09-19-2015, 10:47 PM (This post was last modified: 11-18-2015, 09:42 PM by Nomivore.)
Introduction
What is a grind deck?
Grind decks complete stages by slowly whittling down the enemies HP whilst surviving through high regeneration, damage reduction, disabling, or a combination of all three. With the right setup, many hard Soulmaster battles can be won with little to no risk of dying. Grind decks often require very specific, yet very few cards, allowing even low leveled players to power level said cards and create a grind deck to clear SMs they otherwise would not be able to clear.
Core cards
PR Verdandi/ Verthandi
This card's active is everything a grind deck needs.
The active applies a debuff which drains 2x the card's regeneration HP from each enemy and can stack 3 times each time the debuff is applied. As it deals damage through any shield or skill, this is the best thing to happen to grind decks until PR Wukong (see below). Runestones do not need to be dissolved for the drain to activate, meaning with sufficient damage reduction, it will literally be impossible for you to die in certain circumstances.
PR Wukong
As a leader or an ally, provides 80% damage reduction at full HP and has a 1.5x damage booster with 8 CD at max skill level. His active also reduces defense to 0 for 3 turns, enabling you to defeat many high defense enemies that frequently appear in missions. Not many people will ever draw this card, so try to get a few Wukong allies.
You will use this card in almost every grind deck as a leader/ally.
Damage reduction stacking
(1-A%)*(1-B%)*(1-C%) = Result * 100% damage taken
e.g. A = 80 (PR Wukong), B = 50 (Pisces), C = 60 (PR PQoW)
(1-0.8)*(1-0.5)*(1-0.6) = 0.2*0.5*0.4 = 0.04 * 100% damage taken = 4% damage taken
Cards by role
Table key-
★ Farmable, either SM or weekly stage
★★★+ Farmable in normal stages/ friend point seal, providential seal
☆ Only diamond seal, limited seal
☆☆+ Only diamond seal, can be found as ally
- Null, either not available or from a past event.
Defensive
Cards which help you survive
Active damage reduction
Reduces or evades incoming damage by a certain percent.
PR PQoW- Available from friend point seal, certain stages on Water island. With two PR PQoWs with max CD, you can have a permanent 60% damage reduction as well as a tumble effect every 5 turns.
PR GSoE- Available from friend point seal, certain stages on Earth island. Active can be farmed with crystal dragons BEFORE PR. Also has a 3x beast HP leader skill
Smiling Cheshire Cat- Bomb defuser, good for stages where the bomb can't be sniped.
Leader damage reduction
Permanent damage reduction by a percent.
Only damage reduction of 50% or above will be noted.
PR Wukong- Can be found as ally very frequently. Reduces damage greatly, provides dodge at low HP, has an active which provides a boost and defence removal. Used in almost every grind deck.
PR Zodiacs- Provides great resistance and 2x global team attack. Good for stages with few element monsters and that require high damage. Domon and Carrie are the best converters for their attribute (combos well with Mufasa, Abe), whilst Taurus and Galio have a 2x boost that lasts 8 turns.
50% Fire/Dark
Fong Tian-Ling is extremely useful due to providing 1.5x team attack and 50% Fire/Dark resistance. As the PR Zodiacs lack any dark resistance, FTL can fit many niche stages.
Tumbler
If your current HP is at or above the percentage threshold (the lower the better), the next attack will not kill you. The least it can leave you at is 1 HP.
Majority of tumblers are by a Leader skill effect, in a few cases it comes from the active.
Crystal Dragon- 70% tumbler, can be found in First Seal stages with some luck. All variants are also found in Friend Point seal as well as the daily Crystal Dragon stage.
Odin, PR Odin- SM boss, high HP tumbler with a boost that synergizes well. Lets you tank weaker stages, then tumble the rest.
PR PQoW- The Leader tumbler effect also has a water counter attack equal to the damage relieved. May help increase clear speed. Can be comboed with leech skills like Yvette to heal from the counterattack.
Active also provides a tumbler effect that works at any HP, very useful when faced with heart rune drought.
Recovery leaders
PR Idun- Can be found frequently as an ally. Your core healing leader.
1.5x human HP and recovery, 2.5x Light attack
Luno- SM boss, requires 5 humans in team. Very useful for stages that require high HP for tanking. Also has a decent bursting active, 8x self damage.
