As a follow up to my One Shot Challenge 4 Guide, here are my clear videos for Mantastic, Fantastic. and MOMtastic accounts. I also included their full team set up, latents, and inheritance choices to help give a better understanding to my thought process.
Video commentary
—discussing the post here—-
Mantastic Noah Dragon clear (no 99 turn stall)
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Mantastic team
I used nearly the same team as I do for Arena 3 except for dropping my second Sanada for Gadius due to the no duplicates restriction. This actually proved to be helpful as Gadius’s high base recovery combined with bind immunity and bind recover allow for more flexibility/utility than I normally have.
My Krishna team is far less invested in compared to my Myr as I have fewer latents and inherits.
Mantastic’s Team
Card
Inherit
Latents
Comments
Delay to overcome resolve floors
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Autoheal was all I had
Green Odin clears binds
Using as SDR protection
Using as a strong base for Leilan
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Combos with Leilan for Noah
Upgraded active
When facing Noah Dragon, you can liberally use active skills as you will be forced to stall on the boss to some degree. I built my team around killing Noah Dragon without stalling for 99 turns. In order to do this, I had to use the +15% HP badge to tank the <75% hit. I also did my best to chip Noah Dragon down as close to 50% as possible, then unbind with the Green Odin inherit, Leilan + Yamato to kill. Due to fire dealing 50% less damage to water, you can hit up to 10 million without having it being voided.
It is safer to stall out the 99 turns and then do a giant burst at the end.
The Final Fantasy Tournament uses the loved/dreaded preset teams. With a preset team, it helps even the playing field as no one can gain an advantage via specific cards or combos. However, it does dramatically cut down on creativity and also results in more “luck” when trying to min-max your score as skyfalls/bad boards will play a massive role in determining how well you place. With this post, I will try my best to help give my readers a slight competitive edge based on my own experience running the dungeon.
In these ranking dungeons, we are scored based on 3 criteria:
Average combos made: 5,000 points per combo
Time Remaining: 500 points per second remaining
Maximum damage: up to 10,000 points if you hit 40 million.
Clear videos
115,708 score
Mantastic commentary
—talking about the dungeon itself—-
Your team
Everyone will be using the same team (max skill and max awoken) and it is important to understand how your leader skill functions along with any combo synergy you may have.
Noctis at a glance
This is based off the current form and does not take into consideration the future Yama P buff.
Noctis
Physical / Attacker 6 star base —-
4
+1 combo for 1 turn
7 turn CD —-
1.5x HP/ATK/RCV but cannot erase 3 connected orbs. 3x ATK with 3 combos. 6x with 6+ combos 2.25x HP / 81x ATK / 2.25x RCV
Noctis’s Scaling Leader Skill
# combos
3
4
5
6
Multiplier
20.25x
36x
56.25x
81x
This may seem like an amazing leader skill, but you have to remember you cannot match 3 connected orbs. Thus, every match must be at least 4 and it is wise to match primary colours in a TPA fashion (4 connected) and dead orbs in any number you can.
Based on the floor you encounter, you can make fewer combos in order to save time. Remember, you can always use Noctic’s active skill to increase you combo count by 1.
In the near future, North America will begin to receive the first wave of Reincarnated evolutions. This is a new type of evolution that provides a new layer of power and I wish to explain the process along with the pros and cons in this article. The thoughts explained below apply to the REM monsters who require an awoken evolution. Moving forward, you may begin to see monsters with the prefix R or Re and that simply designates their reincarnated form.
As a forewarning, you are unable to reverse this process so you must exercise caution before committing to a reincarnated evolution.
Video commentary
What is a reincarnated evolution?
A reincarnated evolution is a new type of evolution that upgrades an existing awoken evolution. This will increase their rarity (number of stars), grant them a third typing, and retain their original active. In addition, the required materials are easy to obtain, but unlike an ultimate evolution, reincarnation can only occur if your monster is max level.
Forewarning
In the above image, a level 99 Awoken Minerva can be reincarnated with those five masks. She will be unable to revert back to her awoken form and her level will be reset back to 1. This is usually not a problem with the abundant snowglobes or king infestations floating around; however, reincarnated forms require 16 million experience to max level (as opposed to their normal 4 million curve). Continue reading Reincarnated Evolution 101→
As part of a celebration for the latest Final Fantasy game, Yama P decided to roll the FF Collab REM numerous times and buff the monsters he rolled. This type of randomization buffs can be somewhat frustrating as we may have the wrong cards being improved or those who do not need them; however, you can simply view these as an additional bonus as the Final Fantasy Collab is already one of the best to date.
