History GameBreaker / ShinMegamiTensei

* Matador is one of the earlier {{Bonus Boss}}es you can find in Twisted Tokyo. Defeating him unlocks him for fusion, and he carries his SignatureMove, Andalucia. This hits a ''tremendous'' number of times (4 to 12) and he innately learns Phys Pierce to make the attack completely unblockable. Combine this with Pleromas, Charge, and maybe even Bloody Glee, and you can lay waste to bosses with a good chance of any one of these hits becoming a critical. For players of ''Nocturne'' who had to deal with his incredibly hard boss fight, this is pure [[CatharsisFactor catharsis]].

* Null Sleep, especially in the first game (in which it’s learned on the same Mantra as Cocytus above). That title is a misnomer; it doesn't make the user immune to sleep, it makes them ''dodge all attacks if they're asleep'', causing the enemy to waste precious turns. While it is rather unreliable (it requires party members to be afflicted by the Sleep ailment), the fact it can pretty much neutralize any sort of attack makes it an excellent skill to ensure party members survive a turn. Enforced in the first game, as it's part of a strategy which makes the [[BonusBoss Ultimate Boss]] of the game, [[spoiler:Demi-Fiend]], even ''possible'' to take down, because it enables the user to dodge even the strongest Almighty attacks.

** Rolling Recarm chains. Especially effective against the BonusBoss. Each squad has two demons faster than their human and the human faster than their targets; both have Recarm or Samarecarm. Demons do whatever, human does something that gets reflected which kills them. The next human revives the first one, then does the same demons do whatever, human suicides thing. Since a character that's just been resurrected acts immediately after their reviver, this creates an infinite chain of revivals that keeps enemies from ever getting their turn, which can only be broken if your team gets wiped out in one go during a skirmish.

* While there's several new races with new racial skills available, above them all is the Fiend race. Every single Fiend is a Unique demon and must be recruited by defeating a BonusBoss, most of whom are only available on NewGamePlus, for good reason: their racial skill Unearthly Form lets you spend MP to immediately make it your turn again. You can only use Unearthly Form once per turn, but this still allows you to travel a staggering 16 squares in one turn if paired with Devil Flash, or twelve squares while teleporting with Winged Flight, or attack four times in one turn with Matchless, or make up for the large MP cost by making your other member a Tyrant or Divine so you can use it over and over. No other racial skill even comes close to the power of Unearthly Form, especially if the Fiend also has Victory Cry and Drain to keep their MP full.

** The skill giving items. Oh gosh, the skill giving items. Similar to the UpdatedRerelease of ''VideoGame/Persona3'' they allow you to give skills to your demon, except your options in this game are limited to some exclusive moves instead of almost every move in the game. The catch? Wind Robes are available pretty early, are very easy to get with a little Big and Small abuse, and give you Wind Dance, a move that hits 8 times randomly that is available to pretty much every demon in the game with fairly strong base power and sometimes extra effects. This basically renders every other move barring healing moves completely obsolete since you can spam this move to win any kind of fight. Combine with the fusion system above and even the BonusBoss won't last more than one round.

* Taunt and Fierce Roar, which DrawAggro to the user. If it's used by a demon that blocks whatever element that the enemy uses, it can cripple their offense by taking away their press turns. Girimehkala and Siegfried, who reflect and absorb physical attacks respectively, can remove ''all'' of the enemy's press turns if they're so much as hit with a basic attack, which is so strong defensively that it can even be worth pitting them against enemies and even endgame bosses that can hit their three weaknesses and having them use these abilities.

** Once Isabeau stays in your partner list permanently, she becomes less of a JackOfAllStats and more like a straight-up MasterOfAll. Once she reaches level 82, and you and your entire partner list ''will'' on the two neutral routes, she has all four standard -dyne spells and Megidolaon for offense, Mediarama and Diarahan for healing, and Luster Candy for buffing. And her AI is smart enough to prioritize healing, Luster Candy, and attack in that order, meaning she's rarely ever useless. You ''can'' lose her on Massacre by picking another final partner, but let's be real, you'd be hard-pressed to ''not'' pick her. She doesn't get an Awakened Power like everyone else does, but she doesn't need one.

