Introduction

Hello everyone, InSomnia here, and welcome to my North American tier list. Everything listed here is based solely on content that is available in NA. I will update this post on my website here whenever there is a change or shift in rankings due to a buff directly to the lead or buffs to key subs of that lead. New releases will also be added. 

Anytime a new lead is added to the list, I will accompany it with a review of the lead that goes over the basics and gives you an idea on why they are at that tier. Each lead that is on this list will be accompanied with a short overview of the card as will include a link to the PADX page of the card so you can see the card for yourself. This article is very simple and is written with the mindset that you have played this game for a while and understand what the “meta” is as well as any special terms or abbreviations. It is also written under the impression that you understand how to basic teambuild and how different styles of leads are played. If you are unfamiliar with anything, simply ask and I will do my best to explain it to you. This has been your disclaimer

Finally, before you start reading, please understand and read this disclaimer quoted from SetsuPAD: “Don’t take these ratings as fact; I encourage you to simply take them as a starting point for discussion to figure out which leads are actually the best for your specific situation” Essentially what this means is just because a lead is top tier on this list, it may not be top tier for you. Everything listed is under the assumption that you have the most ideal team possible. You may own a lead in SS tier and a lead in A tier, but the A tier might be the better lead for you because your box has the subs to support it better than the SS tier lead.

I wrote something about this awhile ago here. I also want to link a more recent article covering the same topic written by Kennori of PDX Academy here(which in my opinion is much more well written and deserves more credit/recognition). Before you begin reading, I want to make a few things absolutely clear. I’m making this tier list because I think they are interesting and fun; however, as you read in Kennori’s article, it is pretty pointless. All a tier list can do is show you the strongest leads in the game with the most optimal subs and in the hardest dungeons (primarily Alt. Arena). It’s always best to build around a dungeon. However it is not bad for a team to cover a little bit of everything, but if you are struggling to clear a dungeon, think about changing your team to better match the dungeon. This sometimes does mean changing leads that better suit the dungeon. This can be because of certain absorb spawns, enemy HP/damage, dungeon mechanics, or even dungeon length. With that out of the way, let us begin.

Tier list by InSomnia

North America Leader Tier List – December 10th, 2018
SS
S+
S
A
HM

HM = Honorable Mention

How to interpret this chart

SS

Lead(s) in this category are the best of the best. They are strong in all categories such as survivability, recovery, burst, and awakenings, and with a smart player and a decent team, can easily clear end game content, even with poverty teams.

S+

This tier is also dedicated to the game’s strongest lead, but just barely fall short of being as strong as SS, usually in one category or slightly lacking in comparison for all categories. All these leads are easily capable of clearing end game content as well.

S

This tier is for the leads that are strong, but fall short in comparison to SS tiers. They are all capable of clearing end game content as well, but they have slightly more significant weaknesses when compared to S+. Regardless, these leads still do fine in end game content.

A

These leads are also strong leads, but they lack in more aspects than S tiers. They are usually slightly less consistent due to restrictions in their leader skill. Some of these leads need to be paired with other leads to remain at this tier. However, these leads are all still easily capable of clearing end game content.

Honorable Mention

This list is dedicated to leads that would rank around an A- to B+. They are still great leads capable of clearing end game content. They either suffer from the same issues as A tier leads but on a bigger scale, or they are naturally just not as good as A tier leads. I cannot put EVERY lead that would rank around this level, I simply put the ones that are either still popular to play or are severely underrated.

To visualize this better, say I give each card a rating out of 10, SS tier wold be equivalent to 9.9-10/10, S+ would be 9.6-9.8/10, S would be 9.3-9.5, and A would be 9.0-9.2/10. Anything in HM would be 8.5-8.9. The difference between each tier is very minimal while the difference between 2 tiers is slightly noticable. The only significant difference would be between SS or S+ tiers with A or HM.

The following short reviews will look at their leader skills, active, awakenings, as well as other relevant information,  however only the lead skill is taken into account for the ranking. Please remember that these are all subjective. I will also include a very general idea to how I would build these leads if I had access to every card.

SS-tier

Mega Dark Angel Metatron

Active: Inflicts Dark damage equal to ATK x100 to 1 enemy in exchange for reducing HP by 20%. Affected by enemy element and defense. Removes lock status on orbs. Change all orbs to Light and Dark orbs.

Leader Skill: All attribute cards ATK 3x when HP is less than 80%. God type cards HP 2x, ATK 2x. All attribute cards ATK 2.5x, 25% all damage reduction when reaching 7 combos.

Awakenings:

Super Awakenings(SA): none

Type: God

DMeta is a 6 star Godfest Exlusive from the normal REM. DMeta is an incredibly powerful lead because she can not only tank, but output high damage as well. Her below 80% HP clause in her lead skill is more of an annoyance than a true negative. Even if its ideal that you don’t stall (due to kill shots, binds, hazard creation, etc.), you can easily solve the issue with DMeta’s active, which lowers your HP to the threshold and unlocks the board while generating a bicolor board for you to burst. If you don’t want to use her active, Reincarnated Izanagi with his buff reducing his -50% HP active to 3 turns and makes him an ideal sub to quickly reset your HP if necessary (which usually isn’t as you can easily just stall).

Her RCV issue is also partly solved with Eir , who has 3 enhanced heal orb awakenings that can help her heal back up if you are dangerously low. Usually, an active not generating heal orbs is a negative, however for DMeta’s playstyle it works. Not only does it set you up to kill the floor without healing above 80% HP which saves you from stalling, the bicolor board also sets you up to make VDP boards. My ideal team would include Eir and Izanagi for sure, the final 2 subs would probably be Bluejin  and Planar . Bluejin for her active as well as good damage and Planar for that amazing HP stat, FUA , as well as that tricolor and +3 combo active. 

S+ – tier cards

Summer Vacation’s Promise, Barbara & Julie

Active: Reduces enemies’ defense to 0 for 1 turn. Effects carry forward on sweep. Removes lock status on orbs. Change all orbs to Fire and Water orbs.

Leader Skill: Fire and Water attribute cards HP 2x, ATK 4x. Increases time limit of orb movement by 2 seconds. All attribute cards ATK 3x when reaching Water and Fire combos.

Awakenings:

Super Awakenings:

Type: Dragon/Machine

Barbara & Julie (Barbie) is an 8 star from PAD Island seasonal REM. She is a great lead due to her simplicity of activation and high HP. Her lack of RCV can be solved with inherits like Mizutsune from Monster Hunter collab which boosts your RCV or using a sub with a lot of enhanced heal orb awakenings, such as Mel . She may lack 7c herself/themselves, but she does have access to subs that have a lot of 7c such as Enra , Reeche , Amatsu , Bluejin , Idunn&Idunna , etc. Suoh from DBDC is also a great option for VDP  and his great active. However the main reason why Barbie was bumped up a tier by many JP tier lists is because of Kuroyuri , the 750k MP monster from GungHo Collab.

Kuroyuri’s active gives a 40% max HP heal for 6 turns and charges allies’ skills by 1 turn. By running 2 of her on a team, you can easily cycle the 40% HP heal. This is really strong as it lets Barbie teams consistently get HP back. However Kuroyuri is a Dark main attribute, which doesn’t exactly fit with Barbie’s colors. You don’t necessarily have to run Kuro for Barbie teams to be good as Mizu and Mel already give really good healing by matching heal orbs. My team with Kuroyuris would be Barbie, Kuroyuri, Kuroyuri, Amatsu, and Bluejin. Without Kuroyuris, it would be Amatsu, Enra, Bluejin, and Mizutsune. Both teams would work fine, having Kuroyuris don’t make or break Barbie so don’t worry if you didn’t dump 1.5mil MP on them.

