Monday, September 28, 2015

Puzzle & Dragons: Japan version User Survey 28 Sept 10:00JST ~ 5 Oct 09:59JST

I posted a translation over at the PAD forums:
http://puzzleanddragonsforum.com/threads/28-sept-10-00jst-5-oct-09-59jst-user-survey-for-1-free-stone-with-translations.81775/#post-1151189

You can get a stone for doing it and I think it is a great way to vote for games/animes/mangas that do not have Collaborations yet.

Saturday, September 26, 2015

Revisiting Blackrock Mountain Heroic Mode... (Updated with Lord Victor Nefarius for full clear!)

Previously, I managed to clear the first BRM wing of heroic bosses before stopping.

I was browsing around Hearthstone sites and found out Icy Veins has some useful guides on Blackrock Mountain (BRM) Heroic Mode, created by Sottle. I followed them and managed to clear the specified boss so it was really helpful! I'll be compiling a list of the guides below that I used successfully from that site in this post.

Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL World Duel Carnival temporary discount from 24 September to 21 October 2015

Nintendo Download: 24 September for North America Source: Nintendo Life

It drops from USD$19.99 to USD$9.99. This is even cheaper than the previous sale in January; USD$12.99.

If you are interested in getting it, check out this blog post I made earlier about it.

Thursday, September 24, 2015

Hearthstone: Gaara's rant on balance and world championship Subreddit thread

https://www.reddit.com/r/hearthstone/comments/3m35cw/gaaras_rant_on_balance_and_world_championship/

Interesting read over at the Hearthstone subreddit about game balance and tournament formats. I think the most important take away is about the balancing of the game. I think for a most card games like Magic: The Gathering or Yu-Gi-Oh, if a particular deck was dominating for a while, there will usually be some bans or card limit given to key cards of the deck. (Edit: For Hearthstone, cards will get nerfed) In the case of Hearthstone, it probably takes too long to happen and in the case of dominating Patron Warrior, no action has been taken so far...

Tuesday, September 22, 2015

Puzzle & Dragons: Japan version's Attack on Titan Collab (Updated 22 Sep 2015 with Game8's card ratings)

AoT Collab info in Japanese and Pictures:
http://minpuzz.com/blog-entry-7800.html?sp

AoT Gacha card info in Chinese:
http://pad.skyozora.com/news/「進撃の巨人」抽蛋角色情報!

GameWith AoT Gacha card ratings:
http://パズドラ.gamewith.jp/article/show/16742

Update (22 Sep 2015):
Game8 AoT Gacha card ratings:
https://game8.jp/archives/32956

Armin gets the highest score for the silver eggs which is closer to what most people are probably thinking. It's another good reference for people interested in the Collab Gacha.


For the silver eggs, Armin seems like the obvious good card out of them with that Phoenix Rider's kind of active skill but GameWith's ratings say otherwise, rating Shasha and Krista higher. I think Armin is still a good defensive card but the only slight issue is that for rainbow teams like A.Ra and A.Horus, although the color coverage is good, Armin is neither a God or Devil type so he does not get those Awoken Egyptian God's leader skill boost.

For the gold eggs, Eren seems the most useful, especially if you already have a lot of red attackers. His ultimate evolution leader skill is similar to Awoken Amaterasu while he also function as a red unbindable bind clearer sub with 2 red row awakenings. 

Mikasa's leader skill is interesting in that she is essentially a blue version of Awoken Shiva (no idea about the attack multiplier scaling to combo but it should be similar), however, there are very few blue attacker or machine types. You can alternatively use red attacker/machine subs instead and also choose to pair with Awoken Shiva leaders. She is a very good blue sub for most blue teams like especially Sarasvasti and Nut team.
Update (21 Sep 2015): I noticed Mikasa can work in a Mikasa system similar to Cloud System and posted this over a the puzzleanddragonsforum.com:
"Mikasa can form the Mikasa system that is similar to Cloud System:

Mikasa x 3/ Board changer or Bind clearer/ damage booster/ Friend leader Mikasa

Board changer can be Urd or Sunmer Urd, preferably Summer Urd, etc. Edit: Forgot about Awoken Karin.

