Best Personas To Level Early In Persona 3 Reload

This article is part of a directory: Persona 3 Reload: Guide Hub and Walkthrough

Table of contents

Highlights

Persona 3 Reload focuses on gathering Personas to cover weaknesses and prevent enemy advantage in battles.
Some Personas like Jack-O'-Lantern have innate abilities and learn skills to enhance combat effectiveness.
Leveling up specific Personas like Oberon and Uriel can provide valuable abilities to survive insta-kill attacks and deal massive damage.

In Persona 3 Reload, players will have to gather many Personas in their battle against shadows to cover as many weaknesses as possible, which will help to prevent enemies from gaining the upper hand on the battlefield. All Personas start with one or more abilities, known as innate abilities, and hold vast potential for growth.

Persona 3 Reload_ All Personas Players Can Catch In The Thebel Block Of Tartarus, Ranked

Persona 3 Reload: All Personas Players Can Get In The Thebel Block Of Tartarus, Ranked

Persona 3 Reload players can get six Personas in the Thebel Block of Tartarus. Here's how they compare to one another.

Personas expand upon the repertoire of physical, elemental, recovery, and passive abilities as the player grinds out levels through combat against bossed or fighting shadows in Tartarus. Leveling up is an important aspect for any Persona, but there are those that benefit more than others thanks to specific skills that they can learn, some of which players should make a top priority.

6 Jack-O'-Lantern

Negate a Weakness

Learned Abilities:

Rage Boost - Increase chances of inflicting Rage.
Dodge Ice - Increase Evasion against Ice skills.
Agilao - Deal medium Fire damage to a single target.

Just as shadows have certain weaknesses, so do Personas, which usually are opposite elements to the types of damage they deal. For example, Jack-O'-Lantern has an affinity for fire and is weak to ice as a result.

Players struck by a weakness will be knocked down, giving shadows a chance to take an extra turn, just like when the player hits a weak point. As such, a skill that can allow the player to dodge their weakness can come in clutch, which Jack-O'-Lantern can learn at level 19. Though this seems like a lofty level to achieve for a lower level Persona, it is definitely worthwhile if it allows players to avoid an attack that would otherwise knock them down.

5 Leanan Sidhe

Utility Abilities to Regain SP

Learned Abilities:

Spirit Drain - Drains 20 SP from one foe.
Me Patra - Dispels Panic, Fear, and Distress for the entire party.
Marin Karin - Charm 1 foe.
Null Charm - Protects user from Charm.

Leanan Sidhe is quite a useful Persona to recruit thanks to her recovery and utility abilities, which can help players get out of sticky situations where they are losing health and suffering from status ailments.

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Starting off with two healing abilities innately, Leanan Sidhe can go on to learn Spirit Drain, which allows players to regain precious SP, a very finite resource that can run out all too quickly while trying to grind out levels in Tartarus. This skill helps players continue exploring, making the most of each of their Tartarus explorations. Players will also gain other abilities, such as Me Patra and Marin Karin, which will help them dispel certain status ailments or charm foes to gain a temporary ally.

4 Oberon

Withstand an Insta-Kill Attack

Learned Abilities:

Mazio - Deal light Electric damage to all enemies.
Zan-ei - Deals medium Slash damage to one foe (1.5x damage "New Moon" bonus).
Survive Dark - Automatically Survive 1 Dark Insta-Kill attack with 1 HP remaining.
Zionga - Deal medium Electric damage to a single target.

At higher levels in Persona 3 Reload, players will start encountering enemies that have abilities that can insta-kill their characters. If it happens to party members, they will be down a man until the fight is over or until they are resurrected with items or abilities. But, should an enemy target the player character and succeed, it's game over.

This is why leveling up the Persona Oberon is imperative, as once they reach level 19, they can automatically survive a dark insta-kill attack that would otherwise have cut their run short and may have lost them precious hours of grinding.

3 Principality

Unlock Mastery Over Death

Learned Abilities:

Recarm - Revive an ally, restoring 50% of their HP.
Dodge Elec - Doubles evasion against Electric attacks.
Mahama - Chance Light insta-kill on all foes.

Available to recruit in the Arqa block of Tartarus, Principality is a valuable Persona to have thanks to the Light abilities it possesses, as players will encounter many shadows that are weak only to light.

But what is perhaps the best part of leveling up Principality is acquiring the Recarm skill, which allows the player to resurrect a fallen companion and get them back in the fight. It is more beneficial to prevent character death in the first place, but sometimes, shadows get the jump on players and target weaknesses, which can quickly lead to death before players even have the chance to heal. At least with Recarm, characters don't have to stay dead long.

2 Yakshini

Access Powerful Physical Abilities

Learned Abilities:

Blade of Fury - Deals medium Slash damage to all foes (2-4 hits).
Charm Boost - Increases odds of Charming a foe by 50%.
Multi-Target Boost - Increases attack power of skills that target all foes by 15%.
Deathbound - Deals heavy Slash damage to all foes.

Physical abilities can be among the best skills in Persona 3 Reload thanks to the massive amounts of damage they deal, the chance to inflict status ailments on some, and the fact they use the wielder's HP rather than their SP, which drains much more quickly and is harder to restore than HP.

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Yakshini gains access to one of the best physical abilities of all time at level 37, which is Deathbound. Not only that, but they gain Multi-Target Boost at the previous level, which works fantastically together since Deathbound targets multiple foes at once. With only one damage-dealing innate skill, players need to ensure they level up Yakshini quickly so they have more attacks to play with.

1 Uriel

Unlock Skills that Deal Mass Amounts of Damage

Learned Abilities:

Agidyne - Deal heavy Fire damage to a single target.
Angelic Grace - Increases evasion against Fire, Ice, Electricity, Wind, Light, and Dark skills.
Mahamaon - 35% chance Light insta-kill on all foes.
Heaven's Blade - Deals severe Slash damage to one foe. High chance of critical.

Uriel is a late-game Persona players can gain by fusion and is perhaps one of the most useful to have, especially if one dedicates the time to level them up, as Uriel gains access to very powerful passive, physical, and elemental abilities.

At level 63, Uriel learns Heaven's Blade, a particularly powerful physical skill that deals heavy damage to a single foe, with an increased chance of the hit being critical.