Challenge Dungeons, Videos

[Videos] Fixed Team Challenge Descends

6 Comments

Introduction

There has been plenty of hype and excitement with the Final Fantasy Collab returning to North America; however, players should also be excited about the introduction of a pure Fixed Team Challenge. This challenge provides players with 5 unique and powerful teams to tackle various descends. All of the teams come hypermaxed (+297 and max skill) so we have the opportunity to play and enjoy compositions we would normally not be able to create. This is also a fantastic opportunity for newer/lower rank accounts

I have compiled all of my clears across my two accounts in solo mode to showcase how these teams play and the general strategies used to overcome the various  hurdles presented in the dungeons.

Awoken Hel Hel vs Deus ex Machina

It was nice how they gave us a nearly 100% farmable team. How do I feel about the poison meta? Hel no.

Awoken DQXQ DQXQ vs Hephaestus Descended

A strange hybrid of water and light subs. I tended to focus on light matches at the beginning and transition over to water rows for the boss

3202 Acala vs Seraphis Descended

It was strange playing a colour cross leader. It was also amusing to see an Odin Dragon Odin Dragon and his ridiculous autoheal awakenings. If you are playing this in coop, you can tank the Limit Break enrage hit from the boss and simply go for the one shot on the first turn.

Neptune Dragon Neptune Dragon vs Zeus & Hera Descended

It is somewhat sad how dated Neptune Dragon has become with powercreep as his multiplier is so low considering how many orbs you have to chain together. Hopefully his future evolution will grant him some relevance.

Ult Tsubaki Tsubaki vs Agni Descended

Probably the only time you will ever see a hypermax Sphinx but it was valuable for executing the Tan on the first floor.

Conclusion

The fixed challenges gives players the opportunity to play leaders that would otherwise be unobtainable along with enjoying a fully invested team. I hope GungHo continues to provide more fixed team challenges as it is a lot of fun to experiment with new playstyles as well as granting lower rank players the opportunity to clear variuos dungeons.

Happy Puzzling!

Game Meta, Videos

Farming for Skill Delay Resist Tamadras in Special Descend Rush without Awoken Liu Bei

9 Comments

Introduction

Skill Delay Resist Tamadras Skill delay resist (SDR) are now invading Special Descend Rush (SDR), from the coin dungeons, which makes for confusing abbreviations and a wonderful opportunity to acquire the strongest Latent Tamadra. Special Descend Rush features 6 Rogue Descend Bosses along with the leveling up mechanic to further hinder your progress. However, SDR has very predictable mechanics and is able to be cleared with a Glass Cannon team as there are no lethal preemptives. Many players are using Awoken Liu Bei A Liu Bei to mindlessly farm, but not everyone is fortunate enough to have him nor the fully invested Dioses Ult Zeus Dios and niche inherits.

As such, I wish to illustrate how Sarasvati 3069 or any other glass cannon leader can quickly clear this dungeon provided you have already invested in that team.

Video clear

My older clear from when Sarasvati was first released and required 12 orbs for 100x

Teams used

I have used Sarasvati since her release when she was a more orb hungry leader that required 12 water orbs for 100x. This would cause additional pressure to use orb changers and slows down the overall process. Thankfully, in her current form, Sarasvati is able to achieve 100x without a connected 6 water. Team A starts the dungeon and does not bring a dark sub to avoid the preemptive bind.

Team A 3069 A Hermes A Sun Quan Awoken Oorochi 3103

Team B 3069 Blue Sonia Ryune Gabriel BL Hermes

There can be many variations to these teams and you mostly have to counter a few mechanics:

  • Floor 3 requires a Delay or Poison to kill Volsung
  • Floor 4 requires a Delay or Awakenings Bind clear (aka Green Odin Green Odin)
  • Floor 6 requires either a bind clear or a buff to be dispelled
  • 6 kill actives for all the floors

Using a delay instead of a Poison or Awakenings Bind clear allows for some stalling/setting up your board. This conserves actives along with letting your floor 1 and 2 abilities to possibly recharge in time.

Other than this, it is a pretty straight forward dungeon: kill before being killed. You have 6 floors and a total of 10 actives so you will have at least 1 to spare at the end. Keep this in mind when team building and remember to take advantage of Skill Inheritance.

