Spoiler-Free Tips For Success In Persona 5

This article was originally published on April 6.

Persona 5 has many different systems that all interact with one another, and often you can get a big advantage by planning your days, maximizing the value of time spent with confidants and relationships and more.

Here are some essential tips to help you make the most of your time in Persona 5.

This post is generally spoiler-free, however the names of some characters, locations, and items are included as a necessity.

Use the touchpad for big hints! Most players know they can use it to see what other people do with their time during days and evenings, but did you know you can press it during class questions to see how other players answered? Pick the one that has 90% or more and you’re going to get the question right, and you won’t even have to consult a guide.

You can use the square button on map locations to find out what confidants are available for you in each area and whether or not your relationship with them is ready to advance.

Min-maxing your social attributes like guts, proficiency, and kindness can be a daunting task. Make sure that you’re getting your “free” points that don’t take any time to gain, like feeding your plant the best nutrients every 16 days, and getting the veggie drink from the Shibuya station every Sunday. To really get the most of things, you can get your fortune told before you go on a kick to raise whatever stat you’re focusing on each day.

Always make sure you have a Persona of the appropriate arcana in your roster before spending time with a confidant. For example, make sure you have a Death Persona in your current active pool if you’re going to work on your relationship with Tae Takemi (who represents the Death arcana).

You can get plenty of extra relationship points if you give people the right gifts, but you won’t get anything if you mess up what they like. A lot of them are obvious, like Makoto (new best girl, sorry Chie) enjoys book covers and other nerd stuff, but some are tougher. You may want to look up a list if you’re going for max points out of every encounter. Since most of the time you can only purchase a gift once, make sure you have the right one for the right person before you head someplace nice. You can also reload your save if you screw up, offering up another item instead.

Speaking of reloading, you can game Persona 5 pretty hard by making use of your save slots (though I don’t encourage this approach). If you ever get to a point in a relationship where the game basically warns you that you’re making a big choice and you mess it up, you can always hop back and make the right call by calling up your last save. You can also do this to make sure you get the max points out of activities with variable returns, like crafting for proficiency at your desk.

Which confidants you max first matters a lot to your efficiency.  Check out an entire article dedicated to that here.

Always try to abuse enemy weaknesses in combat to knock them down and trigger the Hold Up, so you can either execute an all-out attack for huge damage or to extort cash, items, or Personas from your foes.

Stack up Memento quests – don’t rush off to Mementos every time you get a mission. Knocking out a ton of Memento missions at once saves you a ton of time that you could easily waste otherwise.

You don’t need to rush off to every palace right away, even if the game makes you think it’s urgent. Even when the days are counting down, don’t be afraid to use your time to build relationships that might give you an edge in the dungeon to come.

Use the school library. Get a book as soon as you can, and exchange it for a new one when you are finished. You should always have a book you can read on the train.