Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance: Quick leveling without DLCs (Real and True)

Kushi Mitamas are little silly guys that you can find around via the navigator or in static location. If you beat them up, you get gospels which is +1 level to Nahobino.

I typically save gospels for the end game because levels 80-99 can be fairly annoying to get and so simply just having them for the end game is my recommendation as the final grinds will be in the final dungeon.

Leveling was fairly broken in the original. You see if you grab two demons of the same race and fuse them you get an elemental. Elementals allow you to fuse up and down a race tree like a jack frost into a pixie or Jack frost into the next fairy just another convenient note of info. Elementals are the earliest way to level up using Magatsuhi Luck, you get a lot of money as well to spend on items or spam reverse fusions compendium/special fusions. Early on Magatsuhi demons are big risks on hard mode, but if you can end on with Magatsuhi Luck big returns.

Note: the fusions for the elementals below may result in a demon higher than your current level. In the beginning at least. You may also need a side quest to complete in order to get the talisman

• Two Yoma(s) at Level 10 Agathion and Mandrake.
• Two Haunt(s) at Level 12 Obariyon and Preta
• Two Jaki(s) at Level 11 Turdak and Gremlin
• Two Brute(s) at Level 11 Daemon and Azumi

Disclaimer: With magatsuhi luck you generally want to punch up, but you lose out on crits. It is a risky system and you should test the waters to find the comfortable zone where you can end the battle with the luck skill active.

Alternatively later on you can get the Genma talisman which has the same effect this requires locating 100 miman at least and given by Gustave.

Disclaimer: Getting the Genma talisman isn’t possible by Shinagawa because the final few miman in Shinagawa are stuck behind the Amanozako quest area later on in the game. It is possible by Shinjuku or Chiyoda/Ginza respectively.

As soon as Riberama becomes available you should be spamming Riberama and Magatsuhi luck and punching enemies levels above you. This is a risky leveling method, but when another wave appears this adds a multiplier with money and exp. This can usually go up to 3 encounters with one. Ideally, you will want to use luck at the end of encounter 2, but if encounter 3 shows up, you will have to end with Luck active there. As a nice note, Magatsuhi skills do carry over to each wave. Same with buffs unless they were about to end, you can tell by the Magatsuhi skill active icon. Riberama + Magatsuhi Luck spams become about 5x exp or 7x exp if i recall correctly.

Riberama does work in dungeons, albeit a bit more oddly. It seems to only work in encounters where theres another demon near the enemy. Say if there were 4 Nue chilling in a spot, you have riberama active, it seems riberama has a chance to pull other Nue in. So do encounters where demons are next to each other in dungeons. In the final dungeon, I usually fight the Chi you doubles on the 3rd floor.

In my honest opinion, your goal should be to level up to a certain point when punching up isn’t really giving great returns anymore. At times this is at level or 2 levels below the last boss in the map. Use grimoires to catch your demons up, and then use the statues to overlevel your demons. The demons will become the main source of damage generally as they are overleveled. At the final dungeon this is typically where you pop the gospels you saved to hit cap. In other words, save statues to put the demons levels above your level. once you hit cap the statues are worthless because you can just use grimoires to catch demons up and levels 100+ isn’t available til much later.

While it is a lot harder, using Luck on Boss fights can be particularly insane if you land it. Good money and good exp but Riberama abuse won’t work on bosses but you still might get good exp and money.

Atlus just bring the other games please.