Introduction
In the latest wave of PAD news coming out of JP, Dark Athena 
will be available from the MP shop for 750,000 Monster Points. This raises numerous questions ranging from “why such a high cost?” to “is she really that strong?” along with “will North America actually get her?” In this article, I will do my best to examine how Dark Athena could change the landscape of Puzzle and Dragons along with possible justifications for her extreme cost compared to previous MP cards.
Video commentary
—video goes here—
Dark Athena at a glance
Dark Athena
God / Devil / Attacker
3,618 HP / 2,501 ATK / 0 RCV
862 Total
Active Skill:
Enhance all water & dark orbs
3 turn delay
11 turn Cooldown
Leader Skill:
1.5x HP & 3.5x ATK for God, Devil, and Attacker cards. 2x ATK & 2x RCV when matching Dark and Water orbs
2.25x HP / 49x ATK / 4x RCV
| Pros | Cons |
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Impressions
Dark Athena may look lackluster from a purely multiplier perspective; however, she is actually one of the strongest cards/leaders in the game. There are many factors that go into consideration when trying to determine what makes a strong leader, and Dark Athena covers almost all of them.
Dark Athena has one of the most unconditional leader skills which dramatically raises her consistency and speed when playing through both challenging and easy content. Simply having to match a single water and dark combo for 49x is trivial compared to the shenanigans other leads require. This ease of activation enables you to flood the board with dark orbs in order to better take advantage of Dark Athena’s three TPA awakenings.
In addition to the ease of access to damage, Dark Athena is also able to form a durable team through her 2.25x HP and 4x RCV when matching dark and water orbs. The constant health multiplier is important and will allow you to easily tank any preemptive and many execution hits in the game. While 4x RCV is amazing and will allow you to essentially heal to full HP, it does come with the restriction of matching a dark and water combo. This can be problematic as you will be triggering your 49x ATK multiplier. This means it may be challenging to actually stall on a floor as 49x is a respectable amount of damage and matching non-TPA can only do so much. Thankfully, with such a large HP pool, you should be able to withstand several consecutive hits without healing. Finally, you should also keep in mind Dark Athena is bind immune so you will always have access to these defensive multipliers.
In addition to all of these benefits, Dark Athena has amazing team building flexibility as she can use almost all of the top-tier dark subs provided they do not remove water orbs. Putting all of this together makes a stellar lead; however, I want to stress how fast Dark Athena can clear content. Being consistent is great, but being consistent and fast is amazing as you tend to repeatedly play the same dungeon over and over again.
Dark Athena can be favourably compared to Aizen 
in that they are powerful tank-oriented teams with Dark Athena trading maximum damage potential for the badly needed health multiplier.
One last point to consider is that Dark Athena comes ready to use. She has no evolution requirement along with a gentler experience curve when compared to the other MP cards.
Sample gameplay
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Dark Athena compared to other MP cards
It is well established the Ra Dragon 
reigns supreme as a top tier leader with Yomi 
and Ragnarok 
Dragon compromising powerful subs and future leader for Yomi in the future. These three cards all provide a unique benefit to your monster box and are somewhat irreplaceable for the roles they fulfill.
Conversely, the other MP cards (excluding seasonals) are largely luxuries or used to help your particular mono-colour subs have a home. Even with the anticipated release of the new evolutions for Shiva 
and Neptune 
, it does not necessarily solidify their place in the meta. Shiva Dragon has largely been replaced by coop button farming and Neptune becomes a more durable Krishna with a lower combo count. Granted Neptune Dragon can become a powerful coop farming lead, but if you own any Awoken Liu Bei pairings it is unnecessary.
Thus, we are left with the Four Gentlemen who are alright, but not really worth it for the time being. Xiang Mei 
became outdated quite quickly due to heart cross meta. Plum 
is mostly regulated to a luxury Gremory 
sub and You Yu 
is just another glass cannon. Finally, Xiu Min 
gained some relevancy with Tifa 
, but if you can form this team, you can most likely field a Myr 
team.
