Tired of getting killed in P5? Welcome to my boot camp. You still have time to level up you fighting skills before the release of Persona 5 Royal. I will teach you how to get better at playing Persona 5!
Disclaimer: This guide also works for people who want to master battling in other Shin Megami Tensei games, but specific details may vary. Since Persona 5 is the newest and the most popular MegaTen title as of now, it serves as a great way for beginners to onboard the franchise. That’s why I decided to cover P5 in particular. However, the battle strategy is similar in most of the MegaTen games. You can learn about the differences between Persona and Shin Megami Tensei here.
Persona games place a lot of emphasis on visual novel mechanics and social interactions, so battling can get a bit overshadowed. Nevertheless, Persona 5 features the beautiful battle engine that is characteristic of all Shin Megami Tensei titles. It is fairly complex and has quite a learning curve, but if you master it, you will be rewarded with many elegant moves that make this aspect of the game so enjoyable. (Also you can play any MegaTen game then!)
Even if you are not that into fighting, successful battles allow you level up, gather items, money and new personas. I suggest you take some time and figure out the general strategy instead of barely falling through the cracks of main missions. I personally find MegaTen battles to be one of the most enjoyable mechanics (along with the fusion). It’s the ability to switch mechanics is what makes Persona and SMT games so refreshing. You can replay each title multiple times, mastering a new mechanic on every walkthrough.
Ok, we are done with the motivational speeches. Let’s get into the tricks.
These are various techniques to help you along the way. Some are more important in the beginning, some are advanced and are geared towards later bosses. But I think it’s important to learn about all the options you have. As I said, you can’t really use all the features and mechanics in a single MegaTen game walkthrough, because the games are designed to have an excess of options to choose from. So pick what you like and use it well.
Listen to Mona
In Persona 5 Morgana takes the role of the battle engine tutorial. If you truly understand his recommendations during the first encounters, you should be fine later in the gameplay. If you missed something, you can read that info on the logs.
Later in the game Queen and Navi will also help you with certain mechanics.
Be the first to strike
A battle’s result is based on who goes down first. If you strike first, not only you avoid a potentially critical wave of damage, you also get to perform more attacks. That’s why navigating through Palaces and Mementos requires using your reaction. Actually you get to relax during the battle, because it is turn-based.
Sneaking is fundamental. Enemies are generally equal or a bit higher in level. Ambush always, except you are grinding/farming on an earlier chunk of Mementos, or leveled up enough to feel confident in the area.
Decide every move
Set every member’s strategy (Order) setting to the manual choice. There is no universally great approach to fighting shadows. Sometimes you can go on auto (physical), sometimes you deal with ailments or special actions, sometimes you need to strike a weakness. Not only shadows are all different, they also come in combinations, and those are often designed to include polar opposites. Use auto only when you are sure that it works on these enemies.
Heal between battles
Simple math: one healing action during a battle will cost you a turn. You will probably have to heal during battles anyway, so be prepared. Safe room healing items are cheaper than the regular ones (you need to “consult” at the table to use these). Also, while on missions you get a bunch of expendables like life stones. You can use them in bulk instead of wasting you precious SP. Which brings us to the next point…
Figure out the drop items
These things have extremely obscure names. But most of them are free alternatives to what you would pay cash for at the doctor’s office. Take time and go through the descriptions in the inventory. Don’t hoard them, use them up. Everything becomes much easier once you understand that fighting and interacting with shadows is a non-stop stream of items and cash. Check every chest, too.
Shake off the ailments
Be prepared to cure ailments, with skills or items. In a battle every hit counts, and it really sucks when said hit is performed upon you by a brainwashed party member while you are dealing with shadows. Forget, Dizzy, Poison are all conditions that can seriously decrease your team’s capacity, but you can deal with them after the battle. Rage might be even useful if the enemy doesn’t have physical resistances, since it raises attack, however, you can’t control the member’s actions.
Watch your SP (but use it)
When I was just getting into P5 I used a guide that said something like “preserve SP at all costs”. I think it is bad advice. It’s like being on a strict diet to get fit – yeah, you don’t consume calories, but at the same time you don’t have energy to work out. There should be a balance. You have to keep SP for the actions that cannot be performed with items.
