Against my own better judgement, I used a single stone to refresh my stamina to complete all the One-Shot Challenges as I had used most of my stamina to play Arena 3 on my Twitch Stream (where I had two heroic clears!). However, it may work in favour for my readers as you now get to see my clears a bit faster than natural stamina would have allowed.
I tried to use less popular leaders or leaders I seldom play to both increase the excitement as well as to give variety to players and hopefully provide some inspiration on how to overcome these challenges.
One interesting aspect of these challenges is that they disappear after completion so it is challenging to refine a perfect strategy and I am a little more excited if my plan works out.
Level 10 vs Awoken Lucifer
The key to success was to avoid a light skyfall on the Shieldras along with praying for sufficient heart orbs to drop down. The recovery badge was vital to my success as it allowed me to heal enough each turn to tank each subsequent hit.
Overall a relatively smooth run, just have to be able to heal back to full health to tank Myr’s various attacks.
Level 9 vs Cameo (yes, the Gemstone Princess)
I had a little too much fun abusing the 3x to all stats for 6-star cards and decided to take my excitement further by using the simply unheard of Cameo as a leader to form a 28x ATK team.
If there is one video you watch today it should be this one.
Level 8 vs Awoken DQXQ
Relatively straightforward and abusing the ample Dragon typing for free damage and stats.
Yomi Dragon is used for the Dragon typing, dark coverage, and ability to hasten up my team if Thor is unfriendly with his skill delay attack.
Conclusion
I thouroughly enjoyed playing through this series of challenges as it gave a nice break from coop and gave me the opportunity to test my puzzling skills in new content. Hopefully you enjoyed these videos as I tried to utilize a variety of leaders to showcase different playstyles.
Let me know what you used to clear these challenges.
Keeping with the trend of being able to record quality videos, I decided to showcase how I have been farming Mythic Plus Linthia Descended for the Dubmythlits (who never drop in Friday dungeon), 500 Monster Points via the PreDRAs , plus eggs (when 10x), rank experience, and the boss drop, and Linthia . Linthia Descended is normally a challenging encounter as she preemptively disables your awoken skills for 5 turns and hits incredibly hard. I used to farm her with my Blue Sonia team; however, I transitioned over to Awoken DQXQ due to higher damage and no type restriction.
Video
Please ignore the brief interruption at the end as my visiting Dad is overzealous and impatient to be let inside….
Strategy
With any Mythic Plus Rogue Descend, you need to have a reliable way to deal with the PreDRAs and for Linthia, you should bring a delay to help handle the preemptive awakenings bind. For myself, I like to not use my delay on the first turn and instead use a shield/damage mitigation to stall out a few turns to give myself a large room for error in case I do not one shot the final boss.
When dealing with the PreDRAs, you should try to have the opposite player sweep the previous floor to ensure the correct player takes their turn to eliminate them without wasting a pass turn.
In an ideal world, I would like to use Awoken Apollo to override the wood skyfall, but sometimes it is not always possible.
Collateral benefits of farming for Dubmythlits =)
Conclusion
Hopefully this video is informative and provides some inspiration on how to tackle Linthia Descended along with using an Awoken DQXQ team.
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.
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.
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 DQXQ has been announced and released in NA (finally) to great fanfare and excitement. But why such hype and eagerness for her to go live? It cannot simply be the fact the two sisters are finally reunited (it broke my heart when GungHo decided to split them up) or that they promise to double your fun. As such, I wish to explore her new found power and viability.
Stats at a glance
Awoken Da Qiao & Xiao Qiao
God / Dragon
Active Skill:
8 turn CD
Leader Skill:
4x ATK when matching 4 elements. 1.5x ATK for matching 5 connected light or water orbs. Up to 2.5x ATK when matching 7+
# connected / orbs
3-4
5
6
7+
Multiplier
16x
36x
64x
100x
DQXQ’s new leader skill requirements, brings a fresh new playstyle as it combines both rows and rainbow elements which sounds right up my alley with my extensive Sakuya and Lucifer experience. The below video is a clear of Arena 2, but I mostly wanted to include it to showcase the new playstyle of Awoken DQXQ. Continue reading Awoken DQXQ: New Top Tier Lead?→
I am in the process of updating this list over the next week or two and work from the top down so somethings will still be outdated/missing in the meantime.
