Introduction
Puzzle and Dragons is a tremendously deep game that has years worth of content waiting for players. Sadly, there is essentially no in-game information as to what mechanics, spawns, or what can actually happen in a dungeon which in turn creates a terrible guessing game.
Thankfully, we are eventually able to “solve” any dungeon with enough trial and error and for myself, what I find most helpful when trying to tackle a new dungeon is a Checklist of notable mechanics. From this Checklist, I will try my best to address all of the dangerous mechanics while prioritizing unavoidable abilities.
With this in mind, I would like to create a master Checklist for all of the Arena, Colosseum, and World of Carnage dungeons to help players better prepare themselves as knowing what can possibly happen is a huge asset in PAD.
Video commentary
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How to use my checklists
With any dungeon, there are avoidable and unavoidable mechanics and it is important to address the unavoidable mechanics first. As such, there will be a priority-like system when looking at dungeon mechanics and you may have to forgo certain solutions depending on the depth of your Monster Box. Furthermore, certain teams/leaders may naturally counter specific mechanics.
Beside each mechanic I will put in brackets for the floor it can be encountered on and if I include a star (*) it means this is unavoidable or is a guaranteed spawn on this floor.
The bottom section will be a quick reference as to whether or not these are needed.
-
Need it
Nice to have but not a priority
Not relevant
Another aspect is having sufficient Effective HP to survive unavoidable preempetives/attacks. For example, if there is a 200,000 hit and your team has 75% Damage Reduction, you would only need 50,001 HP to survive this.
I am also going to assume you have FUA / Auto Follow Up Leader Skills, L
, and VDP
or equivalent. I will highlight any notable Void spawns if they require an exceptional amount of damage to overcome.
XYZ Dungeon |
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Things you must bring |
Great to have but lower priority |
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From this above hypothetical example, players will need a 5+ turn Unable to Match Orb clear on floor 3 who will always spawn. Conversely, the need for Colour Absorb only applies to Water or Fire teams and may not even spawn on Floor 4.
Arenas
Arena 3 (Bipolar Goddess 3) |
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Things you must bring |
Great to have but lower priority |
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Arena 1 and 2 is just the same thing but no MP Dragons (F23).
Arena 4 (Three Hands of Fate) |
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Things you must bring |
Great to have but lower priority |
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Arena 5 (Grotesque Being) |
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Things you must bring |
Great to have but lower priority |
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Arena 6 (Incarnation of Worlds) |
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Things you must bring |
Great to have but lower priority |
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Bring lots of Movement Time buffs…
Alt. Arenas
Alt. Arena 1 (Alt. Bipolar Goddess) |
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Things you must bring |
Great to have but lower priority |
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Alt. Arena 2 (Alt. Three Hands of Fate) |
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Things you must bring |
Great to have but lower priority |
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Alt. Arena 3 (Alt. Grotesque Being) |
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Things you must bring |
Great to have but lower priority |
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Alt. Arena 4 (Alt. Incarnation of Worlds) |
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Things you must bring |
Great to have but lower priority |
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If you swap your own leader and enter floor 14, there is a 50% chance to receive a 402,372 hit as he will no longer attempt to swap your leaders.
Colour Absorb is only truly needed for the 50% chance of Yomi Dragon spawning on Floor 20 but it is possible to have a favourable Absorb twice in a row. Conversely, having a single turn of Absorb counter makes this much easier.
This is the most demanding dungeon from a mechanics point of view as it has basically everything multiple times.
Colosseum
Both Colosseums are “Rogue” style dungeons which means your entire team is level 1 when you enter the dungeon and will level up as you progress through based on their Team Cost (lower = more level ups). This is important because your Super Awakenings will be disabled upon entering which may be dangerous for Transforming teams who rely on Super Awakenings for Skill Boosts .
Colosseum 1 (Guiding Star’s Heavenly Wings) |
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Things you must bring |
Great to have but lower priority |
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I don’t think thee is any real danger in this dungeon as the main gimmick upon release was Resolve in an era when we had no Follow Up Attack.
Colosseum 2 (Destructive Star’s Ruined Wings) |
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Things you must bring |
Great to have but lower priority |
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Despharion has 2 Billion Effective HP and will execute you when pushed below 50% so make sure you have a way to deal sufficient damage through Killers, Burst actives, or hard hitting cards.
Another important thing to be aware of is that the dungeon is loaded with high combo shields who may also have Void mechanics. As such, bonus combo leaders or 7×6 can be advantageous.
World of Carnage / Shura Realm
Both names are often used interchangeably
AWoC1/ASR1 (Alt. Guardian of the Demon Gate) |
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Things you must bring |
Great to have but lower priority |
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The Alt. version is nearly identical outside of a Gem floor plus colour changing spawns for anti cheese and should this be the difficulty you intend to play.