* The end-game Masakados magatama gives you immunity to everything but almighty attacks and a whopping +10 to all stats except Luck. This game's stat cap is 40, by the way. As you gain levels with this magatama, you also pick up passives for repelling each element, so you can become immune to everything without needing it. It's your InfinityPlusOneSword because you have to gather all the other magatamas and then defeat [[BonusBoss the four Devas]], which is not an easy task.

* The ''HD Remaster'' Merciful Mode DLC. While Easy Mode typically makes things easier (which is a given since there's a substantial lack of difficulty until later in the game), the Remaster's Merciful Mode is ridiculous. To give you an idea as to how watered down the difficulty is on Merciful Mode, even an underleveled Demi-fiend can kill '''[[WakeUpCallBoss Matador]]''' just by switching on Auto-battle.

* ''Redux'' also adds the Lucifer equipment set, all of which are PurposelyOverpowered but are obtained by defeating the new {{Bonus Boss}}es. With them in hand, you can sweep through the rest of the game's content and blaze your way to seeing new endings.

** The Lucifer Gun, a multi-target gun that has the obscenely-powerful [[CriticalHit Final Seven]] skill.

* '''Dampeners.''' Cheap, easily-purchasable items that are obtained from Cadaver's Hollow, dampeners can be used to completely nullify one elemental attack on every party member for one turn. This includes physical attacks. There are some catches: you can only hold three of any dampener type at once, you can only be shielded against one type of attack at a time, and any other type of attack will ignore the dampener's effect, but those are very minor weaknesses in contrast to their ability to completely end a boss's turn if you guess correctly. A player who understands the AIRoulette can also accurately guess what attack an enemy or boss is going to use on the turn after they charge Magatsuhi, meaning it's entirely possible for a boss to set up for a powerful attack only for you to null it and completely waste their turn. If you've obtained the Miracle that provides bonus Magatsuhi on blocking an attack you can fill a good portion of it in one go, too! Dampeners are useful the moment you get you get your hands on them and remain powerful right up until the end of the game. Even better, since demons can now all use items as per the Knowledge of Tools miracle, it's entirely possible to roll through an optimized turn, earn four additional turns, and then drop a dampener right at the very end to protect yourself and obliterate the boss next turn.

* Miracle wise, getting Warrior's Conception, Unforgotten Memories, and the Prayer skills from Awakening completely breaks the game later on. This is because they all synergize to make demon fusions hilariously broken; Warrior's Conception and Unforgotten Memories give any newly fused demons stat bonus and EXP based on the stats of the demons fused respectively, while the Prayer skills always ensure a Demon will gain a point in one of their stats when leveling (ex: Prayer of Luck giving +1 Luck on level up). Combined, it means any newly fused Demon will gain a ton of EXP and stats, which can allow them to then fuse into another Demon, and essentially build up stats and EXP that will snowball into Demons jumping sometimes as high as +40 to almost all their stats. It allows Demons around level 50 to outright hit almost 100 in some of their stats, and can make Special Fusion Demons even more busted if you re-fuse their needed Demons to give them more stats. Nothing says powerful then fusing Yoshitsune using this process, and him having over 100 Strength before he hits level cap.

* [[UselessUsefulSpell Petra Eyes]] is ''[[SubvertedTrope extremely useful]]'', at least [[NewGamePlus on the first run]], since petrified targets can be killed in one hit with luck no matter the HP or level. Seeing as this is an [[NintendoHard Atlus game]] filled with GoddamnedBats where a huge part of them aren't resistant...

* Titania, Purple Mirror, and Metatron in ''Devil Survivor 2'' are immune to all but two elements. Fusing them with the exact right passive abilities makes them invulnerable to everything but almighty attacks. Use the Release Passive add-on to add Hero Soul (take attacks for the leader if your resistance is higher) and their leader is safe from a good 80% of attacks. The former two are actually of low enough level to be used in the endgame without needing a NewGamePlus.
** In ''[[UpdatedRerelease Record Breaker]]'', the Frost Five join the ranks of immune-to-everything demons. They have only one weakness and are immune to everything else, but one of their fusion requirements, Black Frost, already comes with a passive that can cover this weakness. Of course, given the level restriction, you can only feasibly start using them on a NewGamePlus, but there's nothing stopping you from using them against some of the {{Bonus Boss}}es.

