True Training Arena - The True Definition of Annihilation

Greetings, fellow PAD players!

A little bit late to the party but we just got a new dungeon available for only 60 hours: True Training Arena. What's interesting about it? Well, for instance, it's based on Training Arena found in Normal Dungeon. If you're familiar with Training Arena, each clear gives 6 millions Monster EXP. The enemies are very tough but there are many ways to farm this with one slot open to level up a card.

Now, True Training Arena added another challenge compared to Training Arena. Enemies are still the same with more or less the same HP and Defense, but they're all now have skill sets and some have preemptive hits. Can you imagine that?

Thankfully, GungHo has decided to sweeten the pot because for first time clear reward, we will be given 9,999 +points aside from the usual 1 magic stone upon clearing. Yes, that's right. Just one +points shy from 10,000. That is very very good. If you had to farm Super +Points Cave, you'd have to spend no less than 10 magic stones for stamina refresh to get the same amount of +points and that's only if you're a high rank players with more than 450 maximum stamina.

So, how to clear this cruel dungeon?

I'm gonna try to list what you need in order to clear this one. Hold your breath!

You will need:

• Awoken bind clear
• sub with FUA
• a way to deal with unmatchable orbs
• VDP sub with devil killer or able to carry devil killer latents
• Tamadra Killer (Awakening Material Killer) latents or equip
• Damage absorb void (Fujin-like skill)
• Maybe an enhance

Those are pretty much mandatory. I didn't see any use for hazard resist so you can forget that one.

Here's what the dungeon has to offer:

First battle
Some Dragon Seeds, Dragon Plants and a Dragon Flower. They have decent HP and some even have 3 turns before they attack. Usually the Dragon Seeds will have either 1 or 2 turn attack CD. Kill them first. Use this floor to recharge some skills, especially awoken bind clear because you probably will need that for potential Astaroth spawn. They don't hit too hard so if your team has built-in shield or high HP, you can spend almost forever on this floor.

Second Battle
There are two potential spawn. One is Astaroth and the other are Idunn & Idunna. Astaroth will binds your awoken skill for 5 turns as her preemptive. Make sure you have awoken bind clear or else she will starts to torture you. If you're still being awoken bind and couldn't erase 25% or more of her HP, she will bind your skills and reduces your move time? Not bad enough? She will then spawns some jammer and poison then will hit you with 99% gravity. It's pretty much the end for most team if they're still being awoken and skill bind.

Idunn & Idunna has 50% resolve and spawns some bombs in heart-shape, just like Idunn & Idunna in A5 Grotesque Being. They have pretty much the same skill sets.

Third Battle
Some Lits as enemy. The little Lits have around 10 millions HP so they're pretty easy but the big Lits have 300 millions defense and only 14 HP. You can kill those little lits first then do mass attack to kill the big Lits together. Don't let the bit Lits attack because they will do heavy damage of 55k each hit. If multiple big Lits attack altogether, it could end your run.

Fourth Battle
The Dragon Floor. If you have enemies other than the Fire dragon, you could be lucky. Why? Because the floor after this has potential Raphael who will prevents heal orbs from being matchable for 6 turns and he changes all orbs into heal!

If you got either Water, Wood, Light or Dark dragon, don't kill them all just yet. Let one live. The one still alive will prevents orbs that has attribute disadvantage to them from being match for 3 turns. Use it to your advantage. When they do that, you can defeat them right away or spend another turn stalling.

Fifth Battle
Two enemies here. Raphael and Durga. Raphael is the worst because he prevents heal orbs from being matchable for 6 turns while changing all orbs into heal. If you don't get the unmatchable orbs effect the floor before, the full heal board won't charge your skill because you can't do anything about it. Then Raphael will starts his countdown while changing some row or column into orbs other than heal. When he's down to "Fifth", you gotta defeat him or have damage void skill. Else he will obliterates any team no matter what.

Durga has 75% resolve. Her preemptive hits are binds both leaders and voids damage of  15 millions or more. If you got her, make sure you can defeat her by matching VDP and FUA, or you can erase her resolve first somehow and then VDP her ass.

