Team Building Guides

Help! I do not have 2 Dark Kali for Ra Dragon

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Introduction

Super Ultimate Ra Dragon 3265 has been released in JP and will be released in North America shortly. The delay in release can be advantageous as we have adequate time to prepare for his challenging evolution along with deciding how to team build the spiciest of all the fried chicken. I go into detail examining Ra Dragon as a whole in my previous post and I encourage you to read it in conjunction with this article HERE.

As the title implies, this post will be dedicated into discussing how Ra Dragon functions if you do not own two Dark Kalis Dark Kali (or any of her seasonal variations) as well as helping you decide if it is worthwhile to spend 300,000 MP to purchase him.

Video commentary

—video goes here—-

How Ra Dragon works

Ra Dragon is a rainbow leader who utilizes all 6 elements to deal up to 144x ATK. Furthermore, God type cards benefit from 2.25x HP / RCV and it is this added bulk that makes him powerful and relevant in an era of heart crosses. If you choose to use a non-God card, that monster will only be benefiting from a lackluster 64x ATK.

Leader Skill:
2x ATK when matching 4 elements. 3x ATK for each additional orb type. 8x with all 6 elements. 1.5x HP/ATK/RCV for God types
2.25x HP / 144x ATK / 2.25x RCV

Ra Dragon Scaling Leader Skill
# Elements 4 5 6
Multiplier 9x 56.25x 144x

As such, you should do your best to use God type cards, even if they have irrelevant actives as you can correct them with Skill Inheritance.

Ideal team

From my research on the JP server, it becomes clear that a team consisting of Ra Dragon, 2 Dark Kali, Isis, and Kanna is the strongest bases. These cards provide full colour coverage along with relevant awakenings while being completely bind immune. Finally, you inherit various actives as the dungeon requires.

Ra Dragon
Card 3265 Dark Kali Dark Kali Isis 3233 3265
Inherit Lightning Dark Kali 3354 Awoken Oorochi Facet Indra

This is of course a template, but you should try your very best to adhere to it as these subs provide utility, offensive awakenings, and board changers. The full bind immunity is also valuable as you will never have to fear that mechanic.

I do not have the ideal team

If that was the first thought that crossed your mind, you are not alone. In fact, I am certain that you are in fact the majority and have to be creative with your team compositions to compensate.

Isis and Kanna

Examining each sub, it becomes clear that Isis is purely for colour coverage and short, 3-turn base cooldown. The bind clear is irrelevant here as everyone is bind immune and you always inherit something on top of her.

Conversely, Kanna is used for the 4 TPA as a means to help bridge the gap in terms of damage as you are unable to actually use orb changers and have to rely on a given board. The active is also inherited over as the enhance component is relatively lackluster. Thus, Kanna is mostly a luxury sub who in theory does not provide additional benefit outside of a nice body.

If you are missing either Isis or Kanna, all is not lost as they are the “least important” members of the team as they are mostly for colour coverage and using a God card does fulfill their roles as you are inheriting something any way. Who you choose to use as a substitute depends on your own Monster Box, but simply look for God type character with beneficial awakenings/colour coverage as the active is irrelevant. Some examples include Dark Metatron dtron, Awoken Izanagi Awoken Izanagi, Rozuel Rozuel, Ariel Ariel, Reincarnated Parvati 3243, and Venus 3269. I am certain you can find more and utilize the creative side of your brain.

Dark Kalis

Dark Kali (or any seasonal variation) has always been critical to the success of Ra Dragon. Due to the fact that you require all 6 elements for full activation, you will often times find yourself requiring a board changer. For a while, Dark Kali was your only option; however, many variations of her active have been released, but many/most lack the God typing.

Using cards such as Ragnarok Dragon Ragnarok or Chocobo Fat Chocobo was somewhat effective for old Ra Dragon Ra Dragon as you were missing out on less benefits compared to the new Ra Dragon as there was no HP multiplier. Furthermore, when Ra Dragon was initially released, he had an unprecedented 144x ATK multiplier that simply obliterated any dungeon in his path and having a sub or even two who only hit 64x was not too big of an issue. By today’s standards, 144x is still strong, but no where as nearly overpowering as it once was and to have a sub or two only achieving 64x with no defensive multiplier is far more painful.

As such, there is perhaps an even greater need to own a Dark Kali (or two) as you are still reliant on board changers for success and even though you can inherit that style of active, it is best to own the original as the cooldown will always be shorter.

