Persona 4 The Golden | Steam Edition

[Souj]

I seem to have done better with persona fusion results when I wasn't trying, but now that I'm actually trying with it it doesn't seem to be going so well.
I probably just shouldn't be trying too much at this point in the game. I'm only 13 hours in and lv25

also; I feel like I should only be running with 3 people in my party instead of 4. Most enemies I run into are killed on my 1st or 2nd turn.
Does running with less than 4 people increase exp?
and would running with 3 make me worse off later on if it keeps more of my people underleveled?

[Zilong]

no real point to grind unless you're playing it on risky, even then it'd just be counterproductive to playing risky in the first place. Starting at around kanji's dungeon, emperor arcana will get rather common, and if not you could grind the shit out of justice/strength/hanged man/chariot/fortune arcanas to pseudo level them up statwise.

you can also do some bullshit stuff still, like transforming kaiwan's tetrakarn into victory cry on a fusion forecast day, or my new favorite, using magician arcana to get awesome ability. I had an Oni with god hand, charge, vorpal blade, high counter, enduring soul, resist physical and some other ability by utilizing magician arcana's skill level up at around level 40s.

[Azull]

Got this yesterday and, after the long opening, its pretty damn fun. Any tips would be helpful..havent really dove into it yet.

[Correction]

Got this yesterday and, after the long opening, its pretty damn fun. Any tips would be helpful..havent really dove into it yet.

Fuse persona early and often, pay close attention to what all the skills do. If this is your first SMT experience learning what spells/abilities do takes a while and they're extremely important during boss battles.
Advancing Social Links > grinding it out in dungeons. The most useful social link is Hermit (The Fox).
Analyze, analyze, analyze.

[Zilong]

Set everyone to follow your order, and Brotagonist, Brosuke, Yukiko and Kanji is still the best team of all time of all time, I'd recommend building Kanji's social link ASAP since he gets power charge from it. Go to config, set the persona to auto reset each battle to benefit from Auto-buff ability once you get access to it. Don't ever set a persona with physical weakness as your default persona.

Unless you're playing Risky difficulty on first playthrough, I can't really say the game is even remotely hard though. Prepare to rage hard to constant ganking on the first 2 dungeon on Risky though, and if you play the PS2 version, just remember they moved up the lethal substitution SLink battle effect to rank 9 instead of rank 1, so don't take unnecessary risk.

[Souj]

I'm lv 37, running through the strip club for the second time to kill the optional boss and I'm running with Chie, Yukiko and Teddie.
Yosuke seems good for buffs, but it's been awhile since I've even needed to bother with buffs (aside for the boss battle after Rise's, but my own personas were taking care of all the buffs I needed.) And Kanji just seems extremely lacking. Though maybe that's just because I'm currently running with a good physical Persona.
My current mainstay Personas are
lv36 Pyro Jack; Agilo, Maragion, Tarunda, Fire Amp, Invigorate1, growth2, Marakukaja. Auto-Rakukaja 6k exp away
lv36 Setanta; Counterstrike, Sukukaja, Sharp Student, Invigorate3, Elec Boost, Zionga, Fatal End, Diarama
lv39 Flauros; Apt Pupil, Resist Physical, Endure, Tarukaja, Rakunda, Agilao, Rampage, Herculean Strike

[Zilong]

Yosuke have good magic and attack spread, making him ideal for just crawling, if you are using Kanji, make sure you get his Emperor to Link 4 or 6, which will give him power charge and make him a much better melee than Chie. All Chie has going for her is Apt Pupil and Revolution since Kanji learns Power Charge and AoE Physical via social link, not to mention his STR is much higher than hers, and Chie will get stuck with Black Spot for some time while Kanji actually learns stronger physical, though the fact that she gets Apt Pupil does make the Black Spot Phase less retarded than it was back in PS2 (50% critrate is great for knocking down gold hands).

