Yog-Sothoth is one of the most highly anticipated Godfest Exclusives to be released as they are without a doubt overpowering. They easily push the envelope of Powercreep as they have an incredibly easy to activate leader skill along with somewhat outrageous damage output.
While leaders like Anubis and Kushinadahime have the potential to achieve amazing damage output, they are somewhat gatekeeped behind significant player skill and having ideal boards. As such, they are sometimes out of reach for the average player whereas Yog-Sothoth will be simple to play by comparison.
This article will examine his strengths and weaknesses along with his uses/applications and some team building guidelines.
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Yog-Sothoth at a glance
6,258 HP / 1,985 ATK / 233 RCV
1,100 Total
Active Skill: All orbs
Recover 40% Maximum HP
4 turn bind recovery
13 turn cooldown
Leader Skill: All cards 6x ATK when HP is greater than 80%. 2.5x when HP is less than 80%. 3x ATK and 25% damage reduction when matching two Light combos 324x ATK / 43.75% Damage reduction
Yog-Sothoth
Rank: S
Pros
Cons
Bind Immune with bind clear
324x ATK for a mono colour team
2 combo Yogs will be a thing
43.75% damage reduction
Low skill cap/easy to use
Flexible team building
Incredible base active skill
Possibly best value in the game
1,100 weighted stats compounded by
coop boost awakening
This current set of One Shot Challenge (OSC) is one the easier side compared to previous incarnations. This is due to both Powercreep of available cards (think Monster Hunter and pairing everything with Diablos ) and easier spawns overall. As such, many players may be completing their first OSC and will now be the proud owner of one of three new cards.
Each of these cards has tremendous value and you will be able to acquire all 3 over time through future OSC. Furthermore, there will be limited time Guerrilla dungeons that will allow you to skill them up and farm as many as you are humanly able to.
This article will highlight how all three cards can be used and why they are worth pursuing.
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Anubis x Diablos Whaledor clear
Whale-done me. Pretty much any combo leader with Diablos will waltz through this OSC __
As part of the REM overhaul, 10 new monsters have been added to the pool while simultaneously removing the less than desirable Late Bloomers, Elementals, and Fruit Dragons. This will at least cut down on the excessive silver/troll gold fodder while giving players the opportunity to pull new and exciting cards. At this point in time, the Late Bloomers and Fruit Dragons are often part of various gift dungeons but the elementals are now currently unobtainable.
This article will review both the Brave 2 and Wisedragon Pantheons along with advice and suggestion on how to use them.
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Rankings
I will be following my S, A, B, C, D ranking scale with +/- as required. I will also incoperate these the next Godfest review charts. The order they appear in is irrelevant as only the difference in tiers should give you a general baseline to go off of.
One last point to keep in mind is that all 10 of these cards will be available at any time unlike Gala exclusives.
As part of the Version 11.1 patch (full review can be found HERE), new evolutions and balance changes/buffs are now live for some of your favourite monsters.
This article will highlight the strengths and benefits of each new evolution while providing advice as to which path you should pursue along with providing commentary on all the new changes on each monster
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New evolutions
While most awoken/reincarnated forms tend to be strict upgrades, the ones that were released today are not so clear cut. Granted they do gain either an improved active/enhanced stats/more awakenings/etc, but some of these dramatically change what the card is known for and you should exercise careful planning if you lack duplicates. I will be referring to the official FB post HERE. Continue reading New Evolutions and Upgrades Review for Version 11.1 – June 7, 2017→
7 new split evolutions have been released overnight that breathe significant new life into some older cards. With this article, I wish to explore how these new evolutions fit in the current meta as well as discussing which path you should pursue.
Cards to receive new evolutions:
Rozuel
Ruel
Lumiel
Nephthys
Light Metatron
Dark Metatron
Amaterasu
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Split evolutions
Split evolution paths tend to push cards into either a more sub or leader oriented role and are Fantastic overall as it allows you to better customize each card to your liking. Sometimes there is an obvious winner, but there may be times that where you wish to retain the older evoluton. This can occur when new split does not warrant enough benefits or they lose a particular typing/sub element.
Rozuel
Rozuel was a potent fire sub due to her triple TPA, unbindability, recover bind, and God typing. This granted her flexibility as she could perform the role of both a bind clearer and offensive powerhouse when matching a TPA. In addition, the water typing had merits on rainbow teams and her low base cooldown enabled you to inherit an active of your choice over top. Continue reading New Evolutions: Metatrons, Angels 2, and More – May 18, 2017→
Do not nuke your Monster Box for 750,000 MP to buy Dark Athena. She will be a permanent addition to the MP shop
Introduction
Dark Athena has been a long anticipated card that was up until this point only available in JP; however, NA/EU will finally be able to purchase her for 750,000 MP starting May 1st. This is a tremendous stepping stone as we are actually able to acquire a Radar card when PAD Radar is not available in our regions. Regardless, the question within the community will transition from is she coming to “Should I buy Dark Athena?” This is a loaded question as she does cost 750,000 MP and you should carefully weigh the pros and cons along with actually having a viable team to use her.
I did write extensively about her in a previous posting, but will create a new one based on the new cards that have been released since her debut in JP. However, there will be some overlap between the two but I have added in a much needed team building section.