This post will be showcasing all the buffs and the impact they may have on those cards and how to make the most of them. My Final Fantasy Review will also be updated very soon to reflect these changes.
I do not know how long it will take for these buffs to come to NA/EU and I can only presume it will be soon and ideally before the Collab is over.
Video commentary
—video goes here—
Buffs
Noctis
Physical / Attacker 6 star base —-
4
+1 combo for 1 turn
7 turn CD —- 1.5x HP/ATK/RCV but cannot erase 3 connected orbs. 3x ATK with 3 combos. 6x with 6+ combos 2.25x HP / 81x ATK / 2.25x RCV 1.5x HP/ATK/RCV but cannot erase 3 connected orbs. 4x ATK with 3 combos. 7x with 6+ combos
2.25x HP / 110.25x ATK / 2.25x RCV
Noctis now scales significantly faster as the combo clause is a modest issue when you are unable to connect 3 orbs. This also means he is able to deal up to 110.25x ATK and results in higher burst damage that may reduce the need to bring a damage enhancing active. Quite powerful overall Continue reading Yama P Final Fantasy Buffs→
I normally do not provide much thoughts on future JP news as it does not apply to NA for usually 1-2 months. However, the most recent JP stream showcased numerous new evolutions, quality of life changes, and new game mechanics. I wish to take the time to review all of the new things coming to Puzzle and Dragons.
The Final Fantasy buffs will be covered in a separate post and the review will be updated accordingly. I will be reviewing Bleach whenever it is scheduled to come to NA.
Video commentary
—-video goes here—
Skill Inheritance changes
Puzzle and Dragons is by nature a grind-oriented game. However, there is fun grinding and there is tedious grinding. GungHo is doing their best to cut down on the more boring aspects so you can focus your stamina playing fun content.
Skill Inheritance has been a well received mechanic and it has given viability for cards that had lackluster bodies and powerful actives. Unfortunately, the process is somewhat costly to perform as each transfer costs 2 million coins and requires 4 tans. The coins were usually not too much of an issue, but collecting the right colour tans is mostly a stamina sink/loss as the dungeon is not fun to play and is more of a chore than pleasure. Continue reading JP Stream Changes & New Evolutions Review→
When making the decision to roll or save your magic stones, you need to determine if the featured pantheons can benefit or compliment your teams. Chasing for one specific monster is unwise as you will most likely be disappointed and should ideally have Godfests that overlap with many target cards. Remember all monsters that come out of the REM will qualify for Skill Inheritance so do not be too hasty when selling dupes. For a more detailed team building help, please refer to my full list Popular Leader’s and their Full Sub List Post. Lastly, to find more information about a specific pantheon or monster, refer to my Master List to better refine your search. If you are considering to purchase a Four Gentlemen card, please read my Review and Comparison HERE.
Introduction
The Gracious Banquet Godfest comes as a bit of a surprise as we have been somewhat overwhelmed by Final Fantasy along with it falling on a Wednesday. However, to tempt players further, the new Wisdom Kings pantheon will be featured on both days alongside two powerful series. In addition, all monsters rolled during the Godfest will come out with +50 to a random stat.
If you are torn between rolling in Final Fantasy or this Godfest, you will have to determine what can benefit your box more? Furthermore, you have to take into consideration that the Final Fantasy Collab is a limited time event (may not return for 6+ months) whereas these featured pantheons will rotate back along with being available all the time.
Forest Gala
—- — — —
Day 1
Greco Roman 2
Wisdom Kings
GFE
— — — —
Day 2
Three Kingdoms
Wisdom Kings
GFE
Video commentary
—video goes here—
Day 1:
The Greco Roman 2 pantheon is one of the oldest, but still possesses their powerful double orb changer. Granted they have diminished value in a heart cross meta, they are still capable of acting as powerful mono colour subs for their respective teams. In addition, they are capable forming reasonable tank teams that are reliant on matching two different colours. Overall, they are a powerful pantheon and are well positioned for when the meta shifts to powerful Krishna-style teams.
