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Last Update: Sep 13, 2014
Many creatures, typically at higher levels of evolution, gain access to ‘awakening’ skills, which provide enhancements or abilities to the character or team. These skills can be very helpful and, in the late game, become vital to forming various teams. Here we cover the value of individual awakening skills, how to unlock them, and advice for determining when and how to approach doing so with different creatures and teams.
List of Awakening Skills and Associated Creatures
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How to Unlock Awakening Skills |
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Awakening skills can be unlocked by fusing certain creatures to the creature you wish to awaken. Options include fusing the same creature (same creature number, meaning same evolution), or a TAMADRA or TAMADRA Baby (see below for more information). Additionally, when awakening using the first method (fusing the same creature ID) any already-present awakenings are transferred (netting one for the fused creature plus one for each stored). For example, a Crimson Lotus Mistress Echinda can be fully awoken by twice awakening an Empress of Serpents Echidna, evolving her to Crimson Lotus Mistress Echidna, and then fusing him to the original Crimson Lotus Mistress Echidna (she gains one for being fused with the same creature and two more as the creature’s already-present awakenings are transferred, unlocking all three of her awakening skills). To be reiterate, awakening skills are only transferrable when fusing the same creature.
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A TAMADRA is a special type of creature, Awoken Material, which unlocks awakening abilities in another creature fused when them. TAMADRA provide a 100% chance of unlocking an awakening skill while a similar creature, the TAMADRA Baby, provides a 50% chance. TAMADRA Babies can (and should) be evolved to TAMADRA before use.
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TAMADRA are available, infrequently, through the Pal Egg Machine. Note that it is still advisable to save your Pal Points to use the Pal Egg Machine during an event where either rare evo or enhance material is available, based on what you need. Sometimes TAMADRA are rewarded during an event instead of magic stones (though this has been, to date, rare on the US version relative to the JP version). TAMADRA can be obtained, infrequently, in Metal Dragon dungeons (excluding Super Metal Dragons) and in Pengdra Village during events where the news mentions that they may appear. TAMADRA can also be obtained from the difficult Sky Prison and Cave of Dreaming dungeons (33% odds), as well as though final technical dungeon, Kouryu of the Celestial Pole (20% odds).
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Depending on how far you have progressed into the game, how lucky you have been, and how much money you spend, TAMADRA can be difficult to obtain. Generally, the advice is to use TAMADRA only to awaken a character which cannot be awoken by farming and leveling duplicates (which is to say you would typically awaken Twisted Mountain God Grand Tengu by leveling and evolving duplicates obtained through his descended dungeon, and Feline Deity of Harmony Bastet, as a creature only obtained only through the Rare Egg Machine, would be awoken with TAMADRA. If you have more TAMADRA than you have a practical use for, consider adding box space as needed to save them, or weigh carefully where they can provide a significant benefit through a creature that would otherwise be difficult to awaken through leveling and evolution. Finally, if you are not using a creature, don’t bother awakening them until you have a practical reason to do so.
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Sometimes it makes sense to fully awaken a creature before evolving them, particularly in the case of certain ultimate evolutions. Consider Awoken Zeus and Awoken Hera as examples: their ultimate evolutions require multiple difficult-to-obtain Devilits or Angelits in addition to super metal or gold dragons. If you want to awaken any of these characters by leveling additional copies of the same character (advisable over using TAMADRA due to their lackluster awakenings), do so before providing them with an ultimate evolution. Once evolved awakening them will require TAMADRA or additional copies of the valuable creatures required to evolve them for awakening. To a lesser extent this advice applies to characters like Echidna. She has decent awakening skills, though not good enough to warrant use of TAMADRA, hence it is preferable to awaken her as Empress of Serpents Echidna using duplicate characters prior to evolving her to Crimson Lotus Mistress Echidna. Because the evo material required to evolve her are much easier to obtain than those associated with Zeus and Hera, however, it may be worthwhile to consider evolving her without awakenings. Why? It is possible, at a later time, to prepare a twice-awoken Empress of Serpents Echidna, evolve her, and finish the job when it makes more sense to do so. This requires losing the evo material for her final evolution twice, but for some players this may be worthwhile.
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First, as is the case with choosing which creatures to level or skill level, it is best to focus primarily on a specific team or teams to improve your ability to clear the game’s most difficult content. As such, the first creatures you want to awaken may belong to multiple teams, or may play a special role in one of your best teams. An example would be prioritizing skills which are generally helpful for a team over utilitarian teams such as Resistance-Jammers on an infrequently used character.
