Category Archives: Random Thoughts

Random Thoughts

Best Friend Reset Coming Tues Oct 22

74 Comments
The Reset will not provide a new selection after the next maintenance on 10/22 (Tues) 6pm (UTC-8). Failure to use before will cause it to be lost

Introduction

On Tuesday October 22 at 6pm (UTC-8), PAD will go under maintenance and this will also reset the Best Friend Token, Present, and One-Time Bargain set.

The Best Friend reset will grant an additional Token which will allow you to choose a new Best Friend. This additional selection will not override your existing ones but failing to use a current selection will not carry over after the reset.

Best Friends are a vital part of your PAD experience as it will enable you to expand the leaders available as well as gaining additional Pal Points.

This article will explain the Friend and Best Friend System along with how you can improve your chances of being selected by strangers as well as how to form BFF Triangles.

From the previous reset, I was the first player on any PAD server to achieve 300/300 Best Friends on my Mantastic account and wondering if I can achieve that same status on Fantastic as I am around 175. With this in mind, if you wish to Best Friend Mantastic or Fantastic, please leave your ID number, your in game name, and which account you want to Best Friend. Mantastic can only accept a handful of players as I can only delete a few inactive BFF.

Video commentary

–video coming soon–

Finding Friends

The first step to Pal Point domination is to find friends to populate your list. As you rank up, your friends list will max out at 50 players. You can add 5 additional friend slots for 1 magic stone, up to a maximum of 300 friends. Continue reading Best Friend Reset Coming Tues Oct 22 →

Random Thoughts

It’s Morphin’ Time!

9 Comments

Introduction

In the near future, North American will be blessed with the Power Rangers Collab! This will be the second NA-exclusive Collab to come to us after the disappointing Voltron which was a reskin of a lackluster REM with some of the better/best cards removed.

With this in mind, hopefully GHNA does not follow that same path as it was a massive let down to the community. With that being said, we know nothing other than a the Red Ranger will be featured from their teaser video and everything up to this point is speculation.

This article will mostly serve as a place for me to put down my thoughts and to act as a medium for my readers to express their hopes/dreams for this event in the comments section.

The official teaser trailer/video can be found HERE.

Video commentary

–video coming soon–

Hopes for the Collab

For myself, I want this Collab to succeed as it can open the doors to future events if it proves successful. GungHo is a business and doing anything like this will cost money. As such, there has to be a positive enough player response for us to continue to receive meaningful events. Thus, there are a few things that I feel can help enhance the chances of Power Rangers being successful in North America. Continue reading It’s Morphin’ Time! →

Random Thoughts

Question Time with Mantastic – October 2019

52 Comments

Introduction

The general gist of Question Time posts are for players to ask various PAD-related questions that do not have a simple/Google-able answer or related article on my website. I do play other games and have often found myself having specific/unique questions about it but have no where to go and can imagine this may hold true for some of my readers.

With that being said, there will be some restrictions on the types of questions I will be answering.

If planning on commenting on a regular basis, it is advantageous to create a WordPress account to both receive notifications as well as giving me a point of reference as to who I am responding to.

Do’s and Don’t

download For the most part, almost any question will be answered, even some non-invasive Off-Topic ones; however, it is best to ask questions that require explanation/why/my personal opinion. The following examples are Fantastic types of questions to ask:

  • Of these options, what is the best Yusuke team I can make for Arena 3?
  • What direction do you think GungHo will take with the 4x HP leads?
  • Can Heart Cross teams be revived and if so, how?

x The following types of questions will not be answered by me either because it has a simple Google-able answer or shows a lack of effort on the reader’s part:

  • Anything that Google/Padx can answer
  • A link to your entire Monster Box and saying “make me a team”

Conclusion

I hope my readers use this opportunity to ask questions that will hopefully improve their overall game play and progression.

Happy Puzzling!

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Meta Snapshots, Random Thoughts

Meta Snapshot & Ways to Improve PAD

11 Comments

Introduction

The landscape of Puzzle and Dragons has changed and shifted over the years and we are currently enjoying an era of durable leaders who can naturally survive any preemptive in the game along with boasting solid multipliers.

