Category Archives: Skill Inheritance

Skill Inheritance

Understanding Weapon Assists / Skill Inheritance + Strategies for Optimizing Their Use

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Introduction

PAD is a wildly complex game that can incredibly overwhelming to newer players as the entire concept of an early game experience has largely been removed due to Powercreep along with Normal and Technical Dungeons being incredibly old and out of date.

This can give new players a false sense of security when they are using 2021 teams to clear 2014 content as they will be wildly unprepared when faced with modestly challenging content.

As such, I would like to take the time to discuss a key mechanic of PAD: Weapon Assists / Skill Inheritance. This mechanic is vital to your success when playing through challenging content and adds another layer when it comes to team building. In fact, Weapon Assists tend to be solid cards to invest in as they tend to be Powercrept at a slower rate compared to Leaders or subs.

This article will provide a brief history of Weapon Assists, how they function, and how to optimize their usage.

Video commentary

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A brief history

Weapon Assists actually came out after the ability to Inherit/Assist cards and we referred to them as Skill Inheritance at the time. Eventually GungHo released Weapon Assists and changed the terminology which is why the term inherits/assists are often used interchangeably. Continue reading Understanding Weapon Assists / Skill Inheritance + Strategies for Optimizing Their Use →

Skill Inheritance

Maximizing Skill Inheritance and Weapon Assists

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Introduction

The landscape of Puzzle and Dragons has dramatically changed over the course of time and at this point, being able to intelligently use Skill Inheritance/Assists and Weapon Assists is key to success.

At its core, Skill Inheritance enables players to grant a different active skill to a card on their team, however, being able to optimally utilize this mechanic requires a bit more finesse. As such, this article will explain my logic/rationale for team building and utilizing Skill Inheritance to provide the maximum benefit possible when playing through challenging content.

Video commentary

–video coming soon–

Skill Inheritance/Manage Assists

In the past, the term used to express transferring new actives to a card was Skill Inheritance which in my head sounds much more pleasant compared to Manage Assists. Regardless, either term may be used in this article but both mean the same thing. Continue reading Maximizing Skill Inheritance and Weapon Assists →

Skill Inheritance

Version 9.6 – Skill Inheritance Changes & Updates

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Introduction

Skill Inheritance was introduced in May, 2016 and was one of the most game breaking aspects to come to Puzzle and Dragons. It provided players with an avenue to utilize duplicate monsters as well as lending customization to their favourite teams. Skill Inheritance would allow you to pick and choose what actives you wanted while providing the opportunity to use a stronger base card.

However, with the most recent patch, the Skill Inheritance system (renamed to Assist System) will be receiving an overhaul to make it easier to transfer skills around along with providing a stat bonus to same colour bases and inherits.

This article will only be focusing on the changes to Skill Inheritance along with how the actual process works and the other changes going live in the patch will be addressed separately. You can read more about King Tans HERE.

Video commentary

—video goes here—

What does Skill Inheritance do?

Skill Inheritance allows you to transfer an active skill from a 5+ star REM (or Collab REM) monster to a card of your choice. The receiving card is often referred to as the base while the donating monster is the assistant. While the assistant must be at least a 5+ star REM card, the base can be farmable or lower rarity. Furthermore, the assistant card must be max awakened (via Tamadras), but no longer needs to be max level.

In essence, Skill Inheritance allows you to customize your cards to your liking as you can utilize actives that come from normally non-synergistic monsters on a team. For example, you can inherit Meimei’s MeiMei board changer onto your dark team in order to take advantage of her board changer on a dark-based team. Continue reading Version 9.6 – Skill Inheritance Changes & Updates →

Game Meta, Monster Points, Skill Inheritance

Duplicate Monsters: To Keep or not to Keep. That is the Question

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Introduction

That is one of the few verses from Shakespeare that I have retained from my High School days so that hopefully appeases my former English teachers. Regardless, which duplicate monster to keep or sell is quickly becoming a topic of interest, especially after the most recent 5x GFE event. Years ago, most duplicate monsters had very little meaning. However, with the introduction of Skill Inheritance and the Monster Point system, those extra Urd’s are starting to have more value.

