Just grabbed this, any advice?

Hey hey! So I finally got back into gaming after a few busy, CRAZY months, and I grabbed Persona 5. I played through Persona 4 on the Vita, got the true ending, and absolutely loved my time with that game. So I was curious, is there any advice you can offer me without spoilers? Is there anything I show specifically do on a specific day, or key decisions I need to make to maximize relationships, get the true ending, not miss something awesome, make sure I don't build my squad wrong, etc? I don't have a ton of free time so I don't think I'll be able to do multiple playthroughs, and I'd hate to miss something important.

Any and all help is greatly appreciated!

P.S. Catching up on like 40 Bombcasts/Beastcasts (each) is both awesome and terrifying, so far this Ben dude seems awesome.

always carry the same arcana with you when your ranking up with someone as in 4. Max the Fortune S Link as soon as possible because there is a skill you get that will allow you to level up with everyone much faster. Also the true ending is MUCH easier to get in 5 than 4. Have fun I just got my platinum a week ago.

Well I'm pretty sure Polygon wrote a thorough daily guide. Otherwise the Samurai-Games guide is pretty useful for finding what benefits you get from what confidants (this time confidants/s. links give you different practical/strategic bonuses in addition to just extra xp when fusing personas).

Other than that I'd just say don't be stressed about what exactly you should do each day. Though, you can press the touchpad and see what everyone else playing did on a particular day as well.

I guess I'd also recommend finishing palaces/dungeons as soon as they're available. Then you're free to do whatever without worrying about the deadline.

Lastly, Morgana is infuriating whenever they say you're too tired, you should go to sleep. I'd just again recommend not stressing about if and if it turns out you don't finish a confidant that you really like, you can always youtube the rest after. It's not perfect, but I've made peace with it.

1. Finishing a dungeon now takes like three days minimum, so don't go in there on the last day expecting to finish it. Reaching the boss area triggers a retreat to the outside to do a ceremony the next day and then you can enter the dungeon and fight the boss any day after.
2. Each confidante(social link) gives you access to solid bonuses now. Death gives you great SP-regen equipment and increasing bargains on recovery items. Fortune gives you bonuses with confidantes without using time, allowing you to rank up more of them with no issue. Star allows you to switch party members mid battle. Temperance allows you to go out into town on nights you'd otherwise be resting from exploring the dungeon.
3. You can now tell which confidantes are available on a given day on the map.
4. Don't try and grind stats too hard, even though almost all confidantes have stat locks now. You'll end up gaining worthless bonuses to knowledge or whatever all year that aren't doing anything for you because you spent time grinding it out if you do. Just play it cool and do the final legs of the confidantes in the fall season.
5. Sun always ranks up if you visit him on Sundays after unlocking him. Moon always ranks up after you do one of his sidequests.
6. ORACLE is the best romance, and possibly best character in the game. She gets a lot of screen time, including practically two separate confidantes.
   
7. Romancing several girls this time has consequences, but mostly just a humorous one. It doesn't end in a bummer like I've heard it does in Golden, but you're also not the master player from vanilla!Persona 4 who gets away scot-free.

Read the demon personalities tutorial after you unlock the negotiation system. They don't tell you that info explicitly for some reason and it somewhat helps.

Hang out with the Death Confidant a lot, because once you can get the SP recovery from them, you can do all dungeons in a single day (not counting the boss fights).

Max out Temperance ASAP. You get your nights back.

Moon's EXP bonuses are a godsend. Your party will stay mostly evenly leveled in this game and that's so nice.

Sundays are exactly that - Sun days. Don't forget it.

Despite Morgana constantly telling you not to do things at night, the division of Confidants between daytime and nighttime hangouts makes completing them all way easier as long as you're going in with a matching Persona/choosing the right options (use a guide). I maxed out every S. Link on my first playthrough and never came close in 4.

I really appreciate the tips so far, all! Thank you, I feel a lot less overwhelmed. I also grabbed a Switch last weekend and playing Zelda had me worried about having another huge RPG to tackle! Again, I seriously appreciate it.

Check your texts every day. You can miss out on a couple of sidequests if you don't.