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Solo Arena 3 clear
She is so forgiving I can make mistakes: —
Screenshot from my first clear:
Dark Athena at a glance
Dark Athena God / Devil / Attacker
3,618 HP / 2,501 ATK / 0 RCV
862 Total
Active Skill:
Enhance all water & dark orbs
3 turn delay
11 turn Cooldown
Leader Skill: 1.5x HP & 3.5x ATK for God, Devil, and Attacker cards. 2x ATK & 2x RCV when matching Dark and Water orbs 2.25x HP / 49x ATK / 4x RCV
Pros
Cons
12.25 or 49x ATK
2,501 base ATK
3 TPA for burst
Tanky Leader Skill
Forms one of the best teams in PAD
Can quickly clear challenging content
Farms Arena 3
Flexible team building
Bind immune
Damage enhance & delay
Can overcome combo shields
No evolution required
Comes ready to use
Can use Haku(s)
Can be used as a sub
Must match both water and dark for RCV
Stalling is not as practical
No SBR
Low movement time
Gemstone inherit semi required
Costs 750,000 MP
Impressions
Dark Athena may look lackluster from a purely multiplier perspective; however, she is actually one of the strongest cards/leaders in the game. There are many factors that go into consideration when trying to determine what makes a strong leader, and Dark Athena covers almost all of them.
Dark Athena has one of the most unconditional leader skills which dramatically raises her consistency and speed when playing through both challenging and easy content. Simply having to match a single water and dark combo for 49x is trivial compared to the shenanigans other leads require. This ease of activation enables you to flood the board with dark orbs in order to better take advantage of Dark Athena’s three TPA awakenings. Furthermore, with the introduction of the 7 combo awakening, Dark Athena has even more burst potential as she can run duplicate Hakus to great success. Continue reading Dark Athena Team Building, Discussion, and Rationale for 750,000 MP→
In a small and surprising update, we received new Reincarnated Evolutions for several popular cards. For the most part, reincarnating a card is the best thing to do as they are bumped up to 1,000 weighted stats, additional awakenings, and triple typing. As such, you should be pursuing them almost all the time and the only real exception at the moment is Haku .
This article will provide a brief summary/thoughts on each of the featured cards in this content update. As a side note, you should be using 0-stamina Normals to abuse Legendary Earth for endless monster experience to level up all of these cards.
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New evolutions
New evolutions are some of the most exciting aspects of Puzzle and Dragons as it breathes new life into old cards and hopefully revitalizes their viability.
Set
Like the other Egyptian 2 cards, Set gained a split evolution that removed all of this TPA to gain dual 7 combo awakenings as well as changing his sub attribute to Light from Wood. From a purely damage perspective, dual 7 combo awakenings are more potent when achieving 7 or more combos, but ruin more mindless-farming builds that rely on minimal comboing. Continue reading New Content Update – April 25, 2017→
The Three Kingdoms 2 (3K2) series is coming to North America on Friday, March 17th and will feature the new locked orb removal mechanic. In order to entice players with new cards, GungHo tends to release new/unique abilities which also helps open up new team building/inheritance possibilities. One nice thing about the 3K2 pantheon is that they are a pantheon and should in theory be easier to obtain.
The Three Kingdoms 2 are all able to transform the board to a 7×6 size and promote pairing with different leaders along with featuring the 7 combo awakening. 7 combo awakening provides 2x damage for that card when hitting 7 or more combos and is a tremendous damage boost overall. While this can be problematic with absorption mechanics, we do have access to Fujin and is somewhat controllable as you can make the conscious effort to match less combos and pray for no skyfalls.
Unfortunately, due to the fact that these are new cards, they do not have an ultimate evolution and suffer from lower base stats and fewer awakenings, but hopefully their newer aspects help justify these weaknesses.
One thing you need to be aware of is their lower than perceived rates. All the 3K2 cards are 6-star rarity and will be slightly harder to acquire than a regular card.
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Two new 6-star Godfest Exclusives are coming to North America and both push Powercreep to a new level. Every game requires a certain element of Powercreep to keep things interesting, but it should advance at a steady march, not by giant leaps and bounds. While Raijin is unique and powerful in her own right, she is at least not overwhelming in what she does unlike Fujin .
I liken Fujin’s level of Powercreep to that of a Gemstone Princess (far too powerful in their own right) and dearly hope it does not set a presedence for future dungeon spawns. With that being said, once you own a Fujin, your PAD life will never be the same again.
In a surprise mini patch, GungHo ninja released several new split evolutions for various Godfest Exclusive monsters. This article will help weigh the pros and cons when deciding which path to take.
The idea with a split evolution path is to provide players with more options for customization as well as trying to push them more into a “leader” or”sub” role. You should also be aware that some of these evolutions lose their sub attribute.
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Implications for split evolutions
Having a split evolution tree appears to be the norm/trend for Godfest Exclusive cards. For the most part, it is beneficial as you are able to better customize the card to your box needs, but it can also put pressure on players to roll more of what are already the most rare cards in Puzzle and Dragons. However, these new evolutions have breathed new life into the aging Odins while providing Baldin and Balboa more viability so these are positive overall.
is one of the most highly anticipated Godfest Exclusives to be released as they are without a doubt overpowering. They easily push the envelope of Powercreep as they have an incredibly easy to activate leader skill along with somewhat outrageous damage output.
and Kushinadahime 
have the potential to achieve amazing damage output, they are somewhat gatekeeped behind significant player skill and having ideal boards. As such, they are sometimes out of reach for the average player whereas Yog-Sothoth will be simple to play by comparison.
Mantastic Puzzle and Dragons 