Atlus has just released Persona 5 Strikers, the sequel to the critically acclaimed Persona 5, but it mixes up the format of the game by losing the turn-based battles and other features, instead opting for an action-RPG style. This makes Strikers new ground for both players new to the franchise and longtime Persona fans.
As you start out on your new journey with the Phantom Thieves, there will be lots to learn and plenty of content that you can accidentally miss out on. We've compiled a list of our top tips for beginners to ensure you get the most out of your playthrough.
Balance Your Party And Personas
Much like most RPGs, the key to an efficient party is balancing out your teammates. You should always have a dedicated healer in your party, with Mona and Sophie being the top choices for this role. However, some of the other characters learn healing skills too, such as Panther, Makoto, and Haru.
Furthermore, as Joker can equip multiple Personas, you should have at least one Persona that is really good at healing so you can also help your party out when they're in a pinch. You should also keep a wide range of Personas in Joker's stock, each with a different elemental attack, so you are better prepared to target your enemy's weaknesses by switching out your Persona.
Exit Jails To Rest When Needed
If you are a Persona fan, you'll probably enter Strikers thinking that every time you do something, such as enter and leave a Jail, it will progress the game forwards a day. Fortunately, that's not the case for Strikers! You can leave Jails from various checkpoints to replenish your HP and SP and then simply re-enter without any worry about wasting time.
This is a godsend really, as all too often in Persona games you would be running on SP fumes when nearing the end of a Palace. Additionally, leaving Jails to rest after completing certain objectives can sometimes make Requests pop up earlier, meaning you can complete them when you re-enter to finish the jail.
Keep Your Party Well Equipped
It's important to keep your party well-equipped when it comes to weapons, armors, and accessories. As well as receiving these from requests and treasure chests, you can purchase items from various stores in the cities you visit as well as Sophia's Online Shop.
It's also worth keeping a healthy stock of medicine, especially HP and SP restorative items so that you can help your party out if you ever find yourself in a tight spot. Completing certain requests will expand Sophia's stock range and sale items will also begin to appear.
Ambush And Phantom Dash Whenever Possible
While in dungeons, you will be prompted to jump to various locations or on top of different environment items such as cars or lamps. You can use these to perform special Phantom Dash attacks, or to more easily Ambush attack your enemies.
Make the most of these attacks, especially Ambush, as it will often start the battle with your enemies knocked down so you can get in an All-Out Attack straight away. Additionally, Phantom Dash attacks while in battles, especially boss battles, are a nice easy way to get in some decent damage without wasting your SP and often result in a critical hit.
Explore Every Location
The Phantom Thieves will travel to many locations throughout the game, but once you leave somewhere, you are unable to visit it again (though you can always revisit their Jails). Be sure to check out all the stores in each area, as some sell unique items that you can't get anywhere else.
For example, cooking recipes can be found in local restaurants and cafes, and while most of them will be available from Sophia's Online Shop if you miss them, they will cost you a lot more than if you had simply purchased them in town. You'll also want to keep a good stock of ingredients for cooking, but all shops only have a few items in stock each day, so it's worth revisiting more than once.
Speak To Your Friends at Every Opportunity
Make sure you go out of your way to speak to your friends every day if possible, or every time they move locations in a set area. This is a great way to get some freebie items from your fellow Phantom Thieves, but they also offer more important missable items.
Some days your friends will give you cooking recipes that aren't available elsewhere, they might make special requests that are otherwise missable, or they might gift you with some decorations for the RV that will unlock the "A Little Memento" trophy.
Concentrate On Bond Skills
Bond Skills are super important and will help you immensely in a variety of ways. More Bond Skills will unlock as you progress through the game, but in order to purchase them and upgrade them, you will need Bond Points. You get these from raising your Bond Level, which can be done by fighting in the Metaverse or by socializing in the real world with your friends.
There are some Bond Skills that you should prioritize, such as SP boost (increases SP), Oracle Recovery (restores some HP and SP at the end of a battle), Ambusher (restores HP to all party members after a successful ambush), Harisen Helper (increases chance to trigger Harisen Recovery), and Safecracker (can open locked chests).
Keep Switching Your Characters
Though we all have our favorites when it comes to the Persona cast, it's worth rotating your party members and playing as all of them at some point. This is because you need to play as a character in order to unlock their Master Arts, essentially special combo abilities and improvements for their existing attacks. The more you use a character, the more Master Arts they unlock, with each character having four in total.
Additionally, using the Baton Pass option in battle to switch characters will temporarily boost the rate at which the Showtime gauge increases, and there are Bond Skills to further enhance this effect.
Complete All Requests
Requests are essentially sidequests that will pop up throughout the game, each giving you various tasks to undertake in Jails or the real world in order to obtain rewards. Some requests are repeatable, though they offer different rewards for subsequent completions.
Requests offer some rather awesome rewards that you can't get anywhere else, including unlocking bond skill level caps, recipes, persona fusion items, and more, so it's really worth dedicating some time to these. Some requests are missable and most will become locked if you progress too far ahead without completing them, so the best thing to do is to complete them as soon as you get them.
Grab All Loot In Jails
Jails are a massive part of the game, but don't just run from one objective to the next — take your time and explore the area. Treasure chests can often be found and will often reward you with some decent items, such as incense. Treasure chests can sometimes respawn when you re-enter dungeons too, unlike in Persona 5.
Additionally, collect all the floating boxes that you see, as these will later be needed for certain requests. It's so much easier to complete these if you have already made a headstart on gathering the items, or if you already own all the items needed.