A few months ago, the top teams were largely defined by pure combos but we are now starting to see blob-based teams take hold due to various new mechanics. For example, many of these can activate from fewer combos or their leader skill grants bonus combos for matching their specific pattern. Either way, this makes performing VDP  + FUA is much easier which has become the norm in high end content.

This article will look at what makes a card powerful along with current trends I feel are playing a major role in shaping the PAD landscape.

Video commentary

–video coming soon–

Current trends

High Effective health

At this point in time, all strong leaders have a certain degree of Effective HP (HP multipliers or Damage Reduction) which enables them to naturally survive large preemptives without active skill intervention. This is important as eases team building requirements along with having the opportunity to stall should the need arise. Continue reading Meta Snapshot & Ways to Improve PAD →

Random Thoughts

Actives that Directly Counter New/Dangerous Mechanics are Bad in the Long Run

40 Comments

Introduction

Titles are hard and this article will be exploring an idea that has been floating around in my head for some time. Like any longstanding game, new and challenging content has to be released to keep things interesting and we have seen some bizarre mechanics over the years. Some are more challenging compared to others but at least initially, had several ways to overcome them.

Sadly, I feel we may be starting down a less than ideal path due to GungHo releasing a new/dangerous mechanic and then unveiling a card who’s active can directly counter it. As such, players can now counter said mechanic and they can tune it upwards to the point where you must have the active or you lose.

In my opinion, this is not a good game design as it forces players to have these direct counters or simply lose the dungeon. This tends to be most punishing in longer content where one needs to cover so many mechanics already.

This article will explore my opinions on this matter and how it is possible to correct these problems before it gets out of hand.

Video commentary

–video coming soon–

Damage Absorb & Fujin

Damage Absorb (pink shield) is one of the worst mechanics at this point in time due to how “unfun” and impossible it is to overcome without a Fujin style active. Continue reading Actives that Directly Counter New/Dangerous Mechanics are Bad in the Long Run →

Random Thoughts

Question Time with Mantastic – August 2019

80 Comments

Introduction

The general gist of Question Time posts are for players to ask various PAD-related questions that do not have a simple/Google-able answer or related article on my website. I do play other games and have often found myself having specific/unique questions about it but have no where to go and can imagine this may hold true for some of my readers.

With that being said, there will be some restrictions on the types of questions I will be answering.

If planning on commenting on a regular basis, it is advantageous to create a WordPress account to both receive notifications as well as giving me a point of reference as to who I am responding to.

Do’s and Don’t

download For the most part, almost any question will be answered, even some non-invasive Off-Topic ones; however, it is best to ask questions that require explanation/why/my personal opinion. The following examples are Fantastic types of questions to ask:

  • Of these options, what is the best Yusuke team I can make for Arena 3?
  • What direction do you think GungHo will take with the 4x HP leads?
  • Can Heart Cross teams be revived and if so, how?

x The following types of questions will not be answered by me either because it has a simple Google-able answer or shows a lack of effort on the reader’s part:

  • Anything that Google/Padx can answer
  • A link to your entire Monster Box and saying “make me a team”

Conclusion

I hope my readers use this opportunity to ask questions that will hopefully improve their overall game play and progression.

Happy Puzzling!

Mantastic Icon Mantastic Social Media Mantastic Icon
FB icon Facebook twitter Twitter YT YouTube
Twitch Twitch discord Discord download Patreon

If you enjoy my content, please consider turning off AdBlocker for this website =)

Random Thoughts

Question Time with Mantastic – July 2019

74 Comments

Introduction

The general gist of Question Time posts are for players to ask various PAD-related questions that do not have a simple/Google-able answer or related article on my website. I do play other games and have often found myself having specific/unique questions about it but have no where to go and can imagine this may hold true for some of my readers.

With that being said, there will be some restrictions on the types of questions I will be answering.

If planning on commenting on a regular basis, it is advantageous to create a WordPress account to both receive notifications as well as giving me a point of reference as to who I am responding to.

