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Tips for a Persona 4 Golden newcomer?

Now, now. #TeamYukiko&Chie has twin dragons team combo. ;)
#TeamYukiko!

1. OP, the game on Normal is quite easy and doesn't really require grinding once you past the ealy game hurdle. I've played it on Hard (which means less exp, less money, shadows deal more damage), which had some difficulty spikes and often some shadows could easily overwhelm you if you weren't careful but then again I'm an SMT veteran.

2. In the general, if you can fuse a higher level Persona than you already got, go for it. You could could keep a few specialised ones, like I had a main one, one for healing and sometimes one for debuffs/buffs.

3. Some social links unlock more content and there are various endings in the game. If you want to have the full experience in one playthrough, you could could have a look how to unlock the best path. There are plenty of spoiler free guides how to do this.
 
You can't spell cliche without chie.

'Hey, look at me! I'm the kind of girl that game designers assume gamers love! Bacon and Kung Fu!'.

Honestly out of all the girls so far, Chie is the most down to Earth in my opinion. Then again, I'm still stuck trying to save Rise who is just a closet freak so what do I know lol
 
You can't spell cliche without chie.

'Hey, look at me! I'm the kind of girl that game designers assume gamers love! Bacon and Kung Fu!'.

8404_8a96_600.gif


Chie is just a fun girl to hang out with. Rise comes close and she's too obsessed with Senpai.
 
Hope you have fun! This game had the largest impression on me.
Just get Yukiko in your party and go wild with the social links.
 
Advice: Don't play it until next year, closer to the release of Persona 5.

If you play it before then, the wait will be interminable.
 
Being reductionist about characters is silly. But y'know I guess I shouldn't be surprised when these threads are always populated by dumb waifu posts.
 
Being reductionist about characters is silly. But y'know I guess I shouldn't be surprised when these threads are always populated by dumb waifu posts.
I have trouble to comprehend why people take Waifuposts so serious. They're meant as fun for the most part.
 
how I hope my OCD will disappear and allow me to enjoy the game without relying on a guide to get a 100percent first playthrough
 
I s'pose everyone has different speeds when it comes to memorization (and familiarity with the series). If that is what worked for you than that's definitely alright too.

Yup. Playing P4G for the first time was a huge shock to my system; suddenly everything had stats and specs and strengths and weaknesses, and I was juggling items and gear and Personas and half a dozen other critical things. Compared with the kinds of games I usually play (i.e. not JRPGs) it was far, far more complicated.
 
Everyone saying this game is easy makes me feel bad :/

Hey, I'm currently in the middle of this game (mid-August) on my first play through and I've been finding it pretty tough! And I've only got it on medium difficulty.

I got frustrated and nearly gave up after one particular boss
the 8-bit one
knocked me on my ass repeatedly. But I'm glad I stuck with it. Imo you do have to do a bit of grinding.
 
Team Yukiko member here. Chie is a close second.

Back OT:

You don't need to grind. Run past all the enemies to get to the save point by the dungeon boss. Then selectively target and battle golden hands. Battle the other monsters to get fusion cards as you see fit.

It is all in the fusions.

Don't worry too much about maxing all the social links on your first try. New game+ is your friend.

Enjoy! P4(G) is my favorite game of all time. :)
 
Most people have already covered the basics, so I'll give you some other tips:

1) Be sure to max out the Aeon Social Arcana before the end of December. This is vital if you want the true true ending where everything is revealed and all loose ends are tied up.

2) Keep multiple save files, especially as you move into the winter months. Trust me on this, this will be very important, and it'll save you a lot of time and frustration later.

Oh, and finally (in case the avy didn't give it away): #TeamChie
 
Any tips for Shadow Teddie? I've just had to go back and grind a few more levels to get everyone around 30 because he is fucking up my world.
 
P3P and P4G are the most easiest and approacahble JRPGs, I have played. Just go ahead and have fun, but don't prioritize S-Links over grinding dungeons. Balance both for avoiding difficulty spikes at bosses.

They really,really aren't.Unless maybe you've had a past experience of playing much harder games.


If you play persona carelessly and mash attack to win , you'll die and get punished severely if you don't save often.
 
Any tips for Shadow Teddie? I've just had to go back and grind a few more levels to get everyone around 30 because he is fucking up my world.

He telegraphs his attacks with specific set up moves. You will know whats coming before he hits you when you figure out the pattern so take advantage of that. Unless he is killing you in one hit off a guard or something.
 
