Why not to Purely Farm/Grind Rank Experience

Introduction

I have been receiving many questions over the past few months about what is the best way to power-level or grind up rank experience. Truth be told, the best avenues are utilizing Ganesha 3071 paired with either another Ganesha or a stronger multiplier leader and mowing through content. However, the most common place this occurs is Monday Dungeon and this is actually a terrible waste overall. For myself, I have never played dungeons with the sole purpose of Rank Experience outside of the stone acquisition or acquiring the last few points of experience for a rank up.

Each subsequent rank up increases the experience required for the next level and by rushing through, you are losing out on numerous opportunities to develop and actually progress within Puzzle and Dragons.

This article will focus on why purely farming rank experience is a poor investment of your stamina along with the justifications to this stance. While there are some exceptions, it is largely a poor avenue of stamina spending for the average player.

Video commentary

—-video goes here—–

What is rank farming

Rank farming is essentially what it sounds like: repeatedly playing a dungeon that has an exceptionally high rank experience to stamina ratio. Often times, these dungeons are meant to be fast and easy to play and can help players rank up at an unprecedented rate.

Unfortunately, there are actually many drawbacks to ranking up this fast as you often waste stamina, lose out on actual puzzling skills, losing out on the opportunity to develop your monster box, hitting a wall faster, and the inability to chain rank ups from valuable dungeons. Continue reading Why not to Purely Farm/Grind Rank Experience

How to Research and Plan for a Dungeon – Puzzledragonsx & PadGuide

Introduction

Like you favourite monsters, dungeons are evolving in complexity and difficulty. Forgone are the days of simply having to survive a single 8,000 damage hit and instead it almost feels like you have to have an advanced degree in Puzzle and Dragons to decipher or interpret the dungeon at hand. Thankfully, we have access to two great resources and this post will focus not only on how to understand and comprehend the information presented, but how to also theory craft counters to each mechanic.

200_s-1

I plan to do a subsequent post that will teach you how to intelligently build a team that will use topics discussed in this article so stay tuned.

This article will focus on how to overcome various hurdles presented in a dungeon along with a specific example of the current One Shot Challenge and subsequent video clear with Yomi Dragon 3266.

Video commentary

—video goes here—

Yomi Dragon clear of One Shot Challenge 9


Puzzledragonsx & PadGuide

The two best database resources available to English PAD players are http://www.puzzledragonx.com/ (padx) and the mobile app PadGuide. Both these tools provide the same kind of information and which you choose to use will be mostly based on personal preference. For myself, I prefer using padx for dungeon research and PadGuide for monsters/evolutions etc. Continue reading How to Research and Plan for a Dungeon – Puzzledragonsx & PadGuide

Evangelion Collab Rare Egg Machine Review and Analysis

Introduction

The Evangelion Collab is one of the oldest Collabs in Puzzle and Dragons. This is generally a bad thing as older cards are poorly positioned against Powercreep and to keep the Collab interesting, GungHo has released several new cards. Unfortunately, most are disappointing reskins of existing REM monsters with noticeable downgrades.

To make matter worse, the Collab has low value outside of the 6-star category and has little to offer for the average player.

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

Video commentary

—video goes here—

Rolls overview

Evangelion Collab Egg Machine Overview
6 star rolls 3393 3394
5 star rolls 3398 2328 3396 3395 3397 1201
4 star rolls 700 2327 3400 704 1200 2326

Evangelion Collab Egg Machine Overview
download download download 3394
download download 3393 2328
download 3395 3396 1201 2327 3400
2558736037bba11c264e4086f62b8246_clipart-question-mark-question-mark-clipart-nature_2400-2400 2326 3398 3397
x 700 704 1200

6 star rolls

Myr Regalia, Rei
3393
Attacker / Dragon / Machine
4,210 HP / 1,775 ATK / 523 RCV
950 Total
Bind Immune Bind Immune Time Extend Time Extend Time Extend Skill Boost Skill Lock Resist TPA TPA

Active Skill:
Question Orb Arrow Heart
+7 seconds orb movement time for 1 turn
10 turn cooldown

Leader Skill:
3x ATK when matching 4 colours, 6x with 5 colours. 3x ATK & 50% damage reduction with a heart cross
324x ATK / 75% damage reduction

