11 Million Downloads Celebration Godfest Review and Analysis

January 13, 2017 Mantastic 59 Comments

Godfest basics

When making the decision to roll or save your magic stones, you need to determine if the featured pantheons can benefit or compliment your teams. Chasing for one specific monster is unwise as you will most likely be disappointed and should ideally have Godfests that overlap with many target cards. Remember all monsters that come out of the REM will qualify for Skill Inheritance so do not be too hasty when selling dupes. For a more detailed team building help, please refer to my full list Popular Leader’s and their Full Sub List Post. Lastly, to find more information about a specific pantheon or monster, refer to my Master List to better refine your search. If you are considering to purchase a Four Gentlemen card, please read my Review and Comparison HERE.

Introduction

To mark the 11 million downloads in North America, GungHo is throwing a modestly more special Godfest to mark this occasion. We have been experiencing 4x GFE for quite some time now and with only a smattering of 5x to try and entice us. However, these increased rates do not appear to be any more special than Godfests of old due to the significantly larger REM pool. It is my understanding (I could be wrong) that with each new pantheon (or GFE) added, the rates to roll a particular card go down. Thus, the increased rates are merely there to keep abreast with this “inflation.”

Regardless, this Godfest features a reasonable line up along with +33 to each roll (+11 to each stat).

Gala of Flame
—- — — — Day 1	Heroes	Egyptian 2

	GFE

— — — — Day 2	Norse	Sengoku

	GFE

Video commentary

—video goes here—-

Day 1

Day 1 features both the powerful Heroes pantheon and poorly aging Egyptian 2. Continue reading 11 Million Downloads Celebration Godfest Review and Analysis →

Challenge Dungeons

[Videos] One-Shot Challenge 6 Clears

January 13, 2017 Mantastic Leave a comment

Introduction

My Zeus and Noah Dragon clears from my Mantastic and Fantastic account. Both runs killed the Radar Dragons very quickly and should provide some inspiration on how to deal with them. I have been having a challenging week, but content should begin to flow out once again.

Lakshmi vs Zeus Dragon

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Myr vs Noah Dragon

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Conclusion

Hopefully these two clears showcase how to efficiently deal with this set of One-Shot Challenges. Many teams are capable of clearing them and I would like to know who you used.

Happy Puzzling!

Ranking Dungeons

Yamatsumi Tournament Guide and Strategies

January 8, 2017 Mantastic 39 Comments

Introduction

The Yamatsumi Tournament comes to North America 8-9 months after Japan and has the all attributes restriction. All attributes forces to bring at least one (sub)element of fire, water, wood, light, and dark. This could cause you to use less than ideal teams as you may be required to bring subs that are simply there for colour coverage. Thus, you may have to heavily rely on Skill Inheritance for success.

The 8-9 months of delay will most likely result in different teams being used as JP players did not have access to the same cards as we do.

In these ranking dungeons, we are scored based on 3 criteria:

Average combos made: 5,000 points per combo
Time Remaining: 500 points per second remaining
Maximum damage: up to 10,000 points if you hit 40 million.

Be aware that you will incur -5,000 for using an active to kill a floor without matching combos.

Clear videos

131,550 score

Mantastic commentary

—talking about the dungeon itself—-

JP top 10

The JP top 10 all consisted of that style of Anubis teams that brought Lucifer for true damage along with 5 Sonia inherits to produce bi-colour boards. Unfortunately, most players do not possess 5 Sonias to inherit or the skill to match at that level. In addition, North America has access to significantly more cards than JP did so the teams we use to may greatly differ.

Dungeon Overview

The goal of any ranking tournament is to clear the dungeon as fast as possible and only take one turn on every single floor. Thus, speed is crucial to your success and the less actives you use, the better your score will be as they add additional time to the end result. However, you should always use an active if it can save you from wasting a turn. Continue reading Yamatsumi Tournament Guide and Strategies →

Challenge Dungeons

One-Shot Challenge 6 Guide – How to deal with Zeus, Noah, and Gaia Dragon

January 8, 2017 Mantastic 23 Comments

Important change

You will not face the same Radar Dragon as you did the first two times as these challenges rotate so everyone will eventually face all three.

