Sunday, May 10, 2015

Puzzle & Dragons: My notes on the Japan Final Fantasy Collab Rare Egg Machine cards (Added an edit Zidane's active skill)

**Below post is based on 1st Collab of FF. A post on the update to the FF collab can be found herehttp://simpleduelist.blogspot.com/2016/03/puzzle-and-dragons-ffcd-collab-7th-and.html#uds-search-results **

It's finally here; the Final Fantasy Collaboration on the Japan version of Puzzle & Dragons! The rare egg machine card information is out at PuzzleDragonX. There are no cards this time that are on the level of the Juggler but some color types do get new leader skill play-style which is good. All of their active skills also reduce cool-down of other active skills by 1-2, an interesting new mechanic. Although I don't think it helps against skill bind, it's effect is close to a delay active skill and it will be  useful against a boss like the PAD Academy Hera-Ur, who increases your active skill turn by 2. The effect is also great for the awoken 1.0 Egyptian Gods leader skills.

Silver cards (I'm assuming all those that have a cost of 20)

Wal
Quite a useful light sub with versatility to go to either row-enhance or two-prong teams; all his awakenings are useful. His unconditional leader skill also makes him a good leader for fast low level dungeon farming. Overall, a good card to have.

Ace
His active is a little low in firepower IMO and hence he gets the additional turn of active skill cool-down. He is also possible for fast low level dungeon farming. I think he is an okay card as red teams already have a lot of options and he doesn't add much to warrant a place.

Vivi
His active skill isn't really used in most teams so I don't think you will find much use out of him. His 2 row enhance and skill boost awakenings try to make up for it but I still don't think he will be used.

Aemo
Similar to Vivi, I don't think Change the World is used much nowadays so her use will be limited or none at all even with nice awakenings.

Gold cards(I'm assuming a cost of 22 and the main protagonists of Final Fantasy Series)

Squall
The next red combo leader after the rangers of Final Fantasy Crystal Defenders Collab and awoken Shiva if I'm not wrong. His leader skill is similar to Kushinadahime and from my experience with her, it takes a lot of combos to get the higher multiplier which makes him a difficult leader to use. He will be a good leader for tri-colour and low-level farming if you do not have a simlar leader at the moment. As a sub, his active skill is useful and the cool-down reaction makes it even better. His only bad points are the awakenings which do not seem to add a lot in firepower but maybe his future evolutions will address that. (Update: It takes 17 combos to reach his full 8.5x multiplier! Source: pad.skyozora.com)

Rinoa
I have no idea why she has a devil sub-type but I think it does not matter much to her usage in this game. I think her artwork is really nice and her active skill and unbindable awakenings make her similar to Isis as a sub. She is a combo-type leader similar to Bastet so she should pair well with the green Egyptian god if you cannot find another Rinoa user. Edit: After looking at the leader skill again, she pairs better with Sarasvati and Nut, the other blue combo gods but she requires blue healers to reach her max attack multiplier and most of the good ones are in the normal Rare Egg Machine.

Zidane
His design is a little peculiar to me IMO. His active skill is similar to the 2.0 Indian Gods but his leader skill has such a low multiplier that he does not seem useful at all. He does't even get a second two-prong to boost his attack and "balance" his power so it is really strange. (Update: You can find videos of him on YouTube now searching for "ジタンpt" for. He's basically a tank lead that requires multiple green two-prong matches to spike his damage. Using 2 as a sub or pairing them as leaders can guarantee continuous green and light orbs sky-fall when max-skilled so you don't need 4 of them like the Cloud system. He can be used in descends without green orbs like Takeminakata as shown in one of the video by pad yuuki. I'm not sure if his active skill can remove those jammer increase drop rate status which will be cool.Edit: It only removes other color orb increase rate status and not  poison or jammer kinds. The videos of full +297 team with him as leaders result in 50K HP and together with the RCV multiplied, his team is pretty impressive!)

Tidus
His play-style will be similar to the Heroes and Roah/Toki of Fist of North Star Collab Gold cards. More so of the latter with the lower multiplier and additional stat boost so he should be quite a powerful leader. He also comes with blue 2 row enhances so he packs quite a punch. His lack of an orb change active skill is his only weakness.

(Updated: Below 3 cards are 76 stars so they will be rarer, above golds are 5 stars)
Yuna
Her leader skill is similar to ultimate evolution Light Kali but with easier activation. However, I think her lack of offensive active skill and awakenings make her more of a defensive sub than as a leader and she should fit well in teams like Light Kali.

Cloud
I have high expectations for him as he should be one of the most popular character in the entire Final Fantasy series line (other than the next card of course!) and his card turn out to be quite boring! He is similar to Princess Valkitty for the leader skill and it synergies well with every card here having the reduce active skill cool-down. He is still a powerful card with a good active skill and nice awakenings but I probably expected more as he is Cloud. (Edit: He should have gotten the "Sephiroth" treatment IMO where the 3x attack was unconditional for attackers and the skill usage boost the additional 1.5.) (Update: Check out this follow-up post on Cloud)

Sephiroth
I think this is the most sought after card of the machine. His overall design does not disappoint unlike Cloud for me and his artwork is pretty cool too. He is an unconditional 3x leader for attackers with rcv boost and an attack boost when matching 4+ attributes. He also gets 2 two-prong awakenings and active skill cool down of 2 making him more powerful than the rest. His active skill of boosting 4 different colours is the first of its kind and will be useful in quite a number of teams, especially Light Kali as those are the colours she need to active her leader skill. The only issue with forming his team will be the lack of much dark attackers with the proper sub-color attribute. (Update: Vivi actually provides the only dark main/red sub-color attribute sub as of this time of writing.)


Overall, the silver cards aren't very attractive and Wal is the only one that caught my eye. The gold cards are all pretty good except for Zidane but they should be very hard to get. If you'll rolling, you probably doing it for collection sake and are a fan of Final Fantasy. I'm having mixed feelings after saving many stones for this collaboration but seeing this list for the rare egg machine.

Update: I was very lucky like with the PAD Academy Gacha machine and got a gold card of the higher tier in my 3rd roll:Ace, Vivi and Yuna. The gold rates are quite high with this gacha as people shared their rolls on the subreddit and the Puzzle & Dragons forum but remember there is still RNG involved so nothing is guaranteed.