[Video] Scarlet System Online

June 3, 2016 Mantastic Leave a comment

With the hype surrounding Xiang Mei (who I probably will not get due to a lack of MP and subs) and all this talk about “systems,” I thought I would share my own system team and accomplishment. This is a little twist on a regular Scarlet system as both my accounts have a fully operational team and it does work in coop!

A system team consists of cards who have a 7 or less cooldown on their active and a haste component. This allows your team to use 3 actives per turn and the haste mechanic will allow you to use the original 3 again on your third turn. Now, it is hard to make a pure system team where every monster fulfils those components, but you can get close to allow for greater active cycling. A couple of popular system teams in existence are Cloud (rare pull from FF Collab) and Scarlet who is farmable (albeit from a very challenging dungeon).

The Scarlet System can only do modest level content, but it allows for completely mindless clears as all you have to do is connect 8-10 of the 12 spawned orbs every turn. It’s mostly for fun and the sense of pride and accomplishment that comes with 50 successful skill ups per account. I also farmed about 100k Monster Points throughout this entire ordeal which does put me a bit closer to a second 300k MP Monster.

The following video showcases how I farmed for my system with a Blue Sonia team:

Playing with myself always feels amazing and wonderfully satisfying. Hope you have a Fantastic Friday.

Happy Puzzling!

+ Eggs, Godfest, Monster Points

50 Plus Eggs or 3,000 Monster Points: A Comparison

June 1, 2016 Mantastic 28 Comments

Introduction

To fuse, or not to fuse-that is the question. And that is probably the question of the week with the introduction of +50 eggs rolling out of the Rare Egg Machine during the 55 Million Downloads 5x GFE Godfest. We are now faced with the tough decision of whether it is better to fuse for the 50 pluses or sell for the 3,000+ Monster Points. Now, before you do anything hasty and start liquefying your monster box out of rage or frustration, please ask yourself if this card has any value. Can you use them on your teams or for Skill Inheritance. Dupes are now becoming more valuable and you do not want vendor’s remorse. If the monster in question has no true value. then continue reading. If not, please hit favourite on their character screen and read anyway!

Monster Points Overview

With the implementation of the Monster Point (MP) system, we are now able to save up to 300,000 MP to purchase a powerful card who is capable of leading our monster box into new content and territory. Now, 300,000 is a tall order and one of the fastest methods to acquire is selling various REM monsters for 3,000-50,000 MP. However, you are able to farm for Monster Points through PreDRA Infestation and the Rogue Descends.

Rogue descends on Mythical-Plus difficulty always award a 500 MP PreDRA along with additional drops for 25 stamina in coop. Rogue descends include Scarlet, Zaerog Infinity, and the other dungeons where your monsters start at level 1. Continue reading 50 Plus Eggs or 3,000 Monster Points: A Comparison →

Monster Analysis, Monster Point Dragons

Xiang Mei – New 300k MP Monster Review and Analysis

May 30, 2016 Mantastic 76 Comments

Introduction

Xiang Mei, or Orchid, is the first of the Four Gentlemen series 300k MP monsters to be released and brings a new play style, a dramatic increase in powercreep, and a somewhat dependency on Skill Inheritance. She is easily the most REM heavy of the MP Dragons to date and should only be purchased if you have the luxury of owning multiple copies of her and the few keys subs.

Xiang Mei

Healer
2,812 HP / 1.903 ATK / 1,001 RCV
995 Total

Active Skill:
6
1 turn haste
8 turn CD

Leader Skill:
1.5x HP / 2x ATK for Healer type. 3x ATK when 2 heal combo, 4.5x ATK with 3+ heal combos

2.25x HP / 81x ATK healer types

# heal combos	1	2	3
Multiplier	4x	36x	81x

Xiang Mei lacks dual typing and does not have a sub attribute. This seems bizarre for a 300k MP Monster; however, her leadership potential is unrivalled provided you have the right subs, duplicate Xiang Mei’s, and Skill Inheritance. The following video is mostly to illustrate the play style of Xiang Mei without skill inheritance to give you an idea of her capabilities. Continue reading Xiang Mei – New 300k MP Monster Review and Analysis →

Godfest

Player’s Choice Godfest June 2016: Review and Analysis

May 30, 2016 Mantastic 69 Comments

Introduction

Player’s Choice Godfest is one of the most anticipated times of the year for all Puzzle and Dragoners. It is a time where the community collectively votes for the most popular gods and is a great way to help populate your monster box with numerous strong cards. In my previous post, I compared PCGF and 4x Godfest Exclusive (GFE) events and came to the conclusion that it is better to roll PCGF for newer accounts/players missing numerous key cards.

