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Persona 4 Goldendrops you into the shoes of Yu Narukami and tasks you and your ragtag group of friends with saving the sleepy town of Inaba from the ominous fog and series of murders by which it’s been plagued. No pressure though, right?
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to get to the bottom of things, you’ll need to battle your way through dungeons, fighting shadows to save your friends from themselves. And with combat such a central mechanic in P4G (and thePersonaseries as a whole), we wanted to give you some tips to help you make the most of your battles.
Utilize Enemy Weaknesses And One-More Attacks
One of themost importanttips we can give you is to be sure you’reexploiting weaknesses.
If you analyze an enemy in battle, you’ll be able to see to which elements or skills it’s weak, allowing you to make ample use of attacks of those elements or types.
When you exploit enemy weaknesses and the attacks land, the enemies aredowned.
Downing an enemy in P4G by exploiting their elemental weakness will reward you with aOne Moreattack. This allows whoever dealt the damage that downed the enemy will get toattack a second time.
This pattern of earning another attack continuesuntil you stop using super-effective moves.
If there are multiple enemies on the field, plan your attack pattern carefullyto exploit the One More attacks as much as possible to make quick work of the fight.
Use All-Out Attacks Liberally
Following the method above of exploiting enemies’ elemental weaknesses, you may set your party up to do a massive amount of damage all at once.
When you’ve downed each enemy on the field, your team will trigger anAll-Out Attack.
These see your entire party attacking every remaining enemy at once, combining their strength into a huge, simultaneous attack and usually dealingmassivedamage to whoever remains.
Depending on where you are in the game and how strong the shadows are, this may be enough to end the battle outright! Unless you have a different idea of how you’d like the fight to go, it’s typically a good idea toseize the opportunity for an All-Out Attack (almost) whenever possible.
If an enemy survives the All-Out Attack, they will re-enter the battleno longer downed.
If you’re not confident that the All-Out Attack will finish the fight, it may be best to decline to use it and continue exploiting elemental weaknesses.
Sneak Up On Shadows For An Advantage
The game tells you about this during your first dungeon-crawling expedition, but it’s a tip you really ought to keep aware of throughout the game:sneak up on shadows from behind to gain an advantage in battle.
If you successfully attack an enemy from behind, you enter the battle with aplayer advantage, which means your teamattacks first.
However, the inverse can also be true – if a shadow attacks you before you’re able to hit it to trigger the battle, you’ll instead begin with anenemy advantage, allowing the shadow a free shot at your team.
It’s always a good idea toguarantee you go firstby sneaking up on shadows. These enemies grow quite powerful by the end of the game, so it’s a good idea to prevent them from taking a free shot if you can sneak up on them beforehand.
Have Ways To Replenish Your HP And SP
There are two meters in Persona 4 Golden to which you really need to pay attention when going through dungeons:HPfor your health, andSPfor your magic.
But the two are not created equal, and there aremore ways to replenish HP than SP.
Your teammates are able to learn skills and spells that can be used inandout of battle to help heal the team back to good health.
Skills likeDiaorMediacan heal the party in the middle of battle if you havea Persona that knows them, but you’re also able to ask your teammates to use them between fights to top off when you’re not in immediate danger.
However,SP is harder to replenish, but the good news is that there are some items you canbuy, find, or even growaround Inaba.
Buy Drinks From Vending Machines
By visiting thevending machinesaround Inaba, you can purchasedrinksthat replenish small amounts of SP.
Dr. Salt Neo, Second Maid, and The Naturalwill all give5SP, whileTaP Sodagives10SP.
These will all cost¥120 each, (even though TaP Soda has double the SP yield, making it an evenbettervalue). You can purchasefive drinksfrom each machine before it’s “sold out.” The machines arerestocked every Monday, so make visiting them a habit.
You’ll occasionally receive asecond drink for free, and doing so isone of the game’s achievements.
However, there’sno pattern for when it happens, so you’ll just have to keep trying your luck.
Grow Veggies In Your Garden
You can also growTiny Soul Tomatoes, whichreplenish 20 SPto whoever eats them, as well asBead Melons, whichfully replenish the HP and SPof whoever eats them.
These can all be grown in yourgardenat theDojima Residence. For more info on gardening, check outour Gardening Guidefor P4G.
Pay The Fox To Heal You
Finally, early into the story of Persona 4 Golden, you’ll meet aFoxthat lives atTatsuhime Shrine.