Sixth Battle
Couple of Evo Masks. All of them have little HP but massive defense, up to 100 millions defense for the Divine Masks. The little Evo mask only have 6 HP, the bigger mask have 12 HP with 50 millions defense and finally the Divine mask have 18 HP and 100 millions defense. You can do mass attack to kill those little mask altogether then do some more mass attack to kill the bigger ones. Don't worry because the bigger ones have 3 to 4 turns before they attack.

Seventh Battle
Shiva and Parvati. Shiva has 6 combo shield and will do 75% gravity as preemptive while Parvati will absorbs damage of 20 millions or more and will hit quite hard each turn. You can expect around 50k damage each turn from Parvati. Make sure your Fujin is charged entering this floor, and you can kill her while your damage absorb void skill still active. Parvati has 140 millions HP but she is also a triple types: Balanced/Devil/God so make sure you have card that can deal with those types.

Eighth Battle
Tamadra Floor. Normal Tamadra has 10 HP and 300 millions defense and will hit for 33,333 damage each turn. King Tamadra has 500 millions HP and will kill you when it attacks because it does 777,777 damage. Awakening material killers works wonder here if you got King Tamadra to spawn.

Ninth Battle
Chinese Gods Floor. Leilan will have 6 combo shield for 5 turns. Karin will puts up 50% damage reduction for 5 turns, Meimei is the most kind because she heals you up to full but she also have the most defense of all. 16 millions defense and 50 millions HP. Sakuya has 50% resolve and Haku absorbs damage of 10 millions or more for 5 turns. Haku will also do 99% gravity every other turn while hitting for roughly 60k damage every other turn.

Tenth Battle
The Great Witches Floor. They're all have 1.2 billions damage and will voids damage of 90 millions or more. They also have 2 turns before they attack. Make sure all of your guns are cocked and loaded. It's better to one shot them all. They do 150k damage when they attack so unless your team is capable of tanking the hit then heal back, you can't dance with them.

Final Floor
Latent Tamadra Floor. Each will delays your skill for 2 turns as preemptive. They're all have 500 millions HP and a million defense. This is why you gotta have Awakening Material Killer latents or equip. Dragon Katana is a farmable double Awakening Material Killer. Each hit for 44k damage each turn. When you have defeated those latent Tamadra, congrats on your clear and enjoy your 9,999 +points.

It's actually understandable to spend stones on continue if you're dying to later floor, especially the Tamadra Floor. But make sure you can kill them after spending stone on continue or else you'll be forced to use the stone on continue again and again.


I don't see any point in farming this even though each clear grants 18 millions Monster EXP. Sure there might be a team capable of farming this with one less sub but right now I haven't seen one.





Good luck and have fun. See you next time!

November 2019 Quest Challenge Level 10

All right. This one is tough but nothing is impossible. If you decided to run this blind, prepare yourself for a lot of interesting surprises.

With more prepared team, this dungeon should be manageable. What do you need for this one? I'm gonna try to list them all one by one.

First, you need to put some Skill Delay Resist on your important skills. First battle, you will be faced with Satsuki. She has massive skill delay preemptive and will halved your RCV for 10 turns. For high RCV team, halved RCV won't be an issue but for team with mediocre healing ability, you're in for a tough fight. I suggest that you bring a sub that can overwrite Satsuki's RCV debuff, if your team is low on RCV or bring subs with heal OE such as Mel, Mut, Eir, Cruz and the like. Active skill that boosts RCV such as Mizutsune, Pralinae, Anna will also work.

Then, you will need an awoken bind clear. Hera-Sowilo will bound your awoken skills for 7 turns. If you don't clear it the next turn, she will bind random subs for 10 turns. If your important subs being bound, it will be dangerous. She's not that scary if you have means to clear her awoken bind, and if all of your subs are bind proof then she can't bind anyone as long as you clear her awoken bind first.

You will also need full blind resist if you don't want to deal with super blind. Valhalla Dragon on the fourth battle has preemptive that makes random 15 orbs became super blind for 5 turns. If you don't have full blind resist, you will spends some time checking each orb one by one and it's frustrating.