Which Godfest to roll?
	PCGF	4x GFE
Frequency	2 times per year	Random
Benefits who?	New accounts/less developed boxes Great way to fill in the numerous gaps in your monster box Those who are not chasing MP or 6* GFE	Veteran players Focus is MP and 6* GFE Those with very developed monster boxes

However, with the promise of 4x rates for all the featured monsters, my approach needs some tweaking. Due to not knowing the true rates of any godfest, we cannot do any mathematical comparisons; however, the 4x rates should imply the featured GFE (and most importantly 6* GFE) are at a similar hit rate. You may still get less MP per stone spent as numerous non-GFE are also featured, but if you are chasing the featured 6-stars AND the other featured gods, this may be the best time to roll. Furthermore, each monster comes out with a +50 to a random stat and this will help you achieve +297 faster. However, take these predictions with a grain of salt as I do not know the rates and can only guess.

In addition, all of these monsters qualify for Skill Inheritance so please do not hastily sell or feed them off without taking a moment to think if they can benefit your various teams. I also strongly encourage you to read my Advanced Strategies post on Skill Inheritance to gain a better understanding on how to make the most of your active skills.

Lastly, if you wish to read about virtually any other REM monster not listed below, please refer to my Master List which will direct you to the appropriate page.

Overview of featured Gods

The voting for North America was done rather well as we managed to include nearly all the top tier cards while having some forethought into voting in cards that will become relevant with the release of the 4 Gentlemen 300k MP cards and new Awoken evolutions.

Top Voted Monsters in Descending Order

Some things that jump out: Continue reading Player’s Choice Godfest June 2016: Review and Analysis →

Challenge Dungeons, Videos

[Video] Challenge 10 “Solo” Blonia Clear

May 29, 2016 Mantastic 4 Comments

Question of the day: Does it count as a solo clear if you are the only person playing? Even if it is your two accounts? Regardless, here is another video of me playing with myself in this Challenge 10 series:

Everyone is +297 and max skilled. One rainbow resist per team.

This dungeon was almost made for Blue Sonia as her entire team consists of Dragon / Physical monsters and made it a lot easier to clear as my entire team was benefiting from a 50% increase to all stats. One of the most important aspects of Blue Sonia teams is the ability to heal large amounts of health due to a 6.25x RCV multiplier. This allows for easy stalling and was vital for my strategy as I needed to recharge Orochi for the final boss. Even though my matching wasn’t flawless, I was still able to scrape out a victory and only had to do one attempt.

I find that it is best to wait out the awakening bind on Linthia before using your delay as you can then have an uninterrupted 5 turns to kill her without having to deal with any execution mechanics. In addition, you should try to keep your heart orbs away from the outside columns as she has a high chance to remove them.

I also cleared challenge 9 with the same team, but sadly forgot to record.

What did you use to clear this series of challenge dungeons?

Happy Puzzling!

Random Thoughts, Videos

Fantastic Rank 500 Box Tour

May 28, 2016 Mantastic 2 Comments

Today has been an exceptionally Fantastic day as I hit rank 500 on my second account as well as Mantastic unlocking 300 max stamina shortly after. To mark this grand occasion, I did a video recording Fantastic’s box that showcases the teams I run along with my plus egg distribution and next pad goals. I am fortunate that I have two high end accounts as I always have a partner ready to go for coop and I could rank up exceptionally fast if I was motivated due to the half stamina costs to enter.

Also, go me on finishing a Scarlet system =D It does not really have any uses aside from novelty and I will record some game play in a future video so you can see what hours of time farming can produce. If you want to learn more about how I have been farming Scarlet, please check out my post and video dedicated to her HERE.

I have been (im)patiently saving stones for a very long time now and dearly hope a 4x GFE comes soon as I need more things to work on. For more reading as to why I am waiting for 4x GFE over PCGF, please read this article HERE.

I will include various screenshots in case you do not wish to sit through the video and simply want the highlight reel: Continue reading Fantastic Rank 500 Box Tour →

Skill Inheritance

Skill Transfer: Advanced Strategies

May 27, 2016 Mantastic 74 Comments

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

Continue reading Skill Transfer: Advanced Strategies →

Skill Inheritance

Skill Inheritance: Impressions and Strategies

May 24, 2016 Mantastic 120 Comments

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 as your base monster and Dark Kali as the assistant.