Massacre Demon Diablos

Active: All orbs enhanced; inflicts damage equal to 25% of enemies’ maximum HP

Leader Skill: [7×6 board] 8.5x ATK and reduces damage with 8+ combos

Awakenings:

Super Awakenings: none

Type: Dragon/Devil

Diablos is a 7 star from the Monster Hunter Collab. Diablos’ leader skill is super flexible in that it is solely combo based and you have no restriction on what sub you can use. At the time of his release, you could pair him with almost anything, although combo and/or rainbow oriented leads had the best results(such as Anubis ). By having an 8.5x multiplier for reaching 8 combos along with a shield and no other restrictions, Diablos instantly made Anubis even stronger.

The Anubis x Diablos (Anublos) pairing is very strong because not only could you fully proc Anubis’ 30x (10x without active) consistently because you were on a 7×6 board, you also got a shield, which Anubis didn’t have. This combo made an 85x multiplier for 10c without active and 255x for 10c with an active. 7×6 not only made it easier to make combos, but also gave more space on the board for different colors, which was great for rainbow leads. Previously rainbow leads needed to run several board changers on the team to fix a bad board, but with the 12 extra orbs on the board, it was far more likely that you would always have all the colors, which allowed you to substitute those board changers for other utility inherits.

Unfortunately, no lead can be perfect. The fact that you need to match 8 combos to have survivability is a negative. This means you would not be able to stall as easily with Anublos then dual Anubis. Also, since you don’t get any multiplier unless you make 8c+, you have decreased damage control. Finally, Diablos’ active skill, although is quite powerful, is really niche. Since this skill has a long cooldown and Diablos does not have a skill charge awakening, inheriting long inherits (such as Fujin ) is not suggested as it will not come up unless you are in a really long dungeon and stalling a lot. Since Diablos is so flexible, it’s hard to really give subs as the subs you use will completely depend on who you chose to pair him with.

Spirit Detective, Yusuke Urameshi

Active: Other allies’ skills charged by one turn; removes lock status on orbs. Changes all orbs to Water and Light orbs.

Leader Skill: Light attribute cards 1.5x to all stats. All attribute cards 4x ATK when matching 7 or more combos. All attribute cards 2.5x ATK when matching Light and Water

Awakenings:

Super Awakenings: none

Type: Balanced

Yusuke is a 6 star roll from the Yu Yu Hakusho Collab(YYH). Upon  release, he was considered one of the best leads and he still is. He is not only tanky, but can heal up the HP loss as well, and still has good damage with 225x. Ironically, the best part about Yusuke is actually his VDP  in conjuction with his double 7c and balanced typing. Before him, VDP cards that also had 7c were scarce. This makes Yusuke a great VDP option of necessary. 

His bicolor active sets up perfectly for him to VDP any spawn if necessary, and since you are usually pairing Yusuke with himself, you can easily VDP down spawns without the need for a burst, although sometimes a +2 combo active will be necessary. Yusuke does not have much negatives, the main one being from the lack of light, blue, and heal boards. Nene and Ameno are a few common ones, and they can be difficult to roll. Although Yusuke has 2.25x HP and RCV, that ends up actually evening out to 1x for both. This means although you’ll be recovering the more HP than 1x leads for both HP and RCV, percentage wise you will be recovering the same amount because you have more HP to recover. This applies to all leads that have 1.5x to all stats.

My team would look something like Yusuke, Amatsu , Odin Dragon , LIdeal , and Ed . You have the colors to activate Ed’s skill charge if necessary, and you have the damage to blast through spawns quickly as well. You also have a great HP and strong utility.

Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain

Active: Recovers 50% of max HP. Full bind and awoken bind recovery. Reduces cooldown of allies’ skills by 1.

Leader Skill: [7×6 board] All attribute cards 3x ATK when matching Fire and Water combos. All attribute cards ATK 3x and 25% damage reduction when reaching 8 combos.

Awakenings:

Super Awakenings: none

Type: Balanced

Jhoira is a 6 star from the Magic The Gathering Collab (MTG). Upon her release, she was basically a superior Diablos in almost every way except for the fact that you need to match red and blue. This meant that Jhoira was a better option to pair with leads such as Yuki or Reeche , leads that require you to match different colors. Her active is also identical to ODra’s which is a 50% HP recover and a full bind and awoken bind clear, which is a really strong active. The benefit of her active however is that she’s inheritable.

Her awakenings are also great, 10c awakening  works great with her 7×6 clause and she is also unbindable and has triple SB. Leads such as Yuki and Reeche are better pairings for her rather than leads such as Anubis and DIdeal . Jhoira is more desirable as the 7×6 pairing option due to slightly more damage, a useful active, and great offensive awakenings as well. However, as Jhoira requires you to match red and blue, it’s much better to use VDP with Diablos as he is a pure combo lead and you can use any bicolor board to pair. Rainbow leads pair better with Jhoira (aside from Rikuu because of his Dragon type requirement) and combo leads pair better with Diablos. Since you should be pairing rainbow leads with Jhoira, even if you have a good Fire/Water VDP just as Suou, the team you are using him on will most likely be better suited for Diablos(usually a pure combo lead like Anubis). Similar to Diablos, Jhoira’s team will depend on who you pair her with.

Fullmetal Alchemist, Edward Elric

Active: Change Heart, Jammer, Poison, and Mortal Poison orbs to Light orbs. Full HP recovery. Light attribute 3x ATK for 1 turn.

Leader Skill: All attribute cards 3.5x(3x for NA) ATK, 35% damage reduction when HP is above 50%. 2x ATK at 4 combos. 1x ATK for each additional combo, up to 4x ATK at 6 combos.

Awakenings:

Super Awakenings:

Type: Attacker/Machine

Ed is a 6 star from the Fullmetal Alchemist (FMA) Collab. He is a great lead with no type or color restriction, you can really put whatever on the team, however light monsters are best. Being a pure combo lead makes him really consistent too. He also has a passive 57.75% shield that lets you stall a lot easier than leads with conditional shields. However, because of how this type of shield works against multi-hit attacks, it’s also his biggest drawback.

Let’s say a preemptive attack would hit you for 90k and it was a 3-hit attack hitting 30k each time. Lets say you have 60k HP and you were at full health. The first hit would be reduced to 17325 damage, leaving you at 42675 HP. The second hit would be reduced to 17325 damage again because you are still above 50% HP, leaving you with 25350 HP. The final hit would hit for the full 30k damage because you are below 50% HP now. Keep in mind this happens all in 1 enemy turn, so you have to check to see if attacks are multi-hit or not before you decide if you can tank it or not.

On the other hand, Edward’s skill charge awakening can seem useless sometimes, but if you build a team to activate it, you should. My team would be Ed, LIdeal , Amatsu , Bluejin , and ODra . This team covers all the colors and has good HP with the use of Ideal’s Team HP+ awakenings and Amatsu’s incredibly high HP stat. It has a great balance of damage and utility.

Alluring Kunoichi, Mai Shiranui

Active: Increased skyfall chance for enhanced orbs by 50% for 5 turns. Creates 3 Fire orbs from non Fire orbs

Leader Skill: [7×6 board] Fire and Light attribute cards 2x ATK. All attribute cards 4.5x ATK, 25% damage reduction when reaching 7 combos.

