Tag Archives: Spica

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

Spice of Life Godfest: Eygptian 1, Mechanical 1, Arch Demons, and Sengoku 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 Spice of Life Godfest promises to warm your heart with a dash of Nutmeg and Six-Star Godfest Exclusives. The weather outside may be frightful, but our rolls will be delightful. Day 1 features the iconic Egyptian 1 and the newer Mechanical 1 series while Day 2 offers the Arch Demons and new ultimately evolved Sengoku series. In addition, each day features a varying array of Godfest Exclusives.

Water Gala of Tides Carat
—-



Day 1
Egyptian 1 Mechanical 1
Horus Isis Bastet Ra Awoken Anubis 3054 Alrescha 3058 3060 3062
GFE
Red Sonia Blue Sonia Green Sonia Metatron dtron Eschamali Scheat Australis
Ult Zuoh Ilm Gadius Typhon Ryune Saria Sylvie Sherias Roots
Sherias Fenrir Viz Fenrir Baldin Balboa Gremory Ronove 2991
2993 2997




Day 2
Arch Demons Sengoku
Belial Amon Astaroth Baal Awoken Archdemon Lucifer 3101 3103 3105 3107 d-d-akechi
GFE
rodin Blodin Green Odin Metatron dtron Kali Dark Kali Urd
Skuld ult evo Verd Ult Tsubaki Ult Sumire Ult Kaede Kanna Baby Satsuki Ult Zuoh
Ilm Sherias Roots Sherias Baldin Balboa Gremory Ronove 2991
2993 2997

Video commentary

Day 1:

Day 1 features the old, but iconic Egyptian 1 pantheon who has received several new evolutions through the PAD Cross collaboration. Unfortunately, these evolutions do not bring them back to their former glory days of power and simply offer a more viable alternative than their current Awoken Evolution. You can read more about the PAD Cross review HERE. On the other hand, Awoken Isis Isis is still one of the most desired cards while Awoken Ra Ra remains a push-button staple.

On the other hand, the Mechanical 1 series is relatively new and has also received powerful ultimate evolutions. These new evolutions attempt to categorize them as better subs or leaders, but 95% of the time, the evolution with the God Killer God Killer awakening will be superior unless you need the sub colour for a specific team. Sadly, the Mechanical 1 series are a bunch of heart breakers in heart-cross meta which does diminish their overall value.

The featured Godfest Exclusives may feel lackluster as they do not include Kaede Ult Kaede or Dark Kali Dark Kali who are both somewhat instrumental to some of the top tier teams.
Continue reading Spice of Life Godfest: Eygptian 1, Mechanical 1, Arch Demons, and Sengoku Review and Analysis

+80 Box Space, I mean Version 9.4.2 Update Review

Introduction

Upon waking up today, thousands of Puzzle and Dragoners were greeted with an additional 80 box space and team cost that came with the 9.4.2 update. In this article, I wish to highlight all the noteworthy changes along with how I feel they will impact our PAD life.

You should always refer to the official patch notes as I may gloss over certain updates etc. This can be found HERE.

Video Commentary

New evolutions

9.4.2 comes with new split evolutions for Spica, Mitsunari, and Akechi that better defines them as either leaders or subs.

Spica

3058 3057

Unless you love the art work or in desperate need for the sub colour, the Wood/Water Spica 3058 is the strongest option as she comes with a wonderful God Killer God Killer and dual Skill Boost Skill Boost awakenings. Spica may have new found usage (despite the Heart Cross meta) as a sub for Machine Athena 3074 due to her Machine typing. She is also phenomenally pretty.

Mitsunari

3105 mitsuaria-evo

Mitsunari is an often forgotten card as he struggled to find a team to call home. Even his leader form of Wood/Dark is lackluster due to the active skill clause. Thus, we lose the mask and bring 4 wood row Wood Row awakenings with an active that converts the whole board to wood, dark, and heart orbs along with 2 turns of haste on a 13 turn cooldown. This can be useful as either an inherit for mono wood or dark teams or as a stellar sub on wood teams that are row based.

One interesting option for using Mitsunari is on Awoken Liu Bei A Liu Bei teams if you are struggling to farm up numerous Dios Ult Zeus Dios as a Mitsunari + Liu Bei active results in a full board of wood orbs. However, this does take more time due to pressing an additional button and going through the haste animation. Conversely, you can also use Mitsunari as a means to help overcome combo shields with his tri-colour board active.