Team attack & recovery x 1.5, Human HP x 1.5
PR PKoF- Cheaper, non-element restricted version of Luno. Also has a sniping ability that pierces defence.
2.5x attribute damage, 2x recovery.
PR Carrie, Poppy, Virgo- High damage, high recovery. Carrie and Virgo have a boost whilst Poppy has a useful stun.
Water attack x 2.5, when HP lower than 50%, heart runestones 3x effect.
Douman- SM boss, extremely high recovery. Team requires high HP to use effectively. Also has an active that can multiply Ed when adjacent to him.
Recovery actives
Actives
PR Verthandi- Stackable poison, recovers >3000 HP per turn per monster when fully stacked. Usually enough for your regen needs unless you have a high HP grind team (e.g. dual PKoL)
PR Nidhogg- SM boss, high base HP for tanking, a decent heal and a damage multiplier for Mufasa.
2x recovery until no Heart runestones dissolved.
Elf Queen/ Matryoshka - Elf Queen appears rarely in weekly battles, Matryoshka is diamond seal. Best when paired with a low CD heart converter.
Runestones have heart effect 50%
+
Diablo combination skill only requires 1 sprite, lasts 2 rounds and affects all elements
Stun/ Disable/ CD increase
Prevents or delays the enemy from attacking.
PR Medusa- Stuns for 3 turns, turns enemy into Earth, 1.5x Earth attack on earth enemies. Great synergy with Mufasa and very effective against Switching Element shields
PR Urd- Stuns for 3 turns, changes enemy into water. Like Medusa, useful against for use with Abe.
5 turn
2 Poppys can permanently stun when they're both at max skill level, however you cannot attack the enemy or else the stun is cancelled. With Circe (Earth enchantress), you can continually do <4 combos to store CD whilst ensuring an attack isn't launched.
3 turn
CD increase 1
Leader skill HP increase
Increases team HP to tank enemy hits
3x Human HP
PR PKoL- Has a full heal 10 CD active, perfect synergy. A good sniper in the team can greatly increase clear speed.
3x Beast HP
PR GSoE- Has a 10 CD 60% damage reduction shield, great synergy. Consider adding high recover members as beasts have low recovery.
1.5x human HP and recovery, 2.5x Light attack
Luno- SM boss, requires 5 humans in team. Very useful for stages that require high HP for tanking. Also has a decent bursting active, 8x self damage.
Team attack & recovery x 1.5, Human HP x 1.5
PR PKoF- Cheaper, non-element restricted version of Luno. Also has a sniping ability that pierces defence.
250%
200%
150%
Tian Hou also provides 2x water attack.
Offensive
Cards which help you kill enemies you otherwise cannot slow grind against
Active, flat multipliers
Multipliers which help compensate for the lack of a leader skill multiplier.
3x
Unicorn/ Horned King require 4 different elements in the team for maximum multiplier.
Shark and bird multiply neighboring beasts and self.
2.7x +
ML only increases light damage on dark enemies regardless of fiend element.
2.5x
Douman multiplies neighboring Water and Demon cards, including itself.
2.25x
Immortal series boosters only increases respective element damage
Medea, nuff said
yeeee 2x damage
When used with Wukong, only brings damage reduction down to 70%
Other multipliers
Absorb attack of demons and 50% of light monsters.
Share highest God/Demon to all Gods/Demons for 2 rounds +
Michael Lucifer + Luna- Very strong burst that lasts 2 turns. Requires a decent amount of light runestones to be effective.
Self attack boost 15x
Ed- Staple booster for grind teams. Easily hits millions with minimal multipliers.
Copies total team damage into next round
Amel IV Septem- Perfect for stages which require multiple bursts. Only requires 1 set of dark runes to attack with copied damage.
Fire element extra attack
Izanami, Hertz- Allows you to attack past element specific shields e.g. 90% Dark/Light shield. Izanami works with everyone, Hertz does not work with Ed, but works with everyone else..
Self attack boost 12x
Abe- Water version of Ed, allows team members to attack
Self attack boost 10x
Mufasa- Earth version of Ed
Basti- Beast version of Ed
Self attack boost 8x
Extra self attacks
Snipers/ Damage dealing actives
Deals damage through an active skill.
Sniper series (10,000 damage per turn, can be stored up to 100,000 damage, reduced by defense)
Flat damage, reduced by defense
Flat damage, ignores defense
30% of current enemy HP
20% enemy HP threshold kill
Forming a grind team
Each type of grind deck has their own weaknesses that can make or break it versus certain stages.
