Once Metis has attacked the dorm and given you the basic premise of what you’ll need to do inPersona 3 Reload: Episode Aigis -The Answer-, you and your SEES teammates are once again tossed back into the thick of combat, using your Personas again for the first time in ages.
Malebolge is the first section in the Abyss of Time in P3R, and you’ll come up against a handful of enemies that help you and the group get your feet wet again when it comes to combat. Try adding Metis to the party to see what she’s made of!
Malebolge Overview
The very first of the doors you venture into from the Desert of Doors, Malebolge is here to help you reacclimate to playing Persona 3 Reload. You got a taste of combat in battling Metis during the game’s intro, but now that Aigis has awoken to the power of the Wild Card, you’ll have plenty of new kinds of adventures in exploring with SEES.
When you get to the entrance of Malebolge, you’ll notice thatJunpei, Mitsuru, and Koromaru are unavailablefor this first section. They’re all off doing things on their own to research how to get out of the dorm, and they’ll rejoin you as you progress through the game a bit more. To start with, you’ll need toassemble a party of Yukari, Akihiko, Ken, and Metis, notably leaving one character with Fuuka back at the entrance.
Since this is your first time getting to use Metis in combat, it’s important to understand her skill set a bit. She’s primarily aphysical attackerwho knows a handful ofsupport skills"to help her sister," and she’ll also gain access toWind and Ice magicthat she can use in a pinch to help exploit enemy weaknesses. She uses weapons similar to Shinjiro, and dealsStrike damageas her default attack.
Malebolge is made up of15 total floors, with aboss battlein the first section. If you should go back to the Desert of Doors after, you’ll see that you’ve got a second door behind the first one, which leads you back to the deepest point you’ve accessed in the Abyss. Keep this in mind, as this happens in the remaining areas as well.
It’s not a bad idea to pop back out to the Desert of Doors periodically to make use of the Velvet Room -your Compendium carries overfrom the base game, so use all your previous Personas liberally!
You’re extremely limited in your gear during the Malebolge section of the Desert of Doors, but once you’ve reached the end, you’ll unlock the ability tovisit Paulownia Mallto gear up for the DLC between expeditions.
Enemies In Malebolge
Just like back in Tartarus, you’ll come across a large swath of different Shadows in the Malebolge area of the Abyss of Time in Persona 3 Reload: Episode Aigis -The Answer-. Keep your team’s affinity in mind, as you’re pretty limited in your skills and abilities in this section of the game. Make smart use of multi-target moves where possible as your teammates acquire them!
If an affinity isn’t listed in the table below, it means that Shadow takes normal damage from that affinity. Additionally, Shadows marked with an asterisk are glowing red tough Shadows.
Wealth Hand
If you ever don’t want to battle a Shadow in Persona 3 Reload, get near enough for it to notice you before running to a treasure chest you haven’t opened. Enemies almost always disappear when you open a new chest - the animation seems to cut off the chase and de-spawn the enemy, so it’s a helpful way to both stock up on lootandavoid combat if necessary.
Unlike the base game, where you had Gatekeeper Shadows waiting on important floors, you’ll now haveShadows guarding Doorslike the ones back in the Desert of Doors, with a one-way teleporter available on the floor before the fight if you need to head back to the lobby to heal up, save, or change the party.
Your introduction to these guardians is onMalebolge B8, where you’ll encounterWrathful Book, who has two Shouting Tiaras as support Shadows. There are new enemies added to the mix when you continue on past this door guard battle and into the back section of Malebolge in Persona 3 Reload: Episode Aigis, which we’ve listed out in the table above, so stay on your toes!