Last thing is you probably will need skill that provides time extend buff because the enemies before the boss is Nut. She has resolve and preemptive that halved your more time for 10 turns. Very much like Dark Izanami, only this one is more tolerable. There's a neat trick to defeat her even without making FUA or having auto FUA leader. Her first turn will always be halved your RCV while hitting you for moderate damage and spawns some bombs. Even at 1 HP she will do that on her first turn. So, you can just blast her to 1 HP and she won't execute you.

When you clear her floor, then you will meet with Zahhak as the boss. 8 combo shield for 1 turn as preemptive and voids damage of 50 millions or more. He's a Dragon/Devil type so make sure that your VDP sub have enough damage against those types. It's actually is okay not to meet his combo shield. He doesn't do anything silly when you do lowest than 9 combo, but make sure you can soak about 36k damage as his first turn hit. Most modern team won't have a problem with that kind of hit, but everything else leading to Zahhak could render your team's HP to the low side with all the RCV debuff and so on. If you don't have decent VDP damage stick, you should have full poison resist because he will try to spawns some poisons every other turn when you fight him normally without making VDP. It's a high risk not to have VDP subs when trying to defeat boss with damage void shield.




Good luck and have fun. See you next time!

November 2019 Quest Challenge Level 8 (Fixed Team)

Greetings, fellow pad players!


This month's challenge level 8 featuring fixed team comprised of (mostly) dark main-attribute cards leads by GungHo Collab Satsuki.

Her leader skill is "3.5x ATK & 1.5x RCV for Dragon & Physical Types; 3x ATK with 6+ linked dark orbs"

As usual, please familiarize yourself with all card used and their skills since we have to use them to clear the dungeon.

This is the team we will be using:

• Leader is GungHo Collab Satsuki. She changes water, jammer and poison into dark and has one combo orb awakening.
• First sub is Mega Awoken Blue Odin. He changes Light and Heal into Water and +2 combo skill.
• Second sub is Diadem. He makes one dark row at the top.
• Third sub is Gilles Legato. He removes orb lock and changes heal and poison into dark.
• Last sub is Veroah. She changes Fire and Light into Dark and she has one combo orb awakening. Her skill is very fast at only 5 turn CD.
• Helper is GungHo Collab Satsuki.

A total of three combo orb awakenings are on the team, and Combo Orb is the crucial ingredient to complete the dungeon.

First battle
The enemy has 4 combo shield so we have to make 5 or more combo with one dark row to activate Satsuki's leader skill. If you don't have 6 dark orbs, use either Veroah or Satsuki to get more dark orbs.

Second battle
Zeus has 5 combo shield. Again if you don't have enough dark orbs, use skill to get more dark orbs. If you haven't used Veroah on the previous battle, use her otherwise use Satsuki.

Make 6 or more combo with one dark row to clear the floor.

Third battle
The enemy has 6 combo shield so we have to make 7 or more combo with one dark row. pretty hard but still doable. use any skill but don't use Blue Odin yet. We need him for the last battle.

If you find it hard to make 7 combo with one dark row, make some combo orb first by matching 10~12 dark orbs so that you only have to make less amount of combo to bypass the 6 combo shield. Make sure to match all combo orbs when you try to defeat the enemy.

Fourth battle
The real deal starts now. The enemy is Fenrir with 7 combo shield. It will be very hard to pull 8 combo with one dark row. this is where combo orb shines. Fenrir will do gravity each turn for three turns as long as the unmatchable heal still active so you won't die for at least three turns.

Use any skill to get a lot of dark orbs. make 10~12 connected dark orb match to get three combo orbs, save the remaining dark orbs you have on the board

Up to four combo orb can be had on the board. With four combo orb, I only have to make four combo with one dark row to clear fenrir.

Best timing to defeat fenrir is when the unmatchable heal orbs still has one more turn from being matchable again.

If you don't have 6 dark orbs, use any skill available to get more dark orbs. Gilles Legato is perfect to convert heal to dark, and depends on how many combo orb you have, make appropriate combo with one dark row to defeat fenrir. Don't use Blue Odin yet.