0-1 Dark Kali

Owning 0-1 Dark Kalis will probably be the norm for most players and it pains me to say this, but if you own 0, you should probably not buy Ra Dragon. She is simply too instrumental to his success and unless you own multiple Sherias Roots Sherias Roots (or similar inheritable board changers) along with powerful God bases, you will be out of luck.

On the positive side, if you own a single Dark Kali and at least one inheritable board changer, Ra Dragon can be effectively used. I want to stress the value of inheriting a board changer instead of using something like Gainut Gainut, Linthia Linthia, or Chocobo Fat Chocobo. All three of these options do not have God typing and some produce jammer or poison orbs. Furthermore, let us hypothetically assume that all three are +297 and max level. This places Linthia at 1,086 and Chocobo at 950 weighted stats. However, neither will benefit from the 2.25x to all stats and make them rather lackluster compared to the average God at about 1,050 weighted stats (with +297) who is bolstered to around 2,363. This is a huge difference and the gap only widens once we get the Reincarnated Gods who have around 1,300 weighted stats with +297.

Perhaps the only possible exceptions to this hardfast God-only rule is Ragnarok Dragon Ragnarok and maybe Sherias Roots. Ragnarok Dragon has both God God Killer and Dragon Dragon Killer Killer awakenings along with bind immunity. This helps preserve the full bind immune team along with covering two potentially difficult colours. The main drawback is the 0 base RCV that may make it more challenging to heal up after attacks. Despite the lack of HP and RCV benefits, Ragnarok may still keep abreast with other subs due to his dual killer awakenings that will allow him to deal more damage than any other sub against certain bosses (but this is unusable in Arena 3). Sherias Roots follows a similar train of thought, but only has a single God Killer awakening and no bind immunity.

You can of course use other board changers, but keep in mind the handicap you are giving yourself as Ra Dragon is no longer as overpowering as he was when first released. This statement mostly applies to players who already have purchased Ra Dragon and were using a single Dark Kali and Chocobo (with no other inherit option) as it may be unwise to purchase now if you had the same set up as your MP may be better spent elsewhere. Perhaps you can get away with only a single board changer in shorter content, but will most likely struggle in difficult/longer dungeons.

Keiji

Keiji 3107 is a God-type board refresh that can be used in lieu of a Dark Kali. However, you have to bear in mind how his active works and why it differs from a board changer. Keiji provides a board reshuffle in that he deletes all 30 orbs and then replaces them via one giant skyfall blob. This can be influenced by skyfall buffs/debuff, locked orbs, and randomness. It is this randomness that is perhaps most dangerous as you do not guarantee at least 3 orbs of each element and may find yourself unable to actually activate your full multiplier.

Being unable to activate after using an active could be lethal as your probably were banking on activation and sweeping the floor. Thus, I would strongly advise caution with Keiji as his active is more for the situational board refresh to remove locked orbs.

Future inheritable farmable subs

With the recent changes to the Skill Inheritance System to include 55 farmable monsters, many players will be able to use Gainaut Gainut and Linthia Linthia as inherits. This does allow for a less REM pool of cards, but you should be aware that these cards will produce hazard orbs along with these changes not coming to North America for probably 2 months.

What bases to use?

Provided you have at least two ways to use a board changer, whether it be through inherits or as actual subs, you can realistically run Ra Dragon. Thus, the question becomes what cards to actually use. Naturally, you should try to adhere to the template of the optimal team as best as possible, but that may not always be the case for most players.

When trying to fill the last one or two slots, you should always prioritize God cards that have high base stats, low base cooldowns, and possibly have TPA TPA awakenings. Who you choose to bring will be dependant on your Monster Box as there is no real hard/fast rule of who to bring. However, as a general statement, the Reincarnated cards all make amazing subs as they regain their God typing and have around 1,000 weighted stats.

Conclusion

Ra Dragon ideally wants to have two Dark Kali to optimally function. However, many players are not fortunate enough to own all the cards on the optimal team. You are able to get by if you are missing Isis or Kanna, but will be harder pressed with out Dark Kali. You should ideally have at least two board changers in most situations and can utilize strong Gods as bases for Skill Inheritance. Running a non-God card will impose a more sizable handicap presently compared to Ra Dragon’s original release a year ago. This is because Ra Dragon is no longer as overpowered today due to the relative rate of Powercreep and you need every bit of help you can get.

Who do you plan to use in lieu of a perfect team and are you excited for the new Ra Dragon?

Happy Puzzling!