Damage Booster can be the blue card from the weapon series, Claymore, or Gotenks, etc.

Bind clearer can be L/R Amaterasu, R/R Ame, Eren, Phoenix Ikki, Rozuel, etc. 
Edit: Forgot about PAD Academy Isis

When Urd is in the team, full skill bind resist. Use Mikasas' actives each turn to get a blue TPA and form enough combos for her LS with the rest of the board."

For those who are going to roll the Collab Gacha a lot, this is probably something to consider.


Levi seems to be the least useful gold egg as his leader skill favours attackers and machines, making him similar to Sephiroth. On the other hand, a board change active skill will probably always find use though and his board change is specifically goof for Light Kali and possibly dark combo leaders.

I think the collaboration Gacha slightly favours players with plenty of red attackers due to the 2 gold eggs, Eren and Mikasa. For silver eggs, Armin is not bad but definitely not Monster Hunter Baggi kind of level. There don't seem to be any must-have cards on the power level of FF/FFCD/DBZ/MH/HXH collaboration IMO. There is no harm in perhaps pulling the gacha machine once for collection but the collaboration gacha is more for fans of the Attack on Titan series.

Sunday, September 13, 2015

Puzzle & Dragons: Japan version's Batman Arkham Knight Collab

Collab Info & Gacha Rarity breakdown: https://www.facebook.com/notes/puzzle-dragons-north-america-gungho/batman-returns-to-puzzle-dragons/1131475813547676?id=484776928217571

New UVO and Stat Changes: https://www.facebook.com/notes/puzzle-dragons-north-america-gungho/new-ultimate-evolutions-and-stat-changes/1131451910216733?id=484776928217571

Game8 Card Ratings: https://game8.jp/archives/32565

GameWith Card Ratings: http://パズドラ.gamewith.jp/article/show/4485

NA version got the collab earlier than Japan while Japan version was still having the Monster Hunter Collab. For the silver eggs, Catwoman is a useful coin farming leader while Harley Quinn and D/D Batman can be used for 10-cost limited dungeon if you do not have leaders for those uses yet. Evolved Harley Quinn is also an OK sub for the red Norn, Urd, but her poor awakenings mean she is only temporary until you get better subs from the normal Gacha REM. She also does not get skill-ups from the Collab dungeon and I think there are probably better choices to use your red pii-s on than her. Robin is like a mini Anubis so he is quite hard to use on normal boards but definitely a OK alternative if you do not have Anubis.

The gold egg Batmen are good dark subs, especially with their new UVOs providing more useful offensive awakenings. The new Leaderskills are good but hampered by the typing requirements so they might probably not reach HxH Collab's Gon or Killua level of power.

If you already have a coin farming leader and a low cost leader, I don't think there is a need to roll the Batman Gacha if you haven't done so before unless you are a fan of Batman. I managed to get Robin and D/D Batman silver eggs the previous time it was around and I don't find much incentive to roll the Collab Gacha again as they only added Harley Quinn. If you want Harley Quinn as a sub for Urd, it is probably better to roll the normal Gacha during a Godfest that has red carnival overlapping.

Friday, September 11, 2015

Puzzle & Dragons: Monster Hunter Collab

GameWith Card Ratings: link
Game8 Card Ratings: link

PAD Subreddit's with the translated collab new Changes info: https://www.reddit.com/r/PuzzleAndDragons/comments/3jggvp/event_jp_0905_monster_hunter_dx_collab/


MH Baggi is a very sought after silver egg from the collab and one of the few collab silver egg that is worth using Pii-s on: http://www.puzzledragonx.com/en/monster.asp?n=858. It is definitely worth rolling the Collab Gacha machine for it. Check out the card ratings from GameWith and Game8 for the other cards you get from the machine to decide if you will keep or sell for monster points.