NeoGAF

*A Spectacular Thanksgiving Event*
[Duration]: 11/25 (Mon), midnight - 12/4 (Wed), 11:59 PM (PST)

Puzzle & Dragons is ready to kick off a fantastic holiday season with a HUGE Thanksgiving event. With brand new Dungeons (featuring Takeminakata, Pierdra, and Kouryu) and sweet daily bonuses, there is a lot to be thankful for this year!


■① Daily Log-in Bonuses
11/25-11/29 - 2 Magic Stones
11/30-12/4 - 2,000 Pal Points
※Bonuses will be distributed as late as 3:59 AM (PST) the following day.

■② New Technical Dungeon
Starting 11/25, Paradise of the Holy Beasts will be available (after completing the Mythic Stone Dragon Cave). There you can obtain the mighty Incarnation of Kouryu, Fagan. With the power to give 4x ATK to Dragon types when HP is full, he will give your Dragons a new purpose. More Dungeon details can be found here: http://tinyurl.com/kokhn2q.

■③ Special Event Dungeon Schedule:
11/25 - 12/8 - Dragon in Motley: by popular demand, the Dark Toy Dragon Pierdra has been chosen for his own special Dungeon. Be on the look out for the Wicked Lady - she has a random chance to appear!
11/25 - Zeus-Dios Descended!
11/26 - Heroes Descended
11/27 - Breakers
11/28 - Hera-Ur Descended!
11/29 - Hera Descended
11/30 - Takeminakata Descends!: Enjoy the debut of a challenging Dungeon starring a powerful new Japanese god.
12/1 - Athena Descended!
12/2 - Zeus Descended!
12/3 - Sword of Flames
12/4 - The Thief Descended!

■④ Awesome Daily Bonuses
2 Pal Egg Events:
　11/25-11/29 - King Metal/Jewel Dragons
　11/30-12/4 - Rare Evo Materials
2x King appearance rates for the Metal/Gold and Jewel Dragons
[We will also have a special visits from the Pengdra Village and maybe some Super Jewel King Dragons]
5x +Egg rate in the Technical Dungeons (available after completing Castle of Satan)
2x Skill Up rate

Godfest info is on the way!

*Events subject to change without notice or compensation - see event policy here http://tinyurl.com/cj7zu4t

Tips for first time PADers
1. Never spend your magic stones on anything aside from monster box expansions and rare pulls during Godfests (not carnivals)
2. Don't play a Special dungeon unless you are hunting for something specific in them. Otherwise you're just wasting what little stamina you have
3. This isn't quite like Bejeweled; you can move your selected gem anywhere on the board for a limited time. Try to match as much of the field as you can if possible. Link five or more of the same colored gem to unleash an AOE attack
4. Go to your Monster Box and FAV everything you don't want to accidently fuse away
5. Back your data up regularly on iTunes/iCloud/whatever. The game has no login system; your account credentials are stored in the app itself

OT1 Wall of Shame

　

Developer: Gung-Ho Online Entertainment
Website: http://www.gunghoonline.com/games/puzzle-dragons/
Requirements: iPod/iPhone/iPad with iOS 5.0+ or Android 2.3+
Download: iOS / Android (US) || iOS / Android / Kindle Fire (JP)
Price: Free! with IAP
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCX-Tz8KpXE
Downloading from outside the US
(alternatively, downloading the JP version because you still want to play more crack dragons while your stamina recharges)
P&D is currently only available in Japan and the US for whatever reason. If you're outside these regions and want to play you can...
iOS: Make a US-region iTunes account without needing a credit card
Android: Use APK Downloader with Android and Google Chrome. The APK you are looking for is here.
Useful Links
English Wiki
US monsterbook, includes dungeon timers, stat calculators, and other stuff
Unofficial forum, has good guides
English Facebook group, lots of good FAQs and keeps times of Metal Dragon schedule
Panda - Events and Alarm, a nice helper app for dungeon schedules
i-FunBox, iOS backup/reroll app, jailbreak not required
Helium, Android backup app, root not required
Titanium backup, Android backup app, root required
　