60 thoughts on “Help! I do not have 2 Dark Kali for Ra Dragon”

  1. Pingback: Ultimate Ra Dragon: Review and Analysis | Mantastic Puzzle and Dragons

  2. Assuming I have the perfect Ra Dragon team and the perfect myr team. Can you see there being any reason to buy Ra Dragon from the MP shop because he would be better than her in some way?

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    1. Both teams have their own advantages and drawbacks.

      Ra Dragon is better at dealing consistent damage without actives and is better able to sweep floors on a more consistent basis as 144x is still quite powerful. He also can easily overcome combo shields and fully optimize a board

      Myr has better survivability with heart crosses and is mono colour so can deal more damage with the right set of actives. However, she is slower to use and is more active reliant for burst damage (eg. need 5 hearts and a row)

      Both have different playstyles so that is also an enjoyment factor. If I had both teams, I would use them based on the situation on a dungeon by dungeon basis

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    1. I was just looking through my box for alternates to Kanna and noticed Ariel. Other than the lack of SBR (which won’t matter if eventually running 2 Ult Chickens), it looks like a good alternate. Her own active may not even be completely useless (though perhaps risky) but at a 4 turn CD she is better for SI in most cases. Getting ready to pull the trigger on purchase.

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      1. I agree with Ariel being a strong candidate and added her into the sample list =)

        As for her base active, it can have uses for stalling as you are naturally reducing your damage while producing heart orbs. Won’t always be helpful, but reasonable nevertheless

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        1. Ariel produces 4 light orbs, not hearts. Could help if you are short light on a board, esp as she brings 3 prongs. But if you overwrite another color (esp hearts if you may be stalling) down to less than 3, you could be hosed! Use at your own risk. 🙂

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  4. So sad that I don’t have a single DKali active that I can inherit in my box. Oh well! I’ve got almost 80 stones saved up for PCGF and I would be surprised to not see DKali make it in. I have the Isis at least and as others have said, Ariel is a hugely underrated sub. Active skill is easy to overwrite with something else.

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    1. Hopefully PCGF or the 10-stone REM is kind to you =D

      It’s kind of amusing how Ariel has been propelled into relevance with the advent of Skill Inheritance and stronger rainbow leaders

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  6. Gonna try running Radra/RKali/RevoRa/Kanna/Bmeta/Radra just to give me an excuse to use these darned cards. probably won’t be all that consistent, but at least RA can help destroy predras

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  12. My fiance’s account owns 1 Dark Kali, 1 Kanna, 2 Isis, and 1 Sherias Roots. I know, I’m jealous. (on top of that he has Liu Bei, Osiris, and Vishnu, cards I also wish I had, and New Year’s Yamato. Ughh!)

    I’m currently planning on running Ra Dragon / DKali / Kanna / A.Isis / random base upon which to inherit Sherias Roots or Sherias Roots himself. His account is still way too weak to do any of the One-Shots for Zeus Dragon but pairing my Ra Dragon with a friend’s ultimate evolved Ra Dragon should provide enough tankiness.

    I’m thinking of putting Reincarnation Venus onto the team and then inherit Sherias Roots. Either that or put Sherias Roots himself onto the team.

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    1. That is a good plan! Does your fiance have any bind immune gods to use as a base such as Parvati or Anubis? Would greatly help in the long run. And a single Uevo Ra Dragon is more than enough tankiness to withstand a DQ preempt in A1 in solo mode

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      1. He does have a Parvati who I am planning on turning into Reincarnation Parvati now that you mention it. I hadn’t thought about that at all, thanks for the advice!! 😮

        By the way, I see that your Patreon page is up! It looks great, and I gotta say, I LOVE the reward names. Back to Back Kalis and 5 Ilimas oh my! Sure helps that PAD now has new egg colors for 6* rarity and up cards XD

        I look forward to supporting you once I am out of college myself!

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  13. I think you’re missing a few really outstanding UU RaDra subs, and, you’ve missed one of the key benefits of Maeda Keiji.

    First – Keiji is just a shuffle, which does not guarantee a good board and is vulnerable to skyfall debuffs. However, he (1) clears locked orbs, which is great for some dungeons, and (2) provides at least 1 and often 2 turns of haste, along with random pings if there’s a match on his shuffle. He’s a solid enough sub, and a very good inherit onto RaDra.