Second, decide how you will unlock various awoken skills. See ‘Advice Regarding Individual
Awakening Skills’ below to learn more about individual skills and how they will benefit your teams. And consider, for each creature you will be using regularly, the advice above under ‘When to Use a TAMADRA’ whether you will use duplicates or TAMADRA.
Finally, decide on an efficient order for unlocking awakening skills. Combo teams should unlock any available Extend Time (extended orb movement) awakenings first. Mono teams may wish to stack enhanced row damage or two-prong awakenings if a sufficient quantity is available. Skill Boost is valuable for any team, as can be Auto-Recover, and Resistance-Bind. As is the case with leveling, your leader may deserve a degree of priority to better serve and attract friends. Note that some leaders do not have valuable awakening skills (such as three orb enhance or three elemental damage reduction), hence it is best to awaken team members before awakening the leader. Other leaders, like Hand of the Dark God Metatron and Feline Deity of Harmony Bastet, have valuable awakenings and should take priority.
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Awakening skills are unlocked in order from top to bottom each time criteria to unlock an awakening skill is met (see How to unlock Awakening Skills). Once an awakening skill is unlocked, it is retained through evolution, even if that skill happens to change (as is the case with some ultimate evolutions). Where percentages are compounded through multiple skills they are stacked rather than multiplied (e.g. 20% + 20% + 20% = 60%). Awakening skills go inactive while the owner is bound. Typically this has little impact on gameplay, but in some cases it can have a significant impact on a skill’s value (e.g. Recover Bind).
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Advice Regarding Individual Awakening Skills |
Below is a general introduction to individual awakening skills.
  
Stat Boost Awakenings
These awakenings include one for each stat and each serves as the equivalent of 10 +eggs. Typically these awakenings are a lower priority except in cases where they can be unlocked with reasonable efficiency by leveling and fusing the same creature. In the late game, in a mature team where every benefit matters, they become worthwhile.
    
Elemental Damage Reduction Awakenings
Each elemental damage reduction awakening provides a 4% reduction in damage from the corresponding element. Each additional awakening adds another 4% resistance. Generally, these awakening skills will not have a significant impact on gameplay except in cases where you are planning ahead for specific circumstances in a dungeon. If stacked, however, they add up to provide a worthwhile benefit in dungeons composed of resisted enemies. It is best to unlock more valuable awakenings first.
    
Orb Enhance Awakenings
Each awakening adds a cumulative 20% chance that an orb of the same element, dropping onto the board after orbs are eliminated, appears as an ‘enhanced’ orb (providing a 0.06x boost to damage for that match). Stacking five increases the rate to 100%. These awakenings typically have a small impact on gameplay (except in large, grouped quantity as accomplish through orb changers and abilities). As such, these awakenings are not a priority.
    
Enhanced Row Damage Awakenings
These awakenings boost a creature’s damage resulting from an end-to-end row of like-element orbs by 10% and stack between team members for all team damage. Satan, for example, has three such awakening skills, meaning his base damage for a row of dark orbs, fully awoken, is boosted by 30%. Teams built around these awakenings have become extremely popular and can become quite powerful. In fact, row enhance awakenings are the key to unlocking the potential of gods in the Heroes series as well as others such as the Sonias. To benefit, a team should typically be mono element or dual element (e.g. Lu Bu and Red Sonia). Four row awakenings of a given element are required on a team before the damage from matching a row exceeds the damage of individual matches, and additional row awakenings start to stack damage significantly beyond what can be achieved through regular combos.
Auto-Recover
The auto-recover enhancement provides +500 HP each turn upon matching orbs. This can be a worthwhile awakening when the creature carrying this skill is compatible with a team and dungeon. Auto-Recovery helps in charging skills by reducing combos needed to keep up with damage (thus reducing damage to enemies you wish to spare), provides some health in absence of heart gems, and every little bit helps. It has also made possible the Awoken ‘Green’ Odin + Awoken ‘Green’ Odin team which uses this skill, available to Odin, to maintain his ability without heart gems. It also makes possible certain special teams for various dungeons.
