How to Level Up Personas in Persona 5:

You’ve spent hours completing quests in the hopes of getting more XP to level up, but it’s just not working. Are you doing something wrong, or is it your farming strategy? While you can leave leveling up to the natural path that the quests offer you, it is certainly convenient to get some extra experience points or XP. Taking the “farming” route or doing tasks for the express reason to gain additional experience points isn’t as self-evident as gaining them naturally via quests, though.

If you need some concrete strategies to farm XP efficiently, you’re in the right place. Keep reading to learn more about different methods to level up your Personas. These methods apply to Persona 5 / Royal regardless of the platform.

How to Level Up Personas Quickly in Persona 5

Leveling up Personas is incredibly convenient when you’re trying to accomplish something like taking on a boss, but sometimes the current levels aren’t enough. While Personas may lend you their power, the ability to harness that power well is in your hands; and to do that, you’re going to need some extra points.

Think of it this way: leveling up serves as insurance, especially against strong enemies, like those in the endgame. Like any insurance, you may hope that you never need it, but it doesn’t hurt to have it.

Now it’s time to get into the specific methods for leveling up. As aforementioned, to level up Personas, you can opt for equipping the Persona you want to level up in the turn-based combats of the Metaverse, opt for giving Personas growth skills, as well as use the Gallows.

Combat

One of the more obvious ways to increase levels in P5 is combat experience. The level difference affects the experience you receive after a battle. The higher the enemy’s level is relative to yours, the higher the XP you will get after winning a fight and vice versa.

It’s also important to note that Persona 5 uses the player’s levels in calculating damage proportionally relative to the enemy’s level. Considering the Persona levels will yield more wins and subsequently more experience. Battles are one recommended simple path for your first playthrough, but only as late as the endgame. One worthy foe for combat is the Reaper.

Combat the Reaper

When going with combat, you can opt for the following since it gives a lot of experience: beating many Reapers deep within Mementos. Luckily, players can go there early on.

To hunt the Reaper, you should go to Mementos in the flu season. During flu season, shadows will die after three turns when the “Despair” status is applied, including the Reaper.

To defeat the Reaper successfully, check out the following steps:

1. Once you are inside Mementos, wait for 2-5 minutes in real-time. Standing by in a still manner is the necessary “ritual” that summons the Reaper for you to combat.
   
2. Make sure that the Reaper has the “Despair” status applied.
   
3. Let the Reaper attack first. This way, it will attack once per turn and not multiple times.
   
4. Survive for three turns.
5. After defeating the Reaper, you must change locations to find it again.
   

Once combat has begun, it’s essential to survive three turns. To survive this battle, you can use strategies like healing with Morgana or building a proper defense beforehand.

Three is the magic number when you hunt Reapers because surviving three turns will get you an automatic victory against them, reaping an enormous amount of XP along with a possible “Divine Pillar” drop. The drop will help win future battles with more ease. You will also be given a rebel trophy after beating your first Reaper.

Additional Combat-Related Tips:

The Rank 9 Star confidant relationship will allow you to exit a battle instantly. This relationship can come in handy when fighting strategically for farming XP. For example, it enables you to get away from the Reaper and fight back until it has the Despair status. No matter the choice, do make good use of the opportunities Mementos offers!

As an add-on, keep in mind that the Persona you have equipped at the end of the battle will be the one receiving the XP. The XP will also transfer to a Persona that possesses growth skills, another method to be used by the more power-hungry!

Growth Skills

Another way to level up Personas is to focus on Growth skill cards. These cards allow Personas to receive XP even if they aren’t used or equipped for battle. While Growth 1 and 2 skill cards award a certain percentage of XP, even when the Personas are not used in combat, the one to focus on is Growth 3 cards. These cards earn your Personas all the normal XP and not just the percentage of it.

One way to obtain the Growth 3 skill card is by using Itemization on “Izanagi Picaro.” It is preferable to reserve the growth skill method, for example, for leveling up your secondary, weak, and low leveled Personas when need be.

Gallows

Finally, a widely preferred method to level up your Persona is the use of Gallows in the Velvet Room. The Gallows will allow you to control which stats go up, while Growth skills don’t offer this possibility. The “Strengthening” Gallows offer involves letting a Persona consume another one, allowing it to gain more power. Strengthening a Persona will require the sacrifice of another one of your Personas. The higher the sacrificial Personas level, the higher its level output will be over the strengthened Persona. There are XP bonuses for fusing the same type of Persona.

One Gallows trick every player must know how to apply begins with the following assumption:

Assuming you have enough money, first use the Gallows to give your Persona some experience. Those unaware of the trick may think that there is nothing else to do with the Gallows for an in-game day, which is serendipitously wrong!

Check out these steps to bypass the Gallows cooldown:

1. After using the Gallows, you can register the Persona in question in the compendium.
   
2. When registration is complete, you must delete it from the Persona inventory.
   
3. After deleting it from your inventory, go to the compendium again to buy back the Persona. This way, it is possible to bypass the Gallows time lock.
   

Additionally, Strengthening via Gallows allows the random inheritance of one of the sacrificed Personas skills. Hence, remember to save the game beforehand just in case you get an undesirable skill. “Save scumming” or reloading saves until you get the desired outcome is generally frowned upon in the gaming community, but it isn’t technically wrong.

You should also ensure you have enough money for the Gallows since the points-making rate is faster than the points-spending rate. In other words, you will eventually run out of money before you run out of your points.

Additional FAQ

How can I level up personas without gallows?

As aforementioned, the main alternative to the Gallows is combat. There are two combat approaches: the direct and the indirect approach.

The direct one is straightforward: it involves bringing the Personas to battle. The indirect one is about using the growth skills, but combat also encompasses these since the skills require battling to be applied. When going for the skills approach, having strong Personas for battle will ensure the weaker ones with growth skills receive XP.

What happens when you fuse 2 Personas in P5?

Fusion is fundamental to get stronger. Fusion is not random; its specifics vary from Persona to Persona and their current characteristics. Ranking up the strength arcana and Igor unlock fusion techniques. When you fuse two Personas, the fusion can be a “Basic Fusion” or a “Strengthening.”

The “Basic Fusions” create another Persona, but there are overly abundant types due to the vast combinations. Nonetheless, it is possible to predict them accurately. When fusing, the level that matters is only the base level (or lowest level possible) instead of the current level. Consequently, the new Persona’s level will be the average of the fused Personas.

As for arcana, each pair of arcana either creates a specific arcana or nothing at all. It’s also possible to predict the results accurately when factoring in the Personas levels and their kind. Hence, consulting fusion charts for accurate predictions is essential.

On the other hand, Strengthening allows a Persona to consume another one, allowing it to gain more power and inherit one of the other Persona’s skills randomly. It is possible to do so only once every day per Persona using the Velvet Room. You’ll get more EXP from higher-level Personas and an EXP bonus for fusing the same type of Persona. Keep in mind to have enough money since the points-making rate is faster than the spending rate.

As a side note, when you fuse three or more Personas, the resulting Personas result from advanced fusions, creating specific strong Personas.

Why Settle for Less When You Can Have More Level

Leveling up Personas can be done in multiple ways. The chosen method depends on the player’s preferences and sometimes objective convenience, which can vary throughout the long playthrough that P5 offers. In other words, it’s up to the player’s “persona” to make the choices.

Which leveling-up method did you find the most practical? Tell us about it in the comments section below.