The Sword Art Online (SAO) Collab will be making a return around 15 months since its last appearance in North America. This time gap has granted all of the cards valuable buffs along with three new additions to the rolling pool.
Sadly, this event still remains top-heavy due to the fact that the 5-star cards range from okay to horrible due to no Weapon Assists and terribly low Weighted stats. Thankfully, due to the 5 Magic Stone cost, the Monster Exchange rates are significantly cheaper.
As such, doing your free roll and then trading for Alice might be the best course of action for many players as she can function as a fantastic leader pairing for Fasca while also being well poised to act as a sub for future Transforming teams.
This article will outline the pros and cons for each card within the Sword Art Online Collab to give players a better understanding of what each card can do.
Video commentary
—video coming soon—
Overview
Sword Art Online Pros & Cons – April 3, 2020
Pros
Cons
5-Stone Egg Machine
Cheaper Monster Exchange rates
Alice is valuable and easy to acquire
No need to roll due to Monster Exchange
Free roll, stop, maybe Monster Exchange
Voice awakenings
82.5% chance for a weak 5-star
No Weapon Assist
Terrible Weighted stats
Top heavy event
Low Weighted stats all around due to 5-Stone cost
Sword Art Online REM
6 Star base
(2.5% each, 17.5% total)
5 Star base
(82.5% total)
Sword Art Online Rankings – April 3, 2020
S
A
B
C
D
Order within each tier is random and not reflective of ranking
Regardless of card’s ranking, you should always keep it if it is your very first time acquiring them
Colosseum 2 is currently the hardest dungeon available in the game as it features truly outrageous spawns along with all cards starting at level 1 in a rogue-style dungeon.
This means that higher Team Cost cards will level up more slowly along with Super Awakenings being disabled until the card reaches level 100 or higher. This can place numerous hurdles for Team Building and can make it difficult for Transforming teams to function as it will be harder to have sufficient Skill Boosts.
As a whole, I do not feel it is worth playing Colosseum 2 due to the significant difficulty jump from Alt. Arena 3 (AA3) and mediocre rewards. While the Latent TAMADRA (Extra Slot) drop is nice, GungHo has given out many of them for free (maybe 13 so far?) along with few viable spots to take advantage of them.
Regardless, I wish to explore how I built my own team along with addressing the major hurdles that can be found in Colosseum 2.
Video clear
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Notable Colosseum 2 mechanics
Colosseum 2 is currently the hardest dungeon available in North America and will push many teams to their limits. As such, it is important to understand the key mechanics that must be addressed.
Alt. Arena 3 is one of the most lucrative dungeons to farm and is considered the second hardest dungeon in the game at this point in time. As such, being able to clear this dungeon will provide a wonderful Rank EXP, Pys, and satisfaction.
Over time we have acquired numerous different leaders who can tackle this dungeon and while it is possible to secure a clear with a wide variety of teams, being able to consistently farm Alt Arena 3 is valuable overall.
For myself, I have used a wide variety of teams and have found that Lampeid (Lamp) paired with Fasca to be a wonderfully strong team. This pairing combines the two strongest Leader Skill mechanics of Auto Follow Up Damage and 7×6 along with enough powerful subs to handle this dungeon with relative ease. Furthermore, there is copious amounts of movement time along with strong multipliers in all metrics.
While Lamp does require 6+ Water orbs to function, this should be quite doable on 7×6 and not having to worry about Resolve greatly improves any Row-based team.
With this in mind, I wish to explore how I built my own team along with addressing the major hurdles that can be found in Alt. Arena 3.
Video clear
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Notable Alt. Arena 3 mechanics
Alt. Arena 3 is currently the second hardest dungeon available in North America and may push many teams to their limits. As such, it is important to understand the key mechanics that must be addressed.
In a surprise announcement late Thursday night, the Sacred Relic Dragon Saga Rare Egg Machine will be debuting in North America starting on Friday, March 27 and is home to only Transforming cards.
As mentioned in my previous articles, GungHo will be pushing the Transform meta as these cards are stronger compared to previously available options due to the Skill Boost hurdle that is required. As such, many team compositions are drastically changing in order to accommodate these new and powerful cards.
Furthermore, we will now have a more diverse set of Transforming cards in this event as some are all-or-nothing (like Yugi ) or those that provide Skill Boosts/Effective Skill Boosts and then Transform into something powerful (like Fortress Dragon ). I want to stress that cards who help you Transform and then Transform themselves are particularly powerful because they no longer have “wasteful” Skill Boosts any more.
In regards to the Sacred Relic Dragon Saga series, this is a brand new GungHo-owned even which means it should return on a regular basis (like Dragonbound & Dragon Caller (DBDC)) which means there is no “rush” to roll these cards.
