Shadow Namatame/Kunino-sagiri is the boss of the seventh dungeon, Heaven, in the TV World in Persona 4 Golden. On a first playthrough, he can be a major wake-up call to the remaining bosses of the game, so take him seriously. Since Heaven is one of the last dungeons in P4G, players should have a solid collection of Personas as well as more than a handful of maxed out Social Links.
Players are recommenced to be around level 60 before attempting Persona 4 Golden's Kunino-sagiri. However, given the difficulty of this boss, it doesn't hurt to be a few levels over. Players will also want to complete this dungeon as soon as it becomes available, so make sure to start preparations an in-game month in advance.
Kunino-sagiri: Best Items, Persona, Skills, and Team Set-Up
Heaven unlocks on November 6th and has a deadline on November 20th. Unfortunately, the Social Links for the IT members (ie: Yosuke, Chie, Yukiko, Kanji, Rise, and Naoto) will be unavailable until Nanako is rescued. Thus, players will want to get in November 6th, defeat Shadow Namatame the same day or the day after, and get out. Afterward, the Social Links will "unlock" and can be ranked up once more.
Items
Players are going to want to grab items that reflect physical and magic attacks such as Magic Mirrors. Magic Mirrors can be found in the gold chests in Void Quest dungeon. If players bought Barrier Corn from the lady at Junes (available 6/25), then they can get Makaracorn and Tetracorn from the garden outside the Dojima Residence. Barrier Corn takes 8 in-game days to grow, so players should plant them as soon as they get them.
Be sure to buy SP-restoring items from Shiroku Store or from the Dojima Residence's garden. Kunino-sagiri has an ability called Spirit Leech that will drain its target's SP by 100. This is one boss fight that players will need SP to dish out damage.
XP Grinding
If the IT are underleveled, XP farm the Golden Hands on the 6th floor of the Secret Laboratory dungeon. Simply leave and then re-enter the 6th floor to respawn the Golden Hands after they're defeated or if they manage to flee. Make sure to use a Persona that has Megidoloan and Mind Charge when battling them. Having the Passive Skill Growth on a Persona will increase its XP gain after battle.
Persona
The best Persona to bring to the Shadow Namatame battle are Persona that have high magic or attack. Players will also need a Persona that will Null Physical such as Shiki-Ouji. A Persona that's strong against Physical, such as Nidhoggr, is also recommended.
The main thing to keep in mind here is to have Personas around level 60 that have few or no Affinity Weaknesses. A Persona that has Mind Charge and a -dyne Skill (ex: Agidyne) is also recommended, or a Persona with Charge and a powerful Physical Skill like God's Hand. This battle is going to be about using Mind Charged or Charged attacks to deal out the most damage.
Passive Skills such as Arms Master and Spell Master will also make the fight a bit easier. These will halve the HP and SP of a Physical and Magic Skill respectively. Some Persona such as Thor will learn Arms Master as they level up, but there are other Personas that have these Passive Skills as their innate abilities.
To save on using Makaracorns and Magic Mirrors, have a Persona like Daisoujou to cast Makarakarn on the party.
Team Set-Up
The protagonist should focus on attacking and (sometimes) debuffing, so have the rest of the party back him up with Support and Healing Skills.
- Teddie learns a variety of supportive abilities like Matarakukaja, which increases the party's attack for 3 turns. He also gets Marakunda, which lowers the Defense of all targets for 3 turns.
- If players have Yosuke on their front lines, he can increase the party's Accuracy/Evasion with Masukukaja.
- Yukiko is almost a necessity as she'll have powerful Healing Skills such as Mediarahan and even Amrita, which cures status ailments.
- Chie and Kanji are good as physical attackers, but players should use either Teddie or the Protagonist for increasing Attack. Chie and Kanji have some of the lowest SP pools.
- Naoto, the recent team member, is quick and has -dyne tier Skills, which is perfect for Kunino-sagiri. She also has Physical Skills such as Blight and Tempest Slash. More importantly, she'll have Mind Charge once she levels to 56.
