Meta Snapshots

Meta Snapshot: Monster Point Cards

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Introduction to the series

I wish to do a new type of posting series where I discuss current Meta issues along with my future predictions or trends that are happening in Puzzle and Dragons. Let me know what you think of these and whether these are worth continuing.

Video commentary

Introduction

GungHo released the Monster Point (MP) system as a means to help soften the blow of rolling numerous dupes or junk from the Rare Egg Machine. For the most part, this system has been relatively successful as there are now numerous reasons to roll in Godfests as well as allowing players to easily farm MP on their own either through Mythic Rogue descends, PreDRA Infestation, or even just playing Coop.

Players who are patient enough to save up 300,000 Monster Points are then able to purchase a special and powerful monster and these are commonly referred to as MP Dragons/4 Gentlemen with a wild Ragnarok Dragon Ragnarok appearing. For a while, some of the MP cards were the top tier leaders and pushed the envelope for Powercreep and dungeons had to evolution to counter these newer and more powerful teams. Many players did feel a bit left out as they could not keep up (myself included) when dungeons were designed around Ra Dragon Ra Dragon and his 144x multiplier when all you had was paltry 25x rainbow cards. However, GungHo has somewhat amended this problem and introduced a top tier farmable leader in Myr Miru along with shifting the meta to heart-crosses and we are currently experiencing a period where MP cards are still strong, but do not reign supreme. Thus, I want to explore the future of the Monster Point System and perhaps speculate what we have in store for us.

The Good, the Bad, and the Dragons?

As with any shift in the game meta, the Monster Point system had its’ fair share of ups and downs and I just want to briefly summarize what I think worked and what could be improved upon.

What works

The Monster Point System was originally introduced to help alleviate the frustration of rolling duplicate monsters by providing a collateral benefit in the form of a spendable currency. Amusingly, through Skill Inheritance, many of those now vendored cards could have had potential value, but currently, we now know the dangers of hastily selling less ideal cards. Thus, the MP system is now used to alleviate the pain of numerous duplicate cards in the hopes of one day purchasing a special monster.

Overall, this system does work and you can expect to gain about 1,000 MP per magic stone spent in the REM (perhaps more now with the advent of 4x GFE) and you could in theory purchase a powerful monster for 300 stones. However, not everyone has that many stones to spare and GungHo has introduced farmable (albeit somewhat time consuming) methods to acquire Monster Points through Mythic Plus Rogue descends, PreDRA Infestation, or passively playing coop. This is fantastic as it gives you the opportunity to farm and acquire a powerful prize after a modest period of time. In theory, we gain 480 stamina per day and each Mythic Rogue costs 25 to enter. Thus, you can (excluding rank ups), gain 500*19 = 9,500 Monster Points per day. For simplicity sake, let’s round up as you will be ranking up (probably very frequently) to 10,000. Thus, you can feasibly farm a 300,000 card in a month if you are truly dedicated.

What needs improvement

When the Monster Point Dragons were first released, there was too big of a gap in Powercreep as Ra Ra Dragon and Yomi Yomi Dragon Dragon simply overpowered the current content and this was a mistake in my opinion by GungHo. Every game needs a certain amount of powercreep to keep it interesting and help players progress; however, when you release a card that deals outrageously more damage than the other available leaders and can heal, there is a problem. This somewhat forced GungHo to quickly ramp up the difficulty of the new dungeons to make it challenging for these leaders. Unfortunately, what used to be strong struggled and it became too much of a Pay-to-Win game.

Thankfully, things began to settle down, but then game the wave of Xiang Mei Xiang Mei hype alongside Skill Inheritance. This created a new and powerful team which was amusingly short lived as the heart-cross meta came out soon after. The heart-cross mechanic is now the most powerful ability in the game as it combines damage and durability. Ironically, Monster Point cards are no longer the top top tier leaders.

Outside of Ragnarok Ragnarok and Yomi Dragon, none of the other cards are valuable as subs. This leads into my next topic: what do I do with all my hard earned Monster Points?

To spend or not to spend?

First off, you should never spend Monster Points on non-Monster Point cards. The only exception I could make to this hard-fast rule is if it would complete your first Awoken Evolution for a leader who would instantly propel your game progression. If this is the case, you would be able to farm countless more rewards and this would justify the small purchase.

