Special REM Review: Dragonbound & Dragon Callers

Aside: I’m trying out the new rating system by reviewing an old (by JP standards) collab. Since all of the cards have been out for a while, it shouldn’t be too difficult to sort out how they fare.

The timing is nice because it’s right after it’s been announced for NA/EU (so it’s relevant for someone, hypothetically) and JP just released a series of new GFEs, one of which is directly and vitally related to an important monster in this REM.

It’s late to do FMA Collab or the new GFEs so I’ll skip those (surprise: Macha is SSS+ tier), but I might start reviewing new ones again if I feel like it.

This REM is definitely worth rolling hard on, even for non-IAP players. Although it’s a 10-stone REM, there are almost zero misses (sorry, Kulia fans) and even among the lowest rarity No.6 and especially Kiri are definitely important to have access to. On top of that, literally every Diamond drop or higher is useful in some way, and the cream of the crop in Ideal and Li don’t disappoint at all.

Kiri Resist Team Guide for Alt Arena, Part 2

Now that we have our team composition figured out, all that’s left is to figure out how to actually pilot it through Alt Arena.

This part will start off with a few basic strategies you’ll use repeatedly as you descend. Then there will be a quick cheatsheet that you can use as a reference when running, and finally I’ll go in depth on some of the more challenging enemies you’ll encounter.

The clear time is usually around 2-3 hours, assuming you dodge Hera Beorc.

The team that this guide will be written for is as follows:

Kiri Resist Team Guide for Alt Arena, Part 1

Alt Arena is the latest and greatest challenge Gungho has released, with somewhat lucrative rewards and a monstrously high difficulty level. However, with a few key releases of new cards, it’s possible to clear consistently and easily without needing shiny rainbow-rarity collab cards or Reco’s insane puzzling skill.

The main cards that enable this team are Hera-Nyx and Zeus-Verse, who are inheritable true gravity actives strong enough to 1-shot any enemy in 3 actives, and Kiri, who has a 75% Fire resist LS and the ability to turn all enemies to Fire attribute.

This is definitely one of the most non-REM teams that can take on Alt Arena. Other than Kiri (obviously), the only other REM card you need is Raphael and even that isn’t completely necessary if you’re willing to sacrifice clear rate. Every other card, including both subs and inherits, can be completely farmable.

Compared to Minerva, it’s definitely more work to clear: because you won’t be packing 100% Fire resist you’ll have to heal occasionally, you can’t simply shrug off million-damage attacks from enemies like Hera-Beorc or Lifive, and the team is more vulnerable to having its leads disrupted by leader switches or binds. However, in exchange this team is far more consistent because it can have its attribute changing active up instantly, meaning enemies like a single High Water Ninja or High Light Ninja on floor 1 don’t spell instant death. It’s also a lot more resistant to awakening binds because the vast majority of your damage reduction will be coming from your two leaders.

This first post will simply outline the basic team, how it works, and various options for subs, inherits, and latents. An upcoming post later on will give a floor-by-floor guide on how to defeat every enemy you might encounter.

Collab REM Review – Rurouni Kenshin v2

While Crows x Worst had a ton of ridiculous cards added to it and neglected the old cards almost completely, Rurouni Kenshin’s revitalization is a lot more rounded. The power level of all of the cards is mostly fitting with their rarity, which makes this a fairly typical collab REM. Kenshin and Hajime received buffs putting them at an appropriate power level given their scarcity, and this REM has plenty of niche cards at the lower rarities as well.

Overall it’s almost certainly not worth rolling if you aren’t completely satisfied with your normal REM collection already, but for people looking for specific niches to fill this REM might have exactly what you’re looking for.

It’s worth noting that the monster ratings page has been revised again. The most notable changes are the flattening of the leader ratings back to a maximum of 5 stars and the expansion of the assist monster ratings to go up to three checkmarks.

