Tag Archives: Kushinadahime

Xiang Mei Ranking Dungeon Score Tracking

What is this?

I plan to pin the current daily NA Ranking Dungeon chart compiled by pandaa for the duration of the Ranking Tournament. Due to the fact that I am usually not awake at Midnight, it may take some time for the new current day to be added.

Generally speaking, NA tends to start significantly higher than JP on non-fixed teams as we are able to see the top strategies right away. This leads to much higher scores but also a faster plateau as players hit their maximum potential. With that being said, NA should be able to score higher on non-fixed teams due to the fact that we have more time to prepare and have the winning strategies already made.

On the other hand, being 2-3 months behind JP provides little benefit for Fixed Teams as the strategy is to usually just puzzle your way through.

Use these charts as a rough guideline for your own scores and possible rewards.

Current day NA cutoff for Crown: 152,646
JP Crown: 153,060

Current day NA cutoff for Rainbow Event Medal & Xiang Mei: 138,258
JP Event Medal: 140,039

Corresponding article detailing teams and strategies can be found HERE.

Happy Puzzling!

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Early Harvest Godfest: Chinese Celestials, Japanese 2, Indian 2, and Mechanical 1 Review and Analysis

Godfest basics

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.

Water Gala of Tides Carat
—-



Day 1
Chinese Celestials Japanese 2
Awoken Leilan Awoken Karin MeiMei Sakuya Haku 2981 2982 2983 Awoken Izanagi 2985
GFE
rodin Blodin Green Odin Urd Skuld ult evo Verd Kali Dark Kali
Metatron dtron Fenrir Viz Fenrir Gremory Ronove 2991 Ryune
Saria Sylvie 2993 2997 Sherias Roots Sherias Balboa Baldin
Gadius Typhon




Day 2
Indian 2 Mechanical 1
3068 3069 3070 3071 3072 3054 3056 3058 3060 3062
GFE
Kali Dark Kali Ult Tsubaki Ult Sumire Ult Kaede Ryune Saria Sylvie
Kanna Baby Satsuki Ult Zuoh Ilm Sherias Roots Sherias Baldin Balboa
Sherias Roots Sherias Red Sonia Blue Sonia Green Sonia Eschamali Scheat Australis
Gadius Typhon

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 3068, 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.

Continue reading Early Harvest Godfest: Chinese Celestials, Japanese 2, Indian 2, and Mechanical 1 Review and Analysis

9.5.2 Update Thoughts and Review

Introduction

Version 9.5.2 was released today and brings numerous quality of life features along with additional quests, evolutions, 150/250 memorial pulls, and a Best Friend reset. This post will highlight the new changes as well as explaining how they work alongside their overall impact on Puzzle and Dragons.

Video commentary

New quests and badges

Version 9.5.2 introduces a new series of quests to complete along with more powerful badges. One major complaint about the first wave of quests was that they were too “easy” to obtain as many veteran players had already auto-completed them upon release. However, Maniac quests will challenge even the most seasoned players as the requirements are somewhat outrageous and will take a long time to complete.

maniac

The first two are relatively easy to complete as Special dungeons simply means you have to either played for a long time (to have seen all the niche limited time rotations) or able to clear every hard dungeon upon release. Total Monsters in Monster Book counts for both REM and farmable drops so simply go out and play more. You can also bolster your count by evolving cards as that will unlock additional progress.

On the other hand, you require 100 +297 monsters for the +35% RCV badge while total crowns is unobtainable at the moment (and not very feasible in general). Finally, the Total Awoken Skills refers to the number of awakenings you have unlocked. This means you require a huge number of Tamadras, but I also presume you can use farmable boss drops to unlock additional awakenings by feeding to themselves (eg. fusing a second form Tengu to another second form Tengu for a free awakenings unlock). Continue reading 9.5.2 Update Thoughts and Review

PAX West Godfest Review and Analysis

Godfest basics

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.


Video Commentary

Introduciton

The PAX West Godfest comes jammed backed with +30 rolls and 4x GFE rates to celebrate one of the largest gaming conventions happening in Seattle. As with any of my Godfest reviews, I will try my best to add clarification and insight for the featured pantheons. Due to the rarity of GFE, it can be challenging to roll for them and you should have a strong fallback option with the pantheons that are also featured.