Awakenings:

Super Awakenings:

Type: Balanced

Mai is a 6 star roll from the King of Fights(KOF) Collab. Somewhat recently KOF came back for a single day with buffs to everything, and one of those buffs allowed Mai to get an SA and buffed her multiplier up to 9x, the same as Jhoira . However, despite all these buffs, Mai is still in an awkward spot.

There isn’t a really strong Fire or Light based combo lead to pair with her aside from Trailo (will talk about her later) or RMyr. On top of that, she is bindable and has a lackluster active skill. Jhoira and Diablos is the better 7×6 lead to pair with in almost any situation. In general, if you are playing Mai, you should be pairing with Trailo and vice versa. In JP however, Ippo  from the Shonen Sunday Collab pairs perfectly with Mai, which is why you may see Mai really high on JP tier lists. 

With that being said, Mai is still this high on the tier list because of her potential. Since she is still combo oriented, mono-colored or mostly mono colored teams like Yusuke can still pair with her. Plus her enhanced heal awakenings could help tankier leads without good RCV have better RCV. My Mai x Trailo team would look something like Enra , Napoleon ,Cthugha , and Jhoira. You have strong damage and a good amount of HP as well. You not only have a shield to help tank hits, you also have a great RCV multiplier from Trailo to heal up.

S-tier cards

Leo Bloomfield

Active: Changes Heart, Jammer, Poison, and Mortal Poison to Water orbs. Water attribute 3x ATK for 1 turn.

Leader Skill: Water attribute cards 3x ATK. All attribute cards 2x ATK on turn a skill is used. All attribute cards 3x ATK, 25% damage reduction when attacking with 3 attributes, Fire, Water, Wood, Light, or Dark.

Awakenings:

Super Awakenings: none

Type: Balanced

Leo is purchasable for 750k MP during the GungHo Collab event. Leo is a very powerful rainbow lead capable of hitting 324x with dual leads. However part of the requirement in his leader skill is to activate a skill. Without activating a skill, your multiplier drops down to 81x.

The only 2 available options to fulfill this skill every turn clause is Tardis and Plessie-bean , as they are the only ones with water typing either as either their main attribute or sub attribute. Aside from this requirement, the amount of strong water attribute cards is huge: Amatsu , Bluejin , Yuki , and Reeche are just a few strong options. Leo also doesn’t take much to achieve his full multiplier, only requiring 3 of the 5 attributes on the board to reach it and get his shield.

These factors make him one of the most consistent rainbow leads in the game, which means that he doesn’t have to be played on a 7×6 board for maximum consistency at all, although you certainly can if you want. Since the only strong awoken bind clear option for blue is Jhoira, by pairing with her, you also can solve your lack of a fire attribute on your team or clear up a sub slot for something else. My team would look something like Amatsu, Bluejin, Tardis, and Reincarnated Isis to cover Fire attribute.

Raizer

Active: Inflicts wood damage equal to 100x ATK to 1 enemy in exchange for reducing HP by 50%. Affected by enemy element and defense. Change Fire, Dark, Jammer, Poison, and Mortal Poison orbs to Wood orbs.

Leader Skill: All attribute cards 5x ATK, 35% reduced damage when HP is above 80%. 10x ATK when HP is less than 80% HP. Wood attribute cards 1.5x HP and ATK.

Awakenings:

Super Awakenings: none

Type: Physical/Attacker

Raizer is a 7 star from the GungHo Collab. Raizer heavily mimics DMeta’s leader skill except its pure HP oriented while DMeta has some combo element to it. The great thing about Raizer is that you still have a 56.75x multiplier above 80% HP, so if you stacked enough 7c awakenings on your team, you can still kill floors without having to stall until you get are below 80% HP.

Part of the reason why Raizer isn’t as high as DMeta is the lack of an Reincarnated Izanagi equivalent as well as the lack of a shield below 80% HP, which is when you have full multiplier. There is no sub with a super low cooldown to bring Raizer into HP threshold for his full 225x multiplier. However, despite this, you still have a wide array of subs. You have ODra for utility, you have Eir and Tardis to help with your RCV, and you have GSonia and Zela for damage. A card like GNey wouldn’t be as ideal because it also heals 20% of your HP, which can put you above 80% HP. However, she is still worth considering in case you need a quick heal when you are super low. My team would look something like Odin Dragon, Zela, Ragnorok Dragon , and Eir.

Great Witch of the Ice Flowers, Reeche

Active: Removes lock status on orbs. Change all orbs to Fire, Water, Wood, Light, Dark, and Heal orbs. Ignores enemy damage and attribute absorb for 1 turn.

Leader Skill: All attribute cards 4x ATK, 25% reduced damage when reaching 7 combos. All attribute cards 4x when attacking with any 4 attributes: Fire, Water, Wood, Light, or Dark. Increases movement time by 2 seconds.

Awakenings:

Super Awakenings: none

Type: Devil/Balanced

Reeche is a 7 star Godfest Exclusive who has many parts to her incredibly powerful active. It is not only both a Fujin-style active and a color void, it also unlocks and creates a rainbow board(which is all attributes + heal), which perfectly sets up her leader skill. It’s only natural that such a powerful active is on a 30 turn cooldown, however with her double skill charge, the cooldown seems a lot less than 30. Since Reeche also does not restrict anything, you can use any sub you would like.

Reeche’s biggest issue is that she lacks any base HP or RCV multiplier, which makes it hard to stall as you cannot get the shield by just matching a couple combos. Running a couple high base HP cards such as Hexazeon or Amatsu can help your team’s base HP. The other benefit of her leader skill not discriminating any colors or subs is that she can pair with practically any other rainbow lead. Her best pair is probably Yuki , which has an RCV component in his leader skill that can help Reeche teams stall a little better. You also aren’t trading off much damage for it. Yuki is 15x while Reeche is 16x, which is a 240x multiplier. My team would be ODra , Amatsu, Enra , and LIdeal .

Makoto Yuki & Orpheus

Active: Removes lock status on orbs. Change all orbs to Fire, Water, Wood, Light, Dark, and Heal orbs. Inflicts fire damage equal to 50x team Water ATK to all enemies

Leader Skill: All attribute cards 5x ATK, 25% damage reduction when attacking with Fire, Water, and Light orbs. 3x ATK and RCV when reaching 6 combos.

Awakenings:

Super Awakening: none

Type: Balanced/Machine

Yuki is a 6 star card from the Persona Collab. Although Yuki does not require you to match Wood or Dark to achieve his full multiplier, you should still have those colors on the team as you’ll probably match them anyways, plus you’ll be able to activate his skill charge awakening. Treat Yuki like any other rainbow leader even though his leader skill is more similar to the Chinese series(Leilan , Karin , Meimei , Haku )

The unique thing about Yuki is his 3x RCV multiplier, which lets him heal up much more easily than other leaders. Since a single Yuki already provides a 3x multiplier, it’s usually better to pair Yuki with other leaders like Reeche or Jhoira as 9x RCV is overkill. Otherwise, Yuki is similar to pretty much any high tier rainbow leads like Reeche, both play style and teambuilding. My team for him is identical to Reeche because of how similar they are.

Vraska the Unseen

Active: 2x RCV for 3 turns. Remove lock status on orbs. Change all orbs to Wood, Dark, and Heal orbs.

