Dragon's Formula

FOR L/D ONLY

December 3rd 2020

My goal with this guide is that by the time you are done reading this your understanding for this dungeon will be somewhat to significantly improved as well as you knowing all your options to use as of today. Now since one of the last updates, they made every boss do the exact same skills on every level, aka Dragons B1 through B12 use all the same skills, same AI, same everything. Of course the stats go up as well as resistance which can get tricky. As your rune quality goes up, so does your floor level but the strategy never changes. Every dungeon basically has a formula to have the best chance of beating it safely. NOTE: I recommend ignoring mini boss adds in this dungeon as they are not very threatening IF you meet the minimum stat requirements and prevent fire dragon (Zaiross) from having a turn using attack bar control or at least keep attack break and such applied.

Dragons boss gets cleansed and has immunity applied for 3 turns by one of his towers while the other tower applies dots on your whole team. He will hit significantly harder on units with dots on them as well once he is 30% or lower hp he gains attack power permanently. The last thing worth mentioning is that he basically one shots you if you kill one of his towers. beware.

There is a basic formula for almost literally every aspect of the game:

You need 1-2 Damage dealers, 1-2 support monsters may that be healers or buffers or cleansers and you need some kind of crowd control monster that can preferably AOE control the enemies to keep your team alive and of course hopefully there is a good leader skill in there to further buff your stats. On this specific dungeon, it is also critical that you have at least 1 stripper for the immunity that is regularly applied to boss but more is better in case of resist or derp. So, how does one counter this as L/D only? Lets go through all the options available to most L/D players.

(I won’t be going over every monsters entire skill sets, just what is relevant for each section.)

For his AOE dots we have:

Veromos (Dark Ifrit) has passive AOE cleanse every turn.
Fran (Light Fairy Queen) has S3 AOE immunity to prevent dots.
Light Homunculus has S2 AOE immunity to prevent dots, not as reliable since only 1 turn but also has a path for S3 AOE cleanse and def buff which is very good.
Shushu (Light Howl) has S3 AOE immunity for 2 turn IF after her heal everyone is full HP. Not as reliable unless you have a super tanky team or a backup healer that heals before her.
Dona (Light Penguin Knight) has S3 AOE Cleanse, not recommended here as there are much better options.
Haken (Dark Bearman) has S2 AOE cleanse, not recommended here as there are much better options.
Jamie (Dark Bounty Hunter) has S3 AOE Cleanse, not a terrible choice as he can also provide good damage and attack buff.
Of course there are several other good Nat 4 and Nat 5 options but I won’t go through those as I think you get the idea by now.

For his cleanse/ immunity we have:

Loren (Light Cow Girl), she can strip with her S2 with amazing attack bar control.
Belladeon (Light Inugami), can strip with S2 with great healing and attack bar increase.
Elsharion (Light Ifrit) strips with every hit, excellence choice for this specific job.
Eshir (Light Werewolf), can strip with S3 with moderate healing and attack bar increase as well as speed buff.
Dark Homunculus can strip and is very reliable.
Mantura (Dark Serpent) can strip with S1 but not reliable for this specific job.
Gina (Dark Witch) can strip with S2, its reliable but her other skills dosen't bring much else to the fight.
Walkers (Light Bounty Hunter), Can strip with S2 and can dish out some good damage.
2A Sorin (Dark Fairy) can strip with S2, she is reliable and her S3 bring a lot to the table as well.
Cassie (Dark Cow Girl) can strip with S2, not reliable but she deals great damage and may be viable if built right.
Eludain (Light Inferno), Can strip with S3 but not recommended since high cooldown and better options.
Elpuria (Light Serpent), can strip with S1 but not recommended here as not very reliable and better options.
Of course there are several other good Nat 4 and Nat 5 options but I won’t go through those as I think you get the idea by now.

