Have a MOMtastic Mother’s Day!

May 7, 2016 Mantastic 4 Comments

May 8th is Mother’s Day and this year I have the opportunity to share my love for my Momtastic Mom in a unique and entertaining medium. Many of my readers already know my Mom is an avid Puzzle and Dragoner and has surpassed 850 login days and rank 468. She has a burning passion for the smoking hot Awoken Shiva but sometimes dabbles in Yomi Dragon and will have a hypermaxed Awoken DQXQ ready upon release.

I am quite fortunate to have a close relationship with my mother even though I moved out several years ago and a large contributing factor has been Puzzle and Dragons. Throughout my life, my family has been relatively anti-video games and it came as a surprise she took to PAD with enthusiasm. Perhaps it is the puzzling aspect that appeals to her as she has quite the analytical mind as she has no interests in collecting pretty/cute cards. Regardless, I think she mainly started playing as a means to bond with her son (as most parents struggle to find a way to connect). I do not know many parents who would make this level of effort and I will always be grateful to her for more than just PAD. As a way to make this Mother’s Day extra special, I am hoping all you Awoken Shiva (and Yomi Dragon and future Awoken DQXQ) users can send her a friend request as she does have hers Pentamax with 5 attack latents.

Hopefully you remembered to call that special someone in your life to remind them that you care. Perhaps you could also surprise them with the gift of Puzzle and Dragons with a freshly rerolled account that has a strong starting monster! If you are lucky, you may begin to receive wonderful messages and have someone else who understands why you need to disappear for an hour when Star Den opens.

Happy Mothers day and Happy Puzzling!

New Player Help

New Player Help Guide

May 7, 2016 Mantastic 4 Comments

Many people have been asking what direction to take / what to do as a new player so I will list a relative guide as what you should strive to aim for. Keep in mind that you are clearing content in days it took me weeks/months to reach so things may feel fast forwarded and frustrating at times as your account rank may eclipse your PAD knowledge and matching skills. I highly recommend you take a look at my Community Resources Page to discover new mediums and sites to learn the ins and outs of Puzzle and Dragons.

Everyone plays Puzzle and Dragons for different reasons: some enjoy the puzzling aspect, others find joy in collecting. For myself, I wish to push end game content while still enjoying myself. However, for the purpose of this guide, the focus will be to begin clearing descends with 0 stones used. However, in order to get to that level, you will require a few things:

Get a strong starter / team that is viable in clearing descends.

There are many existing pages heavily covering this topic so you will need to do some of your own homework on what to aim for as this guide is going to assume you have passed that stage of the game. The most current one I could find comes from Reddit.

Rank UP!

You must keep ranking up not only to increase your maximum stamina, but to also increase team cost to be able to fit in all the subs you wish to bring. Unfortunately (or fortunately?) PAD is a very grindy game in that you are going to have to repeat dungeons over and over again whether it be for plus eggs, skill ups, team cost, or rank experience. When you first start out, your rank and thus max stamina and team cost will be your limiting factors. As such, I cannot stress enough that you are going to have to play dungeons over and over again. Thankfully, GungHo has been introducing new methods for quickly ranking up such as the Experience of a Lifetime (awards 200k rank experience) and Monday Dungeon. I go into further detail in my Monday Dungeon Review Post and how to optimize your stamina.

If those are not available, I would play the highest normal dungeon you are capable of clearing and only stopping when you feel you hit a ‘wall.’ A very important thing to note is that on Saturday and Sunday, Tower of Giants and most specifically Dragons of the Tower will be available for 3 stamina and thus providing ~500 exp / stamina. This may be boring but can be done infinitely for about the first 80 ranks. Lastly, always try to play normal dungeons that are affected by 1.5x experience provided you can reliable clear them.

Level up your monsters & evolve

Level up you monsters as high as possible and evolve them to their max evolution if you are fortunate to acquire the rare 50 stamina materials (eg. Keeper of gold, Jewel of Water, etc.). Even just reaching their second evolution is sufficient for early content. Research where their materials drop from and work towards acquiring them. It is also worth noting that monsters will gain diminishing returns on experience at higher levels Continue reading New Player Help Guide →

Challenge Dungeons

[Video] Blue Sonia VS Challenge level 9 with Ilsix and 30% Resolve

May 4, 2016 Mantastic 2 Comments

Challenge 9 felt more challenging than level 10 due to Ilsix and his 30% resolve. This is one of the most difficult mechanics to deal with and the problem is further complicated by his high damage and random spawn of jammer, water, and heart orbs if you do manage to get him into the 30% “safe” zone.

