Although Persona 5 Royal’s lineup of Personas exceeds hundreds, we have picked out some of the best Personas you can use in your battle.
Persona 5 Royal, considered the pinnacle of Atlus’s Persona series, has an impressive lineup of over 200 Personas belonging to 23 Arcanas. Although they each have their own strengths, finding a Persona that excels in everything is often difficult.
P5R tells the story of a group of rebellious teenagers who discover the power of Personas and use it to change the hearts of corrupted individuals, bringing harm to society. As the leader of the Phantom Thieves, Joker is the only party member who can wield multiple Personas.
Your Persona compendium will be full of demons that have appeared in other games throughout Atlus’s Shin Megami Tensei universe. However, certain Personas are unique to the Persona series, most notably Persona 5 Royal. In P5R, you can obtain Personas by negotiating with them or fusing existing Personas in the Velvet Room.
Read More: Persona 5 Royal: All Personas and How to Recruit Them
The Personas you obtain can either excel at dealing non-elemental damage like Gun and Physical or elemental damage like Fire, Ice, Electricity, Wind, Psychochinisis, Nuke, and other affinities like Bless, Curse, or Almighty damage. Similarly, certain Personas excel in Healing you and your party or provide defence and stat boosts. This guide has attempted to list our picks for the best Personas Joker can use in battles.
Below, we have listed our top 10 picks for the best Personas you can use in Persona 5 Royal.
10. Shiki-Ouji
Shiki-Ouji is a shikigami Persona belonging to the Chariot Arcana. It is an exceptionally strong early-game Persona that appears as a mini-boss of Madarame’s “Museum of Vanity” Palace. Apart from Madarem’s Palace, you can also obtain it from Mementos’ Path of Chemdah or fuse it at Level 21.
Shiki Ouji can perfectly nullify Physical, Gun, and Curse damage and withstand most elemental damage. That said, Shiki-Ouji makes a good early-game Persona because it can easily withstand most elemental damage, except Nuke. However, as you level up this Persona, it will gain passive abilities like Repel Fire, Repel Nuke, Repel Psy, Repel Ice, and Repel Elec, all of which make it an unshakable iron wall.
9. Magatsu-Izanagi Picaro
Magatsu-Izanagi used to be the Persona of Tohru Adachi, the main culprit behind Persona 4’s serial murder cases. Magatsu-Izanagi Picaro is a Level 48 DLC Persona belonging to the Tower Arcana in P5R that can block Bless and Curse damage and resist Gun damage. It is the perfect Persona to use in an offensive playstyle focused on dealing Technical damage.
It comes equipped with innate skills like Magatsu Mandala that can deal curse damage to all enemies with a medium chance of inflicting status ailments like Confusion, Despair, or Fear. Its other innate skills include Megidola, which deals heavy Almighty damage to all enemies, and Ghastly Wail, which can insta-kill all foes inflicted with Fear.
8. Alice
Alice is undoubtedly one of the creepiest and most dangerous Demons that appear throughout the SMT universe. So naturally, she is one of the most powerful Personas in P5R’s Death Arcana. The Level 83 Persona can resist Psy and Nuke and reflect Curse attacks. However, she is weak to the Bless affinity.
Alice has powerful Curse skills like Mamudoon, which has a medium chance of insta-killing all enemies, and Maeigaon, which deals heavy curse damage to all enemies. These skills are backed by her passive Mudo Boost ability, which increases her success rate of curse-type insta-kills.
All of her other unlockable skills are powerful curse-type insta-kills. Once she reaches level 88, you will unlock the Survival Trick passive ability that allows Joker to survive one insta-death attack with 1 HP remaining.
Since her magic stat is extremely high compared to other Personas, she is the perfect Persona to bring to a fight you want to finish in minutes. Moreover, she is also perfect for bringing in boss fights with opponents like Jose, who has plenty of insta-kill moves himself.
7. Yoshitsune
Yoshitsune is a fan-favorite SMT Demon who appears as a Level 87 Persona in Persona 5 Royal. Belonging to the Tower Arcana, Yoshitsune is a powerful Physical damage dealer that can devastate enemies with its attacks. The mask of the Japanese general allows you to become an unstoppable Shadow killing machine.
