Puzzle & Dragons Alt. Coin Dungeons Guide

Puzzle & Dragons Alt. Coin Dungeons Guide by Judinous

I receive a steady stream of questions from players on my friends list and this subreddit asking me how I progress so quickly in this game without spending stones. The short answer is: Alt. Coin Dungeons. I’ve written up a few posts on how to clear these efficiently, but I think it’s about time I write up a complete guide that I can point people towards.

What are Alt. Coin Dungeons, and what do they do for me?

The Alt. Coin Dungeons are the dungeons that you find on this page whose names start with “Alt.” and cost 1M coins to run for an hour. You can purchase them for an hour via the shop menu in-game once you reach rank 80, and they’ll show up under the “Special” tab once purchased. These dungeons rotate every 2 weeks, and there are 5 Alt. Coin Dungeons per rotation. Generally there will be a dungeon that leans towards each element in terms of enemies/drops, although often you will find 2-4 different elements in them. These dungeons are basically “hardmode” versions of the earlier Normal and Technical dungeons you’ve probably already cleared. The Alt Normals have a no-dupe restriction, while the Alt Technicals have no restrictions.

The rewards from these dungeons are straight-up insane. They have the best rank xp/stam ratios in the game; all but one rotation features dungeons that are higher xp/stam rates than KoG. The fodder drops at an extremely high level (25-35), so it remains coin-efficient to feed all the way to 99. The amount of fodder you receive depends heavily on the rotation and which dungeon you are running, but as a general average you can expect to get ~1M fodder xp per hour from here (if fed on-color). The +egg rate is also crazy – In Alt. normal dungeons you can expect ~5-10 +eggs per hour, and in Alt technicals you can expect ~3-6. It’s worth noting that these dungeons are not affected by x5/x3 +egg events. You can also get a lot of the standard evo mats in here – Mythlits, Dublits, Divine Masks, and Mystic Masks will all show up in certain dungeons. As the final icing on the cake, you can rarely get piis from them. Don’t come in expecting to farm for piis explicitly – the general consensus is you will only get one pii drop on average for every ~1500 stamina you spend in coin dungeons. Just go in looking for the other rewards and treat any pii drops as a nice bonus whenever they happen.

To give you an idea of what you can expect if you run these regularly, you will be getting 2-3 ranks per hourall the way up to rank ~300 or so. You can still get 2-3 ranks per day with normal stamina regen all the way to rank ~450ish. If you run coin dungeons twice a day, you can expect about 4-5 max level cards per week, and a +297 every 3-4 weeks.

How are these dungeons structured?

Since these dungeons are simply hardmode versions of the original normal/technical dungeons with the same name, they have the same enemy types and bosses. The first 4 levels of each dungeon will have 7 floors, with bosses on floor 7 for technicals and floor 6 and 7 for normals. The final level will have 10 floors, with bosses on floors 9 and 10. The final level is always going to be the best for drops/stam due to having more trash floors, but it is not always the best for xp/stam, so be sure to take a look at every floor if rank xp is an important factor in your decisions.

The trash in these dungeons hits hard. Like, really freaking hard. Most of the trash enemies hit for 10-15k, with stuff like Ogres hitting for ~35k. Some of the evo mats such as Masks and Dublits hit for essentially infinity damage. However, the HP values of the trash enemies is relatively low; generally in the 40-60k range, with ogres having ~150k. One of the most important things to look out for are the metal dragons and evo mats; they have def values ranging from 100k-600k, and they will murder you if you don’t break through them quickly. Dublits are particularly scary, as they can potentially show up on floor 1 with a 2-turn attack timer and 600k defense. Piis can also be rather threatening, as they have 6M def and hit for a fair amount themselves.

The bosses also hit similarly hard, but they have relatively low HP. The vast majority of the bosses only have 1-1.5M HP, although there are a few exceptions that have more. This means that you generally don’t require a burst active to 1-shot them, just a good board.

So, with all that in mind, that leads us to…

What kind of teams should I be taking to these dungeons?

