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[Puzzle & Dragons] Not-At-All Equivalent Exchange: Fullmetal Alchemist Collab
ElementWrath
Perplexingly SoftMichiganRegistered User regular
Perplexingly SoftMichiganRegistered User regular
It's actually more akin to Bejeweled + Pokemon + Gambling = Your Paycheck
Disclaimer: You may or may not regret spending real money on this game. You may or may not regret spending an absurd amount of real money on this game. You may or may not regret spending an embarrassing amount of real money on this game.
Hello and welcome to the Puzzle & Dragons thread. Puzzle & Dragons, or PAD for short, is a popular Match-3 mobile game with a twist for iOS and Android originating from Japan, where it is commonly referred to as Pazudora. Because of its origins it has a certain special flare common among Japanese games. It's occasionally quirky (read:strange), somewhat fanservice-y, and brutally difficult in the later game, where a lot of veterans of the thread find themselves. It's the precursor to many many look-alike games (probably) because of its tremendous commercial success, and for good reason. The game is easily accessible to non-IAP (non In App Purchase) players, but has been monetized through Magic Stones, used to do everything from refill stamina to run more dungeons, buy continues when you die in dungeons, and pull on the Golden Dragon Rare Egg Machine (REM Gacha). Fortunately, this means it isn't supported by more intrusive ads, and surprisingly it gives away plenty of free stones per month, in addition to one for every dungeon clear, and there are tons of dungeons. There is a North American version of the game that receives updates following their introduction in the Japanese version, but crossplay between versions (and devices) is included.
So, what is PAD?
Think of Bejeweled if you could move an orb as far as five seconds could get you, and make as many combos as you can. Colored orbs cause your monsters of the same color to attack when 3+ of that color is matched, and hearts restore damage you take from monsters attacking you. Make as many combos as possible on the 30 orb board to rack up the damage, with new orbs falling in from above. That's all well and good until you start progressing and enemy monsters' defense becomes occasionally noticable, or when they gain abilities to attack you or otherwise hinder you. Oh, and don't even get me started on monster skills and team building and awakenings and plus eggs and... actually this game gets absurdly complicated for a Match 3 game. Luckily the resources below have all the answers and if you can't find it there, there's no shortage of veterans here who can answer your questions, and provide you early game newbs with absurdly powerful max-level Ultimate Evolved monsters.
Reddit Beginner Guide
- Golden Rules For New Players -
- Don't roll outside of a Godfest
- Don't continue
- Don't spend stones to restore stamina
- Favorite everything you want to keep
- When in doubt, check PDX
Previous Threads
March 1, 2013 - June 13, 2013
Second PA Thread
Third PA Thread
Fourth PA Thread
Fifth PA Thread
Sixth PA Thread
Seventh PA Thread
Eighth PA Thread
FAQ:
How much does this cost?
The game is free to play, with a premium currency of magic stones. You can buy them for a dollar each in smaller packages, but they're less per stone when bought in bulk. Five stones is one pull on the Rare Egg Machine (REM), or other occasional collab machines.
How long before I hit the pay wall?
Luckily, the game distributes plenty of free stones per month through in game mail, and every dungeon clear is a stone as well. I'm living proof that you don't need to pay to clear end game content, non-IAP for almost three years. However, if you're not planning to pay anything ever, it might help to get off to a good start.
Okay, so how do I get a good start?
I'm sure you noticed the fun tutorial? At the end it makes you pull the golden dragon and out pops an egg? Well here's the thing: that egg can be anything that comes out of the Golden Dragon. You could get the most powerful monster in the game, or you could get some trash that has no purpose except to make you weep. You can also delete the application and redownload it to get another run through the tutorial and another free roll on the Golden Dragon.
Do you see where I'm going with this? Depending on your tolerance for monotony (suffering), you can run through the tutorial over and over until you start with exactly what you want (or lose your mind).
What is a good starting monster, then?
If you are planning on spending money in the game, it doesn't matter as much what you start with as you can always buy more stones. If not, here are some recommendations (spoilered in case you'd rather find out for yourself):
If it's farmable, reroll. You can ask us about this.
If it's not a gold egg, reroll. Some gold eggs are still useless, once again, ask us.
Reddit Re-Rolling Guide
According to this guide, in early game, these monsters are 4 stars or above. YMMV.
