Challenge 14 was one of the first sets where I started venturing beyond the relative safety and ease of C5 — there’s a pretty big step up in difficulty from 5 to 6 and from 8 to 9. It’s cool to look back and see how my teams have grown since then.
Challenge 10 – DNF
L99 Sakuya, +297 Kali, +297 Kali, L97 Kanna, L99 Susano, +297 Sakuya
Last time: Did not attempt
I thought this dungeon was going to be relativelyeasy considering it’s from a much older challenge set and I’ve been able to put together viable plans for two of the more recent ones, but it was quite a bit harder than it looked,thanks to getting the two big pre-emptives back-to-back and then Meimei’s nasty damage reduction/armor combo. Hera-Ur’s skyfall debuff on floor 1 is also a huge pain to deal with for Ra.
I attempted the dungeon twice with this team; both times I one-shot Hera-Ur thanks to skyfall and then couldn’t heal up enough on Zeus to proceed. Also, PSA: the listed health for Hera-Ur on puzzledragonx.com is incorrect; she actually only has 5m health. I had enough stamina to try twice more, but I suspect we might be getting 10x back next Friday, in which case I want to have all the limited time content done by Thursday so that I can farm Hera-Sowilo all next weekend.
Since I also don’t need a bubpy (I have 12 sitting around collecting dust, and no water team to speak of), and want to spend my spare stam this week farming Z8 or Scarlet, I decided to skip this C10. Maybe next time.
Challenge 9
L99 Ra, +297 Okuni, +297 Kali, L98 Echidna, L95 Athena, +297 Ra
Last time: Did not attempt
I’ve been scared to attempt a bunch of the older challenge 9’s as my best teams are all primarily light (Ra, Sakuya) or dark (Yomi, Beelzebub), and I was worried about having Zaerog’s random absorb come up in the wrong color, or worse, managing to stallfor four turns and then having the same absorb come up twice in a row.
For this run, though, having Okuni and Kali hypered and Athena leveled meant I could do enough damage to carry Echidna. That made Zaerog much more manageable — tank the gravity, pop Echidna, stall until his absorb is out, then hit him with impunity.
I did get orb trolled left and right on this run, but the combination of Echidna and Kali plus being able to stall on King Fatty made it manageable.
Challenge 8
L99 Ra, +297 Kali, +297 Kali, +297 Okuni, +18 Yomi, +297 Ra
Last time:L99 Ra, L90 Kali, L92 Okuni, L66 Shmi, L72 Muse
Four months ago my subs weren’t as well developed and I didn’t have faith that I could activate Ra while also fitting a TPA in there, even on a no-RCV board. Oh, how times have changed! With confidence in my ability to activate and packing 2 hypered Kalis, I was able to ditch Muse and add Yomi for extra time extends.
This should have made the dungeon a cakewalk, but I forgot about the dark absorb on F1, and almost died when my second combo got a skyfall dark. If you’re bringing a rainbow team to this dungeon, make sure your dark attacks are stacked on the far left!
Challenge 7
+297 Beelzebub, +297 Haku, +122 Hanzo, +297 Pandora, L97 Lilith, +297 Ronia
Last time: same team
I have a number of other teams that I could tackle this dungeon with that I didn’t have last time, but this team didn’t find it hard last time so I decided to just stick with it, especially since I like having a low damage multiplier for Sopdet if I can get away with it.
Well, of the five turns you get on Sopdet, I got FIVE skyfall combos, including a second dark, TWICE. I had to try and make up some damage so used a TPA, but got two skyfall combos on that one too. Le sigh. Nobody likes you, Sopdet.
My second run went much better — instead of making 5 combos with a dark, I went with a TPA and 3 combos, the better to limit skyfall, and cruised through the rest of the dungeon.
Challenge 6
L99 Ra, +297 Kali, +297 Okuni, L98 Sakuya, L95 Athena, +297 Ra
Last time:L99 Ra, L90 Kali, L92 Okuni, 297 Pandora, L72 Muse
Using Sakuya as a Ra sub is a little weird, especially when you already have Okuni for color coverage, but it turns out she fits nicely because she provides both a blind resist for F1 and F2, as well as a skill bind resist for F4. Usually I’d use Echidna for blind resist or Kali for SBR since they also work to combat orb troll, but on a no-RCV board I wasn’t terribly worried about it, and it was way more convenient to guarantee blind resistance.
My previous plan was way more weird, since I couldn’t figure out how to get full blind resist while also doing enough damage on both F4 and F5 (which seems borderline comical now that my Ra team can overkill Light Izanami by nearly a factor of 2), but it’s an interesting lesson in unconventional dungeon planning. I went with Muse for the damage, and then added Pandora as a stat stick and heart-maker; she prevents you from activating, but if I’d had to clear blind on both F1 and F2, I was planning on killing just one of the demons and then using her to heal up before proceeding.