All of the above points may sound overtly critical, but I strongly believe that Monster Point cards should offer something above and beyond the norm. In an ideal world, you want to the purchase to dramatically push your progression potential by leaps and bounds.
750k Monster Points
Keeping all of the above points in mind, is Dark Athena really worth 750,000 Monster Points? She costs 2.5x more than a regular MP card and would need to provide an immense amount of value to justify this somewhat outrageous cost.
If we look at the top 3 MP cards, Ra, Yomi, and Ragnarok Dragon, they all provide tremendous value if you can actually utilize them. Ra Dragon requires a very specific team to succeed and is impractical for the average player to assemble. Yomi Dragon’s new evolution helps solidify their position as a stellar dark sub and a fast and easy to use 81x ATK / 4x RCV lead. However, she still suffers from a lack of HP and may rely largely on coop to be successful. Finally, Ragnarok Dragon has merits on many teams while retaining the potential to grow with a future evolution.
Taking all of that into consideration, not everyone can find value through those three cards as their monster box may be lacking in certain aspects. Thus, Dark Athena may be more appealing as she can be immediately used by any ranking player regardless of their content progression. In addition, she has a largely open sub pool as she can utilize nearly every strong card in the game.
In addition, Dark Athena is able to lead a powerful solo team that can clear Arena 3 with relatively high consistency. Thus, you will be immediately gaining an end game leader right from the get-go.
One last point to consider is that trying to build the ideal Ra Dragon team (with inherits etc.) will probably end up costing more magic stones compared to the difference in 450k MP. Very few players are able to form the perfect team and most never will. However, you can still enjoy the benefits of attempting end game content with Dark Athena as you can use nearly any dark card in the game.
Who can actually acquire 750k MP?
As much as everyone wants to have access to all the content in PAD, there will simply be aspects that will be out of reach for the average player. Many people complained that the One-Shot Challenges that featured a Radar Dragon at the end were outrageous and unfair, but in all honesty, it was meant to be end game content and not everyone can be end game. Constantly releasing easier/early game content will inevitably kill the game as many players will begin to stop playing after a certain point.
Older players
As such, Dark Athena will be meant for longer standing players who have been committed to Puzzle and Dragons for a prolonged period of time. Using two accounts as an example, I can clear any dungeon in the game along with being able to efficiently farm Monster Points. I purchased Yomi Dragon when she was first released (over a year ago) with just over 300,000 Monster Points. Since then, I have not made any additional purchases along with never spamming Rogue Descends for PreDRAs 
but have still managed to acquire over 700,000 in a years’ time.
There will also be many players in a similar boat as me, long term player with nothing of true value to purchase from the MP shop and have simply been stockpiling.
Dedicated farmers
We gain 480 natural stamina every day along with the potential to rank up through playing, a dedicated player can farm up Monster Points in a relatively short period of time.
To make math simple, each Rogue Descend will drop 500 MP along with collateral Plus Eggs, Super Kings, or Evolution Materials. In addition, each one will give around 50-60k rank experience and will allow you to chain unlimited rank ups in coop up to around rank 550 without stopping. Higher ranks will have to slow down this progression and wait for stamina to refill, but you still will be able to achieve 1 rank up per day.
Now, I understand that not everyone wants to purely grind MP all day, but let us limit it to 10 clears per day as you probably wish to play other content (I am assuming you ranked up). This would yield 5,000 MP on a daily basis and would take 150 days or around 5 months to achieve.
You will naturally have access to various MP reward content (challenge dungeons, ranking tournaments, etc.) along with vendoring poor Godfest rolls to hasten the progress.
North America is usually on a 2-3 month delay in terms of content being released so you have plenty of time to prepare.
