Alternating between essential and useless, the Light and Dark series of spells have polarised different games in the Shin Megami Tensei series. In some titles they offer little to no damage along with their usual chance of instant death, yet in others they’re tremendously powerful attacks in their own right. In some they’re completely and absolutely broken and trivialise the game – looking at you Persona Q. Anyway, in SMT5 they offer high damage along with their instant death chance, but the offset is that there are less skills and demons to choose from. The following then, are the best of the Light versions that we could find.
4. Angel
Its unusual for us to recommend a demon that only possesses a single skill in it’s chosen field, however Angel is just so damned good for the early portion of the game that it absolutely must be mentioned. It’s essentially been positioned here to act as an early game Light & Healing battery, and it does both fantastically well. So well in fact, that you’ll likely keep this bad boy in your team for as long as possible.
Regarding the subject of this article, it’s a level 10 demon and it knows Hama, which is the basic single target light attack. In this game, these skills deal more damage than regular elements, and the focus is on this rather than any instant kill effect. Second to this, though rather more important in the grand scheme of things, is the unique skill Humble Blessing, which heals your entire team for a paltry 12 MP. It’s very unusual for such a thing to exist in an SMT game, and we suspect it was positioned here to smooth the on-ramp for players new to the series, but you’d be silly not to take advantage of it regardless.
Demon Benefits
- Innately knows Hama, the basic single target light spell.
- Innately knows Humble Blessing, a weak group heal.
- Has +3 and +2 Affinity in Light and Healing respectively.
- Even learns the revive spell Recarm at level 13!
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3. Principality
Finding yourself a demon that has some basic Light spells isn’t exactly hard in the early to mid game transition, but none of these really stand out quite like Principality. Yes there is quite a gap between our choices, but if you want something that’ll deal light damage and keep on coming in the mid game, look no further than this. Hell, it even sustains itself and supplies spot healing, which is a nice bonus.
Light spells are supplied in both group and single target form, through Mahama and Hamoan, the latter of which is actually the medium version. This essentially covers your light requirements at this point, however it’s worth noting that Principality also knows the medium single target heal Diarama, and it even learns Light Mana Aid, which allows it to regenerate some MP after every battle. This last skill is the final element that really pushes it over the edge, and yet again you’re likely to keep this demon around for quite a while. Good job too, because pickings are quite slim for a fair old while yet…
Demon Benefits
- Innately knows Mahama, the light group attack skill.
- Learns Hamoan, the medium single target light skill, at level 29.
- Also innately knows Diarama, the medium single target heal.
- Learns Light Mana Aid at level 31, which restores a little MP after every battle!
2. Atavaka
It’s well worth the wait however, because our next choice is a prime example of the power that can be found in the transition to late game, specifically through the application of Strength based attacks. It’s also worth noting that this is one of only a few demons that passively buffs light damage, and even then the others are very limited at this level. Affinity could be better to be honest, especially when other physical mix options come with a bigger rating, but we’ll take this as the only real negative. By now you’re no doubt passively generating MP anyway.
To the light skills then, and the main event is White Dracostrike, which as you might imagine is a Strength based light attack, a stat that Atavaka has in abundance. This is backed up with the medium group light spell Mahamaon, and all of it is topped off by the Light Pleroma skill, which boosts light damage by 20%. Combined this makes Atavaka deal a tremendous amount of light damage, and it even has a nice physical skill in Fatal Sword to boot!
Demon Benefits
- Innately knows White Dracostrike, the Strength based, single target light attack. This is aptly helped by a high Strength stat.
- Learns Light Pleroma at level 55, which boosts light damage by 20%.
- Learns Mahamaon at level 56, which is the medium group target light attack.
- Also innately knows Fatal Sword, a strong physical skill, and even Mamudoon, the group target dark attack.
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1. Sraosha
Technically speaking, the late and end game portions of SMT5 do feature some powerful Light demons, however with a variety of route changes available, and indeed some of them being locked behind New Game+, we’ve settled on a demon that’s a relatively low level compared to others. Still, it’s great at what it does and whilst it doesn’t have a wealth of unique skills or such, it’s light-based damage is nigh insurmountable.
Almost all of this is because of High Light Pleroma, which passively boosts light damage by 40%. Literally the only other demon that has access to this is Abdiel, which is locked into New Game+, which essentially means that any other Light demon is leaving 20% on the table versus Sraosha, which they really cannot make up. Yes there are excellent Pierce skills in the end game, and there are countless ways to deal great damage all round, but from a pure Light perspective, Sraosha is as good as it gets. Hamabarion and Mahamabarion, the severe single and group target light attacks, are either known or learned, and it also features a full HP group heal and Energy Drain, to keep the team going in difficult situations!
Demon Benefits
- Innately knows Mahamabarion, the severe light group skill.
- Learns Hamabarion, the severe single target skill, at level 79.
- Is the only non-NG+ demon to learn High Light Pleroma, which it does so at level 80. This boosts Light damage by 40%.
- Also either knows or learns both Mediarahan and Energy Drain, which will help to keep the party ticking over in more difficult encounters.
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Categories: Shin Megami Tensei 5