Introduction

Version 9.5.2 was released today and brings numerous quality of life features along with additional quests, evolutions, 150/250 memorial pulls, and a Best Friend reset. This post will highlight the new changes as well as explaining how they work alongside their overall impact on Puzzle and Dragons.

Video commentary

New quests and badges

Version 9.5.2 introduces a new series of quests to complete along with more powerful badges. One major complaint about the first wave of quests was that they were too “easy” to obtain as many veteran players had already auto-completed them upon release. However, Maniac quests will challenge even the most seasoned players as the requirements are somewhat outrageous and will take a long time to complete.

The first two are relatively easy to complete as Special dungeons simply means you have to either played for a long time (to have seen all the niche limited time rotations) or able to clear every hard dungeon upon release. Total Monsters in Monster Book counts for both REM and farmable drops so simply go out and play more. You can also bolster your count by evolving cards as that will unlock additional progress.

On the other hand, you require 100 +297 monsters for the +35% RCV badge while total crowns is unobtainable at the moment (and not very feasible in general). Finally, the Total Awoken Skills refers to the number of awakenings you have unlocked. This means you require a huge number of Tamadras, but I also presume you can use farmable boss drops to unlock additional awakenings by feeding to themselves (eg. fusing a second form Tengu to another second form Tengu for a free awakenings unlock).

What the Maniac badges do

The Maniac badges are designed to be both stronger than the original set along with restricting them to end game players by imposing challenging conditions along with a negative team cost component. The negative team cost aspect will reduce your total team cost by a fixed amount and has the potential to prevent you from running certain teams. All stat improvements do not factor in plus eggs. Finally, you have to have the total number of +297 or Awoken cards in your box at once to redeem those badges.

• +15% Team HP / -300 Team cost is a massive improvement from the +5% badge and the -300 cost should not hinder higher rank players. This badge will have the most value for heart cross leaders who tackle Arena as it can allow them to survive Kali executions.
• +2 seconds orb movement time / -400 cost will be wonderful for no awakenings content as it will grant players a chance to form sufficient combos
• +35% Team RCV / -300 cost is a slight improvement over the already powerful +25% RCV. In most cases, RCV will be the most valuable badge unless you can use the HP to survive specific HP thresholds.
• No Skyfall Combos is a new mechanic that prevents new orbs from falling down into place. This is great for players who wish to test their skill or have a certain degree of damage control. However, it is best for speed farming content as there is no additional combo animation. Unfortunately, the vast majority of speed farming is done in coop and there are not even enough badges available to unlock at this time.
• +15% Team ATK / -300 cost is another sizable improvement over the +5% badge. However, I feel that attack is of lower importance outside of ranking dungeons or specific challenges that require massive damage checks. In most cases, you are better off with more survivability.

6th Latent Awoken skill slot

Players now have the opportunity to add a 6th Latent Tamadra to their favourite monsers with the new Extra Latent Slot Tamadra. However, you also have to fuse/sacrifice a +297 in order for it to be successful. This is a huge loss of resources for what essentially amounts to a tiny boost in power. The largest benefit would probably come from an additional Skill Delay Resist  as the stat modifiers are probably worth only a few plus eggs at best.

In all honesty, this should never be done unless you have copious amounts of +297s to spare and are certain the target monster will be used for the foreseeable future. 99% of the player base should probably not do use the 6th latent slot at this time. The receiving monster must be fully latent awakened along with +297. The special Latent Tamadra must also be +297 (so you are essentially losing 297 plus eggs and 5 million coins).