One of the most important aspects of Blue Sonia is her naturally high base HP and incredible 6.25x RCV for dragon and physical type monsters. This allows her to be extremely durable in coop play where your HP pool is augmented and you are able to essentially use actives in quick succession in short floor dungeons. My dual colour row-cascade matching comes from a lot of practice in endless corridors and is an amazing way to improve your damage output and combo potential.

I also cleared Challenge 10 with Blue Sonia, but was unable to record and the two screenshots should provide some inspiration. I used my burst damage prior to Vishnu and was a matter of chipping him down without surpassing 2 million damage as he already halves water damage.

Best of luck in your coop challenge endeavours.

Happy Puzzling!

Random Thoughts

Greco-Roman 2, Three Kingdoms, Greco-Roman 1, and Hero God Pantheon Analysis

May 2, 2016 Mantastic Leave a comment

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.

Greco-Roman 2
jjjjjjjjMonsterjjjjjjjjj	Notes
Ares God / Physical — 8 turn CD	Ares is one hot fire team sub and was once crowned the title of highest ATK base stats in the game. However, time has seen his place shifted around to his current form of a fire row powerhouse. Furthermore, with his god typing, he makes an incredible Shiva Dragon sub. Unfortunately, Ares is unable to be as well utilized on other top fire teams such as Awoken Shiva or Gadius as he will either create too many fire orbs and prevent sufficient combos or remove heart orbs. On the bright side for Awoken Shiva teams, Ares just had an Awoken Evolution announced . This will grant him Devil / Attacker typing and causing him to become TPA oriented with massive base attack and an enhanced fire skyfall active in conjunction with double orb change. This is also great news for teams as the double orb change helps flood the board with fire orbs. Unfortunately, this will remove his presence on Shiva Dragon teams so exercise caution before committing. I will also do his own special post comparing his evolutions at a later date.
Hermes God / Attacker —- God / Physical 8 turn CD —- Awoken Hermes Devil / Attacker —- + 2 turn water skyfall 8 turn CD	Hermes is one of the few monsters that has 3 unique and powerful options for evolution trees (which I will be covering in a more extensive post). The decision of which evolution boils down to the type of leader you are using. B/D is best on Neptune Dragon teams B/L is a physical Blue Sonia sub (or Neptune Dragon ) Awoken for every other water team except for Neptune Dragon and Blue Sonia Regardless of which evolution path you choose, all the Hermi (Hermeses?) are outstanding mono water team subs on row based teams as his active overflows the board with your desired water orbs and can be combo-ed with nearly every full board changer to generate a 2/3 water board. Please read my Hermes Evolution Comparison Post for a more detailed examination of which path is best for you.
Awoken Artemis Attacker/ Devil —- + 2 turn wood skyfall 8 turn CD —- God / Attacker —- 8 turn CD	Artemis is still in an awkward position even with her branched evolution tree. Her double orb changer is similar to Australis and Liu Bei , but she cannot as easily be placed on any team as both those counterparts do their job better. Australis has 5 awakenings and a more powerful active as her skyfall buff lasts for 4 turns. Liu Bei has 3 TPA awakenings and by default hits harder (maybe the skyfall mechanic negates this). Regardless, playing Artemis on a TPA oriented combo team such as Awoken Bastet is problematic due to overflowing the board with too many wood orbs and potentially causing you to be unable to form 7+ combos required for full leader skill activation. You can arguably use Awoken Artemis as a leader on her own to form a 4x HP / 16x ATK team but must work around awkwardly matching water and wood orbs. However, one thing Awoken Artemis shines at is being an Awoken Astaroth sub as her team is normally quite restrictive in their sub choices. Please read my Artemis Evolution Comparison Post for a more detailed examination of which path is best for you.
Apollo God / Attacker —- 8 turn CD —- Awoken Apollo Healer / Attacker —- + 2 turn light skyfall 8 turn CD	L/B Apollo is a fantastic light row sub for Saria / Thor teams as his active floods the board with numerous light orbs and almost always ensures you can manufacture 2 unique rows. Furthermore, his dual orb changing capabilities allow him to combo with most full board changers. Unfortunately, a lack of SBR or time extend diminish his utility value. On the other hand, Awoken Apollo is quite the horny and majestic unicorn (seriously, his art is just mind-boggling) and appears to have less synergy with most teams as he lost his row enhances. The strange part of the entire Greco-Roman pantheon’s active favours row formation due to flooding the board with their respective colour. Regardless, Awoken Apollo gains the healer typing and opens options to be used on Awoken Ama , Light Metatron , and Light Zhuge Liang teams. In addition, the new wood typing means Awoken Sakuya teams do not need to bring a wood sub and may ease team building. Of course, the overflow of light orbs may make it problematic to adequately combo, but can be used after Light Kali ‘s active to ensure a more combo friendly board. Furthermore, the enhanced skyfall mechanic may add lethal amounts of additional damage. Please read my Apollo Evolution Comparison Post for a more detailed examination of which path is best for you.
Persephone God / Healer —- God / Devil —- 8 turn CD —-	Persephone was far prettier in her dark/fire form and is only evolved to dark/wood because of the additional awakenings and most notably 2 . In addition, the 2 awakenings add significant increase to healing that should not be overlooked. Furthermore, the enhanced heal orbs will be converted into enhanced dark orbs. Row based teams love actives that can flood the board with dark orbs and D/G is an amazing candidate. Main drawback are a lack of awakening and may place constraints on team building along with no devil typing. This changes with the evolution at the cost of 2 and . However, Awoken Persephone was just announced in JP and brings yet another tough decision to make in terms of viable evolution paths. I will be making a special follow up post at a future date with her pros and cons, but I will just leave you with her becoming Attacker / Devil typing and being orb enhance and TPA reliant.