Yoshitsune’s innate skills include Brave Blade, which deals colossal physical damage to one enemy. Combined with Charge, you can increase the damage of your Brave Blade attack by 250%. Moreover, you can also cast heavy Elec damage using Ziodyne, with a low chance of inflicting Shock. You can further boost your Ziodyne by unlocking the Elec Amp skill at level 92.
Other than having an extremely solid base Strength and Endurance stat, Yoshitsune can completely block Physical attacks while reflecting Elec and Bless attacks. Moreover, it also resists Fire damage. The best part about having Yoshitsune equipped is that it has no elemental weaknesses, so your likelihood of being hit by a critical attack is low, if not non-existent.
6. Kaguya Picaro
Kaguya is the Persona that Yu Narukami summons in his final battle with Izanami-no-Okami in Persona 4 Golden. Kaguya Picaro is simply the Persona 5 Royal rendition of Kaguya, which dons Shujin Academy’s clothes to recognize Joker as its master. In P5R, Kaguya/Kaguya Picaro belongs to the Moon Arcana.
Kaguya’s magic is omnipotent. With a base Magic stat of 65, Kaguya excels at healing you and your party and dealing Bless and Almighty damage to foes at a surprisingly low cost.
Its innate ability, Shining Arrows, can deal high Bless damage at fairly low SP. Furthermore, Kaguya also has an excellent range of Support abilities. Its Divine Grace passive ability boosts the effectiveness of Healing skills by 50%.
In addition to reflecting Physical attacks back at enemies, Kaguya can also block Curse and Bless attacks. Moreover, its Inviolable Beauty Persona trait allows it to triple-counter enemy attacks and boost the damage dealt from Repel Phys. All of these make Kaguya pretty invulnerable and an excellent Support Persona.
5. Messiah
Messiah is the ultimate Persona of Persona 3’s Protagonist, Yuki Makoto. Messiah Picaro, on the other hand, is simply the Persona 5 Royal rendition of Yuki’s original ultimate Persona, which dons Shujin Academy’s clothes to recognize Joker as its master. Messiah belongs to the Judgement Arcana in P5R.
Messiah is the perfect blend of assault and support Persona that can heal you and your party and deal Severe Almighty damage to foes. Messiah’s innate skill, Oratorio, not only fully restores the party’s HP but also negates any stat debuffs. While Megidolaon deals severe Almighty to all enemies, Agneyastra can be used to deal Colossal Physical damage to one foe.
The best part about having Messiah in your arsenal is that at level 82, your HP is restored based on 6% of your max HP in each turn during battle. Not only that, but you also recover 7 SP during each turn once you reach level 84. In addition, you can also survive one fatal blow with full HP recovery with Messiah equipped.
Messiah can resist elemental damages like Fire, Ice, Wind, Electricity, Psy, and Nuke and reflect Bless. And once it reaches Level 87, Messiah can also drain Physical attacks. However, it is weak to Curse skills.
4. Fafnir
Fafnir, which last appeared in Persona 2, belongs to the Hermit Arcana in Persona 5 Royal. It appears as a Will Seed guardian in Maruki’s palace, which can only be accessed in the game’s True Ending route. Being an end-game mini-boss, Fafnir, the mighty dragon, holds plenty of potential as a powerful late-game Persona.
Its innate skill, Gigantomachia, allows players to deal Colossal Physical damage to all foes. Fafnir’s other innate skills include Evil Smile, which inflicts Fear on all enemies, and Cosmic Flare, which deals Severe Nuke damage to all enemies. Moreover, your Nuke damage is passively amped up by 50% at Level 90.
The best part of equipping Fafnir is that it has no weaknesses. It can easily absorb Fire and Nuke attacks while reflecting Physical and Gun damage right back at enemies. Furthermore, it can resist Electric attacks.
Fafnir has incredibly high base stats like 61 Strength, 55 Magic, and 58 Endurance, making it incredibly difficult for enemies to inflict critical damage on you.
3. Maria
Maria is a P5R exclusive Persona belonging to the Faith Arcana. Maria is simply unparalleled in being the best Healer Persona in the game. Its innate skills include Salvation, which not only fully restores your party’s HP but also cures all non-special status ailments.
