Challenge Dungeons

[Videos] Mion Descended – Snow Globe Challenge Clears

21 Comments

Introduction

Mion Descended features the Wood Snow Globe Challenge and grants players the opportunity to acquire up to 5 for clearing both difficulties. There is now a separate dungeon just for the Snow Globe Challenge and clearing it awards an additional stone.  Furthermore, the background music is truly enchanting and should be reason enough to play the dungeon.

I used Awoken Kushinadahime 2983 for Mythic and Reincarnated Lakshmi 3242 in Legend Plus (the higher difficulty). You are able to complete the challenges in solo or coop mode, but I was unaware of this at the time and simply entered solo.

Clearing Mythic awards 2 Snow Globes while Legend Plus grants 3 for a grand total of 5. You cannot use continues.

Background music

If you wish to relive the magic of Mion Descended without wasting stamina, you can simply listen to the following video:

Awoken Kushinadahime – Mythic Solo

I still need to practice true combo leaders and planning out my matches. It is also nice to know the boss has a hidden resolve mechanic.
—

2983 Cross Bastet 522 MeiMei Verd 2983

I was using Ace Bastet because she is already developed, has dual time extends, and already has a board change inherited.

Reincarnated Lakshmi – Legend Plus Solo

Reincarnated Lakshmi is a fun and exciting 100x leader who is capable of easily stalling due to her 4x RCV. She is also able to deal incredible burst damage and I should have been more liberal with my actives throughout the dungeon.
—

3242 Bankai Andro Ryune Ult Sumire 522 3242

The Snow Globe has Skuld inherited (I should have done that for my Kushinadahime run) and it was more so for safety and did not end up using it. My Lakshmi has Hatsume Hatsume inherited to combo with Ryune.

Conclusion

Mion Descended – Snow Globe Challenge is a fun and exciting way for players to acquire 5 more Snow Globes. A wide variety of teams are capable of clearing this challenge and the background music is one of the best to date.

Who did you use to successfully clear the challenges?

Happy Puzzling!

+ Eggs

[Video] 457 Rolls of the GungHo +9 Pal Egg Machine

36 Comments

Introduction

The GungHo Pal Egg Machine is now producing +9 rolls for only 500 Pal Points. This is the most stamina efficient place to acquire plus eggs as you can use 5 Best Friends in 5 normal 2-stamina dungeons for a single roll. This equates to a 1.11 stamina per plus egg and easily trumps Star Den (2.5 stamina/plus). You can read more about this from my previous post HERE.

In addition to Pal Points, you also have the very rare chance to pull the elusive Art Kali 3246.

457 rolls

—

Out of the 457 rolls, I only acquired 4 Art Kali making the appearance rate depressingly low.

Quickly fusing plus eggs

From this event, every egg that rolls out will be a +9 and you will want to quickly and mindlessly fuse them into a +297. For myself, I  did the following:

  • Make a +54 from six +9’s
  • From the +54, fuse five more +9’s
  • Creates a +99
  • Repeat two more times
  • Fuse three +99s into +297

Conclusion

The +9 Pal Egg Machine event is easily the best time to spend your Pal Points. I highly encourage you to redeem your Challenge rewards in your mailbox along with Quest rewards to Let the Good Times Roll.

Let me know how many rolls it took for you to acquire Art Kali.

Happy Puzzling!

Godfest

Players Choice Godfest 101

22 Comments

Introduction

Player’s Choice Godfest (PCGF) has been announced for North America and the polls are open from 12/7 – 12/11. Each player can cast a single vote and there is no way to cancel or change your choice once submitted, so please choose carefully. Player’s Choice Godfests are a rare and special occasion and I want to provide some clarification and advice to make your vote count.

Video commentary

—video goes here—

How does PCGF work

During a Player’s Choice Godfest, everyone is able to to vote on their favourite God and the top 25 will be featured in a special Godfest. Furthermore, Godfest Exclusives that are not voted in will be unavailable during this time. You can cast your vote HERE.

Who to vote for?

This will always be a point of controversy amidst the Puzzle and Dragons community and you should keep the following points in mind:

Vote for who you want

Vote for what can benefit you the most. Just because Krishna 3068 is a dream leader for some people, it does not mean you should be voting for him if it cannot benefit you. You should vote for the God that can benefit your box the most. This can come in the form of a new leader or key sub for your favourite team.

What is being released in the next month or two

Think about what is being released in the next few months. Do you have a strong Ra Dragon 3265 in the making? If yes, it would be wise to vote for one of his ideal subs. Continue reading Players Choice Godfest 101 →

New Evolutions

New Content Overview – December 7 Evolutions & Buffs

24 Comments

Introduction

The latest maintenance brings with numerous updates and I wish to summarize all the major changes taking place. This update includes new evolutions and monster upgrades/buffs. If you feel I have overlooked anything in particular, please feel free to let me know in the comments below.

