Coop/multiplayer everything patch: doubling the disappointment for half the stamina. Perhaps that is not the best slogan (albeit accurate) for the shifting meta towards a more cooperative gameplay in Puzzle and Dragons. However, GungHo has been pushing the coop/multiplayer feature for the past several updates as a means to make it more appealing and enjoyable way to play PAD. Upon it’s debut in North America, there was a certain degree of skepticism as we were the unfortunate victim of a poorly timed release of no more solo-play and a challenge dungeon series that had to be played via multiplayer. Thankfully, this issue has been permanently corrected and we are now essentially in the glory days of multiplayer with only a few new updates to come to enhance our quality of life.
Currently, all descends, rushes, Arena, daily dungeons, and limited time hourly dungeons are available to play in coop for half the stamina. The hourly dungeons are of particular importance as only the hosting player has to have the correct time to play and anyone can join their room. Finally, our teams are bolstered with 4 more subs/actives along with an increased health pool to make our runs easier and faster to clear.
However, amongst all of these amazing benefits, many players are starting to feel the pressure to play coop (to min-max your stamina) and the actual pressure associated with matching under a time limit or with another person watching. As such, I wish to pen down my thoughts to help alleviate some of the newfound stresses in Puzzle and Dragons Continue reading The Pressures of Coop/Multiplayer→
So I have been tirelessly trying to reach my second crown on Mantastic and first on Fantastic through the Satan Ranking Tournament. In my previous POST, I go over all the possible top tier team compositions as well as my tentative strategies for the dungeon as a whole. I was even able to post a 125k+ score with the water-based DQXQ and a helpful video as reference. However, this proved to be insufficient due to the surge of You Yu who are better able to hit the damage cap and go faster.
Ups and downs with a touch of heartbreak
I continued to throw stamina and stones at Satan to improve upon my water DQXQ team’s score and I was successful on both my accounts:
Was 0.6 on Wednesday night
And these are pretty Fantastic scores and I feel that I hit the relative cap for DQXQ with Mantastic as I it will be incredibly challenging to improve upon that score. Unfortunately, neither of these scores are sitting in the top 1% due to the You Yu nation pushing the cut off above 127,500.
You Yu has been released in North America, but his debut was somewhat marred by the announcement of Uuevo Sarasvati. Both leads focus around matching numerous water combos along with either a 5o1e or row to trigger their full multiplier. Both are capable of achieving spectacular levels of damage but suffer from fragilty and a certain degree of orb-hungriness. The purpose of this article is to compare and contrast the two leaders while highlighting their weaknesses and strengths.
Overview
You Yu and Sarasvati can be best categorized as glass-cannons. This means that they are able to deal a amazing amount of damage at the cost of no HP/RCV multiplier. Thus, they are at the mercy of dungeon mechanics when they are unable to sweep the floor/activate. The lack of HP can be compensated through coop and that does help address that weakness. However, you will still need to find a way to heal up after an attack or bring some sort of sub dedicated to utility to compensate.
So I stayed up late last night playing the Satan Ranking Tournament using the strategies theory crafted in my Previous Post. If you have not read that already, I strongly encourage you to go through it as it will contain more details and other viable team options.
This is my current high score and I will be updating with a new video if I should surpass it.
125,302 score video
I am in love with the new overlay and let me know what you think of it!
Ways to improve your score
Time
It may seem like commonsense, but your time remaining is incredibly important as each second counts for 500 points. If I was able to remove those few brief pauses of hesitation, I could be 2 seconds faster and have 1,000 more points. The main drawback of using DQXQ is the acrobatics and extra time required to form a row with 3 other elemental matches. On the bright side, the preemptives give us additional time to plan our movements due to the extra animations.
Hit damage cap
The damage cap for an additional 10,000 points is a total of 40 million. You must try your best to hit that because there will be players who make the same number of average combos and time remaining. Thus, to guarantee your position, you must hit over 40 million. Thankfully, with the skyfall buff and single fire floor, you should be able to easily achieve that.
A bit excessive damage…
Bring orb changers, not board changer/random orb generators
This is perhaps a little nitty-gritty, but when trying to min max your score, you need to save as much time as possible. You ideally want to use as few actives as possible as it only adds extra time. However, if you must use an orb changer, it is better to bring an orb changer instead of a board changer or someone who randomly creates X number of orbs. This is because there will be an element of planning between each floor and you can plan your move when you know exactly where the orbs will be post-active. As such, board changers and random orb generators will ruin your planning as the end result cannot be predicted.
