10 beginner tips to know before you start Persona 5 Tactica

Persona 5 Tactica takes the wonderful world of Persona 5 and turns it into a tactics game. Many of the game’s terms should be familiar to you if you’re a Persona fan — One More, All-Out, etc. — but they’re twisted enough that you won’t be at a disadvantage if you’re brand-new to the franchise.

Regardless of your experience with Persona, there’s a lot to keep track of in Tactica once you get past the tutorial. So, in this Persona 5 Tactica guide, we’ll impart 10 beginner tips we wish we knew before starting the game.

One More attacks are your most powerful tool

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Chaining One More is your primary means for success in Persona 5 Tactica, and you should be looking to get as many as you can in a single turn.

Every time you attack an enemy that isn’t behind cover or is unable to resist your damage at all, you’ll activate One More. This primarily happens when you catch an enemy out in the open before they reach cover, or if you attack them after another character has cast a skill on them that turn.

One More knocks your enemies down and refunds your turn. Now, you could attack the same enemy twice in a row to deal devastating damage — maybe even kill them in one turn. But the real ticket is using your One More to try and get another One More. If you set things up properly, you can chain One Mores until you’ve knocked down every enemy on screen.

Don’t get caught out of cover

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Anytime you’re in cover, you’re able to resist some damage. If it’s full cover, you’ll block any and all frontal attacks. But even if you’re only able to find half-cover, you’ll still take significantly reduced damage from enemies. Because of this, you want to make sure you always end your turn in cover.

However, cover is way more useful than just resistances, as it prevents enemies from getting a One More attack on you. If you’re caught out and get shot, you’ll give your enemy a second turn, which can be devastating for your cadre of Phantom Thieves.

Even if an enemy can clearly hit you from where you’re standing, it’s better to be in some cover than no cover at all.

Use your skills to knock enemies out of cover

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One of the best ways to knock a group of enemies out of cover and set them up for a One More attack is to use a skill on them. Using Morgana’s Magaru wind magic, for example, can knock multiple enemies away from cover, making them easy pickings for another character’s attacks.

Always look to set up an Triple Threat All-Out attack

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If knocking enemies down with One More is your primary goal, using as many Triple Threat attacks as possible is a close second.

Once you knock an enemy down and score a One More, you’ll be able to form a triangle between your three characters. If you manage to position your characters to fit the knocked down enemy inside the triangle, you can execute a Triple Threat attack, which deals massive damage to all enemies inside the triangle.

Now this is great for finishing off an enemy that you’ve downed, but it can also deal incredible damage to enemies that are still in cover — as long as you fit them in the triangle. If you position your characters well, you can get most of the enemies in an arena in a single Triple Threat attack.

Use One More to increase your range of movement

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Getting around the arena quickly is very important in Persona 5 Tactica, as you’ll want to be able to separate your characters out enough to create massive triangles for your All-Out attacks. One way to increase your movement area in a turn is to score a One More. Wherever you’re at when you knock an enemy down, you’ll reset your movement area, allowing you to reach new areas in the same turn.

Change up your Phantom Thief members between missions

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Each character in Persona 5 has their own bonus effect that they bring to combat, like increased HP or SP. But you want to make sure you’re swapping your Phantom Thieves out on a regular basis — even if you prefer their bonuses.

Whenever a Phantom Thief starts a combat sitting on the bench, they’ll gain a buff called Peak Condition in their next battle, which increases their HP and SP. This is an awesome buff which will allow you to make more risky plays and use your spells more often.

Experiment with your skill points

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In Persona 5 Tactica, all of your units share a level, which keeps them on (mostly) equal footing the entire game. When your team levels up, you complete a quest in the hideout, or you get through a conversation with your friends, you’ll earn GP or Growth Points. You can use these Growth Points to improve each individual unit’s skills in their skill trees.

However, the coolest thing about GP is that you can refund it extremely easily. If one character has 50 GP to spend, and 20 of it is occupied in a skill you don’t care much for, you can refund it with a single click. Similarly, if you have some points lying around, just invest it in something you don’t care much about instead of saving it for later. Once you can afford the skill you really want, you can just reallocate those GP.

Focus on the objective of each mission

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Most missions in Persona 5 Tactica want you to clear the arena of enemies. However, there are some mini boss fights that ask you to destroy a flag that your enemies are using to rally themselves or reach an area. In these encounters, you must complete the objective or your enemies will continue to respawn.

Spend more time focusing your efforts on destroying the flag or reaching the area rather than on defeating your enemies. If you complete the objective, you’ll end the encounter immediately and be able to move on to the next fight.

Skipping a turn can be beneficial

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If you’re unable to get an attack out in your turn with a particular character, they’ll gain a buff called Charge on their next turn. Charge does something slightly different for each character — with Erina getting the best buff, which allows her to score a One More on enemies in cover with her gun.

More often than not, you’re going to get Charge on accident when you’re moving characters with a slow movement speed closer to the action. But, if the only option you have for an attack with your character is a bad one — like a hit on an enemy in partial cover — it might behoove you to save that attack and get a Charge out of it instead.

Remember that you can always undo your mistakes

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Like all tactics games, it can be easy to get yourself into a bind in Persona 5 Tactica. Thankfully, Tactica has a very generous undo button. You can open the pause menu anytime and hit “Undo” to reset the game to your previous turn. There are no limitations to how often you can do this.

This is a great way to reposition yourself if your units take more damage than you anticipate or you get ambushed by enemies you didn’t expect. And it’s a great way to encourage you to be more risky with your tactics.