Ratings Summary:

Himura Kenshin (6☆)	Leader: ★★★★	Sub: 🚫	Assist: 🚫
Himura Kenshin [Awoken] (6☆)	Leader: ★★	Sub: ★★★★	Assist: ✓✓
Saito Hajime (6☆)	Leader: ★★	Sub: Niche – ★	Assist: Niche
Saito Hajime [Alt] (6☆)	Leader: ★★★★	Sub: Niche – ★	Assist: Niche
Hiko Seijuro (6☆)	Leader: ★★★★	Sub: ★★★	Assist: ✓✓✓
Sagara Sanosuke (5☆)	Leader: 🚫	Sub: Niche – ★★★	Assist: 🚫
Shinomori Aoshi (5☆)	Leader: Niche – ★	Sub: ★★	Assist: 🚫
Seta Soujirou (5☆)	Leader: ★	Sub: Niche – ★	Assist: 🚫
Kashiwazaki Nenji (5☆)	Leader: 🚫	Sub: 🚫	Assist: ✓✓
Kamiya Kaoru (4☆)	Leader: 🚫	Sub: 🚫	Assist: ✓✓
Myojin Yahiko (4☆)	Leader: 🚫	Sub: 🚫	Assist: 🚫
Takani Megumi (4☆)	Leader: 🚫	Sub: 🚫	Assist: ✓
Makimachi Misao (4☆)	Leader: 🚫	Sub: Niche – ★★★	Assist: 🚫
Honjo Kamatari (4☆)	Leader: 🚫	Sub: Niche – ★★	Assist: ✓✓
Komagata Yumi (4☆)	Leader: 🚫	Sub: 🚫	Assist: ✓
Udo Jinne (4☆)	Leader: 🚫	Sub: 🚫	Assist: ✓✓

5th Anniversary Stream (55 Inherits)

With the long-awaited 5th Anniversary Stream for Puzzle and Dragons comes a lot of announcements, some more exciting than others (Heroine UEvos lol). One of the most interesting ones is the introduction of 55 farmable monsters that are now going to be inheritable. While most of them are pretty worthless, there are definitely still some exciting cards that are now going to be available for everyone to use.

While some of these cards are more like budget versions of REM cards, even players that have access to all of the cards will gain some utility as there are a lot of unique actives on dungeon bosses that haven’t had a chance to shine until now because they were on cards that were otherwise completely terrible. In general this will have the most effect on non-IAP players by increasing the options available to them dramatically, which is definitely a good thing considering how skill inheritance has skyrocketed team composition costs significantly (needing up to 10 specific cards instead of just 5).

Reincarnated Minerva – Arena 3 Guide

With proper preparation, Reincarnated Minerva is one of the most accessible and easy-to-use Arena 3 farming teams in the game. The only mandatory REM card is Minerva herself, and although certain inherits are needed to get through a few obstacles there are generally a lot of alternatives for each slot. The rest of the actual team is farmable, with 2 El Dorados from PADZ, Lifive, and Charite (who costs 250k MP from the MP shop); in fact, the hardest piece to acquire other than Minerva might be the SBR badge, for which you need among other things a <10% ranking dungeon score to unlock.

The main strength of Reincarnated Minerva is that past floor 3 it is incredibly consistent with careful play and that it is super easy to make at least a rudimentary version that can have up to 80% clear rate if you survive the early floors. The main drawback is that you absolutely need to play in solo for the SBR badge, which means runs cost twice as much stamina as leads like DAthena, RaDra, or Aizen, and that runs usually take around 45 minutes to an hour to complete. Still, this team is definitely one of the most accessible ways for people to farm the new Latent awakenings.

Recent Hiatus

The long and short of it is that I’m stuck in Battle Girl High School event hell again because ColoPl keeps running multiple grindy events at the same time.

I’ll try to get something up for Evangelion Collab and the Christmas stream over the next few days but I’m not promising anything.