Conclusion
Hopefully this video and subsequent post provides some fresh inspiration for your ranking dungeon endeavors. I strongly encourage each and everyone of you to clear the dungeon for the magic stone and participation rewards. I only ask you do not exceed my score as I am so close to hitting the top 1% and my second crown.
Satan Tournament is the next installment in the ranking dungeon series and offers players a chance to acqurie 10,000 Monster Points and various coloured Py. The goal of these tournaments is to “test” our skill by imposing a scoring system to determine your percentile ranking.
In these ranking dungeons, we are scored based on 3 criteria:
Average combos made: 5,000 points per combo
Time Remaining: 500 points per second remaining
Maximum damage: up to 10,000 points if you hit 40 million.
Dungeon overview
Floor
Monster
HP
Comments
1
1,877,083
-1s move time for 3 turns
2
4,250,417
+25% water skyfall for 5 turns
3
972,645
3,140 preemptive
4
3,005,336
8,032 preemptive
5
2,138,454
7,549 preemptive
6
2,478,751
6,572 preemptive
7
6,666,667
6,005 preemptive
Total preemptive damage: 31,298 Water skyfall (de)buff ends on floor 7
Dungeon summary
7 floors that favour a combination of speed and average combos made
All floors have a significant amount of health (cannot button)
The water skyfall allows for combo-based leaders to shine
Water skyfall also favours water-based teams
Skyfall buff ends on Satan (floor 7)
Wood teams have it “easiest” while fire will struggle in terms of type advantages
No Predras
5 turn actives can be used more than once
Total preemptive damage: 31,298. Please make sure you heal
Auto heal awakenings can help alleviate the stress of healing as the damage comes over the course of several floors.
You Yu, or Bamboo, is the third released card of the Four Gentlemen series (300,000 MP monster) and pushes the boundaries on the next level of powercreep in terms of damage output. Capping out at 156.25x ATK on a mono colour team allows you to deal spectacular damage with the ability to control your output through a scaling multiplier. You will need to use Skill Inheritance to help address fragility and somewhat orb hungry nature, but that is the price to pay for explosive damage. Thankfully, you do not have to use numerous You Yu’s to form an effective team which is a nice change of pace from Xiang Mei . However, the real question is: do you really need to purchase You Yu?
You Yu at a glance
You Yu
Attacker
3,655 HP / 2,606 ATK / 325 RCV
995 Total
Active Skill:
3
1.5x ATK Attacker types
7 turn CD
Leader Skill:
1.5x ATK when matching 2 water combos. Max 2.5x (4 combos). 5x ATK when matching 5 connected orbs with 1 enhanced. 156.25x ATK
You Yu Scaling Leader Skill
# water combos
1
2
3
4
Multiplier
–
2.25x
4x
6.25x
Multiplier w/ 5o1e
25x
56.25x
100x
156.25x
Sample gameplay
You Yu lacks dual typing and does not have a sub attribute. This seems bizarre for a 300k MP Monster; however, his leadership power brings fourth the next wave of powercreep in terms of damage output. Below is a sample video of a solo Mech Hera run to give you an idea of his capabilities:
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.
Introduction
The One True Pairings Godfest coincides with the June Bride REM and gives players a challenging decision to make as where to spend their Magic Stones. This Godfest features a diverse array of powerful leaders and subs along with the soon to be Awoken 3 Kingdoms Pantheon. We have also just had the highly anticipated Awoken DQXQ who should be some indication as to the power the 3 Kingdoms have in store for us. It is just unfortunate they are being paired with the lackluster Egyptian 2. For Day 2, the featured Norse Pantheon contains some of the most desired mono colour subs along with fantastic leads in their own right. Lastly, the Samurai series features some of the strongest actives in the game who are phenomenal as an assistant for Skill Inheritance.
Light Gala / Midnight Gala
jjj Day 1
3 Kingdoms
Egyptian 2
jjj Day 2
Samurai
Norse
Day 1:
The Three Kingdoms are finally starting to get their awoken evolutions, but are still considered some of the strongest subs in the game with only an ultimate evolution. This is because they combine fantastic awakenings, unique active skills, and great synergy for their respective teams. However, with all that being said, their Awoken Evolutions are starting to be released and will hopefully find their way to North America soon that will cause a dramatic shift in the meta and powercreep. Overall, the Three Kingdoms are one of the strongest pantheons and are worth pursuing.