Sarasvati strategy

Based on the skyfall luck and locked orb spawns, you may have to adjust on the fly; however, this is the general strategy used:

  • Floor 1 Awoken Hermes A Hermes, kill (A)
  • Floor 2 B/L Hermes BL Hermes if required, only need 9 water orbs (B)
  • Floor 3 is done in 3 steps:
    • Awoken Sun Quan A Sun Quan, Sarasvati 3069, set up board (A)
    • Use 9+ water orbs, kill and trigger resolve (B)
    • Finish off Volusung as he is at 1 HP, Conserve heal orbs (A)
  • Floor 4 abuses Orochi’s delay to wait out the awakenings bind
    • Move heart orbs out of the left and rightmost columns (B)
    • Orochi Awoken Oorochi and heal as much as possible (A)
    • Remove locked fire orbs, conserve water orbs, and heal (B)
    • Remove locked fire orbs, conserve water orbs, and heal (A)
    • Remove locked fire orbs, conserve water orbs,  and heal (B)
    • Mori 3103 to remove poisons and sweep with 2 water rows and 100x (A)
  • Floor 5 Blue Sonia Blue Sonia and sweep (B)
  • Floor 6 is the boss floor
    • Remove locked orbs and make sure Sarasvati’s active is rolling to bait out the status void instead of bind (A)
    • Ryune Ryune + Hermes (may have to pass turns) and sweep

If you get an invade, you can either delay it or burst through or stall. You have to use your judgement.

Conclusion

Now is the best time to farm for Skill Delay Resist Skill delay resist Latent Tamadras. Special Descend Rush may be challenging, but is doable with an invested team and a solid strategy.

Let me know how you have been farming this dungeon and what was your set up.

Happy Puzzling!

Monster Analysis, Pantheon Analysis

Wisdom Kings Review and Analysis

24 Comments

Introduction

The Wisdom Kings are the newest pantheon to be released in Puzzle and Dragons. None of these monsters have an ultimate evolution and to help compensate for the anticipated Powercreep, they have received additional awakenings along with a unique kit to keep them interesting (they should have new evolutions in the distant future). All of the Wisdom Kings provide something new and valuable that helps add dimension to your monster box.

As a forewarning, any defensive multiplier is lost if your leader is bound. Conversely, the multiplayer bonus Multiplayer Bonus provides 50% more stats to these cards which helps bring them more inline with Reincarnated/Awoken evolutions as their base stats are around 700.

Video commentary

Continue reading Wisdom Kings Review and Analysis →

New Player Help

Puzzle and Dragons Abbreviations – A Reference Guide

39 Comments

Introduction

All games and activities have a certain degree of lingo or abbreviations made by the fans to help streamline discussion or to convey complicated thoughts more easily. Puzzle and Dragons is no exception and for players who have been playing for several years, the lingo and abbreviations are not too difficult to keep up with. However, if you are just venturing out of Departure Tower (the starting dungeon), you may be overwhelmed with information and unable to understand what is being said on the various forums or Facebook groups. The purpose of this article is to provide a handy reference guide to all Puzzle and Dragons (PAD) terminology and if I miss any abbreviations, please let me know in the comments below.

Video commentary

Puzzle and Dragons abbreviations

In order to streamline your search and reading experience, I have tried my best to categorize the various terms.

Magic Stone related

Magic Stones are the premium currency in Puzzle and Dragons. These are used to expand our box space, friends list, continue a failed dungeon, as well as rolling the Rare Egg Machine (REM). These can be acquired via clearing a dungeon for the first time, logging in every day, or by purchasing with real life money.