However, one of my most frequently asked questions from my readers is “what MP card should I buy?” The simplest two answers are either purchase the most synergistic card right now or wait until the next wave of cards are released.

When to purchase now

Due to the potential foreshadowing of GungHo releasing a 500k Beach Myr Beach Myr a month or two ago, it may be an indication that future cards will be the same price and power/value. The current MP cards are strong, but no where near as dominant as before. Thus, I would only encourage the purchase of an existing MP card if you have the ideal team for them (outside of Ragnarok Dragon who is a sub and is arguably the best one at the moment). For example, if you were thinking of buying Xiang Mei Xiang Mei, you should only do so if you love the playstyle she offers along with owning numerous Uriels Uriel and a Gadius Gadius. Her ideal team does demand multiple dupes; however, you can still clear lots of content with one. For a full comparison of all the Four Gentlemen, please refer to my other guide HERE.

Puzzle and Dragons is a progression based game and if purchasing an existing MP card will significantly improve your progression, it is worthwhile provided you have the core team ready to go. We do not know what the next wave of MP cards will be (nor their price) and if you have no perfect card that will not improve your current position, you should be patient and not purchase now. I will use myself as an example, I have over 500k Monster Points from coop farming and I have no interest in purchasing any MP card as it will not be able to surpass my Myr Miru team in terms of level of progression (can clear Arena 3 etc.). Thus, even if I had an ideal team for someone, I would not purchase as I will not be improving my current position and ability to clear content.

Newer players can still reap great benefits from the current MP cards as they will most likely be stronger leads than their existing monsters.

Looking forward

GungHo is always mysterious when planning new content as they tend to not leak teasers and instead release the final product. As such, we have no way of knowing what will be the next hot trend. They already tried Jammers and that never caught on. Heart-crosses are pretty Myraculous and it is hard to say what could top them. But rest assured, there will either be a new mechanic or they will finally begin releasing amazing subs for those heart-cross leads. Either way, it will pay to be patient.

Conclusion

Monster Points are a wonderful way to help soften the sadness that can come with rolling numerous dupes. By introducing high end leaders, it helps newer players bridge the gap between mid and end game content, but will be challenging to break into true end game without perfect teams. If you are able to acquire 300,000 points at this time, you should think carefully if it can actually propel your game forward before purchasing.

Let me know what you think about my thoughts and these types of posts.

Happy Puzzling!

23 thoughts on “Meta Snapshot: Monster Point Cards”

  1. I only have 180,000 MP, but I don’t play coop. I also haven’t sold many of REM monsters since I don’t buy stones. I think I sold four REM monsters, 3 Woodbahns and 1 Dark Chester. Sad part is I still kept two Woodbahns and two Chesters. Even if I had 300,000 I believe it would be difficult for me to decide what to buy. By the time I reach 300k, there will probably be a new set of MP monsters.

    To increase difficulty for cross-heart shields Gungho is going to have to give enemy monsters new skills. Direct damage attacks (ignore shields), reduce defense to 0 for x turns (no shields for x turns), Can no longer clear x connected orbs (similar to Kinnikuman Leader skill), or simply more skills hat remove player buffs.

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    1. I completely agree that it would be challenging to decide what to purchase by the time you do have 300k MP.

      We already see pure execution abilities from the Radar Dragons in Arena 3 (aka 500% Gravities), but I do like the other points you mentioned. Some players may cry foul to direct counters to your specific leader skill ,but it may be a way to keep heart crosses in check. A more “fair” way would be introducing heavy combo shields. Heart crosses are challenging to form with rows/combos, but we may see some more orb restrictions such as how Myr’s descend has that Time Warp ability which forces you to start at a particular orb

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      2. TOTALLY agree with this. If he weren’t so underwhelming due to his orb-hungry-ness compared to YY I would buy him in a heartbeat because of how beautiful he is. Top husbando defs </3

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  3. I’m sitting on my 260k MP… I’d like to buy a MP monster*, but I fear the next bunch of MP cards will cost 500k :/