* Fusion Accidents, while normally something unwanted, can sometimes spit out some unbelievable demons that the player might not be meant to have at the point in the game they might be in. That includes demons that might be way above their current level. Stories range from players getting demons with every resistance in the book, to others such as getting endgame demons while having barely left the starting zones.

* Idun's SignatureMove, Golden Apple, both heals the party a moderate amount and raises all of their stats. What makes this so powerful is the level you can access this skill: Idun can be fused at level 42, about mid-way through the game. To put it in perspective, by the time a player can fuse her, they likely only recently got access to Ma-kaja skills (that raise a *single* stat for the party) in the mid-late 30's, Chironup's Cautious Cheer (which is a little short of Luster Candy) a little earlier, Luster Candy (which raises all of the party's stats) doesn't come until endgame at level 67-70, and Tao's Light of Order (which is Golden Apple with Dekunda for good measure) is not available until the last quarter of the game (even on a NewGamePlus due to the nature of the "demon"), and she leaves before either the final dungeon or the final boss, leaving you without that skill. Therefore, from the moment you fuse Idun, you can access a level of buffing that the game doesn't expect you to have for another 30 levels, with a party heal tacked for good measure. The only thing stopping it from being completely broken is its prohibitively high cost, but its common for players to keep Idun until the end of the game thanks to how powerful Golden Apple is.
* Yabusame Shot, acquired lategame, is one of the strongest Physical skills in the game through the sheer utility it provides. It deals low damage, but it hits all enemies, [[ArmorPiercingAttack pierces through their resistances]], and is a guaranteed CriticalHit. In short, using this skill always costs only half a Press Turn, guaranteeing that you get more actions per player phase provided you don't miss a target.
* Taunt and Fierce Roar, which DrawAggro to the user. If it's used by a demon that blocks whatever element that the enemy uses, it can cripple their offense by taking away their press turns. Girimehkala and Siegfried, who reflect and absorb physical attacks respectively, can remove ''all'' of the enemy's press turns if they're so much as hit with a basic attack, which is so strong defensively that it can even be worth pitting them against enemies and even endgame bosses that can hit their three weaknesses and having them use these abilities.
* '''Dampeners.''' Holy moly, dampeners. Cheap, easily-purchasable items that are obtained from Cadaver's Hollow, dampeners can be used to completely nullify one elemental attack on every party member for one turn. This includes physical attacks. There are some catches: you can only hold three of any dampener type at once, you can only be shielded against one type of attack at a time, and any other type of attack will ignore the dampener's effect, but those are very minor weaknesses in contrast to their ability to completely end a boss's turn if you guess correctly. A player who understands the AIRoulette can also accurately guess what attack an enemy or boss is going to use on the turn after they charge Magatsuhi, meaning it's entirely possible for a boss to set up for a powerful attack only for you to null it and completely waste their turn. If you've obtained the Miracle that provides bonus Magatsuhi on blocking an attack you can fill a good portion of it in one go, too! Dampeners are useful the moment you get you get your hands on them and remain powerful right up until the end of the game. Even better, since demons can now all use items as per the Knowledge of Tools miracle, it's entirely possible to roll through an optimized turn, earn four additional turns, and then drop a dampener right at the very end to protect yourself and obliterate the boss next turn.
* Cleopatra is a level 61 demon automatically added to your party after her defeat in her DLC quest. She already comes with very good innate resistances and can be improved further by manually fusing her -- one of her components is Lamia, who innately learns Resist Dark to help cover her Dark weakness. She also comes with very good skills and potentials to back them up, having +6 on a Hamabarion, +5 on Mabufudyne and Mazandyne, and maxed-out +5 healing and support potentials. She learns Luster Candy at level 63, and her signature skill, Frolic, debuffs all enemies' attack and defense ''two ranks'' and can inflict Charm on them. Essentially, she's a fantastic demon for both boss fights and random encounters. The only drawback to Frolic as opposed to Debilitate is that if an enemy is immune to Charm, they're also immune to the stat reduction from Frolic.