  • Stones simply refers to Magic Stones. Sometimes used in the past tense (stoned) to imply you continued a failed dungeon
  • IAP or In App Purchases is a term used to convey spending real life money for additional magic stones
  • F2P / Non-IAP stands for someone who is Free to Play and does not purchase Magic Stones
  • Whale or any other aquatic animal is a term used to describe someone who purchases a lot of magic stones. The larger the animal (with Whale being the largest), the more they spend.
  • MP or Monster Points is a secondary currency that can be used to purchase various powerful monsters
Godfest related
  • GF is a Godfest where certain monters are featured at increased rates. Often confused with Girlfriend.
  • PCGF is the short form of Player’s Choice Godfest. This is a special Godfest in which the players vote for the featured monsters. I do not know when it will occur next
  • GFE are Godfest Exclusives that are only able to be rolled during Godfests
  • 4x GFE indicates that certain GFE are featured at 4x rates. This number can change/vary
  • Pantheon is the featured non-GFE monsters
  • Troll Gold is a monster that comes out as a gold egg, but is really just an evolved silver

Continue reading Puzzle and Dragons Abbreviations – A Reference Guide →

Monster Analysis, New Evolutions

Krishna – New Savior for Fire Teams: Review, Analysis, and Team Building

87 Comments

Introduction

Krishna 3068 has finally received his new ultimate evolution and has been transformed into a top tier leader. While he may not be as overpowering as some of the heart cross leaders, Krishna has numerous advantages including the most flexible team building, ability to focus on rows or TPA, along with being able to fully utilize any given board. Krishna is capable of clearing end game content including Arena 3.

Video commentary

 Krishna at a glance

Krishna
3068
God / Balance / Devil
3,735 HP / 1,767 ATK / 353 RCV
845 Total
Enhnaced Fire Orb Enhnaced Fire Orb Fire Row Skill Lock Resist Skill Boost Time Extend Enhnaced Fire Orb Enhnaced Fire Orb Enhnaced Fire Orb

Active Skill:
+15% fire skyfalls for 3 turns
2 Question Orb Arrow Fire
6 turn CD

Leader Skill:
1.5x HP/ATK/RCV to fire cards. 3x ATK with 2 fire combos. 4.5x ATK with 3 fire combos
2.25x HP / 45.56x ATK / 2.25x RCV

Krishna Scaling Leader Skill
# Fire Combos 0-1 2 3+
Multiplier 2.25x 20.25x 45.56x

Continue reading Krishna – New Savior for Fire Teams: Review, Analysis, and Team Building →

Arena

Awoken Umisachi Yamasachi Clears Arena 3

8 Comments

Introduction

To shake things up on my Twitch Stream, I decided to use my new Awoken Umisachi Yamasachi 2982 in Arena 3. I usually farm Arena 3 with my Myraculous Myr Miru, but was tempted by the prospect of the 400x glass cannon. I have probably cleared Arena 3 over 65 times now so I do know the dungeon inside and out. However, U&Y does need a certain degree of luck to succeed and is by no means a consistent leader.

Video clear

Team line up

I have not had much time to tinker around with my Awoken Umisachi Yamasachi team, but my current set up addresses most of the concerns in the dungeon and I got very lucky with the water orb skyfall (de)buff from the first floor. I plan to release my U&Y guide after Krishna so stay tuned for that and any changes I do make to my team.

Latent awakenings were either Time Extend or Rainbow Resist (1% of each colour).

Mantastic Team
Card Inherit Comments
2982 – Makes water and dark orbs
Kali Sherias
  • Kali has better awakenings
  • Sherias upgrades her active
U&Y – Makes water and wood orbs
Famiel – Luck-based board change
Isis Susano Best shield I own
Fantastic Team
Card Inherit Comments
2982 – Makes water and dark orbs
U&Y Makes water and wood orbs
Famiel – Luck-based board change
Awoken Oorochi – Emergency delay
Isis Indra 75% shield

Using water-based cards is great for when you are trying to kill with a 25x, 3 water combo match, but is largely not needed for most bosses as 144x does sweep. The numerous TPA can be helpful for piercing high defense bosses along with padding your damage on 144x. 400x kills everything, including Kali through her shield.

Reflecting on the run, I may want to try and find a recover bind Bind Clear awakening sub to help deal with binds when my Isis reach their shielding stage. It would also be nice to have some sort of heart orb generation as my current set up has no way to heal and use actives for damage. I do not own any Dark Kali Dark Kali style actives to inherit so my choices are limited with Linthia Linthia or Gainaut Gainut being lesser choices.

Conclusion

Awoken Umisachi Yamasachi is certainly capable of clearing Arena 3, but has far less consistency compared to the other high tier leaders. Being able to deal (amazing) damage is not the only thing that makes a strong leader as all the best teams have some sort of defensive mechanic.

