the dungeon for the reasons you listed. One of the things that keeps me going is the thrill of new challenges and puzzling my way over them.
I feel that most people used Lucifer to clear this dungeon (including my Mom) as he has a wonderful mix of Burst, Suvivability, True Damage, and Tanky-ness
Congrats on your clear and hopefully your breakdown helps other Lucifer players!
LikeLike
I used Lucifer as well and one shot it on the first try. Of course team was 297’d but ran Luci, UU Pandora, A Pandora, Eschamali and Claire. Basically the same strategy as AO. I had Pandora and friend Luci with Loki inherit so it wasn’t hard.
LikeLike
Well done to you too Kasi!
The burst active is a reasonable replacement for a 2/3 dark board combo
LikeLike
Lucifer has Satsuke. Claire has Karin. UU Pandora and friend Luci had Loki. I killed boss with Karin + Satsuke + Loki. I had three Rows plus a five orb dark Skyfall. It’s possible Lucifer might have one shot Zeus.
LikeLike
It’s very doable for Lucifer to one shot zeus as he has effectively 31M HP due to dark advantage. Furthermore, you can stack rows and God Killers! I one shot him for my Mom so I know its possible =P
LikeLike
I cleared it with aluci and thanatos. I used a skill on floor 1 then both lucis to clear both light masks and stalled a long time for skills on dark mask.
LikeLike
Oh nice! Lucifer appears to be the leader of choice for this dungeon due to his consistency, burst potential, and god killer awakening
LikeLike
It took me a while to beat it with YY. I had to lug around my unevoed Maeda Keiji for the board refresh, and I used up almost all my actives before the boss, but somehow I managed to do enough damage to Zeus to OHKO him.
My team setup was
YY (Scheat inherited)/A. Hermes/Skuld/Nut (Rain from FF collab inherited, but didn’t need)/Maeda Keiji (unevoed lol)/YY (Urd inherited)
Finger badge
F1. Kill normally, might need to use friend YY and forego the inherited skill
F2. This is where I stalled a ton. I just killed the gold and indigo masks over and over again until Keiji and my other skills were up, then burst
F3. Kill
F4. Stall the extra turn, then kill
F5. Keiji, then (in a perfect world) Skuld (or Urd if you saved it), Scheat inherit, make TPA board, kill
LikeLike
Well congrats on your victory! A clear is still a clear and the time taken isn’t too important. It is pretty wonderful how much damage YY can deal and he is definitely a good choice for this +297 dungeon
Hopefully your breakdown helps other YY users!
LikeLike
Probably the most fun I had playing P&D in a while, theorycrafting for this dungeon with XM was a blast. I could stall on floors 1&2, but on floor two I set up an ideal board and used ra, so I could use that board on floor 3. Floor 4 was a Saria active, and floor 5 was Keiji (inherited on rrh) -> Gadius -> Uriel -> XM(Arcline). One shotted the boss with ease (granted I got an ideal board with 3 fire rows and 3 heart combos).
LikeLike
Oh nice! Congrats =D
Preserving your board with true damage is a wonderful way to ensure you do not waste additional actives on floor 3
I look forward to the next set of unique challenges!
LikeLike
how often does this dungeon come around in jp
LikeLike
I am not sure, but I know it’s part of PAD radar
LikeLike
Cruton1113 days ago
😮 Waiting for that post! I have everything except phersephone evo’d and Awoken Panda evo’d. Probably going to use your team for it ;-; I hope I can do it D: Might have to add you cause I don’t have the orb refresh in my box ;-;
Awesome video! and it was surprisingly fast!
Mantastic PAD
Thank you! Also, the corresponding post is now live =)
I mostly chose my subs as they are my best dark cards and I can use Skill Inheritance to make them more ideal.Leave your IGN and I will make sure I accept you
Cruton111
330,129,309 – If I can link my PAD herder if you can make a team that I can run through it. I’ll go check out your post though :D
Cruton111
Oh, I totally forgot that I didn’t put my Pad-Herder ;-; Sorry! Here it is: https://www.padherder.com/user/DriftedAway/monsters/#31,0,31,8191,4294967295_63,0,,0,0,0,eq,0,0,0,0,;boxfav,0
I’ve tried w DMeta and I’ve gotten to Zeus but I didn’t have enough to 1 shot :c
Mantastic PAD
Am I correct in seeing that you have 3 Plums? Awoken Lucifer is probably the most popular lead for this and you have Haku/Akechi burst combo. Plum team works too as your damage is skyhigh and can set up on masks
Cruton111
I do have 3 Plums, although I don’t have any friend that runs her so she’s just been sitting in my box until I max skill and level them. ;-; Thank you for replying 😀 Watching your video’s and stream have re-ignited PAD for me 🙂
I copied the chat we had on youtube to see what we were talking about. 🙂 And I just realized that I have to add you first instead of giving you my number. My IGN is DriftedAwy.
LikeLike
Thanks for copying the message! YouTube is very bad at giving me notifications on preexisting comments and their subsequent replies
I also accepted your friend request =) I had a flood of invites and only one spot!
LikeLike
Tried like 15 times with ADQXQ and like 10 times with ALucifer or APanda … no success I’m in great despair … I’m always dying because I have to use an active on the 4th floor due to bad rng / skyfall
LikeLike
Do you have a secure win if you get to Zeus?
Try to set up board on masks so easier floor 3. Should budget an active for floor 4
LikeLike
Finally did it ! The key is saving orbs for 3rd floors and bring a jammer converter for 4th floor.
Used I&I inherited on 4th floor to ensure I killed the 2, then orb refresh > Zuoh > Akechi > combo, win.
LikeLike
Huzzah! Congrats =D glad you found a way to succeed!
Enjoy your well deserved +297!
LikeLike
Still need to complete it with my sub account, problem is I do not have Archdemon Lucifer on that account
Notable teams : I have ADQXQ / A Pandora (haku / Satsuki / Hanzo / Tsukuyomi / Zaerog8 / Durga)
Notable subs : Maeda Keiji / Sherias Roots +200 / Kana +297
Missing subs : a dark nuker / Zuoh
yesterday managed to go to Zeus with the ADQXQ team :
ADQXQ +297 inherit / Maeda Keiji / Chibi Valkyrie / Kana / Sherias Roots +200 / ADQXQ Friend no inherit
Activated the 100x on last floor + kana active : hit him for only 1/3rd of his hp …
Any suggestion ? PadListener is broken so I have no link to an updated padherder 😦
LikeLike
Sorry for late reply as it has been challenging to read/see comments! Were you making 100x with rows? Should be enough esp with Kanna active…
LikeLike
Just got an idea by re-reading your advice : gonna bring fenrir with Durga inherit. Will try with :
A Panda / Fenrir inherit Durga / A Haku / Satsuki / Hanzo inherit Sherias Roots / Friend (main account) A Panda inherit Maeda Keiji
Maybe I will have troubles on 4th floor 😦
LikeLike
Let me know how it goes! Sorry for late reply as it has been challenging to see/read comments these past few days
LikeLike