Tag Archives: Mantastic Puzzle and Dragons

Hel’s Kitchen Godfest: Japanese 1, Indian 2, Egyptian 1, and Archdemons Review and Analysis

July 14, 2016 Mantastic 17 Comments

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.

Introduction

The Hel’s Kitchen Godfest features some of our favourite cards with a healthy mixture of subs and leaders. Many of these cards are in the process of receiving new evolutions and have the potential to shake up the meta like Uuevo Sarasvati . Many of these cards have transitioned into fantastic assistants for skill inheritance while others can find homes on many end game teams. I wish we had more information on how the Indian 2 pantheon will develop as they are currently in a weak spot but have the chance for a massive revival with new evolutions. In addition, GungHo is also introducing three new Godfest Exclusives which I will go into detail in a subsequent posting.

Gala of Flame
jjj Day 1	Japanese 1	Indian 2
jjj Day 1
jjj Day 2	Egyptian 1	Archdemon
jjj Day 2

Day 1:

The Japanese 1 pantheon has some of the strongest awoken evolutions in the game for their respective teams. They may have lost traction on some end-game teams, but they provide valuable utility are great candidates for contributing their active via skill inheritance. The main drawback is a lack of usability prior to being awoken and will be neglected until acquiring the evolution materials.

On the other hand, the Indian 2 Pantheon has been relatively weak for a modest period of time. However, Uuevo Sarasvati is hopefully the first of many amazing evolutions that could revive the pantheon. Unfortunately, we have no more information as to what is in store and for now, the other 4 cards (outside of Vishnu) remain lackluster and in need of a buff.

Rolling in Day 1 will mostly be the Japanese 1 series and Sarasvati/Vishnu. The overall value is somewhat low and none of these cards come into power until late game so newer accounts may struggle to benefit from rolling them now.

Continue reading Hel’s Kitchen Godfest: Japanese 1, Indian 2, Egyptian 1, and Archdemons Review and Analysis →

Descends, Videos

[Video] Zaerog Infinity VS Mythical Plus Nordis Descended

July 14, 2016 Mantastic Leave a comment

Background

I have been tirelessly tinkering away with perfecting my streaming capabilities and also have the capability to record my gameplay as a means to showcase various dungeon clears. Mythical Plus Nordis Descended is a reasonably challenging Rogue descend .I decided to use my Zaerog Infinity team as it is quite fun and exciting to play and hopefully showcases a different playstyle that is seldom seen. Playing the various Rogue Descends is also how I have been able to farm nearly 200k Monster Points per account due to the annoying PreDRAs that appear.

Video

Hooray for good audio and a face that’s made for radio =D

It is somewhat challenging to narrate and play at the same time so I hope to improve in my future videos.

Team used

The team is primarily composed of orb changers with a modest emphasis on heart/dark generation. This is to help deal with the preemptive dark bind on the final floor due to the recover bind awakening. Blue Odin is used on many of my other teams and has Awoken Ra inherited to deal with the PreDRAs. Dark Izanami is mostly for insurance against Nordis in his final form.

I have plenty of actives and the full +297 grants me a modest room for error and stalling.

Conclusion

I hope to continue producing videos like these and any feedback is greatly appreciated on how to improve is greatly appreciated.

Happy Puzzling!

Site News, Streaming

Mantastic Will Be Streaming Again on July 14th @6pm PST!!

July 13, 2016 Mantastic Leave a comment

This Thursday at 6pm PST, I will resume live streaming Puzzle and Dragons after overcoming numerous technical difficulties. This a great opportunity to be entertained by me playing with myself in real time! My stream will probably consist of playing through various coop dungeons with my second account, Fantastic, and hopefully showcasing fun to play, but somewhat unpopular leads.

To help everyone prepare for my momentous streaming re-debut on Thursday, July 14 at 6pm PST, I encourage you to follow me on Twitch as this will also deliver a notification when I go live along with my other social media platforms:

Mantastic Social Media
Facebook	Twitter	YouTube	Twitch

I am quite excited as this will be an opportunity to provide another medium of entertainment and puzzling knowledge to my readers. It will also help put a face to the mysterious Mantastic entity along with the realisation that my corny jokes and puns carry over into my speech. It may also make reading my articles more entertaining as you will begin to read them in my Mantastic voice.

