Two exciting things happened to me last night: finally cleared Scarlet 
on both accounts and Super Gabriel being announced. This is the second time has been available for North America and I was eager to finally clear this new challenging descend as during the first rotation I only gave it a few feeble attempts before getting distracted by other things. In addition, this was the first descend I got to push my newly evolved 
and 
to their limits. Continue reading Scarlet Cleared and Super Gabriel Announced
Category Archives: Monster Analysis
Light Metatron, Still in the Meta?
Light Metatron is one of the oldest godfest exclusives (GFE) along with the Odin pantheon. As with any long-lasting and content-rich game, the issue of powercreep will raise its ugly head. Powercreep occurs when older monsters become more trivialized and less capable of clearing the newer and harder content. To help combat this, Gung-Ho has been systematically going through the older pantheons and giving less popular cards an awoken evolution to propel them back into top-tier status. Re-buffing older cards is healthy for Puzzle and Dragons because many players will have rolled a worthless god months ago and an awoken evolution breathes new life into their box. It also encourages other players to yearn for it and thus roll more heavily during a godfest. It is a win-win situation for everyone and users do not feel the constant pressure to roll for new gods all the time. With all that being said, 
is still stuck in an unfavourable spot and it has only gotten worse with the advent of more exciting (and offense oriented) bind clear monsters such as 
, 
, 
, and . Furthermore, the high end game play in Puzzle and Dragons Continue reading Light Metatron, Still in the Meta?
November 11 New Evolutions: Awoken Sakuya, L/D Izanagi, Umi Yami, and Kushinadahime
New evolutions are out and bring many game changers to the table!
Izanagi has fallen a bit out of favour while waiting for his new ultimate evolution. I felt he was being pushed out of the meta because his viability as a sub was being outshined by other options. In terms of descend capable teams, he would be a sub on 
, 
, and 
. With the advent of losing her god typing and gaining a higher scaling combo-based multiplier, Izanagi’s burst (and awakenings) can no longer benefit your two leaders and should not be used as a staple sub anymore. The dark typing is an amazing addition to the other light-based rainbow teams as you now have a stronger option than 
or 
if you do not need the shield. and teams are the only ones left who will truly benefit from his additonal 
and dark typing. One other use for the new L/D evolution is the ability to cover all the colours for a 
team. This can allow you to choose three unrestricted subs and can help you go more mono blue. The Wonder Boys still retain their god typing, so the 
active is still beneficial. Overall, the new evolution is very welcomed, but just a little too small and too late to fully capitalize on release. Furthermore, I discussed the struggles that rainbow teams face in a previous Posting and Izanagi is still regulated being a rainbow sub that can now fulfill dark requirements.
I had started to put pluses on my own Izanagi as he would have become Continue reading November 11 New Evolutions: Awoken Sakuya, L/D Izanagi, Umi Yami, and Kushinadahime
Awoken Sakuya discussion and team building
Sakuya was my first real REM god (I semi-started with a Gabriel 
) and it completely changed my playstyle and enjoyment of PAD. She has carried me through countless descends and I still choose to use her in my most challenging encounters.
Sakuya has always historically been one of the top tier leaders and only began to fall out of favour within the last 6-8 months due to powercreep and the advent of TPA mono-colour teams. Mono-colour leads such as Shiva 
provide almost the same multiplier, but are able to focus on one colour and utilize TPA and numerous orb changers. (I go into more detail on the strengths and weakness of rainbow teams in a previous Guide I wrote.) But the long and short of the matter is rainbow teams Continue reading Awoken Sakuya discussion and team building
Rainbow Team Guide
Hello and welcome! Today I am going to discuss rainbow teams in detail along with their pros and cons, strategies, and team building. A rainbow team uses a leader skill that requires 4+ elements to produce damage, thus the multi-colour/rainbow name. This creates a skill threshold in order to achieve consistent activation as well as a challenge when facing harder descends.
Pros:
- High base multiplier
- Less REM reliant (especially at earlier levels)
- Usually utility oriented
- Wide range of subs/team building options
- Damage is controlled as it is hard to accidentally proc your leader skill
- Exciting to play
Best Farmable Monsters to Obtain and Why
As the title implies, I want to provide a list of the best farmable monsters to acquire and where they can be found. Currently, GungHo has been very generous with events, magic stones, etc. and a new account are able to push through content much faster due to more REM access, higher multiplier leads, and hypermaxed (best) friends. All of this adds up to a lower need to search out and acquire farmable monsters, but many have value to this day. These will be listed in no particular order because everyone will place different value on each card as your team composition, team cost, and current progress affect your needs. From my own experience, I found Echidna 
, Valkyrie 
, Athena 
, Dark Izanami , Zaerog Infinity 
, and Satan 
to be the most helpful and still used to this day. Furthermore, I will try my best to keep this list up to date as new content is released. Continue reading Best Farmable Monsters to Obtain and Why
Echidna!!
Also known as Crimson, Lotus Mistress, Echidna, she is one of the first valuable farmable monsters a new account can acquire and was actually my third hyper maxed monster. I have had great success using her on my Kirin (Sakuya) team for nearly two years. Her lower stat weight along with poor awakenings paired with new descends being anti-delayed have pushed her more out of the top meta teams, but her delay is still invaluable. Her lower exp curve combined with very accessible evolution materials and exceptionally high recovery makes her a boon to a newer account.
So what is the point in actually delaying a boss for three turns? Well in those three turns, you cannot die! You can use it as a way to restall for other actives, take your time in killing the boss by avoiding kill mechanics at low hp, or to even wait out nasty bind situations. In short, Echidna allows you to by pass one floor you normally would have died to. Naturally she shines on rainbow teams that require a red sub or mono red teams to take fullest advantage of what she brings to the table; however, she can be used as a free pass to other teams. Provided you can take the relative loss of a sub slot, Echidna can still excel for almost all of the content. Do not be afraid to use her on a non-boss floor to save actives for a boss that does have a status void shield.
Now that you are all excited about getting your hands on one of these beauties, where is the best place to farm them? You could try to spam normal dungeons for the 2% drop chance or pray to the Pal Egg Machine Gods for one. BUT, she has her own survey dungeon and to make it even better, she can spawn on the first four floor as well as a guaranteed appearance on the boss. Scarlet Snake Princess has four different difficulties and of course higher difficulty yields better drop rate. It is best to play during an enhanced drop period and she drops in her three star form, Naga. These can be fed into any evolution form of Echidna as a skill up attempt so there is no extra investment required.
Overall, Echidna is still a fantastic card to have in your pocket for even the toughest of content! I hope this does help and would love any feedback you may have =)
Mantastic Puzzle and Dragons 