How to deal with his intense damage:

Once/if your team has dots on them they will take extra damage as well as when he is 30% hp or less he will do significantly more damage. The best way to deal with this is to deny his turns or basically always have immunity and or defense buff OR an every turn cleanse like Veromos. The most consistent strategy is to have any many strip options and attack bar reduction options as possible to just stop him from having a turn. You can also choose to kill his immunity tower but one of your monsters are very likely to get one shotted in the process so if you use that strategy you need to bring a reviver for consistent runs. On the next picture you can see the damage difference between being attacked with dots vs no dots, the importance of cleanse or dot prevention is obvious. Here are a few examples of highly valued monsters for this dungeon and why:

Loren (Light Cow Girl) is basically irreplaceable here, she controls his attack bar, strips his immunity, applies defense break and slow however needs high accuracy and good speed.
Fran (Light Fairy Queen) has immunity to prevent dots, attack break to reduce his attack power, provides healing as well as attack buff.
Veromos (Dark Ifrit) has cleanse every turn which if speed tuned well can directly counter the dots placed.
Elsharion (Light Ifrit) stips/ steals immunity every turn and places on your entire team, he is a highly valued monster here to keep things going smoothly
Belladeon (Light inugami) provides excellent healing, defense break, attack bar increase as well as can strip immunity.
Darion (Light Vagabond) reduces everyone's damage by 20% so increases survivability if you can't seem to control dragon's attack bar. Dias (Dark Death Knight) and Priz (Light Elemental) have similar passives.
Homunculus provides various options are can be very good here as well.

Crowd control:

(Mostly if your having a hard time getting to boss with all monsters safely.)

2A Gorgo (Dark Warbear) has S2 AOE attack breaks with a serious chance to stun if he crits.

Prom (Light Grim Reaper) has S3 AOE Stun and defense break, excellent choice if your choosing a very aggressive approach but be warned, he is very squishy.
Jeanne (Light Paladin) has S3 AOE provoke for days, debateably one of the best crowd control monsters in the game. With definitely keep your team safe.
Veromos (Dark Ifrit) has S2 AOE semi reliable stun, not a bad choice at all.
Of course there are several other good Nat 4 and Nat 5 options but I won’t go through those as I think you get the idea by now.

Healers:

Shushu (Light Howl) can actually single and AOE heal quite nicely and bring situational immunity but has low stats since she is a Nat 2.
Jansson (Light Viking) has a poor AOE heal but bring excellent attack bar increase (Budget Verdehile).
Teon (Light Garuda) is an underrated monster if I've ever seen one. Good AOE heal, can rez, turn cycling, stuns, what can't this birdy do.
Ahman (Light Bearman) has an excellent heal every single turn. If built correctly, solid choice.
Tien Quin (Light Drunken Master) between his S2 and S3 healing he is a good healer as well but built for more aggressive team and better rune quality.
Fran (Light Fairy Queen) everyone's favorite. AOE healing and attack buff, single target healing and cleanse, attack break, this queen can be used literally everywhere in the game.
Belladeon (Light Inugami) has a great AOE healing, great attack bar boosting, very good choice.
Eshir (Light Werewolf) has a moderate AOE healing with AOE speed buff.
Rasheed (Dark Epikion Priest) is now a reasonable choice as a healer/cleanse/buff extender since her recent buff but there are better choices.
Basalt (Dark Battle Mammoth) has a good AOE healing and AOE defense buffer.
Light Homunculus is a good secondary healer with a variety of buffs depending on skills chosen.
Of course there are several other good Nat 4 and Nat 5 options but I won’t go through those as I think you get the idea by now.

Leaders:

When it comes to leaders in Cairos you want more Speed/ Attack Power/ Critical Rate/ Health Points or Defense. You should be runeing Accuracy into your monsters and don’t waste your time with Resistance.

Attack power leaders:

Prom (Light Grim Reaper) 30% attack power to light only.
Loren (Light Cow Girl) 18% attack power to all.
Elsharion (Light Ifrit) 33% attack power to all.
Shamman (Light Griffon) 30% attack power to light only.
Hellea (Dark Harpy) 30% attack power to dark only.
Thrain (Dark Grim Reaper) 30% attack power to dark only.
Cassie (Dark Cow Girl) 18% attack power to all.
Eirgar (Dark Vampire Lord) 38% attack power in dungeons.