Video commentary

—video goes here—-

New evolutions

New evolutions are perhaps the most exciting aspect of any update as they breathe life into aging cards along with providing players with new toys. Having goals to work towards is almost as exciting as actually acquiring the new card. Furthermore, this update includes the highly anticipated Reincarnated evolutions for the Greco-Roman 1 and some Indian 1 Gods.

If you are unfamiliar or wish to find out more information about the REM Reincarnation process, please feel free to check out my previous post HERE.

Reincarnated Greco-Roman 1

All of the Reincarnated Greco-Roman 1 Gods possess bind immunity along with passive damage reduction to various colours. This can be abused by cheese teams that run 100% resistance to a particular colour and use one of the Puppeteers Red Puppeteer Charite Green Puppeteer Courage in conjunction to change the boss’s attribute.

3238 Reincarnated Minerva

Reincarnated Minerva gains better artwork along with a revamped leader skill. She is now capable of achieving 6x ATK for matching Fire and Light orbs along with passively reducing damage by 50% to Fire, Light, and Dark enemies. This means with dual Minerva, you effectively have 4x HP / RCV when facing those three elements. However, many players are instead pairing her with Ilm 3235 to form a 60x ATK / 2.5x RCV team while taking 50% less damage from Fire, Light, and Dark bosses. This wonderful combination of defensive utility and offensive capabilities is invaluable and grants players the chance to clear plenty of content.

When team building Minerva/Ilm, it is slightly more advantageous to focus on fire subs as Minerva’s base active is a fire orb changer. However, you can easily go either way, especially if the dungeon is water-heavy.

With her new leadership role in mind, you should begin to plan your inherits for Minerva as her base active is lackluster. You can inherit a bind clear or orb changer as you deem fit.

Finally, Minerva regains her God typing and can make a reasonable sub on Ra Dragon 3265 teams as you can simply inherit a new active as her base cooldown is only 5 turns and helps keep your team fully bind immune. Continue reading New Content Overview – December 7 Evolutions & Buffs →

Challenge Dungeons

[Video] One Shot Challenge 5 – Krishna vs Noah & Gaia Dragon, Izanagi/Myr vs Gaia Dragon

8 Comments

Introduction

As a follow up to my One Shot Challenge 4 Guide, here are my clear videos for Mantastic, Fantastic. and MOMtastic accounts. I also included their full team set up, latents, and inheritance choices to help give a better understanding to my thought process.

Video commentary

—discussing the post here—-

Mantastic Noah Dragon clear (no 99 turn stall)

—

Mantastic team

I used nearly the same team  as I do for Arena 3 except for dropping my second Sanada 3101 for Gadius Gadius due to the no duplicates restriction. This actually proved to be helpful as Gadius’s high base recovery combined with bind immunity and bind recover Bind Clear awakening allow for more flexibility/utility than I normally have.

My Krishna team is far less invested in compared to my Myr as I have fewer latents and inherits.

Mantastic’s Team
Card Inherit Latents Comments
3068 A Cao Cao Delay to overcome resolve floors
Urd – Auto heal Auto heal Auto heal
Auto heal Auto heal		 Autoheal was all I had
3101 Green Odin Green Odin clears binds

Using as SDR protection

 
Gadius Awoken Leilan  

Using as a strong base for Leilan
Bankai Yamato – Combos with Leilan for Noah
3068 Awoken Ares Fire resist Water Red Wood resist
Light reduction Dark Reduction		 Upgraded active

When facing Noah Dragon, you can liberally use active skills as you will be forced to stall on the boss to some degree. I built my team around killing Noah Dragon without stalling for 99 turns. In order to do this, I had to use the +15% HP badge to tank the <75% hit. I also did my best to chip Noah Dragon down as close to 50% as possible, then unbind with the Green Odin inherit, Leilan + Yamato to kill. Due to fire dealing 50% less damage to water, you can hit up to 10 million without having it being voided.

It is safer to stall out the 99 turns and then do a giant burst at the end.

Fantastic’s Gaia Dragon clear

Continue reading [Video] One Shot Challenge 5 – Krishna vs Noah & Gaia Dragon, Izanagi/Myr vs Gaia Dragon →

Ranking Dungeons

Final Fantasy Tournament Strategy and Guide

33 Comments

Introduction

The Final Fantasy Tournament uses the loved/dreaded preset teams. With a preset team, it helps even the playing field as no one can gain an advantage via specific cards or combos. However, it does dramatically cut down on creativity and also results in more “luck” when trying to min-max your score as skyfalls/bad boards will play a massive role in determining how well you place. With this post, I will try my best to help give my readers a slight competitive edge based on my own experience running the dungeon.