Continue reading Greco-Roman 2, Three Kingdoms, Greco-Roman 1, and Hero God Pantheon Analysis →

Monster Analysis

Chinese Celestial, Sengoku, Mechanical 1, & Mechanical 2 Pantheon Analysis

May 2, 2016 Mantastic 10 Comments

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

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

Chinese Celestials
jjjjjjjjMonsterjjjjjjjjj	Notes
Awoken Leilan Physical / Attacker —- All + haste 9 turn CD	Leilan has legs to die for along with being a mono red powerhouse with a healthy mixture of offensive and utility based awakenings. She can also be effectively comboed with other orb changers to create fire heavy boards. Unfortunately, the 2 top fire teams, Awoken Shiva and Shiva Dragon seldom use Leilan due to no two prong attack awakenings or god typing. Hopefully with a release of more based teams she will see a resurgence in popularity. Lastly, Leilan can form a system on Ilm teams. As a leader, Leilan forms a 12.25x ATK team with 51% damage reduction from Fire, Wood, and Light enemies. Has situational uses, but is usually used as a sub.
Awoken Karin Dragon / Attacker —- All + haste 9 turn CD	I have a borderline irrational love for Karin and probably stems from my favourite colour being blue, dragons, and a pretty girl all rolled into amazing one monster. Fanboying aside, Karin is most at home on the various mono-blue powerhouse leads such as Blue Sonia and Awoken I&I / Ryune . Karin’s active, while powerful, is somewhat overshadowed by other water full board changers as she does not generate hearts and most likely needs to be used in conjunction with another orb changer to ensure sufficient water rows. As a leader, Karin forms a 12.25x ATK team with 51% damage reduction from Water, Wood, and Dark enemies. Has situational uses, but she is mostly used as a sub.
Awoken Meimei Physical / Attacker —- All + haste 9 turn CD	Meimei was once the primary wood board changer and she still reigns strong today. Her awakenings are more powerful than Verdandi and Sylvie and only loses ground due to not manufacturing heart orbs. Meimei can be used to great success on Sylvie / Freyja , Awoken Bastet , and Spica teams. Furthermore, multiple Meimei ‘s can be used to form a “Meimei System” with Zuoh as a lead. As a leader, Meimei forms a 12.25x ATK team with 51% damage reduction from Wood, Light, and Dark enemies. Has situational uses, but she is mostly used as a sub.
Awoken Sakuya Dragon / Healer —- 20% Gravity + 3 turn bind clear 10 turn CD	Sakuya has gone through a rollercoaster ride of ups and downs over the course of her PAD career. She is still currently one of the strongest leaders (and now subs) in her awoken form as she can scale up to 100x damage at 10 combos. The main pitfalls of using Sakuya are a high skill cap, damage inconsistency/orb troll (as it is a scaling and high skill multiplier), and dependency on Light Kalis or other board refreshers. It is still possible to play Sakuya effectively without board changers, but it is becoming harder in today’s meta. Lastly, without any HP/RCV multiplier, it may be challenging to recover after attacks or when stalling. All that negativity aside, Sakuya is still an amazing leader and has been my go to team for over 2 years and have used her to clear numerous Challenge 10s. Sakuya ‘s uses as a sub are now wide and varied as she combines both a gravity and 3-turn bind clear while being bind immune. Furthermore, she essentially outclasses Light Metatron in nearly every aspect as a sub.
Awoken Haku God / Healer —- All + haste 9 turn CD	Awoken Haku was once a critical dark sub to own due to her utility and active. Thankfully, other options have opened up, but should not diminish her value. Furthermore, her exceptionally high base recovery dramatically increases your healing potential on many dark teams. Even without any awakenings, Haku can still warrant a slot on your team due to her utility and explosive combo potential with Akechi . Haku can also find a home on Yomi Dragon , Awoken Yomi , and Awoken Anubis teams. Lastly, her D/D evolution has the devil typing and can be successfully used on Awoken Pandora teams. As a leader, Haku forms a 12.25x ATK team with 51% damage reduction from Fire, Water, and Dark enemies. Has situational uses, but is usually used as a sub. For further reading on determining which Haku evolution is right for you, please read my Haku Evolution Path Guide.