What do you think of Umisachi and Yamasachi as well as who do you run on your team?

Happy Puzzling!

Videos

[Video] Solo Arena 1 vs Tsubaki System

17 Comments

Introduction

In an attempt to showcase a wider variety of leaders and more solo content, here is my Arena 1 clear with Tsubaki Ult Tsubaki. I have been lucky/unlucky with the REM in that I tend to pull numerous duplicate cards; however, this ends up working in my favour as Tsubaki is an amazing sub on her own team. She comes with the ideal awakenings along with a 7-turn active that provides haste. This allows me to form a system and I could use 1 Tsubaki active every turn while simultaneously charging up two other cards. There is going to be a split evolution for Tsubaki in the future that makes her a stronger leader and sub so that is something to look forward to.

Video clear

–

 Team set up

Team building was quite simple for me as I simply used all 4 of my Tsubaki and a single Gadius Gadius. Tsubaki is essentially the best sub for himself as he provides an ideal active and awakenings. Gadius was chosen for his recover bind (and bind immunity), but was otherwise of little lesser value. However, this team would have been unsuccessful without Skill Inheritance and this is where the customization comes into play:

Tsubaki Team
Card Inherit Comments
Ult Tsubaki –
Gadius Awoken Leilan
  • Saria Saria would be ideal
  • Synergy with Yamato Bankai Yamato
  • Bind Clear awakening for emergencies
Ult Tsubaki –
Ult Tsubaki Bankai Yamato Emergency heart generation
Ult Tsubaki Cao Cao Delay if needed
Ult Tsubaki Silk 5.5x ATK boost

Strong points and hurdles

Presently, Tsubaki is a 76.56x ATK leader with no defensive multipliers (will gain 2.25x RCV in the future). This can prove challenging to use as you are vulnerable to large preemptives (I was gambling on no DQ Hera spawn) and even stalling can be a challenge with the low base recovery. Thankfully, the +25% RCV badge is a lifesaver along with having every heart orb come enhanced. Damage is also not an issue outside of the Kali stage or perhaps Hera-Is (Water Hera). Gaining 5.5x ATK from Silk is simply amazing (0.15*30 + 1) and was able to one shot Kali through her shield.

On the other hand, the team is risky to play as you are vulnerable to mechanics and I was somewhat fortunate to not encounter anything too dangerous towards the end. I had a small heart attack on the Tamadra floor as my leader got bound twice and Gadius failed to produce 6 heart orbs.

Conclusion

Tsubaki is a fun and fast paced leader to play when you are able to utilize numerous duplicates. This allows you to have countless enhanced orbs along with ample access to haste to keep the actives flowing. I look forward to her split evolution and future buffs in the upcoming months.

Happy Puzzling!

Godfest

Early Harvest Godfest: Chinese Celestials, Japanese 2, Indian 2, and Mechanical 1 Review and Analysis

41 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 Early Harvest Godfest comes hard on the heels of the 10-Stone GFE REM . While Godfest Exclusives are tremendously powerful, you still need regular REM card support to excel and GungHo is presenting us with some of the stronger pantheons. In addition, many of these cards have received new ultimate evolutions in the past month that grant them even more viability.

Water Gala of Tides Carat
—-
—
—
—
Day 1		 Chinese Celestials Japanese 2
Awoken Leilan Awoken Karin MeiMei Sakuya Haku 2981 2982 2983 Awoken Izanagi 2985
GFE
rodin Blodin Green Odin Urd Skuld ult evo Verd Kali Dark Kali
Metatron dtron Fenrir Viz Fenrir Gremory Ronove 2991 Ryune
Saria Sylvie 2993 2997 Sherias Roots Sherias Balboa Baldin
Gadius Typhon
—
—
—
—
Day 2		 Indian 2 Mechanical 1
3068 3069 3070 3071 3072 3054 3056 3058 3060 3062
GFE
Kali Dark Kali Ult Tsubaki Ult Sumire Ult Kaede Ryune Saria Sylvie
Kanna Baby Satsuki Ult Zuoh Ilm Sherias Roots Sherias Baldin Balboa
Sherias Roots Sherias Red Sonia Blue Sonia Green Sonia Eschamali Scheat Australis
Gadius Typhon

