Category Archives: New Player Help

New Player Help Guide

Many people have been asking what direction to take / what to do as a new player so I will list a relative guide as what you should strive to aim for. Keep in mind that you are clearing content in days it took me weeks/months to reach so things may feel fast forwarded and frustrating at times as your account rank may eclipse your PAD knowledge and matching skills.  I highly recommend you take a look at my Community Resources Page to discover new mediums and sites to learn the ins and outs of Puzzle and Dragons.

Everyone plays Puzzle and Dragons for different reasons: some enjoy the puzzling aspect, others find joy in collecting. For myself, I wish to push end game content while still enjoying myself. However, for the purpose of this guide, the focus will be to begin clearing descends with 0 stones used. However, in order to get to that level, you will require a few things:

Get a strong starter / team that is viable in clearing descends.

There are many existing pages heavily covering this topic so you will need to do some of your own homework on what to aim for as this guide is going to assume you have passed that stage of the game. The most current one I could find comes from Reddit.

Rank UP!

You must keep ranking up not only to increase your maximum stamina, but to also increase team cost to be able to fit in all the subs you wish to bring. Unfortunately (or fortunately?) PAD is a very grindy game in that you are going to have to repeat dungeons over and over again whether it be for plus eggs, skill ups, team cost, or rank experience. When you first start out, your rank and thus max stamina and team cost will be your limiting factors. As such, I cannot stress enough that you are going to have to play dungeons over and over again. Thankfully, GungHo has been introducing new methods for quickly ranking up such as the Experience of a Lifetime (awards 200k rank experience) and Monday Dungeon. I go into further detail in my Monday Dungeon Review Post and how to optimize your stamina.

If those are not available, I would play the highest normal dungeon you are capable of clearing and only stopping when you feel you hit a ‘wall.’ A very important thing to note is that on Saturday and Sunday, Tower of Giants and most specifically Dragons of the Tower will be available for 3 stamina and thus providing ~500 exp / stamina. This may be boring but can be done infinitely for about the first 80 ranks. Lastly, always try to play normal dungeons that are affected by 1.5x experience provided you can reliable clear them.

467 Rank Up

Level up your monsters & evolve

Level up you monsters as high as possible and evolve them to their max evolution if you are fortunate to acquire the rare 50 stamina materials (eg. Keeper of gold, Jewel of Water, etc.). Even just reaching their second evolution is sufficient for early content. Research where their materials drop from and work towards acquiring them. It is also worth noting that monsters will gain diminishing returns on experience at higher levels Continue reading New Player Help Guide

Awoken Pandora Team Building and Discussion Guide

Awoken Pandora
Awoken Pandora
Dark row Bind Clear awakening Skill Boost Skill Lock Resist Time Extend Skill Boost Dark row Dark row
Green Arrow Dark
 / Light Arrow Heart + haste
9 turn CD
1.56x HP / 6.25-25x ATK / 1.56x RCV (Devil Dark row based team)
Match 4-8 connected dark orbs

Awoken Pandora Awoken Pandora is one of the most powerful leaders in Puzzle and Dragons as she combines both burst and survivability. Dark monsters have historically been the strongest colour as they have amazing synergy and a deep sub pool. Thankfully, there are a number of dark devils to draw upon and only main weakness is bind removal options. Awoken Pandora plays similarity to Awoken Lucifer Awoken Archdemon Lucifer teams in that they both share the same durable row-based playstyle. You can read my Awoken Archdemon Lucifer guide HERE. Lastly, you are able to control your damage through dark row Dark row activation as well as stacking actives to unleash some of the highest total burst damage in the game.

Pros:

  • Ability to control your damage as this is becoming more relevant with specific absorption shields that require you to hit less damage
  • Bolstered health and recovery allow for easier stalling and removes the need to bring damage mitigation
  • Leaders have a combined 6 dark row Dark row , 2 skill lock resist Skill Lock Resist , and 2 time extend Time Extend awakenings
  • Recover Bind Bind Clear awakening awakening can be powerful provided leaders are not bound
  • Spectacular burst damage potential
  • Active is an amazingly powerful tool to generate dark orbs, hearts, and haste
  • A pretty girl with flowers and a magical box

Continue reading Awoken Pandora Team Building and Discussion Guide

Awoken Lucifer Team Building and Discussion Guide

Awoken Archdemon Lucifer
Awoken Archdemon Lucifer
1.82x HP / 16.4x ATK / 1.82x RCV (God & Devil Dark row based team)
Arena 1 Strategy Guide

Awoken Archdemon Lucifer Awoken Archdemon Lucifer is one of the most powerful leaders in Puzzle and Dragons as he combines both burst and survivability along with flexible team building. Dark monsters have historically been the strongest colour as they have amazing synergy and a deep sub pool. Unlike Yomi Dragon Yomi Dragon or Awoken Pandora Awoken Pandora , Lucifer can use both God and Devil type monsters which grants him access to subs that would otherwise not fully benefit from the leader skill. Furthermore, you are able to control your damage through dark row Dark row activation as well as stacking actives to unleash some of the highest total burst damage in the game.

