Puzzle & Dragons: Links to stuff I posted over at Puzzle and Dragons forum

I haven't been updating this blog about Puzzle & Dragons because all the things I written went to the Puzzle and Dragons forum.

Here are the links to them:

Seiryuu/Karin video compilation

HunterXHunter Killua video compilation

D/W Batman video compilation

"Underpowered" team video compilation

Farmable Umi & Yama teams video compilation

Heroes video compilation

Re-roll and tutorial tips

Manual Draconic Summoning Circle Skill "Recipes" with videos

Puzzle & Dragons: Colour VS Combo Spike Leaders

Colour matching and combo making are the 2 essential parts of the gameplay of PAD. You need to do those even if you are not using the colour or combo spike leaders. Those leaders just make your skilled play more rewarding. A lot of them are also essential for clearing the harder dungeons in the later part of the game. Yukine of PAD forum has come up with a nice writeup on the different leaders in the game. You can also use the other leaders but my favourite ones are those 2 and I gathered some notes on my experience using them:

Colour Spike Leaders

PAD and Rerolling

Please note that some of the information below is as of 2013! Refer to this 2 later posts for latest tier and evaluation list from GameWith website.

Update #2: I managed to try out an account with Great Valkyrie. Now is a great time to get light monsters like Kirin as they are hard to level up and with the current Carnival of Light, they come out at level 30. I find the Healer team to be a little weaker than the spike teams (maybe I'm spoilt by the multiplier damage!) and although her team members are mostly farmable, I think it is going to take a longer and tougher time with her.

Update #1: "Found another useful guide in the PAD wiki talking about starting rolls and other useful starting information. The monsters are displayed in pictures and categorised so it is very easy to read and see everything in one glance. I agree with it except:
- Isis being in the top tier as her multiplier is quite low compared to the other spike leaders and her active skill is not that useful.
- Kushinada not being in the Challenge tier as high combos is required to get the higher attack multipliers to put her on par with the x3.5 and x4+ leaders.
- Echidna being in any category at all because she is farmable!

There are also 2 new Godfest-only monsters like the Odins, Red and Green Sonia. Each give x2.5 attack and recovery (RCV) to devil and dragon respectively and changes the whole board to their colours as their active skill. They have a very high cost (over 30) so you cannot put them in your team early but the Red one seems very strong base on the PAD forum discussion. This is what Goody has to say. It looks like she will make a good starter whereas Green will probably be more of a sub for Balanced team."

*The US version is currently in the midst of a 24hr God Festival so now is a good time to start the game as well as to reroll. Egyptian and Indian Gods have 3 times chance to drop from the Rare Egg Machine (REM)*

One of the most important part of the game is the first monster you get from the tutorial. For starter dragon, going with red is the best as a mono-red team is farmable from dungeons. If you did not get a good monster (mainly the god types), it might be a good idea to redo the tutorial from scratch again until you get a good monster to start the game. Refer to this reddit forum on how to reroll. It is mainly talking about iOS. For Android, it requires the phone to be rooted.

As to what monsters to aim for, there are 2 good resources from 2 different forums:

Puzzle & Dragons (PAD) - A Short Review

This game has been around for over a year but I only recently started playing, mostly because the game was only available for the US market and I did not went for the Japanese version. A friend was actually looking for a game to play on Android and I suggested this game. I also went ahead and download the iOS version from the US iTunes App Store. It turns out that the game was very good and also addictive!

A lot of people are calling this a Bejewelled-meets-Pokemon. I think the game resembles Pokemon in the aspect of the monsters (called cards in-game but this is not a card game) but the match-3 gameplay is actually more like solving a 2D Rubik Cube. I think the challenge of solving the puzzles (as you will deal more damage when you match many combos) is one of the things that attracts players to the game, as well as frequent events where you can get more magic stones, the in-game currency, and limited chances to get more monsters.

The game is free and supported by in-app purchases but there are many people who played without spending anything. This game is the only one other than Clash of Clans that is making millions per day and interestingly, it was reported that both game companies are "combining" (GungHo of PAD acquiring Supercell of Clash of Clans) A 3DS version of PAD is also coming soon, launching in Japan in December.

I like this game a lot and am still playing it. I've also done a lot of research on the game and will be posting them on upcoming posts.

iTunes App Store link (English): Puzzle & Dragons

iTunes App Store link (JP App Store): Puzzle & Dragons (Japanese)

Android Google Play Store (For US region only): Puzzle & Dragons
(You can get the installer apk file directly from this forum thread)

Note: If you the above iTunes link takes you to GungHo's page with a Korean-named PAD, that is not the full game but instead allows you to try out the game in a short time attack version. The game is in Korean though but there are not much options so you will not get lost!

Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal Clash! Duel Carnival! 3DS game

Finally! The last handheld console version for Yugioh was the Tag Force 6 for the PSP and that did not had an English version to my knowledge. That was 2011 and 2 years later, we finally have another one. I'm looking forward to this although I have not touch Yugioh in a long time, especially how the game will make use of the 3DS system's spotpass feature.

Wiki Info

Ben 10 Slammers

Guardian Cross has finally launch for Android. The sequel to it was also announced for the end of the year release: Deadman's Cross, which seems to have some form of first-person shooting within the game. I might give it a try when it is out.