Introduction

This set of One Shot Challenges will allow players to acquire a Radar Dragon outside of Arena 3. This is Fantastic for the general population as these dragons are required for the new evolutions for the original Monster Point cards as Arena 3 is out of reach for most teams. The problem with Arena 3 is that you have to encounter the correct dragon AND have it drop which can prove a frustrating experience. Conversely, this set of Challenges provides a fixed spawn and a guaranteed drop. However, you do not get to choose your encounter and are instead assigned one based on your starter dragon choice. This can be easily found as the coloured orb beside your in-game name. Finally, this challenge must be completed in solo mode, but you are able to stone to continue (unlike Arena 3).

Just be aware that this is meant to be an end game challenge and many players will be unable to successfully clear it. I would place the difficulty of the One-Shot Challenge to be similar to Arena 2. This is because you know the spawns and can carefully plan around each encounter unlike the randomness of Arena 2; however, the Radar Dragons are significantly harder than any other spawn.

With that being said, a wide variety of teams are capable of clearing this dungeon, but it is vital to be fully plussed, latented, and inherited where required.

If you wish to see my clears on Fantastic and Mantastic for Gaia and Zeus Dragon, check out my next post HERE to see the full team set up/latents/inherits.

For this set, I will be using Lakshmi on Mantastic and still deciding for Fantastic. Regardless, I will upload the videos when completed.

Video commentary

–video goes here—

Which Radar Dragon do I fight?

Players are assigned a specific Radar Dragon to fight on floor 20 based on their starter dragon choice. This choice is indicated by the coloured icon beside your in-game name.

Fire fights Zeus Dragon
Water fights Noah Dragon
Wood fights Gaia Dragon

For example, Mantastic started with fire and will fight Zeus (Fantastic has Noah):

Hurdles of solo mode and no duplicates

This Challenge must be completed in solo mode along with imposing Continue reading One-Shot Challenge 6 Guide – How to deal with Zeus, Noah, and Gaia Dragon →

Random Thoughts, Videos

Rank 700 Box Tour and Future PAD Goals

January 6, 2017 Mantastic 18 Comments

Introduction

I hit rank 600 around July 22nd and it only took me around five and half months to acquire about 121 million more rank experience to unlock my thirteenth team slot. Rank 700 is around 286.5 million lifetime experience and even with the enhanced mediums to rank up, it still take a very long time. In fact, it took me just under 1,200 days to achieve.

I have never been a player who solely pursed rank as it does not achieve much outside of some personal satisfaction. In fact, the bulk of my rank experience has come from Arena 3 as I was around rank 612 when I achieved my first clear. This has led to an excessive amount of Pys (and a lower dependency on playing Tan Infestation); however, it has left my Maniac Quest log relatively incomplete as I lack the required pluses or Tamadras for additional badges.

This post will take your through a tour of my beloved Monster Box, highlights of notable moments, and my thoughts and goals moving forward.

Rank 700 Box tour

—box tour goes here—

How much playing is rank 700?

Rank experience has less prestige than it used to due to Ganesha, Monday Dungeon, and now the experience boost to Arena. However, it is still a massive amount of play time and here are a few ways to visualize my lifetime experience. Rank 700 is about 286.5 million experience which is equivalent to either:

4,659 Monday Dungeons
2,070 Dual Ganesha Monday Dungeons
2,367 Special Descend Rushes
1,701 Super Ultimate Dragon Rushes
191,000 Tower of Giants – Dragons of the Tower

Notable moments

My Puzzle and Dragons life from rank 600-700 has been exciting as it gave me my first taste of Arena 3 along with a few new cards in my Monster Box. Granted my REM luck is usually on the lower end of the normal distribution curve, I still have some functioning teams for our current content.

