Introduction

Probably my most click-baity title to date but I was unsure of how to better convey the message of no entering the new 4 Choices! Appreciation Medal Gift Dungeon without understanding what it entails.

This is because this special Gift Dungeon will award players with one Appreciation Medal that can be Monster Exchanged for various 7-star Godfest Exclusives. The catch is players can only clear one of these dungeons along with the dungeon names not actually telling you what possible card their respective Appreciation Medal can be Exchanged for. Also, once one has been cleared, there is no undo button and you are stuck with your current choice.

With this in mind, I would like to take this time to elaborate on my own thought process of which Appreciation Medal should be pursued along with what each one can be Monster Exchanged for.

Just be aware that we have 90 days to clear this dungeon which means you have time to sit and ponder this decision. Furthermore, this dungeon also awards a sizable amount of in game Coins so bring a bonus Coin drop leader if possible.

Official post can be found HERE.

Video commentary

–video coming soon–

P&D Pass

Players who own the P&D Pass (whether Trial or paid for) will receive a bonus Appreciation Medal via in game mail:

In addition, players who log in during the event with an active P&D Pass subscription will receive an additional 4 Choices! Appreciation Medal Gift through the in-game mail! By clearing the dungeon, players will be able to receive another medal, so don’t miss this chance to try out the P&D Pass!

With this in mind, if you have never used your free Trial yet or have contemplated doing some IAPing (In App Purchasing), now is the time to shine. With that being said, there is a chance that we will have another bonus 10 rolls to P&D Pass owners towards the end of the event as it happened in JP. As such, if you can continue waiting, for your free trial, defer it until then.

Available Appreciation Medals

The following section shows which monsters each Appreciation Medal corresponds to:

Spring Forward

• Jiraiya
• Grandis
• Yuri

PAD Appreciation Medal 2019

• Fagan Rai
• Zaerog Core

Spring Fest Medal

• Ancient Dragon Knight – Rex
• Echidna – Sara
• Hera – Luna

PAD Appreciation Medal

• Valkyrie Ciel
• Zeus Giga
• Athena Non

Which Appreciation Medal to choose

The decision of which card to pursue will come down to your own individual Monster Box, goals, and needs which makes it impossible to make a broad sweeping statement for all accounts. As a general rule, acquiring a new card will most likely be the most meaningful but with that being said, here is my thought process for each card:

Spring Forward

Jiraiya

Jiraiya is a truly unique card as they have the ability to Transform into 7 different forms (counting starting form) which will in turn change their icon and active skill but retain the same awakenings/stats.

This means they have the capability to use powerful actives on a shorter cooldown but that active will change with each Transformation. I feel that this is pretty cool on paper but hard to work with in reality along with the fact that Wood lacks any stellar lead at this point in time.

As such, I feel that they make for a poor exchange choice.

Grandis -> Transformed Grandis

Transforms into

Grandis has become a mono Fire powerhouse sub due to their outstanding offensive potential and overturned active skill once they Transform. While this Transformation does take 30 turns, Grandis retains viable awakenings in his starting form and does not have to Transform right away.

As such, he is most at home in longer content such as Shura Realm or the Arenas where the earlier floors are not threatening enough to try and scramble to Transform right away. But once Transformed, Grandis boasts a magical 3 turn active that produces a Row of Fire orbs and 3x ATK for a single turn along with +1 combo. This helps ensure activation for mono Fire teams along with sufficient Burst to push through the most durable spawns.

Presently speaking, Gileon , Remu  x Dante , Halloween Suou , and any other mono Fire team can greatly benefit from Grandis. With this in mind, if you use any mono Fire team and are wanting to push into harder content, Grandis may be the best choice for you.

Evo Yuri

Evolved Yuri is her best form and is able to function as the second best active skill solution for Norza teams. This is because Norza requires an active skill every turn along with a Water + Heart match. As such, Norza herself is the best sub but barring that, Yuri comes in second as she does not break activation requirements along with providing some Heart orbs.

When Norza and GH Yomi first came out, I used my original Spring Forward Medal on Yuri to complete my team and was able to clear AA4 which was pretty Fantastic. As such, if you do have a fully capable team but lack a Norza to use as a sub, this may be a meaningful Monster Exchange, especially if you have not cleared that much content yet.

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PAD Appreciation Medal 2019

Fagan Rai Weapon

Fagan Rai is still a respectable leader but it is his Weapon Assist that makes him such a desirable card. This is because it is one of the most universally helpful equips available due to the fact that is provides two Team HP , Skill Boost , Cloud Resist , and a 20 turn cooldown which is difficult to accidentally charge up.

This Weapon can be used on essentially any team and is one of the best solutions for Cloud Resist. I originally Monster Exchanged for Zaerog Core back in the day and while he has been tremendously helpful, there were many occasions where I wished I had this Weapon Assist along with never being able to roll a Fagan Rai of my own.

As such, I personally plan to pursue this Weapon Assist for both of my accounts as neither have acquired a Fagan Rai.