In these ranking dungeons, we are scored based on 3 criteria:

  1. Average combos made: 5,000 points per combo
  2. Time Remaining: 500 points per second remaining
  3. Maximum damage: up to 10,000 points if you hit 40 million.

Clear videos

115,708 score

Mantastic commentary

—talking about the dungeon itself—-

Your team

Everyone will be using the same team (max skill and max awoken) and it is important to understand how your leader skill functions along with any combo synergy you may have.

Noctis at a glance

This is based off the current form and does not take into consideration the future Yama P buff.

Noctis
3305
Physical / Attacker
TPA TPA Skill Lock Resist
Time Extend Time Extend Time Extend
Skill Boost Skill Boost Devil killer
6 star base
—-
4 Question Orb Arrow Dark
+1 combo for 1 turn
7 turn CD
—-
1.5x HP/ATK/RCV but cannot erase 3 connected orbs. 3x ATK with 3 combos. 6x with 6+ combos
2.25x HP / 81x ATK / 2.25x RCV

Noctis’s Scaling Leader Skill
# combos 3 4 5 6
Multiplier 20.25x 36x 56.25x 81x

This may seem like an amazing leader skill, but you  have to remember you cannot match 3 connected orbs. Thus, every match must be at least 4 and it is wise to match primary colours in a TPA fashion (4 connected) and dead orbs in any number you can.

Based on the floor you encounter, you can make fewer combos in order to save time. Remember, you can always use Noctic’s active skill to increase you combo count by 1.

Cards and relevant damage awakenings

Continue reading Final Fantasy Tournament Strategy and Guide →

Game Meta

Reincarnated Evolution 101

35 Comments

Introduction

In the near future, North America will begin to receive the first wave of Reincarnated evolutions. This is a new type of evolution that provides a new layer of power and I wish to explain the process along with the pros and cons in this article. The thoughts explained below apply to the REM monsters who require an awoken evolution. Moving forward, you may begin to see monsters with the prefix R or Re and that simply designates their reincarnated form.

As a forewarning, you are unable to reverse this process so you must exercise caution before committing to a reincarnated evolution.

Video commentary

What is a reincarnated evolution?

A reincarnated evolution is a new type of evolution that upgrades an existing awoken evolution. This will increase their rarity (number of stars), grant them a third typing, and retain their original active. In addition, the required materials are easy to obtain, but unlike an ultimate evolution, reincarnation can only occur if your monster is max level.

evo-tree

Forewarning

In the above image, a level 99 Awoken Minerva can be reincarnated with those five masks. She will be unable to revert back to her awoken form and her level will be reset back to 1. This is usually not a problem with the abundant snowglobes or king infestations floating around; however, reincarnated forms require 16 million experience to max level (as opposed to their normal 4 million curve). Continue reading Reincarnated Evolution 101 →

Collab REM Reviews

Yama P Final Fantasy Buffs

27 Comments

Introduction

As part of a celebration for the latest Final Fantasy game, Yama P decided to roll the FF Collab REM numerous times and buff the monsters he rolled. This type of randomization buffs can be somewhat frustrating as we may have the wrong cards being improved or those who do not need them; however, you can simply view these as an additional bonus as the Final Fantasy Collab is already one of the best to date.

This post will be showcasing all the buffs and the impact they may have on those cards and how to make the most of them. My Final Fantasy Review will also be updated very soon to reflect these changes.

I do not know how long it will take for these buffs to come to NA/EU and I can only presume it will be soon and ideally before the Collab is over.

Video commentary

—video goes here—

Buffs

Noctis
3305
Physical / Attacker
TPA TPA Skill Lock Resist
Time Extend Time Extend Time Extend
Skill Boost Skill Boost Devil killer
6 star base
—-
4 Question Orb Arrow Dark
+1 combo for 1 turn
7 turn CD
—-
1.5x HP/ATK/RCV but cannot erase 3 connected orbs. 3x ATK with 3 combos. 6x with 6+ combos
2.25x HP / 81x ATK / 2.25x RCV
1.5x HP/ATK/RCV but cannot erase 3 connected orbs. 4x ATK with 3 combos. 7x with 6+ combos
2.25x HP / 110.25x ATK / 2.25x RCV

Noctis now scales significantly faster as the combo clause is a modest issue when you are unable to connect 3 orbs. This also means he is able to deal up to 110.25x ATK and results in higher burst damage that may reduce the need to bring a damage enhancing active. Quite powerful overall Continue reading Yama P Final Fantasy Buffs →

Game Meta

JP Stream Changes & New Evolutions Review

54 Comments

Introduction

I normally do not provide much thoughts on future JP news as it does not apply to NA for usually 1-2 months. However, the most recent JP stream showcased numerous new evolutions, quality of life changes, and new game mechanics. I wish to take the time to review all of the new things coming to Puzzle and Dragons.

