Introduction

This holiday season marks the third return of the Christmas REM and features all the returning favourites along with a few new characters. Several older cards have been buffed to help them keep abreast with Powercreep and this article will discuss how all the featured cards fit in the current meta along with examining their pros and cons.

All players above rank 50 will receive 1 free pull on the Christmas Rare Egg Machine.

Video commentary

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Rolls overview

Christmas Rare Egg Machine Overview
8 star rolls
7 star rolls
6 star rolls
5 star rolls
4 star rolls

8 star rolls

Christmas Kali

God / Dragon
4,025 HP / 1,774 ATK / 355 RCV
876 Total
      

Active Skill:
All       
7 turn Cooldown

Leader Skill:
1.35x HP / ATK / RCV God & Dragons. 6x ATK when matching Fire, Water, Wood, Dark & Heal
1.82x HP / 65.61x ATK / 1.82x RCV

Impressions

Dark Kali  has been one of the most popular monsters in Puzzle and Dragons since the release of Ra Dragon. Being able to produce a combo-able on a 7-turn cooldown is invaluable and ideal teams run two. Thus, Christmas Kali is a viable alternative as she is a colour swap of the original along with having an additional 700 HP. This is a significant amount of health as it will translate into 1,575 more HP on the new Ra Dragon  team.

Despite what sounds like a significant upgrade from the GFE alternative, Christmas Kali has some underlying problems. Most notably, her primary attribute is fire and is more susceptible to half damage compared to dark. Furthermore, by having dark as her sub attribute, you must exercise caution when dealing with dark absorb bosses. Finally, when the changes to Skill Inheritance goes live, Christmas Kali may be at another disadvantage as same attribute inherited cards gain additional stats. Thus, duplicate Dark Kali will close the stat gap. Granted not many people have that many Dark Kali dupes, but she is more common and easy to acquire than an 8-star collab roll.

When used as a sub, Christmas Kali will be a natural fit on Ra Dragon as well as Ronove  if you are missing his ideal team.

Outside of a sub role, Christmas Kali forms a powerful team and would be a boon to newer accounts as they can pair with Ra Dragons while they save up Monster Points for their own.

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Christmas Sonia

Devil / Dragon
3,397 HP / 2,175 ATK / 165 RCV
830 Total
     

Active Skill:
All   
2 turns haste
14 turn Cooldown

Leader Skill:
2x HP, 2.5x ATK Dragons & Devil. 1.5x ATK with 6+ combos
4x HP / 14.06x ATK

Impressions

Christmas Sonia has always felt underwhelming, even when she was first released. Her leader skill is inferior to the GFE equivalents as massive RCV trumps the HP bonus as being able to recover is far more important than being able to survive one or two large hits. You are able to purchase Christmas Sonia for 300,000 Monster Points, but is usually not worth the investment.

Presently speaking, Christmas Sonia can make a reasonable sub on Krishna  teams as her awakenings help provide additional row damage and she can act as an extremely soft bind clearer. However, it is her active that is her shining feature as it provides a full board change that provides fire and wood orbs along with 2 turns of haste. This makes her feel similar to Mori  (with inferior awakenings) and will usually guarantee a full activation for Krishna. Thankfully, you are able to follow up Sonia’s active with Krishna to provide adequate fire orbs if insufficient appear.

In addition to Krishna, Christmas Sonia has a perfect board change for the new Acala  as you should almost always be able to activate 3 colour crosses. Finally, the board change does work for Awoken Ares .

However, many high-end players will be using Christmas Sonia as part of their coop farming builds. Providing two turns of haste along with dual skill boosts can be invaluable and she can be used to produce either a full board of fire or wood orbs with appropriate orb changers or as a means to overcome combo shields.

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Christmas Gremory

Devil / God
4,602 HP / 1,701 ATK / 600 RCV
1,000 Total
     

Active Skill:
3  
3  
2 turns bind clear
6 turn Cooldown

Leader Skill:
God & Devil 2x ATK when skill used. 6x ATK & 35% damage reduction when matching a heart cross
144x ATK / 57.75% damage reduction

Impressions

Christmas Gremory is the new holiday 8-star and is festively dressed for the occasion. She is a recolouring of the 6-star GFE Gremory , but boosts Devils and Gods. The inclusion of Gods allows you to utilize most of the strong fire monsters. You have beautiful synergy with Sanada  + Urd  who will allow you to hit outrageously large numbers and prevents the need to bring a damage enhance. Furthermore, with the inclusion of Urd, it is easier to incorporate a full board changer without relying on Skill Inheritance.

Like her dark cousin, Christmas Gremory provides a bind immune team (who is essentially unafraid of sub binds due to her active), amazing burst damage potential, and tankiness through a heart cross. She will be nearly on par with her GFE equivalent despite being fire and not having 1:1 sub comparisons. For example, Chirstmas Gremory gains access to Dantalion  who provides 5 enhanced orb  awakenings which greatly help diversify your normally row-oriented damage.