Players who have too much MP
Being able to IAP (purchase stones with real life money) to various degrees has allowed some players to acquire massive amounts of MP due to plentiful Godfest rolling. This has probably resulted in them nearing MP cap along with having nothing to actually purchase. This may feel like a Pay-to-Win idea, but Dark Athena was originally available in JP for around $30-40 retail.
Awoken Persephone
Not everyone will be able to jump on the Dark Athena hype on release; however, you can still enjoy a modest success by leading with Awoken Persephone 
and pairing with a Dark Athena friend. Awoken Persephone has the same activation requirements, but will always provide an RCV component. You do run the risk of bindability (fixed via solo badge), lower damage, and less HP, but this is a great budget option nevertheless.
Conclusion: To buy or not to buy?
The answer to this question comes down to your own personal PAD goals and resources available. Dark Athena will not necessarily clear more content than Myr , but instead do so in a faster manner. Dark Athena is one of the fastest farming leaders in the game due to ease of activation along with being able to clear any dungeon currently available.
Dark Athena offers a different playstyle that helps add another level of dimension to Puzzle and Dragons along with utilizing different cards compared to other end game leaders. She grants more players the opportunity to tackle end game content while being accessible once you acquire 750k Monster Points.
I am confident North America will have access to Dark Athena in the future as she is not a Collab card and should not encounter any licensing issues.
For myself, I plan to purchase her on both Mantastic and Fantastic in order to open new doors for quickly clearing end game content.
Happy Puzzling!
Mantastic Puzzle and Dragons 
You have some additional musing after your “Happy Puzzling!” tag, not sure if it’s intentional.
I’m sitting on enough MP right now to purchase Dark Athena, and have the 3 MP monsters you mentioned, so I’m in. Fast/consistent solo Arena 3 capable, in dark/blue? Hell yeah!
One thing I’ve been pondering, and neither you nor setsu mentioned it in your analyses, is that it seems like Awoken Persephone would be a more accessible leader pairing for players who can’t afford Dark Athena. The only thing you have to deal with is binds, which isn’t a huge deal, and you’d actually gain some passive RCV boost. Your HP wouldn’t be quite as high, but 50k instead of 70k is pretty workable for a lot of content.
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Wasn’t intentional. I sometimes write sentences that I think are good, but don’t have a place yet and simply move them to the bottom. Guess I forgot to delete them….
I added in an Awoken Persephone section as she is a viable budget pairing. She is of course not as strong, but at least you can use the bind immune badge in solo mode. I have done a bit of A Persephone in the past and she is quite strong so I can only imagine how powerful Dark Athena will be
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“through her 2.25x HP and 4x RCV when matching dark and wood orbs.” I think you meant water instead of wood.
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Thanks and fixed!
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You should add a section on why you believe DAthena has a chance to show up in NA pad as many are assuming there is no chance of it showing up
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We did receive the other PAD cross evos so I do not foresee why they would not release her. It would be great for business on their end as NA receives less MP so many people will be sacrificing REM cards etc.
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as far as i heard Dark Athena is available in japan through the Pad Radar app and a promotion thing where u need to collect 5 armor parts to get her the armor parts i think u only get when u bought pad magazine with a pad amibo lookalike even Dark sonia as well as dark athena *shrugs* i even heard it got sold out really fast why the price tag is so high i thing it was sort of a when everyone want her than we should make her free for all 750mp stamp on her
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i dont understand japanese but thats the radar info for Dark athena http://padr.gungho.jp/medal/161201_add_medal.html
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Well she has been released in JP for 750k MP. You also have to remember that those who purchased her got to benefit her for a longer period of time. In addition, the average casual player will not be able to scrape up 750k so there may be a certain degree of IAP for REM fodder to sell. Perhaps it is also a way to open the door for NA/EU players to acquire her.