The Japanese phenomenon, now in English! Puzzle & Dragons combines Pokemon, Bejeweled, hardcore dungeon crawler RPGs, social gaming, and crack cocaine into one app. In Japan, it's remained at the top of the iTunes charts for over six months, currently has over 15 million downloads, and even got its own TV commercial.
Assemble a team out of hundreds of monsters to wipe out everything that moves in the dungeons! Power up your critters by feeding them other monsters in a bizarre cannibalistic ritual! Spend your paycheck buying IAP so you can evolve literal Egyptian Gods* into anime lolis! Wait a second...
Seriously though, while PAD may look like yet another shitty Japanese iOS freemium cash-in, the game is surprisngly deep. We're talking 30+ hours of content just to reach the real "meat" of the game, and GungHo will continue to add more new dungeons and monsters over time. You know how people describe the "Tetris Effect" where they'll see falling blocks everywhere? This game will do that to you too.
The strategies needed to beat later dungeons could fill pages and pages of text (and in fact has, if you look at the number of pages in this thread). You'll need proper hardcore RPG planning before going into a dungeon if you don't want to get slaughtered instantly, and once in battle use pro puzzle gem moving skills to execute your plans. And if you're into that shitton of numbers going up always thing, this game has that too.
Here's a video showing the kinds of broken stuff you'll be able to pull off at endgame:
VS Hera Superplay
But I'm getting way ahead of myself. Let's start with the basics:
Combo Tips
* the Egyptian God update hadn't hit Global as of the time of first posting, but they're in the game now!
Screenshots

　

Magic Stones, The God Decision, And You
GungHo's strategy for sucking your wallets dry consists of selling Magic Stones to you. Unless you hand over your credit card info, they only come from special events, logging in for X number of total days, or from clearing an entire set of stages in a dungeon. These rocks can be spent to do one a number of things:

1. Expanding your friends list - Don't do this until you have at least 500 boxes. Even then...Only do this if you really feel the need to. I've expanded mine to 130, but I have specific leader needs.

2. Refilling your stamina to full - If you are NOT a heavy IAP player, it's not advisable to do this. Otherwise, there are times when refilling your stam is VERY smart. When a rare dungeon comes around (Super Metal dragons are a good example), refilling your stam to get 10 runs in can be a HUGE leap in your monster levels. Do this at your discretion.

3. Revive when you die in a dungeon - There are very few times this is a good idea. Mythical dungeons where you KNOW you can kill the boss in a few stones may be a good option. Also, a dungeon like Zeus where the drop is guaranteed may be justified. Remember, 2 stones in a dungeon for a guaranteed good monster beats 5 stones on the REM for a Toytops.

4. Add 5 more slots to your monster box - New players need to really take care between adding slots and spending stones on the REM. I am an advocate of more slots. I have 625 at the moment, soon to 700. There is no good way to determine if more box space is for you. I don't like to juggle mats, so I keep as many available slots as possible.

5. Spend 5 to use the Rare Egg Machine (REM) - This is a HUGE one. I will likely do an entire section on this. The REM is both your best friend and your mortal enemy. You will get GungTrolled repeatedly. You will hate everyone in this topic. You will pull the best monster in the game. You will pull the worst monster in the game. The REM is a mythical beast...

You might notice that last one is the only bullet point I don't recommend against. Why? Because the rare egg machine has a slim chance of giving you a 5* monster, or even a fabled ~* God Monster *~. In the long run, getting a chance at an awesome monster far outweighs the benefits of being able to play slightly longer for the day. That's why the first egg pull is so important: the tutorial is the only time when the game dumps five stones on you and gives you a free shot at obtaining God. Some people will advise you to make a new account and replay the tutorial until you get one of a certain few monsters.

Later in the game, especially after beating the Castle of StanSatan, having a God monster becomes less important than overall team composition. Also keep in mind that some of the monsters that pop out of the rare egg machine will be of little to no use to you in the beginning of the game. That being said, certain monsters, or their evolved/unevolved bretheren, are great cogs for a late-game team, and will make you a highly sought after friend by random explorers. The following highly subjective ~tier list~ highlights a few of these monsters as well as why you should keep them.

I'm a strong proponent for rerolling, but the rest of GAF disagrees with me, because pretty much everything that comes out of the rare machine will be useful in some type of team. Plus you'll always have more chances to get rainbow stones over the course of your Puzzle & Dragons career. The decision is up to you.
That being said, there are a lot of discussions regarding which monsters you should aim for when you start. There are a bunch of lists out there that go through and list A-F tier starting rolls. But, as the OT title suggests, you should probably just reroll.

