One of the great things about the Persona games is that while the storylines tend to be linear, the play style can be as varied as the gamer involved. There are ways to simply muscle through situations, sneak or outsmart opponents and abilities to help facilitate this if the correct enemies appear. Obtaining the appropriate skills is often a matter of leveling and skill cards however in Persona 5: Royal there is the possibility of getting lucky during an alarm and gaining a skill or having one improved during fusion.
As such, while the following list is intended to be the "best" passive skills, these are tailored more towards a balanced play style and therefore may not be the best for every gamer. Despite this, the abilities chosen should help all players to one degree or another and can be useful in most circumstances.
6 Sharp Student: For The Survival Impaired
The passive skill Sharp Student allows characters equipped with the ability to reduce the odds of being struck with critical hits in combat. This is more important against bosses and tougher opponents that can dispose of Phantom Thieves in one shot, but can still be a relief against weaker opponents and can help players endure longer Palace explorations. The Sharp Student ability can be obtained through leveling up Jack O' Lantern, Silky, Scathach, Eligor, Ippon-Datara, Sudama, Oni and Tam Lin.
The highest level of these characters is 28 and most can be obtained early in the game. In the base game of Persona 5 (not Royal) the skill card can be obtained by negotiating with the Torn King of Desires (aka Mara) and they can be found in the first Palace, guarding a Will Seed. Another skill card of the ability can be obtained by using Zouchouten in the Electric Chair. Be aware that Zouchouten can only be generated through Velvet Room persona merging and cannot be found inside palaces.
5 Growth 3: Subliminal Learning!
The Growth passive skill allows those personas outside of battle to still obtain experience from the fights that Joker and the gang win. At lower levels, the ability can give a 25% boost and ensure that favorite personas keep up with new ones, but at level 3 it grants a 100% bonus that allows these personas to level as though they had participated fully in battle. It can be very useful to improve the abilities of summoned personas for strengthening or keeping around a favorite persona.
Standard leveling up allows Izanagi, Izanagi Picaro Narcissus, Raphael and Kurama Tengu to learn this skill. Its skill card can also be obtained through the use of the Electric Chair with Izanagi Picaro, however in the standard edition this is possible at any time, but in Royal it is only available during an alarm condition. This card is also a reward for completing the Mementos request "Daughter's Just a Meal Ticket".
4 Invigorate 3: Regular Recharging
Like many role playing games, there are always multiple ways to recover health within the game, however recovering SP can be more of a challenge and usually requires the use of consumable items which are finite and can be expensive. Invigorate allows Joker to recover SP automatically each turn in combat and the higher levels recover more each time. Invigorate 3 restores 7SP each turn and can really help turn the tides of battle if gamers are reliant on use of persona abilities.
Throne, Ardha, Vohu Manah, Maria, Messiah and Satan all learn this skill by leveling up, however these are higher level characters and would not be obtainable in early game. The Throne persona can be converted into the skill card during itemization, however it is easier and faster to obtain this by completing "Fighting for Truth in Journalism" and having the card copied as often as required.
3 Insta-Heal: Like Healing, Only Instant (almost)
In addition to taking damage and losing HP, enemies can also inflict status conditions onto members of the Phantom Thieves which can cause a party's complete defeat, only with extra steps. Skills and items exist to remove the status conditions, but often these are specific to the condition applied, and it is not possible to protect every case of hunger, fear, shock etc... with the allowed personas and items.
Thankfully the high level skill, Insta-Heal can remove any and all status conditions (except death) in one round of battle. Unfortunately only certain personas have access to this powerful ability with the weakest being Ishtar at level 87, followed by Messiah Picaro and Lucifer. It can also be obtained through itemization, however again it would need a Messiah Picaro to perform the execution.
2 Ali Dance: If You Want To, You Can Leave Your Friends Behind
Rather than recovering after an injury, there is a skill that drops the chances of being hit in the first place by half. What is great about this skill is that technically any character in the Phantom Thieves can learn and utilize this ability. Ali Dance is a passive skill that takes whatever a character's evasive skill chance is, then adds another reduction to hit on top (though it cannot reach or exceed 100%).
The Phantom Thief Violet has this ability by default, but all other characters can learn this by visiting the Jazz Jin in Kichijoji on the January 15th event date. This will impart any companions who visit with Joker, the skill automatically. This skill can also be learned by Fustunoshi, Gabriel, Vishnu, Macabre and Raoul through leveling up and can also be obtained in Royal by completing a Challenge Battle on a foggy day and gaining 1,700,000 points.
1 Enduring Soul: Survival Of The Fittest
Joker is the player character and is the only member of the Phantom Thieves who must remain undefeated for the entirety of the game. A single accidental critical hit or misjudgment can result in a total party defeat and a return to the most recent save file. There is a way to avoid this however, and it is the passive skill Enduring Soul. The ability to survive a fatal hit and recover to 100% health can save a player a significant amount of work and time, especially during boss battles.
Enduring Soul can be obtained relatively early on compared to other skills. The earliest way to obtain this ability normally would be to level up Cerberus, but multiple other personas can also learn this ability. Koumokuten, Attis, Zaou-Gongen, Thanatos, Thanatos Picaro, Mada, Cu Chulainn, Abaddon, Messiah, Shiva, Messiah Picaro and Izanagi no Okami Picaro can all learn this ability through standard leveling. The skill card can also be obtained in the base game by using the Electric Chair on Attis and in Royal it can be obtained by spending time with Lavenza at the Café Leblanc attic during the January 13th event