Leader Skill: Wood attribute 2x HP, 4x ATK. Increase movement time by 2 seconds. All attribute cards 3x ATK when matching Wood and Dark combos.

Awakenings:

Super Awakenings: none

Type: Balanced/Devil

Vraska is a 6 star from Magic The Gathering(MTG) Collab. Having 4x HP with 2 Vraskas means you will be extremely tanky, but struggle to heal that HP up. However, since Vraska doubles your RCV for 3 turns and creates heal orbs, that’s usually not an issue. Also, since Eir exists, running Eir on your team can greatly improve your RCV without having to use an active.

Although 144x is a lower multiplier when compared with most other leads, it’s certainly not bad and as long as you have a lot of 7c on your team, you will still be doing a bunch of damage. Since Vraska doesn’t have a shield, she is vulnerable to 100% gravities, so you have to be careful where and how you play her. My team for her would be ODra , Eir, HVerd , and GNey . HVerd has that full HP heal in case of emergencies and Eir and ODra are great utility cards to help heal. HVerd and Ney are both balanced type (along with Vraska) so you can chose what killers you want to focus on.

Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh

Active: Voids damage for 1 turn. Reduces cooldown of allies’ skill by 2.

Leader Skill: [No Skyfalls] 4x ATK when 8 or less orbs remain. 1x ATK for each orb missing. 2.5x ATK and 25% damage reduction when reaching 5 combos.

Awakenings:

Super Awakenings: none

Type: Dragon/Devil

Nicol is also a 6 star from MTG Collab. Most X orb remaining leader skills are hard to activate consistently, however Nicol’s is scaling based on how many remain starting from 8 orbs, which is easily achievable, to 0 orbs remaining, which gives him the full 900x. It can be a little difficult to understand  your exact multiplier.

Nicol Bolas gains bonus damage by leaving the board with 8 orbs or less after comboing. This damage scales up to 12x for a single lead, or 144x for dual. 144 times 6.25 gives you the 900x multiplier, when you have no orbs remaining on the board. This means the extra damage (from one lead) with 0 orbs remaining is 12x, 11x for 1 orb, 10x for 2, 9x for 3, 8x for 4, 7x for 5, 6x for 6, 5x for 7, and 4x for 8. If you add these together with dual Nicol lead, you get these multipliers(if you match the 5 combo part as well): 100x for 8 orbs remaining, 156.25x for 7, 225x for 6, 306.25x for 5, 400x for 4, 506.25x for 3, 625x for 2, 756.25x for 1, and 900x for 0.

On a standard 7c board, you’ll have 9 orbs remaining, but by adjusting where you place each combos, you can easily bring it down to 6, which is 225x, which is great damage already. This is why he is still consistent despite being an x orbs remaining leader. You don’t have to hit that 900x each turn, even having 6 orbs or less remaining is enough to kill most floors.

Nicol’s other weakness is lack of base HP, so you want high HP subs that also have 7c for damage. My team would be Enra /LIdeal , Hexa , ODra , and Amatsu . Interesting fact about Nicol, his current cooldown on his active is 18, when he was first announced, it was 16. Since his active also gives a 2 turn haste, if you have a full team of Nicols, you could have that 100% shield up every turn, which is both hilarious and broken. Thank goodness GungHo adjusted it before he was released.

Masquerade Toy Dragon Caller, Cotton

Active: +1 combo count for 1 turn; Unlock all orbs; Change all orbs to Light, Dark, and Heal orbs

Leader Skill: 4x ATK and reduces damage taken when 7 or more combos; 3x ATK and reduce damage taken when matching Light and Dark.

Awakenings:

Super Awakenings: none

Type: Dragon/Balanced

HCotton is an 8 star from the Halloween seasonal REM. Her leader skill gives a shield for matching 7 combos and a shield for matching light and dark orbs. This dual shield in her leader skill is rare, as only a few other cards have this clause to them. This gives her room to stall as activating the shields is not difficult at all. The only issue with this leader skill is the lack of a base HP or RCV multiplier to really give her room to stall. If you match 7 combos, you’ll most likely end up matching light and darks anyways, and only matching light, dark, and heal is not enough combos to really give you a good heal.

HCotton’s awakenings are really powerful as well. She is the first card to have triple 7cs  and TPAs to go along with it. Had she been unbindable as well, she would be an unrivaled sub. She also has an FUA awakening, which makes her only the second card in the game to have triple 7cs and FUA, the first being Zela .

Since HCotton is still fairly new, there hasn’t been a lot of time to really figure out a good team for her. Her damage output is somewhat low with only a 144x multiplier, so having a lot of 7cs on the team is important. My team would be something like LIdeal , VNey , Hiko , and ODra or Ren for awoken bind clear.

Mega Awoken Blue Dragonbound, Ryune

Active: Remove lock status on orbs, change all orbs to Water and Dark orbs.

Leader Skill: 2x HP and ATK for water attribute cards, increase movement time by 2 seconds. 7x ATK when matching 6+ linked Water orbs.

Awakenings:         

Super Awakenings:

Type: Dragon

Ryune is a 6 star Godfest Exlusive found in the normal REM. She is easily one of the strongest row leads in the game because she has great survivability and can stall for a longer time than some other row leads. She also gets her max multiplier with just 6 water orbs so you don’t usually have to stall for that long either. The lack of an RCV multiplier can easily be made up by using Mel on the team.

Ryune is also one of the first cards in the game to have the combo orb awakening . However you need 12 orbs exactly to activate it and most of the time its more worth to make that extra row and get the extra combo than it is to connect 12 orbs together. Overall Ryune is a fairly straightforward tank+row style lead. Teambuilding for her is fairly simple as you can just throw Mel and a bunch of 7c on her team because Ryune by herself has 4 rows already. You only need 4 rows of a color to deal more damage then 2 combos of the same color. My team for her would be I&I , Mel, Amat , and Bluejin .

Gleaming Time Dragonbound, Myr

Active: Create 3 Fire and Heal orbs at random; 12 seconds of free movement without triggering matches.

Leader Skill: 3x ATK & RCV when matching 4 or more combos up to 4x at 6 combos; 4x ATK and 50% damage reduction when matching a cross of 5 Heal orbs.

Awakenings:    

Super Awakenings:   

Type: Dragon/Machine/Devil

Rmyr is a 750k MP monster from the MP store. The greatest advantage she has over normal Myr  is that you can use any attribute subs, not just red. However, if possible it’s generally better to stick with red because otherwise you would be losing out on a chunk of damage provided by RMyr herself. Her 75% damage reduction with dual leads is incredibly strong as it lets you get away with not running a shield on the team most of the time. Her RCV multiplier is also tied to making combos, so if your team has a decent base HP, you could stall for quite a while as you would be healing from just matching 4 combos.

Another option you could opt for is pairing with Mai  for the 7×6 board, which helps her consistency in getting heal orbs for her shield. Overall you’ll have a lower shield multiplier, but 62.5% versus 75% isn’t a huge difference. Your overall multiplier will be lowered to 144x, however with a bigger board you’ll be able to make more combos so overall the diminishing returns isn’t as significant. You can only pair with Mai if you are using a red or light based team. If you wish to play 7×6 but don’t have a red or light based team, Diablos is always an option. My team for RMyr would be Enra , Ren , RNey , and Suou .

Adulation Cutting Dragon Caller, Roche

Active: Void attribute absorbs for 1 turn; Change Fire and Jammer orbs to Wood orbs; Change Water, Poison, and Mortal Poison orbs to Dark orbs.

