Seriously WHAT?

[MasterKroket]

This game is like a MILLION TIMES harder than 5 who thought this was good game design?
5 is an absolute BREEZE on hard save for 1 or 2 bosses this is basically insanity.
I fight this first major boss the yukiko girl i HAVE NOTHING. Not enough Money not enough Items Not enough HP Not enough SP ABOVE ALL Not enough strong personas.
My main guy runs out of SP when she isnt even at half health yet and can just do attacks and use items.
This is the 3rd time i went in. first boss in P5 is super easy you can / have to do it in two times without any remote challenge.

I get into this fight and am just not doing enough damage. I find out ice is weakness so chie keeps using it but it does 47 damage and then the down hit is like 47 again. The fight takes 15-20 minutes.
I have used all my possible items like defense up i found and what not all healing its all gone. I actually manage to use my hiraya things i found for FEAR twice.
Its nearly dead.... And then it SUDDENLY starts doing a one shot ability killing my healer. I have no revives i have no items anymore AT ALL. We nearly nearly kill it but of course i die a couple hits from killing it after a fight that lasts well over 20 minutes. Come on.

What am i supposed to do? Am i supposed to grind the lower floors to get my persona / character level up? I was lvl 10 entering the 3rd time so i cant get any Light / Dark toons yet which made the dungeon itself a massive pain already since a lot of these things are clearly weak to light and i had to use a ton of items (and resets after random one shot abilities LOL) This doesnt seem a skill iusse rather a supply issue how on earth do you do this any faster. the fight mechanics arent exactly hard. Guard when its announced she ll do the burn to ashes thing, dont use ice when she puts on the ice wall and other than that keep attacking what more can one do.

I could retry but it would have the exact same result. I suppose there is nothing left to do but go out get some better personas do some work buy more items including revives (Where on earth do you get SP items though?!) and do it again. I should have like 4 days left i figure since the rain starts the next day.
I wish i would have just gone to floor 8 in 2 days i easily could have but retreated after 2nd day figuring there were more floors after 7... You can avoid most the fights and find stairs....

[nana77]

Well, first of all, welcome to SMT, where your hours of preparation and grinding mean ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ before RNG, and P4 is the more forgiving of the bunch.

So, preparation. Did you buy all the SP drinks from the vending machines before attempting the dungeon? Make it a weekly habit. It only heals 5SP a piece, but it just may be the difference between 1 Dia and game over.

You've found out the boss' weakness is Ice, so you use Chie to spam Bufu. This is the right way of thinking, but it could be better. Who else can use Ice? That's right, the MC. 2 Bufus = 2 more free damages. Lol Yosuke who? (Answer: emergency healer. Don't miss out on his Dia)

The keyword to battle is bigger number is always better. That, or insta-kill. Considering you can't insta-kill a boss, your option is de/buffs. If I remember correctly, Izanagi, your default persona has Rakunda which reduces defense. That means more damage. Chie also should have Tarukaja which increases damage. That means bigger number.

"But, random user on Steam!" I heard you say, "I use MC and Chie to damage, I don't have time to apply de/buffs!" True, very true. If only the boss has a phase where you can't deal damage optimally so you have to defend... Then instead of guarding we can reapply de/buffs!

[Lar Dass]

I havent played p5 but from what ive heard it has the best gameplay/combat of the games, which makes sense being the most recent, p3p is supposedly even harder than 4, but i have yet to play that too, 4 does req a ton of grinding, which is up to you if you wanna skip or not

[MasterKroket]

Yeah of course i use buffs/ debuffs but they are like 12SP. My problem is resources.
I didnt realize the tomatoes were SP i was like 'i dont have garden why buy em silly lady' LOL. and i did buy the SP items from the vendor machines... still fell short. I had one Chewing Soul or whatever i used it to get Chies SP back up before the boss fight since she was lowest.
I have Bufu on the main character too just no SP to cast it haha.... that would be two downs....
As for Yosuke... he was basically ONLY using Dia throughout the fight to keep my people healthy... Went all fine till the one hit ko move started. The Thing got a crit once and then hit Chie again knocking her out and i had to use my 1 revive early on in the fight.
I know how the combat works i played P5 on hard without issues.... I am not stupid lol.
Seems you need to grind more in this game in lower floors where you can just not use SP as much and dont get damaged as much.... In place of the subway stuff in P5....

I think i ll just have to spend a 4th day inside effectively wasting 4 moments to do other stuff in the world since i reckon it should be doable in 2 days to beat the boss if you know the game a bit better...

[Black Mage Luis]

One problem with many people that play this game, is they don't know how to abuse the broken dungeon items. Like Physical Mirror and Magic Mirror. But then again these items are not easy to find and farm because of the RNG treasure chests. So the first solution that will always comes to mind to them, is to grind a lot of levels.

When you have Senri persona and Physical Mirror, Shadow Yukiko won't be able to deal damage to the protagonist. He becomes unkillable, unless she somehow gave him fear status and used Shivering Rondo on him. But this should never happen because she always target Yosuke first with this.

I already found out in my first playthrough how good the mirror items were and took advantage of it. Shadow Yukiko is level 15 so you can probably try to set the game on very easy to make leveling up faster. Then you can switch it back to whatever difficulty you were playing. To get more SP items you can farm the first floor of the castle. The SP items from the town are bad.

[Arifufu]

P4G was easy, P4 in other hand is a lot harder than P4G

so to help you, SP items avalailable at Vending Machine (North/South Shopping District, re-stock each week just like in P5)
revive items available at Yukiko castle 1F, just keep re-enter then you will find bunch of revival beads or some other useful items

so yukiko is level 15, and assuming you play on very hard which mean you are under level, in comparison kamodshida is level 11 in P5, so yea you need to grind a bit, try to fuse Senri because this one has null fire, senri also can inherit ice skill just transfer bufu to senri then you are good to go, so you can keep guard chie

much better no DLCs persona can help you, good luck

[MasterKroket]

Yeah i am grinding now nearly lvl 15 i read a guide on here that recommends the lvl. i was 12 the first time and best persona was 9.
floor 6-7 get annoying 5 seems to be the most efficient floor to farm.

Another element i dont like at all in this game is all the one shot abiilities even these random cubes have. its total hex tbh. Apparently there is no regular light / dark attacks like in 5. I got archangel now and he has Hama. I tried it on some of those crosses and a couple others on higher floors but it always misses so far lol. I never used those abilities in 5 AT ALL cause i dont like em.
I did some fusion and randomly got the fool obariyon who seems very good for that fight too since he is strong against fire AND physical (i assume the move she does at the end is physical i dont know). Not sure i can teach him bufu too that would be nice. Edit: just found the card and taught it to him. He has increase / decrease attack too which is nice. I might just switch to him towards the end...
I am trying to not check online too much what to get.
I know the Parvatti one is lvl 19 and a must get for SP recovery / grinding.
I am sort of getting by. Sometimes getting snuff / chewing souls to recover SP and not using points against weaker enemies as much as possible. Its a total grind P5 is way less so....
I can see how more experienced players do the dungeon in one day now i suppose. Go in get out and get some stronger personas do it again...

[MasterKroket]

Yeah killed it very comfortably with everyone at lvl 16. i had just enough SP to load up and didnt need to waste another day. For whatever reason it never did the 'big move' at the end this time around. maybe cause it was knocked down all the time.

[MasterKroket]

Seriously whoever designed this CONTRARIAN KING was HORRIBLE at game design what an absolute TERRIBLE fight! How on EARTH DO YOU DESIGN something THAT bad? Its mindboggling.

I have decrease hitrate / attack on the thing the entire time and increase evasion on my main character all the time. This Rampage is terrible game design.
This isnt skill based its sheer dumb luck. Right at the end the stupid thing connects and its over. What a JOKE. I suppose i could try to run defense up as well but its not on my persona or any of the others and i doubt i d tank it ANWAY lol

Prob shouldnt even bother with decrease attack since it KOS ANYHOW if it hits. Better to attack more to give it less time to nuke the team.

[Lar Dass]

Originally posted by MasterKroket:

Seriously whoever designed this CONTRARIAN KING was HORRIBLE at game design what an absolute TERRIBLE fight! How on EARTH DO YOU DESIGN something THAT bad? Its mindboggling.

I have decrease hitrate / attack on the thing the entire time and increase evasion on my main character all the time. This Rampage is terrible game design.
This isnt skill based its sheer dumb luck. Right at the end the stupid thing connects and its over. What a JOKE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYweGv9o08s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0P0l-im16ko

[MasterKroket]

Yeah LOL i ll try it one more time otherwise i ll skip it till i have a NULL PHYS persona and the thing cant even hit me lol

The stupid thing did it 3 times in 4 turns. How did this get past testing. It barely did it at all last try. Bad RNG and dead Come on

[Kingsleaze]

Considering that most players don't have the problems you're having, and that the Persona games are hugely popular, successful and well designed, it seems kind of silly that you would blame the devs instead of yourself. It sounds like you're rushing and underleveled. Slow down and enjoy the game.

[MasterKroket]

Nonsense. Its a bad mechanic. Its not skill based its luck based.
I am not underlevelled at all i am lvl 20 now. That thing is only lvl 17 apparently. The move is completely unbalanced.
I am sure most people have these issues since you are going to get whiped early game no matter what you do its not skill based its just sheer dumb luck. Its not a well designed fight / skill at all. Most people prob dont complain about it.
If i have decrease attack accuracy AND increase defense / evasion and it still one shots you what am i supposed to do. I am sure with higher level it is super easy thats how it always is but then its a pointless fight. i am not doing it 10-15 times until i happen to get lucky once cause of sheer RNG.

Yeah and i looked up some old threads / posts. the consensus is this thing is completely broken lol. i realize i can still do this later but i wonder if that is how its designed. whoever designed this didnt understand balance.
Glad they improved all this for PS5...

[Black Mage Luis]

You can just farm Physical Mirror on the 4th floor of Yukiko's Castle. But like I said before it's not easy to get. Or come back with a higher level party. The latter should be way easier for you to do. With Physical Mirror you can make the boss keep hitting itself until it dies. This is how I always beat it. The boss isn't hard at all. The majority of players just don't know how to take advantage of the items the dungeon has. A lot of the bosses in this game get WRECKED by Physical Mirror and Magic Mirror.

[MasterKroket]

Yup THAT is a smart idea. I got one early on and used it in some other fight. Yeah if you KNOW that it becomes easy LOL but thats sort of 'cheating' in a way. And i doubt they designed it like that. I ll give it another shot when i do another run (i can go there and then do the 2nd castle right?) and see if i can get lucky.
Its like how there is revival beads to 'farm' on floor 1. New players dont know such things...

[Black Mage Luis]

It's isn't cheating if it doesn't require a mod to do.

Originally posted by MasterKroket:

Its like how there is revival beads to 'farm' on floor 1. New players dont know such things...

Most but not all. I figured it out on my own on my first playthrough, that you can farm treasure chest items that is near the exit, by going in and out of the castle. No one told me how broken the mirror items were and where to find them. And yet those items is how I beat the game the first time at level 34.