Skill Cards are a godsend in the Persona series, and determining the best options to use is critical. They give the player the ability to patch up holes in each of their party members’ kits, enabling them to turn an otherwise passable character into an encounter-eating monster. Typically every Persona game can be completed using the base skill set of each character, however they often include additional challenges in the form of super bosses and higher difficulty levels that require additional customisation. There are a variety of ways to do this in the series, the most recent example being the Jazz Club in Persona 5 Royal, however the only way to do this in Persona Q is through sacrificing persona to produce a Skill Card, which can then be applied to another. There are literally hundreds of options available with this system, so we’ve decided to write about those that we’ve found to be the very best options available.
10. Life Aid
- 20% HP restored at the end of battle (Navi).
As much as we enjoy passive health regeneration, we must admit that it is made somewhat essential by the Etrian systems employed in Persona Q. Some of the long stretches of exploration that are required, specifically thanks to FOE puzzles, require significant care and attention be made to your resources, health and SP specifically. Enter Life Aid, a fantastic Navi skill that takes away some of the stress of resource usage in battle, something that escalates in the late game as health-depleting physical attacks begin to take precedence.
Skill Card Fusions
- Life Aid is made by sacrificing the Archangel persona to get the card.
- Fuse a Mokoi and Cu Sith to get the Archangel persona.
- Alternatively, fuse an Orobas and Yaksini to get Archangel.
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9. Circle Recovery
- Restore HP every turn whilst a Circle is active.
One of our favourite additions to the Persona formula by way of Etrian Odyssey are the ‘Circle’ skills. These are essentially battlefield debuffs that act upon the entire enemy team, essentially functioning as ailment attempts that passively occur for three rounds after being cast. Panic Circle, featured later in this article, attempts to cause Panic on all of your opponents for three rounds. Circle Recovery is essentially a passive skill that causes these Circles to also heal your entire team each round. Should you decide to use these skills, Circle Recovery is one of the most powerful party healing skills available, especially when combined with our next option.
Skill Card Fusions
- Circle Recovery is made by sacrificing the Anubis persona to get the card.
- Fuse a Red Rider and Black Rider to get the Anubis persona.
- Alternatively, fuse a Red Rider and Trumpeter to get Anubis.
8. Healing Hand
- Increases the HP restored with recovery skills.
As noted above, and rather self explanatory in its nature, is the Healing Hand skill. This is essentially a big buff to health restoration abilities. This isn’t restricted to Circle Recovery of course, it’ll work just as well with active healing and even Navi skills, so it’s worth investing in for your healers of choice. It’s also worth noting that it’s powerful enough for you to use weaker healing skills to save SP – Media, for example, will restore a great deal of HP with this passive, so you may not need to use something more expensive.
Skill Card Fusions
- Healing Hand is made by sacrificing the Gabriel persona.
- Fuse a Legion and a Dis to get the Gabriel persona.
- Alternatively, fuse a Gozuki and a Turdak to get Gabriel.
7. Restoring Touch
- Greatly raise natural recovery speed from status ailments and binds.
As you progress through Persona Q, not only will status ailments and binds become more essential to your arsenal, but they’ll also become a significant part of your opponents’. Getting a bind or ailment inflicted on a member of your team can be an absolute pain, especially since they always seem to target the one that’s aiming to complete the most critical part of your plan. Anyway, the Restoring Touch passive is rather self explanatory, in that it causes your characters to cure themselves of ailments or binds in super quick time, often the round following their application. We try to get it on as many team members as possible, leaving space for better skills on our support characters, rather than carrying cleanses and such in their kit. Any time one slips through that we absolutely must remove, an item can be used to deal with it.
Skill Card Fusions
- Restoring Touch is made by sacrificing the Slime persona.
- Slime can only be fused by fusing the Legion and Ose persona.
- The Slime persona only has one fusion recipe, however it can be obtained in the first dungeon. If you’re struggling to locate it, coming back to take down an FOE is also a way to obtain it.
6. Death’s Scythe
- Greatly raise damage against enemies with status ailments.
Outside of powerful buffs and debuffs, the Persona series has always been somewhat limited in their ways to magnify amounts of damage done. Cast a Debilitate on the target, buff up your physical attackers and going ham was generally the formula. In Persona Q the addition of one skill, Death’s Scythe, can allow you to amplify your damage even further when your target is suffering with an ailment. Actually, the secret behind this skill lies with the Panic ailment, because boss targets are functionally immune to quite a lot of ailments… Except Panic. With Panic Circle you can inflict even the hardest of enemies with an ailment, allowing Death’s Scythe to do it’s best work.
