The Sub Carnival is a promoted event by GHNA and is absolutely terrifying. Players should stay as far away as possible from this event as it features a horrible roster of what are the “top 15 subs.”
This article will try and explain the featured list along with providing insight on potential high-profile events that could come to North America.
Regardless of whether or not you read the entire article, DO NOT ROLL IN SUB CARNIVAL.
Video commentary
–video coming soon–
This is not a Godfest
The Sub Carnival is not a Godfest and this alone should be a large red flag as players will not be able to roll any 6/7-star Godfest Exclusives.
Generally speaking, 6/7-star Godfest Exclusives are some of the strongest cards available and the 6-star ones have become invaluable as trade fodder via the Monster Exchange. Players are able to trade in four 6-star GFE for a single Collab card (5-stone machine) and this removes the need to actually roll in the event. As such, it is highly advantageous to try and stock up on these cards as it will enable one to acquire a top tier monster. Continue reading Sub Carnival is a Trap→
When making the decision to roll or save your magic stones, you need to determine if the featured pantheons can benefit or complement your teams. Chasing for one specific monster is unwise as you will most likely be disappointed and should ideally have Godfests that overlap with many target cards. Remember all monsters that come out of the REM will qualify for Skill Inheritance so do not be too hasty when selling dupes. For a more detailed team building help, please refer to my Popular Leader’s and their Full Sub List Post which is in the process of being updated. Lastly, to find more information about a specific pantheon or monster, refer to my Master List to better refine your search. If you are considering to purchase any of the Monster Point cards, please refer to my updated Tier List for help and advice.
I also encourage you to visit my Discord server as it is full of knowledgeable and friendly people.
Introduction
The Monster Bootcamp Part 1 Godfest features the first 6x rates for Pantheons and GFE along with actually featuring powerful cards overall.
Furthermore, each roll will yield +50 to a random stat as well as appearing at level 50.
In addition, Day 1 will feature a complimentary Tamadra with each roll (hooray?) while Day 2 will coincide with the Wisedragons and Heroic Warriors Carnival. This Carnival will feature 2x rates for the following cards:
Heroic Warriors
Wise Dragons (5x burst for respective colour)
Regardless, the collateral perks on either day are slim to say the least and all the focus will be on the truly exciting Pantheon and GFE line up.
Video commentary
–video coming soon–
Rolls at a glance
Monster Bootcamp Part 1 Godfest
–
– _Day 1
– – – Day 2
–
Ranking the cards – Pantheons & GFE
These rankings I assign cards are my own and take into consideration the card’s value as a leader, sub, inherit, and possibly any niche role they fulfill. In order to rank in the highest tier, the card has to excel in their respective role and cannot feasibly be replaced by anyone else. This can also be thought of as a Best in Slot card and tends to have applications on the top tier teams.
Do not nuke your Monster Box for 750,000 MP to buy Dark Athena. She will be a permanent addition to the MP shop
Introduction
Dark Athena has been a long anticipated card that was up until this point only available in JP; however, NA/EU will finally be able to purchase her for 750,000 MP starting May 1st. This is a tremendous stepping stone as we are actually able to acquire a Radar card when PAD Radar is not available in our regions. Regardless, the question within the community will transition from is she coming to “Should I buy Dark Athena?” This is a loaded question as she does cost 750,000 MP and you should carefully weigh the pros and cons along with actually having a viable team to use her.
I did write extensively about her in a previous posting, but will create a new one based on the new cards that have been released since her debut in JP. However, there will be some overlap between the two but I have added in a much needed team building section.
Video commentary
—video goes here–
Solo Arena 3 clear
She is so forgiving I can make mistakes: —
Screenshot from my first clear:
Dark Athena at a glance
Dark Athena God / Devil / Attacker
3,618 HP / 2,501 ATK / 0 RCV
862 Total
Active Skill:
Enhance all water & dark orbs
3 turn delay
11 turn Cooldown
Leader Skill: 1.5x HP & 3.5x ATK for God, Devil, and Attacker cards. 2x ATK & 2x RCV when matching Dark and Water orbs 2.25x HP / 49x ATK / 4x RCV
Pros
Cons
12.25 or 49x ATK
2,501 base ATK
3 TPA for burst
Tanky Leader Skill
Forms one of the best teams in PAD
Can quickly clear challenging content
Farms Arena 3
Flexible team building
Bind immune
Damage enhance & delay
Can overcome combo shields
No evolution required
Comes ready to use
Can use Haku(s)
Can be used as a sub
Must match both water and dark for RCV
Stalling is not as practical
No SBR
Low movement time
Gemstone inherit semi required
Costs 750,000 MP
Impressions
Dark Athena may look lackluster from a purely multiplier perspective; however, she is actually one of the strongest cards/leaders in the game. There are many factors that go into consideration when trying to determine what makes a strong leader, and Dark Athena covers almost all of them.
