PuzdraDamageCalc (PDC) is a very powerful tool developed by @corombo13. It is widely used by theorycrafters and team builders to craft teams without the need to actually do them in the game. However the app is only available in Japanese, combining with hidden functions and bad UX it could be very confusing to anyone approaching. 

The app has so much to translate with many menus buried within menus. I will eventually cover every functions and settings PDC offers, but for the time being I will walk you through all the basic functions of PDC so you can start your own theorycrafting!

Featured art source: あおブリー@pixiv

Download Links:

• iOS: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/pdc-pazudoradameji-ji-suan/id1086644091
• Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.corombo13.paddamagecal

Basic Team Editing

This section will cover basic navigation to build a team ready for damage check. You will learn where and how to select monsters, set assists, latents and save/load your teams.

Adding leads / subs

Tap this area to bring up the search functions for cards. The top and bottom are the slots for leaders. The four in the middle are the subs.

One way to search a card is to enter their monster ID in this box. If you know katakana or hiragana you can also enter their hiragana names. Equip forms will also show up if a name is entered.

The “Keep” buttons will let you retain previous search results. Very useful when you need to enter multiple copies of the same card.

If available, checking the Super Noels icon will put the card to level 110. The bottom row shows the list of available Super Awakenings that will also activate in damage check (if other settings are correct). Make sure you select the Super Awakening after tapping the Super Noel icon.

To finish, tap the card icon to put it in your team.

Assist

Long hold on the icon of the card will bring up the Character Menu. Select the top left option (スキル継承) to bring up the Assist Search. To remove Assist from a card, long hold on the same option.

Same as card search, you can enter the monster ID or katakana/hiragana name of the card in the box at the top.

All assists are grouped by skill effects into 6 categories and even if you have entered the full name, you still have to navigate to the correct category to find the corresponding card. Cards with compound effects like a orb spawns with nuke will only show up in one of the 5 primary categories but not in “Others”.

This is not a common grouping of skills effects normally you would describe them, but these are the effects that are functional in PDC. The 6 categories are, from left to right:

• Attack / Poisons (攻撃／毒)
• Gravity (グラビティ)
• Defense break (防御減少)
• Increase damage / Enhance (エンハンス)
• Shield (軽減)
• Others (その他)

Latent Awakenings

Select the Latent Awakening option from the main screen. This will bring up the Latent select menu.

The menu is quite self-explanatory. There is no way to unselect specific latent awakenings. If you want to change any of them you have to clear all of them by pressing the middle option (クリア) at the bottom (see below). 

The latent awakenings in the second half have no effect on damage calculations and they are usually only used for screenshots. However unlike what it is said on screen, the resist awakenings are effective in the Shield Checker mode.

  

When you are finish, select the option on the left at the bottom (編集完了).

To clear selected latent awakenings, select the option in the middle (クリア).

To cancel, select the option on the right (キャンセル).

 

Saving/Loading Teams

The team menu is located below the friend leader and above the team stats session. Pressing the “PTマイセット” button will bring up the team menu.

Saving current team as a new team

To save the current team, press the Register New PT (新規PT登録) button on the top right in the team menu. This will bring up another menu.

Optionally you can enter a name for that team in the box in the middle. When you are done, choose the left option (登録) to save your team. Assists, latents, levels, Super Awakenings etc will be saved too. Choose the right option (キャンセル) to cancel.

Replacing a team

To replace an old team, first select and highlight the team to be replaced. Press the bottom left button (マイセットメニュー) to bring up the My Set Menu.

In the My Set Menu, long hold on the bottom left button to overwrite the highlighted team with the current team. Note that this action is not revertible.

Load team

To load a team, simply select and highlight the team you wanted to load and press the bottom right button (マイセット選択).

Selecting Dungeons and Enemy

Selecting specific enemies in a dungeon for damage check is quite necessary especially when you need your killer awakenings and latent awakenings to active against specific spawns. Enemy’s defense also matters in marginal cases.

Scroll to the middle, right below the team stats / total damage sessions. Selecting this option (ここをタップしてダンジョンを選択) will bring up the dungeon search menu.

It is a bit tricky because you can only search a dungeon by knowing and entering the dungeon name in Japanese. If you know the end boss (enemy on the last floor) you can scroll through the list of dungeons and find it yourself.

The list of dungeons are categorized into 5 groups. From left to right:

• Normal (通常) – This includes all descends, collabs, arenas, rushes etc; anything that doesn’t fit the other categories
• Special (特殊) – All rogue dungeons including Colosseum
• Radar (レーダー) – All PAD-R related descends
• Challenge (チャレンジ) – One-shots, monthlies, collab quests etc
• Ranking (ランキング) – Ranking dungeon; Note: special rules like “Awoken Valid” will not automatically apply

Select and highlight the dungeon then press the bottom left button (ダンジョンの敵構成を確認) to bring up the Enemy Select menu. 

At the top of the Enemy Select menu, you can select difficulties of the dungeon. For most of the dungeons, only the top difficulty is available. 

Select and highlight the enemy and then press the Set Dungeon (ダンジョンをセット) button on the bottom right to confirm. The button on the left will bring you to the Shield Checker mode. 

The selected enemy will show up on the main screen. You can tap this area to quickly switch between different enemies in the same dungeon. However no monster icon is available in that list.

 

Orb Match Entries

This part is very rather simple and intuitive. 

The orb matrix is located at the bottom part of the main screen.

Tapping the top row of each attribute will bring up a palette for orb number/pattern entry (see below). The bottom row indicates the amount of plus orbs in that match above. The number at the top right sets the total amount of rows matched.

The orb pattern palette is also intuitive. Corresponding awakenings only triggers if the correct pattern is selected.

Combo count is automatically determined based on your orb match entries. If you don’t feel like to enter random combos just to push the combo count, you can navigate to the area above the pattern and override the combo count there.

• “十字” is a cross formation
• “L字” is in a L formation
• “正方形” is a 3×3 block of 9 orbs

Once everything is set you can scroll back up and see the total damage and the exact damage each card will do!

If you want to figure damage dealt after multiple solves, you can tap the “Attack” (攻撃) button as shown. The damage from orb matches will be dealt to the selected spawn and the accumulated damage will be shown below.

Other buttons?

And that’s all the basic functions you need to know to play with PDC. Now go and make some theorycraft! More advanced functions are outlined in the next post. You will also find the ultimate translated cheat sheet there!