Akechi

d-d-akechi 3110

Akechi is regarded as one of the strongest dark cards in the game due to his overwhelming active that forms dark and heart orbs along with enhancing all dark orbs. This combines two mechanics into one and allowed for spectacular burst damage when used in conjunction with Haku Haku. In addition, it also means you can save a sub slot as you combine an enhance and orb change. Unfortunately, Akechi’s own base stats and awakenings were lackluster until his new ultimate evolution!

Most players will have already evolved him into his D/D d-d-akechi as he now brings a spectacular 4 dark row Dark row awakenings and 750 base stats. Amusingly, the other Akechi evolution allows him to achieve 64x ATK with a 5o1e and dark+light match. However, this is impractical as your choices of board refreshes are limited and you are almost always better of going with the D/D evolution. Continue reading +80 Box Space, I mean Version 9.4.2 Update 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

Cosmic Getaway Godfest: Greco-Roman 2, Mechanical 1 & 2, and Hero Gods Review and Analysis

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.


The Cosmic Getaway Godfest introduces the new Godfest Exclusive cards Sherias Sherias and Baldin Baldin. These two formidable dragons bring both stunning art and new utility for a variety of teams. I will be creating a separate posting detailing their uses so stay tuned/check back over the weekend. Outside of the two new cards, the featured gods and select GFE will appear at a 3x rate. It is a shame GungHo is featuring the newly Awoken Greco-Roman 2 gods with the lacklustre Mechanical 2 series. However, day 2 is more promising as the Mechanical 1 is gaining more viability on mono colour teams and the Hero pantheon are still the heros that their name implies.

Water Gala of the Tides Water
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Day 1
Greco-Roman 2 Mechanical 2
Awoken Ares A Hermes Awoken Artemis Awoken Apollo Awoken Persephone Denebola Acubens Algedi Alcyone Hamal
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Day 2
Hero Mechanical 1
Bankai Yamato Bankai Andro Bankai Perseus Wukong bankai Awoken Pandora Antares Alrescha Spica Pollux Castor

Day 1:

The Greco-Roman 2 are renown for their double orb changer active that converts two different elements into their primary colour. This is fantastic for teams who wish to flood the board with their desired colour and generally is best on row based teams. With the introduction of their awoken evolutions, players now have a tough decision to make as each evolution offers different benefits.

On the other hand, the Mechanical 2 series are one of the newer pantheons and feature monsters who have a hard time fitting in due to a lack of synergy. Only Hamal Hamal can be effectively used at the moment and it would be best to avoid rolling for this pantheon until more cards are released or the jammer meta is more solidified. Lastly, none of the Mechanical 2 Gods have an ultimate evolution and may not for some time.
Continue reading Cosmic Getaway Godfest: Greco-Roman 2, Mechanical 1 & 2, and Hero Gods Review and Analysis

10MM Ranking Tournament Strategies

Quick! Everyone grab your Shiva Dragons Shiva D for a top 1% ranking and shiny hat. Wait…Awoken Horus Horus, what are you doing here? Welcome to the 10 Million Downloads Ranking Tournament that features a pre-set rainbow team that somewhat evens the playing field as everyone is forced to use the same team. As such, there will be no theory crafting component, but instead I will do a brief run down of the dungeon and my strategies used to achieve a high score. All players should complete this ranking dungeon due to the ease due to the floors not attacking and having a full hypermaxed team. Lastly, you have a chance at acquiring a spirit jewel or an evolved Fagan and a hefty amount of rank experience.

Ranking dungeon scoring criteria

In these ranking dungeons, we are scored based on 3 criteria:

  1. Average combos made: 5,000 points per combo
  2. Time Remaining: 500 points per second remaining
  3. Maximum damage: up to 10,000 points if you hit 40 million.

With these in mind, you want to plan/match as quickly as possible to score higher while sweeping every floor. A higher amount of combos will be favourable and needed to burst through several of the floors.

Your team at a glance

Each member of your team is max level, +297 and max skilled.

 Awoken Horus (Leader)
Horus
Enhnaced Fire Orb Enhnaced Fire Orb TPA Time Extend
Enhance fire orbs & +2s orb movement
4 turn CD

16x ATK – 4 colours
20.25x ATK – 5 colours
1.5x ATK using an active
45.56x ATK – 5 colours + active

 Subs
 Antares
Antares
2,418 ATK
 Alreshca
Alrescha
1,948 ATK
 Spica
Spica
1,980 ATK
 Castor
Castor
2,575 ATK
 Heart Arrow Fire
1 turn haste
7 turn CD
 Heart Arrow Water
1 turn haste
7 turn CD
 Heart Arrow Green
1 turn haste
7 turn CD
 Heart Arrow Dark
1 turn haste
7 turn CD

With Awoken Horus as your leader, you must be able to consistently match 4 different colours (ideally 5) to trigger your damage multiplier. Furthermore, using an active grants a significant damage boost and I will go into detail after the dungeon introduction as to where you should be using your actives. Your strongest element is fire because both Horus and Antares sharing the fire element. Dark is your second strongest due to the sub colour from Horus and the high attack on Castor. You can utilize fire and dark TPA for even more damage. Lastly, each of your subs convert the useless heart orbs into a usable colour while providing 1 turn of haste.