Speed leaders:

Walkers (Light Bounty Hunter) 23% speed to light only.
Fran (Light Fairy Queen) 10% speed to all.
Rumicus (Light Charger Shark) 23% speed to light only.
Lucien(Light Elven Ranger) 15% speed to all.
Janssen (Dark Viking) 10% speed to all.
Calicus (Dark Charger Shark) 23% speed to dark only.

Health point leaders:

Teon (Light Garuda) 17% health points to dungeons.
Groggo (Light Golem) 30% health points to light only.
Grotau (Light Minotaur) 30%health points to light only.
Baekdu (Light Beast Hunter) 21% health points to dungeons.
Dona (Light Penguin Knight) 30%health points to light only.
Lusha (Light Warbear) 15% health points to all.
Kumae (Dark Yeti) 25% health points to dark only.
Kamatau (Dark Minotaur) 30% health points to dark only.
Kuna (Dark Penguin Knight) 30% health points to dark only.
Veromos (Dark Ifrit) 33% health points to all.

Defense leaders:

Sia (Light Harpu) 25% defense to light only.
Ahman (Light Bearman) 30% defense to light only.
Marble (Light Battle Mammoth) 30% defense to light only.
Seren (Dark Harpu) 25% defense to dark only.
Haken (Dark Bearman) 30% defense to dark only.
Basalt (Dark Battle Mammoth) 30% defense to dark only.

Critical rate leaders:

Eludain (Light Inferno) 23% critical rate to light only.
Shren (Light High Elemental) 23% critical rate to light only.
Drogan (Dark Inferno) 23% critical rate to dark only.
Jumaline (Dark High Elemental) 23% critical rate to dark only.

Note: These are all the leaders available for F2P but some are definitely better than others. I just don’t want to limit your creativity :)

Of course there are several other good Nat 4 and Nat 5 options but I won’t go through those as I think you get the idea by now.

General stat requirements:

To be put simply, you want your weakest units to be able to take 2 hits from the crystal towers because lets say you get odd RNG and there is 2 towers left to kill in the wave, the first one will attack and apply defense break to a unit then the next one will hit the defense broken unit. You also need to be able to survive a hit from the legendary dragon with dots on you because the odds of completely denying the dragons turn are bound to fail at some point and your whole team will get hit AND he might have dots on you already so it will hit even harder with dots applied thus the importance of cleanse in this dungeon. See the logic? In any case, these are the stats you should have at the BARE minimum for Dragons B12 for things to go well. Keep in mind these calculations are WITH MAX Glory towers/ MAX Guild bonuses but NO Leader skills.

17000 Health points (If you have more HP then this then you can have a bit less defense).
1000 Defense (If you have more defense than this then you can have a bit less hp).
170 Speed (To ensure you get a turn before the 169 speed enemy monsters).
64% Accuracy needed on units that apply (Like Loren for attack bar control and strip). Yes, it is 10% more than Giants and Necropolis.

Due to popular demand, I also have rough calculations on required stats WITHOUT ANY towers/ guild bonuses or leader skills.

19500 - 21500 Health points (Depends how high the monsters base Health points are)
1200 - 1350 Defense (Depends how high the monsters base defense is)
185 - 195 Speed (Depends how high the monsters base speed is)
Note: These calculations are without a leader skill as calculating all leader skill potentials would take forever. So if you just can't match the health points requirement then use a HP leader to close the gap as an example.

If all your towers and guild bonuses are about half way then you need about half way in between the two stat requirements I previously mentioned. The most important thing is that all your monsters move before any of the enemies. In these 2 following pictures you will see what your team might look like after 2 tower attacks. My Kro is just above the minimum stat requirements.

Yup, those are the only stats you really need to know for now. Obviously, your support units and healers are at least this tanky but probably tankier by the time you are ready for B12. Your damage dealers however, are a bit more tricky to rune since you want to squeeze every ounce of damage stats in as you can. Your teams are really easy to tweak, just pay attention, watch who is dying and why. Think of it as a puzzle you need to solve, you need the right pieces to go in the right places.