Pros Cons
  • Bind immune
  • 950 weighted stats
  • Leader skill is amazing on paper
  • TPA-based team
  • Not loli
  • Poor sub value
  • Leader skill is impractical
    • no viable board changer
  • Low value active
  • Cannot use orb changers except single orb
  • Lower consistency than Myr Miru
  • Needs rainbow activation and heart cross
  • No sub element
Impressions

Rei Myr looks gamebreaking on paper if you only look at her multiplier without taking into consideration the activation requirements. However, upon closer inspection, she is far from easy to utilize and is impractical in end game content.
Continue reading Evangelion Collab Rare Egg Machine Review and Analysis

My Monster Point Situation and what I am Doing

Introduction

The “hot” topic of the month is Monster Point cards and which one to buy. I created a helpful reference guide and tier list (which can be found HERE and generally speaking, you can simply go down the tier list until you find a card that best fits your box); however, I felt that showcasing what I am doing along with my rationale behind my decision may be beneficial for people to see.

I want to stress that my decisions are the best for myself and my own situation and may not apply to everyone. What you should try and take away from here is the thought process behind the decisions and try to see if you undergo a similar method for coming to your own conclusions.

Video commentary

—video goes here—-

My purchase history

When Yomi Dragon Yomi Dragon was first released, she caused quite a stir as she was one of the most universally accessible and powerful leaders at the time along with providing wonderful utility as a sub. As such, I decided to make the investment as I had a modestly diverse dark box and the potential to clear more content with her. You could read more about my initial purchase from a year ago HERE. Continue reading My Monster Point Situation and what I am Doing

Guerrilla Radar Dragon Dungeons are Coming to North America

Introduction

With the announcement of free 390,000 Monster Points being given out to all players over the course of March along with the highly anticipated evolutions for the original 5 MP Dragons, many players are excited to take the next step in their Puzzling adventure. However, these evolutions are challenging to perform and very few players are actually able to clear Arena 3 and acquire the Radar Dragon they need. Thankfully, we will now gain the ability to “easily” acquire any Radar Dragon of our choosing through a special hourly dungeon.

While this is great for the most part, these dungeons are actually very challenging and feature their respective Radar Dragon in a buffed form compared to their Arena 3 counterpart. However, the dungeon is quite short in nature and there are many different strategies for efficiently dealing with each encounter along with the option to simply stone to continue if you badly need the drop.

I plan to clear and record all of the dungeons and will upload the team/video to this post as they are released.

If you want to read more about which MP card to purchase, please refer to my guide HERE.

Video commentary

—video goes here—-


2716 Hephaestus Dragon

Dungeon for reference
—hippo video goes here—

Hephaestus Guerrilla Team – 21 Skill Boost
Inherit SDR
Buffer
 –


Card
3069 A Hermes Blue Sonia 3103
3391 A Sun Quan  Blue Sonia A Hermes 3069
Inherit Raphael  SDR
Buffer
 SDR
Buffer
SDR
Buffer
Comments
Hephaestus Guerrilla Steps
Floor 1 Player 1: Karin  + Hermes A Hermes, optimal board
Floor 2 Player 21 combo
Player 1
: PASS
Player 2: Raphael Raphael swipe
Player 11 combo
Player 2: Sun Quan  A Sun Quan, Hermes A Hermes or Blue Sonia Blue Sonia
Player 1: 0 combo, do not kill
Player 2: Kill via ping as Apollo is at 1 HP
Floor 3 Player 1: Mori 3103, Sarasvati 3069 & try to push below 50%
Player 2: Push below 50% if triggered resolve. Use any actives
Player 1: Blue Sonia Blue Sonia, Sarasvati 3069 Kill

Karin  has God and Dragon Killer which enables her to deal incredible burst damage against all 3 floors and 9x to Heph.

You should plan out who will be receiving the 15 turn skill delay and try your best to use actives from that side wherever possible. In my case, Player 2 is delayed.

On the final floor, you can trigger the resolve as it will heal him to 50% HP and 1 health. You simply need to ping with any source of damage to remove the resolve.

Sarasvati could easily be replaced by any high damage glass cannon leader. You should prioritize heavy orb changers as it is simply a burst and kill scenario.

If unable to inherit Raphael Raphael, can simply use him as a sub or use a large shielding sub to survive. Do your best to return to full health every turn.

Killer awakenings are very powerful here as there is no absorption mechanic and the resolves are not too hazardous. You can hit Heph into resolve and then have him resurrect without taking any damage.