Unless of course you pull one of these monsters! I have listed two sets here. The first set will be denoted S-tier and the second, A-tier. The reason I'm not going into anything else is because there is no reason to start with any other monster.

Seriously.

If you're going to reroll (which you honestly should), you really should work towards one of these two tiers of monsters. Anything else is just gimping yourself.

These are THE monsters you want. Kirin, Archangel Lucifer, Bastet, Isis, and Horus. Each has their own strength and weakness, but each of them are end-game viable. Of all of these, Kirin or Lucifer should be your top priority. Horus would be next, followed by Bastet (with the new ultimate evo) and Isis. All of these monsters (EXCEPT Lucifer) are combo monsters - the better your combo skills, the more damage you'll do. Lucifer is a 2/1/2 monster that includes (arguably) the best nuke in the entire game.

If you're serious about PAD, reroll until you get one of these monsters (honestly, aim for Kirin/Lucifer/Horus)*.

*Disclaimer - Ra was not included in this list because he is NOT suited towards beginners in any way. 5-color matching is a very advanced skill. You could argue that Kirin falls into the same "luck" tier that Ra does when it comes to orb management, but that's for another discussion.

I'm still working on a small write-up for these guys.

Rerolling an account
So how do you get a new account? There's no login system; the game simply stores your account information as app data, although actual data is serverside. This also makes it important to back up your data frequently. Anyways, there are two ways to get a new account for each smartphone platform. Choose whichever one works easiest for you.

iOS

• Delete the app and redownload it, or
• Jailbreak your phone or use a program like iFunBox and delete data048.bin. May be a little flaky. Remember to make a backup of your old files (data056.bin keeps your monster box, for future backup reference).

Android

• Delete the app and redownload it, or
• ICS or later: under Settings, go to the app and choose "Clear Data" (I don't actually have an Android so I don’t know the exact steps). Otherwise root your device and delete data048.bin

How to make sick combos
Unlike Bejeweled, once you choose a gem you can move it anywhere on the board for a short duration of time. Use this opportunity to rack up some huuuuge combos (check out the cheevos for the game; they expect you to do this). Here are some common ways to "solve" a pattern of three orbs:



While you can get away with playing earlier dungeons by ear, in the later stages you'll be required to whip out 4+ combos on command to get out of tight situations. You aren't forced to move the orb as soon as your turn begins; take some time to identify clusters of orbs that can be matched quickly and plan out your route to success.

　

By adding a player to your friends list, not only do you get to add their leader to your party, but you also get the benefit of their leader skill! Fire dungeon doing too much damage to you? Bring a leader that cuts fire damage received by half! Love big numbers? Pair a friend's 2x watter attack with your own and do four times as much damage! You also get points to spend on the Pal Egg Machine, which can occasionally spit out some cool monsters.

GAF Friends Army
Venture forth, brave explorer, and team up with other GAF members! Add @GAF to the end of your nickname so fellow GAFers can find you out on the field:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/...JWG9Tb0E#gid=3
You may have to go back to the title screen/restart the app for requests to appear.

LV20 Gift
When you reach level 20, the game gives you the opportunity to share a gift with somebody on your friendslist. Each gift gives both the sender and the recipient an opportunity to get another one of the three starter dragons, or the light/dark variant. By swapping gifts with someone else you get two tries at getting the light and dark ones! This is a one-time deal, so instead of wasting it on some random, post your friendcode up in this thread and swap with a GAFer! Again, if you don't receive the present immediately, go back to the title screen or restart the app.

Thanks to rocksteady1983 for the banner images!

FAQ - if someone wants to make a sweet PAD themed FAQ banner, I'd really like you.

Awakening System
With the most recent update (as of October 8, 2013), a new set of skills were added to PAD - Awakening Skills (from here on out, I will call these ASkills). ASkills are a new set of attributes that your monsters can have that can give you that extra edge in a dungeon. ASkills include extra HP, skill CD reduction, the chance to spawn +orbs (for extra damage), auto-heal on match, and even control type skills such as reduce bind duration, chance to block jammers, and even skills to help reduce/nullify the effects of poison (a skill that, as of now, only the player has been able to take advantage of).