For damage dealers, meet the above stat requirements then everything else is damage stats! IF you just cant seem to get those tankier stats on your damage dealers, consider using an HP/ Def leader, using shield runes, using fire damage reduction artifacts or Darion/ Dias/ Priz as a passive damage reduction. NOTE: They all absorb different amounts of damage so you can tweak which to use depending on your need and rune them accordingly. IF you have just tried everything and it just seems a bit out of your league, I recommend staying in B11 a bit longer till you find a few more rune upgrades on your current team as the stat requirements (including speed) are roughly 10%- 15% less overall). Same with if B11 is too hard then go down to B10. Damage dealers should have at least 1500 Attack or Defense, 70% crit rate and 150% crit damage at the bare minimum.

Summary:

Now that you see what you need and your options are laid before you, now you get to pick what you want to use. Yes, there are a lot of options, yes there are overall better options than others and yes with good enough runes literally any combination is possible to beat it with as long as you follow the formula. The important thing to remember in this dungeon is that you need reliable strippers, cleanse/ immunity and attack bar control for consistency, you need to take into consideration resists from strips and unit derps happen a lot. There are many nat 4 and 5 monsters I did not touch on since you ether need to have gotten the Hall of Heroes or need to have summoned it. I will leave it to your digression to look at your uncommon monsters skill sets and see if they fit better than any of the F2P options. I will however answer any questions, do more focused guides, advanced guides and expand on the options as time goes on. This is mostly so you understand the dungeon without me telling you exactly what you should be doing, more like just guiding you, thus this GUIDE ;)

Theory crafting:

Now, lets go over some of the most common used monsters, this applies to ALL levels depending on rune quality.

Lets say your trying a more aggressive team to start. Note: I did not go over damage dealers as the sky is the limit since anyone can really be runed to deal descent damage. I will let you experiment but I will give advice of course :) When building a team in almost every situation you want your attack bar controls/ defense breakers/ buffers/ strippers to move before any damage dealers. Keep that in mind.

Eirgar (L) (one of best offensive dungeon leaders possible with attack buff and vampire buff for sustain as well as epic single target debuffs)
2A Kro (not rivaled by many in the single target damage output department)
Loren (defense break setup almost guaranteed and insane attack bar reducer, pretty much locks down 1 monster from moving including bosses and we really need that strip)
Belladeon (great AOE healing and attack bar increase, plus can strip boss immunity and apply defense break)
2A Gorgo (good AOE damage plus crowd control with stuns and AOE attack break with minor attack bar reduction)

The turn order should be: Loren, Bella, 2A Gorgo, Eirgar, Kro.

With this setup, you are likely to make it to boss easily but eventually you will probably die since you have no dots control and dragon will eat you alive unless you have godly runes. Lets try again:

Elsharion (will strip the boss’s immunity and give to your whole team, sounds good right?)
Loren (lets keep her for the backup strip and mega att bar reduce/ defense break)
2A Kro (bring on the damageeee)
Fran (more immunity, attack buffer and attack break on boss just in case)
Belladeon (Not a bad idea to triple up on strip and more healing/ att bar increase as well as another defense breaker not a bad idea!)

The turn order should be: Loren, Bella, Fran, Elsharion, Kro.

This team should be able to get through anything right? If you can't seem to control the dots very well and your units with dots on them still are the ones dying from dragon, consider adding Veromos for dot control additionally to Fran immunity and Elsharion immunity steal. Lets say it turns out that every monster on that team is well runed but your darn Kro keeps getting one shot at some point and you don’t have the right runes/ don’t want to re rune him. Well now you have to ask yourself, is my Fran or Bella able to solo heal? If the answer is yes then you can remove 1 and replace with ether Veromos (make him leader) or add Darion/ Priz or Dias, insta less dmg to all making everyone easier to keep alive / preventing Kro from dying (hopefully) If your healers cannot solo heal, you can add fire damage reduction artifacts otherwise your only option left is to replace kro for now with a tankier damage dealer. Dragons is a bit trickier to figure out the right setup because the dragon immunity is a pain and can be very difficult to strip but still just a puzzle that you need to find the right pieces that fit. Tweak tweak and more tweaking for victory!

I hope this all somewhat makes sense and that it helped, if it helped at least one person then it was worth it! In the future I will be making speed team guides!

Here is a video of roughtly how it will look if things go right!

Note: I highly recommend having your strippers on violent as much as possible to increase the chances of the immunity actually being stripped since they turn cycle faster.

~DL