Skill Card Fusions
- Death’s Scythe can be made by sacrificing the Chernobog persona.
- Fuse Alraune and Sandalphon to obtain the Chernobog persona.
- Alternatively, fuse Girimehkala and Baal Zebul to obtain Chernobog.
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5. Runic Shield
- Medium chance to nullify Fire, Wind, Ice and Elec versus the user’s row.
We’ve made note of restoration, ailment and damage abilities so far, but what if you’re looking to boost your defensive capabilities? Well look no further than Runic Shield. We should first note that this is something similar exists on Aigis, and there is no way of telling if this stacks since the game does not notify you exactly which skill activated, so we generally do not recommend it on her. For any other front line, tank based character we consider this skill to be essential. Yes, it may only have a ‘medium’ chance to nullify attacks versus a row, but consider that when it does activate you essentially get a free round, which is positively incredible in an ‘Etrian’ style game like Persona Q.
Skill Card Fusions
- Runic Shield can be obtained by sacrificing the Odin persona.
- Fuse Thor and Helel to obtain the Odin persona.
- Alternatively, fuse Shiki-Ouji and Seth to get Odin.
4. Panic Circle
- Medium chance of Panic each turn, for 3 turns (All Enemies).
You may have noticed that we’ve mentioned Panic Circle quite a few times so far in this article, and for good reason. It’s a skill that acts like a debuff on the battlefield, functioning in the background and attempting to inflict a given ailment on all of the enemies each round, in this case Panic. There are other Circle skills, but Panic Circle is special because no enemy seems to have a significant amount of immunity to it, including bosses and FOE. This, combined with Death’s Scythe and Circle Recovery, can make your life incredibly easy, no matter the opponent. Impure Reach, the final skill in this article, will help with the application of this.
Skill Card Fusions
- Panic Circle can be obtained by sacrificing the Ukobach persona.
- Fuse the Agathion and Azumi persona to obtain Ukobach.
- Alternatively fuse Incubus and Succubus to get Ukobach.
3. Trick Step
- Raise evasion rate against all attacks.
Something… Happened with Trick Step. It’s a skill that made its debut in the Etrian Odyssey series, however there it functions as an enemy debuff that makes them less accurate. Here it’s a tremendously broken skill that functions as evasion against everything. Yes, it really means everything, and yes you can get it on multiple characters. There’s not much more to say here really; it’s an incredible skill that’s too powerful, but if you’re into making your team as powerful as possible like us, it’s a skill that you should take advantage of. As an aside, it’s even more powerful in Persona Q, where having your characters in the Boost state can be broken by them taking a hit.
Skill Card Fusions
- Trick Step can be obtained by sacrificing the Loki persona.
- Fuse Legion, Decarabia and Shiki-Ouji to obtain Loki.
- Alternatively, fuse Shiisaa, Shiki-Ouji and Atavaka to get Loki.
2. Myriad Arrows
- 6 – 8 light Stab attacks at random, with low accuracy.
Here we are, detailing our second best skill card in the game, yet once again we find ourselves talking about Panic Circle. See, one of the lesser known benefits of having enemies inflicted with Panic is that they cannot evade an attack. Thus, it benefits attacks that may otherwise miss, the most powerful of which is Myriad Arrows. The attacks that it inflicts are only considered ‘light’, however there are a lot of them, and buffing this with the usual Heat Riser and debuffing the defence of your targets will power it up immensely. We can’t all just spam Hassou Tobi either now, can we?
Skill Card Fusions
- Myriad Arrows can be obtained by sacrificing the Seth persona.
- Fuse Baal Zebul and Sandalphon to obtain Seth.
- Alternatively fuse Chernobog, Orochi and Alraune to get Seth.
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1. Impure Reach
- Raise chance of inflicting ailments.
Our final skill card of choice is one that you can access tremendously early in the game: Impure Reach. As you can see, this skill will increase your chance to inflict ailments, however it’s benefit doesn’t stop there, because instant death attacks also seem to be included as an ailment. As such, not only does this skill buff your chance to inflict excellent abilities such as Panic Circle, but also group instant death attacks like Mahamaon and Mamudoon. These skills can, when used correctly, completely nullify boss and random battles respectively, and the use of Impure Reach is essential in increasing the probability of these working.
Skill Card Fusions
- Impure Reach can be obtained by sacrificing the Incubus persona.
- Fuse Pixie and Nata Taishi to obtain Incubus.
- Alternatively, fuse Mokoi and Onmoraki to get Incubus.
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