Quick Links
We’ve seen Persona 5 Royal’s Phantom Thieves in a lot of different roles since their best-selling main series adventure, but now, they’re back inPersona 5 Tacticato fight once more. Now, though, not only do you have a whole new party member, but your party size has been slashed, requiring careful maneuvering to complete your goals.
Follow the Phantom Thieves into a surreal metaverse of Kingdoms and help them once again fight for the justice they believe in through a series of well-planned battles and tactical moves like you’ve never used before. Brute force won’t get you far here!
Make The Most Of Your Three Teammates
Unlike the regular four-person squads you roll with in mainline Persona games,you only have three characters on a teamin Persona 5 Tactica.
Naturally, with combat taking a different form in P5T, the way you approach it will need to be different, too.Experiment with different party membersto see whose skills work best, but be aware thatdifferent Thieves work best for different goals.
It’s imperative toconsider the goal of a mission before choosing a team. Sometimes, you’ll need to take out enemies, making power a highlight, while other missions, you’ll simply need to reach the end of the stage, where characters with a higher movement range are more helpful.
One major change from the main series Persona 5 is thatyou don’t have to include Joker in your partyin P5T. If his Curse skills with Arsene aren’t what you need, you can remove him from your party and bring someone else as your third.
Unused Teammates Reach Peak Condition For Their Next Fight
When choosing a team for a fight, you may notice that the others in your party select screen have a faintlight blue glowaround their character portraits. This indicates that a teammate is inPeak Condition.
This happenswhen characters are left out of a fight, they save their energy and receive a boost in their next fight. Any character whose portrait is surrounded by blue falls into this category, so be mindful of this on the team select screen.
Peak Conditionincreases the teammate’s HP and SPfor the fight ahead, though this bonuswon’t apply to Questsyou choose to do between main story battles.
Don’t Be Afraid To Do Nothing On Your Turn
In the majority of fighting games, outright brute force is typically best, but when your movements are limited and your team is smaller, it can sometimes help toend your turn without doing anything if there’s no good move for a teammate to make.
You’re introduced to the concept ofCharge focusfairly early on in P5T, butanyone who didn’t attack will take the time to charge upa bit before their next turn.
The effect of Charging isunique for every teammate. Some will gain additional movement, better firing range or capability, or more, so if there’s no smart move for a teammate to take, end the turn and watch them improve on their next go.
Get To The High Ground
It won’t be long before the flat surfaces on which you begin fighting have multiple stories. Your team canclimb ladders and dash between platformsso long as said ladders or platforms are within their movement range on their current turn.
In general, it helps totake the high groundwhenever you’re able to, as bothyouandthe enemies gain the same perks for having that advantage.
Any enemyhit from belowwill takereduced damage, while, on the flip side, enemieshit from abovewill almost always takemore damage.
If the attack is going to be the same, climb up another level for an added boost in your damage - it may be the difference between taking out a shadow or waiting for an extra turn to do so.
Take Cover, But Knock Enemies Out Of It
Another thing you didn’t have to worry about in the main game wastaking cover before ending your turn.In P5T, any character who doesn’t end their turn behind an object isdefenseless.
It’s imperative that your Phantom Thievesend the turn behind cover whenever possible. After you’ve had a go at the enemy, they’ll be firing back as soon as your turn is over, so you’ll need tokeep the Thieves covered.
This is becauseenemies not behind cover are left susceptible to critical attacks, which always grant a One More action for the attacker. Limit your enemies' movements by staying behind cover whenever possible.
However, you’re not out of luck just because an enemy has ended their turn behind cover.Attacking with a Persona can knock an enemy out of cover, leaving them defenseless for whichever of the Thieves is delivering the follow-up move.
If a character doesn’t have a clear shot at an enemy, it may be worth it to have another character hit the enemy with an elemental attack. This will render the enemy defenseless, allowing for a seamless follow-up move from another teammate.
Everyone takes reduced damage when behind cover, your team and enemies alike. Do your best to leave the Phantom Thieves behind cover, while leaving enemies defenseless at the same time.
Plan Out Combos And Move Order To Maximize One More Attacks
Because of the need to remove enemies from cover to damage them effectively, it may be helpful tocycle through characters and form an attack planbefore making any sudden moves.
For example, if you have three enemies behind cover and a Phantom Thief whose skill tree you upgraded to include multi-target moves, having that Thief attack first with their multi-target elemental move can remove all three of the shadows from cover for the next two teammates.
Plan out your attack before executing it, especially as you work into later stages of the game where there are traps, more enemies, and more roadblocks between you and your end goal.
Additionally, like the main game, elemental attacks from Personas caninflict status ailmentsthat can easily turn the tide of battle for you. Use bonus features like Shock, Burn, or Forget to double down on your damage output even after your turn has ended.
Always Check Your Goals Before A Fight
Before every fight in Persona 5 Tactica, you’ll have several options to change your team setup, including their Personas, their equipment, and more. However, each stage has anadditional set of goalspast the primary one that offeradditional rewards for completion.
These are usually stricter parameters, typicallyclearing the board in a set number of turns,fighting the entire battlewith no KOs for your team, occasionallydefeating all enemieswhen movement is the primary goal of the fight, and more.
While they’re never strictly necessary,doing these extra goals is a great way to earn extra cash and EXPpast what you earn naturally for finishing the battle’s main goal.
After a fight, you’ll be shown which of these additional objectives you completed during the mission, and you’ll be rewarded in kind before proceeding on with the story.Always try your best to earn these extra perks, as the payout is almost always worth the extra effort.
Do Quests Often, But Beware That They’re More Difficult
Another excellent way to earn some bonus GP, EXP, or yen is bydoing the optional Questsoffered between main story Missions.
While Missions are strictly necessary to advance the story, Quests give youstrict, well-definedgoals, and completing them offers some excellent bonus experience for the teammates involved.
These often havelimited moves, certain party members you need to bring, or other necessary
These Quests can be quite tricky, though, requiring athorough understanding of Tactica’s mechanicsin order to test you on yourmastery of certain in-game skills,like effectively stringing together One More attacks or carefully choosing between single and multi-target moves.
It may take a few attempts to figure out a Quest, but keep working away at them - the GP payouts are often enough to unlock a new skill or two in the involved character’s skill tree!
Choose Sub-Personas Carefully
Now thatevery member of the Phantom Thieves can use a secondary Persona, you’d be wise to keep an eye on who has which Sub-Persona equipped as you work through Persona 5 Tactica.
Since you don’t always need to bring Joker now, careful use of this new mechanic can turnanyof the Phantom Thieves into a wild card. Try tostack new abilities, skills, or passive movesonto each Thief to enhance their innate power to improve your fighting capabilities.
And Sub-Personas don’t need to match the user’s damage type, either - in fact, it’sbetter if the Sub-Persona has unique moves that its user doesn’t. Deviating to mix and match is an easy way to equip your team with different types of damage.
Use this new capability toexpand elemental coveragein a fight with Personas that have damage-dealing moves. You can also up your defenses withpassive moves or skillsthat impact your gameplay for that particular Thief, or justadd battle perksto your party that grant extra skills or HP/SP replenishments.
Like you built your team itself carefully, alwaysdouble-check who has what Persona equipped before entering a battle. If you need to swap out for something more powerful or with more skills, you canaccess the Velvet Room from the Battle Prep screenat any time.
The right Sub-Persona with the right moves added to the right Phantom Thief can be the difference between winning and losing, so always be mindful toswap our Sub-Personas often as you become strongerto make sure you’re always getting the most bang for your buck.