On the other hand, the Wisdom Kings pantheon is the newest one to be released in North America and features monsters who have unique actives and leader skills. All of them offer something new that will add dimension and diversity to your monster box. You may not need them in every situation, but it is worthwhile having them at your disposal. All of the Wisdom Kings have respectable leader skills and come ready to use (no ultimate evolution/awakening/reincarnating required). In addition, Acala will become a formidable leader when her fire cross buff comes through.
The GFE featured on Day 1 is superior as you have both the Kalis and Kaede featured at increased rates.
Overall, Day 1 is a great way to acquire powerful cards and is worth rolling even if you already have some of the Greco Romans as they are powerful options as assistants through Skill Inheritance.
There has been plenty of hype and excitement with the Final Fantasy Collab returning to North America; however, players should also be excited about the introduction of a pure Fixed Team Challenge. This challenge provides players with 5 unique and powerful teams to tackle various descends. All of the teams come hypermaxed (+297 and max skill) so we have the opportunity to play and enjoy compositions we would normally not be able to create. This is also a fantastic opportunity for newer/lower rank accounts
I have compiled all of my clears across my two accounts in solo mode to showcase how these teams play and the general strategies used to overcome the various hurdles presented in the dungeons.
Hel vs Deus ex Machina
It was nice how they gave us a nearly 100% farmable team. How do I feel about the poison meta? Hel no.
DQXQ vs Hephaestus Descended
A strange hybrid of water and light subs. I tended to focus on light matches at the beginning and transition over to water rows for the boss
Acala vs Seraphis Descended
It was strange playing a colour cross leader. It was also amusing to see an Odin Dragon and his ridiculous autoheal awakenings. If you are playing this in coop, you can tank the Limit Break enrage hit from the boss and simply go for the one shot on the first turn.
Neptune Dragon vs Zeus & Hera Descended
It is somewhat sad how dated Neptune Dragon has become with powercreep as his multiplier is so low considering how many orbs you have to chain together. Hopefully his future evolution will grant him some relevance.
Tsubaki vs Agni Descended
Probably the only time you will ever see a hypermax Sphinx but it was valuable for executing the Tan on the first floor.
Conclusion
The fixed challenges gives players the opportunity to play leaders that would otherwise be unobtainable along with enjoying a fully invested team. I hope GungHo continues to provide more fixed team challenges as it is a lot of fun to experiment with new playstyles as well as granting lower rank players the opportunity to clear variuos dungeons.
Skill Delay Resist Tamadras (SDR) are now invading Special Descend Rush (SDR), from the coin dungeons, which makes for confusing abbreviations and a wonderful opportunity to acquire the strongest Latent Tamadra. Special Descend Rush features 6 Rogue Descend Bosses along with the leveling up mechanic to further hinder your progress. However, SDR has very predictable mechanics and is able to be cleared with a Glass Cannon team as there are no lethal preemptives. Many players are using Awoken Liu Bei to mindlessly farm, but not everyone is fortunate enough to have him nor the fully invested Dioses and niche inherits.
As such, I wish to illustrate how Sarasvati or any other glass cannon leader can quickly clear this dungeon provided you have already invested in that team.
Video clear
My older clear from when Sarasvati was first released and required 12 orbs for 100x
Teams used
I have used Sarasvati since her release when she was a more orb hungry leader that required 12 water orbs for 100x. This would cause additional pressure to use orb changers and slows down the overall process. Thankfully, in her current form, Sarasvati is able to achieve 100x without a connected 6 water. Team A starts the dungeon and does not bring a dark sub to avoid the preemptive bind.
Team A
Team B
There can be many variations to these teams and you mostly have to counter a few mechanics:
Floor 3 requires a Delay or Poison to kill Volsung
Floor 4 requires a Delay or Awakenings Bind clear (aka Green Odin )
Floor 6 requires either a bind clear or a buff to be dispelled
6 kill actives for all the floors
Using a delay instead of a Poison or Awakenings Bind clear allows for some stalling/setting up your board. This conserves actives along with letting your floor 1 and 2 abilities to possibly recharge in time.
Other than this, it is a pretty straight forward dungeon: kill before being killed. You have 6 floors and a total of 10 actives so you will have at least 1 to spare at the end. Keep this in mind when team building and remember to take advantage of Skill Inheritance.