1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10

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 →

Game Meta

Version 9.03 Major Buffs and Notable Changes

May 24, 2016 Mantastic 22 Comments

Version 9.03 is finally live and brings a tidal wave of changes and buffs to all aspects of Puzzle and Dragons. With this post, I wish to summarize the most important and notable changes that will be made. A separate article dedicated solely to Skill Inheritance is also available as I wish to focus on the other aspects coming with 9.03. This is not the complete patch notes, only the parts that I feel are meaningful.

Additional Awakenings:

Greco-Roman 1 +

The Greco-Roman 1 Pantheon is one of the oldest and was designed to tackle significantly older content that had different mechanics. They finally have been given a skill bind resist awakening to help alleviate the burden of achieving 100% immunity. This will hopefully give them more play time as their actives are situationally useful and can be subbed in as need without fear of having your skills locked.

Awoken Hino +

Awoken Hino has been a fearsome triple two-prong attack fire sub who would burn through monsters on Awoken Shiva teams. With the added skill bind resist, Hino now becomes a nearly staple sub as he now offers everything you could want on a fire sub.

Leader Skill Changes

Skuld -> 27.56x ATK

Skuld has been seeing more potential as a sub on Rukia teams, but was often neglected as a leader. However, she now gains an added component to her leader skill if you match 5 orbs with 1 enhanced (5o1e) to peak at 27.56x ATK and 4x RCV for water/wood cards. This may not be game-breaking, but gives players an option to begin using water TPA cards again such as U&Y , Nut , and Orochi .

Odins gain 1.5x ATK for clearing 4+ connected orbs

This mostly applies to Red and Blue Odin as they already feature a 1.5x HP / 2.5x ATK multiplier and this additional damage pushes them up to 3.75x ATK. This means you can use them as a pseudo replacement for Raoh and Ryune when paired with Freyr and I&I to form a 1.5x HP / 12.19x ATK / 2.5x RCV team.

Light Metatron gains unconditional multiplier

Light Metatron is now an unconditional 1.82x HP / 12.25x ATK leader for healer type monsters. She is also the butt end of numerous jokes on receiving so many micro buffs in hopes of giving her more relevance. Thankfully, this buff is valid, but she will still most likely be passed over for other options.

Light Kali becomes 56.25x ATK (36 -> 56.25)

Probably one of the most significant buffs this patch as Light Kali now achieves 56.25x ATK (up from 36x) at 6+ combos while matching Fire, Water, Light, and Dark orbs. This dramatically increases her consistency and viability as she is superior to Sakuya ‘s damage output provided you cannot achieve 8+ combos every turn. Furthermore, Light Kali has one of the most powerful actives as she guarantees an activate-able board. Continue reading Version 9.03 Major Buffs and Notable Changes →

Pantheon Analysis

Red, Blue, Green Sonia, Gadius and Typhon Analysis

May 23, 2016 Mantastic 23 Comments

Please refer to the Master List for directory to the other pantheons and their analysis.

Take a look at my Popular Leaders and their Full Sub List post for inspiration on team building ideas. If contemplating on purchasing a MP Dragon, please check out my Monster Point Dragon Purchasing Check-list Guide.

Keep in mind all of the following monsters qualify for Skill Inheritance so do not be too hasty in selling dupes.

The Sonias are reknown as the pioneers of bicolour board changers and forming high recovery teams. Due to the nature of their active, they tend to excel on row based teams as you are almost certain to have two unique rows of your primary colour and have the potential to unleash explosive burst damage. On the other hand, Gadius and Typhon have a more utility based active that can generate heart orbs and can be comboed with other orb changers for critical damage. Unfortuantely, only Blue Sonia and Gadius see action in the current meta and the others will remain placeholders for more ideal cards.