Leader Skill: 4x ATK for Wood and Dark attribute cards; +2 seconds of orb movement time; 4x ATK and 50% damage reduction when matching 8 or more combos.

Awakenings:    

Super Awakenings: none

Type: God/Healer/Machine

Roche is a 7 star roll from the Dragonbound/Dragon Caller(DBDC) REM. She has a fairly straightforward leader skill being purely combo based and giving a passive multiplier for Wood and Dark attributes. Her 50% shield is something worth nothing as the popular 50%  shield leads are all based on heart cross, which requires you to have at least 5 heal orbs. Since Roche gets her just by comboing, she is more consistent in activating her shield. However, the average board is a 7 combo board, in the absense of skyfalls, 8 combos is not super consistent. To give her the best consistency, you should pair her with Diablos , although you lose your 75% shield and 256x with dual leads, 136x with a 62.5% shield isn’t bad at all on a 7×6 board. You are still capable of bursting down spawns and tanking large preemptives.

Although this issue only applies to dual Roche leads, it’s still worth mentioning. Roche does not have a SBR awakening, which means if you do want to play dual Roche, you will need a sub with 2 SBR awakenings, granted all your other subs have at least one, to have 100% SBR. Vraska  for Wood and HMyne  for Dark are 2 of a few examples or good subs for Roche. Roche also has 3 50% HP or less enhanced attack awakenings which doesn’t fit her play style at all. These 3 awakenings could have easily been some 7c or killers, or even an SBR. Build your team around 7c for damage, since Roche as no HP clause in her leader skill, there’s no point in stalling until you are under 50% HP as you can easily burst down spawns with her 16x anyways. My team for her would be ODra , Vraska, Zela , and Bluejin   if needed, otherwise GNey , GCotton , or even HVerd would be fine.

Cunning Heroic Commnander, Odysseus

Active: Remove all awoken binds; Changes all orbs to Water, Wood, and Light orbs.

Leader Skill: [7×6 Board] 4x ATK and 25% damage reduction when matching 9 or more combos; 3x ATK when matching 5 or more connected orbs.

Awakenings:    

Super Awakenings: none

Type: Balanced/Machine

Odysseus is an exchangeable card for 4 Rainbow Medals . He has a 12x multiplier for a 7×6 lead at the cost of 1 extra combo and making a 5 match. Odysseus is an amazing card you can get for free. However, despite being a great lead, he doesn’t have any ideal pairings.

His 5 match clause makes him usable with RMyr  or farmable Myr  teams, but his strong active that clears all awoken binds doesn’t create hearts. If we look at his active, his active creates a board that’s great for Yusuke . Making a 5 match and reaching 9 combos on a 7×6 board is not difficult, especially if you pair with a lead that just requires combos. Odysseus’ triple killers are also of not so common typing spawns in Alt. Arena, and the extra damage he brings can help kill some of these spawns if your team only has dragon/god killers. Odysseus’ sub choice will be dependent on who you pair him with, so chose your subs based on that lead, but be open to any subs that have L-unlock awakenings too (eg. Reincarnated Venus ).

Mega Awoken Dark Emperor, Sherias Roots

Active: Changes all orbs to Fire, Water, Wood, Light, Dark, and Heal orbs; Locks all non-hazard orbs.

Leader Skill: 2x ATK when above HP is above 50%; 2x HP & ATK for Dragon type monsters; 4x ATK when matching 4 or more colors.

Awakenings:       

Super Awakenings: none

Type: Dragon

Roots is a 6 star Godfest Exlusive card. The first thing you may notice about him is his 3 God killers , which let him do 27x to any God type cards without leader skill multipliers. It’s a good thing they removed his devil typing from previous evolutions or else he could’ve taken more God killer latents. His active is fairly interesting as well. He lost the 999 true damage to a single target and got a board lock instead. This is really only useful when facing enemies that create a lot of spinners (eg. November Challenge 10).

Teambuilding for Roots is fairly straight forward. Average teams can easily reach above 200k HP. However, since Roots lacks a RCV multiplier, you will need at least one sub to help heal. A card like Mizu   from Monster Hunter Collab can help with his active and Team RCV awakening. Alternatively, you could also use a Kuroyuri either as a sub or inherited on HMyne for her stats. You could even use the system if you want. Since Roots lacks a shield or any mechanic that helps him remain above 50% HP, the only way to go is pure team HP, and with HMyne’s Team HP awakening, it really helps Roots potentially reach 300k+ HP. Although the downside is gravities are still an issue. My team for Roots would be Roots, 2 HMyne with Kuroyuri inherits, LIdeal , and ODra .

       Ivory Bird War Goddess, Valkyrie -CIEL-

Active: Remove all bind statuses; Changes Heal, Jammer, Poison, and Mortal Poison orbs to Light orbs.

Leader Skill: 2x HP and ATK for Healer type; +2 seconds of  movement time; 6x ATK when matching 4 or more combos.

Awakenings:         

Super Awakenings: none

Type: Healer/God/Attacker

Ciel is one of the new 7 star Godfest Exclusives you can roll. She is amazing because of how tanky her teams can be, and since all she requires are combos to reach full multiplier, you can easily capitalize off 7c  awakenings. Her extra 2 seconds of movement time are also a nice bonus as well. 

Her dual 7c replaces her Devil  and Machine  Killers she had in her base form. However, since both leader skills are the same, you could opt to pair the evoed one with unevoed if you really need those killers. Ciel’s active clears hazards, but it also breaks hearts, which you need to heal and FUA  if necessary. Since she has no healing component in her, you will need to rely on a sub with heart enhances . Eir  is a great option, as she is unbindable, her actives clears awoken binds and generates 6 heart orbs (7 on 7×6). Hestia  is another great option as just like Eir, she has 3 heart enhance awakenings as well but also can cover FUA on the team. Although you can get by with playing Ciel without a heart enhance awakening sub, it is still highly suggested you have one. My team for Ciel would be Eir, LCotton , LIdeal , and Yuna .

A-tier cards

Enlightening Goddess, Rushana

Active: No skyfalls for 1 turn. 2x movement time for 1 turn.

Leader Skill: [No Skyfalls] 2x HP and ATK for God and Healer types. 3x ATK for each cross of 5 Wood or Light orbs.

Awakenings:

Super Awakenings: none

Type: God/Healer

Rushana is a farmable card from her descend, Rushana Descended. She is best played on a 7×6 board via either leader swap with Li or Macha , or paired with a 7×6 leader like Wedding Rushana . Like any cross lead, she is incredibly orb hungry, which is why 7×6 boards are the best for her.

She is very tanky, but just like Vraska , the lack of an RCV multiplier can really hurt her. This is where a card like Eir is very beneficial. Although Rushana’s active is somewhat lackluster (it also has a no skyfall clause, but that doesn’t really matter since Rushana is no skyfall anyways) as it only doubles your orb movement time. It can be useful on 7×6 board to solve complicated boards or override time debuffs; however, in most cases it is not that useful.

Her active is on a 4 turn cooldown so you can easily inherit over her. Rushana also only gives that 2x HP to God and Healer types and uses Wood and Light crosses to deal damage. That means her team is usually composed of Green or Light God or Healer types. My team for her would be Ma Chao lead(for 7×6 board), Yuna , ODra , Eir, and Rush(with Li inherit to swap).