New evolutions

New evolutions are perhaps the most exciting aspect of any update as they breathe new life into aging cards along with providing players with new toys. In the 9.5.2 update, we gain access to Krishna , Vishnu , Ganesha , and Kushinadahime . What makes this update particularly special is that essentially all these cards have relevance and are now wroth pursuing. This article will not go into too much detail about each monster, but here is a brief summary along hints at whether a guide/article will be written about them:

Krishna 

Krishna is the new savior for Fire teams as this element has been essentially neglected up until now. Outside of niche farming with Cao Cao  and the declining Xiang Mei , Fire has been lackluster with numerous amazing cards that have no team to call home. Krishna changes all this as he is capable of forming a powerful and flexible team that is capable of clearing Arena 3 and end game content. Full team building guide is high on my priority list.

Vishnu 

Vishnu was once the best of the Indian 2 pantheon, but now has no team to call home as the TPA playstyle is slowly dying with pure combo leaders being preferred. His leadership potential is lower than Krishna or Sarasvati . Still a good card, but no longer at the same power/splendor as his heyday.

Ganesha 

Ganesha goes from zero to hero with his new ultimate evolution as he now grants additional rank experience upon dungeon completion. This means Experience of a Lifetime is even more lucrative along with having potential to button through Monday Dungeon. It is now even easier to obtain a higher rank in Puzzle and Dragons. I will do a a special article detailing the button team etc soon.

Kushinadahime 

Kushinadahime is a mouthful to spell or pronounce and is often abbreviated to Kush. Regardless, this new Awoken Evolution finally grants her the desired bind immunity to go along with all her utility awakenings along with an improved active and leader skill. Awoken Kush is now capable of achieving 169x ATK at 10 combos. Unfortunately, you are no longer able to benefit from skyfalls and she becomes a purely skill based leader. This also means she has perfect damage control, but without any defensive mechanics, she will not achieve a top tier leader status. However, she is wonderfully fun to play and will be formidable when wielded by a skilled player. Will most likely do an article of some sorts but has lower priority than Krishna.

Bonus monster experience

All Sapphire (Water) dragons now yield significantly larger amounts of monster experience along with the Water Snowglobes. As stated in my previous articles, this is wonderful all around, but is a foreshadowing of larger experience curve monsters (eg. Reincarnated evolutions).

Quality of life improvements

Even if none of the above changes have an impact on your Puzzle and Dragons experience, you can always look forward to quality of life changes.  In essence, these improvements help streamline your gameplay experience by either cutting out cumbersome mechanics as well as making your life easier.

Multiplayer changes

Players are now able to share their room to all of their friends or only one in particular. This helps prevent room sniping as no one else can see your room while allowing your partner to quickly find you. I recommend favouriting that person to help keep them near the top of your friends list to save time on your end as you have to manually select one person.

Selling monsters after dungeon completion

Players are now able to sell monsters directly from their completion screen. This can save time as you no longer have to cancel the room to vendor trash drops. Overall, one of the nicest things to change in 9.5.2.

Check rewards

This is a new feature that is turned off by default, but when turned on, will cause an OK button to appear post dungeon completion. This button has to be pressed to progress to the next screen and is a time loss as you can no longer hold down the screen to quickly skip the animations. However, this feature allows you to never miss a completion screenshot opportunity so may have some value. In addition, it can allow you to hold down to skip the animations and then quickly sell here to avoid cancelling the coop room.

Selling 30 monsters at once

Why is there still a cap? Regardless, this is a wonderful improvement as it will allow you to save even more time when wanting to sell pointless drops.

Best Friend reset

The word reset is misleading as it is better described as a refresh as you are able to choose a new Best Friend without losing your previous selection. You can read more about this process in my Best Friend Guide.

150/250 memorial rolls

If you are above rank 150 and 250, you are able to roll a special egg machine. This means players above rank 250 will have two rolls. These machines are not influenced by Godfests, Galas, etc. so it is best to roll right away.

Conclusion

9.5.2 brings a large array of improvements to Puzzle and Dragons. The game is slowly becoming more refined in terms of convnience and intuitive design and I look forward to future releases. In addition to all of these improvements, there was also a data push for the Kali and Sakuya art contest cards so maybe save your Pal Points.

What changes are most exciting for you?

Happy Puzzling!