SMT3: Nocturne - Endgame Party Build

This is a guide to fusing an endgame party of demons to see you through the most difficult fights without any problems

Introduction

This guide explains how to fuse a high level endgame party. It's more than enough to get you through the True Demon ending, likely on hard mode as well. This guide is based on the assumption you're aiming for this ending.

This party has three popular endgame demons - Metatron, Shiva and Beelzebub (Fly). It focuses on high physical damage, a good mixture of buffs/debuffs, and the Pierce skill, crucial for the final boss of the True Demon ending.

Prerequisites

To be able to fuse this party you need to have defeated Metatron in the Fifth Kalpa of the Labyrinth of Amala.

It's also recommended that you've reached the Tower of Kagutsuchi, for ease in recruiting and fusing the demons necessary to make this party.

NOTE: Entering the Tower of Kagutsuchi locks you into your chosen ending, so make sure you're on the path you want (presumably True Demon, i.e. you've reached the bottom of the Labyrinth of Amala).

Finally, annoyingly, in order to be able to do some of the sacrificial fusions you need to have no Deathstones in your inventory, otherwise you'll get a Fiend fusion instead of the one you want - so use up all your Deathstones beforehand and fuse any Fiends you want to have registered in your compendium.

Overview

This is what we're aiming for:

Metatron

• Focus
  
• Pierce
  
• Hades Blast
  
• Fire of Sinai
  
• Tarukaja
  
• Makakaja
  
• Debilitate
  
• Victory Cry

Shiva

• Focus
  
• Pierce
  
• Hassohappa
  
• Phys Drain
  
• Dekaja
  
• Dekunda
  
• Debilitate
  
• Victory Cry

Beelzebub (Fly)

• Focus
  
• Pierce
  
• Hades Blast
  
• Death Flies
  
• Rakukaja
  
• Sukukaja
  
• Mediarahan
  
• Victory Cry

I pair this party with the following on the Demi-Fiend:

Demi-Fiend

• Focus
  
• Pierce
  
• Deadly Fury
  
• Freikugel
  
• Endure
  
• Avenge
  
• Mediarahan
  
• Attack All (for easier farming)

Note: As you can see, in this guide I opt for Hades Blast as the physical skill of choice on demons (except for Shiva who has the unique skill Hassohappa) - but there are definitely arguments out there for some of the other physical skills. You can do your own research if you wish, and treat this guide as a template which you can modify to suit your own needs.

Process

To fuse these demons we need to do the following:

• Fuse Metatron
  
• Get the special Girimehkala with Focus/Pierce (Metatron is a prerequisite)
  
• Fuse Metatron again, this time with Focus/Pierce
  
• Fuse Shiva
  
• Fuse Beelzebub, using Shiva

Some general rules:

If you find yourself in a situation where you can't transfer the number of skills you need to, level the demons up further or perform a Mitama fusion. In general the more skill a demon has, the more that can be transferred.

Make liberal use of Where the Demi-Fiend was Born and Center of the Conception to get the experience and money needed.

This guide suggests locations for recruiting demons, as well as potential fusions; it can also be worth having a look at a fusion chart[aqiu384.github.io] and comparing with your own compendium - you may find an easier and/or cheaper way to fuse the demons required.

1. First Metatron

First of all we need to fuse ourselves a Metatron, so that we can gain access to a demon with Focus/Pierce. This unfortunately means we need to fuse him twice - once as a throwaway and then another time as our actual party member with the skills we want.

With that said, let's get started.

1.1 Get Uriel

Recruit a Throne from the Tower of Kagutsuchi and level it up to 68 where it evolves into Uriel. Register Throne in your compendium at level 65 or later, once it's learned Mediarahan (you'll need it in future).

1.2 Fuse Raphael

Recruit a Dominion from Amala Temple (outside area), register it in your compendium (you'll need it in future). Fuse Dominion and Uriel to get Raphael.

1.3 Fuse Gabriel

Re-summon Throne from your compendium. Fuse it with Raphael to get Gabriel.

1.4 Fuse Michael

Re-summon Uriel and Raphael. At Full Kagutsuchi, perform a sacrificial fusion with Uriel, Raphael and Gabriel (doesn't matter which one you sacrifice) to get Michael.

1.5 Fuse Metatron

Now we need a Tyrant demon to act as our sacrifice. You might have one already, or have ways readily available, but for this guide I've chosen to fuse Loki.

An easy way to do this is to combine Baphomet and Dionysus. There are many ways to fuse these two (if you can't re-summon them from your compendium already), consult the fusion chart[aqiu384.github.io] if you need help.

Re-summon Dominion from your compendium.