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i dun mind to pay the price for her with content we have now we can more or less easily farm the 750kMP well 750k is a bit pricey but when u would consider that she is sort of a promotion thing for pad cross & Pad radar i dont mind the price but right now i dont have a use for her
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The 750k MP cost in JP is lower compared to NA as they do receive more free MP by comparison. However, that is still no excuse for not farming on your own. If you are dedicated and patient you will get there. She is worthwhile imo
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i know i know but i have currently still some other cards who needs my love right now so Dark athena can wait and first is i want yomi dragon for Gremory xD
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careful with that! I’m pretty sure gremory’s leader skill won’t work for yomi dragon due to typing restrictions.
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Gremory is expanding her typing to allow Gods due to her buff in JP which should go live in NA soon
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gremory got a buff in jp. now she is god,devil and balance so her LS and the type restriction so Yomi dra works a sub now
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http://puzzledragonx.com/en/news.asp?nid=612 here is the link to the buff
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Wait, is Dark Athena still in the store in JP? If it comes into the US store sometime soon, then supposedly $30-40 is worth it. Since $23 gives 30 magic stones, then $40 should give approximately 50 stones, or 10 rolls. The maximum amount of MP you can possibly get for 10 rolls is 500k, not to mention being impossibly lucky. So is it better to buy her in the store?
Also, Dark Athena fits in as a sub for Yomi Dragon, but Yomi Dragon also works as a sub for Dark Athena. Which combination do you think is better?
I currently have 250k MP and am debating whether to get Yomi Dragon first, or just wait out Dark Athena, they are both good for my box.
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My personal opinion is that D. Athena is much stronger than yomi dragon as 5o1e struggles with tpas due to needing 9 orbs compared to 4 for full activation. Not to mention that D. Athena has 2.25x hp. This means she can easily tank things like dq hera hits which mitigates the need for a shield. Yomi dragon could do this but its much more difficult.
Overall Athena should have more damage, more health, and pretty equivalent rcv. Honestly I might (might) consider her to be even stronger than the heart cross meta, which is pretty sad considering I just got myr.
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I am not certain if Dark Athena is still available via direct irl money purchasing and you are correct in that direct purchasing would be cheaper than REM rolling. However, you are able to farm her without spending so that is probably the main appeal (or farm some, REM vendor the rest etc.)
As for your question Wentinn, Dark Athena is largely superior in every aspect when it comes to leadership potential. She is far safer to run and can spike for much higher value. As a sub, it depends on your situation as Yomi Dragon is a better bind clearer/utility option
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750K MP doesn’t seem as high as it used to. It took me a year to get 300K MP, but now that I can consistently clear Mythical Plus dungeons to get preDRAs i am back up to 45K in about 1 month. That is without coop, without selling REM Monsters, and without dedicating all my stamina to farming Rogue Descends, so there is room for improvement if I was more dedicated to getting MP.
If NA gets Dark Athena hopefully it will open the door to NA getting access to more PAD Radar content through the MP shop.
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I completely agree that acquiring MP is far easier now as we do not have to only sell REM cards. Players of varying degrees of dedication will acquire the MP over time and PAD is very much a patience game.
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I REALLY need to finish up my Dios army ASAP so I can get farming as I think I’d like to invest in her. I have a pretty strong dark box now with a lot of hypermaxes and she would fit in perfectly. However I have 423,000 MP right now so I still have a long way to go…
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Well it’s time to start now! Dios/ALB is naturally one of the fastest teams, but there are other options. Even using something like Machine Hera and low combo count works.
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In JP PAD, everyone has been given about 440k free MP (ik, wtf right), so the road to 750k is really just about 310k which if you think about it, is just like a normal 300k MP monster.
Of course when Dark Athena is released in NA, we may not be getting the free 400k+ MP so that’s a whole nother story…at least I’ll finally be collecting MP towards a certain monster since all the other ones were either not worth it or their evolution process and subs weren’t viable for me. ;_; 750k though……
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That is a very good point about the larger MP giveaways in JP.
To be fair, a large portion came from their 5 year anniversary (we are behind by about a year?) so we should receive Dark Athena before then.