Horus
Isis
Bastet
Meimei
Sakuya
Haku
Okuninushi
Yamato Takeru
Pandora
Da Qiao & Xiao Qiao
Osiris
Nephthys
Lumiel
Urd
Skuld
Verdandi
Ryune
Sylvie
Valdin
In terms of pantheons, generally regarded as the best are:
Chinese
Egyptian 1
Egyptian 2
Star Angels
Indian 2
3 Kingdoms
If it's not a gold egg, reroll. Some gold eggs are still useless, once again, ask us.
Reddit Re-Rolling Guide
According to this guide, in early game, these monsters are 4 stars or above. YMMV.
Horus
Isis
Bastet
Meimei
Sakuya
Haku
Okuninushi
Yamato Takeru
Pandora
Da Qiao & Xiao Qiao
Osiris
Nephthys
Lumiel
Urd
Skuld
Verdandi
Ryune
Sylvie
Valdin
In terms of pantheons, generally regarded as the best are:
Chinese
Egyptian 1
Egyptian 2
Star Angels
Indian 2
3 Kingdoms
What is the most important thing to know about this game?
If there isn't a Godfest Active *DO NOT PULL ON THE GOLDEN DRAGON*
Godfest? Golden Dragon?
The Golden Dragon/Rare Egg Machine/REM/Premium Gacha is a machine that eats 5 magic stones and barfs out a monster. This can be a farmable monster or an incredibly powerful God. Remember 5 stones= 5$, so unless you are willing to donate a lot of money you probably want to maximize your chances at getting a God, since you'll get the farmable monsters with a bit of effort, but Gods are only from the Golden Dragon. Every other week there will be a "Godfest" where you have a 3x chance to hit a God when you roll, or an estimated 1 out of 3 chance. Only spend your stones to roll during Godfest. Its recommended to not roll at all until you get a good amount of box space and friends, but pulling is one of the fun parts of the game, so as long as you only pull during Godfest no one will yell at you. Probably.
I'm out of Box Space!
That's not a question, but it will be a common problem. The solution is to spend magic stones on increasing your box size. This should be where all of your early stones go. Try to get up to 100 boxes at least before you spend magic stones on *ANYTHING* else
Which Monsters are Worth Keeping?
This article is a great resource on what to do with the monsters that drop as you go along. pad.wikia.com/wiki/Valuable_Monsters
How do I keep track of all these monsters?
Setup an account on Padherder.com. This site will keep track of what you need to evolve the monsters you get, and how much exp to get them to the next level.
If you are on Android and lazy you can use the padhereder listener app.
And if I'm on iOS?
Lucky you, you get to do the physical challenge!
Actually there is a way to get your data imported, but its work.
How do I play with other awesome Penny Arcade People?
Add yourself to the Penny Arcade Puzzle and Dragons User Database of Wonderment and Joy, and send friend invites to everyone on it. If people are full, then @ them in this thread and they will typically make room for a fellow forumer.
How do I know how what % Life a boss has/I have?
How does skilling up a monster work?
If you feed your monster another monster with *the exact same skill name*, you'll have a 10% chance to increase the skill level, which makes the skill charge one turn faster. During events the skillup rate is x2, so do not try to skillup outside of an event unless you hate your time/money. Occasionally there is 2.5x skillup rate. You can also raise a monster to max evo, max level, then feed it to itself. This is called the colossal waste method. There are also little guys with horns who skill up monsters.
They are hard to come by usually only found in tough dungeons, or as challenge rewards. You can also buy them in the Monster Point Shop.Does anyone know what the math is for combos vs. multi-orb matches?
Like, how much does a 2-combo multiply my attacks? How about a 4 or 5 orb match in one color? If I've got 6 orbs of one color in the grid, am I better off making a line of six or two 3-orb matches? If I've got two adjacent lines of 3 in the same color that are touching they clear as one match instead of a two combo. Does that count the same as matching six in a line?
Short Answer making combos is better than making big clumps of orbs unless Awoken skills/orb enhancers are in play.
pad.wikia.com/wiki/Game_Mechanics#Damage_Calculation
Question
Aktn Bstrd wrote: »Is there a list that shows the best way to approach descends? Like in order by difficulty. I really wish I could do Athena descended but I know that would be me throwing away 50 stamina.
This is a great read.
http://www.reddit.com/r/PuzzleAndDragons/wiki/descendeddungeons
Obviously any list of difficulty depends on the monsters you have.
Hera is fairly unarguably the easiest, probably two heroes is next.