Dark Athena has one of the most unconditional leader skills which dramatically raises her consistency and speed when playing through both challenging and easy content. Simply having to match a single water and dark combo for 49x is trivial compared to the shenanigans other leads require. This ease of activation enables you to flood the board with dark orbs in order to better take advantage of Dark Athena’s three TPA awakenings. Furthermore, with the introduction of the 7 combo awakening, Dark Athena has even more burst potential as she can run duplicate Hakus to great success. Continue reading Dark Athena Team Building, Discussion, and Rationale for 750,000 MP→
I have added mouse over text for all of the icons for the tier lists. Let me know if you find any errors =)
Godfest basics
When making the decision to roll or save your magic stones, you need to determine if the featured pantheons can benefit or complement your teams. Chasing for one specific monster is unwise as you will most likely be disappointed and should ideally have Godfests that overlap with many target cards. Remember all monsters that come out of the REM will qualify for Skill Inheritance so do not be too hasty when selling dupes. For a more detailed team building help, please refer to my Popular Leader’s and their Full Sub List Post which is in the process of being updated. Lastly, to find more information about a specific pantheon or monster, refer to my Master List to better refine your search. If you are considering to purchase any of the Monster Point cards, please refer to my updated Tier List for help and advice.
Introduction
The Extravagant Easter Godfest descends this weekend and features 3x rates for featured Pantheons along with 4x for GFE. In addition, all rolls out of the Rare Egg Machine will come with +50 to a random stat. Finally, non-featured Godfest Exclusives will not appear from the Rare Egg Machine.
Following the trend of my previous Godfest reviews, I will include a tier list of both the pantheons, GFE, and a list that combines both for each day. Furthermore, I will include a fully updated Pantheon tier list to help showcase where all your cards fit in.
If you wish to read a more thorough analysis of the Three Kingdoms 2 pantheon, please refer to my previous post HERE. A full review of Fujin and Raijin can be found HERE.
Forest Gala
—- — — —
Day 1
Norse
Arch Demons
GFE
— — — —
Day 2
Greco-Roman 2
Chinese Celestials
GFE
Video commentary
-goes here–
Ranking the cards – Pantheons & GFE
As part of my new format for Godfest posts, I will try my best to rank the featured pantheon cards along with GFE and then combine the two to showcase how strong of a day it is to roll. These opinions are my own and take into consideration the card’s value as a leader, sub, inherit, and possibly any niche role they fulfill. In order to rank in the highest tier, the card has to excel in their respective role and cannot feasibly be replaced by anyone else. This can also be thought of as a Best in Slot card and tends to have applications on the top tier teams.
When making the decision to roll or save your magic stones, you need to determine if the featured pantheons can benefit or complement your teams. Chasing for one specific monster is unwise as you will most likely be disappointed and should ideally have Godfests that overlap with many target cards. Remember all monsters that come out of the REM will qualify for Skill Inheritance so do not be too hasty when selling dupes. For a more detailed team building help, please refer to my full list Popular Leader’s and their Full Sub List Post. Lastly, to find more information about a specific pantheon or monster, refer to my Master List to better refine your search. If you are considering to purchase a Four Gentlemen card, please read my Review and Comparison HERE.
Introduction
Happy Lunar New Year! Hopefully you have been spending time with your family and loved ones along with feasting upon copious amounts of food. In order to mark the year of the Rooster, the Lunar New Year Godfest will feature the newly Reincarnated Egyptian 1’s along with (surprise surprise) Chinese Celestial pantheons. To sweeten the deal further, we will also be benefiting from 5x GFE along with +20 to a random stat.
For the most part, the Egyptian 1 pantheon is capable of forming powerful and fun teams. Even with the diminished value of leader skill restrictions due to an active skill clause, they can still clear plenty of content while Isis and now Horus being powerful subs.
On the flip side, the Chinese Celestials have not aged as well due to a lack of new evolutions and buffs for quite some time now. In addition, they somewhat struggle in a heart cross meta due to their board changers only producing three colours. However, there has been a gradual shift back towards colour board changers so there may be a shift back towards the Celestials in the future.
Where to spend your Red Pocket Money will be up to you, but this is a modest Godfest for the most part.
As a side note, I changed the format for the analyzed cards and would like to know what you think.
When making the decision to roll or save your magic stones, you need to determine if the featured pantheons can benefit or compliment your teams. Chasing for one specific monster is unwise as you will most likely be disappointed and should ideally have Godfests that overlap with many target cards. Remember all monsters that come out of the REM will qualify for Skill Inheritance so do not be too hasty when selling dupes. For a more detailed team building help, please refer to my full list Popular Leader’s and their Full Sub List Post. Lastly, to find more information about a specific pantheon or monster, refer to my Master List to better refine your search. If you are considering to purchase a Four Gentlemen card, please read my Review and Comparison HERE.
Introduction
The Early Harvest Godfest comes hard on the heels of the 10-Stone GFE REM . While Godfest Exclusives are tremendously powerful, you still need regular REM card support to excel and GungHo is presenting us with some of the stronger pantheons. In addition, many of these cards have received new ultimate evolutions in the past month that grant them even more viability.
