Persona 3 Reload: Secret Boss Battles Guide

Upon reaching floor 62 of Tartarus, Fụuka will warn you about a Reaper that can appear and chase outsiders. What makes the Reaper in Persona 3 Reload more terrifying than other iterations of Persona 3 is the fact that once it spawns, it will chase you up the stairs until you reach a Gatekeeper / Border floor, enter a Monad Door, or use a teleporter to travel to another floor.

The Reaper is by no means a secret boss since you’re told about it early on, but defeating it is required to unlock the secret super boss of P3R. To spawn it, you must be on a floor that spawns Shadows, and need to have spent 3~5 minutes on that individual floor (excluding Monad, combat, and any menu pauses). This timer is also much lower if you’re on an anomaly floor (e.g. Dark Zone).

Cheese Strategy

Let’s get the easy approach out of the way first.
By fusing Helel and Satan (required max Star Social Link & level 88 or 83 with Temperance Major Arcana Card), the Persona Compendium grants you the Armageddon Theurgy. Using it will set your HP and SP to 1, but deal 9999 damage, which erases the Reaper on turn 1 if you enter the battle with your Theurgy Gauge filled.

Actual Strategy

Because the Reaper gets two actions per turn and will take full advantage of your party’s elemental weaknesses, you can choose to either fight him solo or equip null element accessories on your party members to not give it One Mores. It also might be worth equipping Amritite Necklace to avoid the barrage of ailments.

In either case, you’ll want to bring Debilitate to the fight, alongside buffs such as Heat Riser & Charge/Concentrate depending on what type of damage you’ll be using (I recommend physical attacks because the Reaper has no elemental weaknesses to take advantage of, but critical hits don’t care).

It’s worth noting that despite the Reaper no longer being able to be afflicted by shock and freeze, his fight in P3R is still easier than his appearances in past versions of Persona 3 due to the added mechanics in P3R, and because of his less punishing AI. One big difference is that it used to spam Megidolaon if you had either Tetrakarn or Makarakarn applied, but in P3R, the Reaper accepts its fate and lets its attacks get reflected, which makes Ken a lot more effective than he would otherwise be.

Party Composition / Roles

• Yukari – Healer / Support
  Amrita Shower for curing ailments, and Tranquility Theurgy for team-wide Concentrate.
• Junpei – Offensive Physical
  Brave Blade spam and fish for critical hits, straight and simple.
• Akihiko – Offensive Physical / Debuffer
  With his enhanced Combat Characteristic and an active attack buff, Akihiko hits hard when using God’s Hand. He can also debuff the Reaper’s attack via Matarunda.
• Mitsuru – Offensive Magical / Debuffer
  Concentrate + Diamond Dust, and she can debuff the Reaper’s defense via Marakunda or her Blade of Execution Theurgy.
• Aigis – Offensive Physical / Buffer
  Weaker physical skills in exchange for providing team-wide attack and defense buffs via Matarukaja & Marakukaja. She can also use Orgia Mode, which prevents the Reaper from gaining a One More even if it hits her weakness.
• Koromaru – Buffer / Debuffer
  Mostly enables the team to deal damage by providing team-wide accuracy/evasion and critical rate buffs, plus Debilitate on the Reaper. His Power Howling Theurgy is also a team-wide Charge.
• Ken – Healer / Buffer
  Heat Riser for buffing an ally, and Divine Intervention Theurgy for team-wide Tetrakarn & Makarakarn.
• Shinjiro – Offensive Physical / Debuffer
  God’s Hand, and has Debilitate. The fact that he has no elemental weakness, and has access to Bloody Charge & Endure means he can deal solid damage while being able to take a beating.

Ziroikabi has a video showcasing the power of repel against the Reaper – it was defeated just by manipulating the AI while having repel physical passives.

There are a few requirements you need to meet in order to unlock the super boss battle that is Elizabeth, and the earliest date you can accomplish all of these to challenge her is on January 1.

• Complete all 5 Elizabeth Dates (Elizabeth Request #77 – #81)
• Defeat the Shadow of the Void (Elizabeth Request #99)
• Defeat the Reaper (Elizabeth Request #100)

Complete all 5 Elizabeth Dates

Let’s start with how to unlock the Elizabeth Dates.
Each Elizabeth Request has a challenge level associated with it, and after completing enough to meet the level threshold, Elizabeth will ask that you take her out to experience the world. These do not pass the time in-game, but do keep in mind that there’s a three day cooldown period before you can take invite her out on a date after having already done so, so don’t stockpile her requests and wait to complete them.