Pros:

  • Ability to control your damage as this is becoming more relevant with specific absorption shields that require you to hit less damage
  • Bolstered health and recovery allow for easier stalling and removes the need to bring damage mitigation
  • Leaders have a combined 6 dark row Dark row , 2 skill lock resist Skill Lock Resist , and 6 skill boost Skill Boost awakenings
  • God Killer God Killer awakening is amazingly powerful as it allows your leaders to deal 3x damage to god type bosses
  • Spectacular burst damage potential
  • Team building is quite flexible as you can use God or Devil types

Continue reading Awoken Lucifer Team Building and Discussion Guide

How to kill Sopdet and her 200k Absorb

I probably speak for everyone in saying that Awoken Spodet Sopdet and her 200k absorb shield is one of the deadliest encounters in Puzzle and Dragons. Sopdet is a dangerous encounter that can be found in many challenge dungeons, Arena, or Sphinx Descended. She is the cause of many heart breaks and I wanted to share some strategies I use to mitigate the risk.

Sopdet death
The pain is real

There will always be an element of luck involved when playing PAD, but it becomes even more apparent when unwanted skyfalls heal Sopdet instead of killing her. Generally speaking, Sopdet has

  • ~1.5 million health
  • Light element to start and switches to dark when under 50%.
  • Absorbs all damage dealt above 200k
  • Kills you after 4 turns

Continue reading How to kill Sopdet and her 200k Absorb

Popular Leaders and Their Full Sub List with Inheritance Options

I am in the process of updating this list over the next week or two and work from the top down so somethings will still be outdated/missing in the meantime.

Introduction

Due to the ever changing dynamic of team building through Skill Inheritance, team building has either become more flexible or more rigid. It becomes more flexible due to the fact that you can use almost any card as a sub and fill in the blanks via inheritance. However, this does eventually lead to a more rigid team building experience as you will end up using similar powerful bases and supplementing with appropriate assists.

As such, I have been trying to determine how I can have this list reflect both aspects of team building. Listing subs that fulfill specific roles is helpful, but may become misleading once you begin to acquire more cards to play around with. Thus, I will try my best to list higher tier subs along with other options and include a massive inheritance chart at the beginning you can use to fill in the gaps.

When deciding which leader and team you want to invest in, you ideally want to find a balance between a deep and diverse sub pool combined with a love for their playstyle that suits your personality and matching skills. Even leaders who are not popular in the meta are capable of clearing high end content provided you have a synergetic team and passion for their gameplay.

Furthermore, you should try to balance the subs/actives you bring to ensure a healthy mixture of quick orb changers, damage enhancing, and defensive utility. When trying to determine if you require a bind clearing sub, you must take into account how dangerous the bind is and whether you can stall through it or avoid it. If you are able to avoid the bind by bursting through the boss before they are able to attack, it may be best to do so as bind clearing subs tend to bring little to the party aside from their active. Lastly, leaders with higher multipliers are more reliant on consistency and survivability over offensive actives as the sheer strength of their leader skill can sweep most floors.

If you wish to read about how I approach tackling a dungeon and subsequently how I build my team, please read my previous article HERE.

Video commentary

—video goes here—

Popular leaders sorted by category

When trying to find a particular leader in this post, it is best to use the ctrl + F (search) feature. Otherwise, the leaders are colour sorted in no particular order. Due to the sheer size of this ever growing list, I may have trimmed out lesser leaders and simply put their names alongside other cards that are similar to them (eg. placing other rainbow leaders alongside Ra if similar).

I am not including the button farming coop teams.

Style Leader
Rainbow: 3265 Awoken DQXQ Sakuya 2982 3273 3272 Kali Lightning
Combo
Based: 
3241 3384 2983 3385 Rukai Kuchiki
5 orbs, 1 enhanced:
(5o,1e)
3266 You Yu Awoken Yomi Ult Tsubaki
Tank teams:  3068 3305 3238 Awoken Pandora Awoken Archdemon Lucifer Raoh
I&I + Ryune
Saria + Thor
Sylvie + Awoken Freyja
Raoh + Freyr
Heart orbs
required:
3242 3243 Typhon Gadius Xiang Mei
Multiple combos
of specific colour:
Z8 3069 3070
 Row Based: 3276 3263 dtron 3391 3235 Blue Sonia Xiu Min
 Speed farming: 3262 3266 3193
Colour Cross 3359 3264 2991 3202
Heart Cross:  Ult Sumire Ult Kaede Ronove Gremory Miru Beach Myr

If you feel I left out your favourite team, leave a reply in the comments below and I shall add in accordingly. For a list of 5×4 leads, feel free to check out my other guide HERE.

If you wish to read a more detailed analysis of all the REM pantheon monsters, please refer to my Master List Breakdown. If you are considering to purchase a Monster Point card, please read my Tier List HERE.

Skill Inheritance

Skill Inheritance has become a vital part of the Puzzle and Dragons meta as it allows you to utilize desirable active skills from cards that would not be ideal to run as subs. This also enables you to better customize your team to your liking and address any dangerous mechanic the dungeon can throw at you. I encourage you to read my revamped Skill Inheritance Guide to better understand all the changes that have been made and how to better utilize this mechanic.