Collab REM Review – Bleach v2

After FF, we’re getting the much-anticipated rerelease of the Bleach collab! Rukia gets updated to a more modern power level, Ichigo breaks new ground in being the first collab card with an Awoken evolution, and all of the new additions to the collab range from very good to incredible.

A lot of things have changed between its first release and now, the most important being the sharing of skill boosts in co-op and the introduction of the skill inheritance system. These two changes are going to drastically affect the value of a lot of the cards in the REM compared to the last time it came around.

In general, if you want to whale on a collab this is probably the single best one to do so; a lot of the Gold eggs are valuable for farming teams and are ideal in multiples, so the ceiling before you “complete” the gacha is very high and the reward for doing so is immense.

If you’re non-IAP or not planning to roll very hard on it then it’s a bit different, but Yasutora Sado being incredible for a silver egg and Shihouin and Rangiku being reasonable inherits means that it might not a terrible idea to spend a few rolls on this collab if you already have teams built and can afford to splurge on non-essential cards.

Ratings Summary

Ichigo Kurosaki [UUEvo] (6☆)	Leader: ★★★★	Sub: ★★★★	Assist: ✓
Ichigo Kurosaki [Awoken] (6☆)	Leader: ★★★★	Sub: ★★	Assist: ✓
Rukia Kuchiki (6☆)	Leader: ★★★★★	Sub: ★★	Assist: 🚫
Genryuusai Shigekuni Yamamoto (6☆)	Leader: ★★★★★	Sub: ★★★★	Assist: ✓
Aizen Sousuke (6☆)	Leader: ★★★★★	Sub: 🚫	Assist: ✓
Kisuki Urahara (5☆)	Leader: ★	Sub: ★★	Assist: Niche
Toshiro Hitsugaya (5☆)	Leader: ★★	Sub: ★★★★	Assist: ✓
Kenpachi Zaraki (4☆)	Leader: 🚫	Sub: 🚫	Assist: Niche
Ulquiorra Cifer (5☆)	Leader: Niche – ★	Sub: Niche – ★★	Assist: ✓
Grimmjow Jaegerquaz (5☆)	Leader: 🚫	Sub: 🚫	Assist: ✓
Orihime Inoue (4☆)	Leader: 🚫	Sub: Niche – ★	Assist: Niche
Uryu Ishida (4☆)	Leader: 🚫	Sub: 🚫	Assist: 🚫
Yasutora Sado (4☆)	Leader: 🚫	Sub: 🚫	Assist: ✓
Yoruichi Shihouin (4☆)	Leader: 🚫	Sub: 🚫	Assist: ✓
Matsumoto Rangiku (4☆)	Leader: 🚫	Sub: 🚫	Assist: Niche

Official Gungho Stream #32 – Ras Descended

This month’s official PAD stream unveiled a large amount of new content, including the YamaP FF buffs, new REvo Egyptian 1 cards, new Bleach Collab cards, and not only the long-awaited Yomidra UEvo but UEvo ShivaDra and NepDra as well. On top of that, they revealed a massive revamp to the skill inheritence system, a bunch of new latent awakenings, and a new and interesting use for the now-defunct Tans.

Ranking Dungeon – Beelzebub Cup

We’ve had long ranking dungeons before, with Satan Cup at 10 floors, but Beelzebub Cup brings that to a whole new level as it is a whopping 12 floors long. The main effect this has is that unlike most normal ranking dungeons where you want to maintain a balance between clearing as fast as possible and keeping your average combo at a respectable level, in this one you simply want to clear quickly at any cost as each individual combo contributes so little to your average that the time used up in the combo animation outweighs the score benefit.

The other twist to this dungeon is that you start with all skills active on the first floor, regardless of how many skill boosts your team has. What this means is that you’ll want to prioritize having effective base subs and simply using inherits to get access to the skills you want, since even if the cooldown is astronomical it won’t matter as long as you only need to use the skill once.