Other resources

If you have not already, I strongly encourage you to read my various other articles that I will be making reference to throughout this discussion:

Duplicate checklist

It can be challenging to go through a card-by-card basis of what to sell or keep and is somewhat redundant due to Reddit already covering that. As such, I wish to go through my own thought process when determining if I should keep these extra duplicate monsters. Your situation will differ from mine as well as Reddit so still use your own judgement. Continue reading Duplicate Monsters: To Keep or not to Keep. That is the Question →

Skill Inheritance, Videos

[Video] How I am using Skill Inheritance and Examples

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Introduction

Now that I am able to record pretty videos without horrible audio, I decided to share my thoughts and strategies of how I have been using Skill Inheritance on Mantastic. As I have repeatedly stated, you do not need to use Skill Inheritance on every single monster. You only need to use Skill Inheritance when you wish to upgrade an existing active skill, protect yourself against skill delays, or to use a certain sub who has favourable awakenings/stats and in need of a different active to counter a specific dungeon mechanic. I strongly encourage you to read my Skill Inheritance Basics and Advanced Strategies post.

Video with examples

Explanation of the video

Sometimes videos go too slow or fast, so here is a full recap of all the examples and rationale for my Skill Inheritance choices. Continue reading [Video] How I am using Skill Inheritance and Examples →

Monster Analysis, Skill Inheritance

Gemstone Princess Series: Next Generation for Damage Enhancement?

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Introduction

The Gemstone Princess Series is a new pantheon that is only obtainable through their respective colour carnival/gala. They all feature unique damage enhancement multipliers that scale based upon specific awakenings on your team. This allows them to achieve significantly higher multipliers compared to other options. Unfortunately, they all lack an ultimate evolution and only have average awakenings for themselves. In this article, I wish to explore the viability of the Gemstone Princesses in both a sub and skill inheritance assistant role. Hopefully they all shine bright like a diamond.

Video commentary

Princesses at a glance

Each princess provides a damage enhancement based on the total number of a specific awakening for your entire team. Thus, Carat Carat will grant 1.3x per Skill Boost Skill Boost awakening. For example, if your team has 5 Skill Boosts in total, Carat will give you a 2.5x damage boost (0.3*5 + 1). However, many end game teams can come with 10 of their respective awakening and the boost jumps to 4x (0.3*10 + 1).

1+0.3*n where n is number of the respective awakenings

 SILK CARAT  CAMEO FACET  SHEEN
Silk
Enhnaced Fire Orb +light orb +heart
1.15x		 Carat
Skill Boost
1 .3x		 Cameo
Wood Row Dark row
1.3x		 Facet
TPA
1.3x		 Sheen
Time Extend
1.3x

Silk is the only exception to the multiplier formula as those awakenings are much more abundant. Thus, she becomes 1+0.15*n. Continue reading Gemstone Princess Series: Next Generation for Damage Enhancement? →

Arena, Skill Inheritance, Videos

Thank You Skill Inheritance

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Introduction

I have cleared Arena 1 numerous times, but there is always an element of risk as I am using a non-ideal team. However, with the introduction of Skill Inheritance, my clear rates and consistency have significantly improved. This is because I am able to inherit a valuable skill on to both Lucifers Awoken Archdemon Lucifer to give their actives more value and allows for access to a wider range of subs. Furthermore, I am able to have access to a board changer that can be combo-ed with one of my other orb changers to produce a 2/3 dark board. The following 90 second video showcases how Skill Inheritance helps trivialise the Kali at the end of Arena by utilising actives I would normally not have access to.

Inheritance Setup

  • Awoken Lucifer 1 Awoken Archdemon Lucifer inherits Satsuki Baby Satsuki
  • Claire Dark Valk inherits Awoken Karin Awoken Karin
  • Awoken Lucifer 2 Awoken Archdemon Lucifer inherits Awoken Freyja Awoken Freyja

This allows me to remove Awoken Loki Awoken Loki from my team and replace him with Claire who has superior RCV and allows for easier stalling and the option of utilizing a 5 turn orb changer to hasten my runs. However, the key feature is being able to access a 2/3 dark board via Karin and Pandora Awoken Pandora as I lack both Akechi Akechi and Zuoh Ult Zuoh. This allows me to easily burst any floor and I have consistently one shot the Light Kali since.