Each sample deck is to showcase the concept of the deck, the majority of the time you will be using PR Wukong instead as a leader/ally.
Tumbler
Will never die when against single attacks and with sufficient regeneration.
Countered by multi-hit abilities and anything that ignore tumbler.
By bursting the stages which have multi-hit/ phantom and quickly reducing stages with multiple enemies to a single enemy, you can defeat the stage.
Round 1- Turn normally and kill them as fast as possible
Round 2~6- Regenerate and tumble through
Round 7- Use Lubu to deal ~1.9m damage and reduce your HP so Odin can kick in. Burst with all you've got
Nidhogg SM Preferably you have fairly high HP and a card with high base damage to overcome the defense in round 1.
Round 1- Kill all but one dragon and store CD
Round 2- Use the green Sniper to kill the eggs
Round 3- The dragons should be on alternate CDs. Tumble through. If the enemies attack on the same turn, you will need Poppy's stun. Stun, hit one dragon, and then hit the other next round.
Round 4~5- Tumble through
Round 6- Normal spin
Round 7- Tumble through while healing
Damage reduction
Will never die with sufficient HP and regeneration.
Countered by damage reduction ignoring abilities, multiple elements (reduction usually only covers a few elements) and extremely high damage.
By bursting the enemies of the elements not covered or having sufficient HP to tank attacks, you can defeat the stage.
Unicorn SM
Sample team and strategy
Round 1~2- Spin normally
Round 3~5 - Regenerate and burst when possible
Common Acronyms
Looking for Chalice of Eternity Aria allies!
ID: 29,490,729
09-19-2015, 10:56 PM (This post was last modified: 10-31-2015, 03:24 PM by Nomivore.)
Grind teams by mission (WIP)
Douman
Any team with burst >1m (preferably >3m) and mediocre tanking (either damage reduction or high regen) can clear.
//
Replace Mufasa with any burst. Replace Daji for any decent Earth leader.
1. Grind
2. Grind low, Medusa, kill.
3. Kill the light mob, grind and burst.
4. Activate Verthandi and clear as much of the board as you can. Grind/ burst
5. Keep spinning high combos and burst with Duncan.
6a. Spin normally
6b. Burst with everything you've got.
Pretty much impossible to die.
1. Grind
2. Burst
3~6a. Grind/ burst
6b. Burst
Ed
Teams with >19500 HP, minor burst, a defence breaker and damage reduction can clear easily.
/
Make sure you have >19500 HP to tank first stage. Replace Cancer with any active damage sniper, preferably high HP ones. Replace Verthandi with any low CD heart converter.
1. Grind, activate Verthandi ASAP.
2. Activate Cancer, burst.
3. Grind.
4. Activate Wukong, then activate Cancer, grind. Otherwise, grind with Verthandi.
5a. Sniper.
5b. Grind.
Can replace Tulzscha with Faugn, Nidhogg with any other dragon, preferably a dragon sniper.
1. Grind.
2. Burst.
3. Grind.
4. Grind while using Tulzcha until bombs are defused. Alternatively, burst the bombs down and tank the hit.
5a. Tulzscha spam.
5b. Tank hit, burst. If you have a 2nd Tulzscha/Faugn, activate and burst.
Replace GSoD/GSoF with any sniper to speed things up, preferably beast type. Basti is helpful for bursting.
1. Grind, activate Verthandi ASAP.
2. Burst. Use DC to store Dark/Earth/Fire runes for next stage.
3. Activate Verthandi+GSoE, burst the wolf, then finish stage as fast as possible.
4. Grind.
5a. Verthandi grind.
5b. Wait until enemy loses stealth, activate Verthandi, burst.
//
Only PKoF requires PR.
Fong Tian provides 50% dark resistance and 1.5x team damage. LHY helps with burst.
1. Kill 2 decapas and store as much as possible.
2. Light sniper, burst.
3. Burn the witch, grind/kill the rest. Activate PKoW if things get tough.
4. Use PKoF/PKoE to snipe the eggs, grind.
5a. Light sniper+PKoF to kill
5b. Use remaining snipers/ actives to remove stealth, burst.
(Unsure of bursting potential of this deck. The more HP the better)
Marchosias increases elf HP by 2.5x, needs Amel IV for defence break. Team needs greater than 25488 HP to be really safe, minimum >19500.