Stream Overlay — I would probably get more views if I was a pretty girl like her…

Hopefully you are as excited as I am and I look forward to seeing all of you on Thursday, June 14 at 6pm PST!

However, all of this could not have been made possible without the contribution, patience, and dedication of countless individuals. The numerous Twitch followers who have endured my countless testing, horrible audio, and bad jokes have helped shape the stream into what it is today.

In addition, I also want to thank a four people in particular: Pancaaake for her overlay and countless troubleshooting, Polygonica for the generous desktop donation and technical support, Anita Waffle (Shrekt) for her patience with my lack of tech-knowledge when helping me set up the stream, and finally SamB for his tech support and advice for capturing my game screen. I encourage you to add them as everyone can always use more Fantastic friends!

Happy Puzzling!

Monster Analysis, Monster Point Dragons

Xiu Min – 300k MP Monster Review and Analysis

July 12, 2016 Mantastic 30 Comments

Introduction

Xiu Min is the final card of the Four Gentlemen series (300,000 MP monster) and is another glass-cannon oriented leader. They are capable of achieving 110.25x ATK on a light row based team and should obliterate essentially any obstacle foolish enough to stand in your way. Xiu Min has a reasonable active skill and their 10-turn cooldown makes them less appealing as a base for Skill Inheritance. Thankfully, you do not have to use numerous Xiu Min’s to form an effective team which is a relief after Xiang Mei . However, with the advent of numerous other glass-cannon leaders and the future released heart-cross cards, how viable is Xiu Min?

Xiu Min at a glance

Xiu Min

Physical
7,011 HP / 1,465 ATK / 0 RCV
994 Total

Active Skill:
6
1.5x ATK Physical types
10 turn CD

Leader Skill:
1.5x ATK when matching 2+ Light combos. 2x ATK when clearing 5 connected Light orbs, up to 7x at 10
110.25x ATK

Xiu Min Scaling Multiplier
# connected	5	6	7	8	9	10+
1 combo	4x	9x	16x	25x	36x	49x
2 combos	9x	20.25x	36x	56.25x	81x	110.25x

The above chart shows how your multiplier works with the various possible combinations; however, the multiplier is not as straightforward as you may think as you are better off making a connected 10 light orbs instead of a 3 + 7 match. At 11 orbs, it is more favourable to make a 3 + 8 match as that will yield a higher multiplier:

Xiu Min Multiplier Comparison
# on board	8	9	10	11	12	13+
1 combo	25x	36x	49x	49x	49x	49x
2 combos	9x	20.25x	36x	56.25x	81x	110.25x

Sample gameplay

Xiu Min lacks dual typing and does not have a sub attribute. This seems bizarre for a 300k MP Monster; however, his leadership power brings fourth an impressive amount of burst damage when forming light rows. Below is a sample video of a solo Arena 1 to give you an idea of his capabilities and playstyle:

You can also do your own research by using the search term 黄菊の君子・シュウミン but here is another video of Ultimate Descend Rush:

Continue reading Xiu Min – 300k MP Monster Review and Analysis →

Coop/Multiplayer

The Pressures of Coop/Multiplayer

July 10, 2016 Mantastic 10 Comments

Introduction

Coop/multiplayer everything patch: doubling the disappointment for half the stamina. Perhaps that is not the best slogan (albeit accurate) for the shifting meta towards a more cooperative gameplay in Puzzle and Dragons. However, GungHo has been pushing the coop/multiplayer feature for the past several updates as a means to make it more appealing and enjoyable way to play PAD. Upon it’s debut in North America, there was a certain degree of skepticism as we were the unfortunate victim of a poorly timed release of no more solo-play and a challenge dungeon series that had to be played via multiplayer. Thankfully, this issue has been permanently corrected and we are now essentially in the glory days of multiplayer with only a few new updates to come to enhance our quality of life.