Continue reading Chinese Celestial, Sengoku, Mechanical 1, & Mechanical 2 Pantheon Analysis →

Monster Analysis

Indian 1, Indian 2, Archdemon, & Japanese 2 Pantheon Anaylsis

May 2, 2016 Mantastic Leave a comment

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

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

Indian 1
jjjjjjjjMonsterjjjjjjjjj	Notes
Shiva Attacker / Devil —- Reduce enemy defence 75% 7 turn CD	Awoken Shiva is one of the hottest leads in Puzzle and Dragons as he forms a powerful 20.25x ATK / 2.25x RCV team that is two prong reliant. Furthermore, his sub pool has no type restrictions other than they must have the fire attribute. This allows for great flexibility with team building along with compensating for fire’s normally low RCV. I enjoy Awoken Shiva’s playstyle as he combines speed and power and can clear high level content due to amazing burst potential. If you wish to read about how to properly construct a Shiva team, please refer to my Team Building Guide. Unfortunately, Awoken Shiva does falter in the highest level content as his active is relatively weak and his damage output is heavily gated by active usage and may run out of steam mid dungeon. However, do not let this discourage you as he is capable of clearing Challenge 9s and some 10s with the right team and investment. You will also be able to find a huge number of friends due to his popularity. Lastly, his sub potential is quite low as there are better options for a fire orb enhancer.
Lakshmi Physical / God —- 4 + 25x ATK heal 8 turn CD	Awoken Lakshmi is an often overlooked water powerhouse as she forms an incredible 39x ATK / 2.25x RCV team that is focuses around water rows . For comparison sake, most other row leaders range from 10.25-25x ATK. Granted you have to match 6 connected heart orbs to do so (in any shape), but the augmented recovery and built in bind recovery from the your leaders help alleviate team building stress. Your subs ideally need to generate both heart and water orbs and some noteworthy ones include, but are not limited to, Andromeda , Ryune , Sumire , and Gabriel . With a built in heal and heart orb generating active, you can stall for actives with ease and the naturally high base HP on water type monsters allows you to survive attacks that most other non-HP multiplied teams could not. Furthermore, you are able to control your damage output by choosing how many heart orbs to match. This is becoming more vital with the advent of bosses with specific damage absorption shields. Lastly, her awakenings are all over the place and perhaps when her design phase they gave up and just gave her a little of everything. Lakshmi’s main drawbacks are a difficulty finding friends along with almost no sub potential herself.
Parvati Balance / Devil —- 5 turn CD	Awoken Parvati is another 39x ATK / 2.25x RCV leader who is also reliant on heart orb matching for damage. She is essentially the wood version of Lakshmi , but focuses on Two Prong Attacks to deal lethal damage. This is fantastic as most of the strongest wood subs are TPA oriented and many have 3 of those awakenings. Furthermore, the bind immunity eases team building as you may not need to bring a bind clearing sub. Unfortunately, she lacks a recover bind awakening to help the rest of her team. In addition, with her scaling multiplier, you can control your damage and also elect to not trigger two prong attacks to handle floors with specific damage absorptions. There is not too much else to say for Parvati as she is a powerful lead who is capable of clearing Arena 1. Her main drawback is her lack of popularity as her leader skill requires some thinking to proc and many people are opting for more mindless/higher output leads. On the bright side, her two tigers are both cute and majestic.
Indra Dragon / Balance —- 75% damage reduction for 3 turns 15 turn CD	It is strange how Indra is still lacking an Awoken Evolution as the fire, water, and wood monsters in his pantheon received theirs ages ago. This does put a damper on his viability as he does not have the same power potential as other monsters. Regardless, his 75% damage reduction shield is amazing as you can essentially survive any attack for 3 turns. Granted the cooldown is very long, but will save you during critical phases. One of his evolutions provides 2 light rows and allows Indra to participate on some of the newer teams if you need the shielding. His other evolution, , has god typing which has made him nearly a staple sub on Ra Dragon teams due to his 2 skill lock resist awakenings. I used to use Indra for that feature when my various teams were less developed as it allowed me to achieve 100% immunity with ease. Lastly, many rainbow teams will use him for the shield as they lack an HP modifier. Overall, Indra is a vital sub on certain teams, but does not have too many uses for the average player. Perhaps with his Awoken evolution will we have something more meaningful.
Vritra Dragon / Devil —- Varying damage to all enemies, 1.5x dark ATK 9 turn CD	Vritra appears to have amazing awakenings and upon first glance, but his active is far too weak to be utilized. Dark has numerous options for enhancing their damage via Loki , Neph , and Oku who all provide more burst potential/utility as their secondary effect does not deal small damage. As such, Vritra and his amazing art is regulated to push button teams who wish to farm a dungeon quickly by pressing an active to sweep a floor. Although with the awakenings buff, his other evolution posses the God Killer awakening and may have a bit more uses on non-button teams. The HP reset is usually a bad thing, but on teams such as Dark Metatron , it can be a lifesaver if you are unexpectedly healed too much. Hopefully with an Awoken evolution Vritra will become more useful than a button team sub.