Dungeon at a glance

The dungeon consists of 6 floors that will not attack you and simply stare at your while you play.

Floor Hp/defence Active to use
 1 Awoken Leilan 1,225,486 / 376 Horus
2  Awoken Karin 1,225,486 / 376 Spica
 3 MeiMei 188,889/*977,778*  Antares
 4 Haku 1,225,486 / 376  Horus
 5 Sakuya 4,031,042 / 376  Alrescha
 6 Fagan 4,968,040 / 653  Castor Horus

With the exception of Meimei on floor 3, all floors simply have a specific amount of health you need to nuke down. Meimei has nearly 1 million defence, and you must use Antares to generate more fire orbs (they will be enhanced due to the countless +heart awakenings on the team) and you simply need to match your 5 colours and fire TPA to pierce through. The rest of the floors are require an active of some sort to proc your additional damage, but try to use Spica on floor 2 to generate enough wood orbs to deal with the water based Karin. Horus used on floor 1 will be ready again for the boss.

Do note that the actives listed per floor are simply a guideline, you may have to deviate if things do not go according to plan, but it helps to have a template to autopilot off of.

Strategy

The strategy is quite straightforward due to a lack of dungeon mechanics and is mostly a test of your rainbow matching skills. If you can follow the active usage chart above, you should be able to sweep every floor without too much difficulty. The key to scoring high is being able to plan and execute your matches quickly. You only have access to 2 time extend Time Extend awakenings which may feel frustrating and requires you to be precise in your matching.

Video

My top 1.8% ranking play through that has some room for improvement but should at least give some inspiration for achieving a high score. There is no voice-over as there is not much to say and mostly consists of me rambling to myself or swearing. Upon reflection, I should have dropped the orb sooner on the first few floors to save a few extra seconds.

Conclusion

Maybe I will get a hat this time, but it is going to require a modest amount of RNG to score higher as the max damage is where a large portion of your points can come from. Perhaps if I can save Antares for a later floor, I may be able to burst higher, but will still require more runs to do so.

Ranking 10M

Happy Puzzling!

10 Million Downloads Godfest Analysis and Review (Norse, Mechanical 1 & 2, and Chinese Celestials)

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.

Dark Midnight Gala Dark
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Day 1
Norse Mechanical 1
Freyr I&I Awoken Freyja Thor Awoken Loki Antares Alrescha Spica Pollux Castor
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Day 2
Chinese Celestials Mechanical 2
Awoken Leilan Awoken Karin MeiMei Sakuya Haku Denebola Acubens Algedi Alcyone Hamal

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 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 Skill Lock 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.

If you are looking to bolster your skill bind resistance, Day 1 is a fantastic time to roll. Continue reading 10 Million Downloads Godfest Analysis and Review (Norse, Mechanical 1 & 2, and Chinese Celestials)

Chinese Celestial, Sengoku, Mechanical 1, & Mechanical 2 Pantheon Analysis

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.

Chinese Celestials

jjjjjjjjMonsterjjjjjjjjj  Notes
 Awoken Leilan
Awoken Leilan
Physical / Attacker
Enhnaced Fire Orb
 Enhnaced Fire Orb Skill Lock Resist
Fire Row Skill Boost Fire Row
Skill Boost Time Extend
—-
All  Arrow Fire Green Light + 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 Shiva and Shiva Dragon Shiva D seldom use  Leilan due to no two prong attack TPA awakenings or god typing. Hopefully with a release of more Fire Row based teams she will see a resurgence in popularity. Lastly, Leilan can form a system on Ilm 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
Awoken Karin
Dragon / Attacker
blue + orb
 Poison resist Skill Lock Resist
Water Row Water Row Skill Boost
Skill Boost Time Extend
—-
All  Arrow Water Green Dark + 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 Blue Sonia and Awoken I&I I&I / Ryune 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
MeiMei
Physical / Attacker
Enhanced Wood Orb
 Enhanced Wood Orb TPA
Skill Lock Resist TPA Skill Boost
Skill Boost Time Extend
—-
All  Arrow Green Light Dark + 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 Verd and Sylvie Sylvie and only loses ground due to not manufacturing heart orbs. Meimei can be used to great success on Sylvie Sylvie / Freyja Awoken Freyja , Awoken Bastet Bastet , and Spica Spica teams. Furthermore, multiple Meimei ‘s can be used to form a “Meimei System” with Zuoh Ult 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.