Sonias, Gadius, & Typhon
jjjjjjjjMonsterjjjjjjjjj	Notes
Red Sonia Dragon / Devil —- All 12 turn CD	Red Sonia (aka Ronia) was once the most popular leader in Puzzle and Dragons as she could be successfully paired with Lu Bu to form a 1.35x HP / 9x ATK / 2.5x RCV devil team that was capable of clearing all the content PAD had to offer. Then came the rise of rainbow teams and numerous shifts in the meta to find Red Sonia outclassed by other tank leads who grant a larger health and attack multiplier. Furthermore, Red Sonia is off colour when paired with Lu Bu and this hurts your overall damage in the long run. Don’t get me wrong, Red Sonia is still powerful and capable of clearing all the early/mid game content and even has a chance at some harder dungeons, but you will eventually gain better options. She will mostly be used to help you acquire the materials needed for your various awoken evolutions. Sonia has now been buffed to 3.75x ATK (thus Lu Bu plus Sonia is now 11.25x), but this probably not enough to tackle high end content. Team building Red Sonia is quite straight forward as you have numerous options for devils from both a farmable and REM point of view and your teams may look similar to Awoken Pandora . As a sub, Red Sonia has potential on Raoh as he utilizes fire rows and devils. Otherwise, she can make appearances on other mono fire teams and on dark based devil teams as her active does generate numerous dark orbs. Overall, Red Sonia is a useful roll and will be an asset for those starting out as she makes the game quite easy.
Blue Sonia Dragon / Physical —- All 12 turn CD	Blue Sonia (aka Blonia) has gone through various waves of popularity since her release as her main diminishing factor was a shallow sub pool. However, her ultimate evolution proved to be a splashing success as she is able to utilize physical and dragon subs along with an increasing her attack multiplier to 14.06x. You also benefit from 6.25x RCV which means you can essentially heal back to full health from minimal heart matching and combos. Furthermore, Blue Sonia has an incredible amount of base HP (5,780 at max level) and her teams will surpass 30k health with proper investment. You should also use your HP Latent Tamadras on her as they will yield a significant amount of bonus health. Blue Sonia teams are essentially a tank team that has the highest recovery multiplier and are somewhat immortal provided you can survive each attack. This is further amplified in coop where your naturally high health is further augmented and your sky-high recovery (my team has ~18k from a single heart orb match) allows for easy stalling. If you wish to check out some of my gameplay in coop with Blue Sonia, refer to my previous post in challenge dungeons or Mythic Plus Scarlet. Viable sub options for her team include, but not limited to I&I , Ryune , Blue Odin , Andromeda , B/L Hermes , Karin , Orochi , and Mori . Blonia teams are capable of clearing almost all the content in Puzzle and Dragons and she is starting to regain popularity as players realize her potential. Looking at Blonia as a sub, she can find a home on I&I / Ryune as a massive HP stick and powerful board changer. She is less effective on other mono water teams due to no god typing or heart generation, but can still be used in a pinch. Overall, Blue Sonia is a fantastic monster to own and I hope she continues to gain popularity as a leader. Do not sell for 50k Monster Points. Sidenote, I am in love with her art as she combines the colour blue, dragons, and a pretty girl.
Green Sonia Dragon / Balance —- All 12 turn CD	Green Sonia (Gronia) received the same buffs as her prettier and stronger cousin, Blue Sonia and has an amazing 899 weighted stats. Gronia now forms a 14.06x ATK / 6.25x RCV team for both Dragons and Balance types, which should increase her sub pool potential. Unfortunately, her options are less diverse than Blonia as she has less access to rows and fewer damage enhancement options aside from Delgado who only helps balance types (and has poor stats and awakenings) and the new Jewel Princess Cameo . Cameo is a much stronger option as she enhances 1.3x based on the number of wood and dark row enhancements. This can lead to spectacular damage and she has respectable awakenings. In addition, Gronia has a healthy access to bind clearing options as she can use Odin and Ceres . However, many players do not lead with Green Sonia as her team building is quite frustrating unless you have multiple Perseus as he is your best access to wood row awakenings. Green Sonia has powerful sub potential on Sylvie Freyja teams as her powerful and diverse awakenings combined with her amazing active can help your team achieve new levels of prowess. Overall, Green Sonia still feels lacking as her leadership potential is marred by a shallow sub pool and does not seem very exciting for a 6-star godfest exclusive.