1. Grind
2. Activate Marguerite, spin, DC.
3. Marguerite should still be active, activate Yidhra, Saruman, spin.
4. Activate Yvette, then Marchosias. Grind.
5a. Activate all your effects, then Marchosias.
5b. Spin normally.
Giesma SM
Teams with frequent bursts and stalling via high hp/regen or damage reduction can clear. Ideally can burst without light/dark.
1~2. Spin, convert when available.
3. Ed, Wukong, Septem, Endor.
4. Baph, Septem.
5. Spin normally until damage reduction is gone. Wukong/Baph/Endor until down.
6. Baph, Ed, Septem, Daji, DC. Store dark runes.
7. Multi-hit with Septem.
8. Store CDs and dark runes, burst with Endor, Septem, Ed, Wukong.
9. Septem carry-on. Baph if you need dark runes.
10. Store, then full burst, making sure light/dark aren't in initial dissolve.
Odin SM
Insert your choice of leader and burst to quicken the run.
1~2. Grind/ burst. Before you finish off round 2, use Wukong's active.
3. Wukong's active should still be up, kill the wolves and grind/burst.
4. PR Verd
5~6. Grind/burst
Requires at least 9150 HP
1. Grind
2. Pr Verd, grind
3. Kill skill locking wolf, use PR Verd, grind
4. PR Verd
5. PR Verd, grind
6. PR Verd, grind
Odin NM
Replace Odin with any tumbler (Odin is preferred for his active), Sirius with shift converter, Endor with burst.
Septem makes rounds 3-4 much safer.
1. Grind/burst
2. Grind, store light and dark runes if possible
3. Let the enemy hit you until you get low, burst with Ed, Sirius light=dark skill, Daji. If you have >15436 HP, fully heal this round.
4. Burst with Odin, Sirius convert, Endor. If you had >15436 HP, let the enemy hit you once to get low HP.
5. PR Verd the swords, grind
6. Grind
7. Burst until dead
8. Grind, try to store runes
9. Burst
10a. Grind/ burst. Make sure PR Verd is ready.
10b. Burst when possible, heal and burst again when ready.
1. Grind/burst.
2. Grind, store earth runes for round 3.
3. Activate Septem, burst with all and use DC to make sure dark runes are available.
4. Septem burst.
5. PR Verd and grind.
6. PR Wukong.
7. Burst.
8. Grind, store earth runes for round 9.
9. Burst with all.
10a. Grind, store earth runes.
10b. Wait until Odin turns into water, burst with all (Septem won't help here).
Nidhogg SM
Insert any heart converter, Elf Queen is optional but speeds up boss a tonne. Green sniper is optional, replace with any burst.
1. Grind, store runes if you intend to burst round 2.
2. Burst after eggs attack once/ use green sniper
3. Grind
4. Grind/ burst
5. PR Verd
6. Full attack to kill
7. Grind/ heal away.
Nidhogg NM
Cancer needs to be Amel IV and high level.
1~5. Grind, use actives well i.e. use heal after Lubu etc. Save both Lubus and PKoD for round 6
6. Use Lubus first, then Cancer, then PKoD
7. Get enemy HP to below 20%, store heart runes on the board and remember the board setup for next round. Use PKoD.
8. If Faugn, use two Lubu to deal 51% damage, then dissolve at least 10 heart runes to deal 50% damage. If others, grind.
9~10a. Grind, using actives as you are able. Save 2 Lubu, PKoD and P for 10b.
10b. Use 2 Lubu, PKoL heal, grind and repeat until you can use PKoD.
1. Aim fire lizard first, normal spin.
2. Grind, convert if needed.
3. After the enemy hits once, use Morris once and then every 3 turns, every 5 turns Fire Slime.
4. Activate Diablo Plunder of Life when the enemy's CD is 1, spin.
5. Diablo combination skill with Magrence, Saruman boost, spin.
6. Spin.
7. Grind.
8. Use Diablo's skill to clear masked runes, spin.
9. Spin, convert as necessary.
10a. Use Isabelle, spin. After 3 turns, convert and spin.
10b. Diablo combination skill + Saruman, burst.
