Welcome 2017! What better way to start the new year then with a guide to the newest ranking dungeon in Puzzle and Dragons NA. This ranking dungeon being available now came at such a surprise to me. This dungeon was first available in JP pad in April of 2016, that the best options for JP at the time pale in comparison to the variety of monsters NA has at their disposal.

The top teams used for JP were Awoken Anubis and Shiva Dragon, both with differing strategies on how to get the highest possible score. The Anubis team relied on bi-color board inherits with fast clears and high combo count, while the Shiva Dragon team tries for faster clears and moderate combo count. Anubis really shined though since all of the top scores from JP were from the Anubis team using the same strategy. The Anubis team worked something like this:

Another limiting factor in this dungeon is that it requires all elements in order to enter. It just so happens that the Anubis team covers all colors and each monster has enough skill boosts to have a bi-color board change skill ready on floor 1. The basic strategy for this team is as follows:

Floor 1: Use a bi-color board changer and activate Anubis leader skill.

Floor 2: Use the natural board to activate Anubis leader skill.

Floor 3: Pray one of your board changers don’t get bound and Use a bi-color board changer and activate Anubis leader skill.

Floor 4: Use a bi-color board changer and activate Anubis leader skill.

Floor 5: Use a bi-color board changer and then use something to nuke the Predra, in this case Lucifer was used. Even though three extra dark orbs are generated, this is the preferred strategy since you get extra time to look at the board while entering the next floor.

Floor 6: Solve the bi-color board that was generated previously and activate Anubis leader skill.

Floor 7: Use a bi-color board changer and activate Anubis leader skill.

What would this game be without RNG? This team is heavily reliant on RNG since each bi-color board doesn’t guarantee an activation on Anubis, but when it does happen you’ve probably hit the damage cap score too.

Alternatively people ran the dungeon with this team:

This team caps damage on the first floor with the Urd and Set combo, then uses actives every other floor where the player seemed fit. This team is less reliant on RNG, but to get a great score the combo count had to be high on a few floors, which this person luckily got.

In order to get the highest score, you have to match fast and efficiently. If you’re gunning for the top 1% position in order to get the crown, you’d probably be safe with a really fast speed clear with moderate combos. If you’re looking to get one of the top 10 scores, you will need a high combo count and a fast clear.

General tips for getting a great ranking dungeon score:

1. Bring a lazer to nuke the Predra floor.

2. Match quickly and avoid cascading whenever possible, orb drop animation takes too long and is detrimental to your time score unless you have a really high combo average.

3. Immediately let go of the orb after you finish your combo, a lot of time is wasted holding on to the orb and reviewing your moves.

4. Use active skills only when you need to. These take time to activate and worsen your time score, only use an active skill when you’re out of certain orbs to kill a floor or when you’re trying to reach the damage cap.

What if there was a way to combine a high combo count and extremely fast matching speed? Well you’re in luck, there is such a team available to NA that JP didn’t have access to. Be warned though, the team is not for the faint of heart.

Aaaaand the winner this ranking dungeon whale team goes to….. smiRK45. You can catch his twitch streams here: https://www.twitch.tv/smirk45 and his Youtube videos consisting of various dungeon clears with Nepthys here: smiRk Youtube.

This team consists of Tifa paired with an Ilm lead. So you either need Tifa and four Ilm, or 5 Ilm with a Tifa friend. The chibi Lilith is pretty rare too although you can probably substitute her for another monster on that slot. So the idea is that Tifa makes the the whole board 7×6 which means more orbs for combos. Each Ilm active makes a bi-color board and by chance you can move 1 orb and achieve over 10 combos with skyfall, you don’t even have to thinking about puzzling!

You just have to hope that your leaders don’t get bound on floor 3, but even that can be somewhat mitigated with the bind resist badge. So try enough times and you’re guaranteed a decent run. Although this team is heavily REM dependent, I think there is still room for improvement. I hope you guys were able to take away some ideas from my first real post and good luck getting those crowns!