Out of the card games I've tried, Ben 10 Slammers really caught my eye. It is a simple and fun card game in my opinion and don't let the fact that it is based on a children's show make you think that it is childish and only for children. I actually enjoyed it a lot and played for quite a while. The app is not free (US$1.99) but this is one of the few games where the in-app purchases were really optional and not to hook you into spending more. I was able to earn the in-game currency to unlock more Alien characters easily just by playing the campaign. (I first unlocked the most expensive ones as they supposedly will be the strongest)

The artwork is nice and looks like the cartoon. The game is basically King of Fighter arcade fighting game meets Marvel TCG Card games. You get 3 characters, call Slammers, and 1 is always active. There are no character specific cards but each Slammers have a set of cards tied to them. You'll unlock more cards using the in-game currency to level up the Slammer. Levelling will also unlock more abilities for the Slammers. You cannot swap Slammers to the backrow unless you use a card that allows it. There is no deck building required which simplifies things and the overall game and interface seem to be designed to work well for a tablet and smartphone screen.

I think there is a high replay value for this game and you don't have to be a fan of Ben 10 to enjoy it. Overall, the game has a pretty high quality production and content. Recently, some annoying bugs were fixed. (Card abilities could not be displayed) New Slammers were also periodically released so the developers are keeping the game updated with content and improvements. This game is definitely worth a try! One tip: I find Crabdozer broken due to its ability to attack twice.

iTunes App Store link: Ben 10 Slammers

Games after I stopped playing Guardian Cross Part 1

Guardian Cross(GC) has been updated to 2.0 and brings with it many new features. I did not update but was please to know that I logged in once recently and found all my cards intact and my account not banned(for stop using?). On Yugioh video game news, there were surprisingly no more portable console games so far. The latest game was Decade Duels Plus for the PS3 and xbox360 which I read had bad reviews. There is a demo but I have yet to try. I think I have now forgotten most of the Yugioh rules!

The games I'm playing now is mostly League of Legends and the occasional Clash of Clan on iOS devices. Those are not digital card games which is the focus of this blog but I did try a few after GC.

Order & Chaos Duels(iOS Devices)
The game has some aspects of Yugioh in the use of the playing field. I played for maybe 1 hour before I stopped as it was quite boring to me.

iTunes App Store link: Order & Chaos Duels - Trading Card Game - Gameloft

Might & Magic Duel of Champions(iPad)
This game looks promising. I like that there are decks and boosters to buy in the store and thought this was going to be the next Magic: The Gathering Digital equivalent. However, I soon found out that the gameplay was similar to Order & Chaos Duels except it had a little bit more variation in that there is a minor real-time strategy in positioning of cards. The straw that broke the camel's back was that the version that I played at that time had a bug where you will get logged out after a period of time. It ended matches in a loss and make for a very unsatisfying gameplay experience. I stopped after a few hours of gameplay and subsequent updates didn't mention that this problem was solved and I slowly moved on anyway. The game is also available on PC.

iTunes App Store link: Might & Magic: Duel of Champions - Ubisoft  Game has been removed

Tekken Card Tournament (iOS Devices)
This was a game I was looking forward to after hearing it reported on gaming sites. It didn't disappoint. The gameplay was simple enough like GC to pick up and yet has some deck building strategy as well.  It is much deeper than just rock-scissor-paper mechanics on the surface.

Most of the cards are attainable other than the Super Rare cards which depended on availability in the Market with money, unlike in GC. Namco Bandai, the company of the game, also responded fast to players' feedbacks and respond. For example, hackers with instant win cheat was stopped in about 1-2 weeks.

I had quite a lot of fun and played for around 2 or so weeks. I managed to make 2 gold decks by spending 1/3 to 1/4 of what I pay for GC. You can also slowly grind and upgrade your cards from bronze to silver to gold. However, the tournament is somewhat like GC in which you have to keep on grinding matches to earn more tournament points, something I got tired of.

I thought of making posts about the game but didn't settle down to start it. The game has constant updates to the cards to balance things and the most recent update added a new character, Heihachi. I will provide some tips I gather from my short playing time:

1. Not really a tip but I found the instructions and rules to be unclear about this. They are now in the FAQ(I think it was added later because I never saw them mentioned before) but really should be in the rules: 
• U with a circle on the card stands for Unique which means 1-per-deck. I was thinking of some broken endless chain combo before I found out...
• Super Rare(SR) cards are 1-per-deck too! Don't buy more than 1! You can have 1 more SR Power Card in your deck though.
2. I personally only buy Ultra Pack and use the gold to combine or buy cards. 3 Rare cards can be "exchanged" for 1 Rare card of your choice through selling and buying for gold.
3. Best cards are normally the Unique ones and the one that grants an ability on appearance. Next are those that can force an ability based on opponent's action. Most of the tips on other card games can be applied here: 
• Get the max number of a good card (1 or 3) in your deck to increase your chance of drawing it
• Know and memorise your deck. There are only 15 cards and you can easily predict your next draw
4. This game requires quick mathematics calculation but don't forget to take into account the card abilities.
5. The fighters all have a certain theme and strategy to build around. It is best to focus on 1 deck, building it to gold.
6. Check this blog for more tips and guides. I think the fighter analysis (2 so far) are great and informative.

The game is available for Android and playable on Internet Browsers too.

iTunes App Store link: Tekken Card Tournament - NAMCO BANDAI Games Europe S.A.S.

Magic Duels of the Planeswalker 2014 (iPad)

It is the same game as the previous years but the most notable inclusion is the drafting mode. You get to build a deck from opening packs and use it to complete the campaign or go multiplayer with it. It is free to try and you unlock 2 slots after purchasing the game. Additional slots can be bought and you can unlock up to 20. Each slot is fixed to the packs you opened and there were some complains about the way the mode is but I think the drafting feature is a very neat addition to the game. The game is available on the PC, PS3 and xbox 360.

iTunes App Store link: Magic 2014 - Wizards of the Coast

With Hearthstone still some time away from launch, I'm not sure if I will play it too. Back to the Field of Justice in the League of Legends...