Do’s and Don’t

download For the most part, almost any question will be answered, even some non-invasive Off-Topic ones; however, it is best to ask questions that require explanation/why/my personal opinion. The following examples are Fantastic types of questions to ask:

  • Of these options, what is the best Yusuke team I can make for Arena 3?
  • What direction do you think GungHo will take with the 4x HP leads?
  • Can Heart Cross teams be revived and if so, how?

x The following types of questions will not be answered by me either because it has a simple Google-able answer or shows a lack of effort on the reader’s part:

  • Anything that Google/Padx can answer
  • A link to your entire Monster Box and saying “make me a team”

Conclusion

I hope my readers use this opportunity to ask questions that will hopefully improve their overall game play and progression.

Happy Puzzling!

Mantastic Icon Mantastic Social Media Mantastic Icon
FB icon Facebook twitter Twitter YT YouTube
Twitch Twitch discord Discord download Patreon

If you enjoy my content, please consider turning off AdBlocker for this website =)

Random Thoughts

What Makes a Good Leader in Puzzle and Dragons? June 2019

13 Comments

Introduction

One of the most popular questions I see floating around the PAD community is “what makes a good leader?” or “is this a strong leader?” Now both of these questions are heavily loaded as the answer generally depends on your subs. A leader, no matter how powerful, is heavily reliant on your team composition, inherits, and individual monster investment. Furthermore, what qualifies as a strong leader will change over time as new content is released.

There are many tier lists available that rank leaders based on various criteria, but they always assume the perfect team (regardless of how rare or hard to pull those monsters are). They also look at how consistent a leader performs in a variety of end game content instead of a single dungeon.

As such, tier lists should be taken with a grain of salt and be used as a starting base to determine if a leader has potential. You should then look up team building guides to see if you have ideal subs in order to successfully run that team.

The purpose of this article will be to further explore what merits a strong leader, what to look for in your monster box, and why consistency is invaluable when playing through harder content.

Being told something good is one thing, but understanding why is more important. You can read this article while thinking of your favourite leader to better understand why they are effective or ineffective.

I wrote a similar article to this in January 2017 but feel the meta has changed/shifted sufficiently to revisit this topic. The main reason is because of how much easier it is to FUA /SFUA and VDP at the same time as this is invaluable for end game content.

Video commentary

—video goes here—

Factors that make a leader strong

Forewarning

The tier lists tend to not take player skill into consideration; however, you need to assess your own skill level as you need to be able to actually activate your leader skill on a consistent basis. A prime example of this was when Anubis was floating around on some lists. In theory, this works as his multiplier was at the time the highest available. Unfortunately, very few people could actually activate him on a consistent basis and was misleading to say the least.

In addition to ignoring player skill, tier lists assume the perfect team as that is the most fair way to compare various leaders. However, many of these teams require exotic subs (and inherits) that most players do not own and this will inevitably lead to a less than stellar performance. Continue reading What Makes a Good Leader in Puzzle and Dragons? June 2019 →

Random Thoughts

Shaman King Collab Monster Exchange & Monster Point Card Reviews

17 Comments

Introduction

The Shaman King Collab is in full swing and alongside the potent REM are two cards that can be acquired via the Monster Exchange and two via Monster Point spending. Each card brings something to the table and may make them worth farming or purchasing.

This article will summarize their strengths and weaknesses to give you a better idea if they are worth pursuing.

A full Shaman King REM review can be found HERE.

Video commentary

–video coming soon–

Monster Exchange cards

Keep in tune with previous Collabs, The Shaman King event will feature two cards that can be acquired by farming in the respective event dungeon. This farming will yield Bronze, Silver, and Gold event tokens which can eventually exchanged for the Rainbow variety.

Upon acquiring 3 Rainbow Event tokens, players can one-time exchange for the featured card. Continue reading Shaman King Collab Monster Exchange & Monster Point Card Reviews →

Random Thoughts

Avoiding Burnout/Boredom

39 Comments

Introduction

May has been the slowest month of 2019 for Puzzle and Dragons and it is because of a lack of new content outside of SDR farming. As such, burnout or boredom may raise its ugly head and I want to share how I avoid these two pitfalls.

I have been playing Puzzle and Dragons for over 2,050 days which is a small marvel in itself. In fact, this is the longest time I have played any single game and this is due to the continuous learning curve or indefinite skill ceiling. With that being said, there have been some low points in terms of interest and this usually occurs around times when GungHo has not released new content as things can become stale. Continue reading Avoiding Burnout/Boredom →