While most of the Descended Challenges have been pretty boring (they feel more like an event to have a lot of descends available for farming rather than an actual challenge, at least at my point in PAD) Gungho really mixed it up this time by making all of the dungeons with preset teams, and actually functional ones to boot.

In general, there’s a pretty nice variety of leads showcased in the challenge. All of the teams are well designed to clear the dungeon that’s assigned to them and they’re all hypermaxed so you really get a chance to see these leads perform at their proper level.

Most of the challenges weren’t particularly hard, but Hel’s playstyle takes some getting used to and Deus Ex Machina isn’t very forgiving for experimentation on the first floor so that dungeon took me two tries to clear and didn’t feel very consistent even on the winning run. The rest were pretty safe and straightforward.

I’ll outline a strategy for each dungeon after the jump.

Agni Descended



To clear Agni Descended, you’re given a fairly straightforward Tsubaki team. The main thing to keep in mind is that you’ll need at least 5 Fire orbs and 3 Light orbs to deal significant damage, so you’ll want to keep a Tsubaki active available if possible in case you want to fix the board after using Scarlet or Yamato Takeru.

The easiest places to match 5 connected orbs are as a column on the side or on the top or bottom row, but don’t discount an L-shape in the corner if the opportunity is right.

Sphinx the tan, sweep the floor Use Scarlet (plus Tsubaki if needed), spike as hard as possible Stall until Ogre is on 1-timer if needed, then sweep Use Yamato Takeru to heal, then sweep Stall until ready, then sweep Use Tsubaki and Scarlet if needed, then sweep Use Leilan, fix with Tsubaki if needed, then 6-combo and OHKO.

Zeus & Hera Descended



To take on Zeus & Hera Descended, you’re given a fairly powerful Neptune Dragon team. Damage output for the most part won’t be much of a problem; the biggest issues will be the combo shields on Awoken Minerva and Zeus&Hera, and the lack of a heartmaker means that clearing as many orbs as possible is vital to ensure that hearts are available to heal with.

Don’t forget that you need to match as many connected orbs as possible to reach maximum multiplier (11 orbs), and that you can match connected Dark orbs to get an attack multiplier as well if there aren’t enough Water orbs on board.

Sweep. Either 6-combo with a row to clear, or stall 5 turns (keep hearts on the bottom two rows) then sweep. Stall a turn, then use Hermes to break the hearts and nuke. Conserve Water orbs, then use Sarasvati and sweep. Stall, then use Hermes and sweep Stall two turns for the status shield to expire, then Neptune Dragon + Kundali + Motonari (if needed) and 4-combo, matching as many connected Water orbs as possible, to win.

Seraphis Descended



Ironically, Seraphis is actually one of the easiest dungeons in this challenge because Acala is so powerful against anything that lacks combo shields. You have enough durability that nothing in the dungeon is particularly threatening except for ATK-boosted Seraphis. That said, people that aren’t used to matching crosses might struggle a bit with Acala’s gimmick.

One cross of Wood orbs is a 4.5x ATK multiplier, which is decent, and two crosses is enough to one-shot every enemy in the dungeon. Don’t forget that Seraphis has a >50% HP resolve, because he’ll one-shot you if you hit him to 1 HP.

Sweep, using skills if needed Stall if needed, then sweep. Sweep, using skills if needed. Use Odindra, then stall if needed, then sweep. Stall until his orb change, then use Zeal or Perseus if needed and sweep. Chip Seraphis down by matching one cross + other matches at a time, making sure to stay above 40k HP. Once he reaches below threshold, use an orb change to get >10 Wood orbs on the board, match two crosses, and kill.

Hephaestus Descended

11

Hephaestus is by far the easiest dungeon of the challenge, at least in a vacuum. That said, Awoken DQXQ can be tricky to spike with due to the need to match 4 attributes and a Light or Water row at the same time to maximize damage. In general it shouldn’t be too difficult as long as you don’t get your entire team binded by Awoken Ceres.

Sweep the floor, matching a Light or Water row. Sweep the floor. Match 4 attributes to bring Homura under threshold, then sweep. Sweep the floor. Use a skill if needed, then OHKO Ceres. Use Amaterasu to unbind subs if needed. Stall if needed, then sweep. Use the PAD Radar monster to boost Water attribute damage, then use Hermes or Andromeda and OHKO.

Deus Ex Machina Descended



You might not be expecting Deus Ex Machina to be the hardest challenge out of all of these, but the team they give you is definitely the least consistent. Hel needs to match 6 connected Poison orbs to reach her maximum damage multiplier, which means that you’ll have to rely on skyfall luck to generate the orbs you need to sweep. Fortunately, her RCV multiplier means that she’s able to stall easily on some floors, but Deus Ex Machina is a pretty threatening dungeon overall so you can’t count on that being possible all the time.

Your only “consistent” spike is Haku + Hel so make sure to have that combination available as often as possible just in case a disastrous scenario happens and you need to clear the floor immediately. In general you’ll probably want Z8’s skyfall buff up at all times.

Don’t forget to match hearts when you spike with 6 poison orbs, because it’s pretty easy to accidentally kill yourself otherwise.

Use Haku -> Hel -> Z8 and spike. Stall if possible, then use Hel and sweep the floor. Stall if possible (you can’t stall much on Nebradisk) then use Hel and sweep the floor. Sweep the floor. Stall a few turns if needed (don’t forget to use Z8 to negate Midgard’s Water skyfall, or Hel to negate Asgard’s Jammer skyfall) then sweep. Chip Sherospada below 50% HP while having DIza’s shield up and storing some Poison orbs on board, then use Hel and spike. Alternately, you can use DIza and then spike him to threshold, but you want to save Haku and one Hel for Deus Ex and if you do you’ll have to deal with a 2-second time debuff on the last floor. Haku (hopefully he generates at least 8 Dark orbs) -> Hel and match 6 poisons + two Dark TPAs + other combos to OHKO Deus Ex Machina.