Dungeon tips needed

[Vudak]

I'm pretty new to SMT/Persona games - I did recently playthrough & Finish P3Fes and learned the basics etc, but i'm still not exactly well versed in the series. I've just reached the fight with Rise and got my ass handed to me, turns out i'm probably underleveled and ill prepared (I read there is another boss basically back to back too, and that one is harder).

I've admittedly not been going into the TV a great deal in P4 because there didn't seem to be as much of a focus on it from the game, whereas i feel P3F did a good job of badgering me and driving the point home that you need to put in the work. I did chie & yukikos dungeon easily enough on my first entry to each. Ryuji I split into two delves - first one advancing up / collecting personas / leveling etc, then second on additional leveling and completing it.

In Rises dungeon though i got to the boss room and hit a bit of a wall (not the snake miniboss thing, the discorise on a pole). I saw recommendations of being around lvl33-35 wheras i'm currently 27, and no doubt don't have particularly well developed personas. Its currently July 2nd in the game so I have 7 days to remedy this I guess.

In P3F (after some research) I got into the swing of pushing to the max level of each tartarus block each time in order to reach the barrier, i'd then grind until I felt decently powerful enough against what I was encountering at the top. Due to the dungeons in P4 not following the same kinda logic - I suspect i've underestimated them & managed thus far through basic knowledge checks.

Looking for general dungeon mentality / tips / advice etc I guess. Semi related - I feel broke most of the time so feel like i'm struggling to keep up with the weapon & armor tax, though I have managed to get some nice stuff from the bugs/bar lady trades as well as some from the armorer. Also, due to my poverty - I can't afford to pay the fox for heals etc, so am struggling with SP - i'm running on the skin of my teeth with a small number of SP Tomatoes and a couple Snuff items, am I missing any other decent SP regen methods?

[Shinigami Miroku]

Kanji, not Ryuji. Not that I blame you; design-wise they're not dissimilar.

In Persona 4, ideally you want to spend only one day in a dungeon in order to maximize your time in the real world. Each boss is at a set level, meaning that's the recommended level you should be at (15 for Yukiko, 25 for Kanji, 35 for Rise, and so on). Usually you just kinda want to grind out the dungeon if you're having a tough time, but Golden Hands in this game give an absurd amount of both EXP and money, so it's usually good to hunt those down. If you need help with getting them down quickly, you want to use high-Crit physical skills (this is where Chie especially excels, and having both her and Yosuke on the team makes these fights much easier) and Masukukaja/Masukunda, as you would need to change a Rank 4 skill like Life Drain (on Vetala, for example) to Megido on a Skill Change fusion day, and that can be Teddie-ous.

For SP recovery, simply jump in and out of the first floor of Yukiko's dungeon to make the 4 item boxes respawn; they'll often have SP recovery items like Snuff Souls, and you can easily evade all the enemy spawns.

For building Personas, it's good to make sure you get your Resist (element) skills from Personas like Slime, Ukobach, and Omoikane so you're not taking extra damage, but generally you want to build to a Persona's strengths (physical skills on high-Str Personas, and a wide variety of magic skills for high-Mag Personas). Look out for Invigorate 1/2/3 from Personas like Saki Mitama, as those can be extremely valuable.

[Vudak]

Doh, yes Kanji obviously - my bad.

I went back into each of Yukikos dungeon like you suggested to try those chests, I got a few revival beads and the occasional snuff soul etc which was very welcome. I also got a message on entering saying there was a strong enemy in the boss room - so I wound up trekking back up the dungeon to deal with that, along the way I switch to direct control of the party and made a more concerted effort to kill the golden hands - I had no idea they had so much exp from them, very handy to know - I assumed it was just money.

In doing so I was able to tidy up a bunch of gold hands as well as make use of the card sweep and as a byproduct slowly refill my SP of everyone whilst also picking up missed personas as well as tactical leveling up of my higher level ones for the specific element dodges etc. I also then went and did the same thing in Kanji's dungeon - so am now lvl33~ and much better stocked and setup than I was yesterday thankfully.

Starting this process with next to no consumables / cash / sp was a bit of a pain but I think i've managed to course correct, thank you lol. I will probably do a bit more leveling & development before leaving - and then returning to fight Rise. I think i'd wind up having to burn too many resources to get myself in a decent situation for that boss fight, plus I can now go buy some of those party-wide hp potions etc.

As mentioned, I also switched to direct control of the party - I really probably should have done this sooner as the AI is really not particularly good in P4G (maybe due to no proper scan like Mitsuru/Fuuka did?). I know P3 has a bit of a muddied rep due to Mitsuru and her occasional love of Marin Karin, but it was generally really good so I wasn't in a hurry to change (especially given my relative freshness to the series). Yeah tho, lesson learned.

One final question, you mentioned the invigorate skills on personas, I do have a couple of them - but as well as that I also have the skill card that I gave to Marie, it costs 20k which isn't too expensive, but i'm hesitant to pull the trigger on putting it on Yukiko (and maybe Yosuke) as I might just be suffering short term ptsd from the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ I placed myself in - any opinion if doing so is overkill or worthwhile?.

Cheers again!

[Shinigami Miroku]

Yeah, taking out the extra bosses usually nets some pretty decent loot (the Castle in particular gives Yukiko a weapon that she can use all the way into the endgame since it gives her +50 SP) and an extra point in Courage.

Definitely take advantage of Direct control; this is the first game with it and while the AI isn't too bad, I find it mostly just wastes SP where you don't want to; I've never seen them hit a resistance or reflected element, but in general Direct is just better overall.

The Golden Hands were actually changed from vanilla P4 - they gave a lot of money, but only 1 EXP. Of course, they also had weaknesses you could hit to knock them down, and generally fewer overall stats...

Sadly, you can't give party members Skill cards - those are specifically for you and your Personas. Eventually you'll find materials to craft accessories that will give your party members those skills (although for Chie and Kanji I give them HP-regen skills), and your last party member will get Invigorate 3 as one of her Social Link skills. With that said, I definitely recommend making sure one of Yu's spellcasting Personas has Invigorate 3 (and if you want, you can stack 1 and 2 onto the same Persona for a large SP recovery every turn, although that's usually only useful in the late-game, and (hopefully) by then you'll have Spell Master to cut your SP usage in half.

[Vudak]

Alrighty, I decided against leaving the tv and went on to do a little farming in the early levels of Rises dungeon and found myself much better equipped. To the point I was breaking even and able to recoup a decent amount of SP over the course of getting Cup cards on sweeps etc. So i pushed forward and the Rise fight wasn't much trouble, and the follow up fight was incredibly easy - I can only assume whoever said it was hard didn't know how to block lol.

Damn, didn't realise I can't use the skill cards on my party members as i've yet to actually use any, just been feeding them to Marie thus far. Good to know, i'll keep it in mind and maybe make a melee persona with the sp envigorate to use whilst farming/grinding.

Cheers again for the tips, will call this case solved. I was pretty close to dropping the game in all honesty as none of the characters nor the story have really grabbed me too much, I don't actively dislike any of them (bar teddie being annoying af) but none do much for me yet. I did read its quite a slow burn compared to P3, and i'm starting to notice that you can see the friendship group develop quite nicely which is something at least. I'm really enjoying the combat & build diversity though so am glad I was able to jump that hurdle.

[Shinigami Miroku]

Awesome, glad to hear you broke through! NGL I found Persona 4 more interesting, but then I never really connected with the cast of P3 anyway, so to each their own. *shrugs*

And yeah, Shadow Teddie more or less just requires you to know when to guard (funny enough, his instant-KO skill offers more than enough time for even dizzy'd allies to get back up and guard before he actually attacks) and make sure you don't have any Personas weak to Ice. ^_^;