As an overview, here’s the level requirement for each date event:
(Details regarding the challenge levels gained per Elizabeth Request is in the guide below)

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3152126686

Defeat the Shadow of the Void

The Shadow of the Void is found in the Monad Passage located on the 255F of Tartarus, and in order to access it, you first need to have reached the 255th floor, which involves defeating all of the Gatekeepers in Tartarus. Next, Monad Passages are always found on fixed floors right before a Border Floor and require certain Major Arcana Tarot Cards to be able to open them. Excluding the very first passage, every following Monad Passage requires having cleared the previous one and retrieving the Tarot Card found at the end. This means you must defeat all the bosses for every Monad Passage to arrive at the final one.

Here’s some useful info on what every Shadow is vulnerable to in the Monad Passages.
(Use Full Analysis for full affinity details)

Lower Yabbashah 91F

Upper Yabbashah 117F

Lower Tziah 143F

Upper Tziah 171F

Lower Harabah 197F

Upper Harabah 225F

Adamah 255F

The Elizabeth Super Boss Battle is the most difficult challenge that you will face in Persona 3 Reload, and requires careful planning to defeat.

Rules of Engagement

There are a number of rules that Elizabeth will impose on the player. If you violate any of them, Elizabeth will switch to spamming Diarahan on her first action & insta-kill Megidolaon* on her second action for every following turn until you fall in battle.

These are the following actions that you may not take:

• Null, Absorb, or Repel any attacks (Null Ailments & Instant Death are OK)
• Countering any physical attacks
• Equipping the Omnipotent Orb
• Using Armageddon (If she survives the attack)
• 100 Turns have passed

*Her insta-kill Megidolaon deals 9999 damage. To differentiate it from her normal Megidolaon that she also uses, I will refer to her insta-kill as Megidolaon (9999) instead.

Elizabeth Data

Elizabeth has 20,000 HP, acts twice per turn, and cannot be afflicted by any status ailments.

Persona Affinity Table

Main Skill Usages

Elizabeth Attack Patterns / Phases

Phase 1 (20,000 ~ 13,001 HP)
– Summons Persona (except for Pixie) in order of the table above and acts twice per turn

Phase 2 (13,000 ~ 10,000 HP)

Phase 3 (1st Time <10,000 HP)

Phase 4 (2nd Time <10,000 HP)
– First Turn: Concentrate into Megidolaon (9999)
– Second Turn & Onwards: Diarahan into Megidolaon (9999)

Equipment Preparations

As I will be list a number of different strategies you can take, the Persona preparations will be found under each strategy instead (you are also expected to max out all stats for the Personas listed via Incense cards – purchase gems from Club Escapade and trade them in at Mayoido Antiques). In addition, the equipment listed here (excluding Lucifer’s Blade) may be unnecessary depending on the strategy.

To put it simply, we’re choosing our equipment based on how useful their passive skills are.

• Lucifer’s Blade
  > Dead Moon’s Husk + Fallen Angel Wing (Lucifer ♥ Item) + 10 Gold Quartz + 10 Ruby
• Armor of Light / Hallowed Plate
  > Dead Moon’s Husk + Savior’s Augite (Messiah ♥ Item) + 10 Diamond + 5 Ruby
  > Nihil White Model + Prayer Angel Garland (Sandalphon ♥ Item) + 10 Garnet + 5 Diamond
• Shoes of Light / Shoes of Bane
  > Dead Moon’s Husk + Savior’s Augite (Messiah ♥ Item) + 10 Diamond + 5 Ruby
  > TV Shopping (November 29, ¥39,800)
• Amritite Necklace / Phoenix Charm / Earrings of Grit
  > Club Escapade (¥500,000)
  > Top of the Class Reward (December 21)
  > Club Escapade (¥200,000)

Theurgy Unlock Conditions

• King and I: King Frost + Black Frost
  > Elizabeth Request #24
• Armageddon: Satan + Helel
  > Star Rank 10
• Scarlet Havoc: Mithras + Siegfried

Acquiring Magic Mastery

Depending on your difficulty settings and DLCs, defeating Elizabeth can actually be done in just 2 turns. This section will cover how to accomplish these speed clears with varying difficulties & whether the player owns the necessary DLC Persona.

Assuming you own the P5R Persona Set 1 DLC, that means you have access to some of the most broken passive skills in the game — Affinity Driver, which increases their respective affinity attacks by 75% and stacks with Amp (50%) and Boost (25%) skills.

For the following two difficulties’ cheese strat, our focus will be on one specific Persona — a max St & Ma (99 Stat) Goemon. If you don’t own the DLC, any Persona will work as long as you substitute Ice Driver for Magic Mastery (getting this via Skill Mutation will take some time, see the video in the previous section for more details).

Goemon Skill List

• Ice Driver / Magic Mastery
• Ice Amp
• Ice Boost
• Multi-Target Boost
• Auto (Ma)Tarukaja
• (Ma)Rakunda
• Evade / Resist Fire

2 Turn Kill – Peaceful Difficulty
Before engaging with Elizabeth, make sure your Theurgy is ready, and either get a Cups cards via Shuffle Time that enables you to start this battle with Concentrate, or have Fụuka’s Theurgy ready so you can roll the dice on getting a Concentrate during the battle. When the battle begins, open with (Ma)Rakunda, and after Elizabeth switches to Surt on turn 2, use King and I to deal over 20k damage.

5 Turn Kill – Merciless Difficulty
There is also a 4 Turn Kill strategy, but it has a number of RNG factors and requires DLC Persona to even have a shot at trying it, plus the general plan for 4 Turn Kill is the same as this 5 Turn Kill.

The trick to defeating Elizabeth in so few turns is by taking advantage of her Rules of Engagement to force her into not healing upon reaching sub-10,000 HP, similar to what people have done in prior versions of Persona 3’s Elizabeth Battle via High Counter. In essence, our goal is to trigger her Phase 2 and prepare her to be in the 11,000 HP range so that we can repel her God’s Hand on Turn 3 of Phase 2. Upon repelling the attack, Elizabeth is brought down to under 10,000 HP; but instead of using Diarahan on her second action, she will use Megidolaon (9999) because you broke the rules. This will give you one turn of action to follow up with Armageddon and end the fight before Elizabeth heals herself back to full the next turn.

For preparations, you’ll need a Persona with Repel Strike to break the rule with, and make sure to have both Enduring Soul and Endure either on this same Persona, or equipped via a passive bonus from your equipment, so that you can survive two Megidolaon (9999). Lastly, make sure to have the Soul Fortune from the Fortune Teller at Club Escapade (speeds up Theurgy fill), grab a Cups card via Shuffle Time that grants you Concentrate at the start of the battle, and have a full Theurgy ready for you and Fụuka.

Arahabaki Skill List (Example Persona Choice that comes with Repel Strike)

• (Ma)Rakunda
• Repel Strike
• Enduring Soul
• Endure

*(Ma)Rakunda is preferred because this doesn’t lower Elizabeth’s repelled damage

You’ll begin the battle with a (Ma)Rakunda, and after Elizabeth switches to Surt, you use King and I to deal ~9,000 damage. This will trigger Phase 2, where you’ll want to switch to your Persona with Repel Strike + Enduring Soul and/or Endure. There’s not much to do here aside from reapplying (Ma)Rakunda, and using Fụuka’s Theurgy to help refill your Theurgy (Theurgy gauge fills each time you’re given a turn, and Fụuka’s Theurgy makes it so that you’re treated as being given another turn). You’re basically waiting out the 2 turns for Elizabeth to use God’s Hand. Once her attack has been repelled, you should be ready to use Armageddon, finishing the fight.

BothDoorsCares has a video of the 5 Turn Kill strategy, and uploaded a number of challenge runs that are also worth checking out if you’re interested.

Although players have figured out ways to skip phases and defeat Elizabeth quickly, this is obviously not what the developers intended, seeing as how they added “No Counters Allowed” to the ruleset. This section will delve into how you were expected to approach Elizabeth.

Equipment Preparations:

• Lucifer’s Blade
• Armor of Light
• Shoes of Bane
• Amritite Necklace

Additional Tartarus Preparations:

• Soul Fortune from the Fortune Teller in Club Escapade
• Cups card which provides Charge & Concentrate at the start of the battle
• Protagonist’s and Fụuka’s Theurgy Gauge Filled

Persona Preparations:

You should use Scarlet Havoc Theurgy on the second turn after debuffing Elizabeth, and save the next one to use ASAP upon entering Phase 2; Fụuka’s Theurgy should also be used on the fourth turn when your auto-buffs wear off, and spamming Full Analysis afterwards will recharge her Theurgy faster. Outside of those two points, you’ll mostly be consulting the Persona Affinity Table provided in the “Elizabeth (Introduction)” section, to use magic skills that her respective Persona is weak to. When she is not vulnerable to any of your skills, you should instead use that time to buff/debuff/heal. Lastly, as Elizabeth nears her final phase, you should save your Theurgy so that you can cast Armageddon in time.

I hope you all find this information helpful in any way. If you notice any mistakes, have any questions, or just want to suggest information that you would like to see added, please feel free to let me know.

Check out a few other guides I’ve made for Persona 3 Reload:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3152126713 https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3152126765 https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3152126470