Don't be proud. Look at the guide. Google that schedule. Look up that Confidants' skills. Don't waste money/resources on wrong fusions. Trust me.
Get books from the school library! If you get a seat on the morning commute, you can use that time to read!
Don't waste time. The game is 150 hours long but if you want to be efficient, see every confidant and unlock all cool things, use time wisely.
Try finishing Dungeons in 1-2 sittings. You have a lot of time but you will need it for building stats or forming confidants. Also, try clearing the Palace as soon as you get the Go Ahead, because there might be funky things happening that take up more time than you think ;)
Keep in mind that you need at least 2 days left until the Palace Deadline to send the Calling Card (!). On your last day, it will be too late.
Some Confidants / Level Ups / Quests are locked until you clear the Palace.
Loot every Palace top to bottom and get all three Will Seeds before you send the Calling Card. You can't go back.
Look up daily specials/buffs, such as the Big Bang Burger Challenge in the evenings or the Rainy Day/Thursday Buff in the Bathhouse. Don't miss the daily buffs or special weather buffs.
Buy Yakisoba Pan on Fridays in the School Entry Hall. It gives you good HP and cures Hunger for a cheap price.
Bullets will refill after every battle. Use them!
Use the Auto-Heal.
If you are new to Persona, look up how weaknesses, One Mores and status effects work for P5R. There will be enemies without weaknesses where you will need to use the right status effect with the right attack for knock down.
Don't wash the dirty laundry you find. It's more profitable to sell it to the second-hand clothes shop in Kichijouji. (With the exception of the best gear for Morgana and Ann, but you can look up which piece of dirty laundry from which palace gives you those when you get there).
Use teleshopping Sundays. Also get the free Stat Drink Sunday. You can still do a palace/activity after you do this since it doesn't use up time.
Buy the SP drinks at the Bathhouse and other Vending Machines every week. The machines restock Mondays.
There are multiple endings. Save on different safe slots so you can go back if you get one you didn't want to. You don't wanna replay 160 hours to get back to the point where it split.
That being said: Befriending Akechi and befriending Akechi, Maruki and Yoshizawa unlocks endings. Don't neglect them. You need to reach level 10 with all of them. Try to do this before end of November.
Sometimes, Confidant Rank Up is locked until you progress further into the story. Look up a guide online so you don't waste time with a friend who doesn't want to get closer yet.
Yusuke is best boy. Accept this.
Grind Mementos. After every palace, clear the new section like a good boy. Trust me on this. If you are extra good, do it on rainy/snowy/pollen days. Those give special benefits and more loot.
Use Network Fusion! You can get great stuff at a small price this way.
You don't need new gear every palace but do look up if you picked up something nice and shiny loot. Make sure you get Joker good gear.
Everyone can die, but if Joker dies, it's game over. In relevant encounters, try to equip a Persona that deflects/nullifies Physical, Bless, Curse, Gun. One-shot-kills are not fun.
Use Chihara's buffs, especially on Confidants. Money etc. is less important with the Stamp system José introduced.
Collect all Personas you meet in a Palace, you will need them for Fusion.
Buy Fertilizer at the Flower Shop in Shibuya (+2) and later in Shinjuku (+3) and give that to the plant in your room regularly. It's free Charm Stat.
Read all texts. You can miss Quests otherwise.
Use the Thieves' Guild. Look up test answers and teacher questions. This is free Knowledge Stat.
Trust me in this: Before fighting the Boss of the Space Palace, set the game to the highest difficulty. It's almost impossible to beat otherwise since you don't deal enough damage to clear all robots in the turns they give you. (On max difficulty, you deal and receive more damage, which means you can one-hit the bots before they hit you. For the big boss, just guard during Big Bang Order and you'll beat that boss in no time.)
Advanced tips:
Plan Palace visits for days where there are no specials/buffs. Especially before you have the Massage unlocked.
Always carry a Persona for the Confidant you want to hang out with. You get +1 points that way. You can always summon Personas outside the Palace by going into the Velvet Room (doesn't use up time).
Befriend the Sun Arcana every chance you get because he will become unavailable for meetings later in the year. The skills he teaches you are fairly useful.
Get the Fusions for the Arcana Max Personas that give the best weapons/gear unlocked in your first playthrough so you can have that gear early in NG+. In Royal, the best weapons and gear are almost all Fusion items made with Electric Chair during an Alarm.
You can farm easy EXP and money in Mementos if you go back to the early levels and just R2 some Shadows. No grind required. You need to unlock this skill in Ryuji's Confidant. Saves you a lot of time.
Save the Personas you need for the Strength Arcana with their right skills in the compendium. NG+ you will thank you.
Add Rainy Version of Beneath the Mask to your playlist.
Hustle through the early Confidants so you have enough time to befriend Haru and Iwai later.
The Speed Reader book becomes available on July 1st in the school library. Get a book for the train before, but wait for more reads until after you get this for max efficiency. You'll need this book, especially if you are after the 'read every book' trophy.
If you miss Will Seeds, José does sell them after the arc is over for a price.
Use the stamp buffs in the Metaverse for Money first, then EXP, then Items. High level Personas can be bought later if you unlock that skill via Confidant (Strength).
Don't date more than one girl.
Also date no one and you get pity chocolates from Sojiro. He's a good dad.
You are legally required to dance and sing along to the intro.
The Jazz Bar buffs are not worth it until the end of the game. Look up the best buffs for each Phantom Thief and make sure you don't miss the day you need to go to the bar by going to a palace/mementos etc.
Temple, Jazz Bar and Fitness stats carry over into NG+. You won't have a lot of time for these in the first playthrough, but it is a good idea to boost you SP and HP. I recommend the fitness studio in Shibuya, since it can give you HP and SP, especially if you use Imported Proteins. Sometimes, the Thieves are even there to train too, giving you a nice Confidant boost.
If you are bold, you can Shadow Negotiate for money/items and then go back to fighting weaker Personas. Especially when grinding in Mementos, this is a nice way to get a lot of money/items without the threat of death.
The Flu Season Reaper strategy does not work in P5R anymore (!). Big boy is immune to Despair now. So if you see him: Run or settle in for a rough battle.
If you are Knowledge level 5, your answers don't matter, you are always top of the class in tests.
If you get Kawakami, use her every night to cook curry or make coffee. If you are grinding for the Morgana/Ann gear, let her do laundry. Don't waste your time on doing it yourself.
Moonlight carrots and coffee are best for SP restock cause they give you a lot. The smaller SP restocks for the entire team (Curry etc.) are not worth it, cause endgame skills use up to 30-50 SP for one use anyway. Also in Palaces, you can switch out low SP teammates and just refill Joker's SP.
Don't read the Location Guide Books. Instead, accept the invitations to hang out with your friends. They take you to these locations and reading the book after having been there autocompletes the book without spending time reading it.
Build Guts early! You need a lot of those for Takemi, Kawakami and Iwai.
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