Honestly, i would recommend just playing it the first time. Make your own decisions about everything. The game doesn't really punish you for anything, then you can do a second playthrough to see secrets and explore different social links.

Just have multiple save files, esp. at the end. Really easy to get a stupid ending.
 
Any tips for Shadow Teddie? I've just had to go back and grind a few more levels to get everyone around 30 because he is fucking up my world.
Don't bring Yukiko with you. You need to be the dedicated healer in this battle

Create Ganga by fusing Ghoul with Alraune

QJksrGO.jpg


She absorbs all of his Ice attacks which will heal you. She also learns mediarama, which is the medium group heal. Just leave things up to Kanji, Yosuke and Chie and guard when Rise tells you to. It's a fairly easy battle.
 
You can. But you can't 100% the game in the first play.


Use Guard. A lot. And fuse a Persona with Fire attacks.

He isn't weak to Fire is he? Right now I'm using Eligor and Yukiko to do Fire damage to him, but it doesn't seem to do much.

He telegraphs his attacks with specific set up moves. You will know whats coming before he hits you when you figure out the pattern so take advantage of that. Unless he is killing you in one hit off a guard or something.

I know to Guard when he does Mind Charge and charges up for Nihil Hand, but I get caught with stupid shit like Heat Wave or a random Bufula or w/e that one shots my MC out of nowhere and its making me mad. It's July 9th so I'm about to go back in and try again before Rise gets her naughty bits shown to the world.
 
He isn't weak to Fire is he? Right now I'm using Eligor and Yukiko to do Fire damage to him, but it doesn't seem to do much.



I know to Guard when he does Mind Charge and charges up for Nihil Hand, but I get caught with stupid shit like Heat Wave or a random Bufula or w/e that one shots my MC out of nowhere and its making me mad. It's July 9th so I'm about to go back in and try again before Rise gets her naughty bits shown to the world.

Welp, I screwed up, he won't take damage from Fire. He's Ice type, so I figured he should.
Okay, what I'd recommend is ditching Yuki, bringing Chie, alongside the MC, Kanji, and Yosuke. Make sure the MC does not have a Fire type Persona equipped.
Secondly, level up just a bit. If random attacks like that are wiping you out, it sounds like you're a little underleveled. Have you been taking out the after bosses? Maybe those might help. If not those, then try farming out the Hands.
 
Don't bring Yukiko with you. You need to be the dedicated healer in this battle

She absorbs all of his Ice attacks which will heal you. She also learns mediarama, which is the medium group heal. Just leave things up to Kanji, Yosuke and Chie and guard when Rise tells you to. It's a fairly easy battle.

Aww shit. Everyone is like level 30-31 and Kanji is still 25. I can't bring him with me or he'll be a liability at this point. :/

Welp, I screwed up, he won't take damage from Fire. He's Ice type, so I figured he should.
Okay, what I'd recommend is ditching Yuki, bringing Chie, alongside the MC, Kanji, and Yosuke. Make sure the MC does not have a Fire type Persona equipped.
Secondly, level up just a bit. If random attacks like that are wiping you out, it sounds like you're a little underleveled. Have you been taking out the after bosses? Maybe those might help. If not those, then try farming out the Hands.

The Hands are only affected by Physical attacks right?
 
Don't bring Yukiko with you. You need to be the dedicated healer in this battle

Create Ganga by fusing Ghoul with Alraune


Yeah, no.

Fuse Jack Frost. Fuse Victory Cry, Enduring Soul, Enemy Def Down, Enemy Atk Down, Enemy Hit Down to him.

S. Link should be high enough with Yosuke at that point to give him Bufula/Medium Bufu and Power Charge. Throw in random element (Agi most likely)

Proceed to lay waste.

Then get King Frost for Agidyne and the similar set-up. Proceed to lay waste to the NEXT boss.
 
Everyone saying this game is easy makes me feel bad :/

It's easy in the sense that like people are saying, you don't need to grind for hours and hours just to beat a dungeon. But with that said, the bosses aren't exactly "easy" to beat, but I think it's meant to be like that. I would rather have a harder challenge on the boss then grind for hours and hours so that I could beat a boss a little easier.
 
Aww shit. Everyone is like level 30-31 and Kanji is still 25. I can't bring him with me or he'll be a liability at this point. :/



The Hands are only affected by Physical attacks right?