Currently, all descends, rushes, Arena, daily dungeons, and limited time hourly dungeons are available to play in coop for half the stamina. The hourly dungeons are of particular importance as only the hosting player has to have the correct time to play and anyone can join their room. Finally, our teams are bolstered with 4 more subs/actives along with an increased health pool to make our runs easier and faster to clear.

However, amongst all of these amazing benefits, many players are starting to feel the pressure to play coop (to min-max your stamina) and the actual pressure associated with matching under a time limit or with another person watching. As such, I wish to pen down my thoughts to help alleviate some of the newfound stresses in Puzzle and Dragons Continue reading The Pressures of Coop/Multiplayer →

Ranking Dungeons

No You Yu? No Problem, Kind Of…

July 10, 2016 Mantastic 4 Comments

Introduction

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:

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.

A change of plan

Continue reading No You Yu? No Problem, Kind Of… →

Monster Analysis, Monster Point Dragons

You Yu vs Sarasvati: A Comparison and Analysis

July 7, 2016 Mantastic 60 Comments

Sarasvati’s full guide can be found HERE

Introduction

You Yu has been released in North America, but his debut was somewhat marred by the announcement of Uuevo Sarasvati . Both leads focus around matching numerous water combos along with either a 5o1e or row to trigger their full multiplier. Both are capable of achieving spectacular levels of damage but suffer from fragilty and a certain degree of orb-hungriness. The purpose of this article is to compare and contrast the two leaders while highlighting their weaknesses and strengths.

Overview

You Yu and Sarasvati can be best categorized as glass-cannons. This means that they are able to deal a amazing amount of damage at the cost of no HP/RCV multiplier. Thus, they are at the mercy of dungeon mechanics when they are unable to sweep the floor/activate. The lack of HP can be compensated through coop and that does help address that weakness. However, you will still need to find a way to heal up after an attack or bring some sort of sub dedicated to utility to compensate.

You Yu	Sarasvati
156x ATK scaling multiplier & oriented Can clear easy floors with 5 orbs Can clear endgame content Armpits	100x ATK scaling multiplier & oriented 100% uptime skyfall buff Can clear endgame content No SBR

Continue reading You Yu vs Sarasvati: A Comparison and Analysis →

Ranking Dungeons, Videos

[Video] Satan Ranking Tournament 125,302 Score

July 4, 2016 Mantastic 9 Comments

Introduction

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.

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.

Happy Puzzling!

Ranking Dungeons

Satan Ranking Tournament Strategies and Planning

July 3, 2016 Mantastic 40 Comments

Introduction

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	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.

Continue reading Satan Ranking Tournament Strategies and Planning →

Monster Analysis, Monster Point Dragons

You Yu – 300k MP Monster Review and Analysis

July 1, 2016 Mantastic 39 Comments

Introduction

You Yu, or Bamboo, is the third released card of the Four Gentlemen series (300,000 MP monster) and pushes the boundaries on the next level of powercreep in terms of damage output. Capping out at 156.25x ATK on a mono colour team allows you to deal spectacular damage with the ability to control your output through a scaling multiplier. You will need to use Skill Inheritance to help address fragility and somewhat orb hungry nature, but that is the price to pay for explosive damage. Thankfully, you do not have to use numerous You Yu’s to form an effective team which is a nice change of pace from Xiang Mei . However, the real question is: do you really need to purchase You Yu?

You Yu at a glance

You Yu

Attacker
3,655 HP / 2,606 ATK / 325 RCV
995 Total

Active Skill:
3
1.5x ATK Attacker types
7 turn CD

Leader Skill:
1.5x ATK when matching 2 water combos. Max 2.5x (4 combos). 5x ATK when matching 5 connected orbs with 1 enhanced.
156.25x ATK

You Yu Scaling Leader Skill
# water combos	1	2	3	4
Multiplier	–	2.25x	4x	6.25x
Multiplier w/ 5o1e	25x	56.25x	100x	156.25x

Sample gameplay

You Yu lacks dual typing and does not have a sub attribute. This seems bizarre for a 300k MP Monster; however, his leadership power brings fourth the next wave of powercreep in terms of damage output. Below is a sample video of a solo Mech Hera run to give you an idea of his capabilities: