One of the best aspects of PAD is having older cards receive new evolutions or meaningful buffs to help them stay abreast with newer options.
While it is impossible to have everything be truly viable along with the innate power disparity compared to Pantheons versus top rarity Collab cards, many of the cards featured in this latest update can bring additional depth and options to a given Monster Box.
This article will high light the strengths and weaknesses for the new Evolutions found within this update.
The Persona Collab returns to North America after a prolong absence. As such, all existing cards have received various buffs along with all top rarity cards gaining Weapon Assists plus several new cards being added.
Generally speaking, this will be a poor event to roll heavily in due to the fact that the bottom rarity cards lack Weapon Assists along with many having questionable value. This is further compounded by the lack of value duplicates bring which in turn makes it either a free roll and Trade event or only rolling in a small amount to hedge against excessive dupes.
This is often the trend with lower costing Collabs as their reduced 5 Magic Stone cost is offset by lower Weighted Stats and a lack of value at the bottom rarity.
Regardless, this article will outline the pros and cons for each card to give players a better understanding of what to expect in the Persona Collab Rare Egg Machine.
Video commentary
—video coming Monday—
Overview
Persona Collab Pros & Cons – September 2020
Pros
Cons
5 Magic Stones
Cheaper to roll
Weapon Assists for all top rarity cards
All top rarity cards are available via Monster Exchange
Costs 4 Trade Fodder
5 Magic Stones
Bottom rarity is heavily neglected
Under 1,000 Weighted Stats for non-Orb Skin cards
Bottom rarity has little value in dupes
No Weapon Assists
Some have questionable value
Persona Collab REM
6 Star base
(15% total)
5 Star base
(85% total)
Persona Collab – September 2020
S
A
B
C
D
Order within each tier is random and not reflective of ranking
Icons show Revo or Transformed state if possible
Regardless of card’s ranking, you should always keep it if it is your very first time acquiring them
Bottom rarity quick summary
The bottom rarity should be the main motivation to roll in an event and here is a brief summary showcasing their awakenings and/or Weapon Assists if applicable. Awakenings in (brackets) are Super Awakenings.
Another Super Godfest has descended upon North America not even 2 weeks after Remu’s debut that shares the same rolling rates and distribution of Godest Exclusives and Pantheons.
As a whole, Super Godfests have become the norm with at least 1/3 chance to acquire any Godfest Exclusive (6 or 7-star) for the price of 10 Magic Stones per roll. This has become the current baseline in which we measure the potential value of a Super Godfest with better events featuring any combination of higher rolling rates, rarer non-GFE cards such as the Samurai 3 Pantheon, or featuring high rarity Seasonal cards like Valentine’s Ideal .
In the case of this current Super Godfest, it features essentially 1/3 GFE rates along with two Samurai 3 cards which brings the total chance for acquiring any other Pantheon card at 64%.
As such, this is not an exceptional Godfest from a rolling point of view and at least from my own point of view, a weaker roster of Godfest Exclusives as many of the 7-stars featured are Redeemable from an Event Medal or older.
With that being said, the featured line up may be exceptionally valuable for your own individual needs which in turn can give justification to roll. Furthermore, newer accounts can almost always benefit from rolling in a Super Godfest as many of the Pantheon cards can at least function as transitional cards for your current teams.
On a side note, I miss having actual names for Super Godfests.
Video commentary
–video coming soon–
Remu
Remu has only been in North America for 10 days or so and I am just including the same copy-paste breakdown of her from my previous Godfest article:
Puzzle and Dragons is my longest played game as I have now passed 2,500 days which technically makes it my longest lasting relationship to date. Regardless, I wish to take this opportunity to explain my thought process and rationale for rolling in any event or when Monster Exchanging.
To preface this, I want to stress that there is no “correct” way to play PAD as it is incredibly open-ended as there is no true story or lore and after a terribly brief tutorial, you are basically tossed into the wilds and expected to play. Due to this degree of freedom, there is a strong possibility that you may be playing PAD for different reasons compared to myself along with varying goals and expectations. This is perfectly fine and as long as you are enjoying yourself and not compromising other aspects of your life, you are playing this game “right.”
Regardless, I wish to share my own approach to maximizing my PAD resources which in turn brings me the most excitement from this tremendously old game.