On the other hand, the Egyptian 2 pantheon is in an awkward place in today’s meta. They are a relatively new pantheon, but old enough to not have kept pace with the rate of powercreep. Furthermore, none of these cards have an awoken evolution (and probably will not for some time) and this further diminishes their value. Relatively speaking, they make reasonable subs for their respective teams, but may be outclassed by other options.
Rolling in Day 1 will mostly be for the coveted Three Kingdom gods who all have a solidified place on their respective teams. If only we had a better pairing than Egyptian 2.
Many players dream of owning a push-button team as a means to quickly clear dungeons to acquire plus eggs. However, most of the staple subs are hard to acquire Rare Egg Machine monsters such as Red Odin , Awoken Ra , and more Red Odins. If you are as lucky as I am and own neither, you may feel distraught or left out. But have no fear, Mantastic is here! With a fully farmable push button team that can blaze through Wailing Wind in Mechdragon’s Massive Fortress via coop.
Team in action
The run takes around 70-75 seconds to complete and is essentially brainless. Just don’t mess up the button order and please enter the Wailing Wind level as your fire damage is twice as effective.
What you need to acquire
The key to creating this Fantastic team is a fully evolved Goemon , 3 fully awoken Flame Armour Ogres , a sub to generate sufficient skill boosts, and one player needs a sub that deals true damage that is above 3,000 damage.
Team 1
Team 2 ( sub)
None of your team requires plus eggs and I only encourage you to have your leaders max awoken and level to ensure sufficient damage on the full-fire board swap.
Where to easily acquire Flame Armour Ogres?
Flame Armour Ogres can be easily acquired via the Legend difficulty of Monday Dungeon and have a 50% chance to drop. If you are farming for ranks, please save these ogres. You need to acquire 3 as your base and 6 additional to max awaken by feeding 2 to each base. Skill ups do not matter.
How many skill boost awakenings do I need?
The answer depends on how skilled up your Goemons are. Your 2 leaders plus 6 Ogres provide 14 skill boosts and a max skilled Goemon can achieve a 15-turn cooldown (unskilled is 20 turns). However, the second Goemon can have one less skill up as you need to match orbs on floor 5 and thus providing a single turn of active charging.
Sub flexibility
You do not have to use Bane like I did and can easily opt for a Red Odin, Awoken Ra, or even a 4th Flame Armour Ogre to deal enough damage to kill floor 9. The key is the 3 Flame Armour Ogres, sufficient skill boosts, and an extra damage source for floor 9. I encourage you to bring someone like Yamato or any other fire orb maker if something goes wrong.
Potential speed bumps
If you are unfortunate to encounter the Chaser invade, you will not be able to button your way through it and you must match fire orbs and is the main reason why I encourage you to bring someone such as Yamato to generate fire orbs to handle this annoying threat. Furthermore, the green Mystic Knights have just enough HP to survive the Flame Armour Ogre’s attacks and you must match some fire orbs to kill it. Just make sure the correct person has the turn on floor 9.
Conclusion
Using a push button team is fun and exciting to play as you will be able to quickly farm plus eggs. Being able to clear dungeons quickly does not improve efficacy, you still need to spend the same amount of stamina.
Let me know how you plan to quickly farm plus eggs in the comments below.
Well she is actually Mantastic because she was my only roll from the Wedding REM on that account. I normally avoid Collab REMs due to the poor drop rates and low value silvers. However, for Dawn Bride, Izanami , I had to make a special exception. As detailed in my full REM Analysis, the June Bride Collab is one of the strongest to date in terms of value from the low and high end cards. Furthermore, the sheer value Wedding Izanami brings to the table is unparalleled to almost any other 4-star Collab roll.
I have been hoarding stones for months for a 4x GFE or 10-stone GFE REM
Advantages of owning Wedding Izanami
4-star Collab roll should be “easy” to acquire
5 enhanced light orb awakenings ensure every light orb that appears comes with a plus
Passive 15% dark damage reduction
35% damage reduction shield that lasts for 3 turns on a 6 turn cooldown
Covers the light attribute on rainbow teams
Most offensive shielding option for light (maybe on par with Awoken Indra )
Easy to skill up
Is a pretty girl
The few drawbacks include no SBR , low base stats (707), cannot use as an assistant for Skill Inheritance, and lower dependency on shields due to tankier teams and coop.
Why does it matter?