There are a lot of questions surrounding how ASkills work. As such, I have put together a few quick images to help better explain some of the more confusing aspects to Awakening.

1. How does it work?



The image above shows the new Awakening monster - the Tamadra. Currently, the only two places the US can for sure get this monster are a) Metal Dragon Dungeon (only regular metals for sure, but it is assumed that any of the metal dragon dungeons can spawn them) and b) PAL machine. The spawn rate is pretty abysmal, but what can you do?

The second image shows a monster (Rowdy Red Samurai Goblin) that can earn ASkills. As you can see, the Tamadra (or Eggdra as it may be called) does not have the little symbols on the top right like the Goblin does. That means, in the simplest form, that the specific monster you're looking at has or does not have ASkills. An evolved version of the monster may have the ASkills (as is the case for a monster like Bastet and Love Deity Feline Bastet - Bastet does not have ASkills, but once she is evolved to Feline Bastet, she gains ASkills), so you're best bet is to check PDX if you're curious.

In order to Awaken a monster and earn ASkills, you simply feed the Tamadra to a monster with ASkills. Really. It's that easy. You can also feed a monster an EXACT COPY of itself in order to awaken it. In the example shown, I did NOT waste my Eggdra - I simply fed my No. 689 Rowdy Red Samurai Goblin another monster No. 689. The easiest way to remember this is that you can only earn ASkills from a monster whose monster card number is IDENTICAL. More on this in part 3.

As you can see from the 3rd image, during the Power-Up Fusion process, if you've done everything correctly, you'll see the Awakening text pop up. Congratulations - you now have access to ASkill 1. The one in top right corner of the monster card is basically telling you that exact same info - you have awoken the monster 1 time. Some monsters (GrOdin and BlOdin, for example), have 5+ ASkills.

2. What happens when you've maxed the ASkills?



The image above shows my Flamedragon Muselpheim with max ASkill. He has a star in the right corner of his monster card (instead of a 2 for 2 ASkills). He now has a chance to spawn +fire orbs, as well as the ASkill of skill CD reduction by 1.

3. What about evolutions and busty/ultimates?



OK, this one is a point of MAJOR confusion. Pay special attention here.

The monster on the right (No. 409 Glacialdragon Niflheim) is the busty/ultimate evolution of the monster on the left (No. 143 Ice Dragon Niflheim). While these two monsters are in the same family AND both have ASkills, you CANNOT awaken 409 with 143. As stated in point 1 above, you can ONLY awaken a monster with a Tamadra or a monster of the EXACT same card number.

What IS worth mentioning here is that you can fully awaken Ice Dragon Niflheim (with either more Ice Dragon's or 2 Tamadras - yes, you can feed multiple monsters at the same time to get ASkills) and then busty him. Once you do, the ASkills will transfer to Glacialdragon! So in this way, you can full awaken monsters before spending the expensive mats to busty them. No need to waste Mystic Masks and Dub-Mythlits!

4. Do ASkills only work for leaders?

No! The amazing part about ASkills is that you can have a team of fully awoken monsters and gain ALL of their benefits! That means you can get a Skill CD Reduction of 5+, auto-heal of 2000, 2000 more HP, etc. by putting together a team of monsters with the pertinent ASkills.

Are you in a dungeon where the boss binds all monsters for 5 turns? With -5 bind reduction, that bind won't do ANYTHING anymore! Boss uses jammers all the time? Not to worry with the block jammer ASkill!

The best part about ASkills is that it brings an entirely new dynamic to team building. There are no "best" monsters to awaken - it's all about creating a smart and efficient synergy with your leaders AND your ASkills.

Where to farm evo mats.

• Lits (aka Rubylit, Sapphlit, etc.): 1* elemental dungeons (Dungeon of Wood, Light, etc.), Friday Dungeon on Adept
• Evolve Masks: 2* elemental dungeons
• Demon Masks: 3* elemental dungeons
• Keepers: Tuesday Dungeon. Fire/Water/Earth are the bosses of each dungeon, while the Light and Dark ones are random encounters within. Strategy
• Dublits: Friday Dungeon on Expert
• The following are used to evolve Dragon-type monsters and are all found in the Thursday Dungeon, but can be found less reliably in other locations:
• Dragon Seed: Departure Tower
• Dragon Plant: Tower of Trials
• Dragon Flower: Tower of Giants
• Dragon Fruit: Thursday Dungeon only!
• ~Special~ Evolve Materials:
• Mythlit: Friday Dungeon boss on Adept
• Mystic Mask: Wednesday Dungeon, Expert. Strategy
• Keeper of Rainbow: Tuesday Dungeon
• Dubmythlit: Friday Dungeon, Expert