    As for the other great subs –
    * Ganesha is a fantastic RaDra sub, and often a good replacement for Kanna when Kanna’s 4 prongs would be unhelpful. He doesn’t overshadow your RaDra’s damage like she can. A 1-turn total shield (and don’t forget the bonus full-board enhance) can be a life-saver.
    * Revo Susano (when we get him) regains God typing, has fantastic stats, green color coverage, and can let you tank a few rounds of 150k hits.
    * D.Athena (when we get her) is a heck of an expensive sub for RaDra, but it seldom hurts to have another Delay, especially one that hits as hard as she does and covers Blue.
    * Revo Orochi is also pretty great – God typing, and that great Delay.

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    1. Well this was written over 100 days and many of those cards you do mention are not available in NA yet so it was exploring what we could use now (or then).

      The main issue with Keiji is the gamble of not having a fully activatable board. Perhaps you can get away on easier floors with 5/6 activation, but it becomes more of a liability in end game content (which is where I believe Ra Dragon should be used)

      The pings are only relevant vs high defense monsters and the chance skyfalls do not or would rarely ever produce any meaningful damage.

      As for Ganesha, he is a very good base inherit to replace Kanna for sure

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  14. I have neither the mp nor the skill to purchase or use the golden chicken. I shall pass on this.

    Enjoyed the article otherwise.

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  15. FINALLY! Just got him Ultimate Evo’ed, so worth it, definitely less than ideal team with ZERO Kalis but has potential.

    So far RaDra / Revo Shiva / Sherias Roots / Isis / Durga (2.5x Multiplier at cost of 1hp but for burst, worth it). Paired with friend gave me 77k HP.

    When the update comes out, I’ll be replacing Shiva with my Rozuel (with orb refresh inherit) and instead of using Sherias, I’ll inherit him onto my Ariel (which I still need to evo). I’ll keep my Durga for burst and dark coverage. Works for me! Should clear Arena 1 relatively consistently I think….

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  16. In jp as antinome I run radra with dkali/gkali/toki/isis with inherets on radra (mkg) and isis (carat). Toki is pretty good, but I’m considering swapping him out for revo orochi. In na my team is less good. Radra (mkg)/dkali/dmeta (ichigo)/isis (orochi)/kanna. Jp seems much more stable.

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    1. Well you NA team is fully bind immune and while you may need to wait a bit longer for a second board changer, it should be okay. Perhaps you are feeling a bit of a struggle with the lower time extends?

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  17. Hey Mantastic,
    I have a question for you, where would the best place to go to ask/reach you?

    Sorry to come to here to ask this, I tried Twitch whispers but I think mines broken or somethings wrong with it.

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  18. Couldn’t you also use Muse as a replacement for Isis and Kanna? He fills water and wood and also boosts god types… He may not be perfect but seems like a decent choice…

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    1. Are you asking as an inherit or a sub?

      As an inherit, its probably the best one after a gemstone and sub, it is a bit lacking due to no bind immunity, low base stats, and hardly any awakenings

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      1. I was asking for a sub! If you’re lacking both, Kanna and Isis, he seems to be nix of both of them.

        But you’re right, his stats are trash and his active is meh…

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  19. Hey Mantastic, first thanks for all that you do for the PaD community. Secondly I don’t see Substitute Soul Reaper, Ichigo listed as a replacement for a d kali. Im currently running Ra, d. Kali, Ichigo, A. Isis, and Kanna. seems to be doing okay. Just wondering if im missing out on a big stat different if I just inherited SSR, Ichigo to a more powerful base. hope that make sense lol

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  20. Since you asked, my regrettable Ra Dragon team is:

    Uvo RaDra | Dark Kali • Rozuel[Shroots] • Ganesh • God Balboa | UUvo RaDra

    At the very least, it gets me through A1 without much stress

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  24. HEY there Mantastic! How is this for a makeshift Ra Drag team?
    Ra drag; Sherias Roots; Ultimate Lightning; awoken Isis; ultimate light kali. WOuld this work?

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    1. Light Kali has a board changer than cannot be fully utilized and Sherias isnt a god.

      The team can work, but it is far from ideal and quite vulnerable to binds

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  25. How about Mistress of the Old Castle, Kalo? I have 1 regular DKali and that one. Everything else in the post I have except some of the inherits.

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    1. Main problem with Old Castle Kali is she produces a Light Kali board (no hearts) so you cannot fully activate off of it. Do you have any other proper board changer you can inherit on an unbindable God?

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  26. kind off topic, but do you think zeus dragon could be used as a pseudo pairing with Superult radrag my best friend(s) main him and i blew all my MP on Dathena (still about halfway ther though!) also do you tink dathena is an ok sub for him? thx

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