How to beat most levels in challenge mode:
Make Ronia friends.
Get a Hera-Ur.
Use Hera-Ur as your leader, and fill up the rest of the team with fully awoken Ronias. Clear everything easily with the power of poor balancing.
Also Green/White Present Dragon and 5 Awoken Odins can clear some tricky tech dungeons.
How do I beat the Hardest Evo Material Dungeons?
Tuesday - Keeper of Gold. Wait until the pal egg machine runs rare evo materail and pull him there.
Wednesday - Blue/Green Masks (aka 99 turn skill bind fun) Get an autohealer and a friend Green Odin. Fill your team with dual attribute monsters, first few waves group attack as much as possible,
mystic mask round kill the red masks first, no group attacks.
Last wave, target the blue mask, combo/heal until skill bind lets up. Poison the blue mask and gravity if you have it. When blue mask is almost dead, start lowering the green masks' life.
Thursday - Dreaming Dragonfruit - Awoken Shiva/Hera Ur red teams work great here. Alternatively, Farm up 5 of this guy
and be immune to all damage.Friday - Funding Sky Prison ☺T╩♦•◘○♣♦☻ - There are many teams out there, all farmable monster version is ultimate zeus/ultimate zeus, Hera-Is, Poison/mystic mask/bane, Naga, something else (spread cats is good).
1st round make enough combos to kill all but one/two mythlits. If you start with no light orbs or you get too many combos, you just wasted 50 stamina! FUN!
2nd round you want to use poison to clear before the Dubs kill you. They hit very hard.
3rd round use naga, make a couple of mass attacks then kill the dubs leaving the tamadra. Let it bind you then move orbs until you get all skills up.
Round 4 35%gravity x 2 30% gravity, spread cats, delay, make as many combos as possible and hope you kill them.
This dungeon is very frustrating with any team that can't blow right through it. There are many that can now.
Also since you are playing this game and are not me you probably have ronia so why not just do it the easy way!
Twinlt super easy mode: lilith/echidna + enough skill awakenings to make lilith available on turn 2.
Sweep 1
Poison turn before damage from the dublits
Echidna on the next round.
Rest of your team just needs to be able to kill the actual twins
My team: beezelbub/ronia/ronia/echidna/lilith
There are options of course
I have too many coins, what's with these coin dungeons?
Also, I tried some more of the coin dungeons. My overall reviews:
Alt Castle of Satan in the Abyss - 1 million
Shrine of Green Water - 1 million
Challenging dungeons with quite good Exp and Coins per stamina. It also drops high level monsters that provide 10k-15k experience each. Overall a very efficient use of stamina if you have some to burn. Don't forget the free stone.
Warning - Watch out for the King Metal Dragon, he'll eat your face
Together At Last! Evo Rush!! - 3 million
Costs 35 stamina. Gives you a shot at a Dragon Fruit, a Dub-Mythlit, a Mystic Mask, and a Rainbow Keeper. Includes a guaranteed random Keeper. Worth doing once for the free stone, I'd avoid it otherwise.
Tamadra Village - 10 million
Awesome! Bring two poisons and you can't lose. The only downside is that at 99 stamina a run it'll almost certainly cost you a stone per try, but it's still worth it. At worst you'll get 4 Baby Tamadras a run, plus you have a shot at skillups for GrOdin and ROdin. If you run a lot of different teams and need a lot of awakenings, this is the perfect dungeon for you.
This now shows up without paying for it as a time sensative dungeon.
Bonus Review: Weekend Dungeon - Legend
The individual waves of this dungeon are about as hard as the boss wave on Master difficulty. Watch out for wave 5 with the three Mystic Masks - bring poison or some massive burst to break their armor. If you don't have a Robin or Kushinada, grab a Poison Ivy while the DC Collab is still around.
Otherwise, wave 9 is fairly easy. Wave 10 is the same as the final wave of Two Heroes, so make sure you can survive a hit from Berserk and get past Highlander's armor,.
For fun, my team:
Watch at 1.5x speed!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLku-s20EBEThoth and Sopdet are god awful. Be aware.
Zeus Vulcan is pretty terrible too.
cantide what kinds of things are worth saving to sell for monster points?
If it's not REM, don't worry about it. If it is REM, the more stars the better: I think it's 3k for 4 stars. 5k for 5, 15k for 6. Only the stars of the initial evolution matter. If you take a 4 star card and evolve it into a 5 star, it will still be worth only 3k.