Video commentary

Day 1:

The Chinese Celestials are one of the oldest pantheons in Puzzle an Dragons and have begun to fall behind in the current meta. This is mostly due to the dominance of heart cross leaders require board changers that produce heart orbs. This leaves them in a somewhat awkward place as their board change will rarely be as strong as someone who produces 3 elements with one being hearts. However, if other leaders begin to follow similar patterns as Krishnia 3068, they may begin to see more viability. One thing to keep in mind is their ability to be inherited onto other mono-colour teams who may be better able to combo with their actives.

On the other hand, the Japanese 2 pantheon is relatively new and is home to five new and powerful awoken cards. None of them follow any sense of pattern and instead provide unique playstyles as leaders while harbouring interesting active skills. Due to their relative unique-ness, they are fun leaders to play and are capable of clearing some endgame content.

Day 1 is reasonably strong is you are looking to play non-heart cross leaders as they offer some of the stronger mono-colour subs along with unique leaders.

Continue reading Early Harvest Godfest: Chinese Celestials, Japanese 2, Indian 2, and Mechanical 1 Review and Analysis →

Videos

Awoken Kushinadahime and Umisachi & Yamasachi Sample Gameplay in Arena 1

4 Comments

Introduction

Due to the high volume of new content being rapidly released in Puzzle and Dragons, I have not had a chance to do a full article for either Awoken Kushinadahime 2983 or Umisachi & Yamasachi 2982. In an attempt to quench your thirst, here is my two clears of Arena 1 using them on the first day of their release to give you a better understanding of their respective play styles. Guides will come soon and the teams used are most likely non-optimal.

Arena 1 is a nice place to test and showcase new leaders as there are enough mechanics to present a modest challenge along with highlighting different scenarios and how to overcome them.

Awoken Kushinadahime 2983

Awoken Kushinadahime is a purely skill based combo leader who is unable to gain benefits from skyfalls. In addition, her leader skill is directly tied to the number of combos she is able to form so she is not for the feint of heart. Maxes out at 169x for 10 combos.
—

Umisachi & Yamasachi 2982

The wonder twins were Fantastic’s main leader back in the day and I was thrilled when they finally got the buff they deserved. They are still a rainbow based leader, but has the potential to achieve 400x with 3 water combos alongside their three other elements. They are still a glass cannon, but are able to dish out spectacular damage with relatively few orbs.
—

Conclusion

Both Kushinadahime and Umisachi & Yamasachi are fun to play leaders with unique twists on current leader skills. Neither are able to form top tier leaders, but provide a breath of fresh air amidst all the rows and heart cross leaders.

Happy Puzzling!

Game Meta

9.5.2 Update Thoughts and Review

14 Comments

Introduction

Version 9.5.2 was released today and brings numerous quality of life features along with additional quests, evolutions, 150/250 memorial pulls, and a Best Friend reset. This post will highlight the new changes as well as explaining how they work alongside their overall impact on Puzzle and Dragons.

Video commentary

New quests and badges

Version 9.5.2 introduces a new series of quests to complete along with more powerful badges. One major complaint about the first wave of quests was that they were too “easy” to obtain as many veteran players had already auto-completed them upon release. However, Maniac quests will challenge even the most seasoned players as the requirements are somewhat outrageous and will take a long time to complete.

maniac

The first two are relatively easy to complete as Special dungeons simply means you have to either played for a long time (to have seen all the niche limited time rotations) or able to clear every hard dungeon upon release. Total Monsters in Monster Book counts for both REM and farmable drops so simply go out and play more. You can also bolster your count by evolving cards as that will unlock additional progress.

On the other hand, you require 100 +297 monsters for the +35% RCV badge while total crowns is unobtainable at the moment (and not very feasible in general). Finally, the Total Awoken Skills refers to the number of awakenings you have unlocked. This means you require a huge number of Tamadras, but I also presume you can use farmable boss drops to unlock additional awakenings by feeding to themselves (eg. fusing a second form Tengu to another second form Tengu for a free awakenings unlock). Continue reading 9.5.2 Update Thoughts and Review →

Puzzling those Dragons