Arena 3

My first Arena 3 clear was done with a less than ideal Myr team as I was running two heart breakers along with being unsure as to the ideal set up along with how to actually solve heart cross boards. Despite all that, the sheer potency of her leader skill and gentle team building requirements have enabled me to repeatedly farm Arena 3. Continue reading Rank 700 Box Tour and Future PAD Goals →

Coop/Multiplayer

Awoken Liu Bei Button Farming Skill Delay Resist Tamadras

January 4, 2017 Mantastic 27 Comments

Introduction

I have finally been converted over to the dark side: I own Awoken Liu Bei on both accounts. Puzzle and Buttons is a strange concept for me as I have only seldom used my old Australis paired with Liu Bei team despite having 3 max skilled Dios . However, now that I have the strongest leader in coop, I took the time to browse the ALB Discord Server for team building inspiration.

The ALB Discord server has sample team builds for every dungeon imaginable along with strategy and step-by-step instructions. It is also a way to connect with other Awoken Liu Bei users and I highly encourage you to take a look.

The Liu Bei team I use to farm Special Descend Rush is significantly faster and less mentally taxing than my previous Sarasvati team (full breakdown can be found HERE). Outside of speed, Liu Bei teams rarely induce mental fatigue as they are so straight forward and is a significant boon when playing a dungeon over and over again.

My team is quite similar to the Discord team, but these should be used as a template as you may be missing a few of the key cards to success. Lacking the template team is sometimes a nice thing as it requires you to theory craft your own team and it did take me around an hour to commit to this team. Being able to solve these types of puzzles and using the cards you have been dealt is one of the aspects of PAD I do enjoy.

Video clear

—video goes here—

Team build and explanation

The strategy I use is to one shot Zaerog Infinity through his 75% damage reduction shield. This is done via a damage enhance, a full board enhance, and Dragon and Devil Killer awakenings.

Awoken Liu Bei Teams for SDR Farming (No Pass/Stall)
– Team A	Inherit	–		–
– Team A	Card

– Team B	Card
– Team B	Inherit	–	–	–

Continue reading Awoken Liu Bei Button Farming Skill Delay Resist Tamadras →

Meta Snapshots, Monster Analysis

Best Farmable Monsters to Obtain – January 2017

January 3, 2017 Mantastic 38 Comments

Introduction

With 2017 in full swing, you should make it your New Years Resolution to acquire all the beneficial farmable monsters in Puzzle and Dragons. What will be most helpful will vary from box to box, but you should at least pursue most/all of the listed cards because they are always available and have varying degrees of value.If you feel I have missed anything out, please let me know in the comments below.

Video commentary

—video goes here—

Overview

These are who I consider to be the most vital farmable monsters moving forward into 2017 for Puzzle and Dragons in no particular order:

Rogue descends bosses

Rogue Descends are the purple/pink dungeons that have a leveling up mechanic. This means your monsters start at level 1 and gain experience as you progress through the dungeon based on their team cost. These tend to be challenging dungeons with the bosses having difficult evolution paths and a lengthy skill up process; however, they have varying degrees of usage and have become easier to acquire due to stronger teams/leaders.

Gainaut

Gainut has the beneficial coop boost

along with a full board changer that creates fire, water, wood, light, dark, hearts, and Jammer orbs. This has many applications on rainbow teams, but has the most value on Ronove

teams. Gainut covers two awkward colours along with an active that creates a wood heavy and heart crossable board when used in conjunction Ronove’s short cooldown active.

Scarlet

Scarlet once made powerful system team due to her fire generating active and haste component. Presently, she is able to act as a stand-in sub on virtually any mono-fire team as she provides beneficial awakenings along with the same helpful active that can help correct a poor board changer or cycle through other abilities.

Continue reading Best Farmable Monsters to Obtain – January 2017 →