At Full Kagutsuchi, perform a sacrificial fusion with Michael and Dominion whilst sacrificing Loki in order to get Metatron!

Now that we have Metatron we can gain access to purchase the special Girimehkala with Focus/Pierce, which we can use to fuse our final party.

2. Purchase the special Girimehkala

Go to the Fifth Kalpa to purchase the Girimehkala with Focus/Pierce from the Shady Broker.

You need the Metatron from the previous step in your party in order to open the "Demon Brimming with Light" door on B5.

In the area where you can only open three doors, go South three times and the Shady Broker is in the room on your left.

If you need more detail there are plenty of other great guides for this already out there.

Make sure to register this absolute unit in your compendium.

3. Final Metatron

---

Now we can start creating our final party.

Metatron comes with most of the skills we want already; the ones we need to fuse onto him are Focus, Pierce and Hades Blast.

Metatron is fused by sacrificing a Tyrant, and a Tyrant that learns Hades Blast is Abaddon - so if we fuse an Abaddon with Focus and Pierce, and level it up until it learns Hades Blast, we'll have a sacrificial demon with all three of the skills we need!

3.1 Fuse Beidou Xingjun

Beidou Xingjun is a demon which fuses with Girimehkala to make Abaddon - so let's get him.

There are plenty of ways to do this[aqiu384.github.io], but if you want to use demons you already have you can summon back Loki and fuse it with your Girimehkala.

Remember again to make sure that Girimehkala is registered in your compendium before doing this - you'll need it back again in the very next step.

You don't need to pass up Focus and Pierce at this point, but you can if you wish.

Alternatively check the fusion chart above, you might have cheaper ways to fuse Beidou Xingjun in your compendium already.

3.2 Fuse Abaddon

Fuse the Beidou Xingjun from the previous step with your Girimehkala (re-summon it if you have to) to make Abaddon, passing up Focus and Pierce.

Level Abaddon up to 74 to learn Hades Blast - but don't let it evolve. Register it in your compendium (you'll need it in future).

3.3 Fuse Metatron

Now that we have our willing sacrifice, re-summon Michael and Dominion. At Full Kagutsuchi perform a sacrificial fusion, this time sacrificing Abaddon, and pass up Focus, Pierce and Hades Blast to get Metatron again.

Level him up to learn Fire of Sinai and Victory Cry.

Phew! One down, two to go.

4. Shiva

---

We've got some heavy lifting to do here - we need to pass up Focus, Pierce, Debilitate, Dekaja and Dekunda! Sounds like a tall ask, but it's completely possible.

Fusing together Rangda and Barong nets us Shiva. Rangda comes with Debilitate and Dekaja; If we can get Dekunda on Barong, and then perform a sacrificial fusion with our good friend Girimehkala to pass up Focus and Pierce, we should be able to do this.

There are likely a few ways to achieve a Barong with Dekunda; for this guide I'll suggest Cerberus and Horus - Horus learns Dekunda at level 40.

Oh! Let's go!

4.1 Get Rangda

You can recruit Rangda from the Tower of Kagutsuchi. Feel free to see if you have a way to fuse it already to save you the hassle though.

Rangda comes with Dekaja and Debilitate already learned.

Make sure it's registered in your compendium.

4.2 Fuse Horus

Re-summon Beidou Xingjun from your compendium. Fuse it with Angel to get Horus. You can recruit an Angel in Ginza if you don't have one already.

Level Horus up to 40 to learn Dekunda.

4.3 Fuse Barong

Re-summon Dominion from your compendium. Fuse it with Rangda to get Cerberus.

Fuse together Cerberus and Horus to get Barong.

4.4 Fuse Shiva

Re-summon Rangda from your compendium.

At Full Kagutsuchi perform a sacrificial fusion with Barong and Rangda whilst sacrificing Girimehkala, and pass up the five skills we require.

Level up Shiva to learn Phys Drain (or keep Avenge if you prefer) and we have our second demon. One more to go!

5. Beelzebub (Fly)

---

Finally, we're going after Beelzebub (Fly). For this we need to fuse Beelzebub and level him up to evolve into fly form.

We've got a lot of work to do here too. We need: Focus, Pierce, Hades Blast, Rakukaja, Sukukaja and Mediarahan. Quite the unique fly.

The route we'll take here is to fuse a Tyrant and use an elemental to take it to the next tier up. The Tyrant below Beelzebub is Mot, so that's who we're after - we'll fuse it with Erthys to get Beelzebub.

To get Mot we need Mada, so let's start there. Mada is also key for getting all the skills we want.

Into the final stretch!

