Dark Athena is the newest craze to sweep through NA/EU as she is somewhat unrivaled in her speed and efficiency in clearing end game content. For the purposes of this article, I will be focusing on Arena 3 set ups to better optimize your experience from both a Solo and Coop point of view. This will include inheritance suggestions, Latents, and subs to bring.
I have written extensively about Arena 3 since my first clear in August 2016, but I want to produce a template to aid in your Dark Athena adventures.
If you wish to read my comprehensive Dark Athena guide, please refer to it HERE.
Video commentary
—video goes here–
Solo clear
My second solo clear (first one recorded) and this was done pretty much right after I bought her so things may look less polished overall. —-
Arena 3
Powercreep has slowly caught up to Arena 3 and with Dark Athena, more and more people will be having their first taste of the Radar Dragons and other wonders held within this 25 floor dungeon.
Arena 3 has randomized spawns that are drawn from a fixed pool encounters so you can somewhat plan ahead for what you could encounter.
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?
Awoken DQXQ was released yesterday in North America and it has felt like Christmas ever since. I initially started playing difficult content with Sakuya in all her various forms but was forced to make a soft transition to mono colour teams that were row oriented (Lucifer and Blue Sonia ). These teams offered more survivability, burst damage potential, and consistency. Thus, with the release of Awoken DQXQ, I was overjoyed to combine the two elements of rainbow and rows into two pretty girls. The purpose of this post is to showcase how I have been clearing Arena (10+ times as of this posting) in coop with my two accounts, Mom’s account, and a friend. Being able to tackle Arena via multiplayer alleviates some of the weaknesses DQXQ faces, but she is still capable of soloing with the right set up. If you have not already, I strongly encourage you to read my Awoken DQXQ Analysis and Team Building Guide to gain a better understanding of how to compose and utilise your team.
Arena 1 Coop Video
The following video was a relatively straightforward clear of Arena 1 with only some problematic floors and minor errors. Good job me and me.
Outside of poor comboing towards the end, the video should give you a relatively good idea of the playstyle and where I choose to stall and use actives. I always prioritise using my DQXQ’s actives first as they recharge twice as fast in coop.
Awoken DQXQ Overview
Awoken DQXQ is a hybrid rainbow/row leader that requires any 4/6 elements to trigger her base 16x multiplier. However, you are able to match multiple connected Light OR Water orbs to bolster your damage further.
# connected or orbs
3-4
5
6
7+
Multiplier
16x
36x
64x
100x
I cannot stress how important it is to remember that connected water orbs are able to trigger your 100x multiplier as you can match a Light TPA and will most likely sweep any floor. Your connected orbs can be in any shape/pattern and to achieve 100x, you require some funky manipulations as it is not a tidy horizontal 6-row match. Continue reading Awoken DQXQ VS Arena→
Awoken Archdemon Lucifer 1.82x HP / 16.4x ATK / 1.82x RCV (God & Devil based team) Arena 1 Strategy Guide
Awoken Archdemon Lucifer is one of the most powerful leaders in Puzzle and Dragons as he combines both burst and survivability along with flexible team building. Dark monsters have historically been the strongest colour as they have amazing synergy and a deep sub pool. Unlike Yomi Dragon or Awoken Pandora , Lucifer can use both God and Devil type monsters which grants him access to subs that would otherwise not fully benefit from the leader skill. Furthermore, you are able to control your damage through dark row activation as well as stacking actives to unleash some of the highest total burst damage in the game.
Pros:
Ability to control your damage as this is becoming more relevant with specific absorption shields that require you to hit less damage
Bolstered health and recovery allow for easier stalling and removes the need to bring damage mitigation
Leaders have a combined 6 dark row , 2 skill lock resist , and 6 skill boost awakenings
God Killer awakening is amazingly powerful as it allows your leaders to deal 3x damage to god type bosses
Spectacular burst damage potential
Team building is quite flexible as you can use God or Devil types
is the newest craze to sweep through NA/EU as she is somewhat unrivaled in her speed and efficiency in clearing end game content. For the purposes of this article, I will be focusing on Arena 3 set ups to better optimize your experience from both a Solo and Coop point of view. This will include inheritance suggestions, Latents, and subs to bring.
awakenings ensure every light orb that appears comes with a plus
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 
or 
orbs
Mantastic Puzzle and Dragons 