Be sure to have some of the IT's Social Links to Rank 10 before November. By now, everyone except Naoto, Teddie, and maybe Rise should be up to Rank 10. Doing so unlocks that character's second-tier Persona. Also, if Rise's Social Link isn't maxed out yet, make sure she's at least a high enough Rank so that she'll buff the party mid-battle.
Kunino-sagiri Strategy
Like all bosses in P4G, Kunino-sagiri nulls Light and Dark. He doesn't have any Affinity Weaknesses, but players shouldn't let this fool them. Kunino-sagiri has access to all -dyne tier Skills as well as -break Skills (nullifies Affinity Resistances). He can use Makara Break and Tetra Break, which negate Makarakan and Tetrakan respectively. If players get carried away with stacking buffs or debuffs, he can shrug them off with Dekunda and Dekaja. There's also his Life Leech and Spirit Leech Skills, which drain a large amount of HP and 100SP.
In addition to all of this, Kunino-sagiri has three unique Skills:
- Unerring Justice: Inflicts heavy Almighty damage on all targets.
- Control: Controls one or all party members.
- * Quad Converge: Raises the damage output of Agi, Zio, Garu, or Bufu elements while being more effective to said element.
* Quad Converge is tricky to understand, so here's an example: Kunino-sagiri's Quad Converge will cause "the atmosphere to change suddenly." On his next turn, he'll use a random element. Let's say he uses Mabufudyne on the party. He will continue to use Mabufudyne until his next Quad Converge. If Kunino-sagiri's hit with a Skill of the element he's using (in this case: Bufu), he'll take more damage. If he's hit with anything that isn't the same element, he'll take a maximum of 5 damage.
Kunino-sagiri: Phase 1
Kunino-sagiri will start out by attacking the party with -dyne Skills. If players use Tetrakarn or Makarakarn, he'll negate their effects with Tetra Break and Makara Break. If players brought Naoto, use Makarakarn (if she still has it) for the first phase of the boss fight. This will cause Kunino-sagiri to use Makara Break, thus wasting his turn.
When Naoto is using Makarakarn, have the protagonist use Mind Charge or Charge. The other party members should be providing support via buffs to raise Defense, Attack, or Accuracy/Evasion. If Chie or Kanji is in the lineup, have them attack with Physical Skills.
Kunino-sagiri: Phase 2
Once Kunino-sagiri loses a quarter health, he'll start using Quad Converge. There are two ways to combat this:
- Use random Affinity Skills on Kunino-sagiri to determine which element he's using. If he takes more than 5 damage from a certain element, then that will be most effective on him during the current Quad Converge.
- Use Magic Mirrors or Makarakarn on everyone so that Kunino-sagiri's attack reflects at him. This will not only deal more damage to Kunino-sagiri, but it will also identify the element players will need to attack.
Kunino-sagiri: Phase 3
Once he's around half health, Kunino-sagiri will start using Control on the other party members. When a party member is controlled, they will attack the protagonist. Eventually, Kunino-sagiri will Control all three party members at once. Before this happens, start applying Defense and Accuracy/Evasion buffs on the protagonist.
When all three party members are controlled, do not Guard. Instead, switch to a Persona that nulls/resists Physical and use Makaracorn or a Magic Mirror on the protagonist. If players try to Guard, then the first party member will break the protagonist's Guard on their turn, leaving him open to attack by the remaining two.
Eventually, Kunino-sagiri will lose control. Take this opportunity to Mind Charge/Charge + Attack combo and heal up with Yukiko or strong HP-restoring items. Repeat this strategy until Kunino-sagiri is down to 1000 HP.
Kunino-sagiri: Final Phase
In this stage, Kunino-sagiri will spam Unerring Justice until he's defeated. Players can Guard if necessary, but they should really focus on taking him out as soon as possible and healing with other characters (ie: Yukiko). Don't bother using Magic Mirrors when he starts using Unerring Justice. Makarakarn can reflect all elements except Almighty, thus making them useless during this phase. Keep chipping away at his health and he'll eventually fall.
Persona 4 Golden is available on PC, Switch, PS4, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