Perhaps the timing of the June Bride REM was done to coincide with the release of Awoken DQXQ who has emerged as a powerful lead to run. She does suffer from a lack of HP / RCV multipliers, but coop addresses the health issue and you are able to stack healers, enhanced heart orb awakenings, and abundant heart generating actives to compensate. Thus, DQXQ is a capable of producing spectacular amounts of damage and has modest durability. For a more detailed team building discussion, please refer to my analysis HERE.
Coop DQXQ vs Arena
Row-based teams are able to benefit from enhanced light orb awakenings after reaching 10 rows along with providing a sizable increase from skyfall damage. As such, Wedding Izanami fulfils this requirement as she can single handedly ensures every light orb that appears comes with an enhanced status. This is amazing when trying to conserve actives as every 64x light row will almost certainly sweep each floor.
Commitment
After some brief deliberation, I decided to make the plus egg and Tamadra investment (skill ups will happen when Izanami Descended rolls around) for my Dawn Bride, Izanami. I love playing my Awoken DQXQ team and I want to optimize my team in every way possible and Wedding Izanami is simply the best shielding option I have (and possibly for a long time as Awoken Indra is not as desired for DQXQ unless you need the time extensions or SBR).
How am I using Dawn Bride, Izanami?
For the most part, I am using Wedding Izanami to farm Arena via coop with Fantastic and Awoken DQXQ. I made a large post dedicated to using DQXQ for Arena and I strongly encourage you to check it out HERE if you have not already.
New Mantastic teamOld Arena team
All I did was remove Awoken Loki from my roster as I determined that while the burst and gigantic numbers are nice, it is not needed for Arena. My Arena 1 checklist consists of:
Bind clear
Means to survive DQ Hera Preemptive (39k)
1 Delay – this is your panic button and easy way to deal with resolve (aka Hino) or Zaerog dark/light absorbs. Use on floor 19 if available still
Offensive of orb changer(s)
1 Damage enhancement/reliable way to deal with the Kali
If you look at the new Mantastic team, I am able to fulfill nearly all those requirements with a “flex” slot through Light Kali . Sakuya clears binds and doubles as a 20% gravity to mitigate the Kali threat, Apollo provides massive spike damage, and Wedding Izanami provides the shield to survive DQ Hera and stalling potential for problematic floors. Granted I may have some trouble with Hino, but I am able to use Sakuya’s gravity to push him and utilize the shield to help manage his attacks.
However, through coop, I am able to manage every threat Arena can throw at me: even the horrible chain floors that would normally have killed me/greatly endangered my run as I had another panic button through Wedding Izanami.
Apollo and the pretty girls team
Farming Arena is about consistency and by reducing the risk for additional floors through an on-colour offensive shielding option, you will begin to see better results. Not everyone can run the same set up (nor coop all the time), but I am confident you will find value in Dawn Bride, Izanami.
Conclusion
Wedding Izanami is an invaluable roll from the June Bride Collab due to her offensive and defensive utility. She truly shines on rainbow teams as an on-colour shielding sub who also adds massive amounts of damage through her 5 enhanced orb awakenings. You may not need her in every single dungeon, but it is ideal to have her available as she is arguably the best in slot defensive option for Awoken DQXQ teams. Wedding Izanami is almost essential for teams who are planning on doing Arena solo as you need to survive DQ Hera. Finally, her 4-star rarity helps ensure you pull her quickly and is easily worth a few pulls worth of Magic Stones to acquire.
Do you agree with my analysis and do you plan on rolling the June Bride Collab?
Let the church bells ring, hear the fan boys sing. There may be the background wail of countless wallets crying out in horror, but nothing can dampen our spirits for the June Bride Collab! This festive REM features some of the most loved characters in Puzzle and Dragons all dressed up for their big day to tie the knot. Sporting flowing dresses and dashing suits, this event is sure to please every player. Furthermore, the overarching theme for this June Wedding is Light and if you are looking to brighten up your team, this may be a great place to spend your magic stones. In addition to the great value the rare rolls provide, Light Izanami is perhaps one of the best 4-stars to ever come out of a Collab REM.
and a helpful video as reference. However, this proved to be insufficient due to the surge of You Yu 
![[Video] Satan Ranking Tournament 125,302 Score](https://mantasticpad.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/125k-high-score.jpg?w=672&h=372&crop=1)
Light Gala 
Midnight Gala 
, 3 fully awoken Flame Armour Ogres 
awakenings ensure every light orb that appears comes with a plus
Mantastic Puzzle and Dragons 