Combat Fundamentals

Read the turn before choosing a skill

Joker can change his equipped Persona during combat; the other active party members use their own Personas. That makes Joker your flexible slot for missing elements, healing or a defensive affinity. Check the enemy information you have revealed before spending SP on a stronger attack.

A physical skill spends HP, while most magical skills spend SP. Do not treat the two costs as interchangeable. A physical attack that leaves Joker nearly defeated can be a poor trade even when it saves SP. If Joker falls, the fight is lost, so give his survival priority over finishing one more enemy.

Create an opening

Hitting a weakness or landing a critical can knock an enemy down and grant One More. Use that extra action to knock down another standing target, pass to a teammate or recover. Attacking an already downed enemy is not a fresh knockdown.

When the conditions for a Hold Up are met, you can choose an All-Out Attack or negotiate. Decide whether the encounter is worth ending immediately or whether you need the enemy as a Persona. An All-Out Attack is not a recruitment action.

Protect the next turn

Guard when an enemy signals a dangerous attack or when a character cannot safely take another hit. Healing, removing an ailment and weakening an enemy can preserve more actions than repeatedly reviving someone.

In Royal, gun ammunition replenishes after each battle. Use it against appropriate targets within the current fight instead of saving every bullet for the entire infiltration. Enemy Gun resistance still matters; a fresh magazine does not make every target vulnerable.

Next references

• Weaknesses & Baton Pass
• Personas

Scope & sources

This article targets Persona 5 Royal. Some fundamentals are shared with the original Persona 5; all edition-dependent advice here uses Royal. Strikers and Tactica are outside its scope.

Original AstraVoy explanations and recommendations. Community references supply mechanics and requirements; suggested priorities are not official ATLUS strategy or a mandatory calendar.

• aqiu384: Royal Metaverse reference (aqiu384 (community)). Royal combat, fusion, Palace systems and Mementos. Existing pinned source snapshot; not an optimized route.
• Royal fusion and skill data (aqiu384 / megaten-fusion-tool (community)). Royal Persona levels, learnsets, inheritance and recipes; local admitted Royal dataset is used by AstraVoy’s calculator.