The best kind of team for dealing with Alt Coin Dungeons is going to have an unconditional leader, with a team stacked with fast orb changers. You’ll also want 1-2 board changes for dealing with the bosses. It is imperative that you are able to activate 100% and sweep every floor, as there is little margin for error since everything hits so hard. TPA teams are far better than row teams here, primarily because they require less orbs to deal “real” damage to sweep floors and break through high def enemies. Additionally, having a HP/RCV multiplier is really nice as it provides extra safety from the occasional unavoidable hit. You’ll also want to remember that you need to use a compatible leader for the no-dupe dungeons.

So, with those conditions in mind, let’s talk tier lists. I’m not going to go over every possible leader in the game, obviously, but I’ll hit the most popular leads and try to give you a good idea about what you should be shooting for. Keep in mind that you’ll have to deal with the no-dupe restriction a lot of the time, so you’ll need to have something that is compatible to pair up with the primary leader. This tier list is primarily meant to apply to the current dungeons found in the NA region; newer JP Alt dungeons have additional restrictions such as all attributes or no awakenings, which change things significantly. This list still applies to the vast majority of dungeon rotations, however. If there’s something missing here that you’d like info on, let me know in the comments and I’ll try to add it (but this guide is getting pretty close to the character limit, unfortunately)

This list is, of course, my personal opinion. I’m bound to take flak for where I rank Ronia. Even if you disagree with some of my rankings, this should help to point players in the right direction who are trying to decide what teams to focus on.

S Tier

These leaders meet every requirement you want in a coin dungeon leader, and have no major flaws.

• Urd – This is the leader that I personally use, as I consider her to be the best leader overall for coin dungeons. She ticks all of the boxes: unconditional leader skill, HP/RCV multiplier to tank hits and recover from unavoidable damage, 2/3x TPA subs and armor breaks available for dealing with high def enemies, etc. Awoken Hino and Awoken Minerva deserve special mentions as subs, since Hino can easily break armor given 4 red orbs, and Minerva can be up turn 1 to deal with those nasty dublit spawns.
• Verdandi – Just as strong as her sister for these dungeons. Lack of RCV multiplier, but such a high HP multiplier that it doesn’t matter. Liu Bei obviously does the heavy lifting for busting armor, but a max skilled GZL is important for dealing with the worst case scenario of a 2-turn dublit on floor 1. As long as you bring at least 7 skill boosts on the team, you should be able to deal with it, however.

A Tier

These leaders are fantastic at clearing coin dungeons, but generally have one or two small weaknesses that must be compensated for in their sub pool.

• Athena – Athena is probably the most common leader for coins, since she and most of her team is easily farmable. Athena herself is able to burst through armor without a problem, and the ready availability of LValk and Verche guarantee you’ll have at least a couple of fast orb changers available turn 1. Be aware that LValk/Verche don’t have any skill boosts themselves, so you’ll need to pick some up elsewhere to guarantee they’re immediately ready. You’ll want to make sure to bring a board changer since Athena doesn’t have one herself — Apocalypse or G/L Meimei are ideal, but anything that makes L orbs is fine.
• LMeta – Easy condition to meet for the leader skill, a HP bonus, and LValk makes no-dupes easy to handle. Falling below the HP threshold shouldn’t be an issue with LMeta’s active. The only real reason she doesn’t make it up into S tier is because she doesn’t bring an orb/board changer herself, so she can struggle with fitting enough of them on her team. You’ll need to bring LKali, LZL, or Rei Sirius for breaking through armor.
• Osiris/Nut – The combo egypt 2.0 gods come with HP/RCV bonuses and 100% activation rates given solid puzzling skills. The main reason that they don’t make it into S tier is that it takes more time/brainpower to solve the board and activate them, and they don’t have the option of making a full board of one color to one-shot bosses as quickly and easily as possible. Piercing through armor may be a bit of an issue for Nut, as well, given the sub options available in blue.

B Tier

These leaders can handle coins effectively, but generally have a major flaw or several minor flaws that are hard to compensate for.

