Summary
- Fusing is key to getting stronger in Persona 5 Royal - always aim to fuse for the best Personas available.
- Different Personas have unique elemental affinities and spells - some are powerful in any situation.
- Collecting and fusing the best Personas like Ishtar and Kaguya can greatly boost your party's strength.
Fusing and getting new Personas is the cornerstone to getting stronger in any Persona game - and this is still the case for Persona 5 Royal. Many can be collected through negotiations in the metaverse, and others are exclusive to just fusing. Many Personas can be both fused or collected, but fusing will always result in the best Persona.
Personas have different elemental affinities and learn spells based on those affinities. While all elements are useful depending on the enemy you are fighting, some Personas are so powerful they are useful in any situation. Here are the best Personas you need to collect, all ranked accordingly.
Updated By Nathan Round on April 2nd, 2024: We have updated this list with five more Personas that you can pick from the game. We have also updated this guide's formatting to fit with the current formatting standards here at DualShockers.
20 Abaddon
Niche Counter Persona With High Physical Damage
- Great Persona to use against enemies majoring in physical, gun, and curse attacks
- Offers healing, along with strong physical-based attacks
Abaddon is a very powerful Persona for its survivability, coming with the ability to absorb physical, gun, and curse attacks. Abaddon also comes with the trait Gluttonmounth, which increases personal healing done by this Persona by about 50%. Abaddon doesn't learn any healing spells specifically, but can gain some strong ones through fusion to greatly take advantage of this trait.
Abaddon also comes with multiple strong physical attacks. These powerful attacks will use up a lot of health when performed, but this Personas trait and absorptions can be used to counter the high cost of their powerful attacks. Abaddon also comes with a heavy ice attack, but its main focus will always be its physical abilities.
19 Odin
Great Counter For Electric Weak Bosses
- High-powered Persona majoring in high-damage electric attacks
- Perfect counter against electric weak bosses, along with offering protection against status ailments
Odin is an incredibly powerful electric user, learning the best severe electric attacks for enemies and a single target. These powerful skills, such as Thunder Reign and Wild Thunder, have an absurdly high SP cost. However, Odin's trait: Bargain Bolts lowers electric skills by 75%, making this Persona even more powerful and valuable for longer fights.
Odin also learns to Concentrate, which can be paired with either of his electric abilities to deal massive damage to his enemies. Odin also learns Fast Heal, which helps keep you from being affected by any status ailments. In all, Odin is great to use against electric weak enemies and doesn't necessarily have any elemental weaknesses.
18 Fafnir
High Damage Nuke Majoring Persona
- Persona majoring in dishing out high amounts of Severe Nuke damage
- Great counter for mitigating fire and nuke damage, but much of its best skills need to be learned
Fafnir is a nuke-focused Persona, capable of dishing out Severe Nuke damage with Cosmic Flare and Atomic Flare. Fafnir is also capable of learning the Nuke Amp passive ability, which boosts all nuclear attacks by 50%. This is a massive boost, making each nuke attack highly worth its high SP cost.
Fafnir later learns the ability of Debilitate, which is excellent for severely weakening an enemy before hitting them with some of the strong attacks that Persona has access to. Fafnir also is capable of absorbing fire damage, along with learning to absorb nuke damage - making it quite the tanky Persona. Unfortunately, most of these skills need to be learned. But, Fafnir does offer a Colossal Physical attack right from the get-go - at the cost of HP of course.
17 Metatron
Great Bless Damage Persona
- High damage Persona possessing heavy Bless and Almighty attacks
- Has Bless attack boosting passives, along with a colossal Physical damage attack
Metatron is a great Persona for dishing out Bless-damage. With the Makougaon skill, players can dish out heavy Bless damage to all foes - which can be boosted further with Bless Amp. Metatron also offers the skill Mahamaon, which has a medium chance of killing all foes. Though the SP cost of both skills may seem great, each can be reduced by 75% with this Persona's Martyr's Gift trait.
Besides dealing Bless damage, Metatron is also able to dish out severe Almighty damage to all foes with the Megidolaon skill. Metatron also has Sword Dance, which deals colossal Physical damage to a single target. This attack has a high critical rate, but does cost HP to use. Throw Concentrate into the mix, a skill that more than doubles the strength of your next magical attack, and you have yourself a high-damage Persona capable of exploiting several weaknesses.
16 Ishtar
Great Support Persona With Offensive Abilities
- Majors in restoring the HP of party members, along with reviving one ally with HP recovered
- Is capable of performing healing skills at a low cost, countering ailments, and dealing heavy Electric damage
Ishtar, though not necessarily the best Persona in the game, is a great support Persona to add to your roster. Ishtar is all about improving the longevity of the party, and this is made apparent by her plethora of support skills. Ishtar's innate skills are not to be slept upon, as both Mediarahan and Samarecarm can save you in the heat of battle. The first will fully restore the HP of the party, while the second allows you to revive one ally with HP fully recovered. Both are great for bringing your party up to tip-top shape when things go wrong.
Ishtar's Persona trait, Grace of Mother, also reduces the cost of healing skills by 75%, thus countering the high SP cost of Mediarahan and Samarecarm. Ishtar also counters ailments through her passive skill Insta-Heal, along with her SP skill Salvation. Pair this with her ability to dish out heavy Electric damage and Shock through Maziodyne, and you have a great support Persona that is also able to fight.
