One of the most fun parts of Persona 5 is the fusion system. You enlist a variety of demonic allies, then mix them together to create even more powerful personas to use in combat. For the sake of balance, most of these creatures have strengths and weaknesses – but what if you’d rather be ridiculously overpowered? There is a way to minimize your vulnerability by creating a persona that only takes damage from an extremely narrow selection of sources – and who has a devastating physical attack.

[Note: This feature contains no story spoilers, but it does reveal the names of a handful of late-game personas.]

What you’re doing

The goal is to fuse a version of Yoshitsune (a persona of the Tower arcana) that is invulnerable to most types of damage and, in several cases, absorbs that damage as extra HP to fuel his powerful physical attacks.

How you’re doing it

Yoshitsune has fantastic natural immunities; he takes reduced damage from fire, nullifies all physical attacks, and reflects lightning and bless spells back at enemies. Plus, he doesn’t have any weaknesses. We’re going to make Yoshitsune practically unstoppable by plugging holes in the remaining elemental categories, fusing a version that also absorbs ice, wind, psy, and nuclear damage, and that also reflects curse (including those pesky instant-death spells). That means the only times he will take damage are from A) fire spells that only do reduced damage, and B) gun attacks, which are rare. In other cases, you take no damage or get healed, and you use that extra HP to perform Yoshitsune’s exclusive and powerful Hassou Tobi attack.

Why you’re doing it

Maybe you just love the fusion system so much that you like seeing how badly you can break the rules by exploiting it – but there’s a more practical reason to create this Super-Yoshitsune for hardcore players. Persona 5 has a superboss that is only accessible on New Game+, and while I won’t spoil any details, I can tell you that this persona will make that fight dramatically more manageable. He can also help you through the tough battles at the end of your first playthrough. However, be warned that your sense satisfaction in both cases might be diminished.

Preparation:

1. Hit rank 10 with Ryuji, Ann, and Mishima. This shouldn’t be tough (Ryuji and Ann are some of the earliest confidants available to you). Maxing out all three ensures you’re able to fuse Chi You, Ishtar, and Sandalphon, the ultimate personas in the Chariot, Lovers, and Moon arcana respectively.

2. Fuse some other stuff. For this process, we’re also going to want the following personas: Atropos, Silky, High Pixie, Arahabaki, Shiki-Ouji, and Narcissus. Just make sure you have them in your compendium so you can summon them when the time comes. You don’t need to worry about any of their abilities or levels. They’re just fuel for fusion.



Sacrificing a Crystal Skull in the gallows is a good way to speed up levels/skills during this process

3. Level up and save money. If you are not level 92 or higher, you also need to finish the Strength arcana, which lets you pay to summon personas at a level higher than your main character.

NOTE: If you are planning on tackling the superboss on New Game+, I highly recommend performing the Yoshitsune fusion late in your first playthrough rather than waiting until you start over fresh. Your level and confidants reset on your second time through, so you should take advantage of not having pay through the nose for high-level fusions. Plus, your higher confidant ranks closer to the end of the game will provide more bonus experience to everything you create.

4. Keep playing the game. Yoshitsune is a fairly late-game fusion, and there’s no getting around that. That’s because the persona Futsunushi is a requirement to create Yoshitsune, and you need your Magician confidant at rank 10 before it becomes available. For this particular fusion, you also want Judgment at Rank 10 for access to the Satan persona, which happens even later. These relationships advance automatically as the story progresses, so just relax until then.

Fusing Yoshitsune:

When other preparations are complete, head to the Velvet Room. You need five different personas to fuse Yoshitsune, but just three of them require special attention, all with the goal of inheriting five (the max you can assign) specific passive traits: Drain Wind, Drain Ice, Drain Nuke, Drain Psy, and Repel Curse. You must select those skills to carry over in the steps outlined the below, but the other traits you inherit don’t matter.

1. Futsunushi with Repel Curse

Fuse Sandalphon (level 78+ for Repel Curse) with Narcissus

2. Yatagarasu with Drain Ice

Fuse Satan (level 98+ for Drain Ice) with High Pixie

3. Okuninushi with Drain Psy, Drain Wind, Drain Nuke

Fuse Ishtar (natural Drain Wind) with Chi You (level 90+ for Drain Psy) to create Gabriel

Fuse Gabriel with Atropos to create Kali

Bring Kali to level 82+ to learn Drain Nuke

Fuse Kali with Silky

4. & 5. Arahabaki and Shiki-Ouji

Summon these two personas. Their skills don’t matter.

The Big Moment

With all five required personas in your stock, go to Advanced Fusion and create Yoshitsune and use the five empty skill slots to inherit Drain Wind, Drain Ice, Drain Nuke, Drain Psy, and Repel Curse.

The Finishing Touch

Now, level Yoshitsune up to 86 to learn Hassou Tobi (and don’t apply any other skills he learns along the way). This can be expedited by having a high rank in the Tower confident for bonus XP when you fuse him, and/or by using the gallows execution to transform other persona into XP. You won’t have any open slots for Hassou Tobi; I chose to overwrite Brave Blade with it. Hassou Tobi hits all enemies eight times with physical damage, which is enough to quickly blow through the HP of even the toughest bosses.

Congratulations! You now have a persona that effectively allows you to withstand almost every attack, and kill any assembly of enemies who don’t nullify physical damage. That particular set of skills also means that you can solo the superboss on New Game+, provided you are lucky enough to not get hit by a critical gun attack.

One Last Option…

If you’re obsessive about optimization like I am, that lingering Ziodyne is probably bothering you. Charge is great for making Hassou Tobi even more powerful, but Ziodyne? You have plenty of other personas who can use that if you need it – why waste a skill slot on your best one?

You can use skill cards or the skill inheritance from gallows fusion to overwrite Ziodyne with a more useful skill. Firm Stance or Ali Dance are good choices to further decrease the already minimal damage Yoshitsune takes. Unshaken Will imparts immunity to various status ailments, which can be handy. Personally, I went with Arms Master (which I inherited from sacrificing Raphael in the gallows), a skill that halves the HP cost of performing Hassou Tobi. But you can examine your options and choose what works best for your playstyle.

Have fun destroying everything!

[I used this tool a lot when figuring out this process, so check it out if you want to experiment and make your own tweaks]