Technically you can sell non REM monsters too, but they're worthless. Most sell for 1 point, non descend bosses like biweekly dragons sell for 5, and descend bosses sell for 10. They had an event recently where certain difficult descend bosses were worth 100 instead, but it was still a trap: 50 stamina for 100 monster points means it would take 30 runs aka 1500 stamina just to buy a Tamadra.
For price perspective, the latent Tamadras all cost between 10k and 20k, the dragon series is 300k, and they introduced a new marionette trio this week for 250k each whose gimmick is changing the enemy's color.
I need to ask a totally basic question. What do you call the awakened skills that show up around the bottom of the frame of a character's info screen? Like you have all of the awakened skills along the right of the picture but there are ones on the bottom.
http://padwiki.net/wiki/Latent_Awakenings
Links:
Dungeon Bonus Timetable
Puzzledragonx Database Best pad site
pad.wikia.com
Puzzle & Dragons Global Wiki
Monsters Beginners Should Farm For
Efficient Power Up Fusions
Official Facebook Page
Puzzle & Dragon Simulator
Added September 4, 2013:
Skill up info with chart
Drop Rate info with chart
+Egg Farming Info
ElementWrath on
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Last edited 1/26/2015
Hera Strat
Have you seen him? Now you have
Time Zone: Eastern
So many dungeons were so hard back then. Double kanna is life
Time Zone: Eastern
I didn't
Floor 1 kill lady, then tama, then can stall on tan
Floor 2 can stall but can kill you <30%
Floor 3 can stall on virgo if you kill fish first - I wound up killing them both turn one a lot, fish just hits and heals slightly on resolve
Floor 4 you don't have resist over 50% - I usually used a skill to one shot
Floor 5 use whatever you brought to deal with these
Floor 6 Can stall above 10%, I would usually try to wait out all his locks
Floor 7 can stall forever, kill whenever
Floor 8 wait until her bullshit is over then burst
My team didn't have enhance/burst actives and got by on row power and orb changers, I think ele's team did it with enhance stuff?
Similar strat for me. I put my faith in TPA and killer awakenings. Balboa has a God killer and G/G Susano has a TPA and a Dragon killer (which is almost everything in the dungeon). Mei Mei was my burst active, and I kept the green orbs coming with Vishnu. I could even tank Time Saw if I popped Susano.
Have you seen him? Now you have
Probably not, right?
The skill can be useful if something bad happens when running things on Monday.
Actually been farming 15 stam under 2x and it seems 100% for him if you don't need anything else.
I'm not GREAT about stoning for stam (MOAR ROLLS) but it does seem valuable to have a Ganesha max in case.
EDIT: This 1000 damage Superman symbol probably occasionally useful too.
Double edit: never mind, can't skill em up.
I have like 8 297s from the PAL machine alone, probably like 10 with the other farmed +s I've been dithering about (and probably a couple more if I liquidate these +50 REM junk). I just need to come to a decision where to spend them
@Mugsley
https://www.facebook.com/PuzzleAndDragonsOfficial/photos/a.532262196802377.135063.484776928217571/1485059488189305/?type=3&theater
that'll actually make it harder. the trick is to get your skills to charge up before Zeus by stalling as much as possible, and multiplayer won't give you enough HP to not get outright one shot by anything anyways.
I've had success stalling indefinitely on the masks - the stall will definitely be harder multi but I am allured by the concept of 4 orb changes
\o/
I don't think they made the announcement yet. Anyone have info on who's in/out?
Everyone you wanted is out. Everyone you think is trash is in.
In other, more welcome news, hey-ho HERE WE GO!
No less than ELEVEN 6* cards so I hope you guys feel lucky or really like whatever Gala is next. Starts this Friday and goes to the end of Sunday!
3DS: 0473-8507-2652
Switch: SW-5185-4991-5118
PSN: AbEntropy
There's a bunch of complex math I'm trying to find. I'm sure it'll get posted on Reddit soon enough. Essentially though it boils down to "If you're new or missing critical subs for top-tier teams then it's good. If you're not either of those then I hope you like silver eggs." It's something to do with the special mechanics of the PCGF where the more 6* there are in it, the stronger your chances of getting a Gala card and silver egg instead of a PCGF rate boost.
So you would do well rolling in the PCGF. It can net you some fantastic leaders, like Pandora. Or Rodin (WHY IS HE EVEN IN THERE).