Continue reading Indian 1, Indian 2, Archdemon, & Japanese 2 Pantheon Anaylsis →

Godfest

May Mornings Godfest Analysis and Breakdown

April 30, 2016 Mantastic Leave a comment

Unfortunately this Godfest was announced very late last night and caused my analysis to be delayed. 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. Lastly, for a more detailed team building help, please refer to my full list HERE.

Forest Gala
jjj Day 1	Indian 1	Indian 2
jjj Day 1
jjj Day 2	Archdemon	Japanese 2
jjj Day 2

Day 1:

Day one is a large disappointment as the Indian 2 pantheon is currently very lackluster as none of them have awoken evolutions and aside from Vishnu , is terribly weak and in need of a revamp or buff. Indian 1 has some strong leaders with Awoken Shiva , Lakshmi , and Parvati but all have nearly no sub potential. Indra would be the most widely used sub from the pantheon, but is only situationally useful and should ideally have his awoken evolution made by now. Even if chasing a specific card, I would strongly advise you to not roll this day.

India 1
jjjjjjjjMonsterjjjjjjjjj	Notes
Shiva Attacker / Devil —- Reduce enemy defence 75% 7 turn CD	Awoken Shiva is one of the hottest leads in Puzzle and Dragons as he forms a powerful 20.25x ATK / 2.25x RCV team that is two prong reliant. Furthermore, his sub pool has no type restrictions other than they must have the fire attribute. This allows for great flexibility with team building along with compensating for fire’s normally low RCV. I enjoy Awoken Shiva’s playstyle as he combines speed and power and can clear high level content due to amazing burst potential. If you wish to read about how to properly construct a Shiva team, please refer to my Team Building Guide. Unfortunately, Awoken Shiva does falter in the highest level content as his active is relatively weak and his damage output is heavily gated by active usage and may run out of steam mid dungeon. However, do not let this discourage you as he is capable of clearing Challenge 9s and some 10s with the right team and investment. You will also be able to find a huge number of friends due to his popularity. Lastly, his sub potential is quite low as there are better options for a fire orb enhancer.
Lakshmi Physical / God —- 4 + 25x ATK heal 8 turn CD	Awoken Lakshmi is an often overlooked water powerhouse as she forms an incredible 39x ATK / 2.25x RCV team that is focuses around water rows . For comparison sake, most other row leaders range from 10.25-25x ATK. Granted you have to match 6 connected heart orbs to do so (in any shape), but the augmented recovery and built in bind recovery from the your leaders help alleviate team building stress. Your subs ideally need to generate both heart and water orbs and some noteworthy ones include, but are not limited to, Andromeda , Ryune , Sumire , and Gabriel . With a built in heal and heart orb generating active, you can stall for actives with ease and the naturally high base HP on water type monsters allows you to survive attacks that most other non-HP multiplied teams could not. Furthermore, you are able to control your damage output by choosing how many heart orbs to match. This is becoming more vital with the advent of bosses with specific damage absorption shields. Lastly, her awakenings are all over the place and perhaps when her design phase they gave up and just gave her a little of everything. Lakshmi’s main drawbacks are a difficulty finding friends along with almost no sub potential herself.
