Before there was Persona 5, the title of Atlus' best Persona game was held by the fourth mainline installment, titled Persona 4.Persona 4 puts players in the shoes of a male transfer student who has to spend a year in the small town of Inaba. Mixed in with the daily tribulations of High School the protagonist also has to solve murder mystery that involves another world.
For new players, Persona 4 Golden is the definitive version to play the story of Persona 4 as it adds more content, social links, and events to the game. One important feature of this frustratingly fun life-simulator/dungeon-crawling game is to make the best use of the protagonist's time to earn rewards and unlock new abilities. Here are some great ways to make the best use of free time in Persona 4 Golden.
8 Reading
A simple yet effective way to pass time in Persona 4 Golden is to read a book. Reading a book allows players to increase various social stats by multiple points. Players will often find fewer options to pass time during the night, and that is when reading a book can be especially handy. Completing a book permanently increases a social stat which in return opens up more opportunities to gain rewards.
Each book has multiple chapters ranging between two to five, and only one can be read at a time unless players have already finished reading the Hyperspeed Reading, which then allows players to read up to two chapters at once.
7 Gardening
An easy and useful way of making use of free time is to indulge in gardening. Players will be able to take up this activity after Nanako decides she wants to grow vegetables at the Dojima Residence on May 22nd. Players can then plant seeds in the evening time, which will take a few days to grow into plants.
These plants will act as great recovery items for replenishing the player's HP and SP. Players can purchase seedlings by various methods, including buying them from the lady found nearby the Dojima Residence, at the Junes Department store, or from the TV Network Shopping.
6 Fishing
Persona 4 Golden has an entire mini-game centered around fishing, but there is a catch. Players cannot just go and buy a fishing rod, instead, they have to do a side quest to gather the parts for one, and assemble it themselves. This may sound like a hassle, but once players have their fishing rods, they can start catching fish in the Samegawa River and trade them in for jewelry, which in turn can be traded for stronger weapons.
Players can also keep their fish and use them for recovering their HP and SP points. The time allocated for fishing is dependent on a player's diligence skill. Higher diligence thus allows for longer fishing times. After catching the largest fish, players will also be rewarded with a better rod and can then proceed to fish in the ocean.
5 Drinking Coffee
A great way to increase the strengths of the player's Personas in Persona 4 Golden, aside from fusing them, is to get skill cards to make them more powerful. Skill cards can be obtained by drinking coffee at the Chagall Cafe, located in Okina City.
Drinking strong Coffee at the cafe knocks the player unconscious, but they wake up to find skill cards for their currently equipped Persona. Players can only get the cards for Persona skills that have the card icon next to them. This is a great way to pass a part of the day as it rewards players greatly.
4 Fox Quests
While there are many Quests that players can take on when to get rewards, most of them will not make the in-game time pass, with the exception of the Fox Quests tied with the Hermit Social Link. Unlike other Social Links, which involve spending time with certain characters, ranking up the Hermit Social Link requires completing small side quests.
The fox can be found at the Shrine through the Northern Shopping District, and leveling up the link with fox allows players to recover SP more cheaply. This is significantly useful if players want to power their way through the dungeons in a single attempt. The amount of Yen required to recover 1 SP drops by 5 Yen per every rank up.
3 Part-Time Jobs
Part-Time jobs were first introduced in Persona 4 Golden, allowing players to earn money and social stat points. As players progress, new and more rewarding jobs will open up for them. Some jobs even help in leveling up different social links while others can be tackled from home at night.
Job ads can be found on the town's notice board in the Northern Shopping District. Part-time jobs are a fun way to pass the time, and the variety that they offer keeps the gameplay experience fresh and engaging.
2 The Mega Beef Bowl Challenge
It is hard to find events that will help players gain multiple stat points at once, but it is not impossible. The Mega Beef Bowl Challenge is one such event that is only doable on rainy days and rewards players with three random social stats points. The challenge costs 3,000 Yen if players are unable to finish the challenge.
To win The Mega Beef Bowl Challenge players have to rank up their Knowledge, Courage, Understanding, and Diligence to level 5, which will then make it free of cost. However, merely attempting the challenge is sufficient to gain the stat points.
1 Exploring Dungeons
Persona 4 Golden's other world is accessible through TVs, which is where the real danger lies. Whenever a new victim is thrown into the TV world a new dungeon opens up for players to explore. Taking proper time to advance through each dungeon is a great way of making sure that you are ready for the final boss fights of each dungeon.
The dungeon does not disappear after the victims have been saved, meaning players can dive back into them for side quests and rewards, and can train more as well.
Persona 4 Golden is available on PC, Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox S/X