15 Kaguya
Ideal Persona For Both Support & Counter Attack
- Majors in restoring the HP of a party or a single part member through innate and learned abilities
- Provides numerous skills capable of repelling Physical damage and booster counter damage
Kaguya majors in two areas, both support and defense. For support, Kaguya offers Mediarama, her innate SP skill to moderately restore HP of the party. Though not performing as great as Ishtar's Mediarahan skill, Kaguya can fully restore the HP of one party member through Diarahan. Like Ishtar, Kaguya also offers the ability to cure the party of all non-special ailments through her learned skill Amrita Shower.
The main attraction of Kaguya, however, is her ability to repel numerous attacks. Her innate passive, Counterstrike, has a 15% chance of reflecting Physical attacks. However, they can be outright repelled passively through her learned skill Repel Phys. Her Persona trait, Inviolable Beauty, also increases the damage from repelling attacks, along with tripling counter damage - thus providing Kaguya the means to dish out some heavy damage. Throw in Kaguya's ability to dish out light Bless damage to all foes anywhere from 4 to 8 times a turn (Shining Arrows), and you have a great Persona for support and counter-attacking.
14 Messiah
Almighty Persona With HP & SP Recovering Skills
- Can dish out severe Almighty damage, along with boosting the amount of Almighty damage dealt passively
- Is capable of restoring HP of the party, and individual SP, along with nullifying debuffs
The Messiah is a powerful Persona, possessing mainly offensive-type skills, with some defensive capabilities thrown into the mix. Messiah's two main attacks, Megidolaon and God's Hand, allow you to deal severe Almighty damage to all foes, or colossal Physical damage to a single foe. Though the latter skill does cost HP to use, Messiah is capable of restoring HP innately through Oratorio, along with nullifying stat debuffs.
Messiah also has some great learned passive abilities that make him a formidable foe. For example, Regenerate 3 and Invigorate 3 working together will allow you to steadily recover both HP and SP. The amount of HP and SP recovered can also be doubled with Messiah's Persona trait, Hallowed Spirit. Messiah can also counter Physical attacks passively with Drain Phys, along with boosting the effective damage of Megidolaon with Almighty Boost.
13 Trumpeter
Good Persona With Great Stat Enhancing Passives
- Comes with the ability to increase gun damage, along with not being afflicted by status ailments
- Generally great for attacking single opponents along with restoring HP and SP
Trumpeter is a great Persona mainly for its various passive skills. Much like Abbadon, Trumpeter offers a power nuke attack (Mafreidyne) right from the get-go, but that isn't necessarily the main benefit of running Trumpeter. Trumpeters learned the passive ability Life Aid, which is the main focal point, as it is capable of restoring 8% HP and SP after victory - quickly sealing the end of a trip to the metaverse.
Gun Amp is another great learned passive skill for Trumpeter, as it will strengthen your gun attacks by 50% - allowing you to boost your gun attacks against single opponents considerably. The final passive skill, Fortify Spirit, reduces susceptibility to all ailments, making Trumpeter versatile for a wide range of different foes. Pair all these attributes with Trumpeter's Relentless Persona trait, and you have a superb Persona for decimating a single opponent at a time.
12 Sandalphon
Versatile Persona With Great Offensive & Defensive Abilities
- Great all-around Persona with powerful almighty, insta-kill, and healing abilities.
- Capable of reviving and curing team members, along with increasing evasion rates
Sandalphon is one of the most versatile Personas in the game due to its plethora of different skills. The main attraction around Sandalphon is its ability to insta kill enemies, both through its Mahamaon skill and the Omen trait combined. Sandalphon also offers superb defensive abilities through its learned ability to repel curse attacks (Repel Curse) and its capability to increase the evasion rate against most attacks (Angelic Grace).
Offense and defense abilities aside, Sandalphon also has two notable abilities that can come in clutch when a battle starts to go south. Samarecarm, for instance, revives and fully heals a lost party member. Amrita Shower, on the other hand, cures the whole party from any status effect, thus nullifying even the most damaging of plays. All in all, Sandalphon is almost a jack-of-all-trades in Persona 5 Royal, and is a great inclusion to any player's party.
11 Bugs
All Round Great Offensive & Defensive Persona
- Great offensive and defensive Persona, offering stat-boosting buffs and critical attacks
- Great for supportive play also, offering passive skills for recovery and evasion
Bugs is a great Persona for both offense and defense, with a versatile skillset that includes powerful single-target and multi-target damage abilities, but also throwing debuff and passive abilities into the mix. The main attraction to running Bugs is his ability to boost the attack power of all allies right at the start of a battle (Auto-Mataru). This, paired with Miracle Punch to deliver a powerful critical attack to a single opponent, allows you to make short work of foes.
Bugs is also great for support, halving the time needed to recover from ailments through his Fast Heal passive skill, along with tripling the evasion rate of physical damage with Evade Phys. Bugs' trait, Potent Hypnosis, further enhances his support rating by increasing buff timers by 1 turn, thus improving the player's longevity in battle. Bugs is rather weak to Nuclear damage, however, so keep that in mind.