Gadius Dragon / Healer —- All + 1 turn haste 10 turn CD	Gadius has been propelled back into the spotlight with the introduction of Xiang Mei who is the first of the Four Gentlemen series 300k MP monsters. Xiang Mei has an incredibly restrictive sub pool as she can only use fire healers who do not remove heart orbs. As such, Gadius is an irreplaceable sub due to his powerful active and healer typing. Gadius can also make appearances on other mono fire teams including Awoken Shiva and Yamato due to his heart generating active and ability to combo well with numerous other monsters. However, Uriel has the greatest potential for active pairing as you will create a 50% board of fire and 50% enhanced heart orbs. Gadius can also be utilized as a pseudo bind clearer due to his bind immunity, bind recovery awakening, and active that has a chance to spawn 6+ heart orbs. This is fantastic as you do not need to sacrifice an entire sub slot to a dedicated bind clearer and have access to more firepower. Furthermore, his devil killer awakening is a powerful means to deal 3x more damage to devil type bosses. Moving away from a sub role, Gadius will become a powerful (and fun to play) leader when his leader skill is buffed to 42.25x ATK as he can capitalize upon numerous fire rows . Granted you need to sacrifice some board space for heart orbs, but his output will be tremendous and will feel like a budget/fragile Xiang Mei with a deeper sub pool. The main downsides to Gadius as a whole are a lack of both skill boost and skill bind resist awakenings. This can cause issues with having actives ready by turn 1 or achieving 100% bind immunity. These problems become less dangerous in coop as you have a partner to help provide those awakenings, but restricts using more than one per team. Overall, Gadius is mandatory if you plan on using Xiang Mei, but outside of that, he is more of a novelty/option for mono fire teams. His leadership potential is respectable, but not game breaking in today’s meta.
Typhon Dragon / Balance —- All + 1 turn haste 10 turn CD	Typhon is an often forgotten 6-star godfest exclusive as he does not have a clearly defined role in today’s meta. From a leadership perspective, he is similar to Gadius as he is heart orb reliant and can scale up to 42.25x ATK. However, without a survivability component to his leader skill, he will falter in higher end content. Regardless, he can still form an competent team due to the depth of dark subs available and the synergy they bring. Fantastic subs include, but are not limited to Yomi Dragon , Pandora , Akechi , and any other orb changer that does not remove heart orbs. By stacking numerous dark rows , you can unleash spectacular damage (just think of how hard Pandora hits at 25x). Furthermore, both your leaders are bind immune and this helps alleviate some constraints when team building. Moving away from a leadership role, you would think Typhon could be a stellar sub as his active is essentially like Haku with heart orbs (which is great) and has a healthy mixture of awakenings including the valuable recover bind . Unfortunately, Typhon has the bizarre Dragon and Balance typing which excludes him from the top tier dark teams such as Pandora , Lucifer , and Yomi Dragon . This leaves him for Awoken Yomi and Anubis who are both strong, but have issues with consistency. However, with the eventual release of Awoken Persephone , Typhon may gain more usage as he is a favourable board change for her dark / water requirements. Finally, some argue that with the release of Xin Hua , Typhon’s balance typing comes into play, but her team is even more outrageous than Xiang Mei and will probably see few players running her. It is disappointing that 6-star godfest exclusive has limited uses as a sub simply because his typing is wrong and prevents Typhon from being used on the various top tier teams. Hopefully he will either gain a third typing or a new powerful dark leader will emerge. You can still use him as a leader as his scaling multiplier allows for easier activation. But for the most part, just be patient and admire his sculpted abs.

Happy Puzzling!

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Mantastic Puzzle and Dragons

[Video] Scarlet System Online

50 Plus Eggs or 3,000 Monster Points: A Comparison

Introduction

Monster Points Overview

Xiang Mei – New 300k MP Monster Review and Analysis

Introduction

Player’s Choice Godfest June 2016: Review and Analysis

Introduction

Overview of featured Gods

[Video] Challenge 10 “Solo” Blonia Clear

Fantastic Rank 500 Box Tour

Skill Transfer: Advanced Strategies

Introduction

Video and Example Inheritance Options

Stand out assistance monsters

Jewel Princesses

Skill Inheritance: Impressions and Strategies

Introduction

How to transfer skills

Version 9.03 Major Buffs and Notable Changes

Additional Awakenings:

Greco-Roman 1 +

Awoken Hino +

Leader Skill Changes

Skuld -> 27.56x ATK

Odins gain 1.5x ATK for clearing 4+ connected orbs

Light Metatron gains unconditional multiplier

Light Kali becomes 56.25x ATK (36 -> 56.25)

Red, Blue, Green Sonia, Gadius and Typhon Analysis

Sonias, Gadius, & Typhon

Puzzling those Dragons