With that being said, this is a debut event which mean the first several rolls should be unique for the most part. Furthermore, these cards are also at the height of their power which tends to be the case for any first-time event as it would not make sense to release cards who are already outdated.
One other nice aspect to this Rare Egg Machine event is that because all cards can Transform, there is no Limit Break/Super Awakenings. Thus, these cards have a lower investment cost compared to most other monsters. Sadly, this also means duplicates are lackluster as none of these cards have a Weapon Assist nor can they be inherited.
Regardless, this article will summarize each card’s strengths and weaknesses to give you a better understanding of what is in store within this event.
After Wednesday’s Maintenance, Rank 150-800, Best Friend, & Presents will be reset. *Note: If bonuses remain unclaimed by the date of the reset, the unused bonuses will be lost. Players will only be able to receive each bonus once after the reset.
Introduction
On Wednesday March 25 at 5pm (UTC-8), PAD will go under maintenance and this will also reset the Best Friend Token, Present, Rank 150-800, and One-Time Bargain set.
The Best Friend reset will grant an additional Token which will allow you to choose a new Best Friend. This additional selection will not overwrite your existing ones but failing to use a current selection will not carry over after the reset.
Best Friends are a vital part of your PAD experience as it will enable you to expand the leaders available as well as gaining additional Pal Points.
This article will explain the Friend and Best Friend System along with how you can improve your chances of being selected by strangers as well as how to form BFF Triangles. For the most part, this post is copy/pasted from the previous Reset as nothing has changed mechanically for Best Friends.
For this Reset, I plan on pruning my Friend’s list of inactive players (2+ months for BFF) on both accounts in order to make space for any of my readers who wish to Best Friend me. If you wish to Best Friend either of my accounts, please leave your ID number, your in game name, and which account you want to Best Friend. Due to limited space on Mantastic, I will not be able to accommodate everyone.
Finding Friends
The first step to Pal Point domination is to find friends to populate your list. As you rank up, your friends list will max out at 50 players. You can add 5 additional friend slots for 1 magic stone, up to a maximum of 300 friends. Continue reading Maintenance Tonight + Best Friend & Rank 150-800 Machines→
Today marks the debut of a special Seasonal Ladies Egg Machine which features a wide array of cards from different events. One negative aspect of Seasonal events is that each Egg Machine is somewhat set in a vacuum in the sense that these cards are often not featured outside their respective events.
Thus, with the Seasonal Ladies Egg Machine, players are able to roll cards from Christmas, Halloween, and New Year’s all in one place. This is an interesting twist on regular Seasonal events while also preserving the 5-Magic Stone price tag.
While this may seem like a nice idea overall, the truth of the matter is the rolling rates are terribly top heavy along with the majority of strong rolls being at the 9 or 8-star rarity. Furthermore, not all of the strong Seasonal cards are featured here.
As such, this basically creates the same issue of all Seasonal events: top-heavy with pretty filler cards at the bottom.
With this in mind, I am not inclined to roll the Seasonal Ladies Egg Machine as none of these cards have received any form of buffs along with having minimal value at the bottom rarities.
Video commentary
–video coming soon–
Overview
Seasonal Ladies REM – March 20, 2020
Pros
Cons
Pretty girls all around
Combines Christmas, Halloween, & New Year’s events
Low value below 8-stars
Weapon Assists only on 9-star cards
Missing some stronger cards from each event
Top-heavy event
7-stars and below have mediocre to questionable value
Alt. Arena 3 is considered the second hardest dungeon in the game at this point in time and is still a wonderful dungeon to play from a rewards perspective.
Over time we have acquire numerous different leaders who can tackle this dungeon and while it is possible to secure a clear with a wide variety of teams, being able to consistently farm said Alt Arena 3 is valuable overall.
For myself, I have used a wide variety of teams and have found that Base Minaka x Minaka to be a reasonably strong option assuming you have Gamayla as Dragon VDP are relatively scarce.
While this team lacks Auto Follow Up Damage, having a massive RCV multiplier and a 7×6 board facilitates easier stalling along with innately countering combo shields and the orb hungriness of requiring 4-6 of Water/Dark orbs.
With this in mind, I wish to explore how I built my own team along with addressing the major hurdles that can be found in Alt. Arena 3.
Video clear
—
Notable Alt. Arena 3 mechanics
Alt. Arena 3 is currently the second hardest dungeon available in North America and may push many teams to their limits. As such, it is important to understand the key mechanics that must be addressed.
might be the best course of action for many players as she can function as a fantastic leader pairing for Fasca 
while also being well poised to act as a sub for future Transforming teams.
nor can they be inherited.