@oldenglishc: Spoiler tag that shit, man.

@oldenglishc: Your mileage may vary, but I thought it was a cute and touching romance. Her social awkwardness and the MCs support really made that relationship look sweet to me, and her bagging on Moon sealed the deal. I also feel like her dad is pretty okay with me when all comes down to it really.

This is also a case of her having bad competitors for the throne. Sure regretted going with Panther, lol. I saved before doing Oracle's relationship links because I didn't want to get got for dating both of them, and I feel like I would have been way happier had I gone all Oracle.

I suppose this is my fault for bringing opinions into the mix but maybe we should take this back to tips the OP can actually read instead of arguing about which girl he should date.

I guess. But only because my search for an anime drawing of Chris Hansen, which would have been hilarious, is coming up dry.

It's crazy freaking long so be prepared to be playing the game for months if you don't have a lot of free time. I finished around 104 hours, and I didn't do every little thing. I enjoyed all of it though.

Use the touchpad network features often if you want a somewhat guided experience.

For me, the first three palaces were really awesome, and then the game loses some momentum until a certain point later on in the story. Your mileage may vary.

Don't always use fast travel. Walking around the city once and a while can be fun.

I feel like a lot of the text messages, particularly the ones at night prior to a day off, try to guilt you into committing to hanging out with someone. Don't be afraid to ignore or turn down invites and whatnot.

Baton pass is your best friend.

Finally, and most importantly. Always be fusing.

Makoto is best girl

Bang your teacher.

This is a really minor thing, but as a heads up, fighting the boss of a dungeon takes up a day of its own, separate from exploring the dungeon. I say this because it's entirely possible that depending on your play-style (if you like spacing out dungeon time more, or doing things at the last minute), you could run into finishing the first dungeon too late and learning the hard way.

Other things I'd say from my experience:

-If you really like the combat in these games, I'd say give hard mode a shot; I found that it was overall pretty comfortable for someone with experience in the series. However, what makes this so much better is that they finally let you change the difficulty once you've started the game, so you can always change the current difficulty if you don't like it. It was a real bummer that even in P4G, they locked the difficulty slider to NG+ (however, I believe this game lacks the customization that one did).

-I definitely second making sure to do the Moon Confidant. The bonuses from it will make party management so much simpler and actually allow you to switch party members (without going out of your way to grind) unlike past games.

-As far as minor skill stuff goes: pretty much never let your party members keep revival skills (recarm, etc.) or "break" moves, as the former is easily replaced by an item and the latter is far too situational. Other than than that you can probably feel out what moves you want your party members to have.

-General point of advice for any of these games in case you didn't bother much in P4G (which isn't that hard overall): buffs and debuffs are more useful than in a lot of other RPGs, so always having some available, ESPECIALLY for boss fights, can help out immensely. Early on (by first or second dungeon) it shouldn't be too hard to fuse a persona with all three single-target debuffs, which can go a long way for boss fights, and you'll need it if you play on higher difficulties. Late game you can just fuse Trumpeter who gets debilitate, which applies all three debuffs in one go.

Hope you enjoy!

date ann. lady can eat.

1. Prioritize temperance link

2. Check texts every day. It's annoying but you'll miss sidequests if you don't

Otherwise your Persona 4 experience should carry you through. Good luck!

I think my main advice would be not to worry too much about playing optimally. Just do what feels right! It's not a super difficult game and if you've played P4 you know what's going on with the combat. Relax and enjoy it!

Don't get upset if you complete certain links. Many parts of the game are made for New Game+

Makoto is best girl. Kawakami is best woman.

I'll leave the choosing of the partner to you, and since you played through P4G you are already used to the pressure of choice. I just want to remind you to leave romancing for the later months of the year, cause some links you only meet for the first time during mid game so if you are already locked in one relationship, you might not want to pursue another.

There are certain events where multiple links will travel with you, but others will remain on their location. And that might steer your choice on the girl you want to date considering that if you choose one of the ones who travel's, you might just find some alone time with her, maybe sight-seeing or watching the sun setting.

