Grabbing the best early game persona can make all the difference in Persona 3. Not only is your party short on members, and as such skill options, but your fusion choices are also setting the foundation for the remainder of the game. More importantly, your opponents will likely have weaknesses that can be exploited, yet the wrong fusion choices may land you in a position where you’re unable to take advantage of this. Today then, we’re aiming to alleviate this issue by recommending some persona that we’ve found to be very useful in the early game. You don’t technically need these to succeed, but they’ll make your first few jaunts through Tartarus go much more smoothly.
Persona #5: Jack Frost
Following your initial foray into the dungeon that Persona 3 is built around, you’re likely to come to the same conclusion that we did: You don’t have enough elemental coverage to take advantage of every weakness. Through Junpei you have Fire, which the protagonist covers too, and Yukari brings Wind to the table, but anything outside of this will not be naturally learned without the help of a fusion or two. Sure, a party member that joins soon will have access to Elec skills, but what about Ice?
Enter Jack Frost, the mascot for the series. Some games in the series choose to push him a little further up the level requirements, but thankfully P3 allows you to access him at level 8. This is not technically your first opportunity to get the ice spell Bufu, since Forneus is available at level 7, but Jack Frost will easily out damage it whilst also having access to Mabufu at level 13 and even Ice Boost at 11. The damage that this persona can do is actually very impressive in the early game, further helped by it’s impressive magic stat.
Early Benefits
- Early access to the Ice spell Bufu.
- Learns Ice Boost at 11, which increases Ice damage done by 25%.
- Will learn Mabufu at level 13, a group Ice spell.
Fusion Guide
- Fuse an Ara Mitama with Angel to get Jack Frost.
- Alternatively, fuse Omoikane with Alp to get Jack Frost.
- Jack Frost can be fused with Ara Mitama to access our next choice, Lilim.
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Persona #4: Lilim
We noted above that you will eventually unlock a party member that is capable of dealing Elec damage, however it’s worth noting that there’s quite a lot of Tartarus to explore before this point, and there are even side quests that unlock prior to this point. It would be ideal then to get your hands on something that can cover this element, at least until the new party member makes an appearance. Some of you will have either found or made yourself the Omoikane persona, which does have access to the basic Elec spell, Zio, however we’d very much recommend that you fuse the superior option: Lilim.
Not only does Lilim have access to Zio, but this particular persona will also learn Mazio at level 12, which is 9 whole levels earlier than your new party member will. Not only this, but Lilim also has access to the basic fire spell Agi and will learn the basic dark spell Mudo. Couple this all with a high magic statistic, and you have one of the very best early persona you can get your hands on.
Early Benefits
- Has both Zio and Agi at base level.
- Will learn the group elec spell Mazio at level 12.
- Dark spell Mudo is learned at level 11.
- High magic stat will ensure that good damage is done with elec spells.
Fusion Guide
- Fuse a Nekotama and Ara Mitama to get Lilim.
- Alternatively, fuse Forneus and Angel to get Lilim.
- Lilim can be fused with Ara Mitama to get our next choice, Inugami.
Persona #3: Inugami
Up to this point we have focused on covering spells and weaknesses that you will not yet have access to, but as you progress through Tartarus the encounters will become more difficult, often requiring coverage of your existing members too. With this in mind our next choice is Inugami, which tends to act as a catchment persona for multiple requirements. Not only does this have access to Zio, which you may or may not have in your party yet depending on your progress, but it also learns the group heal Media at level 13, which is much sooner than Yukari will do so. The remaining skills here are nothing to write home about, after all ailments and Poison in particular aren’t too useful in Persona 3, but it’s worth noting that Inugami also has high Magic and Endurance stats, meaning you’ll do more damage whilst taking less.
Early Benefits
- Has both Zio and the Pierce skill Single Shot innately.
- Learns Media at level 13, which is a group heal. Yukari will not learn this until much later (level 22).
- High Magic and Endurance stat will keep you hitting hard whilst remaining healthy.
- It’s Poisma and Poison Boost skills aren’t too useful, however the other benefits outweigh these.
Fusion Guide
- Fuse Ara Mitama with Lilim to make Inugami.
- Alternatively, fuse Chimera with Lilim to make Inugami.
- Inugami can be fused with Omoikane to make a later choice in this article, Tam Lin.
Persona #2: Nigi Mitama
Speaking of persona that allow coverage of another party member, meet Nigi Mitama, otherwise known as a clone of the early game Yukari. At some point you are likely to either lose her during exploration, have her fall in battle or indeed just choose to remove her, and as such are likely to need to cover some of her skills. Similarly, you may just find that you encounter enemies that require doubling up on some of her skills. For both of these reasons, you absolutely must get your hands on Nigi Mitama.
For starters, this persona comes with the basic wind spell Garu, plus the Patra and Posumudi cleanse skills. This might seem rather anticlimactic, especially given how much we’ve just hyped it up, but stick with us here. Upon levelling to 14 it will learn the group heal Media, which is once again much earlier than Yukari. Levelling it further to 16 will have it learn Magaru, the group damage wind attack, and if you take it all the way up to level 20 it will learn the resurrection spell Recarm! In many ways it’s not really a backup, more of a replacement for almost everything Yukari provides.
Early Benefits
- Has the basic Wind spell Garu.
- Learns the group heal Media at level 14.
- Learns the group Wind attack Magaru at level 16.
- Will eventually learn the resurrection spell Recarm at level 20.
Fusion Guide
- Fuse Nekotama and Forneus to get Nigi Mitama.
- Alternatively, fuse Jack Frost and Forneus to get Nigi Mitama.
- Should you be looking for an ideal healer ‘upgrade’ after levelling this, fusing it with our final choice, Tam Lin, will access High Pixie.
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Persona #1: Tam Lin
To recap our journey somewhat, we’ve detailed how to get access to elements otherwise missing from the party members, made note of a great way to cover Yukari and Junpei is somewhat naturally covered by the protagonist. You will soon gain access to more party members, two of which are active in the party, and this will force you to make a choice: Who should you take with you in your available slots? Upon making said decision, you may be left with a gap in skills and abilities within your party, so the final choice is designed to cover the fourth member that joins your team.
In order to cover said member, we’re looking for both Elec and physical skills, both of which are in abundance with the Tam Lin persona. It starts out life with access to the single target elec skill Zio, a very effective single target physical attack in Power Slash and also the single target attack buff Tarukaja. It will go on to learn an even more powerful physical skill in the form of Getsu-ei at level 16, Mazio at 17 and Auto-Rakukaja at 19, which will make the protagonist start a battle with increased defence.
Early Benefits
- Comes with the elec skill Zio.
- Also comes with Power Slash, an effective physical skill.
- Will learn the group elec skill Mazio at level 17.
- Learns an even more effective physical skill, Getsu-ei, at level 16.
- Can be fused into Raksasha, detailed below, should you be a higher level when the fifth usable party member is unlocked.
Fusion Guide
- Fuse Apsaras and Archangel to get Tam Lin.
- Alternatively, fuse Unicorn and Angel to get Tam Lin.
- Should you be a high level when you gain access to more party members, you can fuse Tam Lin with a Mokoi to gain access to Rakshasa, which is essentially a higher level version of Tam Lin, and will also work well as a cover for the fourth member to join your team.
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