Combat Basics Guide

Persona 5 Strikers may be a sequel from the original Persona 5 game but there are considerable changes and game mechanics that gives it a standalone identity while maintaining the core Persona 5 experience. Combat in P5S is action-oriented, musou-style which is a major deviation for P5’s turn-based battle system. In this page, we will provide some combat tips to get you started.

Ambush your Enemies Often

There are no random battles in Persona 5 Strikers. To trigger a battle, you’ll need to touch a shadow symbol. However, that doesn’t mean that you don’t have any tricks to use to give an advantage. When you’re hiding behind an obstacle or when standing from a high ground, you can get a prompt to ambush a passing shadow. Ambushing enemies will start the battle with all enemies knocked down, giving your team a free All-Out Attack from the start. This attack will greatly thin out their numbers and deal heavy damage to tougher enemies. Additionally, these advantageous positions will allow you to use special Phantom Dash attacks, which will always result in a critical hit.

Exploit Enemy Weaknesses

Using an attack that exploits the enemy’s weakness is a staple combat mechanic of the Persona franchise. Knowing your enemy’s weakness can be a great tactical advantage, and can be used to turn the tide of battle when executed properly. Once you hit an enemy’s weakness, it will enter a Downed state. Basically, it will be temporarily stunned and unable to act for the rest of the turn. If your team manages to Down an entire enemy group, your team can perform a very damaging All-Out attack to wipe them out.

Switch Targets

There will be certain battles where you have to select priority targets to make the flow of battle a lot more manageable. A good example will be boss battles. Most of the time, they’ll call in minions to help them. Prioritize taking out these minions by switching to them as your attack targets. During normal encounters, taking out enemies that can heal, use status-afflicting attacks, escape, or target the entire party are great priority targets since eliminating them as early as possible will make things easier for your team.

Have a Balanced Party

As with traditional RPGs, having a well-balanced party will make combat very manageable. Each character will have their predetermined role since their skills will depend on their unique personas. Joker on the other hand, can equip multiple personas which allows him to be very flexible in filling in the various roles in your party including offense and backup healing. Adjust Joker’s Personas and your team composition as regularly as needed.

Keep your Party’s Equipment Updated

This is another basic RPG mechanic that you should be familiar about already. Having updated weapons and equipment for your team members will increase your combat capacity and allow you to tackle harder combat challenges later on. You can always find new gear by exploring or buying them from shops.

Fuse Personas Regularly

As you grow stronger, you’ll also need to update your roster of persona that you’ll bring in battles. This is because certain personas can only learn a set amount of skill and higher grade personas will often have more potent versions of those skills. Fuse Personas often to get higher level and more powerful ones to match your team’s strength.

Exit the Jail to Rest

Leaving a jail through a checkpoint will instantly and completely heal your party’s HP and SP. Since the day will not progress when you leave a jail, you can freely re-enter the jail with a fully-healed party without repercussions to the game’s schedule. With this knowledge at hand, always leave the jail whenever you find a checkpoint to heal your party and continue exploring.