Special Dungeons
You may have noticed a tab in the list of dungeons labeled "Special" which features a bunch of stamina-intensive dungeons. These dungeons contain very specialized mobs, such as large quantities of Evolution Materials or Metal Dragons, or certain gimmicks, like missing light/dark gems or recovery gems. You should only enter these dungeons if you have a very specific need to do so. If you're wondering if you might be able to survive a given special dungeon, some of them are labeled with difficulty levels that correspond roughly to the following:

• Novice: 1-2* normal dungeons
• Adept: 2-3* normal dungeons
• Expert: post-Castle of Satan
• Master: you are already dead
• Additionally, some dungeons always appear on certain days of the week. Here's what they're good for farming:
• Monday: no dungeon
• Tuesday: Keepers
• Wednesday: Masks
• Thursday: Dragon Seed/Plant/Flower/Fruit
• Friday: Lits and Dublits
• Weekends: Cold hard cash. Tower of Giants - Dragons of the Tower also goes to half stamina and has one of the best EXP:stamina ratios in the game

I'm considering rewriting this section. I don't know how important this is anymore as the game has evolved a LOT. Is it work keeping this super basic information here? I would like to write up some ideas on efficient leveling and +egg feeding to replace this section, though.

And the team building stuff is a whole different animal. I think it needs to be fleshed out. Yay/nay?

+Egg Feeding (Thanks to George Claw)

The wiki calculation was confusing to read, so I tested it myself when I was feeding +eggs to my ADK a while ago.

In comparison to the cost for the +stats, the cost for your monster level is really negligible.

Here are a few examples, using J0dy's Horus at Lvl.94 and +59 stats.

Example 1: J0dy feeds his Horus a single +50 monster.

9400 gold for Horus' level x 1 fed monster = 9400 gold
59,000 gold for the existing +59 stats on Horus = 59,000 gold
50,000 gold for the +50 stats being fed to Horus = 50,000 gold

Total = 118,400 gold

Example 2: J0dy feeds his Horus five +10 monsters at once.

9400 gold for Horus' level x 5 fed monsters = 47,000 gold
59,000 gold for the existing +59 stats on Horus = 59,000 gold
50,000 gold for the +50 stats being fed to Horus = 50,000 gold

Total = 156,000 gold

Example 3: J0dy feeds his Horus five +10 monsters, one at a time.

(1st feeding) 9400 gold for Horus' level x 1 fed monster = 9400 gold
59,000 gold for the existing +59 stats on Horus = 59,000 gold
10,000 gold for the +10 stats being fed to Horus = 10,000 gold
Sub-total = 78,400 gold

(2nd feeding) 9400 gold for Horus' level x 1 fed monster = 9400 gold
69,000 gold for the existing +69 stats on Horus = 69,000 gold
10,000 gold for the +10 stats being fed to Horus = 10,000 gold
Sub-total = 88,400 gold

(3rd feeding) 9400 gold for Horus' level x 1 fed monster = 9400 gold
79,000 gold for the existing +79 stats on Horus = 79,000 gold
10,000 gold for the +10 stats being fed to Horus = 10,000 gold
Sub-total = 98,400 gold

(4th feeding) 9400 gold for Horus' level x 1 fed monster = 9400 gold
89,000 gold for the existing +89 stats on Horus = 89,000 gold
10,000 gold for the +10 stats being fed to Horus = 10,000 gold
Sub-total = 108,400 gold

(5th feeding) 9400 gold for Horus' level x 1 fed monster = 9400 gold
99,000 gold for the existing +99 stats on Horus = 99,000 gold
10,000 gold for the +10 stats being fed to Horus = 10,000 gold
Sub-total = 118,400 gold

Total = 492,000 gold

For simplicity's sake, I just assumed Horus didn't gain any levels between feedings. It wouldn't make much difference in costs anyway. Obviously, Example 3 costs substantially more gold than the first two examples, because for each separate feeding, J0dy has to pay 1000g for every existing +stat on Horus. It's like compound interest on steroids.

