How to Get 3rd Semester (featuring. best boy and yoshizawa)

This is a guide on how to unlock the 3rd semester of Persona 5 Royal, which gives you a whole new palace and two new party members. This will also cover a few confidants and choices.

PSA

!!THIS GUIDE WILL ALSO HELP GET PAST THE CASINO (SAE NIIJIMA) PALACE SO YOU CAN PROCEED PAST THAT!!

Confidants and Deadlines

ALL PHANTOM THIEF AWAKENINGS ARE AFTER JANUARY 13TH
The Fool (Igor): Automatically progresses, reaches max rank December 24th.
The Magician (Morgana): Automatically progresses, reaches max rank December 23rd.
The Justice (Goro Akechi): Must reach rank 8 by November 17th. Next 2 levels automatically progress.
The Strength (Caroline and Justine or Lavenza): Must reach rank 10 by December 24th, before given the choice to proceed to the Persona 5 (Vanilla) True Ending This confidant is too complicated for me to cover in this guide, but I'd love to write a guide for this confidant in the future.
The Temperance (Sadayo Kawakami): Must reach rank 10 by November 16. No, you do not have to romance her:)
The Sun (Toranosuke Yoshida): You must reach rank 10 by November 13, he will remind you about this on October 31st.
The Judgement (Sae Niijima): Automatically Progresses, reaches max rank November 20th.
The Faith (Kasumi (Sumire) Yoshizawa): Must reach rank 5 by December 22th. You cannot romance her until 3rd semester. Third semester, starting January 13th you can advance her confidant further. at rank 9 you can romance her.
The Councillor (Takuto Maruki) RIP BILLY KAMETZ: Must reach rank 9 by November 14th. Progresses automatically afterwards.

Suggestions:
I also suggest doing all non-phantom thief confidants, except maybe Chihaya Mifune, as they all offer good confidant rewards to help progress through palaces pre-third semester.

"The Justice" (Goro Akechi) Confidant

The deadline for the first 8 levels Akechi's confidant is November 11th. The rest of the levels happen automatically.

- If you want Loki to awaken into Hereward , you must choose these dialogue options.


During the event for rank 7, when Akechi says, "How about it?" Respond with, "You're my rival."

During the event for rank 8, accept his request to battle. Afterwards, when Akechi says, "Should the opponent accept the glove, the duel is also accepted." Respond with, "I accept."

After the Cruiser (Masoyoshi Shido) Palace, while Joker is in bed, choose "I want to keep our promise." You will also gain the ability to fuse Metatron, the most powerful persona of the Justice Arcana.

In the third semester, on February 2nd, Choose to stop Maruki... unless you want the other ending, thats up to you, of course. But choosing this option is the only one that evolves Akechi's persona.

"The Faith" (Kasumi Yoshizawa) Confidant

The deadline for the first 5 ranks of this confidant is December 22.

Available: WED in June and September to November. THU and SUN on limited days in July, August and December.
Time: Afternoons.
Available when raining?: No.

All you need to do to proceed to the 3rd semester with Yoshizawa is to level up her confidant to level 5. Her schedule varies though, I recommend accepting most of her requests to talk to her.

You cannot romance her until 3rd semester

Confidant during 3rd semester (SPOILERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

After January 13:
Sumire Yoshizawa.
Available: MON, WED, THU, FRI, SAT
Time: Afternoons.
Available when raining?: No.

To Romance:
During rank 9, instead of choosing, "Let's stay friends, okay?" choose: "I love you too."

If you wish to awaken Vanadis into Ella,
On the afternoon of February 2nd, accept her SMS message. Its that simple :)

"The Councillor" (Takuto Maruki) Confidant

The deadline for this confidant is to reach level 9 by November 14.

Available: MON, TUE, WED, FRI, SAT
Time: Afternoons.
Available when raining?: Yes.

All you need to do with Maruki's Confidant is get it to level 9, which will automatically level up on November 18 to level 10. As long as you do this, you'll be on the path for the Persona 5 Royal True Ending instead of the Persona 5 (Vanilla) True Ending.
Its that simple :)

Casino Palace

THE AKECHI PALACE!!!

After you reach the interrogation room, DO NOT GIVE UP YOUR TEAMMATES OR FRIENDS TO SAE NOR AKECHI.
Doing this will make sure you do not get the bad ending and yknow... get actually killed by Akechi.


Bad Ending: !!SPOILERS OBVIOUSLY!!

[ClemPrime13]

Yes, Ryuji is in the third semester. Thank you for knowing who best boy is.

[Efester]

I got Akechi's 10th rank after the fight with Akechi and didnt get to choose "I want to keep our promise." Can i still get the best true ending??

[traquios]

I agree with Chef, whats the point of maxing out the Strength, Temperance, and Sun arcana besides their max out personas and confidant abilities?

[Chef]

No other guides mention maxing out Strength, Temperance, & Sun. Why is that? Are these really required to unlock the true ending?

[ヴァイオレット]

by mentioning yoshizawa, you mean best girl, right?