Boss battle
Oichi with her 8 combo shield is the enemy. Just like the previous floor, make some combo orb first to bypass her combo shield. If you have four combo orbs on the board, you only have to make 5 combo with one dark row to clear this dungeon. Oichi will do gravity each turn for 5 turns so you have 5 turns before Oichi will delays all skills, rendering the dungeon to be next to impossible to clear.

When you have three or four combo orbs, use Blue Odin. His skill provides additional +2 combo and changes light and heal into water, then use Satsuki to convert those water orbs into dark orbs, or use any skill available to get enough dark orbs to make a row. Make 5 combo with one dark row, match all combo orbs and you will defeat Oichi, thus, cleared this dungeon.




Good luck and have fun. See you next time!

Mowa Descended! Spirit Numen of Darkness - Annihilation

This is the last of the Spirit Numen Dungeon Set. As you may know, all Spirit Numen monsters took only half damage from their own attribute. Borma took half damage from Fire, Zapan took half damage from water and so on. It's better to use a team that has attribute advantage against them.

For this occasion, I will use a light team to fight Mowa who has dark attribute so my team will have attribute advantage against him, and what's better light team other than the one leads by the best girl, Valkyrie-CIEL?

This is my team:

• Leader is Valkyrie-CIEL, god killer super awakening, three dragon killer latents, Emperor Thundersword equip
• First sub is Light Cotton, 7c super awakening, two dragon killer latents, Akantor Mutilator equip
• Second sub is New Year Amaterasu Ohkami, cloud resist super awakening, three rcv++ latents, Kralice Rapier equip
• Third sub is Eir, tape resist super awakening, one rcv++ latent, Dorothy's Silver Shoes equip
• Last sub is Pixel Paladin, Cecil, bind proof super awakening, two devil killer latents, Hakuryu Card equip
• Friend helper is Valkyrie-CIEL, dragon killer super awakening, three dragon killer latents, Tifa's Crystal equip

I put Hakuryu Card equip and two devil killer latents on Pixel Paladin, Cecil because Mowa is a Devil/Balanced type and Pixel Paladin, Cecil is the one who will defeat him with VDP match since Mowa will also have damage void shield.

Now, for this dungeon, you'd want to have these active skills to make it easier:
- Have at least one sub with L-unlock awakening. Aegir on the first battle will casts Water and Wood orb locked skyfall for 99 turns. If you're relying on board change to defeat Mowa, those locked water and wood orbs may prevents you to get enough orbs to make VDP match. L-unlock awakening can erase that locked orb skyfall.
- Poison resist is actually not a concern. Jammer and blind resist, however, is really helpful. You'd want to have full blind and jammer resist.
- Have a tape resist. Pollux will seat the top row for 5 turns. If you don't have tape resist, things could get ugly.
- Have a time buff skill. Nut on the 4th battle will reduced orb move time to half for 10 turns as part of her preemptive hits. If your team doesn't have a lot of move time, it could be hard to make some combo or VDP match. Nut will also try to change heal into jammer, that's why having full jammer resist is really helpful.
- Sub with FUA awakening. There are two enemies with resolve. One is Takeminakata on 3rd battle and Nut on 4th battle. Takeminakata is pretty easy since he has 2-turn attack CD but Nut is... well... nuts with her skill sets. You can try to damage control Nut if it comes to that but be careful. You actually can blast Nut without making FUA but you gotta do it on your first turn when battling Nut. Her second move will always halved your RCV and change heal into jammers. Blast her to 1 HP then defeat her the next turn.
- Equip Balanced or Devil killer equip or latents on your VDP subs. Mowa will cast random skill delays, up to 15 turn skill delays as preemptive hit. Mowa will also super blind the board for 1 turn as part of his preemptive hit. That's why having full blind resist is mandatory. He doesn't have resolve, unlike his Alt. version can be found in AA2 so blast him to your heart content from the get go.




Good luck and have fun. See you next time!

November 2019 Quest Challenge Level 9

November 2019 Quest Challenge Level 9 features a massive combo check. We have to pass the 14 combo shield found in the dungeon, so we have to make 15 combo at minimum. To make matters worse, the dungeon doesn't allow Leader Skill to be activated. Yes you read that right. No Leader Skill. That means you won't get +combo from Leader Skill such as Beach Veroah or Zela Kitty. Topped with a No Duplicate monster allowed.