Sarasvati strategy
Based on the skyfall luck and locked orb spawns, you may have to adjust on the fly; however, this is the general strategy used:
Floor 1 Awoken Hermes , kill (A)
Floor 2 B/L Hermes if required, only need 9 water orbs (B)
Floor 3 is done in 3 steps:
Awoken Sun Quan , Sarasvati , set up board (A)
Use 9+ water orbs, kill and trigger resolve (B)
Finish off Volusung as he is at 1 HP, Conserve heal orbs (A)
Floor 4 abuses Orochi’s delay to wait out the awakenings bind
Move heart orbs out of the left and rightmost columns (B)
Orochi and heal as much as possible (A)
Remove locked fire orbs, conserve water orbs, and heal (B)
Remove locked fire orbs, conserve water orbs, and heal (A)
Remove locked fire orbs, conserve water orbs, and heal (B)
Mori to remove poisons and sweep with 2 water rows and 100x (A)
Floor 5 Blue Sonia and sweep (B)
Floor 6 is the boss floor
Remove locked orbs and make sure Sarasvati’s active is rolling to bait out the status void instead of bind (A)
Ryune + Hermes (may have to pass turns) and sweep
If you get an invade, you can either delay it or burst through or stall. You have to use your judgement.
Conclusion
Now is the best time to farm for Skill Delay Resist Latent Tamadras. Special Descend Rush may be challenging, but is doable with an invested team and a solid strategy.
Let me know how you have been farming this dungeon and what was your set up.
The Wisdom Kings are the newest pantheon to be released in Puzzle and Dragons. None of these monsters have an ultimate evolution and to help compensate for the anticipated Powercreep, they have received additional awakenings along with a unique kit to keep them interesting (they should have new evolutions in the distant future). All of the Wisdom Kings provide something new and valuable that helps add dimension to your monster box.
As a forewarning, any defensive multiplier is lost if your leader is bound. Conversely, the multiplayer bonus provides 50% more stats to these cards which helps bring them more inline with Reincarnated/Awoken evolutions as their base stats are around 700.
All games and activities have a certain degree of lingo or abbreviations made by the fans to help streamline discussion or to convey complicated thoughts more easily. Puzzle and Dragons is no exception and for players who have been playing for several years, the lingo and abbreviations are not too difficult to keep up with. However, if you are just venturing out of Departure Tower (the starting dungeon), you may be overwhelmed with information and unable to understand what is being said on the various forums or Facebook groups. The purpose of this article is to provide a handy reference guide to all Puzzle and Dragons (PAD) terminology and if I miss any abbreviations, please let me know in the comments below.
Video commentary
Puzzle and Dragons abbreviations
In order to streamline your search and reading experience, I have tried my best to categorize the various terms.
Magic Stone related
Magic Stones are the premium currency in Puzzle and Dragons. These are used to expand our box space, friends list, continue a failed dungeon, as well as rolling the Rare Egg Machine (REM). These can be acquired via clearing a dungeon for the first time, logging in every day, or by purchasing with real life money.
Stones simply refers to Magic Stones. Sometimes used in the past tense (stoned) to imply you continued a failed dungeon
IAP or In App Purchases is a term used to convey spending real life money for additional magic stones
F2P / Non-IAP stands for someone who is Free to Play and does not purchase Magic Stones
Whale or any other aquatic animal is a term used to describe someone who purchases a lot of magic stones. The larger the animal (with Whale being the largest), the more they spend.
MP or Monster Points is a secondary currency that can be used to purchase various powerful monsters
Godfest related
GF is a Godfest where certain monters are featured at increased rates. Often confused with Girlfriend.
PCGF is the short form of Player’s Choice Godfest. This is a special Godfest in which the players vote for the featured monsters. I do not know when it will occur next
GFE are Godfest Exclusives that are only able to be rolled during Godfests
4x GFE indicates that certain GFE are featured at 4x rates. This number can change/vary
Pantheon is the featured non-GFE monsters
Troll Gold is a monster that comes out as a gold egg, but is really just an evolved silver
![[Video] One Shot Challenge 5 – Krishna vs Noah & Gaia Dragon, Izanagi/Myr vs Gaia Dragon](https://mantasticpad.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/noah-d-kill-horz.png?w=672&h=299&crop=1)
for Gadius 
due to the no duplicates restriction. This actually proved to be helpful as Gadius’s high base recovery combined with bind immunity and bind recover 
allow for more flexibility/utility than I normally have.
Forest Gala 
![[Videos] Fixed Team Challenge Descends](https://mantasticpad.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/acala-kill-f-horz.png?w=672&h=369&crop=1)
DQXQ vs Hephaestus Descended
Mantastic Puzzle and Dragons 