Putting together the right team is pivotal to making it through the combat sections ofPersona 3 Reload, with a constant barrage of enemies awaiting you as soon as youstep inside Tartarusfor the night. Over time, your friends grow pretty strong, but you’re able to enhance their abilities even further.
By helping your friends awaken to their battle characteristics in Persona 3 Reload, you’ll equip your teammates in SEES with all sorts of critically helpful new perks related to their primary roles on your team. Doing so requires a time slot, but awakening a teammate’s characteristics can be game-changing.
What Are Personality Characteristics?
In Persona 3 Reload, characteristics aretraits your teammates can be givento use in battle, almost alwayspassive perksthat make your life a little easier as the leader on the battlefield. Each of their battle traits tend to make iteasier to boost their Theurgy gauge, meaning they’ll be able touse their special moves more often in battle.
In the base game, you’ll need tohang out with someone three timestofully awaken their combat characteristic. When you return to thedorm at night, you’ll often see one of your teammates with ablue smiley face icon over their heads(as well as on the mini-map). This icon means you’re able to make progress toward awakening their characteristics.
If you don’t ofteninclude someone in the team, you neverhaveto improve their P3R combat characteristics - if you have another use for the evening time slot, use it!
Once you decide you’re hanging out with that character, you’ll see aninteractive cutscene with them, which are known asLinked Episodes. Not everyone is available all the time, but if you see them with that smiley, chat with them to trigger a Linked Episode.
During them, you can do things like:
You’ll typically see a character awakening to abasic version of an abilityearly on into spending time with them, and then on the third time you opt tospend your nighttime time slot with them, their battle characteristics willevolve into a better versionof that ability.
No matter who has awakened to a new combat characteristic in Persona 3 Reload, they’ll be able to use it the very next time you venture into battle. You may evenearn points for their social linkif the teammate in question happens to have one, too!
In theEpisode Aigis DLC, you’ll still be spending time with teammates as Aigis to ensure they awaken tothe same characteristics, but you needspecial itemsto trigger the scenes. These items are obtained fromTwilight Fragment chestsasboss battle rewardsin the Abyss of Time.
Your Protagonist Also Has Characteristics
Like his teammates,the protagonist receives combat characteristicsthroughout the game as well. Unlike them, though, there aren’t special activities for him to do - those are mostly saved forbuilding your social stats.
Instead, your protagonist unlocks combat characteristics in Persona 3 Reload byfilling the Compendiumby fusing new Personas to use in battle.Elizabeth remarksonyour Compendium completiononce you’ve loggedone thirdand latertwo thirdsof all Personas. She’ll also drop the price to summon Personas from the Compendium along the way.
All SEES Combat Characteristics
In the table below, we’ve detailed the combat characteristics for everyone in SEES in both Persona 3 Reload, including the name and exactly what each perk does.
In the base game for Persona 3 Reload,when you unlock these depends on when you choose to hang out with that character, with no set dates for when these combat characteristics unlock. For Persona 3 Reload: Episode Aigis, we’ve included which boss fight unlocks the item necessary to unlock everyone’s combat characteristics.
Increases Junpei’s crit rate and the strength of critical hits.
Critical Amp
Increases Junpei’s crit rate and the strength of his critical hit even further.
Mitsuru
Ailment Burst
When Mitsuru is in battle, enemies impacted by a status ailment are more likely to take a critical hit.
Ailment Surge
Increases the critical hitrate on enemies impacted by status ailments even further when Mitsuru is on the team.
Increases the strength of buffs Akihiko uses on himself.
Buff Amp
Increases the potency of Akihiko’s buff moves on himself even further.
Fuuka
Weakness Buffer
Reduces the damage taken when an enemy strikes your team’s weaknesses.
Koromaru
Auto Sukunda
Automatically lowers one foe’s accuracy and evasion for three turns when the battle begins.
Auto Masukunda
Automatically lowers all foes' accuracy and evasion for three turns when the battle begins.
Shinjiro
Auto Bolster
Shinjiro’s attack or defense stat is boosted at the beginning of each battle.
Auto Heat Riser
All of Shinjiro’s stats are boosted at the start of each battle.
Metis (DLC Only)
Sister Boost
After Aigis shifts to her, Metis receives a 20% attack boost.
Sister Amp
After Aigis shifts to her, Metis receives a 430% attack boost.
- In the base game, Aigis has her own combat characteristics. In the Episode Aigis DLC, she inherits many things from the protagonist, like their combat characteristics, losing her innate access to Phys Boost and Phys Amp.
Fuuka and Metis
Profile Book
Metis
You need to leave the Desert of Doors and head back to the Iwatodai Dormitory to complete these scenes, and the game forces you out once you reach the end of each door, anyway. This is also your chance to change your gear and sell some loot at Paulownia Mall, and new stuff unlocks between each door you complete.