Below is for the most part, a full overview of the various inheritance options you can use sorted by categories. For full board changers, you can utilize off-colour inherits provided they generate your desired element. However, if possible, you should try to use same attribute inherit and base to take advantage of the stat transfer feature.

ACTIVE MONSTER
Gravity Sakuya Awoken Hades Hathor Chibi Hera
Damage
reduction
3387 Indra Kush Valen 3071 Raphael dtron Isis Cursed Dragon

Shaitan
 Undine Sylph Genie Thanatos
Full board
changers
Rainbow:
Dark Kali Sherias Roots 3416 Lightning 3354 3394 3107 Kali Sherias
jjj
Bi-colour:
3103 3235 Red Sonia Blue Sonia Green Sonia Avalon Drake 3274 3284 Christmas Sonia

Tri-element with hearts:
Uevo Apoc Ryune Saria Sylvie UrdSkuld ult evo Verd mitsuaria-evo
3283 Cecil

Tri-element with no hearts:
Awoken Leilan Awoken Karin MeiMei Haku Zuoh 3277

Other:
Famiel Typhon Gadius Lumiel
True damage
/ poison
3239 Awoken Archdemon Lucifer rodin 3273 Cerebrus Rider Chibi Lilith Lumiel Famiel Sherias Roots 3274 Lightning 3162
Damage
enhance
Silk Carat Cameo Facet Sheen

Freyr I&I Thor Awoken Freyja Awoken Loki Nim Muse Delgado arcline
Creuse Awoken Yomi Izanagi Oku Nephthys Set Durga Lu Bu Kanna 3361
Delay 3386 2985 A Cao Cao 2918 A Sun Quan Zeta Hydra ForestBahn Wee Jas Green wee jas
Kenpachi Sagirinokami
Bind clearing Ame Amate Awoken Ceres Sakuya Metatron Green Odin Isis Fire Dragon Knight Water Dragon Knight
Earth Dragon Knight Shining Dragon Knight Shadow Dragon Knight Guan Yu Red Guan Yu Red Riding Hood Snow White Thumbelina Sleeping Beauty

Popular leaders and the sub list: Continue reading Popular Leaders and Their Full Sub List with Inheritance Options

Umisachi & Yamasachi Team Building and Discussion Guide

U&Y Uuuuummiiiii Yammiiiiiii!!!!!!!! (a.k.a. the Wonder Boys) got an ult of an ultimate evolution and still haven’t grown past puberty. Fantastic has been using U&Y since the Players Choice Godfest around 2 years ago when they were first released. They immediately rose in popularity as there was no other 25x leader aside from Sakuya Sakuya . U&Y has a powerful active that creates a board full of water and green orbs on a 7-turn cooldown. The newest ultimate evolution added 900 health along with a desperately needed skill lock resist Skill Lock Resist awakening. In addition, to the added bulk and defensive capabilities, U&Y can now achieve 56.25x damage for god type when using an active skill. Overall, this makes the Wonder Boys a powerful leader capable of clearing end game content. The following video was my first recording so the audio may not be perfect. However, the gameplay and commentary should give you a relative idea of the playstyle and power U&Y can wield. Continue reading Umisachi & Yamasachi Team Building and Discussion Guide

All I Want for Christmas is…a Snow Globe?

I can’t believe this will be my third Puzzle and Dragons Christmas and every year it gets bigger and better! Gung-Ho has consistently been stepping up their game in terms of the number events, content being released, and magic stone/tamadras/pii give-aways. Tomorrow, we get the revamped Christmas Dungeon with the top difficulty being amusingly named SuperBlessed. I dearly hope the dungeon features festive music (I still do not understand people who play with the sound off) as that helped me get into the Christmas spirit and combined my favourite time of year with my love for PAD. Continue reading All I Want for Christmas is…a Snow Globe?

Awoken Shiva Team Building and Discussion

Shiva Awoken Shiva is the hottest fire lead in the game and was the reason fire teams are viable in the current meta. Fire teams were historically row-based Fire Row and the row playstyle was limiting due to the heavy reliance on fire-orb makers, the orb manipulation required to create a horizontal line of 6, and the lack of time extends available. Those factors pushed rows out of the meta and the game became more fixated around two-prong attacks (TPA) TPA .  TPA are much easier to match and require less orbs to deal damage. This also allows you to create more off-colour combos, and each match adds an additional 25% damage. Shiva has a similar feel and playstyle to Awoken Bastet Bastet in that they are both combo-based leaders who utilize TPA . Shiva ‘s active skill has been buffed in his awoken form, but it is still a bit lackluster as you bring two into the descend, and it is slightly redundant to have two cards with a damage enhancing active. Continue reading Awoken Shiva Team Building and Discussion

Awoken Sakuya discussion and team building

Sakuya

Sakuya was my first real REM god (I semi-started with a Gabriel 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 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

Continue reading Rainbow Team Guide