Why I play Puzzle and Dragons
I originally started playing PAD after reading a newspaper article describing this new hit app in Japan while riding the bus. The article piqued my curiosity and later that night I downloaded Puzzle and Dragons on my iPad mini as my phone was not smart enough to run it and is why I prefer playing on a larger screen as that was what I got used to originally. Continue reading My Thought Process for Rolling or Monster Exchanging→
Super Godfests have become a regular part of our PAD life as it will offer at least 1/3 chance to acquire any Godfest Exclusive (6 or 7-star) for the price of 10 Magic Stones per roll. With this baseline in mind, the spicier Super Godfests are those that feature any combination of higher rolling rates, the inclusion of high rarity Seasonal cards (eg. Valentine’s Ideal ), or featuring rarer non-GFE cards such as the Samurai 3 Pantheon.
In the case of the current Super Godfest, it features essentially 1/3 GFE rates along with two Samurai 3 cards which brings the total chance for acquiring any Pantheon card at 64%.
As a whole, this does not scream exceptional value but this Super Godfest includes many of the newer Godfesrt Exclusives, but most importantly the debut of Remu .
Remu is going to be the new hot Transforming Fire leader who pairs beautifully with Dante along with two of their key subs coming from the current Sacred Relic event.
With this in mind, this Super Godfest may be worth rolling in if you have the capacity to field a strong Remu team and did not pull Dante. Furthermore, Norza , Menoa , Grandis , and Shelling Ford are featured who all bring something valuable to any Monster Box.
The Sacred Relic event returns to North America on August 17 and comes with several small but meaningful buffs for most cards. What makes the Sacred Relic event unique is that all cards found within are able to Transform with many of them actually providing numerous Effective Skill Boosts before Transforming.
This aiding other cards to Transform while also Transforming is incredibly valuable as it will remove the now “dead” Skill Boost awakenings as they are now replaced with something else along with the actives being greatly upgraded.
Furthermore, Sacred Relic is home to two incredibly powerful bottom rarity cards who will be a boon to essentially any Monster Box. With this in mind, I do encourage players to roll in this event if they have not done so in the past or if they are missing Lampeid and especially Polowne .
With that being said, none of these cards have Weapon Assists which greatly lowers the value of Dupes along with it often being difficult to run 2 of the same card on a given team.
Video commentary
—video coming Monday—
Overview
Sacred Relic Pros & Cons – August 2020
Pros
Cons
2/4 bottom rarity cards are worth owning/pursuing
Lampeid
Polowne
Plenty of value sprinkled throughout all rarities
Fewer cards available
Easier to roll a specific monster
No Weapon Assists on any card
Dupes have much lower value
More painful with 10 Magic Stone cost
Relatively small rolling pool
Only four 5-star cards that make up 55% or rolls
Sacred Relic REM
7 Star base
(10% total)
6 Star base
(35% total)
5 Star base
(55% total)
Sacred Relic REM Rankings – August 2020
S
A
B
C
D
Order within each tier is random and not reflective of ranking
Icon shows Transformed state
Regardless of card’s ranking, you should always keep it if it is your very first time acquiring them
Bottom rarity quick summary
The bottom rarity should be the main motivation to roll in an event and here is a brief summary showcasing their awakenings and/or Weapon Assists if applicable. Awakenings in (brackets) are Super Awakenings.
For the Sacred Relic cards, I will show both pre and post-Transform states:
The Evangelion Collab makes a return to North America after several years of absence. This means that all cards have received sizable changes in order to help bring them up to par with modern day options.
While there are Weapon Assists on all but one 5-star card and above, the 4-star cards comprise over half or the rolling pool and are lackluster overall. I am well aware that they all have a Super Resist (), the majority of them will be immediately replaced by other options as soon as they are acquired.
As such, it is a poor investment even for new players along with them having essentially no value beyond the usually questionable first copy.
As a whole, this event does feature several strong and valuable cards but there is far too much junk/filler heavily sprinkled in along with the Monster Exchange only being available for the single 7-star card.
Either way, this article will outline the pros and cons for each card within the Evangelion Collab event to give players a better understanding of what each monster can do.