Yes (and Almighty Attacks, but you don't get those till later).
They are also quick to escape a battle, so:

  • Get a pre-emptive strike on them
  • Focus on one of them and defeat at least one of them instead of spreading your damage dealt out
  • Try your best to not get knocked down
  • Try your best to knock them down

A single hand can give you anywhere from 5,000 to 9,000 EXP (depending on which dungeon you are in), so it's always advisable to farm and beat them.
 
Aww shit. Everyone is like level 30-31 and Kanji is still 25. I can't bring him with me or he'll be a liability at this point. :/

The Hands are only affected by Physical attacks right?
If you don't want to level him up, you can always just take Yourself, Yosuke and Chie.

Yukiko is completely useless in this fight because she'll always be a target for ice spells, which will give the enemy an extra turn.
 
Yeah, no.

Fuse Jack Frost. Fuse Victory Cry, Enduring Soul, Enemy Def Down, Enemy Atk Down, Enemy Hit Down to him.

S. Link should be high enough with Yosuke at that point to give him Bufula/Medium Bufu and Power Charge. Throw in random element (Agi most likely)

Proceed to lay waste.

Then get King Frost for Agidyne and the similar set-up. Proceed to lay waste to the NEXT boss.

lol I just got King Frost as I read this.
 
I've just started this game too and really struggling to get my head around it all and the vagueness of some of the responses here.

1. People say to save a lot but how can you do this in dungeons? You have to exit the dungeon to save by teddy using a item but then you lose your progress within the dungeon and have to go all the way back. Also these dungeon escape items are hard to come by.

2. Social Links. Again people say to concentrate on building these but how do I build them when I dont even know what I'm building ( from the weird names) or where to trigger the links? Who builds what but on what days can I build and the worst thing is I dont even know what building social links actually does? The game briefly explained it but I have no idea to its advantages. I think the main problem I have is I dont actually know what to do if I want to build a particular link. Which character does what and only sometimes is in some places on certain days? How the heck am I supposed to figure all this out without a guide?

For example I heard doing jobs unlock more social links but again what social links unlock? and how the heck would I know what to build if I don't know where to start a link and what it does from a weird Japanese name of a persona or when to trigger the social events? I could easily miss them. Social links unlock from playing sports? talking to characters, jobs or what? I'm so confused by it all seriously. Because it all keeps changing and I'm overwhelmed now.

I'm supposed to have a persona in my possession before doing a social link but again this seems way more trouble than its worth as it's hard to check what I have against the person I'm gonna link to. I got a feeling I'm gonna end up going back and forth to velvet room just so I can fuse/buy a persona of the same type. The names make it all hard to remember.

What's weird is I played through all the Digital Devil Saga games and Nocturne and loved them. This game I feel is great but a bit too overwhelming and feel like I always miss stuff and not doing things I'm supposed to because the whole social links and stat links are really really REALLY confusing. The battle system is fine as it's similar to the other games I've played but everything else? Man I can't believe how convulted and complex it all is.
 
Social links allow your personas to gain more XP upon fusion (aka more levels; can surpass your own level). Ultimately maxing a link will allow you to fuse an ultimate persona of the corresponding arcana that usually have some sort of special property or ability to them. It's like little side story content designed to get you engaged in everyone's story and a method to progress time.

If you aren't doing a trophy run or trying to platinum the game, don't worry about which links you want to level up or max out; choose the people and stories you think you may like and just go for it and see what happens. All the characters have set schedules on different days in which you can see by selecting the social links menu on the menu selection screen. Some have particular conditions you need to unlock them. There's a menu in game that allows you to see when they're available. The main paths always progress on those set days (or you gain more affinity to get to them to the next level another day) and not during night (with the exception of one social link).

Don't worry about equipping a corresponding persona before doing a social link unless you're going for a run to max the links. I say this to maximize the amount of tediousness you should avoid if you just want to go in and have a fun first ride through. Essentially your dialogue choices in social links have a point value associated with them. Equipping a persona associated with the social link you're doing increases these points gained, which ultimately allow you to get through their social links quicker, which makes stronger personas, which allows you to see more social link stories, etc.

Remember you only have a set amount of time to "rescue" a person, so you have to juggle when you want to dungeon crawl and when you want to participate in social links, or level up your attributes (like studying, reading books).

Hopefully this clears it up some for you.

They really,really aren't.Unless maybe you've had a past experience of playing much harder games.

