Introduction

All games and activities have a certain degree of lingo or abbreviations made by the fans to help streamline discussion or to convey complicated thoughts more easily. Puzzle and Dragons is no exception and for players who have been playing for several years, the lingo and abbreviations are not too difficult to keep up with. However, if you are just venturing out of Departure Tower (the starting dungeon), you may be overwhelmed with information and unable to understand what is being said on the various forums or Facebook groups. The purpose of this article is to provide a handy reference guide to all Puzzle and Dragons (PAD) terminology and if I miss any abbreviations, please let me know in the comments below.

Video commentary

Puzzle and Dragons abbreviations

In order to streamline your search and reading experience, I have tried my best to categorize the various terms.

Magic Stone related

Magic Stones are the premium currency in Puzzle and Dragons. These are used to expand our box space, friends list, continue a failed dungeon, as well as rolling the Rare Egg Machine (REM). These can be acquired via clearing a dungeon for the first time, logging in every day, or by purchasing with real life money.

• Stones simply refers to Magic Stones. Sometimes used in the past tense (stoned) to imply you continued a failed dungeon
• IAP or In App Purchases is a term used to convey spending real life money for additional magic stones
• F2P / Non-IAP stands for someone who is Free to Play and does not purchase Magic Stones
• Whale or any other aquatic animal is a term used to describe someone who purchases a lot of magic stones. The larger the animal (with Whale being the largest), the more they spend.
• MP or Monster Points is a secondary currency that can be used to purchase various powerful monsters

Godfest related

• GF is a Godfest where certain monters are featured at increased rates. Often confused with Girlfriend.
• PCGF is the short form of Player’s Choice Godfest. This is a special Godfest in which the players vote for the featured monsters. I do not know when it will occur next
• GFE are Godfest Exclusives that are only able to be rolled during Godfests
• 4x GFE indicates that certain GFE are featured at 4x rates. This number can change/vary
• Pantheon is the featured non-GFE monsters
• Troll Gold is a monster that comes out as a gold egg, but is really just an evolved silver

Monster basics

• HP = Hit Points or the health of a monster
• ATK = Attack value of a monster
• RCV = Recovery and indicates how much you can heal when matching heart orbs
• Weighted stats is a collective sum of all HP, ATK, and RCV of a card and is a relative indication of strength. Each attribute has different weightings.
• +297 is a monster who has received the maximum number of plus eggs possible
• Hypermax is a monster that is max plused, leveled, awakenend, and skilled up
• Pentamax is a hypermax monster with 5 latent awakenings

Monster or team related

Many monsters have excessively long names and abbreviating them helps save time and embarrassment from mispronunciation.

Certain prefixes are added before monsters to indicate their evolution path or if they came from a special REM:

• Placing an “A” before a name indicates it is their Awoken form. Eg. AShiva 
• Using “Re” or “R” refers to the Reincarnated evolutions. Eg. ReShiva 
• A name preceded by a “B” is for their Beach form. Eg. BUrd 
• W is for Wedding. Eg. WAkechi 
• H is for Halloween. Eg. HKarin 

• RaDra is short hand for Ra Dragon 
• XM is Xiang Mei 
• YY is You Yu 
• RagDra is Ragnarok Dragon 
• System is a team that has a total of 4 haste cards to loop/cycle actives. Can read more HERE
• L/DKali is either Light  or Dark Kali 
• Rodin/Grodin/Blodin refers to Red , Green , and Blue  Odin
• Ronia/Blonia/Gronia is Red , Blue , and Green  Sonia
• LMeta is Light Metatron  and is a running joke in the community due to the overwhelming number of buffs she has received
• ALB is the glorious button pushing Awoken Liu Bei 
• Dios is Zeus Dios  who is the button for ALB
• ACC is Awoken Cao Cao 
• (A)DQXQ refers to Awoken Da Qiao Xiao Qiao 
• (A)U&Y is Awoken Umisachi & Yamasachi 
• MZeus/MAthena/MHera is the Machine forms of Zeus , Athena , and Hera 
• Thoria is short for Saria  Thor 
• Bmyr is Beach Myr 
• Anaphon  is the PAD Cross evolution of Typhon 
• Z8 refers to Zaerog Infinity 
• Roots stands for Sherias Roots 
• I&I represents the twins, Idunn & Idunna 
• Acetet is the PAD Cross evolution for Bastet 
• Farmable is a term that refers to monsters that drop from a dungeon and thus acquirable by any player
• Rainbow team is a team that is reliant on matching numerous different elements for damage
• Glass cannon teams are those with very high attack multipliers but no defensive components. They essentially hit hard and are vulnerable to mechanics
• Heart Cross team is a team that requires you to match a heart cross to deal damage
• 5o1e stands for 5 orbs, 1 enhanced and is a particular playstyle that relies on matching exactly 5 orbs with at least one being enhanced. Also referred to as Fireworks or Sparkles
• Tank team is a team who has augmented HP/RCV
• Utility is a term used to broadly state defensive/niche actives. These abilities are not offensive in nature and grant your team more flexibility and surviability
• LS is your Leader Skill
• AS refers to your Active Skill(s)
• Radar Dragons refers to the spawns on floor 21 of Arena 3 and are some of the strongest and most dangerous encounters in the game

Awakenings related

Awakenings are abilities unlocked via Tamadras that grant passive benefits. However, they are often abbreviated.