The Final Fantasy buffs will be covered in a separate post and the review will be updated accordingly. I will be reviewing Bleach whenever it is scheduled to come to NA.

Video commentary

—-video goes here—

Skill Inheritance changes

Puzzle and Dragons is by nature a grind-oriented game. However, there is fun grinding and there is tedious grinding. GungHo is doing their best to cut down on the more boring aspects so you can focus your stamina playing fun content.

Skill Inheritance has been a well received mechanic and it has given viability for cards that had lackluster bodies and powerful actives. Unfortunately, the process is somewhat costly to perform as each transfer costs 2 million coins and requires 4 tans. The coins were usually not too much of an issue, but collecting the right colour tans is mostly a stamina sink/loss as the dungeon is not fun to play and is more of a chore than pleasure. Continue reading JP Stream Changes & New Evolutions Review →

Godfest

Gracious Banquet Godfest: Greco Roman 2, Wisdom Kings, and Three Kingdoms Review and Analysis

28 Comments

Godfest basics

When making the decision to roll or save your magic stones, you need to determine if the featured pantheons can benefit or compliment your teams. Chasing for one specific monster is unwise as you will most likely be disappointed and should ideally have Godfests that overlap with many target cards. Remember all monsters that come out of the REM will qualify for Skill Inheritance so do not be too hasty when selling dupes. For a more detailed team building help, please refer to my full list Popular Leader’s and their Full Sub List Post. Lastly, to find more information about a specific pantheon or monster, refer to my Master List to better refine your search. If you are considering to purchase a Four Gentlemen card, please read my Review and Comparison HERE.

Introduction

The Gracious Banquet Godfest comes as a bit of a surprise as we have been somewhat overwhelmed by Final Fantasy along with it falling on a Wednesday. However, to tempt players further, the new Wisdom Kings pantheon will be featured on both days alongside two powerful series. In addition, all monsters rolled during the Godfest will come out with +50 to a random stat.

If you are torn between rolling in Final Fantasy or this Godfest, you will have to determine what can benefit your box more? Furthermore, you have to take into consideration that the Final Fantasy Collab is a limited time event (may not return for 6+ months) whereas these featured pantheons will rotate back along with being available all the time.

Green Forest Gala Cameo
—-
—
—
—
Day 1		 Greco Roman 2 Wisdom Kings
Awoken Ares A Hermes Awoken Artemis Awoken Apollo Awoken Persephone 3198 3200 3202 3204 3206
GFE
rodin Blodin Green Odin Kali Dark Kali Red Sonia Blue Sonia Green Sonia
Ult Zuoh Ilm Ult Tsubaki Ult Sumire Ult Kaede Fenrir Viz Fenrir Kanna
Baby Satsuki Gremory Ronove 2991 2993 2997 Sherias Roots Sherias
Balboa Baldin
—
—
—
—
Day 2		 Three Kingdoms Wisdom Kings
A Cao Cao A Sun Quan A Liu Bei Awoken DQXQ A Lu Bu 3198 3200 3202 3204 3206
GFE
 Urd Skuld ult evo Verd  Metatron dtron Ryune Saria Sylvie
Fenrir Viz Fenrir Ult Zuoh Ilm Sherias Roots Sherias Baldin Balboa
Ronove 2991 2993 2997 Gremory Eschamali Scheat Australis
Gadius Typhon

Video commentary

—video goes here—

Day 1:

The Greco Roman 2 pantheon is one of the oldest, but still possesses their powerful double orb changer. Granted they have diminished value in a heart cross meta, they are still capable of acting as powerful mono colour subs for their respective teams. In addition, they are capable forming reasonable tank teams that are reliant on matching two different colours. Overall, they are a powerful pantheon and are well positioned for when the meta shifts to powerful Krishna-style teams.

On the other hand, the Wisdom Kings pantheon is the newest one to be released in North America and features monsters who have unique actives and leader skills. All of them offer something new that will add dimension and diversity to your monster box. You may not need them in every situation, but it is worthwhile having them at your disposal. All of the Wisdom Kings have respectable leader skills and come ready to use (no ultimate evolution/awakening/reincarnating required). In addition, Acala 3202 will become a formidable leader when her fire cross buff comes through.

The GFE featured on Day 1 is superior as you have both the Kalis and Kaede featured at increased rates.

Overall, Day 1 is a great way to acquire powerful cards and is worth rolling even if you already have some of the Greco Romans as they are powerful options as assistants through Skill Inheritance.

Continue reading Gracious Banquet Godfest: Greco Roman 2, Wisdom Kings, and Three Kingdoms Review and Analysis →

Puzzling those Dragons