Recover Bind
By matching one end-to-end row of heart gems, all bound creatures will have their bound timer reduced by three for each recover bind available to the team. This awakening provides a situational benefit which can help greatly in the proper dungeon, or on a creature which will not be bound (whether through immunity or not being targeted by enemies). As such, its value depends on planning, team composition, and the dungeon. Amaterasu Ohkami is an example of a character which is immune to binds, has this awakening, and can be used to rescue other team members once bound.
Extended Time
The extended time awakening provides an additional 0.5 seconds to move orbs. Stackable, and one of the best awakenings in the game, unlocking this awakening for creatures on a regularly used team serves as a high priority. It is particularly useful for teams under high combo gods such as Kushinada, Robin, and Anubis, and serves as the best response to enemy abilities which reduce orb movement time. Yomi deserves special mention as he provides two such awakenings for +1 second of orb movement, which combines with his ability, Change the World, to provide a valuable service to combo-based teams.
Skill Boost
Upon entering a dungeon the starting charge time for all skills on the team is reduced by one for each instance of this awakening on a team (only applies once). Skill boost is a valuable awakening for two reasons: First, it makes possible more aggressive teams in dangerous dungeons by reducing the amount of time needed to charge skills (for example, ensuring an orb changer is available to provide orbs on a dangerous round). Second, it can significantly speed gameplay and reduce difficulty in repeatedly ‘farming’ a dungeon. Typically, this skill is valuable on characters which would already play a role on a team (meaning the skill boosts on most dragons are not as good as they may seem) or in cases where multiple skill boosts are available on a single creature (e.g. ’Green’ Odin, ‘Blue’ Odin, ‘Red’ Odin, Tengu).
Two-Pronged Attack
Matching exactly four connected orbs, for the creature with two-prong attack and only for that match, results in attacks against two targets at x1.5 damage. Multiple two-prong attack awakenings multiply in that two results in x2.25 damage. Multiple matches of four can be made but do not change the damage of other two-prong matches (as is the case with enhanced row attacks), but two-prong attacks receive enhanced damage from like-element enhanced row attacks. Two-prong awakenings are valuable on teams which use them, such as under Genius Sleeping Dragon Zhuge Liang (4x leads + 2 two-prong awakenings results in 36x damage against two enemies by matching only four orbs), and become especially powerful when a creature has two of them. Outside these cases, their value is situational.
Resistance-Bind
A character with this awakening gains a 50% immunity to bind attacks for each instance of this awakening, allowing some characters like Amaterasu, Green Odin, and Dark Metatron to gain immunity to binding. This skill, especially on leaders, can be as valuable as it sounds. Watch, out, though: creatures with element-based binds typically only use their bind when team members of that element are unbound, meaning having two creatures of one element, one immune to binds and the other not, can lead to an enemy repeatedly binding a creature on your team while the other resists.
Resistance-Dark
This poorly-named skill provides a stackable 20% chance that an enemy’s ‘blind’ attack, which hides all orbs on the board, will be resisted. While stackable for immunity, it is not practical to do so due to variance in characters who own this skill. This awakening serves as a convenience but is not dependable or important for teams, hence it is a low priority. Some players navigate these ‘blind’ attacks by taking a screenshot before the attack is used and, using the screenshot, decide on a combo despite being unable to see orbs in game. It is also possible to touch and release an orb to see its element.
Resistance-Jammers
Each instance of this skill provides a stackable 20% immunity (5x = immunity) to a skill effect which converts some orb types into jammers. Successfully resisting a jammer skill prevents all orbs from being changed, but does not nullify other effects such as damage. Because jammer attacks can be repeated over the course of a battle this skill, in any quantity, can be helpful. Its value, however, depends on how jammer abilities are used in a dungeon. Generally helpful awakening skills for a team take priority over this skill.
Resistance-Poison
This skill works in the same way as Resistance-Jammers above does and the same advice applies. Poison, however, is more dangerous, as in addition to retaining all limitations of jammers, it also causes significant damage to your team when matched. Generally helpful awakening skills for a team take priority over this skill.
Resistance-Skill Bind
This awakening skill provides a stackable 20% chance to block a nasty enemy skill which prevents character abilities from being used for a given number of rounds. With five required for 100% resistance and 100% resistance required to dependably handle binds in certain dangerous dungeons such as Izanami Descended! or Room of the Sacred Mask, and the added difficulty of matching five of this skill in one team that works together, it can be difficult to derive the true benefit of this awakening, but when combined and used effectively these awakenings can have significant impact on a dungeon’s difficulty.
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