Yog-Sothoth, the Midsummer One

Active: Change all orbs to Water and Heal orbs. Recover 40% of Max HP. Reduces bind status by 4 turns.

Leader Skill: All attribute cards 6x ATK when HP is above 80%. 3x ATK and RCV when HP is less than 80%. All attribute cards 3x ATK and 25% damage reduction when matching 2 Water combos.

Awakenings:

Super Awakenings:

Type: Devil/Dragon

BYog is an 8 star from PAD Island Seasonal REM. He is essentially the same thing as normal Yog except water based. It is worth noting that he has 7c and FUA in this form, which is more than the RCV form of REM Yog. He has high burst over 80% HP, and gains an RCV multiplier when he falls below that. He also has to match 2 sets of water to achieve full multiplier and gain a shield.

This greatly hurts his consistency as you won’t always have 6 orbs of a single color on the board. His RCV multiplier does let him stall so if necessary, he can stall for enough orbs to burst. However it can still be a struggle to maintain above 80% HP since you only get a shield by matching 2 sets of waters. My team for him would be You Yu , Amatsu , Bluejin , and Blodin for VDP awakenings.

Yog-Sothoth, the Limitless

Active: Change all orbs to Light and Heal orbs. Recover 40% of Max HP. Reduces bind status by 4 turns.

Leader Skill: All attribute cards 6x ATK when HP is above 80%. 3x ATK and RCV when HP is less than 80%. All attribute cards 3x ATK and 25% damage reduction when matching 2 Light combos.

Awakenings:

Super Awakenings: none

Type: Devil/Dragon

Yog is a 6 star Godfest Exclusive. Since this Yog is practically identical to BYog , everything you’re about to read about him will be a straight copy and paste from BYog, but I will add more to it. He has high burst over 80% HP, and gains an RCV multiplier when he falls below that. He also has to match 2 sets of light to achieve full multiplier and gain a shield.

This greatly hurts his consistency as you won’t always have 6 orbs of a single color on the board. His RCV multiplier does let him stall so if necessary, he can stall for enough orbs to burst. However it can still be a struggle to maintain above 80% HP since you only get a shield by matching 2 sets of lights. Ideally you pair this Yog with the other form of Yog , the Light and Water version. 9x RCV is definitely overkill, so by pairing with the other form of Yog, you can cover the FUA component on the team. Obviously you don’t have to do this as the other form of Yog has slightly worse stats. My team for Yog would be Wedding Scheat , Paimon , LIdeal , and HCotton .

Great Witch of the Stone Fists, Zela

Active: +2 combo count for 1 turn. Remove lock status on orbs, change all orbs to Wood and Heal orbs.

Leader Skill: Wood attribute cards 4x ATK, 35% reduced damage when HP is greater than 50%. All attribute cards 2.5x ATK when matching 2 wood combos. 3.5x ATK when matching 3 wood combos.

Awakenings:

Super Awakenings: none

Type: Devil/Attacker/Physical

Zela is a 7 star Godfest Exclusive. Zela has a great active and even better awakenings. However her leader skill is a little awkward. Her passive shield function exactly like Ed’s so I don’t have to repeat myself again. Her leader skill is very orb hungry and its also her main weakness. You have 4x passive multiplier to Wood above 50% HP, and with 2 Wood combos you reach 100x, 196x with 3. Since she is orb hungry, it’s best to pair her with Diablos.

The 7×6 board will great increase her consistency, plus you still have a 35% + 25% shield, which combined is still a 51.25% shield. Paired with Diablos , you have an 85x multiplier at 2 Wood combos and 119x with 3, assuming you are above 50% HP. Although this doesn’t solve all of Zela’s issues, it solves enough for her to be considered fairly strong. My team for her is GNey , ODra , Romia (7c SA), and a flex slot, probably Tardis or Eir just so you have an easier time recovering HP as you don’t have natural RCV multiplier.

Great Witch of the Flame Chains, Madoo

Active: +2 combo count for 1 turn. Delay enemies by 2 turns.

Leader Skill: Fire attribute 4x ATK and 2x RCV.Increase movement time by 3 seconds. All attribute cards 3x ATK, 25% damage reduction when matching 5+ orbs of any type: Fire, Water, Wood, Light, Dark, Heal, Jammer, Poison, Mortal Poison, Bomb.

Awakenings:

Super Awakenings: none

Type: Devil/Attacker

Madoo is a 7 star Godfest Exclusive. The great things about Madoo’s leader skill is having passive multiplier to Fire types, ATK and RCV. This lets her stall fairly easily without having to match a bunch of combos. Madoo also gets full multiplier for matching 5 connected of any orb type, so be careful when you are stalling with shield as matching 5 of any color and accidentally skyfalling a fire combo and you’ll be killing that spawn.

This enables you to match 5 wood orbs and still get the full multiplier and shield for Fire att. This greatly improves her consistency since you don’t have to wait for 5 Fire orbs each turn. It’s also worth noting that an FUA takes 5 heals, which means you will get the full multiplier and shield for just FUAing. The only major issue with Madoo is that she doesn’t have a high multiplier, scaling up to only 144x. Even with the shield, it means she is fairly fragile as she can’t reliably burst down high HP or defense spawns all the time. Since Madoo is the only lead on this list that I haven’t had a chance to play yet, either on my account or someone else’s, I’m not exactly confident in my team for her. My team would be Enra , Ilmnia , Ren , and Kyo .

Calm Observer Dragonbound, Rikuu

Active: Reduces enemies’ defense by 75% for one turn. Change all orbs to Fire, Water, Wood, Light, Dark, and Heal orbs.

Leader Skill: Dragon type cards 3x ATK and RCV. Increase movement time by 2 seconds. All attribute cards 5x ATK and 25% damage reduction when matching 5 of Fire, Water, Wood, Light, Dark, or Heal orbs.

Awakenings:

Super Awakenings:

Type: Dragon/Balanced

Rikuu is the boss drop from the January 2018 Quest Reward Dungeon. He was also obtainable for free for getting above 27% in the Rikuu Ranking. He will be obtainable again in Rikuu 2.0 Ranking. Rikuu is a pretty strong leader for something free. He has a strong sub pool, although it can be hard to fill for those without developed boxes. Rikuu has what you want in a rainbow lead in the current meta: RCV and a shield. He also has heals as one of his colors that can proc his leader skill, which boosts his consistency slightly. However, Rikuu has absolutely horrible stats. 2983 HP, 1382 ATK, and 540 RCV when 297 and level 110.

Despite the fact that he can get 7c SA, it’s much better to get unbindable because that 7c won’t be doing much with his low stats. Also, due to his low attack stat, it’s recommended that you don’t put any stat increase or killer latents on him because he won’t be benefiting from it very much. He also has a jammer, blind, and poison resist. Although it’s useful, it doesn’t hide the fact that his stats are horrible and its the main thing that hurts him. Even though he doens’t have a lot of awakenings, at least they are somewhat useful, especially the skill charge. My team for Rikuu would be Enra , LIdeal , ODra , and Amatsu .

Playful Time Dragonbound, Myr

Active: Randomly makes 7 heart orbs from non Light orbs. 12 seconds of free movement without triggering matches.

Leader Skill: 50% damage reduction and 7x ATK when matching 5 heal orbs in a cross formation. Light attribute cards 2x ATK and RCV. Increases movement time by 2 seconds.

