What changes does Merciless do this time?

[Fanta]

I remember in Persona 5 Royal Merciless would buff your experience and money modifier, but also make weaknesses and technicals hit harder for both you and the enemies.

Is this still the same here?

[blue]

Not sure about damage numbers, but when an ally dies, you can substitute them out as follows:

Safety - As many times per battle as necessary
Easy - 3 times per battle
Normal - 3 times per battle
Hard - 2 times per battle
Merciless - Once per encounter

Even if you swap someone out, this will violate some battle challenges as a party member got KO'd

[Rain/Storm]

Higher difficulty enemies do have more HP and do more damage, also less braidead AI (for comparison on normal if one of your party members have lower HP or near death, the enemy would rather target someone else with higher HP if they can reach them), but you do get more money and EXP for winning battles to balance it out.

[Fanta]

At least it sounds like they dropped the x3 weakness gimmick, which was mostly what I cared about.

[BORED but vibing]

Enemies do more damage. Smarter? Can't confirm, but they take cover further instead of getting closer and attacks you.
Friendly fire is turned on, this I am not sure is a ng+ or merciless feature, my 1st run was normal difficulty.

[Fyk0]

Originally posted by BORED but vibing:

Enemies do more damage. Smarter? Can't confirm, but they take cover further instead of getting closer and attacks you.
Friendly fire is turned on, this I am not sure is a ng+ or merciless feature, my 1st run was normal difficulty.

Friendly fire is merciless thing, not NG+.

[Horrible Marksman]

Isn't friendly fire a default setting? I believe I'm only on hard and I can definitely hit my own team with area skills.

[Overeagerdragon]

Originally posted by Horrible Marksman:

Isn't friendly fire a default setting? I believe I'm only on hard and I can definitely hit my own team with area skills.

Can confirm that friendly fire is any diff beyond normal