Tips For Starting ‘Persona 5 Royal’

Persona 5 Royal is a massive game. If you’ve never played it before or even if you’re a returning member of the Phantom Thieves, the amount of information thrown at you within the first few hours can be overwhelming. But fear not! We compiled some tips that will make starting out a little easier as you build up your Palace infiltrating reputation. 

Create an original Persona 5 save file. 

Games will often reward you for having save files for other games in its franchise, and Persona 5 Royal is no exception. If you can get your hands on a copy of the original title and create a save file, you’ll be rewarded with some useful health items and 50,000 yen. While not much in the grand scheme of things, that early cash boost can help you in a big way as you start your career as a Phantom Thief when it comes to a certain physician. More in that in a bit… 

The Palace can wait. 

Once the admittedly lengthy opening sequence ends and you can finally enter your first dungeon, you might be eager to take down the arrogant gym teacher who’s terrorizing your school. But what’s the rush? Sure, expulsion and prison are hanging over your head, but don’t you want to hang out with your friends first? The more you build up your relationships with your confidants, the more abilities you and your party will unlock that makes navigating the Palace easier, helping you aim for that important goal of finishing the palace in as few days as possible. If no one is free, build up your social stats, which play a vital role with progression later on. Keep in mind though, that one stat is particularly important early on. 

Boost guts! 

Social stats are aspects of Joker’s personality that open up more conversation options as you advance through the game. Each one is equally important as you’ll eventually be locked out of events if your rating in one of the five stats is too low. However, Guts in particular need to be increased as soon as possible as the most important early game Confidant is locked out until it’s at least at level 2. Do so early on by watching movies, reading books or renting the Royal exclusive DVD’s. 

Build Takemi confidant to rank 5 and buy the SP Adhesive 3 

Tae Takemi… the local goth doctor that totally has a thing for high school kids. If that wasn’t enough of a reason to visit her, she has one of the best items in the game for sale once she’s reached Rank 5. You can’t talk to her until your Guts get past level 1, but the grind is worth it as her SP Adhesive 3 replenishes 7 SP for every turn that the equipped party member uses in battle. It’s a pricey 100,000 yen, but that 50,000 yen bonus we mentioned earlier goes a long way here. SP is what allows you to cast spells, and since elemental weaknesses are so prevelent during combat, you’ll need as much as you can get. Your party is also sure to get hurt as you travel, so having an unlimited stream of healing will ensure that you can finish dungeons in as little as a single day. Later perks are more efficient when it comes to maintaining SP, but Takemi is easily the most important early game confidant for these reasons. Make sure to take advantage of her shady clinical trials. 

Focus on your party during the day / the maid at night 

Persona 5 Royal’s calendar system separates most days into a day and night cycle which divides who you can interact wit hduring your free time. Once Takemi has been built up to level 5, building up your party is the next important daytime task. As they grow closer with Joker, they’ll eventually learn valuable skills in and out of battle, culminating with their Persona evolving and increasing their chances of dodging attacks that they’re weak to. Ryuji in particular grants you the ability to instant kill weaker enemies, which becomes invaluable for grinding EXP and money. At night, you’ll eventually meet a familiar maid who also needs a high Guts rating to contact. Level 3 Guts will allow you to call her to take care of some chores, but maxing her grants a special massage that will let you act at night when you normally couldn’t. Typically, exploring a dungeon during the day leaves you feeling too tired to act at night, but these massages will significantly increase the amount of free time you get. 

Create lockpicks 

When you have the occasional night where your friends can’t hang out and you couldn’t stand to read another word, why not create lockpicks? Dungeons will often have powerful items and equipment stashed within locked treasure chests. Lockpicks allow you to access their contents, saving you a lot of time and money while raising your Proficiency social stat in the process. Palaces disappear after they’re completed and cannot be re-visited, so having them on hand as you find the chests will save you some last minute headaches as you approach the Palace ruler.  

Don’t buy weapons or armor 

For all the reasons mentioned regarding lockpicks, buying armor and weapons is often a waste of valuable early game money. Locked chests often have the same or better gear than what’s available in the store, and there’s no better punch in the gut more painful than finding the expensive weapon you just bought for free. This applies throughout the game as Personas can eventually be turned into some of the best gear in the game. And it’s often free! 

Keep Eiha, then fuse first treasure demon ASAP for elemental coverage. 

The game forces you to give away your cool devil thief, Arsene, early into the game. Fusing Personas gives you the freedom to create whatever layout of abilities you want among the spells each original one had available, but keeping Eiha, Arsene’s Curse elemental attack, is almost necessary to capture the first treasure demon. Once obtained, this demon can be fused again to unlock spells that you won’t get until much later in the game otherwise, namely Psy, Nuke and Bless elemetal skills. Joker’s strength is his versatility, so giving him access to as many abilities as possible are keys to succeeding throughout the game. 

Stepping into the role of a Phantom Thief can feel daunting at first, but these tips should help reforming society seem a little more manageable. Are there any other tips you think we missed? Do you have examples of how these tips helped? Let us know in the comments!