Introduction
Due to the ever changing dynamic of team building through Skill Inheritance, team building has either become more flexible or more rigid. It becomes more flexible due to the fact that you can use almost any card as a sub and fill in the blanks via inheritance. However, this does eventually lead to a more rigid team building experience as you will end up using similar powerful bases and supplementing with appropriate assists.
As such, I have been trying to determine how I can have this list reflect both aspects of team building. Listing subs that fulfill specific roles is helpful, but may become misleading once you begin to acquire more cards to play around with. Thus, I will try my best to list higher tier subs along with other options and include a massive inheritance chart at the beginning you can use to fill in the gaps.
When deciding which leader and team you want to invest in, you ideally want to find a balance between a deep and diverse sub pool combined with a love for their playstyle that suits your personality and matching skills. Even leaders who are not popular in the meta are capable of clearing high end content provided you have a synergetic team and passion for their gameplay.
Furthermore, you should try to balance the subs/actives you bring to ensure a healthy mixture of quick orb changers, damage enhancing, and defensive utility. When trying to determine if you require a bind clearing sub, you must take into account how dangerous the bind is and whether you can stall through it or avoid it. If you are able to avoid the bind by bursting through the boss before they are able to attack, it may be best to do so as bind clearing subs tend to bring little to the party aside from their active. Lastly, leaders with higher multipliers are more reliant on consistency and survivability over offensive actives as the sheer strength of their leader skill can sweep most floors.
If you wish to read about how I approach tackling a dungeon and subsequently how I build my team, please read my previous article HERE.
Video commentary
—video goes here—
Popular leaders sorted by category
When trying to find a particular leader in this post, it is best to use the ctrl + F (search) feature. Otherwise, the leaders are colour sorted in no particular order. Due to the sheer size of this ever growing list, I may have trimmed out lesser leaders and simply put their names alongside other cards that are similar to them (eg. placing other rainbow leaders alongside Ra if similar).
I am not including the button farming coop teams.
Style
Leader
Rainbow:
Combo Based:
5 orbs, 1 enhanced:
(5o,1e)
Tank teams:
+ + + +
Heart orbs
required:
Multiple combos
of specific colour:
Row Based:
Speed farming:
Colour Cross
Heart Cross:
If you feel I left out your favourite team, leave a reply in the comments below and I shall add in accordingly. For a list of 5×4 leads, feel free to check out my other guide HERE.
If you wish to read a more detailed analysis of all the REM pantheon monsters, please refer to my Master List Breakdown. If you are considering to purchase a Monster Point card, please read my Tier List HERE.
Skill Inheritance
Skill Inheritance has become a vital part of the Puzzle and Dragons meta as it allows you to utilize desirable active skills from cards that would not be ideal to run as subs. This also enables you to better customize your team to your liking and address any dangerous mechanic the dungeon can throw at you. I encourage you to read my revamped Skill Inheritance Guide to better understand all the changes that have been made and how to better utilize this mechanic.
Below is for the most part, a full overview of the various inheritance options you can use sorted by categories. For full board changers, you can utilize off-colour inherits provided they generate your desired element. However, if possible, you should try to use same attribute inherit and base to take advantage of the stat transfer feature.
ACTIVE
MONSTER
Gravity
Damage
reduction
Full board
changers
Rainbow: jjj Bi-colour: — Tri-element with hearts: —
Tri-element with no hearts: —
Other:
![[Video] Awoken DQXQ VS Mythic Plus Linthia Descended](https://mantasticpadblog.files.wordpress.com/2016/07/linthia-m-team-f.png?w=672&h=372&crop=1)
due to higher damage and no type restriction.
![[Video] Satan Ranking Tournament 125,302 Score](https://mantasticpadblog.files.wordpress.com/2016/07/125k-high-score.jpg?w=672&h=372&crop=1)
awakenings ensure every light orb that appears comes with a plus
or 
orbs
+ 
+ 
Mantastic Puzzle and Dragons 