WoC2/SR2 (Ruler of Hell’s Halls) |
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Things you must bring |
Great to have but lower priority |
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WoC2 is more forgiving compared to the Alt. version as the need to hit 600,000 Effective HP is lower due to no Gem floor. On the other hand, there is a possibility Floor 4 can be obnoxious which is omitted in the Alt. level.
As for the various Resists, they are used seldom needed and many can be avoided if you kill the opposing spawn fast enough. Of course, if you can layer them in, it will help.
On the other hand, utilizing Poison or Jammer
Surge will provide more consistency, especially for teams who rely on specific orbs to function as Gilles will Lock the board if Hazards are present.
Alt. WoC2/SR2 (Alt. Ruler of Hell’s Halls) |
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Things you must bring |
Great to have but lower priority |
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On top of all the various mechanics you need to counter, everything hits outrageously hard so once you are able to achieve 600,000 Effective HP, being able to heal sufficiently becomes a priority. Furthermore, everything on floors 1-7 have a 75% Super Resolve which means you will have to “kill” them twice along with tanking their damage. Leaving one of these spawns alive triggers “Wave of Carnage” which boosts their Attack by 7x for the next hit. It can also be thought of as a free turn as they only charge up on that turn.
Stellar Stage of the Supreme (WoC3/SR3)15 Floors |
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Things you must bringFloor 8+ have multiple different possible spawns |
Great to have but lower priority |
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Dimension Guide
Dimension Guide (MD1)13 Floors |
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Things you must bringMost floors have 2 possible spawns |
Great to have but lower priority |
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Alt. Dimension Guide (Alt. MD1)14 FloorsOn-type cards have 4x HP & RCV |
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Things you must bringMost floors have 2 possible spawns |
Great to have but lower priority |
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Conclusion
Team Building for Puzzle and Dragons can be a daunting task but with a Checklist of key mechanics that needs to be overcome, this process becomes significantly easier. For myself, this is how I approach any dungeon as I try to my best to counter the most dangerous and unavoidable mechanics first.
With that being said, let me know what your process is when tackling new/hard dungeon and whether or not this type of post is helpful.
Happy Puzzling!
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Thank you! I will be using this list from now on as it’s the most convenient thing ever created.
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Super helpful!,,
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Fitting WordPress name =)
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Glad to be of help =D
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Thanks for this. Super convenient and helpful. Hope your health is doing better.
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You are most welcome and today I am feeling better =D
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Exactly what I was looking for! I kept looking on Reddit for guides!
Very appreciated!
I think it’d be interesting to do a similar kind of thing for meta farmables.
Thank you again!
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I actually give you maybe important things about your help but you seem to didn’t read it… Sigh.
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Main downside of doing things for cards is that they can become invalidated over time whereas this won’t change as dungeons are static
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Literally have been looking for a resource like this for forever! So clean and detailed, truly a blessing Mantastic!!!
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Thank you for your kind words =)
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This is killer, expertly done!
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Happy to hear it =)
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Thanks for the guide!
Can you add a button that will scroll all the way up for you and
like a quick-link url table of contents thingy that takes you down?
I for sure will be revisiting this often 😉
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I would need to figure out how to do that lol
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Brilliant!
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Happy to hear =)
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Another key thing for AS2 is a solution for the full board of hearts that can be an issue. Thanks for the write up! Still trying to get my AS2 solo clear!
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Good point and I added that in =)
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I commented on the reddit post too, but I just wanted to say thank you again for this excellent content. I had about 5 end game dungeons to still complete solo, sure enough I used this guide starting at A6 (which I just never got around to doing and it only took me 4 tries of tweaking a team built specifically using your guide. On to the next 4. Thank you again so much for all you do Mantastic. — Simion32
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You are most welcome and I am thrilled to hear this guide has already proven helpful =D
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Excellent guide! This kind of content is what stops me from quitting and gives me back the thrill to keep trying to understand and face all the challenges and work thats building up a nice team out of my box. Its been like this for most than 5 years now!!! Thank you and I hope you get better
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Thank you for doing this! I was looking for something like this.
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You are most welcome =)
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It would be great to see where damage void pierce is needed.
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You mean notable floors that need this?
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Right. It’s probably just a Ryumei thing though. It’s an amazing guide already! Thank you!
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Whoa! Awesome!
Thank you!
Do you have something similar for some of the other dungeons, like Descended ones?
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not for the descends sadly
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Is there a checklist for Shura3,? Thanks for all your content Mantastic!
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Not yet! Coming soon
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Alt Shuras & Alt. Mystic Dimensions gets you More EXP, A Ton of EXP
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