Despite all of these benefits, Christmas Gremory still suffers from the same drawbacks of her REM cousin: a lower shield that cannot tank certain executions and the inability to proc your full multiplier without an active skill. Being forced to use an active skill will hurt you in longer dungeons where it becomes challenging to stall and being forced to use an active constantly will lower your chances in future floors.

Outside of a leadership role, Christmas Gremory is a superstar fire sub who is perhaps the strongest bind clearing option available. The other options available have inferior stats, awakenings, and overall active as Gremory is able to generate both fire and heart orbs. Generally speaking, the next best option is Awoken Cao Cao  inheriting Red Guan Yu , but this can also be done with Gremory who boasts significantly higher weighted stats along with an exceptional amount of recovery.

7 star rolls

Christmas Liu Bei

Dragon / Attacker
3,225 HP / 1,905 ATK / 353 RCV
821 Total
        

Active Skill:
   
Recover 30% maximum HP
10 turn Cooldown

Leader Skill:
1.35x HP/ATK/RCV Attackers. 3x ATK with 2 fire combos, 6x with 3+
1.82x HP / 65.61x ATK / 1.82x RCV

Impressions

Christmas Liu Bei has received a dashing new evolution that has addressed some of his weaker points and provided a viable leader skill. Christmas Liu Bei becomes a harder hitting, but more fragile Krishna  that is restricted to Attacker types. This type restriction can be frustrating along with being a rare Collab gold will put a damper on his popularity. Despite that, Christmas Liu Bei now has more options as a sub due to Reincarnated Shiva , Krishna, and to a lesser extent, Awoken Ares .

With three TPA awakenings, Christmas Liu Bei will be able to deliver spectacular burst damage as his base attack is incredibly high. Furthermore, the bind immunity allows for an offensive bind clearing sub. Most bind immune options have defensive oriented awakenings and Christmas Liu Bei helps combat that problem in a similar manner to Awoken Cao Cao  or Rozuel .

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Christmas Sakuya

God / Healer
3,428 HP / 1,470 ATK / 654 RCV
855 Total
       

Active Skill:
20% Gravity
10 turn Cooldown

Leader Skill:
1.5x HP/ATK Healers. 5x ATK when matching Fire, Water, Wood, and Light orbs.
2.25x HP / 56.25x ATK

Impressions

Sakuya used to be a premier leader; however, Powercreep has not been kind and even her Awoken form  has fallen far from the top. Her main problem was an inconsistent leader skill as it was both challenging to always make 8+ combos while retaining your 4 elements and trying to squeeze in TPA matches. Presently, numerous leaders are able to deliver far more damage with less effort while being able to survive mechanics.

All of those drawbacks can be applied to Christmas Sakuya as she has an even lower multiplier, and while the HP bonus is nice, you are now vulnerable to binds and still unable to deal lethal damage in most cases. A pure 20% gravity feels lackluster in today’s meta and Christmas Sakuya needs a serious overhaul to improve her functionality and place in the meta.

To further drive the nail into the coffin, we should be able to roll Colouring Book/Art Sakuya from the PEM in the next few weeks/months when the +9 event comes back around.

6 star rolls

Christmas Haku
 
God / Dragon
3,493 HP / 1,491 ATK / 309 RCV
750 Total
    
       

Active Skill:
All    
8 turn Cooldown

Leader Skill:
3.5x ATK matching any 3 of Fire, Water, Dark, or Heal. 2x ATK when matching 5o1e
49x ATK

Impressions

Christmas Haku has gained a new evolution path that inverts her original Dark/Fire colours and awakenings. This allows you to better cater to your team’s needs as you are able to ensure every primary colour orb falls down enhanced. This adds a significant amount of damage diversification to row-based teams along with providing a popular board changer that is renown for Akechi . However, in her fire form, you are able to combo with Sanada  to produce a 2/3 enhanced fire board and is a wonderful option for those who do not own Urd . Christmas Haku also has synergy with Hino , Ares , Minerva , and Cao Cao .

Christmas Haku’s dark form has wonderful synergy on the future Yomi Dragon team as you normally run her Awoken form , but will usually be more advantageous gain additional orb enhances. Her fire form may not have as ideal of a home due to Krishna  already providing 10 orb enhances between the two leaders. Furthermore, a lack of TPA puts a small damper on an Awoken Shiva , but at least her orb enhances have more value by comparison.

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Christmas Genie

Balance / God
3,493 HP / 1,491 ATK / 309 RCV
750 Total
      

Active Skill:
Void dark damage for 3 turns
Enhance all light orbs
10 turn Cooldown

Leader Skill:
1.5x HP/ATK for God & Balance types. 3x ATK with 5 combos, maximum 5x for 9 combos
2.25x HP / 56.26x ATK

Impressions

Christmas Genie is an often forgotten monster from the Christmas Collab as she has historically had little value. However, with the popularity of coop farming with Awoken Liu Bei , many players have been keen to inherit Genie’s active skill to void all dark damage for three turns. Unfortunately, this can easily be accomplished with the silver REM equivalent and leaves little niches for the Christmas Genie to fulfill she will rarely be used as a sub unless you are desperately needing a damage enhance or dark void.

