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In the world of Persona 5 Royal, leveling up is crucial for overcoming the game's challenging late-game bosses. As an enhanced version of Persona 5, Persona 5 Royal offers numerous quality-of-life improvements and adds over 20 hours of fresh content, including a new semester for the Phantom Thieves and modifications to existing boss battles. To fully enjoy these additions, keeping your team's levels high and knowing the fastest ways to gain experience is essential.
Updated January 13, 2025 by Renri Seong: While being over-leveled can make the game too easy, it's vital to match the levels of Palace Rulers, especially in a new game file. Persona 5 Royal provides various strategies to enhance experience farming, ranging from Confidant Skills to utilizing Jose in Mementos. Additionally, Joker can earn EXP for non-active Personas with a specific passive skill. This guide has been updated to include a new section on quickly farming experience using the Insta-kill ability.
Accessories and The Moon Arcana
Mishima Yuuki's Confidant
In Persona 5 Royal, players can enhance their EXP gain by equipping the Team Glasses accessory, available as free DLC from the PlayStation Store. Each character must equip this accessory to benefit from a 15% EXP boost in battles. However, only the active party members receive full experience, while those on the backline get less.
To address this, players can boost the EXP gain for backup members by advancing the Moon Confidant (Yuuki Mishima) to Rank 3 and Rank 5. Reaching Rank 10 ensures that backup members earn the same EXP as those on the front lines. Increasing Mishima's Confidant is straightforward; simply choose dialogue options that resonate with him and bring a Persona of the Moon Arcana when hanging out with him. In Persona 5 Royal, Mishima's Mementos Missions are now linked to his Confidant, so neglecting these missions will hinder your ability to rank up.
Mementos: Increase EXP Gain
Cognition of Mementos
Jose, a new character introduced in Persona 5 Royal, offers valuable assistance in Mementos. Players can find "flowers" and "Stamp Stations" scattered throughout Mementos. Collecting these allows you to exchange them with Jose for items or to alter the Cognition of Mementos. In Jose's Shop, you can opt to increase EXP, Money Rewards, or Item Rewards, but this only applies within Mementos. Upgrading EXP to 110% costs 5 Stamps, while reaching the maximum 200% EXP boost requires 12 Stamps. With a total of 165 Stamps available, you need 85 to max out the EXP Up. Stamp Stations are located in "dead ends" behind breakable walls on each Mementos floor, and you might encounter Jose when moving to a new floor.
Fight the Reaper
What Level is the Reaper?
The Reaper is a formidable foe in the Persona series, appearing in Mementos when players linger too long on a floor. Signs of its approach include a blinking red screen, the sound of chains, and warnings from Morgana or Futaba about an ominous presence. Early in the game, defeating the Reaper is nearly impossible unless playing on a New Game+ file due to its high level and powerful -dyne tier spells and Support skills like Concentrate and elemental Breaks.
The Reaper starts at level 85 with exceptionally high stats, its lowest being Agility at 75, which is still enough to outspeed the Phantom Thieves if they're not adequately prepared. Defeating the Reaper yields a significant amount of experience and money, often resulting in level-ups for all characters. It's advisable to confront the Reaper at level 60 or higher, equipped with Defense-raising Support skills and Makarakarn to reflect its magic. Alternatively, using the Persona DLC with Izanagi-no-Okami (Picaro) and stacking Concentrate, Heat Riser, followed by Myriad Truths, can deal substantial Almighty damage three times.
Defeat Treasure Demons
How to Summon Treasure Demons
Treasure Demons are unique Shadows that first appear in Madarame's Palace and continue to spawn throughout the Metaverse. Unlike other Shadows, they're harmless and tend to flee after a few turns. Each type of Treasure Demon has specific Affinity Weaknesses and Immunities but is vulnerable to Almighty attacks. To defeat them before they escape, use Shinya's Rank 1 Ability, Down Shot, to knock them down and follow up with an All-Out Attack. Another method involves using high-crit attacks like Morgana's Miracle Punch, provided the Treasure Demon doesn't nullify Physical attacks.
Treasure Demons are more likely to appear in Palaces with high security. Players can increase their encounters by crafting the Treasure Trap infiltration tool, which requires:
- 2x Silk Yarn
- 3x Plant Balm
- 1x Cork Bark
Use Persona with EXP Skills
How to Get Growth Passive Skill
Personas that Joker doesn't use in battle typically don't earn EXP. However, equipping them with the Growth Passive Skill allows them to gain a percentage of the battle's experience even when inactive. There are three levels of Growth Skills:
- Growth 1: Persona gains a quarter EXP when inactive.
- Growth 2: Persona gains half EXP when inactive.
- Growth 3: Persona gains full EXP when inactive.
The following Personas learn Growth at specific levels:
In Persona 5 Royal, once you unlock the Electric Chair in the Velvet Room, you can turn Personas into Skill Cards. However, unlike in the original Persona 5, only Izanagi Picaro can be transformed into a Growth 3 Skill Card. Growth 1 Skill Cards are unavailable in P5R, and to obtain the Growth 2 Skill Card, you must visit Miura Beach with Caroline and Justine from September 2nd to September 29th, after clearing event 6 (Sky Tower), and spend time with them by the Velvet Room Door outside of Mementos.
Ryuji Sakamoto's Confidant
How to Unlock Insta-Kill
Insta-kill is a powerful skill that allows Joker to instantly defeat Shadows without engaging in battle, provided he ambushes them and his level is at least 10 levels higher than the Shadow's. In Persona 5 Royal, a successful Insta-kill not only defeats the Shadow but also grants items, yen, experience, and potentially a new Persona if you have space. You can identify Shadows susceptible to Insta-kill using Joker's Third Eye ability; they'll have a green outline.
To unlock Insta-kill, you need to reach Rank 7 with Ryuji's Confidant. Fortunately, advancing Ryuji's Confidant requires no Social Stat prerequisites, making it one of the easiest to max out. To expedite this process, spend time with Ryuji and select the dialogue options that yield the most points, ideally before focusing on other Confidants.