    No one of the actual MP Dragons or Four Gentlemen is really essential for my teams

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  4. Great insight again sir! I got Myr after seeing your post and having a blast using cross formation. Now I farm Zaerog when I can for the great combination of MP, exp, and super dragons to feed away. Got from 100k ish points to 200k and without selling any REM monsters!! I do feel iffy about buying MP dragons now that I know Myr can pretty much take down any dungeon. I think if I ever buy MP dragon, I’m gonna make the decision on its active skill. Wish they were selling Marionnette 200k monster that is a light attribute. I’d buy that in a heart beat 😀

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    1. I’m glad Beach Myr is proving to be an amazing investment! I completely agree that GH should release MP cards that have strong actives/sub potential. They are starting to make strong GFE leaders and having only RagDra as a viable option seems silly

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  5. I’m pretty heavy IAP, and have purchased all of the MP dragons except OdinDra (but I purchased 2 Yomi Dragons)… I’ve bought You Yu, BMyr, and just bought RagDra to go with my new Sherias Roots and/or Ronove… Of all of those, my best purchases by far were YomiDra (the first one), You Yu, and I suspect RagDra. I run BMyr constantly these days, so I’m happy with her, but it was definitely a luxury purchase. I’ve gotten the least use out of ShivaDra, NepDra, and RaDra, despite great teams for them.

    What kind of playstyle you enjoy should factor heavily into your choice of what to buy… YomiDra got me loving 5o1e, so YY was a no brainer, but I could tell I would never really enjoy Orchid or Chrys after my experience with NepDra.

    Anyway, great post 🙂 I’m super curious where GungHo goes next with MP monsters!

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    1. Yeah, i completely agree that favoured playstyles should be heavily taken into consideraton when purchasing an MP card. No matter how strong it is, if you do not enjoy them, they will not be worthwhile

      I too am curious as to what GH has in store for us =D

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    1. In all seriousness, I hope they bring back the jammer meta (not that it was ever here), with the release of Constellation 2 awokens. Sigh.

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  7. Gungho’s new monsters and monster updates have been crazy lately. The meta goes left one day and next thing you know, it’s right. Only end game players are successfully keeping up with the twists and turns of the game play, upgrading their teams and enjoying the most of a certain meta before it shifts.

    Players like myself never get a handle on what’s currently going on before being swept off our feet with the new stuff. I always wanted Shiva dragon and still 150k away from that possibility when BMyr came around. Really wanted her but at 500k… there’s no way. Now even if I waited a year to get her, she would probably not be worth it compared to whatever is new. I just had to come to terms with the fact that all the new material isn’t really for someone at the mid-game level who is also a solo player.

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    1. I basically rely on 3 teams. Awoken Archdemon Lucifer, Rukia, and Sumire. I don’t mind that the game gets more difficult because I think that is part of the fun. I avoid coop because it makes the game a lot easier. Also, I get nervous and I don’t want to be the person that screws up. I hope in the future GungHo increases the difficulty of coop dungeons so they aren’t simply solo dungeons with double stats.

      I haven’t done any of the Arenas though because I always hate running the 99 stamina dungeons unless I am a few thousand exp points from ranking up.

      For MP monsters: I was using Gadius and Sarasvati when Xiang Mei and You Yu came out and that was disappointed when a lot of players switched over. At least Sarasvati got a buff and can focus on rows now. I don’t have BMyr either, but Sumire is still reliable and being able to get a x25 for 5 orbs without a cross-heart is still great.

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      1. That’s great you have a gameplan and are sticking with it AO!

        Your three teams are able to clear a large amount of content and I don’t even use my Myr team for everything. Key is having an answer to as many different hurdles as possible

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    2. To be fair, that is like most games out there. End game players will always be able to enjoy the newest content right away. You have to keep in mind that I have been playing for over 1k days per account and I am pretty GungHo about it 😉

      You just need to pick and choose goals you can achieve. Key is progression. Just keep moving forward and clearing the next tier of challenges to keep advancing. Also, choose a team that is relevant and has good clearing potential.

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  8. Great advice! I hit 300k MP yesterday. The current crop of MP mons is kind of underwhelming. Personally, I am waiting for the next crop of MP mons.

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