I'm just in Block 2 of Tartarus i feel like i'm encountering increasingly harder enemies and i'm not getting much XP out of it. Should i be splitting up more to get more XP from fights?

Also, every time i encounter a new enemy type do i always have to wait a turn to find out it's weaknesses?

@jedted: It can take a bit of time before the enemies start to give any useful amount of XP. For awhile, you kinda have to slog through the encounters and struggle on the boss fights. As you get higher into Tartarus, the XP grows to a more adequate amount. Splitting the party is never necessary, in my experience.

Also, always be on the lookout for red, glowing enemies. These fights are a bit harder (as they are enemies from a higher level), but they give significantly more XP, especially when paired with an XP boosting card.

As for the enemy weaknesses, you can either wait for them to be displayed or (I think?) attack with the correct weakness first.

@wemibelec90: Is it worth bothering with Hama/Mudo skills this early? I've got Personas with every element(except Zio, relying on Akihiko for that) but every now and then i come across an enemy weak to those two and they do a lot of damage to me.

Is it common for the Reaper to show up every couple of levels this early in the game? I've drawn a few 'black skull' cards which caused it to appear but i've seen it a lot randomly.

@jedted: If you can get them, Hama and Mudo can certainly help with those enemies who are weak to it. Exploiting weaknesses is key to making the combat absolutely easy. I don't remember using them much in my playthroughs, but they might help.

From what I remember, the Reaper shows up if you take too long on a floor. Otherwise, he only comes when you draw the cards you mentioned.

The bolded part is spot on in regards to the Reaper.

It's been a while since I've played P3 (and I did most of my run in the FES version of the game, rather than P3P) so my memory might be a bit hazy, but I do vaguely remember that the early enemies don't give much EXP. The true path to progression through the game is to make use of fusion though, allowing you to make stronger Personas for your main character (henceforth known as MC) and alleviating a fair amount of the difficulty and necessity to grind.

I do hope you're taking advantage of the weakness to knock down enemies and going for All-Out attacks when they are available. I remember that a character or enemy getting up from being knocked down costs a turn, but I think that may have been changed in P3P so that can no longer be exploited. Honestly, I barely used Mudo and Hama when playing P3 and P4 and even when I did, my success rate was fairly low, so I never relied on them.

I also do recall your party getting fatigued a lot easier and faster in the early game, which makes progression slow and tedious, but eventually it gets better. I think it starts to get quite a bit easier once you beat the first major enemy.

My advice would be to avoid the smallest shadows; the ones that only have one shadow in them can sometimes be disproportionately tough (mostly on later floors, they'll put ones with no weaknesses in there), and the XP payout is never worth the effort.

Other than that, avoid the reaper by going up a floor as soon as you're done exploring; I'm not sure how P3 Portable works, but in FES my general strategy was to skip all enemies until I get to the boss floor (to unlock the bi-directional teleporter), then double back to do quests/level up. Since you can jump out to the first floor to restore HP/SP, just bail and save whenever you're getting low. That's tough when your party members get fatigued quickly in the beginning, but I've found it to be a generally useful strategy even then. It's a time-consuming way of doing Tartarus (I'm around floor 110 and my Tartarus runs take me about three to five hours before everyone's exhausted), but it's the most efficient way I've found. I've found myself dramatically overleveled for Story bosses, while still getting tossed around by every other Tartarus boss.

Good luck!

@wchigo said:

Yes, I never really used Light/Dark spells in either game. They could be useful in certain situations, but they miss far too often to rely on (unless the enemy is weak).

If he's playing P3P (which is the board he posted on so I'm guessing that's the case), you only get fatigued when you quit the dungeon for the day. Your party members don't get tired in the dungeon like in original P3.

Honestly, I tend to disregard Hama and Mudo skills almost completely, and I rarely use personas that are weak to those skills. Enemies that are weak to Hama and Mudo aren't numerable enough for me to put an emphasis on those skills over something like, say, Rakukaja.

If you think enemies are tough now... get used to it, this game only gets harder. Having a well-rounded set of personas to choose from is key, and knowing what creature to attack with what skill is also very much necessary. You do have to wait a turn after scanning to log the enemy's weakness(es) so you can always push L and check it again later, but after that you'll never have to do it again. I think Fuuka eventually gets the ability to know weaknesses at the start of a battle, but that's not for several hours. My point is, learn to abuse the hell out of weaknesses.

Also, it's an SMT game, so buffs are pretty important. And while I'm on that train of thought, levels matter less than smart skill usage in these games, so simply grinding will have minimal effect if you're not also getting better at the game.

If you really want more XP, go to an easier area of Tartarus and split up. In Persona 3, XP is split up between whoever participated in a fight. Say you win a battle and get 20XP - if you have four people in that fight, each will get 5XP. If it's just you, you will get the whole 20XP. You have to go to a lower floor or you risk characters dying or getting killed yourself. I never found this necessary in Persona 3 FES or what I've played of P3P.

EDIT: As for the Reaper, he will appear on any floor after a certain amount of time. Those black skull cards just make him appear much faster - if you get one, run to the next floor immediately.

@wemibelec90: I found that even against enemies weak to Light and Dark, I'd miss far more often that I'd like...

Ah, yes, forgot that your party doesn't get fatigued until after you leave the dungeon in P3P. Too much of P3F on the brain for me.

Remember that fusions are critical. develop your relationships and fuse good persona, preferably with a boost skill like for example bufu with a ice boost 25 or 50% more damage buff. IMO that makes more difference than a couple of more levels on your characters.

While it may have not been the case for Persona 3, in Persona 4 light and dark skills are absolutely broken. It's even worse on the Vita, where Naoto becomes an absolutely game-breaking character due to it AND her ability to use other elemental spells as well. The final few dungeons with the MC and Naoto were a cakewalk because Naoto used darkness, while I used light, and NOTHING could withstand our wrath.

I heard you can actually control your party members in the PSP version of Persona 3, if so, then I imagine that that game would be even easier. You could make Mitsuru not be a useless piece of crap casting the same useless spells over again, and you could make your party members NOT disturb fallen enemies. Ugh, the biggest enemy in Persona 3: FES was the damn party AI, I swear.