Amusingly, her leader skill looks strong until you realize you require 9 combos to unlock her max multiplier. If she was a row, 5o1e, or light combo based leader, maybe she could have been viable.

5 star rolls

Christmas Hatsume

Healer / Devil
2,389 HP / 1,205 ATK / 808 RCV
749 Total
  

Active Skill:
 
5 turn Cooldown

Leader Skill:
1.5x HP / RCV & 2x ATK for Healers
2.25x HP / 4x ATK / 2.25x RCV

Impressions

Christmas Hatsume has an astounding 808 base recovery and can dramatically bolster the healing potential of any fire team that can use her. Unfortunately, that is her strongest aspect outside of the Dragon Killer  awakening as the rest of her is underwhelming. The Dragon Killer can make her a core sub on niche farming teams for specific dungeons, but has lower value for everyday content.

What has helped define previous Collab Ninjas was a unique orb changer that could open up new board changer synergy, but wood to fire is relatively common with Yamato , Onion Knight , Belial , and Dino Rider  to name a few.

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Christmas Freyja

God / Balance
3,035 HP / 1,365 ATK / 560 RCV
763 Total
   

Active Skill:
1.5x ATK for Wood for 3 turns
1 turn haste
9 turn Cooldown

Leader Skill:
1.35x HP / 3x ATK Wood types
1.82x HP / 9x ATK

Impressions

Christmas Freyja is a respectable card from the Christmas REM as she provides reasonable awakenings along with the desired Devil Killer  awakening. Her active skill may feel underwhelming compared to the other enhance options available as you would rarely require 3 turns of 50% damage enhancement, but it can have applications when she is used as a leader.

As a leader, you do not pair Awoken Freyja with herself, but instead with Awoken Liu Bei  to form a 24x ATK team that has some defensive components. 24x ATK may sound lackluster, but when you factor in the countless row awakenings and sheer damage from a full Dios board, you can still kill plenty of content. Furthermore, the seemingly underwhelming active at least propels your damage to 36x for three turns.

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Christmas Castor & Pollux

Machine / God
3,023 HP / 1,785 ATK / 263 RCV
746 Total
     

Active Skill:
L Column  
R Column  
1 turn haste
8 turn Cooldown

Leader Skill:
1.3x ATK / RCV God & Machine types. 5x ATK when matching 5o1e
42.25x ATK / 1.69x RCV

Impressions

Christmas Castor & Pollux combine two normally separate monsters. As such, GungHo has tried to combine their characteristic points by providing enhancement for light and dark along with the trademark dual Skill Bind Resist. However, their active feels strange as you are able to spawn a column of light and dark orbs. Presently speaking, no high end light or dark team is capable of taking full advantage of this without an additional orb changer. Granted some 5o1e teams may enjoy having an easier time matching with Yomi Dragon coming to mind.

Yomi Dragon (and most 5o1e leaders) are able to proc respectable damage from sub colours and Yomi Dragon’s light element may provide some value here. However, Castor & Pollux is off-colour and would require them being inherited which can produce problems down the road when trying to min-max your stats as they will not provide any additional bonuses.

As a leader, Castor & Pollux is quite powerful for early/mid game provided you do not need to make any HP requirements. You can easily pair with a Yomi Dragon friend and quickly mow through early content.

4 star rolls

None of the following 4-star monsters possess an evolution and are not able to be used as assistants via Skill Inheritance.

Christmas Paulina

Physical / Devil
3,638 HP / 1,217 ATK / 0 RCV
607 Total
   

Active Skill:
2  
Enhance all water orbs
4 turn Cooldown

Leader Skill:
2.5x ATK for Water & 1.4x ATK for Fire. 3.5x ATK when matching both elements.
12.25x ATK

Impressions

Christmas Paulina possesses a wonderful array of enhanced orb awakenings that provide significant passive damage to any team. Furthermore, with a short 4-turn base cooldown, you are able to easily inherit a more impactful active over top or simply use her as a damage enhancer. As far as silver rolls go, Paulina is quite powerful and provides value on teams that struggle with orb enhance awakenings, just keep in mind her 0 base RCV.

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Christmas Healer Girls
    
Healer
 & 1 of     

Active Skill:
3 turn boss delay
10 turn Cooldown

Impressions

The Christmas Healer Girls are still reasonable silver egg rolls as they provide a wonderful 3 turns of delay on a reasonably short cooldown. This can be invaluable for a wide variety of teams as you can easily bypass various resolve floors. Their main drawback is low base stats and the inability to inherit their active skill as they are unable to achieve a 5-star form.

Conclusion

The Christmas REM provides some new cards along with returning favourites. There is plenty of value in rolling Kali or Gremory, but the rest of the gold eggs are not as game breaking nor are the silver eggs as powerful as previous Collabs. Newer players may find some power in many of the lower tier rolls as they provide modest leader skills for little effort.

What do you think about the Christmas REM and how much do you plan on rolling?

Happy Puzzling!