First of all, with these information, newcomers are actually possible to max out all social stats and confidants in the first play-through. However, this will results in a very tight timetable and you may have to get into relationship with the girl you wanted pretty late in the game. So, it's up to you whether how you wanted to play this game. You can also just make a save file at some point and reload it back after you finish enjoying the sub story of a confidant.
If you prefer more detailed step by step walk-through, you may try the link below: (written by some gamers for trophy collection with the best possible shortest way; however it's not too newcomer friendly)
https://www.playstationtrophies.org/forum/persona-5-a/309005-persona-5-trophy-guide-roadmap.html
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1dM4MZ_CKiu_EtcSL588-I2avd040YnGfARKEk3ViBck/edit#gid=0
Social Stats (Cumulative Points Required)
| Rank 2 | Rank 3 | Rank 4 | Rank 5 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Knowledge | 20 | 47 | 72 | 105 |
| Guts | 6 | 16 | 31 | 64 |
| Proficiency | 8 | 21 | 38 | 55 |
| Kindness | 9 | 28 | 56 | 82 |
| Charm | 4 | 32 | 56 | 79 |
Below I will only list out ways that I found efficient in increasing social stats:
-Borrow and read all the books available at the library
-Buy all the books that will increase social stats in the Shibuya book store (Information books & books in the book city, Jinbocho should be avoided)
-Don't mind the DVD rental deadline, you will never be fined
-Buy the special drink at Shibuya Underground Walkway on Sunday
Knowledge
Quiz or Test in school (Knowledge +1)
Quiz on TV during Thursday (Knowledge +1)
Diner in Shibuya, (Knowledge +2) During rainy day (Knowledge+3); Prefer Hot Coffee (Guts+1)
Or, you may choose Steak (Kind+1) or Totem Pole (Proficiency+1)
Charm
Bathhouse at Yogenjaya during Monday & Thursday (Charm+3)
Maid cafe in Shinjuku (Charm+2, may trigger Kind+1/Guts+1)
Watch DVD:
-Bubbly Hills, 90210 (Charm+2)
-Not-so-hot Betty (Charm+3)
Guts
Watch DVD:
-The X Folders (Guts+2)
-The Running Dead (Guts+3)
Big Bang Burger Challenge (Should only aim for success)
-Comet Burger: Failed (Guts+1); Success (Guts,Knowledge,Charm,Proficiency+1)
-Gravity Burger: Failed (Guts+2); Success (Guts,Knowledge,Charm,Proficiency+2)
-Cosmos Burger: Failed (Guts+3); Success (Guts,Knowledge,Charm,Proficiency+3)
After successfully beat all 3 level, you can still keep taking the challenge:
-Cosmos Burger: (Guts+3)
Proficiency
Craft Infiltration Tools (Proficiency+2)
Watch DVD:
-Jail Break (Proficiency+3)
Kindness
Watch DVD:
-ICU (Kind+3)
Fertilizer for the plant in the bedroom:
-Fertilizer from Shibuya Undermall (Kind+2)
-Organic fertilizer from Shinjuku (Kind+3)
Part Time
IMO, you should only do part time when needed to progress story such as Sun confidant or Mementos request. Therefore, you may done each part time job twice before the story came up.
Confidant
You should always carry the corresponding persona with the confidant before initiate a hangout. Therefore, you should always go to the velvet room and summon a corresponding persona first.
If you ever get invited out for outgoing activities, I highly recommend you to respond "Yes". It will boost the confidant relationship and one of the social stat; or boost two different confidant relationship at the same time.
However, if the confidant asked for coffee after the activity, you are free to decline if you have more important things to be done. As it will only give you a "coffee" and boost one confidant relationship. Raising social stat is consider more important things.
For all the girls confidant, you can at least gave them each one gift and at most two. You could also went to Chihaya before initiate hangout for Affinity Reading that has extra boost for confidant relationship.
For more details on the confidant dialog choices, you can refer to:
http://www.hardcoregamer.com/2017/04/04/persona-5-confidant-guide/252919/
Confidant Rank Up Based On Story
You can safely exclude the following 5 types of persona in your list as they rank up based on story:
FOOL, MAGICIAN, JUSTICE, JUDGEMENT, STRENGTH
Strength Confidant Fusing Guide:
http://www.rpgsite.net/feature/5486-persona-5-guide-persona-fusing-solutions-for-the-strength-cooperation-twin-wardens
Game System
Difficulty
Safety: Damage Received 50%, Damage Dealt 200%, Experience 300% Money 500%
Easy: Damage Received 50%, Damage Dealt 100%, Experience 100% Money 100%
Normal: Damage Received 100%, Damage Dealt 100%, Experience 100% Money 100%
Hard: Damage Received 160%, Damage Dealt 80%, Experience 100% Money 100%
Merciless: Damage Received 160%, Damage Dealt 80%, Experience 40% Money 40%
(All Critical and Technical damage received and dealt 300%)
It's not recommended for you to choose Safety, because you won't be able to change the difficulty on the fly and you will never experience Game Over.
Source: http://www.pushsquare.com/news/2017/04/guide_persona_5_difficulty_settings_-_what_does_the_difficulty_level_change
Personally, I recommend choosing Normal at first and later on change it to Hard. You may choose Merciless for boss battle. Merciless for normal mobs and mini bosses put too much stress on the SP and items usage.
Press L1 or L2
Always press your L1 or L2 occasionally to scan around you for missed treasure. It will also tell you what to do next if you ever wonder what is the next step.