• SB =Skill Boost 
• SBR = Skill Bind Resist 
• TE = Time Extend , sometimes called Fingers
• TPA = Two Prong Attack 
• OE = Orb Enhance for the various colours     
• Rows = Row Enhance     
• Killers = 3x damage for a particular type of boss        
• Rainbow resist is having a monster with 1% of each colour latent resist awakenings     
• SDR = Skill Delay Resist  latent awakening

Dungeon terminology

As a large part of the game actually transpires in the dungeon, many players have found ways to streamline the information.

• Cross refers to a Heart Cross. They are not usually upset
• Jesus Cross occurs when a player fails to make a heart cross by connecting more than 5 heart orbs
• Mechanics is a broad term to illustrate the bosses have abilities that you need to be aware of. The more mechanics they possess, the more difficult it can be to deal with them
• Preempt is a preemptive ability done by a boss. This means their abilities go before the player can make their move
• Orb Troll occurs when your board is missing key orbs for activation
• Orb Fatigue occurs when you use the same style of orb changer over and over again and exhaust those elements so the next one cannot be used effectively
• Absorb is an absorption mechanic by a boss. It could be either absorbing a particular element or attacks that exceed a certain threshold
• Combo Shield is a defensive mechanic by a boss that absorbs all damage dealt if you do not match enough combos
• Damage Void prevents damage being dealt under certain conditions. It will not heal the boss and instead completely prevent damage being dealt
• Shield/damage mitigation is when a player uses a defensive active that reduces incoming damage
• GungTroll when something truly outrageous occurs
• Laser is an active skill that is able to bypass high defense monsters and instantly kill them
• AOE is often used to represent a Mass Attack (connecting 5+ orbs) to strike all opposing enemies
• Defense break refers to reducing a floor’s defense value to make killing easier
• CTW stands for Change the World and refers to an active that allows you to freely move orbs for X amount of seconds
• OHKO or One Hit Knock Out is used to describe a killing blow
• Sweep or sweeping is similar to OHKO and can be used interchangeably
• Sweep is a term to describe you clearing the floor and advancing to the next
• Carry on a sweep is a term to describe a benefit that continues after killing a floor and proceeding into the next that does not have a preemptive ability. Player shields do not lose a turn on their timer, defense breaks persist, and heart cross leader skills are still active when this occurs.
• True damage is damage that is dealt regardless of the boss’s defense or typing. The damage can also be called Fixed damage
• RES stands for Resolve which prevents death when above a certain HP threshold
• Guerrilla  is a way to describe the limited hourly dungeons that rotate on a daily basis. You are assigned into a group based on your player ID
• (Bi)Weekly Dungeons are those that are available for a fixed period of time and feature various skill up monsters
• Rogue Descends are dungeons that have your monsters start at level 1 and level up as you progress
• L+ is Legend Plus
• M+ is Mythic Plus
• RMI is Rare Monster Infestation

Common farming terminology

With the introduction of coop and the desire to save time and stamina, new terminology has emerged to help streamline their farming practices.

Button teams are those that are capable of clearing a dungeons at the push of a button (aka active skill). These abilities either deal true damage or enough to instantly kill the floor. No comboing is required and your actives do not charge up from floor to floor. This will not trigger the turn changing over to your partner. An example is using a team of Awoken Ra  in Tamadra Infestation.

Swipe refers to moving a single orb in one direction. This can be either after using a full mono-colour board changer to quickly trigger the match or to act as a way to pass your turn to your partner. Swipes do not always have to trigger a combo. Eg. Using Zeus Dios’s  active to generate a full board of wood and moving a single orb over one position to instantly activate the 30-wood orb combo.

Poison is an active skill that is used to deal a set amount of damage to a boss regardless of the combos made. This damage can be triggered by a Swipe and is usually used to kill high defense floors.

Miscellaneous terms

Things that may not fit nicely into any particular category

• LF = looking for. Can refer to someone searching for a particular lead, friend, dungeon etc.
• BF = Best Friend. Not to be confused with boyfriend
• STTD = Star Treasure Thieves Den or Star Den and refers to the best dungeon available to acquire plus eggs
• OT = Off Topic and is usually used when posting on various groups to indicate it is not 100% PAD related
• WIP = Work in Progress and is usually used on forums to indicate a particular article is nearly completed and would like feedback
• OP = Overpowered. Simply use it to describe something that is very powerful
• Py refers to Flampy, Bubpy, Woodpy, Shynpy, or Badpy and these monsters provide a guaranteed skill up for their respective colour

Conclusion

There are many abbreviations used in Puzzle and Dragons and the list will only continue to grow. I will have probably missed some and would greatly appreciate it if you could kindly suggest new terms.

Happy Puzzling!