2717 Noah Dragon

NOAH DRAGON HAS 52 MILLION AND PADX HAD IT DISPLAYING A VERY INCORRECT AMOUNT. SHOULD BE FIXED SOON

Dungeon for reference
—noah video goes here—

Noah Dragon Guerilla Team
Inherit A Hermes Carat 3239 Skuld ult evo Susano


Card
3276 Blue Sonia Blue Sonia Bankai Andro 3069
Blue Sonia 3103 Bankai Andro 3069 3276
Inherit A Hermes summer urd Indra Awoken Oorochi
Comments

Do not bring a dark team. Also, find a team that has very high damage output. Pretty much the only hard requirements. You can simply stall the 99 turns, but that is quite a grueling experience and if you want to kill faster, you need to have appropriate damage control. Do not use Killer awakenings.

Noah Dragon VOIDS all damage above 5 million. Void means it will deal 0 damage when dealing more than 5 million damage and means cards like Fujin 3414 have no effect.

The above team is pretty much my Arena 3 team.


2718 Gaia Dragon

Dungeon for reference
—Gaia video goes here—

Gaia Guerrilla Team
Inherit


Card
Inherit
Comments

Stuff


2719 Zeus Dragon

Dungeon for reference
—Zeus video goes here—

Zeus Guerrilla Team
21 Skill Boost Needed
Inherit Awoken Yomi Green Odin Sakuya


Card
A Liu Bei Tengu Ult Zeus Dios Avalon Drake Ult Zeus Dios
Tengu Ult Zeus Dios Sasuke flex A Liu Bei
Inherit Raphael Lumiel 3270 Sakuya
Comments
Zeus Guerrilla Steps
Floor 1 Player 1: 1 combo
Player 2: Raphael Raphael -> Dios Ult Zeus Dios Swipe
Player 1: PASS
Player 2: Ping for 1 damage
Floor 2 Player 1: Green Odin Green Odin -> Dios Ult Zeus Dios Swipe
Floor 3 Player 2: Famiel Famiel -> Sakuya Sakuya -> Hades 3270 -> PASS
Player 1: Sakuya Sakuya -> Yomi Awoken Yomi  -> Dios Ult Zeus Dios Swipe

Assuming the team is at least +99 attack, you will always kill Zeus Dragon even with 1 combo:

17092121_10154343590460814_753675378_n

This comes out to around 50-51 million damage and you only need 48 million to kill Zeus after the Gravities. Tengu will have a tiny bit more attack when I inherit Green Odin.

I had to make an adjustment to my team as people have pointed out that 20 million damage from the Sakuya Gravity would be voided (I thought 20 million was safe) so I am using Famiel to tickle for 100,000 damage then proceeding as normal. You must use Gravities in the order that is listed.

For some reason my Hera-Beorc hera beorc is missing from my box so I am doing this strategy instead of using her 10% gravity.


2720 Hera Dragon

Dungeon for reference
—Hera video goes here—

Hera Guerrilla Team – 23 SB Skill Boost
Inherit Scheat 2993


Card
3276 3069 3069 Yomi Dragon Mask  9 Skill Boost
 14 Skill Boost 3391 Tengu 2526 Zera 3276
Inherit Carat  –  3270
Comments
Hera Guerrilla Steps
Floor 1 Player 1: Mori 3103 kill
Floor 2 Player 2: Hera-Is Hera-Is, Zeus/Hera Zera, Hades 3270, Meri 3276
                     7 combo, kill
Floor 3 Player 1: Indra Indra when going to be hit. Genie Genie after

Make a row + 2-5 combos based on your own damage output

Player 2 can have dark cards as the binds only hit the Player 1. I have 3 SDR Skill delay resist on most of my Player 1 cards and the 2 turn haste from Mori 3103 help brings those cards back up.

You cannot use a 50% damage reduction shield as this Hera Dragon hits significantly harder than the Arena 3 version. On Hera Dragon, you must never match more than 6 connected water orbs in a row formation. You can go for 7+, but it has to be in a blob. The amount of combos you make is dependent on the number of your Orb Enhances blue + orb and Row Water Row awakenings your team has.

The three Gravities push Ceres below her 30% resolve right away and any combination you can configure that achieves the same result is fine.

A very popular strategy is to use Reincarnated Hades 3270 and his massive dark damage reduction to cheese your way through. Just make sure you bring a 10 turn bind clear for the first floor.

Conclusion

I will continue to update and populate the team rosters as I do more research and actually play the dungeons along with uploading the videos right away.

Best of luck in acquiring your Radar Dragons.

Happy Puzzling!