However, if you use you SP wisely and hit weaknesses, you level up faster. And when you level up, you get bigger HP and SP bars. Keep that in mind and don’t be afraid to use skills when appropriate. You can get SP restoring items from most shadows if you need a boost.
There are also physical skills that use HP. A party member can use them and then get healed by another member’s skill or a healing item. Be careful to check whether you have enough spare HP to perform the attack.
Know thy enemy
Each shadow (or, potentially, persona) has its own combination of strengths, weaknesses and skills. When you attack a shadow with different moves, its “Analyze” page gets updated little by little based on the outcome. The absolute best way to understand an enemy is to recruit or fuse it – the full report will be added to your system. However, if the shadow has a higher level than you, they can’t join. In such case stick to trial and error.
When you are fighting a shadow, make sure to avoid the moves that can be harmful to you, i.e. reflected or drained attacks. This crucial to mass attack skills (everything with Ma-) Obviously, it is best to hit a weakness, for these types of attacks inflict the most damage and can instantly kill an enemy. But that often requires a lot of SP, so you have to sprinkle in some average moves. Just make sure not to do stupid things.
Know the skills
Usually you can predict the weakness by the shadow’s attacks. For example, if they use electric skills, chances are that it’s their strength. So if you try to use electric moves on them, they can repel or drain the attack, or at least have some resistance. Instead, go for the opposite element.
In P5 elements go in the pairs of opposites: Wind vs. Electric, Fire vs. Ice, Nuclear vs. Psy, Bless vs. Curse. Almighty skills work on everyone, but are expensive and unavailable until the later stages of the game.
It is very efficient to use the attacks that both deal damage and have a change to inflict ailments. Shock and freeze, and an assortment of physical skills with side effects will do. You can see all the Persona 5 skills here.
Some skills are, like, metaskills that engage with certain conditions. For example, Ghastly Wail kills everyone who has fear at the moment. Elemental attacks can also enhance the effect of ailments. Psy attacks get critical hits on brainwashed party members with no regard to actual weaknesses etc. These strategic combinations can engage different team members and require some thought, but they save you time and SP. This is definitely advanced level, but if you enjoy this stuff, what the heck.
Analyze, analyze, analyze
Don’t feel bad about checking the Analyze tab often. Quite the opposite, it makes you a better gamer (you fight yourself, no internet!). You can do it whenever, even at every turn. That’s why there is such option. After a while you will remember most of the affinities of the shadows in the current location and will be able to get quick and, as Mona puts it, stylish victories with lots of EXP.
Moreover, in the course of the gameplay there will be some special mini-boss fights where you get to fight the same exact shadows you’d met in the location, but with Analyze data hidden. Remembering your enemies can really save you some time.
Hit the weakness…
Let’s say you gathered all the needed Analyze data. You need to hit weaknesses as often as possible. And for that you need to have the necessary skills.
First of all, use personas and party members who have the skills relevant to the current location‘s shadows. Unlike personas, team members can only specialize in one element each. Usually the newest member’s skills are important in their Palace, but there are downsides I will discuss later.
If you don’t have the whole team yet, you have to rely on personas. Try to always have the personas with skills that cover the elements your party members don’t have. And, of course, keep the personas that hit weaknesses. You can always recruit shadows and go to the Velvet Room to experiment with fusing. This way you will be able to pick the necessary skills.
You also can use attack items with elemental effects. You get such items in drop (not that often), and you can also craft them with Mona (use tabs on crafting table to open attack kits).
Some enemies have no weaknesses. And that’s okay. Beat them normally. You still can inflict critical damage – use the skills that have “chance of critical” in the description. Mona’s Lucky Punch is a great one. There are no guarantees, but sometimes it’s better than nothing. Max out Tower confidant to get the incredible gun attack that connects through any resistance.
…and don’t let them hit yours
Letting enemies hit your weakness is extremely dangerous. Keep the members with the affinities opposite to enemies’ skills out of the starting lineup, or even the simplest battles will become a perpetual struggle. It is also important to have the right mask on the protagonist when the battle starts. If you need a move from that particular persona with a weakness, change it in battle (be careful, though).