So, how do we make 15 combo skill with such a heavy restrictions? Do we have to rely on those skyfall gods to have mercy on us and drop six maybe 7 skyfall match? Not necessarily. Thanks to the awakening skill called Combo Orb.

Combo Orb will add +combo for one match containing a combo orb. The recent update allows up to four combo orbs to appears on the board. In order to get combo orb to be dropped, you gotta have a team member with combo orb awakening. The number of combo orb that can be dropped depends on how many a total of combo orb awakenings are on your team.

If your team has four member with one combo orb awakening, you can have four combo orb to drop. If you only have three, then three is the maximum combo orb to drop for a single match that match either main or sub attribute for the card with said combo orb awakening. To get combo orb to drop, you have to make a match with 10-12 connecting orbs. Remember that that match should match either main or sub attribute in order for combo orb to drop.

How to get 15 combo utilizing those combo orb? With four combo orbs, the most you can get is 14 combo without skyfall match and with 10 combo board. That's not enough. So you need to have a +combo skill.

Here I'm gonna show you how to make 15 combo with 10 combo board setup, three combo orbs and +2 combo skill.

First you need to have three member with combo orb awakening and they gotta have at least one same attribute. It can be a main or sub attribute.

Here's my setup:

• Air Slasher, Guile. He has combo orb and 3 skill boost
• Whaledor with +2 combo skill assist
• Zeus Mercury to create a full water orb. Machine Goemon and Machine Noah (base or awoken form) cam also be used. The Awoken form would be better because of more skill boost.
• Tengu with Servant, Assassin assist
• Awoken Nephthys. She has two skill boost, combo orb awakening and her skill creates one dark row on the bottom
• Yama Tsukami with combo orb super awakening. His biggest advantage is that his skill tied to a no-skyfall buff which would prevents accidental match of those combo orbs

If you're using different setup, make sure that all skills will be ready in four turns because you have five turns to bypass the combo shield.

Skill usage in order:

1. Yama Tsukami, make a wood match with 10-12 orbs to get three combo orbs
2. +2 combo skill
3. Zeus Mercury for full water board
4. Servant, Assassin creates two wood rows on the 2nd and 4th row
5. Awoken Nephthys creates one dark row on the bottom

This creates a 10 combo board. All you gotta do is move three dark orbs on the bottom to the top and you will get 10 combo. Coupled with +2 combo skill, you'd get 12 combo and with three combo orbs, you'd get 15 combo without relying on skyfall.

Once you made 15 combo, Chester (the enemy) will self destruct. Easy, right?

Hang on...
There's one other way to beat this dungeon faster.

How?

You need a damage void piercing skill and true damage with more than 5000 damage. Chester voids damage of 999 or more for 999 turns and he has massive defense (100 millions defense), so to defeat him without making 15 combo is using VDP skill (Akine, Shelling Ford, Hao) then use true damage to nuke him.

The challenge is that all VDP skill has very long CD, so you need to bring a lot of skill boost but with the No Dupes restriction it's very hard to get 26 skill boost.

The answer is using many assist with +2 haste to charged the VDP skill. Here's list of most cards with four or more skill boost:

• Reincarnated Archdemon Lucifer with skill boost super awakening, 4 skill boost
• Tengu (dungeon drop), 4 skill boost
• New Year Tengu, 4 skill boost
• Whaledor, 5 skill boost
• Valeria, 6 skill boost
• Orpharion with skill boost super awakening, 4 skill boost
• Despharion with skill boost super awakening, 4 skill boost

Those are cards with 4 or more skill boost and have low base skill cooldown so they can carry skills such as Mori Motonari or Cthugha with +2 haste. Once the VDP skill is ready, use it and nuke Chester with true damage. Any true damage works as long as it has more than 5000 damage.

Those are the options for Solo Play. For Multiplayer play, it should be easier (as always) since you can bring more skill boosts.





Good luck and have fun. See you next time!