Dark Midnight Gala  Nobunaga Sheen
Day 1 Japanese 2 & Indian 2 GFE
2981 2982 Kush Awoken Izanagi 2985
Krishna 3069 Vishnu Ganesha 3072
rodin Blodin Green Odin Metatron dtron
Red Sonia Blue Sonia Green Sonia Fenrir Viz Fenrir
Urd Skuld ult evo Verd Gremory Ronove
Gadius Typhon Ryune Saria Sylvie
Eschamali Scheat Australis Sherias Roots Sherias
Baldin Balboa
Day 2 Egyptian 1 & Mechanical 1 GFE
Horus Isis Bastet Ra Awoken Anubis
3054 Alrescha 3058 3060 3062
rodin Blodin Green Odin Kali Dark Kali
Ult Tsubaki Ult Sumire Ult Kaede Kanna Baby Satsuki
Urd Skuld ult evo Verd Ult Zuoh Ilm

Question Orb A different Gala Question Orb
Day 3  Greco Roman 1 & Angel 2 GFE
Minerva Neptune Awoken Ceres Venus Awoken Hades
Rozuel 
Famiel Ruel Ariel Lumiel
Metatron dtron Red Sonia Blue Sonia Green Sonia
Urd Skuld ult evo Verd Kali Dark Kali
Gadius Typhon Ryune Saria Sylvie
Ult Zuoh Ilm Eschamali Scheat Australis
Sherias Roots Sherias Baldin Balboa Gremory
Ronove

Day 1:

Day 1 features the newly Awoken Japanese 2 and the nearly Uuevo-ed Indian 2 series. The Japanese 2 used to be one of the most dominating sets of gods to roll for; however, time has not been too kind and their Awoken Evolutions do help round out team rosters, but none become meta changing leaders of their heyday. One thing to note is that most cards lose their God typing through an Awoken Evolution.

Conversely, the Indian 2 pantheon has been one of the weakest and thankfully, GungHo has been giving them some love through Uuevos that created a surprisingly powerful Sarasvati. We are still waiting for Krishna and Vishnu to have theirs announced and hopefully they become just as powerful.

Continue reading PAX West Godfest Review and Analysis

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

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

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

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

Indian 1

jjjjjjjjMonsterjjjjjjjjj  Notes
 Shiva
Shiva
Attacker / Devil
Time Extend Skill Boost TPA
TPA Skill Boost Enhnaced Fire Orb
Skill Lock Resist Time Extend
—-
Heart Fire Arrow Enhnaced Fire Orb +heart
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  TPA 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
Awoken Lakshimi
Physical / God
Skill Boost Auto heal Bind Clear awakening
Time Extend blue + orb Skill Lock Resist
TPA Water Row
—-
4 Question Orb Arrow Heart + 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 Water Row . 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 Bind Clear awakening 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 Bankai Andro, Ryune Ryune, Sumire Sumire, and Gabriel 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
Awoken Parv
Balance / Devil
Poison resist Enhanced Wood Orb TPA
Auto heal TPA Skill Boost
Bind Immune Bind Immune
—-
Water Arrow Heart
Green Heart Arrow Enhanced Wood Orb +heart
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 Awoken Lakshimi , but focuses on Two Prong Attacks TPA 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 Bind Clear awakening 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
Indra row
Dragon / Balance
Time Extend Skill Lock Resist Skill Boost
Skill Lock Resist Light Row Light Row
—-
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 Light Row and allows Indra to participate on some of the newer teams if you need the shielding. His other evolution,  Indra , has god typing which has made him nearly a staple sub on Ra Dragon Ra Dragon teams due to his 2 skill lock resist 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
Vitra
Dragon / Devil
Dark row Skill Boost Dark row
Skill Lock Resist Skill Boost Dark row
—-
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 Awoken Loki , Neph Nephthys , and Oku 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 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 dtron, 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

Popular Leaders and Their Full Sub List with Inheritance Options

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: 3265 Awoken DQXQ Sakuya 2982 3273 3272 Kali Lightning
Combo
Based: 
3241 3384 2983 3385 Rukai Kuchiki
5 orbs, 1 enhanced:
(5o,1e)
3266 You Yu Awoken Yomi Ult Tsubaki
Tank teams:  3068 3305 3238 Awoken Pandora Awoken Archdemon Lucifer Raoh
I&I + Ryune
Saria + Thor
Sylvie + Awoken Freyja
Raoh + Freyr
Heart orbs
required:
3242 3243 Typhon Gadius Xiang Mei
Multiple combos
of specific colour:
Z8 3069 3070
 Row Based: 3276 3263 dtron 3391 3235 Blue Sonia Xiu Min
 Speed farming: 3262 3266 3193
Colour Cross 3359 3264 2991 3202
Heart Cross:  Ult Sumire Ult Kaede Ronove Gremory Miru Beach Myr

