Newish player with questions

Hello Dark Summoner community!

I have a few questions that I will try to lay out as clearly as possible. (Still noobish that I am not fully understanding of the DS vocabulary yet I apologize.) (Also I am part of the guild sin which as I skim the forums appears to be a more spendier choice for a new player.)

1) Pertaining to the Flute Labyrinth Event that is going on, how many floors does it take before completing map set 1 and then how many addition to complete a second set? (I'm only lvl 23 with 110 points into energy atm and 100 into battle so is it honestly feasible for somebody around my level? I'm currently clanless if that is also somehow a factor.)

2) I'm considering purchasing a trap bundle for the mini-event tomorrow (7/30 6-8:59 PM ET) where apparently shadows will be more abundant. Are there any worthwhile cards I could obtain through this (A/A+/etc.)?

3) If the answer to #2 is basically no, then I am considering the alternative route of purchasing the x11 dark summon thing but I think it was best to use that while still within the 48 hour "noob" window?

4) I've been noobing it up with the auto-arrange feature and letting the AI make my party formation which atm is:

Stats - 9248 atk, 8858 def, 10208 hp, 66 bp, lvl combo
Leader-Slaughter Bee Queen+ lvl 10, pre strike 1
Naga lvl 10, slum 1
Tidal Tephon+ lvl 10, inc p def 1
Elf Commander lvl 1, dec e atk 1
Vanessa of the Night+ lvl 10, dec e def 1

Other "high" (what I'm assuming) options I have are:

Dark Elf Berserker lvl 10, pre strike 2
Hell Hammer Spider lvl 1, dec e atk 1
Child of Pit lvl 2, agi 1
White Winged Archer+ lvl 10, agi 1
Bonnacon+ lvl 1, crit 1
Caim+ lvl1, agi 1
Horned Demon lvl 3, inc p atk 2

Any suggestions on possible improvements?

I'll leave it at this for now and my apologies for it's length and many thinks for any and all comments!

First off, welcome to the forum and the game!
Glad you made it out this way, it's great to have new members to add to the community. That being said, I hope I can answer most of your questions.

1) For this, someone else might have to clarify. I'm on floor 90 and have one more page to go before I get my first monster. You might be able to make it to your first one, but the second one will be tougher unless you spend EP. Fortunately, the monster reward from this event is mediocre so it won't matter as much if you miss it, and should be able to trade for it relatively cheaply if you wanted one after. As for your stats, I would recommend you leave the BP alone until you need more to make a better formation and put it all into energy from now on. Energy is much more useful!

2) The trap bundle is great, but make sure to use it only on Ultimate Shadows. It is cheaper than dark summons, and you can get really good monsters from it and event-only summon monsters which should be worth quite a bit as they are rare. It is economically better to use traps over dark summons if you are choosing to spend money on the game. The only downside I can see is that traps might not have the possibility of capturing an AA monster, and dark summons have a very low chance of that (can anyone confirm if the shadows can indeed spawn an AA?)

3) There is a certain event where you can redo every dark summon you use. It basically gives you a 2-for-1 on every dark summon, so if you don't like your first monster you can switch it out. It was very popular, so A-Team will probably do it again. This would be the best time to use your dark summons, so if you want to gamble you can wait for this event to (possibly) occur again.

4) Creating a party has a couple of key steps.
i) Get an agility monster. Agility monsters make your team so much better, as it allows your team to attack first in battles where your opponent either has no agility monster, or has a lower skilled agility monster than you do.
ii) you should strive to obtain 5 monsters that are the same guild as you. this gives you a bonus called a combo which boosts your team's stats.
iii) try to obtain a mix of skills, as two of the same skills won't stack. There is an issue with covert wyrm teams right now where two of the strongest ones have the same skill, so you lose a skill spot essentially. sad face
iv) Max your monsters! A is level 60, A+ is level 70. If all your monsters are the same level, you get a bonus to your team's stats too!
v) Place your monster with the highest Health as your leader. The leader of your party gets double health.
vi) Get into a clan! This gives you a 2.5% bonus to all attributes as well if your clan is maxed.
vii) A good thing to do is strive for a team where all your monsters are the same species, as this gives you a 15% boost. You can see what species the monster is by hitting the 'details' button.

Well, I hope this helps! Ask away if you have more questions.

Deemo

Ahh I just saw that you are sin. If you are looking for a great sin team, the demons team is great! It's a bit expensive, but you can look for Asura, Beelzebub, Kali of Massacre, Sear Djinn, and Devil of Endless Night, Child of Pit (agility), Deep Dark Demon, Paimon. If you want to look at all the Sin A/A+ monsters, check out the Wiki or look through the bestiary linked at the top of the forum!

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Thanks for the feedback!

Yeah I've looked at some of the combo bonuses and so far I've been getting mostly purple cards for being in the guild sin =/, w/e right?

I guess I'll go for a trap bundle and hope to get lucky tomorrow. Also probably burn my EPs in trying to just complete my first map set xD.

EDIT: just did a quick formation change so I have psycho and lvl combo. In regards to setting position for party leader, hp gets doubled but should defense also be a factor? It auto'd slaughter bee queen+ as leader with 1591 hp and 2238 def but my other option would be (imo) Vanessa of the Night+ with 1769 HP and 1683 def. Less than 200 hp gain but almost a 600 def difference.

I'll give you a Beelzebub+ (Demon impulse w/venomous breath) for your caim and white wing archer (the 2 agi up skills)

Interested? It's a nice start to your sin team, and was once considered a staple for the sin formation. It'll be a nice filler until you're able to afford the much more expensive sin monsters.

I didn't read the other guy's tips, but hold onto your EP and trade it for other good monsters!

Don't see why not, my player ID is 1417923940