Jin and Takaya have lost all hope in the future thanks to their experiences, and so they happily side with Nyx as the world ends on the last day ofPersona 3 Reload. What this means is that you’ll have to fight your way past them both if you want to reach the final boss fight of the game.
Unlike the first fight in front of the Hanged Man,Persona 3 Reloadplayerswill this time be fighting Strega one member at a time. However, their powers have strengthened since last time, making them a good opening act to the grand finale ofPersona 3 Reload.
How to Beat Jin
If you climbed Tartarus as high as you could in January, you won’t have to travel much farther to reach Jin. Past the new staircase (which has already been deployed, suspiciously), you only have to explore one regular Tartarus floor to reach the special floor Jin is on. You can no longer visit shops since this is the last Dark Hour, but you can still gain EXP, fuse Personas, earn skill cards (including King cards if you achieve an Arcana Burst),and collect Twilight Fragmentsto spend on chests and full restores.
On Jin’s floor, you may use a teleporter to return to the base of Tartarus. You can also talk with your party members, swap out the active party, and save the game. Whether you fought the Shadows on any lower floor or just ran past them, you should ensure your party is at full HP and SP when you challenge Jin.
Jin’s resistances are the same as the first time you fought him: he reflects Fire and Dark and has no weaknesses. On the other hand,he’s vulnerable to Critical blows and All-Out Attacks. He also favors Fire and Electric attacks in the form of grenades, though he has a few other Persona skills he uses to shake things up.
In the first round of combat, Jin uses a special skill called Weakness Scan. This doesn’t use up his turn, and from that point on he’ll always attempt to hit your party members with their weaknesses if he can. After that, Jin has special dialog and abilities that activate when his HP bar reaches three-quarters, one-half, and one-quarter. You can’t deal damage to Jin once he hits these thresholds until he takes his turn and says his dialog, so when that happens you should switch to using buffs and healing.
After hitting himself with Potent Stim Injection, the fight starts working differently. Jin gains 8,000 HP and a permanent attack buff, but he also gains a defense debuff and loses 1,600 HP at the end of each of his turns. During this phase, Jin can also use Megidolaon. He has no more dialog thresholds, so now is a good time to hit him with the Fusion Spell Armageddon if you’ve been saving up the protagonist’s Theurgy gaugeand managed to fuse both Helel and Satan.
How to Beat Takaya
There are three more regular Tartarus floors between Jin and Takaya, and once again you’re free to fight the Shadows for experience and items or run past them to reach the stairs. Takaya’s floor has a slightly different layout, but just like before, you can change your party, save, or teleport back to the first floor if you’re not yet ready to fight Takaya.
Something else you should find on your way upis a normal chest with a Soma inside. Don’t use it yet if you don’t have any others, because it may come in handy during the fight.
Takaya’s resistances are also the same as they were in the first fight: he reflects Light, absorbs Dark, and is vulnerable to Criticals. Aside from his special moves, Takaya likes to attack with both Light and Dark skills,including the all-foe instant-death skills. If you don’t have any Homunculi on hand, you should make sure your protagonist is using aPersona that nulls, reflects, or absorbs Light and Darkto avoid a one-turn game over.
Like Jin, Takaya has something to say at three points during the fight, and if you reach a dialog threshold he stops taking damage. In his case, the thresholds come at three-quarters, one-half, and one-eighth.
Takaya’s unnamed Theurgy hits every characterwith a decent amount of Dark damage, and much like your own, your resistances won’t stop it. More importantly, it has a high chance of inflicting the Fear ailment and reduces every character’s SP to 1. Fuuka’s Theurgy can fix these problems, but if she isn’t ready, this is the perfect time to use the Soma you got on the way up.
Alternatively, you’re able to save the Soma by hitting Takaya with one last Theurgy attack to end the fight. You can then teleport back to the base of Tartarus anduse seven Twilight Fragments on the clockto fully restore the party. But whether it happens in or out of the fight, your active party should be back at full HP and SP before you think of continuing, because the only thing left is the fight against Nyx.