Luno
1. Kill heart block, grind
2. Grind.
3. Wukong active and spin
4. Full attack burst
5~6. Grind and burst
7. Activate Cheshire cat, grind. Save at least 1 enchanted dark rune for next round.
8. Burst.
Ji Ke
(team by Jenova)
Replace Endor with any booster of your choice
1. Kill Phantoms, store
2. Burst
3. Hope you get PKoL, store (if you have Amel IV Septem, you can carry the burst from round 2)
4. Burst or spin normally
5. Grind, when below 20%, activate Ed, use PKoD (with Septem, burst round 5, carry to round 6)
6. Burst with Ed
7a. Grind and burst
7b. Grind and burst
Spread Wings Infinite Transmigration
(team by minyang86)
8. Kill recovery lock, grind
9. Mini burst/ kill fire converter and grind
10. Burst
11. Grind and burst
12. Grind
13. Wukong active and spin
14. Mini burst on 50% poison/ grind
15. Hit 5 times and burst with Ed/ Horned King
16. Burst trojan with Abe, grind
17. Grind/ store runes on board
18a. Burst with Ed
18b. Burst with Abe
8. Kill recovery lock, grind
9. Mini burst/ kill fire converter and grind
10. Burst
11. Grind, burst. The enemy's skill will cancel Septem's ability if used last round
12. Grind
13. Wukong active and spin
14. Mini burst on 50% poison/ grind and store dark runes
15. Hit 5 times and burst with Ed and Hertz, activate Septem
16. Burst trojan with Septem, grind. Feel free to burst again.
17. Grind/ burst first form, grind second form and store dark runes.
18a. Burst with Ed, activate Septem
18b. Burst with Septem and Hertz
Blue Old man SM
1~4. Grind
5. Use Poppy to make the dog's CDs alternate, grind
6~7. Grind
Really good guide, will be really helpful for a lot of people, especially that SM strategy/sample section, keep up the good work OP.
P.S. I think some of the images are broken?
(09-20-2015, 03:36 AM)Entailed Wrote: Really good guide, will be really helpful for a lot of people, especially that SM strategy/sample section, keep up the good work OP.
P.S. I think some of the images are broken?
Which images in particular? I purposely put blank card images to indicate a free spot in a team for the SM team compositions.
(09-20-2015, 04:40 AM)KaerfNomekop Wrote:
(09-19-2015, 10:47 PM)Nomivore Wrote: Active damage reduction PKoE's skill level can be increased by feeding crystal dragons
I think you mean GSoE/AoE/Xuanwu?
Any thoughts about adding DC effects? They tend to be more critical to grind teams than normal teams for bursting, rune storing etc. purposes.
Yes.. I do.
That's a good idea. I don't tend to rely on them for special effects like initial shields etc. because I suck at the mini games and it's usually a one-off shot, otherwise you die.
Common Acronyms
Looking for Chalice of Eternity Aria allies!
ID: 29,490,729
It looks absolutely perfect in PC, but for some reason on my phone some of the pictures don't appear, It's in the skill areas, here's an example
And there are a few such cases in some other places in the post, but as I said earlier, it's only on my phone that I see this.
09-20-2015, 08:14 PM (This post was last modified: 09-20-2015, 08:19 PM by dylankhiew.)
Not bad of a guide! You might have forgotten Penetrating Eyes - Fong Tian-Ling, which provides x1.5 Team Attack, and blocks -50% Fire and Dark damage.
Some of the things you can add:
PR Xi for a Idun leader team, or even Wukong Daji
(eg. Wukong + Pollux + Ed + Odin + PR Xi + Daji)
Dark Counselor for a permanent booster/healer. Can be in any teams
(eg. Wukong + ML + Luna + Mina + Dark Counselor)
Really nice to see a defensive guide.
Some notes:
1. PR Zodiacs have x2 ATK, and reduces damage from a third element by 30%
2. There are some CC monsters not listed here like Medusa, Iquitos etc.
3. Nidhogg actually increases Dragon HP to 200%, not 300%
4. IIRC, ML combine skill is actually x2.7
A little brainstorming really nice.
Just want to add some rarely used leader ally that can be useful.
1. Tian hou matsu. X2water atk x1.5 water hp.
Can be very useful for its large hp since water dont lack of healing ally eg. Douman, carrie, cinderella.
2. Cinderella. X2 water atk & water have 50%heart effect.
Enable you to heal at stage without heart, like urd with x2 atk but half the healing effect.
3. Jiarou.
Not a good leader material for grinding but imagine dual amel4 max skill jiarou means nonstop healing after 10th turns.