Zaerog Core & Weapon Assist

Base Zaerog Core is still a potent damage solution for teams who wish to be below 50% HP along with boasting a valuable 1 turn active skill.

This active skill will cut your HP by 50% along with providing +3 seconds of orb movement time. This can be abused to always stay within your key Health zone but at the same time, is not as needed compared to before.

This is because the best non-Farming <50% leader is Euchs who has no true need to run Zaerog Core as they can maintain their own health along with rarely matching 7 combos.

As such, Zaerog Core has begun to gain more value from his unique Weapon Assist.

Zaerog Core’s Weapon Assist is able to provide 2 TPAs and is the only card in North America that can do so. This makes it tremendously unique and powerful as we are starting to see a rise in TPA-friendly cards such as Astalos , Raijin , and Base Sophie who boast high base ATK and several TPAs of their own.

This means that pursuing a TPA on these Rainbow-oriented cards is meaningful and by using this Weapon Assist, you can bolster their personal damage by 2.25x compared to single TPA weapons who only provide 1.5x. This is a drastic difference in offensive potential and the higher amount provided by Zaerog Core helps ensure that these cards with a VDP latent can execute a given spawn.

As such, if you own any of these cards or others that synergize well with TPA, Zaerog Core can be a meaningful choice to pursue.

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Spring Fest Medal

Ancient Dragon Knight – Rex

Rex’s Evolved form is able to pride a more reliable output of damage but he is still sadly outpaced by other options. Perhaps if you had 2 you could create an interesting system of changing Hazards to Wood but this is impractical overall.

If contemplating the Weapon Assist, it is best to look at Zaerog Core’s as it is the only Weapon to provide 2 TPA .

Overall, a poor card to pick

Echidna – Sara -> Weapon

Sara’s Weapon Assist is able to provide 2 unique Killers which is quite rare overall. This has applications for end game content as it will grant the owning card 3x personal damage against Attacker and Physical type spawns.

As such, this is best inherited over an offensive card to help ensure they deal sufficient damage. Furthermore, the 12 turn cooldown provides 2 turns of Delay which can be utilized to gain Effective Skill Boosts to help Transform various cards.

Hera – Luna -> Weapon Assist

Hera Luna’s Weapon Assist is able to provide a Skill Boost and <50% awakening. This combination is any low HP Farming team’s dream as it provides the owning card 2x ATK when below half health along with having your actives charged one turn sooner.

With the advent of Euchs , we now have a team capable of clearing end game content while relying on <50% awakenings. As such, this Weapon can be used to bolster Euch’s damage output to even higher levels while also ensuring they Transform a bit sooner.

Overall, Hera Luna’s Weapon is one of the more universally helpful as it can be used across a wide variety of teams.

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PAD Appreciation Medal

Valkyrie Ciel -> Weapon Assist

Valkyrie Ciel’s Weapon Assist is able to provide a Balance and Attacker Killer awakening to the owning card. This translates into 3x personal damage against those respective spawns and can be a meaningful way to layer in additional damage.

The value of this Weapon will naturally hinge on what kind of content is being played but it is worth mentioning that these Killers are quite potent in AA4 as they line up well vs the final floors.

Another point that deserves some attention is her easy to use and bonus movement time Leader Skill. This can be used as a way to more easily S-rank a dungeon but there are plenty of other options available now.

Zeus Giga

Zeus Giga is Farming leader with a full mono Light board changer. The catch is you must remain full HP which in turn places constraints on where he can be used. Furthermore, the Farmable Zeus Verse is able to fulfill a reasonably similar role.

In regards to his Weapon Assist, it does provide 4 Rows and Full Bind Immunity which can be beneficial, but also quite restrictive and not as strong as other options available.

Athena Non

Athena Non’s Evolved form is able to function as a modest Raijin sub due to her high personal damage and desire to match TPAs . This will grant your team another hard hitting member that can also gain a Machine Killer via Super Awakenings along with Machine Killer latents.

Sadly, I feel she is mostly a damage stick as her active cannot be used for Raijin as it will produce a board of 3 colours + Hearts. Furthermore, she does not provide any unique colours as Fasca already covers Wood and is Raijin’s most common pairing.

Conclusion

I love free stuff, especially when we are able to choose our prize instead of gambling or leaving it to chance. As such, players should be able to make an informed decision prior to entering these dungeons in order to ensure one acquires the best GFE for their Monster Box.

As a whole, there is no perfect answer as gaining a new card is meaningful along with everyone having differing Monster Boxes and goals. With that being said, I feel that Grandis (Spring Forward) as a mono Fire sub along Fagan Rai and Zaerog Core (PAD Appreciation Medal 2019) for their stellar Weapon Assists are the three most valuable at this point in time.

Of course, their value diminishes if you already own these cards or have no ideal place to use them. With that being said, let me know which Appreciation Medal you pursued along with the card you decided to Monster Exchange for in the comments below.

Happy Puzzling!

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