 Awoken Sakuya
Sakuya
Dragon / Healer
Bind Clear awakening
 Blind Resist Jammer Resist
Skill Lock Resist TPA Time Extend
Bind Immune Bind Immune Skill Boost
—-
20% Gravity + 3 turn bind clear
10 turn CD
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 Kali 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 Metatron in nearly every aspect as a sub.

   Awoken Haku
Haku
God / Healer
Dark Orb Enhance
 Dark Orb Enhance blue + orb
TPA Skill Lock Resist TPA
Skill Boost Time Extend
—-
All  Arrow Fire Water Dark + 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 Dark row awakenings, Haku can still warrant a slot on your Awoken Archdemon Lucifer team due to her utility and explosive combo potential with Akechi Akechi . Haku can also find a home on Yomi Dragon Yomi Dragon , Awoken Yomi Awoken Yomi , and Awoken Anubis Awoken Anubis teams. Lastly, her D/D evolution DD Haku has the devil typing and can be successfully used on Awoken Pandora 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.

Continue reading Chinese Celestial, Sengoku, Mechanical 1, & Mechanical 2 Pantheon Analysis

March 31st & April 1st Godfest Breakdown and Analysis

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.

Fire Gala of Flame Fire
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Day 1
Chinese Celestial Sengoku
Awoken Leilan Awoken Karin MeiMei Sakuya Haku Sanada Mori Motanari Ishida Keiji Akechi
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Day 2
Mechanical 1 Mechanical 2
 Antares Alrescha Spica Pollux Castor Denebola Acubens Algedi Alcyone Hamal

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
Awoken Leilan
Enhnaced Fire Orb Enhnaced Fire Orb Skill Lock Resist
Fire Row Skill Boost Fire Row
Skill Boost Time Extend
—-
All  Arrow Fire Green Light + 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 Shiva and Shiva Dragon Shiva D seldom use  Awoken Leilan due to no two prong attack TPA awakenings or god typing. Hopefully with a release of more Fire Row based teams she will see a resurgence in popularity. Lastly, Awoken Leilan can form a system on Ilm Ilm teams.

As a leader, Awoken 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
Awoken Karin
blue + orb Poison resist Skill Lock Resist
Water Row Water Row Skill Boost
Skill Boost Time Extend
—-
All  Arrow Water Green Dark + 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, Awoken Karin is most at home on the various mono-blue powerhouse leads such as Blue Sonia Blue Sonia and Awoken I&I I&I / Ryune 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, Awoken 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
MeiMei
Enhanced Wood Orb Enhanced Wood Orb TPA
Skill Lock Resist TPA Skill Boost
Skill Boost Time Extend
—-
All  Arrow Green Light Dark + 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 Verd and Sylvie Sylvie and only loses ground due to not manufacturing heart orbs. MeiMei can be used to great success on Sylvie Sylvie / Freyja Awoken Freyja , Awoken Bastet Bastet , and Spica Spica teams. Furthermore, multiple MeiMei ‘s can be used to form a “Meimei System” with Zuoh Ult 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.

 Awoken Sakuya
Sakuya
Bind Clear awakening Blind Resist Jammer Resist
Skill Lock Resist TPA Time Extend
Bind Immune Bind Immune Skill Boost
—-
20% Gravity + 3 turn bind clear
10 turn CD
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 Sakuya are a high skill cap, damage inconsistency/orb troll (as it is a scaling and high skill multiplier), and dependency on Light Kalis Kali 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, Sakuya essentially outclasses Light Metatron Metatron in nearly every aspect as a sub.

   Awoken Haku
Haku
Dark Orb Enhance Dark Orb Enhance blue + orb
TPA Skill Lock Resist TPA
Skill Boost Time Extend
—-
All  Arrow Fire Water Dark + 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 Dark row awakenings, Haku can still warrant a slot on your Awoken Archdemon Lucifer team due to her utility and explosive combo potential with Akechi Akechi . Haku can also find a home on Yomi Dragon Yomi Dragon , Awoken Yomi Awoken Yomi , and Awoken Anubis Awoken Anubis teams. Lastly, her D/D evolution DD Haku has the devil typing and can be successfully used on Awoken Pandora 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.

Continue reading March 31st & April 1st Godfest Breakdown and Analysis

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