Persona Skills are divided into seven different categories: Physical, Magic, Ailment, Support, Healing, Passive, and Navigator-exclusive skills. Furthermore, each Persona can only know up to eight skills at a time. Thankfully, Strikers has a feature called “Swap Skills.” Meaning if a Skill is accidentally deleted for another, players can swap it back in by going into the pause menu.
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Joker
Unlike the other Phantom Thieves, Joker can use more than one Persona because he has the Wild Card ability. This allows Joker to have much more coverage than his friends, who each have a signature element.
On the downside, being able to use multiple Personas means that Joker’s Skills will vary from Persona to Persona, creating a lack of consistency with the character. The best way to construct Joker’s Skills is by checking each Persona’s stats and fusing stronger Personas. When using Persona Fusions, skills from the Personas that are to be fused can be transferred into the new, sometimes stronger Persona.
Some Personas are more Physical-aligned than Magical. Check the HP and the SP of each Persona. For example, a Persona like Valkyrie learns more Physical Skills as she levels up, and her Magic is her weakest Stat. Therefore, players should avoid transferring too many Magic-aligned Skills on her. Likewise, a Persona like Hua Po is Magic-Aligned and will have more SP than HP. Transferring Physical Skills to Hua Po is counterproductive because it works better as a Magic-attacker.
Joker will gain the ability to carry more Persona as the story progresses. Be sure to visit the Velvet Room before infiltrating Jails.
Skull
Skull’s main element is the Zio/Electric-skills, but his mana isn’t as high as characters like Panther or Sophie. Where Skull lacks in Magic-offense, he makes up for in Physical and the second-highest Defense and HP out of the Phantom Thieves (barring Joker). Equipping him with Ziodyne (or Maziodyne) means he can Down enemies that have a Zio-affinity weakness.
He’ll learn a mix of Physical, Magic, and Support skills as he levels up, but here are some suggestions to narrow down the list:
Mona
Mona gets the highest-tiered Healing Skills in the game (barring Joker, of course). As such, he’s good to have for Healing or for targeting enemies with a Wind-affinity weakness. His Skills like Garudyne or Magarudyne are good to use on enemies that have been Burned, so try to have him and Panther on the same lineup. Unfortunately, he can’t take too much of a hit thanks to his low defense.
Other characters like Queen and Sophie can use Healing spells too. In late-game, however, when the enemies get tougher, it’s better to use stronger healing spells. This is why Mona is good to swap in with Queen or Sophie depending on who the Phantom Thieves are fighting.
Panther
Panther has the best Magic-stat out of the Phantom Thieves but lacks Physical strength and Defense. She also has access to a few Ailment spells that are useful on weaker enemies - especially in the beginning or when surrounded.
Fox
Like Skull, Fox has high HP and strong Attack and Defense. His magic/SP is a bit higher than Skull’s, enough so that he can be used to target Bufu-affinity weaknesses. However, he works better as a Physical fighter than a Magic-user.
Equipping him with accessories that increase the chance of Critical hits is recommended since most of his Physical Skills inflict powerful damage at the cost of some HP.
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Queen
Queen’s Strength and Magic are about the same, but she shares a high Agility stat with Fox. She uses Nuclear-aligned Magic attacks and has a balance of Physical, Magical, and some Healing and Support. Her mana isn’t as high as Sophie’s, but she should have enough to provide backup, or she can battle on the front lines with the other Phantom Thieves.
Watch out for her Defense, since it’s a bit lower than Skull or Fox’s. Equip her with the right Persona 5 Strikers weapon and armor before going into Jails.
Oracle
Oracle’s Persona, Necronomicon, only learns 8 Skills in total. These Skills assist the Phantom Thieves by increasing Showtime Gauge or occasionally healing allies. Once Oracle reaches level 53, she’ll get Final Guard, which will occasionally nullify an enemy’s fatal attack.
Unlike the other Phantom Thieves, Oracle’s Skills can’t be swapped out and will be automatically equipped once she learns them. When Oracle gets Moral Support X or Active Boost X, this will automatically replace Moral Support or Active Boost.
Noir
Despite her appearance, Noir works better as a Physical fighter than she does a Magic fighter. She uses the Psi Skills, which gives her a weakness to Nuclear. Noir also learns Healing spells that can cure ailments. Where she does well as an attacker, she moves a bit slow when using the Attack button. But, if players can memorize her combos and have a good Skillset, she’ll make a good asset to the frontline.
The difficult part about Noir is her Skills. She learns many good Skills and has quite a variety. Despite the recommended table below, it’s recommended to alternate between her other Skills depending on who she’s teamed up with:
Sophie
Sophie is one of the newer Phantom Thieves in Persona 5 Strikers. She uses Kouga-aligned Skills as her main Affinity, but she can also Heal and buff allies.
Unlike the other Phantom Thieves, Sophie is the only one to get her True Persona in Strikers. This gives her access to higher-tiered Bless and Healing spells as well as Passive Skills. By the last few dungeons, she’s someone who should rarely be taken off the team.
Wolf
Wolf is the second-newest team member to join the Phantom Thieves. Unlike the Phantom Thieves, he’s already a full-grown adult and serves as a supporting character for the majority of the game.
Zenkichi Hasegawa, Wolf’s real name, doesn’t join the team until the Kyoto Jail. Despite being a late-game party member, he’s a powerful unit to have and has access to Almighty Skills. Wolf has an ability called Madness that slowly drains his HP in exchange for raw power during combat. Stat-wise, his HP and Strength is higher than Fox and Skull, but he doesn’t get any Physical moves that deal Colossal or Severe damage
Wolf can use either Megidola or Megidolaon. Megidola is preferred because it costs less SP, which isn’t as high as Wolf’s HP. Firm Stance can also be swapped out for one of his other Skills if players prefer to use his Madness Ability.
Persona 5 Strikers is available now on Nintendo Switch, PC, and PS4.
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