Parvati Balance / Devil —- 5 turn CD	Awoken Parvati is another 39x ATK / 2.25x RCV leader who is also reliant on heart orb matching for damage. She is essentially the wood version of Lakshmi , but focuses on Two Prong Attacks to deal lethal damage. This is fantastic as most of the strongest wood subs are TPA oriented and many have 3 of those awakenings. Furthermore, the bind immunity eases team building as you may not need to bring a bind clearing sub. Unfortunately, she lacks a recover bind awakening to help the rest of her team. In addition, with her scaling multiplier, you can control your damage and also elect to not trigger two prong attacks to handle floors with specific damage absorptions. There is not too much else to say for Parvati as she is a powerful lead who is capable of clearing Arena 1. Her main drawback is her lack of popularity as her leader skill requires some thinking to proc and many people are opting for more mindless/higher output leads. On the bright side, her two tigers are both cute and majestic.
Indra Dragon / Balance —- 75% damage reduction for 3 turns 15 turn CD	It is strange how Indra is still lacking an Awoken Evolution as the fire, water, and wood monsters in his pantheon received theirs ages ago. This does put a damper on his viability as he does not have the same power potential as other monsters. Regardless, his 75% damage reduction shield is amazing as you can essentially survive any attack for 3 turns. Granted the cooldown is very long, but will save you during critical phases. One of his evolutions provides 2 light rows and allows Indra to participate on some of the newer teams if you need the shielding. His other evolution, , has god typing which has made him nearly a staple sub on Ra Dragon teams due to his 2 skill lock resist awakenings. I used to use Indra for that feature when my various teams were less developed as it allowed me to achieve 100% immunity with ease. Lastly, many rainbow teams will use him for the shield as they lack an HP modifier. Overall, Indra is a vital sub on certain teams, but does not have too many uses for the average player. Perhaps with his Awoken evolution will we have something more meaningful.
Vritra Dragon / Devil —- Varying damage to all enemies, 1.5x dark ATK 9 turn CD	Vritra appears to have amazing awakenings and upon first glance, but his active is far too weak to be utilized. Dark has numerous options for enhancing their damage via Loki , Neph , and Oku who all provide more burst potential/utility as their secondary effect does not deal small damage. As such, Vritra and his amazing art is regulated to push button teams who wish to farm a dungeon quickly by pressing an active to sweep a floor. Although with the awakenings buff, his other evolution posses the God Killer awakening and may have a bit more uses on non-button teams. The HP reset is usually a bad thing, but on teams such as Dark Metatron , it can be a lifesaver if you are unexpectedly healed too much. Hopefully with an Awoken evolution Vritra will become more useful than a button team sub.

Continue reading May Mornings Godfest Analysis and Breakdown →

Farmable Monster Points, Videos

[Video] 10x Descend Monster Points Analysis and Scarlet – Mythical Plus

April 28, 2016 Mantastic 4 Comments

10x Monster Points can now be generated from descend boss drops during special events. That means what used to be 10 Monster Points now becomes 100. This may seem insignificant considering that an MP Dragon costs 300,000; but remember, every raindrop raises the sea. And that raindrop becomes a thunderstorm when repeatedly farming the same dungeon over and over again. For Mantastic and Fantastic, it means Scarlet Descended – Mythical Plus as I want to have a Scarlet System (about 55% complete on Mantastic) and it has an amazingly high Monster Point drop rate as you can have up to 802 per run if you sell all the drops. This is quite fantastic considering it only costs 25 stamina and awards 46-49k rank experience per clear. I also wish to examine the viability of farming Monster Points from descends (vs PreDRA Infestation) as well as comparing 100 MP vs +1 selling.