If you play persona carelessly and mash attack to win , you'll die and get punished severely if you don't save often.
I'd disagree about mashing attack to win. Even on my very hard run I pretty much only auto-battled for the whole game outside of the first area.
 
A lot of the enemy types recycle and they usually have the same weaknesses. I found a lot of the enemy types to have visual cues to their weaknesses as well. For instance enemies with some kind of blue color are often weak to fire etc. You should try to attack all enemies from behind, sine you then get an extra attack before they can react. Focus on maxing social links with people you use in your party as that will give them and their personas new abilities.

If you want a laugh, you should watch the Giant Bomb Persona 4 Endurance run after you finish. Shit is hilarious.
 
The only tip i have is to get intimate with every female you get to SLink 10. All of them.

It will make the Valentines event better!
 
I've just started this game too and really struggling to get my head around it all and the vagueness of some of the responses here.

1. People say to save a lot but how can you do this in dungeons? You have to exit the dungeon to save by teddy using a item but then you lose your progress within the dungeon and have to go all the way back. Also these dungeon escape items are hard to come by.

2. Social Links. Again people say to concentrate on building these but how do I build them when I dont even know what I'm building ( from the weird names) or where to trigger the links? Who builds what but on what days can I build and the worst thing is I dont even know what building social links actually does? The game briefly explained it but I have no idea to its advantages. I think the main problem I have is I dont actually know what to do if I want to build a particular link. Which character does what and only sometimes is in some places on certain days? How the heck am I supposed to figure all this out without a guide?

For example I heard doing jobs unlock more social links but again what social links do they unlock and how the heck would I know what to build if I don't know where to start a link and what it does from a weird Japanese name of a persona or when to trigger the social events? I could easily miss them. Social links unlock from playing sports? talking to characters, jobs or what? I'm so confused by it all seriously. Because it all keeps changing and I'm overwhelmed now.

I'm supposed to have a persona in my possession before doing a social link but again this seems way more trouble than its worth as it's hard to check what I have against the person I'm gonna link to. It feels like. I got a feeling I'm gonna end up going back and forth to velvet room just so I can fuse/buy a persona of the same type. The names make it all hard to remember.

What's weird is I played through all the Digital Devil Saga games and Nocturne and loved them. This game I feel is great but a bit too overwhelming and feel like I always miss stuff and not doing things I'm supposed to because the whole social links and stat links are really really REALLY confusing. The battle system is fine as it's similar to the other games I've played but everything else? Man I can't believe how convulted and complex it all is.

1. You don't lose your progress. If you reenter the dungeon, you'll be on the last floor you were on. And they're not difficult to come by, Go-homes can be purchased at the Shiroku Store in the Southern Shopping District.

2. Okay first, there are 22 Social links.

I think you're just over-complicating things. Okay, If there's someone with an exclamation mark over their head and they have a character art portrait, it's someone you can hang out with. That is a social link! That's it! Building a link is going through a mini storyline with that character. There are ten levels for the social link. The point of building a social link is so you can receive boosted experience you from fusing Personas that are the same arcana as the social link. For example, look at Yosuke. He is the magician arcana. If you have a single level for his social link, you'll get like 1000 exp (this is just a random number, it's not what you'll actually get) when you fuse a magician arcana Persona. If you're level 3, you'll get like 5000 exp. Do you understand?

Party member social links are extra special because as you rank up that social link, the party member will gain new abilities like removing status effects or taking a hit that would likely kill you for you. Their Personas also receive new moves.

The game specifically tells you where you can go get a job. It's at a bulletin board in the Northern Shopping District. There are three job social links, Tutoring, Janitor, and Day Care Assistant. Each of these has a Social Stat requirement (Diligence, Knowledge, Expression, Understanding, Courage - that stuff). Once you've accepted the job, The game will specifically tell you every single day if you can go do that job that day.

It is not difficult to check what personas you have. Just go into the Persona status menu, see what arcana it is. Then go into the social link menu, see what arcana you want to rank up. If I want to hang out with Yosuke, I bring a magician arcana Persona with me. You can buy back personas at the Velvet room. The whole bringing personas with you to the social link thing is just a way to make the link level up faster. You don't NEED to do it.
 
I'd say just have fun with it. No other explanation or tips for the game. It will help you a ton if you ever decided to tackle any other Persona or SMT games as this will give you a good deal of experience with weaknesses and the naming of abilities.

Yukiko is the best, which Chie coming in a close 2nd. Rise is the weakest cause she'd do anything for senpai from day one.
 
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