As I mentioned in my article, treat it as a long term project. Play enough Rogues every day to make progress, but not feel burn out. You should rank up rapidly have many collateral benefits
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Awoken Liu Bei teams have made it far easier to farm points. I bought You Yu on both accounts when he first came out and from that point on started hoarding MP points. With ALB coop, I’m now at 730K on my main account and 620K on my secondary. I was tempted to buy Yomidra and Nepdra for each–mainly because I don’t have great Radra subs–but now I think I’ll set my sights on Dark Athena. My dupe Hakus, Pandas and Hamal will be pleased 🙂
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I am also in a similar boat in terms of MP to spend, but nothing nice to spend it on. I was almost tempted to buy Neptune to have a different water lead as I have all the evo mats ready; however, I will rejoice for Dark Athena =D
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Aizen + Dark Athena as split lead. Bumps up the Aizen hp, bumps up the Athena damage, you were running dark/water cards and abilities anyway, and can still fit cross(es) + TPA together in a board. I ship it. To a vegas reshipper who ships it again, just to ship it twice. Just need to settle on the powercouple name. Aizena? Athzen? ADA? Dark Aizen?
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That is an interesting idea for sure and I would be interested to see how that would play out along with the final name =P
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What is the ideal Dathena team? I assume Ahaku Aperse would be natural what else?
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I guess Ryune will also be a prime sub
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And blonia
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Maybe D.Kanna (preferably with gemstone on top) if you need extra damage for something like kali + are good triple dongs,
Oku could work although idk if you want D/G or D/B, probably D/G for double SBR
Beach Panda looks nice if you are lucky enough to get her
The team I would run (if I had everything) is
I would run:
D.Athena/A. Haku(Ryune)/A. Persephone(friend just mentioned eschamali as inherit, looks good)/Beach Pandora(Ryune or Noctis if you are like me and can’t make a combo higher than 7 to save your life)/A.Oku(Carat)/D. Athena
Maybe inherit a shield on D. Athena if you need it.
Looks good to me, but I hope Lord Mantasic replies to this since my team building is pretty bad.
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Update, just remembered the new dark guy from the new Three Kingdoms series, definitely stronger than Pandora.
RIP Beach Pandora, die knowing I always loved you…….
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If playing solo mode, awoken Oku is the stronger form, but Durga is the best option of them due to the double TPA and SBR along with a non-repetitive active as you already have 2 delays. Still should inherit a different burst, but at least the base form works better as a standalone
Eschamali can be a strong sub if you lack enough TPA cards (eg. a single TPA card is not that great) but also works as a wonderful way to upgrade Persephone’s active.
Shields should be for the most part not needed outside of A3 content as your HP pool should be quite large as is
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Ryune and Blonia would play more of an inheritance role by comparison. Solo mode needs a double SBR sub (such as Durga).
Ideally you should prioritize cards with 2 TPA awakenings
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So do you anticipate this being a one time thing? or would she be added to the rotation of MP monsters?
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She has no end date in the JP MP shop, so seems like a permanent addition.
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Hopefully she stays that way as it does make financial sense tbh
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Is shooting for DAthena as my first MP buy too lofty a goal? I’m around 250k MP, my LB/Dios team isn’t finished, I can’t clear descends regularly (actually haven’t even tried arena1) and looking at the preview video I’d say I’m inept at puzzling. 😳
Any other suggestions to farm MP consistently?
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No goal is too ambitious if you are dedicated!
If you are worried about your puzzling skills, Dios will be your savior. With King tans you can quickly skill up your army and being buttoning rogue descends for MP farming =)
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currently in jp many people have d athena because of the free mp. I have also been able to acquire her at rank 180 and i’m loving her.
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I am not surprised many people are using her in JP, she is pretty amazing
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Quick question for you:
How valuable would you say Ult. Evo Dark/Water Castor is as a sub for Dark Athena, vs someone like Awoken Okuninushi? Their double sbr is what I’d need but I feel like Castor’s active could be more useful?