A balanced compromise that I use myself is I feed five +1 monsters to a sixth +1 monster to create a single +6 monster. When I accumulate five +6 monsters, I then feed them to whatever monster I'm building up. So, I feed the main monster +30 stats at a time.


Monster Feeding
Monsters level up and become stronger by feeding other monsters to them. You can feed up to five monsters in one shot, and the stronger the monster, the more EXP it gives. You might even get lucky and get a x1.5 or even a x2.0 EXP boost during feeding!

Tips to get the most out of monster feeding:

• - Feeding a monster using monsters of the same element increases the EXP recieved by 50%!
• - During your travels you may find eggs marked with a + sign. This means the monster has an increase in one of its HP/ATK/RCV stats. Feeding one monster to another transfers all of its stat boosts! (also if you get an Amaterasu feed as much +RCV as you can to her)
• - Feeding a monster to another with the same Active Skill has a small chance of granting a Skill Up! This probability does not increase with the number of monsters fed, so feeding five Marine Goblins to a Siren will have the same chance of a Skill Up happening as if you fed it one

The Chinese wiki has EXP Charts showing how much experience monsters need to level up (now also in English thanks to Jinko). I recommend attempting to feed a monster to max level as quickly as possible. Why? The amount of money you pay for a fusion scales with the base monster's current level. So you could either feed a monster to max level by feeding it five monsters one by one, which would be hella expensive, or from LV1 with all five of them at the same time, which would cost just cost 500 gold.

What exactly should you feed to a monster to minimize the money you need to spend? As it turns out, certain monsters give more EXP than others. At low levels, regular dungeon fodder will be adequate for leveling up. After about LV10, you should instead fuse those feeders to Carbuncles, then feed the Carbuncles to whatever you actually want to raise. You'll also occasionally come across Metal Dragons during the course of your travels, and King Metal Dragons will give a whopping 100k EXP to a monster of the same element!

Later in the game, you'll start finding "Evolve Material" called Pengdras, which at LV10 give 9000 EXP to a monster of the same element, or after evolving a cool 45000 EXP. Since feeding gets more expensive as the monster rises in level, using Metal Dragons or Pengdras to level up your monsters becomes the recommended way to go.

Monster Evolution


Many monsters have the ability to undergo evolution once they've reached max level. In exchange for some money, a few monsters, and a reset to Level 1, you get a sicker lookin dragon, better base stats, and even possibly new skills. You can check what monsters can evolve and what's necessary for evolution from the Evolve Fusion menu. Monsters which can evolve and have the required materials are completely displayed, monsters which can evolve but are missing the required materials are slightly transparent, and monsters that can't evolve at all are almost completely transparent.
Almost every evolution requires "Evolve Material" monsters. See the FAQ below for where to farm them.



The Facebook group's FAQ explains Metal Dragons and their Special Dungeon schedule in far greater detail than I'm willing to summarize, so I'm just going to link to it from here.
Team Building 101

So you're sitting there getting blown up by a dumb Flammie in one of the early dungeons and you're like "what the hell?" Well, with one look at your team roster, no wonder you're getting slammed! Early on, it's difficult to scrounge up a skeleton crew much less a super kickass army, but I did well cobbling the following team together:

• Your starter dragon. There's a reason why they gave him to you for free, you know! Its leader skill also incentivizes you adding monsters of the same element to your team, so do that.
• Your rare pull. Unless you got a super rare one and your team points are too low to equip it lol
• An attack/technique monster: Gotta get that damage in! Try to have it match the element of your leader.
• A healer. If you didn't get one of the five Healer girls from the rare machine, they also drop rarely as the bosses of some of the early dungeons. The 2* form of Carbuncles will also do in a pinch.
• A slime/goblin. All of them have orb changing skills when evolved to 2*, and like Carbuncles, require relatively easy to acquire materials to evolve.

If you get something better out of the Pal or Rare machine, obviously swap those in where appropriate. Once you reach harder dungeons, you'll need to start specializing to deal with the specific hazards within. What strategy you want to prepare for those depends both on what monsters you currently own and what you're willing to put up with to fill holes in your team. Post your troubles in the thread and we'll try to help you out.