The Fox will appear in the TV world to heal you and the party occasionally once you’ve begun its social link, butthe service isn’t free.
It starts off quite expensive, butthe closer you become to the Foxas you progress its social link,the less it will charge you.
Therefore, we recommend making maxingthe Fox’s social linka priority, if only for the healing powers.
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Pay Attention To Status Ailments
While the majority of combat is a straightforward exchange of magic or physical damage, you’ll need to be wary ofstatus ailmentswhen they’re inflicted on the party.
Each one will do something different, but they’re all adetriment to your battle, as it limits or even restricts your use of Personas during the fight.
Below, you’ll find afull list of status ailments in Persona 4 Golden, as well as what their effect is during battle.
Unconscious
Each ailment has at least onespell or item to cure it. Your party’s healer ought to have a handful of these moves in their arsenal, just to play it safe.
However, there are alsoitemsthat you’re able to use during battle that have the same effect. These can be foundaround dungeons, so be on the lookout and keep a small stock on you, just in case.
Stay On Top Of Your Velvet Room Fusions
While we know exactly how it goes, getting attached to Personas in your stock that seem like the heroes of your team, it’s always a good idea tokeep your Compendium current.
Byregistering the Personas you findin Shuffle Time throughout your dungeon-crawling, you’ll log them into your Compendium and be able topay to get them again.
This allows you to save your Personas as they are, before using them to performfusionsto create even stronger Personas.
The level of Persona you’re able to fuse is limited by your protagonist’s current level. For example, if you’re Lv. 20, you can fuse any Persona that’s Lv. 20 or lower.
When you fuse new Personas, the new result will obtaina few skills or attacks from its parent Personas.
Fused Personas will gain additional power based on where you are in the social link of the character whose arcana corresponds with the Persona you’re about to make.
The closer you are to said character, the more additional power Personas of their arcana will become upon fusion.Keep this in mind when performing fusions, as it may be beneficial to wait a moment until you’re closer to the character for that arcana, for sake of earning more power post-fusion.
It’s usually a good idea toassemble your party, and thenlet Yu cover the elemental gapswith his wild card ability.
For instance, if you have Yukiko with fire and healing, Kanji with electric and physical, and Naoto with light and dark, then you’ll want to give Yu Personas that know ice, electric, and wind moves, so your party can cover every affinity!
Prioritize Your Party’s Social Links
Persona 4 Golden has a total of24 arcana, all of which are represented bysomeone you know around Inaba. When you’ve unlocked a social link, you form abondwith them that you’re able to then work on byspending free timewith them.
And while growing closer to all characters will reward you with the ability to fuse stronger Personas of their corresponding arcana, it’s wise toprioritize the party members you use the most.
As you become closer to your teammates, they willlearn additional skills or abilitiesto use in battle.
These will start small, with the ability towake a fallen ally, but will finish withtheir Persona transforming into a secondary, stronger form.
We’ve got fullsocial link guidesfor every character in Persona 4 Golden, so find your teammates and be sure to make them a priority during your free time.
Bike Skills
Once you unlock the ability to ride your scooter, you can begininviting teammates on bike rides. Doing so will imbue them withadditional skillsthat theynormally couldn’t learn by leveling up.
We also have a guide tohow best to use your bike skills,so be sure to check it out to help your Investigation Team friends become even stronger!
Control Your Party Members In Important Fights
While it’s definitely kind of fun to let your party members act autonomously, making Persona 4 Golden feel more like an adventure with your friends than like you’re commanding a squad, the AI behind how your teammates attack makes it so thatthey aren’t always reliable.
However, you may prevent this from happening byassuming direct control of all fighters in the party. It does remove a bit of the spontaneity of battle, but it allows you to tell each party member exactly what to do and when.
This isn’talwaysnecessary, especially as your level increases or your difficulty setting decreases, but inimportant battles, it might be smart totake control.
Be it mini-bosses, boss shadows, or just when the party’s health is low, you can prevent your teammates from making useless or harmful moves on their turn by controlling them yourself.
You can change this in theChange Battle Tacticsoption in yoursubmenu. Each party member’s control can be set individually, and you can instruct them to do things likefocus on healingor channeling all their energy intooffensive moves.
This further allows you to makeuse of your wild card stock, as it gives you new elements to play with without saddling Yu with another Persona.
Test it out and see how it works for you! Some people enjoy the freedom to let their friends do as they wish, but when it comes down to the wire, it’s not a bad idea to take control yourself.