Awakenings: 

Super Awakenings:

Type: Dragon/Machine/God

Myr is a farmable card from her descended, Myr Descended. Myr with her 75% shield can tank a lot of attacks, and with her passive RCV and easily heal back whatever HP loss, whether you shielded or not. Since having 5 hearts on the board isn’t always possible, sometimes you’ll have to tank a hit without a shield. This allows Myr to stall even when you don’t have heal orbs since you have great recovery already.

She also has a 196x multiplier for matching the heart cross, giving her good burst as well. Her awakenings also give her a lot of flexibility on how you want to build, however its best to focus on 7c with some TPA as secondary damage. Since a heart cross takes up a chunk of the board, matching pure 3 sets to allow the most amount of combos is the best way to go. It’s not a bad idea to go some TPA subs as well as it’ll simply amplify your damage more if you need it. My team for Myr would be LIdeal , LNey , HCotton , and Hiko . Weding Scheat is also worth considering of you want a more TPA focused team.

Reincarnated Kushinadahime

Active: 75% damage reduction for 1 turn. Increase combo count by 1 for 1 turn.

Leader Skill: [No Skyfalls] Healer type cards 1.5x HP and ATK. 2x ATK at 5 combos. +2x ATK for each additional combo, up to 12x at 10 combos.

Awakenings:

Super Awakenings:

Type: Healer/Dragon/God

Kushi is a 5 star pantheon roll from the Japanese 2 Pantheon. Kush is an unique no skyfall combo lead that uses healers. Her multiplier starts scaling at 5 combo, giving 9x at 5, 20.25x at 6, 81x at 7, 144x at 8, 225x at 9, and 324x at 10. Combine this with her boosted HP to healers and you get a lead with strong damage and reasonably tanky.

Kushi’s main weakness is lack of consistent high damage without using 7×6 as well as lack of RCV multiplier in her leader skill. Some of the lack of RCV is made up by Kushi’s enhanced heal orbs awakening, however her RCV is still not very good for the amount of HP she has. Kushi is the oldest card that’s still on this tier list, and she is getting quickly outclassed as there is no solid 7×6 healer type pairing for her to really thrive. However, she is still a top tier lead for A3 as she has perfect damage control as you don’t have to worry about skyfalls.

My A3 team for her is 4 Reincarnated Hakus . I wrote an article detailing exactly how to use that team in A3 a while back, you can read it here (Disclaimer: This was written a LONG time ago and it was done just to collect my thoughts, it is written with very casual language and overall not my best work). 

Fierce Goddess of Demon Conquest, Trailokyavijaya

Active: Inflicts damage equal to 20% of enemies’ max HP

Leader Skill: [No Skyfalls] Fire attribute 1.5x HP, 2.5x ATK. 6x ATK and RCV when matching 8 combos. 7x ATK and RCV at 9 combos.

Awakenings:

Super Awakenings: none

Type: God/Physical

Trailo is a 5 star pantheon roll from the Wisdom King Pantheon. Trailo is an interesting no skyfall combo lead. Her biggest issue is the inconsistency of 8c boards, however this is where Mai comes in. Mai is Trailo’s perfect pairing as she needs Fire and Light attributes for damage and Trailo teams need Fire Att. When paired together, you get a 1.5/157.5/7 + 25% shield on a 7×6 board. Essentially you just trade off some HP for a shield while getting the benefits of a 7×6 board.

Since a single Trailo already gives 7x RCV (which is more than enough to heal from 1 HP to full with 8c) as well as 1.5x HP, you have both natural HP to tank hits from when you don’t have your shield active as well as the RCV to heal. 157.5x is also really good damage from a 7×6 pairing especially when you compare to Jhoira x Yuki’s 135x and Jhoira x Reeche’s 144x. Overall, Trailo x Mai doesn’t lack anywhere, however they don’t excel anywhere as well. My team for Trailo x Mai would be Enra , Napoleon , Jhoira, and Planar .

Purple Life’s Primordial Divinity, Kamimusubi

Active: Increase skyfall change of enhanced orbs by 50% for 3 turns. Recover 30% of max HP.

Leader Skill: All attribute cards 5x ATK when HP is above 80%. 3x ATK and RCV when HP is less than 80%. All attribute cards 3.5x and 25% reduced damage when matching Dark and Wood orbs.

Awakenings:

Super Awakenings: none

Type: God/Healer

Kami is a 6 star Godfest Exlusive. Her leader skill heavily mimics Yog’s with the 80% HP condition. However she is a bit more consistent because she needs 2 attributes to get shield rather than Yog which needs 2 sets of Light. The tradeoff of being more consistent is slightly less damage. Kami has a 306.25x max multiplier whereas Yog has 324x max multiplier.

The easier to activate shield and RCV component when below 80% HP lets her easily heal back up into threshold and stay there. Kami also benefits off being able to use both Wood and Dark subs on the team, which gives her access to ODra and a wider range of sub options. Other than these differences, Kami has a very similar playstyle to Yog and a similar teambuilding mindset as Vraska . My team for her would be HVerd , ODra, and 2 GNeys .

Ambush Master Dragon Caller, Valeria

Active: 2x RCV for 3 turns; Replace all orbs

Leader Skill: 7x ATK when matching 4 or more attributes; 3x ATK & RCV when matching 7 or more combos

Awakenings:

Super Awakenings: none

Type: Dragon/Atacker

Valeria is a 7 star from the DBDC Collab. Valeria has an extremely high scaling multiplier but lacks any sort of shield or HP multiplier. However, dual Valeria lead teams can still have upwards of 70k+ HP if you run cards such as LIdeal  with team HP+ awakenings or just natural high HP stat cards such as Amatsu  or Hexa . Since Valeria also does not restrict specific types or attributes, you can pair with other strong rainbow leads with shields if you wish. Leads such as Yuki  or Reeche  are great pairing options. Furthermore, since Valeria naturally has a high scaling multiplier, you can also pair with 7×6 leads such as Jhoira  and not lose out on too much damage. Pairing with Jhoira will give you an 189x multiplier lead with 3x RCV and a 25% shield.

Valeria as a lead in general is overall nothing special, her unevoed form with 6 SB  is just far more useful. Really only make this form if you either have 5+ dupes or you aren’t really much of a farmer and just want another lead. Valeria’s active skill is pretty good from a general content clearing standpoint. Board refresh is great to get rid of locked orbs and hazards. Although the extra 2x RCV is not needed with Valeria’s 3x RCV already, its always welcome. As far as teambuilding goes, just remember if you are using a lot of team HP+ awakenings that you will most likely not have that much HP after you are awoken binded, so be sure to bring one on your team (or pair with Jhoira). My team would be LIdeal, Hexa, ODra , Amatsu.

Creeping Mist Devil Dragonbound, Suou

Active: Unlocks all orbs; Changes all orbs to Fire, Water, and Heal orbs; Increase combo count by 1 for 1 turn.

Leader Skill: 3.5x ATK for Fire and Water attribute and 35% damage reduction when above 50% HP; 2x ATK when matching Fire and Water orbs; 2x ATK when matching 6 or more combos.

Awakenings:    

Super Awakenings: none

Type: Dragon/Balanced

Suou is a 7 star from the DBDC collab. His leader skill and play style is extremely similar to Edward  with the 35% shield and making 6 combos. However Suou restricts you to only using Fire or Water attribute subs and having to match Fire and Water combos, which is slightly less consistent than pure 6 combos. Regardless, Suou is a great lead with a 14x multiplier and a 35% shield. His awakenings don’t let him do much damage on his own unless you VDP . He also doesn’t have SBR so you’ll need a sub that has 2 to make sure you have 100% SBR.