Scarlet is a very challenging dungeon to beat, let alone consistently farm and I wish to share how I have been doing so by doing coop with my second account:

Playing with myself has never felt so good nor satisfying and it took a few trial runs in the Legend Plus difficulty to determine the needed HP to survive DQ Hera’s preemptive without a shielding sub. Continue reading [Video] 10x Descend Monster Points Analysis and Scarlet – Mythical Plus →

Monster Analysis

Awoken Apollo vs L/W vs L/F: Analysis and Comparison

April 28, 2016 Mantastic 5 Comments

Apollo follows the trend of the Greco-Roman pantheon by having multiple evolution paths that strongly reward players for keeping duplicates. Each form of Apollo offers different benefits and I wish to explore each in further detail to help you decide who is best for your monster box and teams. If you missed my Hermes comparison, please refer to my previous post HERE.

At a glance

	AWOKEN	L/B	L/R
Type	Healer / Attacker	God / Attacker	God / Physical
Stats	818 Total 2758/1853/516	775 Total 2558/1823/466	791 Total 3358/1453/496
Active	2 turn light skyfall 8 turn CD	8 turn CD	8 turn CD
Leader Skill	1.5x HP / ATK / RCV Light, 2.5x ATK match L/G	1.5x HP / ATK / RCV Light	1.5x HP/ATK/RCV Light & Fire
Awakenings
Fits on which teams?	Apollo Sakuya Healers Saria Thor Superman DQXQ Linka	Sakuya Saria Thor Super DQXQ Wukong	Sakuya Superman DQXQ
A horny majestic unicorn?	I am so fabulous	I’m Ezreal	Why GungHo, just why….

Awoken Apollo

Awoken Apollo is the newest evolution into the Greco-Roman family and offers fantastic weighted stats, a powerful active, and outrageous artwork that combines a fierce wolf, dainty flowers, and a freaking unicorn horn. Continue reading Awoken Apollo vs L/W vs L/F: Analysis and Comparison →

Ranking Dungeons

My Crowning Achievement!

April 22, 2016 Mantastic 14 Comments

Most people love Fridays and this Friday was extra special because I got my first Ranking Dungeon Crown! I have constantly floated around 2-4% in all the previous ranking dungeons as I lack the ideal teams required for 1%. It has generally been both Shiva and Ra Dragon dominating the charts; however, with the Athena Ranking dungeon, I only had to compete against Shiva Dragons which removed some of my competition. The dungeon also favoured brute speed over combos and this plays into one of my strengths as I am able to manipulate orbs quickly and plan my path with minimal thinking.

What perhaps makes this victory sweeter is that I used a somewhat unconventional team and had to be quite creative in order to compete with an unconditional 25x multiplier. You can read more about the strategy I used HERE.

Hopefully everyone else is having a Fantastic Friday and I cannot stop saying “I have a hat / I have a crown” while mimicking a hat placing action to anyone I encounter in the real world (which is thankfully very few people). I am now regretting my initial starter dragon choice as blue is my favourite colour and wonder if I could change it somehow…

Happy Puzzling!

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	Mantastic on Team Building in 2024
	Anonymous on Team Building in 2024
	Anonymous on Team Building in 2024
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Mantastic Puzzle and Dragons

Have a MOMtastic Mother’s Day!

New Player Help Guide

Get a strong starter / team that is viable in clearing descends.

Rank UP!

Level up your monsters & evolve

[Video] Blue Sonia VS Challenge level 9 with Ilsix and 30% Resolve

Greco-Roman 2, Three Kingdoms, Greco-Roman 1, and Hero God Pantheon Analysis

Greco-Roman 2

Chinese Celestial, Sengoku, Mechanical 1, & Mechanical 2 Pantheon Analysis

Chinese Celestials

Indian 1, Indian 2, Archdemon, & Japanese 2 Pantheon Anaylsis

Indian 1

May Mornings Godfest Analysis and Breakdown

Day 1:

[Video] 10x Descend Monster Points Analysis and Scarlet – Mythical Plus

Awoken Apollo vs L/W vs L/F: Analysis and Comparison

At a glance

Awoken Apollo

My Crowning Achievement!

Puzzling those Dragons