5.1 Fuse Kushi Mitama

Summon or fuse an Erthys - Kodama and Hua Po are cheap options. Alternatively, you can purchase one with gems at Rag's Jewelry in Ginza. Register it in your compendium (you'll need it in future).

Next, summon or fuse a Flaemis. If you're willing to spend the money you can use Uriel and Raphael, or again, purchase one with gems.

Fuse Erthys with Flaemis to get Kushi Mitama, which comes with Sukukaja.

5.2 Fuse Mada

Re-summon Throne and Abaddon from your compendium. Throne should be level 65+ with Mediarahan, from before. Just level it up again if that's not the case for any reason.

At Full Kagutsuchi, perform a sacrificial fusion with Throne and Abaddon, sacrificing Kushi Mitama. Pass up Focus, Pierce, Sukukaja and Mediarahan to get a chunky Mada.

Note: we can't pass up Hades Blast from Abaddon right now as Mada can't learn it. We'll solve this problem in the next step.

5.3 Fuse Mot

Register Shiva in your compendium, he's about to become fusion fodder.

Fuse Shiva and Mada to make Mot - now we can pass up Hades Blast alongside Focus, Pierce, Sukukaja and Mediarahan.

Note: at Full Kagutsuchi and with Deathstones in your inventory, these demons will fuse into Trumpeter instead - so make sure one of these is not the case. You might as well get rid of your Deathstones, as you'll need to do so for the next step anyway.

Summon your Shiva back and act like that last bit never happened.

5.4 Fuse Beelzebub

Re-summon that Erthys from before and level it up to 11 - we want it to have at least six skill slots filled. It'll learn Rakukaja at level 8 along the way.

At Full Kagutsuchi, perform a sacrificial fusion with Erthys and Mot, sacrificing pretty much any demon you have with at least six skills - this will ensure that the fusion lets us pass up a sufficient number of skills. Pass up Focus, Pierce, Hades Blast, Rakukaja, Sukukaja and Mediarahan to get our Beelzebub.

Note: again, you'll need to make sure that you don't have Deathstones in your inventory, otherwise Trumpeter will rear his ugly head.

Level up Beelzebub to 86 to evolve into Beelzebub (Fly). Level him up further to 97 to learn Death Flies and Victory Cry...

...aaaaaand we're done! Congratulations, you now have your high level party and are ready to take on the (Vortex) World!

Strategy

I thought I'd include a note on strategy but it's fairly straightforward, and probably what you're doing already.

Start with buffs/debuffs - cast Debilitate twice each with Metatron and Shiva, and Sukukaja four times with Beelzebub (Fly). Then switch to Tarukaja with Metatron and Rakukaja with Beelzebub (Fly).

Once you're up and running, start alternating Focus and Hades Blast (or Hassohappa for Shiva).

Cast Mediarahan, Dekunda and Dekaja as necessary. Use MP-restoring items when you get low.

Demi-Fiend can be on Focus/Deadly Fury rotation from the start.

Acknowledgements

Thanks to aqiu384 for their fantastic fusion calculator which I've referenced heavily throughout this guide.

Thanks to GameFAQs and the GameFAQs community for hosting and contributing guides and answers on SMT3 since 2004 - this guide consolidates various pieces of information from that site.

Finally thank you for reading, I hope you found this guide useful <3

[lincisaurius]

This helped me a lot, thank you!

[Ceva]

Unfortunately I haven't played it!

[K9ofChaos]

@Ceva Out of curiosity, do you plan on making an "Endgame Party Build" Guide for Shin Megami Tensei 5: Vengeance by any chance?

[Ceva]

Here are all the ways you can fuse Loki [aqiu384.github.io].

Alternatively you can recruit them at Amala Temple inside one of the temples (I forget which).

[JOLION]

how to get loki?

[Ceva]

This is a guide for min-maxers.

:)

[BigEffinZed]

thanks for the guide. but this list is way overkill. lol you don't even need to do all of the things to beat the game on normal. maybe on hard you need more demons with Pierce skill . I had trouble beating Lucifer with just the MC with pierce skill. all I I did was use Girimehkala to give pierce to kali. and that was enough for normal difficulty. just two attack demons with piece. the rest can be anything demon you want with buffs and debuffs. saves a lot of grinding and money

[Ceva]

Nope there are no party limitations based on alignment, to my knowledge.

The nearest thing is some demons require you to complete side quests or beat certain bosses before you can fuse them. I don't think any of those are locked behind alignment choices though.

[K9ofChaos]

Out of curiosity, is it possible to have demons from conflicting alignments within the same party? Or are certain demons locked by alignment depending on which ending you go for? I ask because this wiki page lists demons by their alignment: https://megamitensei.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_Shin_Megami_Tensei_III:_Nocturne_Demons