Conclusion

Skill Inheritance is Fantastic for players who are lacking key subs and still wish to clear high end content. It also allows me to be more creative with team building and active management as I need to carefully plan for the inherited active. Also, thanks Momtastic for your Penta Lucifer with the damage enhance skill.

P.S. other resources on Lucifer or Arena:

Happy Puzzling!

Skill Inheritance

Skill Transfer: Advanced Strategies

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Introduction

In my previous post where I thoroughly analyse Skill Inheritance and its uses, I give a large disclaimer at the bottom that reads as follows:

What do I do with this/how do I choose what to inherit?

This is a horribly loaded question and is probably on the forefront of most player's minds. Sadly, there is no perfect answer as skill inheritance will be used to fill the voids in your team when facing specific dungeons/mechanics. If you need a bind clearing active, you select a bind immune card, go to the list of bind removing actives, and inherit. If you need a board changer, same logic applies, but you can choose your least valuable active to use as a base. You need to systematically go through the list of assistance subs I provided above and find what you have at your disposal and determine if you need to bring those for that specific encounter.

And this is true for the most part as it is very challenging to give specific examples of what to do as everyone has a different team with varying shortcomings. Skill transfer is deigned to help address holes/flaws in your team’s roster as a means to tackle harder content without sacrificing subs who provide ideal awakenings, typing, or colour coverage. However, after more digging and research, I came across three helpful links (here, here, and here) which are all in Japanese, but the pictures help me gain a general understanding of the current meta in JP. As such, If anyone can link me to other sites such as these, it would be greatly appreciated as I have no idea how to navigate around. I will use these as a rough template paired with my own knowledge/point of view to give some specific examples of how to make the most of your active skills.

Video and Example Inheritance Options

Stand out assistance monsters

There are of course all the popular options you are very familiar with, but these are less common and immensely powerful cards you may have idling away in your monster box.

Jewel Princesses

The Jewel Princesses are fantastic for skill inheritance due to their amazingly high multiplier for damage enhancement. They grant  enhancement based on unique criteria such as specific awakenings so do not let their colours deceive you. Unlike the Norse Gods, they only boost damage for a single turn, but their enhancement is far greater.

 Silk Carat  Cameo Facet  Sheen
Silk
Enhnaced Fire Orb +light orb +heart		  Carat
Skill Boost
  Cameo
Wood Row Dark row		 Facet
TPA		  Sheen
Time Extend

Continue reading Skill Transfer: Advanced Strategies →

Skill Inheritance

Skill Inheritance: Impressions and Strategies

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Introduction

Skill Inheritance is finally going live in North America and is one of the most anticipated features to come to Puzzle and Dragons. The goal of this post is to help transfer my knowledge to you on how Skill Inheritance works, when to use it, and advanced strategies to get the most value from your actives. Skill inheritance (or transfer) will allow you to link two different monsters together as a means to have access to additional active skills.  The base monster can be used as normal, but your linked monster (assistant) cannot be sold or used on your teams. The base monster will still retain their normal active on their regular cooldown, but will also be able to use another monster’s active at a longer cooldown (base monster’s cooldown + assistant monster’s cooldown). Furthermore, if the second skill is charged, you cannot use the your base monster’s skill. Using a skill at any time will reset both skills and must wait again to use either. This restriction can be problematic if you select a high priority monster as your base.

The following chart illustrates which active you can use and on which turn when having Awoken Isis Isis as your base monster and Dark Kali Dark Kali as the assistant.

 1  2 3  4  5  6  7  8  9 10
Isis Isis Isis Isis Isis Isis Isis Dark Kali

In this example, you will still have your regular bind clearing ability from Isis on a 3-turn cooldown, but have the option of waiting 10 turns for the board refresh (and making the bind clear unusable). This means that you can use Isis on turns 3-9, but be forced to use Dark Kali on turn 10 and above. Using an active at any time will immediately reset you back to the beginning of this cycle.

How to transfer skills

You can use any 5+ star REM (or collab REM) monster as the assistant onto a card of your choice (the base does not have to be an REM monster). In order to do so, you will require a new material called Tan. These Tan will be available through a special 50 stamina dungeon (or MP shop), but the colour you receive is random and will require you to run numerous times to acquire the correct combination. You can cancel the transfer at any time, but will not have your TAN or gold refunded. Continue reading Skill Inheritance: Impressions and Strategies →