Get as many turns as possible
As I mentioned many times, one turn can decide the outcome of a battle. So seize all the opportunities to get an extra round. Hit the weakness. Pass the Baton to a party member who can hit the weakness. The ultimate goal is to get 3 Baton Passes in a row, which earns you an achievement (and it should!). If you have urgent healing needs, hit the weakness first and heal on the extra turn. That’s the beauty of Baton Pass.
Take them down
This applies to any game, really. Don’t spread damage, focus on taking shadows down, one by one. Start with the weaklings. Remember, an enemy with 1HP can deal as much damage as with a whole HP bar. Fewer enemies – less damage. Of course, you can use mass attacks, but they will cost you a bunch of SP.
Restrain the troublemaker
Sometimes going for weaklings is not the optimal solution. A good example is a shadow that keeps summoning other ones or inflicting nasty ailments on your party. Definitely, you need to deal with them, but it takes so much time, and there are other shadows at hand.
In such cases I’d recommend trying to inflict an ailment like Sleep to prevent them from using magic. Rage can sometimes be useful if the enemy is not too strong physically. If the affinities allow, try to freeze or shock them. Actually, in some cases spawning weak shadows might be a better alternative to severe damage from magical attacks. It keeps the troublemaker busy while you are hitting the minions’ weaknesses with mass attacks. You can also try debuffing them or buffing your team, since some shadows will try to lift the buffs/debuffs.
Support your team
When you are fighting a long, long boss battle, you need to think on a bigger scale. Here is where support skills make the difference.
- Raising your Defense can save you a lot of healing SP. It’s literally better to prevent than cure. Skill: Marakukaja.
- High Speed/Agility/Evasion is what lets you, well, evade attacks. It’s amazing. The enemy just can’t keep up with you and misses every so often. In my opinion it’s the best parameter to boost in P5. Skill: Masukukaja.
- Extra Attack power obviously increases the amount of damage you inflict. Can be a time saver for dumb-but-strong bosses. Skill: Matarukaja.
As for debuffs, I personally don’t find them as important in Persona 5. But it’s my preference, as I like quick battles.
Negotiate
Negotiations are my forte. Though they are not obligatory for advancing the plot, I suggest you figure them out. You get a variety of good things. You can recruit personas to understand their affinities. You can get healing items and money. And, importantly, you can negotiate a cease-fire if you can’t fight anymore. (In Shin Megami Tensei I have a whole money extortion system lol).
Talking to shadows (personas, demons) is a mechanic that has been in SMT since the beginning. Don’t miss out on the legendary feature. In addition, it can be a nice change of pace to talk instead of fighting. Negotiation has its own cheeky-yet-relaxed music theme.
Here are some things to keep in mind:
- Every shadow has a unique personality, but it is nothing but a combination of several parameters. Think age, gender, temperament, sometimes social status. For instance, Agathion is an innocent baby boy who asks you about “domestic violins”. So try to act accordingly.
- They can ask the same questions but want different answers. The rude types respect it when you are rude, the noble ones expect subtlety. Go with the flow like you do with Confidants or even real life interactions.
- You will fail anyway, try again and remember what happened last time. It’s not as hard when you are in one location.
Run!
You can try to escape or negotiate a cease-fire if you really can’t fight right now. But…
Don’t avoid battles
If you play Persona for the visual novel part and the beautiful experience, I totally get it. However, I recommend really clearing all the areas and fighting all the shadows there. You get a bunch of money, items and, more importantly, enough EXP to fight bosses later in the game. As for me, I can go back to a clear area just for lulz.
Don’t get attached to a persona
In MegaTen games fusion is a better way to level up your stock as opposed to gaining EXP for particular personas. Since I am the fusing type, I have to mention that it’s better to recruit every shadow you can and use these personas as material for high-level personas.
When you recruit a persona, they are added to your Compendium and can be summoned again. You can even recruit the ones who are already in the Compendium for cheaper fusions. You can look up fusion conditions here. By the way, if you try to recruit the persona you already have in stock, they will give you free stuff and leave you alone.
Thanks for reading
If you think I missed something, feel free to comment below. It would mean so much to me if you shared the link.
