Introduction

Starting on Monday, November 19, the North American server will begin their first of three weekly Ranking Dungeons. This is both exciting and potentially stressful as we will be enjoying/suffering through three weeks of Ranking Dungeons. Each of these Ranking Dungeons will give players a Crown for a top 3% finish while everyone in the top 20% will receive the respective Puppeteer.

While the Puppeteers are not truly desired at this point in time, being able to acquire one for free is still meaningful and may come in handy in the future.

The Pure Ranking Dungeon features a No Awakenings clause which will force players to adjust accordingly but has a relatively straightforward path to victory.

I plan to release a strategies article for each Ranking Dungeon before their respective debut.

Video commentary

–video coming soon–

Score breakdown

In Ranking Dungeons, players are scored based on the following:

• Each Combo is worth 5,000 points
• Each second remaining is worth 500 points
• Hitting 40 Million damage is 10,000 points
• Each active used to kill a floor (no combo made) is -5,000 points

Due to the fact that the Pure Tournament is 7  floors, each Combo is reasonably valuable:

5,000/7 = 714 points per combo.

This is a reasonably high amount and players are able to abuse 7×6 leaders to further bolster their combo count. Furthermore, it is possible to Button a single floor which will increase the value of each Combo made to 833.3.

No awakenings

No awakenings is an interesting restriction as it will force players to adjust their teams accordingly as their awakenings, Latent awakenings, and Super Awakenings will be disabled. Thankfully, we will still have access to our Leader Skills and this will be a more “fair” Ranking compared to the previous Xiu Min Tournament.

Actives to pursue

With no awakenings, players will not be able to use Skill Boosts  in order to pre-charge their actives and will only be able to use a skill with up to a 6 turn cooldown; however, if using a Button for floor 6, one will only be able to use a 5-turn skill.

You will not be able to inherit skills effectively and doing so will only transfer a modest amount of stats.

In terms of the more ideal actives, using the farmbale Formula  will enable players to button through floor 6 while any 5-6 turn water orb making skill will help hit damage cap on the final boss. The time saved along with improving the combo value of all other floors makes this method worthwhile.

Just note that if using Formula, you will be unable to use a 6-turn active skill as one floor is Buttoned.

One noteworthy orb maker is Merlin Rider  as he will remove hazards and help condense the board to fewer elements but cannot be used if Buttoning Floor 6 unless running the Skill Boost badge.

On the other hand, the farmable Cthulhu  and Siegfried  are both 5-turn Water orb changers who can help ensure one hits damage cap on the boss.

Subs to use

Unless you are planning on using a specific sub for their respective active skill, it is best to use your Water cards with the highest ATK value assuming you are using a Water orb changer on the boss. This will help ensure the 40 million damage cap is met for an additional 10,000 points.

Leaders to use

Due to the fact that we will have limited access to actives, the easiest way to inflate our combo count is to use a 7×6 leader paired with something that scales with combos made

Thankfully, one does not actually have to own a 7×6 leader to take advantage of the bigger board and can simply utilize a friend.

With that in mind, Diablos  is an all-around good choice as his 8.5x ATK only requires 8 or more combos along with having no colour restriction. On the other hand, Jhoira  has colour advantage against Pure along with a higher ATK multiplier which may make it easier to hit damage cap. Unfortunately, one must match both Fire and Water orbs to deal meaningful damage but that should be reasonably doable from most 7×6 boards.

On the other hand, the combo leader one can pair with should be the one that has the highest ATK multiplier without being colour restricted. This can include, but not limited to Anubis , Dark Ideal , and even Blue Hunter . With that being said, Dark Ideal provides free time Extend which may be vital to making additional combos whereas Anubis will provide the most consistency in hitting damage cap on the final floor assuming an active skill is used.

Solo mode badge

The vast majority of scenarios will have one using the Time Extend badge. This is because there will be no additional movement time outside of Leader Skills and each combo is worth 714-833 points each. Thus, being able to match one more combo in a single second will grant more points along with enhancing the chance of skyfalls occurring.

On the other hand, it may be possible that a team composition uses the Skill Boost badge. This will enable 7 turn actives to be used (6 if using a Button) which may be helpful but Time Extend will most likely be the best choice.

Blank sub slots

The concept of using less subs has merit if all other areas can be covered. In the case of the Pure tournament, we will not be missing their awakenings and it will only be their damage output that may hinder the Max Damage cap of 40 million.

With this in mind, it is possible to run one fewer sub to cut down on animation time. While the total difference may feel small, every little bit helps and may make a difference when nearing various score thresholds.

Sample team

Like mentioned above, outside of Formula and a Water orb maker, the rest of the subs are simply your highest ATK Water cards with the possibility of using an empty slot if you are comfortable hitting damage cap.

Pure Ranking – TE Badge
Card
SA	–	–	–	–	–	–
Inherit	stats	stats	stats	stats	stats	flex
Latent	–	–	–	–	–	–

JP Scores

The following chart was compiled by pandaa and it shows the JP scores for each day. Take these charts as a gentle point of reference as NA tends to fluctuate but generally speaking, we tend to do better on non-fixed teams as we are able to see all of the best strategies on Day 1.

Current 3% NA Score: –
JP Crown: 143,454

Current 20% NA Score:
JP Pure: 119,380

Conclusion

The Pure Ranking Dungeon is an opportunity for players to acquire a Crown and the Red Puppeteer  as rewards. The primary strategy is to use 7×6 with sufficient movement time via Skill Badge or Leader Skills and make as many combos as possible.

Let me know what you think about this upcoming Ranking Dungeon in the comments below along with your thoughts on having three Tournaments in a row.

Happy Puzzling!

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