Teddie is a good buffer/nuker/healer, but you'll eventually run into a problem of having to choose one role for him since he learns too many good skills. Yukiko hasn't changed much from PS2 version, which places her as the best nuker and healer, though once you have bike access, if you could spare the 5 days in your schedule, she can learn Mind Charge from bike trips.

Also, keep in mind that if you keep your party buffed with all 3 kaja skills, Rise will pop Mind and Power Charge on the entire party instead of using the missing kaja buffs, this will be useful for bosses later in the game. Make sure you don't forget to buy Kitchen Knife from Tanaka in July, it's still the best weapon for Yosuke.

[Ratatapa]

I have problem killing Shadow Kanji

Spoiler: show

I'm about lv 19-20 I start by Downing and rushing the good guy to death then the same with tough guy Problem is Shadow Kanji keep 1 shotting my party with Power Buff then his move Swift attack iirc doing 2 hits for 170dmg each to my party. even while guarding

[Souj]

don't have anyone with the ability to increase your party's hit/evasion or decrease enemy's hit/eva?

[Ratatapa]

Yes but it rarely misses even with that buff

[Ratatapa]

Just let Kanji died, went back 1 week, and grinded a bi + social link a bit

Owned it lol

[Moss]

I'm new to this series, so still trying to understand everything.

What exactly are improved Social Links helping with? They just add bonus exp to fused Personas?

[Souj]

I'm new to this series, so still trying to understand everything.

What exactly are improved Social Links helping with? They just add bonus exp to fused Personas?

for the people that aren't considered a part of your party, yeah, it seems that's all it gives you. Though the exp bonuses do get rather large. You can end up with an extra 7 levels.

For people in your party, you gain special abilities in battle, both character and their persona. Such as; A person with a high enough link can pick up Downed players and fix stat detriments automatically and it's how you unlock their best persona skill.

[Moss]

for the people that aren't considered a part of your party, yeah, it seems that's all it gives you. Though the exp bonuses do get rather large. You can end up with an extra 7 levels.

For people in your party, you gain special abilities in battle, both character and their persona. Such as; A person with a high enough link can pick up Downed players and fix stat detriments automatically and it's how you unlock their best persona skill.

thanks, forgot about the latter part. are most people fusing new personas all the time? I just

Spoiler: show

saved Yukiko

and I'm using the fool card you start with and a horse head thing I fused, lol. The ones I pick up in the dungeon I just use for dia out of battle or for a certain elemental attack. Am I doin it rite?

[Ratatapa]

Do people not in your party still getting xp?

[Fereydoon]

Do people not in your party still getting xp?

Not in the PS2 version at least, I doubt they changed it either.

[Souj]

people not in your pt do not get exp.

[Zilong]

for party members, even S link level gives extra skills, odd gives battle effect, i think it's like one more assist > down recovery> status recovery> endure> and lethal block

"best" persona skill is subjective, I think the only one that's worth the slot is Yukiko, Chie, Naoto, and Yosuke's, but you do have a lot of free time on January

As far as persona using, it kinda depends on how you'd like to play. I got an Oni at level 30ish and pretty much just used him all the way until I got Yoshitsune just because skillcards, arcana shuffle, and magician are that fucking broken, and Oni's lack of weakness and physical resistance just made it a good main persona. Read up on wiki for the Magician skill advancement and you can get God Hand, Vorpal Blade, Enduring Soul quite early in the game, and Emperor + stat arcana can scale your persona really well if you don't feel like refusing them.

My friend prefers to run a set of all purpose persona with various elemental, healing and buffs, but the game's easy enough to warrant that a general setup would work against mostly anything. Do make it a point to make a triple auto-kaja persona once you get access to it, no point not to now that you can set it so your persona will reset at the end of every battle.

[Souj]

I kill 4 of those golden hand dudes worth 5k exp and 12k gold each and I was forced to take the no exp card and half gold card -_-

[Julian]

I love this game <3

Hopefully I finish it this time around. :D