Grabbing yourself some effective damage dealers, often known as DPS, is very crucial in a Persona title. In fact, we’d argue that it’s more important here than in most other RPG titles, thanks to the weakness system allowing additional turns for striking with the right skill. Unfortunately your party members are a great deal less customisable than those in say, Persona Q or ‘Royal, which tends to make your party choices more important than ever. That said, there are a few choices that tend to deal more damage than the rest, at least in the majority of cases, so we’ve decided to put to rights the four best choices for damage based characters.
4. Shinjiro
Our first choice, which is technically the lowest on this list, may be the cause of a little controversy, so we’ll say up front that Shinjiro is technically one of the very best damage options in the entirety of Persona 3 Portable. His combination of Power Charge and powerful physical skills equals some very high damage numbers, the likes of which others will struggle to match. Don’t expect him to contribute a great deal versus enemies strong to physical damage types, but that’s what four party member slots are for, right?
Those that have played through Persona 3 in any form will likely understand our reasons more than others, but it’s safe to say that the issue with Shinjiro is availability. He doesn’t join the team until fairly late on in the story and his duration therein is limited, so you wont get a great deal of time to take advantage of his skills. Whilst he’s there however, you should do your best to keep him around as much as possible.
Damage Highlights
- He learns very powerful physical attacks throughout his time in the team.
- Has access to Power Charge, through which he can buff his own physical damage by more than double!
- Unfortunately he does have major availability issues, and will not be in your team anywhere near as much as others, which holds him back in this list. For reference, were it not for these issues, he would likely rank second in this article.
- Whilst not strictly damaging abilities, he does have passive skills that assist by dodging physical attacks and regenerating his health. The latter in particular means he can safely spend more HP on physical skills.
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3. Junpei
If Shinjiro is considered a physical attacker with limited availability, the best way to describe Junpei would be that he’s not quite as powerful but unlimited in his usage. This is because well, he’s pretty much with you right from the start, and outside of a few short and rare occasions he will always be available for use. His personality might be a bit polarising, but there can be no denying that he’s capable of dealing some great damage with his skills.
Why third place then? Well it’s the additional skills where Junpei lacks. Sure, he has a great selection of skills that eventually cover all possible physical weaknesses, and he will eventually unlock a health restoration passive to fuel them, but that’s pretty much it. He can contribute some small Fire damage which is nice, but without Power Charge to fuel them he will be reliant on others to boost his damage further. He’s good enough to rank third, which in itself is pretty good, but given that the character in first place is a great deal ahead of any options, this doesn’t necessarily make him an ideal party member…
Damage Highlights
- Junpei has access to powerful physical skills, including the powerful Vorpal and Brave Blade.
- Unfortunately, he does not have the Power Charge skill that could boost these skills towards higher damage.
- He does have a great selection of physical skills which include all weakness types, meaning he’ll be able to cover all of these along with his standard Fire spells.
- Unfortunately his passive skills are mainly defensive in nature, however he will access Spring Of Life in the late game, which returns 8% of his total health every round, meaning he can continually use physical skills without depleting his pool too much.
2. Mitsuru
For our money, Mitsuru is the longest standing and most powerful additional party member in Persona 3. Despite their extensive alternative benefits, other members like Yukari or Akihiko do not possess the ability to deal anywhere near as much damage as Mitsuru, and as a result of this she tends to claim a place in our party and hold it throughout the remainder of the game.
She achieves this entirely through powerful magical spells, specifically the Ice type. Not only does she have access to both single and group target Ice spells, but she’ll learn both Ice Boost and Amp, which will significantly increase the damage done by this type. On top of this, she’ll also learn Mind Charge – known as Concentrate in later titles – which increases the damage of her next spell by 250%, and even Ice Break for tricky resistant foes. Essentially, she is the magical version of Shinjiro, being able to power herself up and throw out some big damage numbers alone.
Damage Highlights
- Mitsuru has access to powerful Ice spells, though she cannot access the peak ‘Severe’ set of Ice spells – those are reserved for our final choice.
- Unlike some other members, she has both the Single and All target variations of the Heavy Ice spells.
- She also has access to Mind Charge, which buffs her next magical damage by 250%.
- Mitsuru also learns the passive Ice Boost and Ice Amp, which buff her Ice damage by 25% and 50% respectively. These stack with each other to buff her Ice damage more, though it’s worth noting that any additional Amps or Boosts from equipment will not stack with the same passive skill.
- Technically Mitsuru also has a few ailment skills and the ability to remove Ice resistance through Ice Break, however these all have limited benefits on the whole. Spirit Drain is a nice way to get some SP back in the early and mid game however.
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1. Protagonist
Yes, the Protagonist is topping yet another list, but any player of the Persona series will attest to their power and likely agree with us. It’s worth noting however, that damage in particular is a point in which they perform much, much better than others. In another article we considered the Protagonist to be the best healer, but the gulf between them and another isn’t what we’d call wide. The same cannot be said for damage, in which our main character can absolutely decimate other members with the right setup.
All of this boils down to the skills that become available to the main character. In the late game specifically, the completion of certain Arcana will unlock ‘Ultimate’ personas, which often feature skills and spells that cannot be accessed by regular party members. The ‘Severe’ set of elemental skills are the best example of this, since other members can only reach the ‘Heavy’ damage type.
Were this not enough, the customisation allowed by Skill Cards mean that you can build a truly ridiculous character. Want to go for a physical attacker? Why not build Arms Master and Apt Pupil into your kit, for half HP costs and double critical chance respectively. Going for magical damage? Build yourself Spell Master to half SP costs, pick a few Amp passives or even grab Victory Cry to restore all HP and SP at the end of every battle! Not to mention setting up every single ‘Auto’ buff! With enough care, attention and not a little fusing, you can build a character that will put every other party member to shame.
Damage Highlights
- Thanks to the ultimate arcana persona, the protagonist can access the highest level of spells and skills. No other member is capable of this.
- Being the Protagonist of a Persona title, you can build this character however you want. They’ll excel at either physical or magical damage.
- Auto buffs, massive Almighty skills and incredible passives mean that you can build an absolute beast of a party member.
- Given all of these facts, it’s almost always best to build your party in a way that benefits the Protagonist. If you can get buffs and debuffs elsewhere, this character is free to go all out, and in doing so will deal more damage than any other party member, by a good distance.
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Categories: Persona 3