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 Sakuya Awoken Hades Hathor Chibi Hera
Damage
reduction
3387 Indra Kush Valen 3071 Raphael dtron Isis Cursed Dragon

Shaitan
 Undine Sylph Genie Thanatos
Full board
changers
Rainbow:
Dark Kali Sherias Roots 3416 Lightning 3354 3394 3107 Kali Sherias
jjj
Bi-colour:
3103 3235 Red Sonia Blue Sonia Green Sonia Avalon Drake 3274 3284 Christmas Sonia

Tri-element with hearts:
Uevo Apoc Ryune Saria Sylvie UrdSkuld ult evo Verd mitsuaria-evo
3283 Cecil

Tri-element with no hearts:
Awoken Leilan Awoken Karin MeiMei Haku Zuoh 3277

Other:
Famiel Typhon Gadius Lumiel
True damage
/ poison
3239 Awoken Archdemon Lucifer rodin 3273 Cerebrus Rider Chibi Lilith Lumiel Famiel Sherias Roots 3274 Lightning 3162
Damage
enhance
Silk Carat Cameo Facet Sheen

Freyr I&I Thor Awoken Freyja Awoken Loki Nim Muse Delgado arcline
Creuse Awoken Yomi Izanagi Oku Nephthys Set Durga Lu Bu Kanna 3361
Delay 3386 2985 A Cao Cao 2918 A Sun Quan Zeta Hydra ForestBahn Wee Jas Green wee jas
Kenpachi Sagirinokami
Bind clearing Ame Amate Awoken Ceres Sakuya Metatron Green Odin Isis Fire Dragon Knight Water Dragon Knight
Earth Dragon Knight Shining Dragon Knight Shadow Dragon Knight Guan Yu Red Guan Yu Red Riding Hood Snow White Thumbelina Sleeping Beauty

Popular leaders and the sub list: Continue reading Popular Leaders and Their Full Sub List with Inheritance Options

Challenge 16 – Level 10 Cleared

This morning I put the Puzzle back into Puzzle and Dragons =)

My only REM shield monster is Kush and she is great for the one turn of 75% damage reduction, but for this Level 10, it would be inadequate as the boss has a 50% resolve. This presented a problem to my team building because I would not have been able to stall a turn or two with a lesser shield (such as Diza ) and a lower leveled team. Almost every clear that I have seen used either Indra  or Susano to grind out the boss to under 50% hp safely. Another problem that would arise from taking both Diza  and Kush  is having two sub slots for a shield. Kush has to be taken because the bosses preemptive of 25,556 needs to be dealt with and a 35% shield from Diza would be insufficient. Continue reading Challenge 16 – Level 10 Cleared

November 11 New Evolutions: Awoken Sakuya, L/D Izanagi, Umi Yami, and Kushinadahime

New evolutions are out and bring many game changers to the table!

Izinagi Izanagi has fallen a bit out of favour while waiting for his new ultimate evolution. I felt he was being pushed out of the meta because his viability as a sub was being outshined by other options. In terms of descend capable teams, he would be a sub on L G Sakuya , Kali , and  Hathor . With the advent of Sakuya losing her god typing and gaining a higher scaling combo-based multiplier, Izanagi’s burst (and awakenings) can no longer benefit your two leaders and should not be used as a staple sub anymore. The dark typing is an amazing addition to the other light-based rainbow teams as you now have a stronger option than Arthur Rider or Diza if you do not need the shield. Kali and Hathor teams are the only ones left who will truly benefit from his additonal TPA Skill Boost  Skill Boost  and dark typing. One other use for the new L/D evolution is the ability to cover all the colours for a  U&Y team. This can allow you to choose three unrestricted subs and can help you go more mono blue. The Wonder Boys still retain their god typing, so the  Izinagi active is still beneficial. Overall, the new evolution is very welcomed, but just a little too small and too late to fully capitalize on release. Furthermore, I discussed the struggles that rainbow teams face in a previous Posting and Izanagi is still regulated being a rainbow sub that can now fulfill dark requirements.

I had started to put pluses on my own Izanagi as he would have become Continue reading November 11 New Evolutions: Awoken Sakuya, L/D Izanagi, Umi Yami, and Kushinadahime