The game doesn't warn you about this and I think it's a way that the game was developed cause most of the travelling is done by school agenda and of course not every female link is going to your school, most of them are adults who just want a bite of the young stud (YOU).

My first play-through I was enamored by the doctor's legs (Yes those legs for some reason always piqued my interest), and since its one of the first links I almost maxed it out, leaving some of the later links with no attention. I played through NG+ to see other romances and catch the legendary fish and finish the crazy NG+ fights (there is one crazy fight that makes 100% playing through NG+ enjoyable)

The order in what links should be priority to max, in my opinion is: Temperance > Tower > Star > Sun > Death > Moon. Some others like the Hierophant are locked behind events throughout the game but the reward you get for maxing that out is the ability to cook some Spicy (or not) Curry that replenishes SP for the whole squad, pretty useful when you are trying to farm XP.

I might have missed some HOT tips but if you have any questions or doubts just tag any of us in this topic, cause most of us finished 100% that game, cause it was the right thing to do in a Persona game.

PS: My final TIP is try maxing out Social Stats before relationships: Always buy books, so you can read them in the train when the cat needs you. Always take baths during the special days (Monday or Thursday). Always study at the diner during Rainy days.

When in a pickle and you don't know what to improve because the game doesnt show how close you are to the threshold, remember to pay attention to when you gain a social stat, because when the animation after the yellow music note, your pentagram appears and the pointy arrow will react to the increase, if you pay close attention while the triangle reacts you might see how close it is to hit the threshold. So that might steer your next activity choice.

You guys all rule! Thank you for all of the tips, I really didn't want to use a walkthrough and ruin it!

Get as many arcana and talk to as many characters as you can as soon as you can. It will make the game go much faster. Also, make sure that you're putting in time up front to level up your 5-point attribute star. There will be hard checks on your levels for those attributes that will gate you from getting S-ranks with characters.

Spend time in Momentos as well. I won't say why, but it will make many things easier if you put in that time steadily and regularly over the course of the game. Finally, it's totally ok to look up weaknesses for enemies and bosses. It's just gonna make the game go a lot easier without the trial and error and you'll get to see the cool group attacks and get more opportunities to catch more personas. Those fights are hard enough as it is without having to fumble around and find the weaknesses yourself.

Hey, all! Just checking in to let you guys know that your input has been invaluable. Last night I cleared the bank and I'm really enjoying the game. There are a lot of nice little touches that are super unique and cool, like enemies surrendering and talking them into giving you their power or money, etc. My love interest up to this point is Anna, and I think I hate Ryuji, haha. I've been mostly just playing how I want and enjoying the ride, though I am using a guide for test questions, and the best responses for hanging out with people. Other than that, still going strong!!

(By the way, I made a new account because my other one still displayed the original -HORRIBLE- username I set it to and I finally had enough!)

Everytime I think I get this game it confuses the Hell out of me, I went to school, Have a coffee, to build guts to friend Takemi, go home and I hang with Sojiro, I think I can then leave and go to the bath house. NOPE! Day ended, I couldn't make coffee or tools, just next morning. SO WHAT AM I SUPPOSE TO DO!? I have too much time and not enough time, I am save scumming just to see what events will end the day.

@the_guermo: Each normal day gives you 2 time units, daytime&evening or after school&evening. Doing anything (that builds confidant or stat points) consumes one unit of time. Going to a dungeon consumes both units of time. So in your situation, going to the diner (build guts) used up your after school time, and hanging with Sojiro (build Hierophant) used up your evening time. Basically the only stuff you can do without spending time is buy items or go to the velvet room. Also if something is going to use up your time, I think you will always get a yes/no prompt to confirm.

It's usually pretty clear what will and won't end your evening (basically - most significant things will)...if you spend time with a confidant (like Sojiro) that's definitely going to end the night. All the actions you mention end the night (making coffee/tools, going to the bath house) until you get Temperance confidant leveled up, then she can take care of some of it for you.

Don't worry too much about it though...I'm in September at the moment and have maxed most of my stats and am in a pretty good place in terms of Confidant relationships.

@xkkzz:

Thanks, that was extremely helpful, good looking out bro.