Video commentary
—video coming Monday—
Overview
Evangelion Collab Pros & Cons – July 2020
Pros
Cons
5 Magic Stones per roll
Bad rolls feel less painful
Weapon Assists on almost half of the cards
Only a few cards are truly valuable
These tend to be the rarer ones
Bottom rarity has quickly replaceable cards
Low value in rolling dupe 4-stars (51.5% of rolls)
Poor Diamond (6*+) rates
Cannot Monster Exchange for the 6-star cards
Evangelion Collab REM
7 Star base
(1.5% total)
6 Star base
(7.5% total)
5 Star base
(39.5% total)
4 Star base
(51.48% total)
Evangelion Collab REM Rankings – July 2020
S
A
B
C
D
Order within each tier is random and not reflective of ranking
Icon shows most evolved, non-Weapon Assist form regardless if it is their strongest evolution
Regardless of card’s ranking, you should always keep it if it is your very first time acquiring them
Bottom rarity quick summary
The bottom rarity should be the main motivation to roll in an event and here is a brief summary showcasing their awakenings and/or Weapon Assists if applicable. Awakenings in (brackets) are Super Awakenings.
Despite all of these cards having Super Resists, I view them as a gateway option for covering Jammer, Blind, or Poison and the lowest ranking ones will be immediately replaced as soon as almost any other option is acquired. While one could argue that a new account can technically fill in holes, it is not a viable long term solution and will be quickly replaced as more events are rolled in.
Today marks the debut a special Super Godfest that features all 9 Great Witches that have been released thus far along with a discounted Magic Stone cost. This leads to an interesting situation as each roll will only cost 8 Magic Stones along with the featured roster containing many useful and powerful Godfest Exclusives along with the entire Samurai 3 Pantheon.
The Samurai 3 Pantheon are one of the newer cards to be released who have received Weapon Assist evolutions in JP which should becoming to North America now/soon. These Weapon Assists are unique and powerful as they are able to provide 80% Resistance against a certain mechanic () along with a single Skill Boost .
With this in mind, the Samurai 3 Pantheon is highly desirable and I will add their 7.5% total chance into the “good” stuff to roll category for this Super Godfest.
Puzzle and Dragons is an incredibly deep game that requires an exceptional amount of in-game knowledge to efficiently build a team with Weapon Assists playing a vital role in this process. This makes sense as you have 2 leaders, 4 subs, and 6 inherits/Weapons along with a potentially long checklist of mechanics to cover/counter. Continue reading 8 Magic Stone Super Witches Godfest Review→
The Draconic Orchestra returns to North America along with their host of musically-themed characters. Sadly, this event as a whole does not strike a high note as the cards featured lack any truly outstanding monsters along with the bottom rarity not receiving any love which in turn has further subjected them to Powercreep.
On the bright side, this event will return on a regular basis which means most of these cards should be regularly buffed. As such, it should be relatively easy to skip rolling in this current iteration and wait for more meaningful buffs before committing Magic Stones.
Either way, this article will outline the pros and cons for each card within the Draconic Orchestra event to give players a better understanding of what each monster can do.
Video commentary
—video coming Monday—
Overview
Draconic Orchestra Pros & Cons – July 22, 2020
Pros
Cons
Event will return on a regular basis
Time rolls when they are buffed more
Easy event to pass/not roll in
Music-themed cards
Small bottom rarity pool
4 different card
Comprises 37.5% of the rolls
Low value in rolling dupes
No exceptional card
Low motivation to roll
Draconic Orchestra REM
7 Star base
(14% total)
6 Star base
(48.5% total)
5 Star base
(37.5% total)
Draconic Orchestra REM Rankings – July 22, 2020
S
A
B
C
D
Order within each tier is random and not reflective of ranking
Icon shows Base form regardless if it is their strongest evolution
Regardless of card’s ranking, you should always keep it if it is your very first time acquiring them
Bottom rarity quick summary
The bottom rarity should be the main motivation to roll in an event and here is a brief summary showcasing their awakenings and/or Weapon Assists if applicable. Awakenings in (brackets) are Super Awakenings.
Today marks the debut of a 6 day Seasonal Super Godfest that features a much lower rolling rate for Pantheon cards compared to regular Super Godfests.
At this point in time, a generic Super Godfest will feature 1/3 GFE and 2/3 Pantheons with stronger events having more favourable rates for GFE. In the case of Seasonal Super Godfests, some of the GFE are replaced with higher rarity Seasonal cards.
If this replacement still yields a similar 1/3 GFE/Seasonal and 2/3 Pantheon, it may be worth rolling in as you can pick up rarer Seasonal cards with a lower chance of trash/useless cards. This is because Seasonal Egg Machines feature abysmal bottom rarity cards and often only have a few truly useful things at the top.
In the case of our current Super Godfest, Pantheons comprise 59.4% of the rolling rates but at the same time, the roster of Seasonal cards may leave something to be desired.
Eschamali
Mantastic Puzzle and Dragons 