• Nephthys/Set – The 3/4 color egypt 2.0 leads also have HP/RCV bonuses and 100% activation rates, but are ranked below Osiris/Nut because of the amount of brainpower required and more restrictive sub pools. These leaders are safe, but relatively slow compared to mono-color leaders. Nephthys is what I personally started with, and was able to use her to get my other coin teams (Urd and Athena) online.
• Skuld – Her lack of HP bonus and the difficulty of dealing with high def enemies are her two major flaws. She ticks many other boxes such as having a board change and an unconditional multiplier, however, so she’s still quite capable of clearing coin dungeons. Dublits will be your primary nemesis.
• Ronia/Lu Bu/Beelzebub – Okay, god, I will bump her up a rank. She’s basically the same as Skuld. The village bicycle is pretty miserable in coins compared to most other things she can handle, in my opinion. She thrives on dungeons with easy trash floors that she can stall on with her high RCV, and then blowing her load in one big burst on a high HP boss. This is basically the exact opposite of what you want to do in coin dungeons. Additionally, you’re going to struggle to fit orb changers on the team compared to a color-based leader. If this is the only team you have, by all means use it, but you should seriously consider getting an Athena team online as quickly as possible instead. Early dublits will cause unavoidable failures, occasionally. She’s pretty solid compared to almost all other type-based leads outside of Athena/LMeta, though. I’ll add an additional note here that Ronia+Beelz is miles ahead of any other combination of devil leaders here, so you should definitely be using that pairing when taking them to coins.

C Tier

These leaders can technically do coins, but will struggle and likely fail from time to time.

• DQXQ/Horus/Isis/Bastet – These kind of leaders have 100%, or very close to 100% activation rates on their leader skill, but require serious puzzling to pull that rate of activation off. Additionally, they lack HP/RCV multipliers. These leaders are capable of coins, but you’ll likely be pulling your hair out from time to time if you run into some bad RNG repeatedly.

OH GOD PLEASE NO Tier

• 3/4/5 color rainbow leads – If you take something that doesn’t have a 100% activation rate (or very close to it), you’re gonna have a real bad time. Your LKali or Haku team or whatever is going to want to stay home in the box for these dungeons.
• Type-based leads – While these have 100% activation rates, it’s generally a lot harder to guarantee you’ll have orbs available as you’re trying to tick a lot of boxes at once with your subs – correct type, correct color, makes orbs, has TPAs is going to be really restrictive and not always possible with no-dupes. Ronia falls into this category, obviously, but I mentioned her earlier by name simply because I know I’ll get a bunch of questions about her if I don’t head them off. Seriously, though, don’t take type-based teams.
• 100% HP conditional leads – piis are going to take a piss in your cheerios. It’s gonna feel real bad when you die because of a pii spawn and have to decide whether it’s worth it to stone and see if it’s going to drop or not. These can certainly work, but use them at your own peril. These can be fantastic, but I’d reserve them for experts only.

Tips and Tricks

• Try not to match more than 4 orbs of your main color each turn if possible. Saving extra orbs for later floors is really important for safely sweeping through.
• Don’t be afraid to use your sub-element TPAs to sweep floors. If you have 2/3x TPA subs, it’s almost always enough damage to clear the floor. You’ll have to learn your limits with this based on your team, but I probably end up clearing almost as many floors with sub-elements as I do with main element. This helps a lot with consistency and preventing orb trolling.
• If possible, try designing a team that can create mono-color boards to erase bosses without puzzling. This saves both brainpower and time, and the boss HP is generally low enough that you don’t need to stack row enhances to kill them. For example, I use something similar to this team paired with Urd friends for no-dupe dungeons. This gives me a lot of different ways to make a full red board – Ronia + Minerva, Urd + RValk + Hino, Urd + Hino + Minerva, Urd + RValk + Mamiya, yada yada. Even if some of my actives are down from previous floors, I’ll basically always be able to push buttons and erase the boss.
• If you don’t have one of the optimal teams, stick to dungeons you have color advantage against if the rotation has dublits. Seriously, those things will ruin your day. 300k armor is a lot easier to break through than 600k, or god forbid 1.2M if you’re at a color disadvantage.
• If high def enemies are a problem, consider taking a Lilith with you even if she’s off-color. She can also be used to kill certain bosses, such as the final floor of Alt Tower of Flare.
• Take advantage of the lower xp/stam dungeons to get further into the next rank. For example, if you’re running the last floor of Alt. Castle of Satan and find yourself 20k xp from ranking, do a run of the third floor to get you as close as possible before running the last floor again to get you as far as possible into the next rank. This will make a big difference in how many times per day you can run coins.