Mementos Guide:
Be sure to always read all your IM from Mishima. Some of the requests may required you to work as part-timer to gather information first. You should clear Mementos at least once every month as it's a good source of income plus some of the confidant rank required the clearance of quest in Mementos. If you wanted to max all social stat and confidant in the first play-through, when to clear the Mementos actually are quite important.
Check the link below for more information:
http://www.ign.com/wikis/persona-5/Mementos_and_Requests
Money Fortune
You should always went and see Chihaya for Money Fortune Reading (5000 yen) before enter a palace or Mementos. The bonus money from all out attack even included mini bosses.
All Ending Guide:
http://gameranx.com/features/id/102925/article/persona-5-how-to-get-all-endings/
Battle System
Persona
Persona is basically the soul of this game. Fusing a balanced persona with suitable skill is the main battle power of this game. For early to mid game, you would probably want to have personas that cover all types of elements and 1 hybrid healer+attacker for boss battle. For mid to late game, you would probably narrow down the number of persona to 1-2 that covered all types of elements by fusing special persona. Then, 1 full healer+buffer/debuffer and 1 attacker with Swift Attack mixed with some magic attack for boss battle. You may check the following links for more info:
https://chinhodado.github.io/persona5_calculator/index.html#/list
https://aqiu384.github.io/p5-tool/personas
Special Persona (Treasure Demon)
There are 8 types of special persona with different weakness. If you are unable to knock them down within 3 turns they will flee the battle. My personal opinion is that chances of their appearance in the Mementos has something to do with the Luck stat. Below are their weakness list:
| Weakness | |
|---|---|
| Regent | Psychic, Nuclear |
| Queen's Necklace | Gunfire |
| Stone of Scone | Curse |
| Koh-I-Noor | - |
| Orlov | - |
| Emperor's Talisman | - |
| Hope Diamond | - |
| Crystal Skull | - |
Ambush
You should always try to ambush your enemy instead of attacking head on or even worse getting ambush by your enemy. If you are playing on Hard or Merciless difficulty, the enemy in mid to late game has very high chances in inflicting ailments and high damages to you. Even a normal head on attack will results in half of the party members dead or you wasting tons of SP.
In mid to late game, normal mobs and mini bosses are even greater threat than bosses. Sometimes, it's a good idea to flee the battle instead of getting killed by normal mobs and have to revert back to the last safe room.
All Out Attack
After you knock down all opponents, you are able to perform All Out Attack. This attack damage is being affected only by Melee Weapon and Strength stat.
Ranged Weapon
Ranged weapon is being ignored by most people as it has very limited ammo plus the expensive price on the upgrade. Therefore most of the time, it only serve as to hit the weakness of the enemy or using the special skill Down Shot.
However, ranged weapon serve as a very good way to deal high damage to the boss even though the ranged weapon barely being upgraded compare to the frequently upgraded melee weapon and persona with all doesn't trigger any weakness or strength. It's especially useful if you are playing Hard or Merciless on your first play-through.
One shot kill damage is not being affected by ranged weapon. One shot kill damage is affected by Strength stat or passive skill that boost gun damage.
Insta-Heal
If you do play on Hard or Merciless, you should keep this skill in Haru and Joker. It enable them to recover from all ailments in just 1 turn including incurable ailments such as those from the Final Boss. Personal preference wise, I do recommend to keep this skill no matter what difficulty you playing.
Equipment
There are two types equipment that has special functions in this game. Firstly, is the type of equipment that can transmutate. Which mean they are being used as medium to get better equipment when using the electric chair function in the Velvet Room. Secondly, dirty equipment that can be wash in the Laundromat in Yogenjaya for a random equipment.
Dark Net Tanaka
Make sure to buy the Broken Computer from the Secondhand shop at Yogenjaya on September 2. Then, buy Computer Repair Kit in Akihabara tool shop. Then, repair it during night time in your room. Dark net sell dirty armor which only cost 1000 yen for a chance of getting equipment that are better than those sold in Airsoft.
Futaba Sakura Equipment
It's the same as the special persona, my personal opinion is that Luck stat affect the chances of Futaba using her ability. Therefore, Futaba equipment should focus purely on raising her Luck stat.
Following are some of the exploits that I am able to find. I called them exploits because some may feel like they heavily affect the game balance and fun. Since this is a single player game, some exploits won't hurt as long as you are still able to enjoy the game. So, used it as you see fit.
Level Exploit:
Enter Mementos during November 13, 14, 15 or December 8, 9. Go to any level except for the main entrance or safe room. Leave your controller on the floor for approximately 1 minute ++ and wait for Morgana to warn you about something fishy. Enter battle with the Reaper and look out whether Reaper is affected by Despair. If Reaper wasn't affected by Despair, flee immediately and change floor; and repeat the process again.
Source: https://videogamesuncovered.com/features/persona-5-how-to-cheat-the-reaper/
Money Exploit:
Get a Persona with high Luck and get it to learn Confuse. One of the way is fusing a LV 15 Onmoraki with Rakshasa/Ame-no-Uzume/Zouchouten. Then, use confuse on Mementos boss and wait for the confused boss to throw out money. I am not very sure which Mementos boss are vulnerable to confuse as I didn't try this out. According to my friend, there are quite a number of Mementos boss vulnerable to this exploit.
Persona Exploit:
Yoshitsune' Hassou Tobi is pretty strong in this game. Someone posted a way to fuse a pretty invicible Yoshitsune with tons of repel or drain. Check it out if you are interested. Although I didn't try it out myself but it should be pretty much invisible as he said:
http://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/archive/2017/04/14/how-to-fuse-an-invincible-killing-machine-in-persona-5.aspx