Suou’s active creates a board that allows you to burst, FUA, heal, and remove hazards because it unlocks. It also gives an extra combo if needed. Suou’s triple VDP makes him the only card in the game with 3 of these awakenings and effectively makes him the best VDP option there is. His balanced typing adds on to his power as a VDP. Most of the strong VDP subs are Light or Dark attributes, Fire and Water don’t have many strong VDP options at all, so Suou is a great start in giving more Fire and Water attribute cards VDP. My team for him would be Enra , I&I , Ren , and Amatsu .

Mega Awoken Green Dragonbound, Sylvie

Active: Unlocks all orbs; Changes all orbs to Wood and Light orbs

Leader Skill: 2x HP & ATK for Wood attribute; +2 seconds of orb movement time; 7x ATK when matching 6 or more connected Wood orbs

Awakenings:   

Super Awakenings:

Type: Dragon

Sylvie is a 6 star Godfest Exclusive. She shares so many similarities with Ryune that the only different there is are the sub options. Because they are so similar, the rest of this review section will almost be a complete copy and paste from Ryune.

Sylvie is a very strong row lead as you have a lot of HP and full multiplier from just 6 wood orbs. Sylvie is also one of the first cards in the game to have the combo orb awakening . However you need 12 orbs exactly to activate it and most of the time its more worth to make that extra row and get the extra combo than it is to connect 12 orbs together. Overall, Sylvie’s teambuilding is very similar to Ryune’s. However, there is no Mel equivalent for green as Eir  is probably the best option. This is the only reason why Ryune is above Slyvie. My team for Sylvie would be Zela , ODra , Eir, and Base Zela .

Great Witch of the Phantom Souls, Veroah

Active: Change Fire and Light orbs to Dark orbs; 0.25x RCV for 1 turn.

Leader Skill: [No Skyfall] 3x ATK & RCV when matching 5 or more combos; 6x ATK and 25% damage reduction when matching 6 or more connected Dark orbs

Awakenings:      

Super Awakenings: none

Type: Devil/Physical

Veroah is a 7 star Godfest Exclusive from the normal REM. Veroah has an incredibly high multiplier, 18x from a single lead. She also only needs 6 dark orbs to reach her max multiplier. If you build subs with a lot of HP such as Nees  or Lajoa , you can easily hit over 60k HP with the HP badge. Having this high HP lets her tank hits and easily recover by just matching combos with her RCV multiplier. With a 324x max multiplier, its ideal that you just build 7c subs as you will get a lot more value off them then stacking rows. Since each row awakening on a team adds less than the previous one, its better after a certain number of rows on a team to just build 7c . The “popular” number is 10, but really its up to preference. 

Playstyle-wise Veroah is very burst focused. You can chose to stall if you want, but with your active on a 5 turn cooldown and is a double dark orb convert, you can easily cycle these actives and just burst in shorter dungeons. Something else you could do is pair Veroah with Lajoa for the extra HP while maintaining the 3x RCV multiplier and 25% shield. However, doing this will restrict your subs to Devil and Dragon types. My team would be Veroah, Nees, Lajoa, base Veroah , and Nohime . This team can also pair with Lajoa if you want. The reason you want to build 7c as well is because when you do FUA, you can’t make a row, so your damage is going to be reliant on 7cs to burst down high HP/DEF spawns with resolve. 

Reminders

Before I end, I want to remind everyone again that this tier list, and any other tier list that may pop up, will never be an accurate representation of a leader’s actual potential. Take tier lists simply as a list that groups the strongest leads determined by the community together rather than something that you base what you play off of. There may only be around 50 leaders on this list, but there are over 100 leaders that are easily strong enough to clear high level content. The leader you play should not be determined by what you read here, instead determine the lead you should be playing by what you own in your box and your preference.

The reason I have to emphasize this subject so much is because many players have the wrong idea about tier lists. A tier list for a MOBA like League or SMITE or games like Smash are great, because they represent that character’s highest potential in the hands of a skilled player. But even for those games, where tier lists are more designed towards, newer/non-competitive players have to take into account the skill gap between them and professionals/veterans. The issue with PAD is that there is more than just a skill gap. Different players own different cards and are using those cards to attempt different dungeons. Tier lists will shift depending on the dungeon and the subs you have available.

At this point, I’m just repeating what I said earlier and what PDX Academy wrote already. I made this tier list for fun and because I find tier lists interesting, but PAD does not need tier lists. As a puzzle and strategy game, most of the enjoyment you get out of this game will be experimenting and trying new leads/teams, not playing the most meta lead you have over and over.

As a final reminder, tier lists are based on opinion and thus different people can rank leads differently. This means there is also a bias in preferred playstyles (although I tried to make mines as neutral as possible). Tier lists are also made under the impression that you have access to everything in the game to teambuild. For this reason your box may not reflect this tier lists as you could be missing key subs or subs in general for top tier leads. Tier lists also vary for different dungeons, as different dungeons have different mechanics are some leads deal with certain mechanics better than others. Finally, since PAD lacks a true PVP mode, unlike games like Smash or MOBAs, it’s impossible to have a clear vision on the potential of leads in similar tiers. Remember, take this tier list as entertainment rather than anything factual. All this tier list or any other tier lists can do is give you an idea on what the “meta” is. It tells you nothing about how that lead does in certain dungeons or about teambuilding, which is the biggest factors in determining the strength of a lead. Learn what the best lead in your box based on your box is. There are many resources out there to help you, including but not limited to Facebook, Discord, Reddit, etc.

Conclusion

Thank you for reading, I’m a guest writer for Mantastic and I would like to thank him for giving me this amazing opportunity to write an article for him, despite me being new to this and definitely not as good as him. This article was honestly more opinion based and doesn’t really help many people, so I will strive to make my next one actually helpful for the majority of players and not so opinion based(Yes tier lists are mostly opinion based, another reason why they can be inaccurate sometimes. I’m sure many of you will disagree with some of my rankings, and I’m open to discuss, but please do so in a respectful manner as I will respect your opinion). I’m sorry you had to read so much on the issues about tier lists, but I felt that it is very necessary to talk about as many players, new and old, are under the wrong impression of tier lists because of their role in other games. 

Since I like to know the person that wrote the article I’m reading a little, here’s a little bit about me. I’m a senior in high school and I’ve played this game for almost 1300 days. I’ve played in color blind mode since day 1, although I’m not necessarily color blind, I struggle to tell the difference between the green and blue orbs. My favorite lead in the game is Bastet because she is the best. I didn’t include her here because I didn’t want other people stealing her away from me.

I typically only solo farm Alt. Arena now unless there is something to farm or something new to do(looking forward to that new arena 5!), I’ve got about 150 and counting clears under my belt right now. I’m a huge fan of mythology so if you would like to see the lore behind a certain pantheon, let me know and I can begin to make it happen. I love anime and kpop as well and I’m a competitive tennis player. I have 2 NA accounts and a JP account and I play them all. IDs are below if you wish to add. Thank you again for reading and I guess, Happy Puzzling?!

InSomnia: 398 361 378

InSomnia2: 316 141 341

JP InSomnia: 354 758 661

I’ve also opened up a Youtube channel where I will be uploading ranking runs, CH8-10s, new descends, and many more! Subscribe here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHS1LAfwk2LNX3qXBXsC3Rw?view_as=subscriber