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Castor has a more useful active for sure, but be aware that the God killer is counterproductive in end game content. Also, no tpa isnt ideal but it’s workable for sure
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i have 520 k mp right now due to hoarding adn will have 710k afteer they finish giving the rest out. Im too weak to play m+ descends (no predra killer cuz unlucky and the red tamozou odin tama hasnt come around again i think) and i can very inconsistnaly beat arena 1. Should i just wait adn do 13 predra dungeons (challenges, guardian dragons, etc) or just buy something cheaper (btw i have almost all ideal dathena team monsters, but only 60% sbr)
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is satsuki still an ok sub? i feel that even though her active skill is useless on the team, triple TPAS and skill inheritance could solve that?
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Would be mostly a lower priority/last option for Dark Athena as you cannot use the base active skill. Most cards at least have a workable base active skill and may be better options for the most part
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would awoken or 5 turn delay orochi be better for an inherit? it seems that the extra turns for just 1 turn more of delay isn’t worth it but the amount of turns for 5 turns is alot longer, thoughts?
thanks
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Most scenarios don’t need the +1 turn delay and the additional waiting can sometimes be problematic. I would usually use A Orochi (as it can sub for TPA n HP) and if I wanted more delay, Zeta Hydra
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HOw does Dathena(a. orochi), Dkanna, d/l satsuki (the one thats not in n/a yet) (lumiel) revo anubis , Z8 (christmas haku) Dathena (carat)?
100% sbr, 1 devil killer, everyone has TPA exept for anubis who clears binds and combos with lumiel?
team building help appreciated thx
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You are severely lacking natural orb changers on that team and it will be challenging to function in harder content.
While Lumiel/Anubis is a viable combo, you still are going to have issues outside of the other orb changer SI on z8
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or the friend dathena has facet
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Is it possible for Dark athena to get a evo that makes her leader skill even better and would it use materiels that are hard to get
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If she does get an evo, it will be in the very distant future and probably a similar difficulty to the current MP dragons
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Got my hands on a second A. Haku, so how does the following sound… D. Athena (B. Pandora); A. Haku (Ryune); A. Haku (Snow Haku); Grida (Eschamali); A. Loki (D. Kana)? I also have Lumiel and Blonia as potential assists, but I think I’m good on orb changers. I’ll be keeping my eye out for a viable gem girl. If I get one , I figure she can replace B. Pandora or Eschamali. Thoughts?
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Do you have a better burst for loki? Kanna is a downgrade from his base skill.
Lumiel is only for arena 2+ and predras and otherwise not needed.
You may have more dmg overall with an escha sub over grida as only sacrificing 1 tpa card for massive oe
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OK, I can use Eschamali instead. Wait, can I use Grida as an assist? Waiting on one more Grizar before I use my kingtan to Max her awakenings. Hate to not end up using her after all that work to get her to drop. Lol. As far as a bigger burst to assist A. Loki… Not yet. Still looking for Facet to drop for me.
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Ugh, I meant boost her skill. Still need a couple team’s to Max her awakenings.
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Unfortunately, you cannot inherit Grida and don’t be alarmed if you cannot use her, she may still have value later on =)
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When do you suppose is the best bet for D. Athena to come to NA if she was scheduled for an NA release?
Is she tied to the Radar game, and if so does that mean we could actually expect the Radar monsters to come over to NA eventually?
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It is impossible to say. It could be next week or many months, the release schedule follows no pattern
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She is HERE!
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Well thats annoying. PADX listed it as a currently updated NA card…but i dont see it available.
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Ok, is this for real?
http://puzzledragonx.com/en/mission.asp?m=2676
A gift dungeon for Athena?
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ok, i got sucked into April fools. Sorry for the constant spamming!
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The updated cards section indicates that the data files for the game have been updated, not that the card is available. RaDra was updated in data months before it was released. That said, the speculation is that DAthena will be added with the May 1st MP shop rotation. It could happen!
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