Gala of Tides
—- — — —
Day 1
Chinese Celestials
Japanese 2
GFE
— — — —
Day 2
Indian 2
Mechanical 1
GFE
Video commentary
Day 1:
The Chinese Celestials are one of the oldest pantheons in Puzzle an Dragons and have begun to fall behind in the current meta. This is mostly due to the dominance of heart cross leaders require board changers that produce heart orbs. This leaves them in a somewhat awkward place as their board change will rarely be as strong as someone who produces 3 elements with one being hearts. However, if other leaders begin to follow similar patterns as Krishnia , they may begin to see more viability. One thing to keep in mind is their ability to be inherited onto other mono-colour teams who may be better able to combo with their actives.
On the other hand, the Japanese 2 pantheon is relatively new and is home to five new and powerful awoken cards. None of them follow any sense of pattern and instead provide unique playstyles as leaders while harbouring interesting active skills. Due to their relative unique-ness, they are fun leaders to play and are capable of clearing some endgame content.
Day 1 is reasonably strong is you are looking to play non-heart cross leaders as they offer some of the stronger mono-colour subs along with unique leaders.
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.
The 10 Million Downloads Godfest comes on the eve before the Final Fantasy Collab and gives players a tough decision on where to spend their stones. To complicate matters further, a Player’s Choice Godfest should be in the near future and will most likely feature the most coveted monsters. However, the 10M Downloads Godfest features some powerful monsters that will come out with +10 to each stat and coincides with the highly favoured Midnight Gala.
When making the decision to roll or save your magic stones, you need to determine if the featured pantheons can benefit or compliment your teams. Chasing for one specific monster is unwise as you will most likely be disappointed and should ideally have Godfests that overlap with many target cards. Remember all monsters that come out of the REM will qualify for Skill Inheritance so do not be too hasty when selling dupes. For a more detailed team building help, please refer to my full list Popular Leader’s and their Full Sub List Post. Lastly, to find more information about a specific pantheon or monster, refer to my Master List to better refine your search.
Midnight Gala
jjj Day 1
Norse
Mechanical 1
jjj Day 2
Chinese Celestials
Mechanical 2
Day 1:
Day one features the highly sought after Norse Gods along with the modestly powerful Mechanical 1 series. The Norse Gods all have their awoken forms and grant 2x damage for their primary and sub elements along with forming powerful tank teams. They are mostly used on their respective mono-colour teams, but can sometimes play a role in rainbow teams due to enhancing two colours and providing double skill lock resist awakenings. Lastly, by boosting damage for two turns, you can use on the floor prior to the boss to ensure you sweep it while conserving your other actives.
The Mechanical 1 Pantheon is relatively new and features Machine / God type monsters. They have an interesting set of awakenings and provide 2 skill bind resist along with a powerful active that removes jammer and poison orbs. They can also form 16x leads with 51% damage reduction from 4 different elements. However, their main downfall is a lack of an ultimate evolution and will only be a matter of time before they gain strong potential.
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.
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.
If we continue to receive very early warnings about upcoming godfests from PuzzledragonX, it may be feasible to do my own breakdown of the featured pantheons. I guess that if I start doing these regularly, I would already have the templates already made. Regardless, I am going to try something new with these posts and let me know what you think in the comments below.
For a more detailed team building help, refer to my full list HERE.
Gala of Flame
jjj Day 1
Chinese Celestial
Sengoku
jjj Day 2
Mechanical 1
Mechanical 2
Day 1:
Day 1 features some of the most coveted monsters in Puzzle and Dragons. The Chinese Celestial have always been a powerhouse pantheon and has undergone numerous buffs and evolutions to stay relevant. Perhaps this is because all 5 are pretty girls or because they are one of the oldest sets of gods, but regardless, they are fantastic to own and make some of the best subs for their respective mono-colour teams. On the other hand, the Sengoku series are much newer and do not posses an ultimate evolution. This is beneficial as their significant power will dramatically increase with augmented stats and awakenings.
Chinese Celestial
jjjjjjjjMonsterjjjjjjjjj
Notes
Awoken Leilan —- 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 combo-ed with other orb changers to create fire heavy boards. Unfortunately, the 2 top fire teams, Awoken Shiva and Shiva Dragon seldom use 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, can form a system on Ilm teams.
As a leader, 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 —-
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, 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, 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 —-
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. can be used to great success on Sylvie / Freyja , Awoken Bastet , and Spica teams. Furthermore, multiple ‘s can be used to form a “Meimei System” with Zuoh as a lead.
As a leader, 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.
Sakuya has gone through a roller coaster 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 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, 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.
‘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, essentially outclasses Light Metatron in nearly every aspect as a sub.
Awoken Haku —-
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, 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, 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.
Gala of Tides 
Midnight Gala 
+ haste
Mantastic Puzzle and Dragons 