Moreover, Maria’s Holy Benevolence can revive the whole party with full HP restored for just 27 SP, giving everyone a second chance they need to overcome the toughest battles. Furthermore, this skill is unique to Maria as no other Persona can learn it.
Its passive skills include Invigorate 3, which restores 7 SP in each turn during battle. Once you reach level 94, you can use support skills like Heat Riser, which increases one ally’s Attack/Agility/Defence for three turns.
You will also be able to benefit from passive skills like Angelic Grace, which doubles your evasion rate against all attacks except Almighty/Hama/Mudo, and Holy Embrace, which restores 25% of your max HP in each turn.
However, once Maria becomes a level 98 Persona, it will learn the Holy Whisper ability that not only restores 15% of your max HP but also restores 15 SP during each turn in battle. With that said, bringing Maria to a battle alone will ensure your victory.
2. Izanagi-No-Okami Picaro
Izanagi-No-Okami, the only Persona belonging to the World Arcana, is the third-tier Ultimate Persona Yu Narukami called forth to defeat Izanami-no-Okami. Izanagi-No-Okami Picaro is the Persona 5 Royal rendition of Yu’s ultimate Persona, which dons Shujin Academy’s clothes to recognize Joker as its new master.
Izanagi-No-Okami Picaro’s insurmountable strength, magic, and endurance are reflected in its base stats. Without a doubt, Izanagi-No-Okami’s Myriad Truths makes a comeback as its innate skill, allowing players to deal Heavy Almighty damage to all enemies three times. It was the same skill that Yu used to obliterate Izanami-no-Okami.
Moreover, it is the only Persona other than Satanael with the Victory Cry passive ability that fully restores your party’s HP and SP after a battle. Furthermore, Izanagi-No-Okami is extremely powerful, with no weakness in any elements. It can resist all elements, including Gun, Phys, Fire, Ice, Elec, Wind, Psy, and Nuke.
Like Maria, Izanagi-No-Okami also comes with the Angelic Grace ability, which doubles your evasion rate against all attacks except Almighty/Hama/Mudo. Moreover, it also comes with support skills like Enduring Soul, which allows you to withstand one fatal blow and recover from it with full HP restored. Furthermore, at Level 93, you can also use Salvation to fully restore your party’s HP and cure all non-special status ailments.
On top of having killer stats, Izanagi-No-Okami Picaro receives a 100% stat boost when your Persona Compendium is maxed. Since all of Izanagi-No-Okami Picaro’s Almighty attack is passively strengthened by 25%, it is certainly the second-best and strongest Persona you can use in Persona 5 Royal.
1. Satanael
Lastly, we have the best Persona you can use in Persona 5 Royal, which is none other than Satanael. Satanael is the third-tier Ultimate Persona of Joker that brought down the mighty Yaldabaoth.
Being the pinnacle of the Fool Arcana, it stands to reason why Satanael is the strongest and most OP persona you can get in P5R. Although it briefly appears in the final battle, you can fuse Satanael using Personas like Arsène, Satan, Lucifer, Anzu, Ishtar, and Michael when you reach level 95 in New Game+.
Satanael has no weaknesses and absorbs Curse skills while blocking Bless. Moreover, just like Izanagi-No-Okami, Satanael also resists all elemental damage like Fire, Ice, Elec, Wind, Psy, Nuke, and also Phys, and Gun.
Its innate abilities include Maeigaon, which inflicts Heavy Curse damage to all enemies, and Megidolaon, which deals Severe Almighty damage to all enemies. Moreover, Satanael is also the best Persona for dealing Gun damage as its innate abilities include Riot Gun, which deals Severe Gun damage to foes.
Furthermore, Satanael also has the Survival Trick passive ability as part of his innate skills, which allows Joker to survive one insta-death attack with 1 HP remaining. Satanael is the only other Persona apart from Alice in this list to have this skill.
Satanael’s base stats alone are unparalleled, but its Pagan Allure Persona trait further strengthens its magic by 50%. Not only that, but once Satanael reaches Level 98, it unlocks the Tyrant’s Mind ability that strengthens all attacks and can stack with existing boosts.
Lastly, Satanael is the only other Persona in P5R to come with the Victory Cry passive ability that fully restores your party’s HP and SP after a battle. With Satanael in your arsenal, no foe is too mighty to defeat.