* Miracle wise, getting Warrior's Conception, Unforgotten Memories, and the Prayer skills from Awakening completely breaks the game later on. This is because they all synergize to make demon fusions hilariously broken; Warrior's Conception and Unforgotten Memories give any newly fused demons stat bonus and EXP based on the stats of the demons fused respectively, while the Prayer skills always ensure a Demon will gain a point in one of their stats when leveling (ex: Prayer of Luck giving +1 Luck on level up). Combined, it means any newly fused Demon will gain a ton of EXP and stats, which can allow them to then fuse into another Demon, and essentially build up stats and EXP that will snowball into Demons jumping sometimes as high as +40 to almost all their stats. It allows Demons around level 50 to outright hit almost 100 in some of their stats, and can make Special Fusion Demons even more busted if you re-fuse their needed Demons to give them more stats. Nothing says powerful then fusing Yoshitsune using this process, and him having over 100 Strength before he hits level cap.
* Impaler's Animus. It gives the user a Charge/Concentrate, ''and'' a Pierce effect, all for 50 MP. This is as powerful as you can imagine, because not only does it provide essentially the effects of both Charge/Concentrate, but the Pierce effect allows all attacks made to become an ArmorPiercingAttack, regardless of what resistances the enemy has. Something as powerful as this seems rare, but it becomes common place quickly, and while the 50 MP cost is a lot, it arguably is better then the other buffs later, because it means ''any'' attack can do max damage, rather then needing specific skills. Even end game bosses like Shiva will fold to a team using Impaler's Animus, making it incredibly powerful.

** Accursed Poison doesn't seem like much. A free Debilitate and a random ailment slapped on top? Surely there are better uses of your Magatsuhi gauge, you might say. Well, you'd be right... later in the fight. As it turns out, a free opening salvo of Debilitate and an ailment is pretty powerful, especially if you get something like Seal (itself an example of {{Gamebreaker}} as detailed below), Charm, Sleep or Mirage, which can cause the boss to waste turns. The sheer head start that Accursed Poison allows you can make certain boss fights much easier than they would be otherwise, as the boss either wastes turns buffing themselves back up or wallows in the ailment until it wears off. The skill prioritizes "stronger" ailments, meaning it will actively ''try'' to find whichever ailment your opponents are weak to, and then default to Seal if it can't find any. Since Magatsuhi builds up fast in this game, it's entirely possible for a player to debuff a boss with Accursed Poison, buff themselves to high heaven, and then debuff the boss ''again'' to nullify most of the danger they pose.

* For a different kind of GameBreaker, [[GoodBadBugs Streetpass]] [[LoopholeAbuse Exploit]]. Want to increase a certain demon's stats without level grinding, (or if it's already at level 99) or using up Incenses? Just have at least another 3DS with Streetpass enabled on both of them, attach the demon to your DDS card, and insert the cartridge from one system to the other when you get the data from either of them. If done correctly, the attached demon's stats will increase (along with a possible gift) when you access the Streetpass feature on your gauntlet. Just save afterward (This is '''very''' important in order to keep the increased stat), and go back to the menu where you can then receive more Streetpass data from the other 3DS. [[UpToEleven This even works with demons]] '''only available through DLC, even if only''' ''' ''one'' ''' ''' 3DS has the purchased data required'''. Without said data on the SD card, the DLC demon attached will appear as a question mark and be unplayable (with the possible exception of the Archangels, whose names still appear as "???") but will ''still'' get the stat boost(s). Meaning you can get something like [[spoiler: Masakado's Shadow]] with maxed out stats before or ''after'' it reaches Level 99 in a much easier fashion that doesn't require using up a single Incense or waiting to receive Streetpass data from more players.

* Victory Cry + Jihad (Megidolaon-level of almighty damage + Debilitate debuffs) or any powerful almighty-type spell on a demon - you get to annihilate enemy formations with devastating damage, and receive full healing at the end of the battle to recoup the losses. Both skills are LastDiscMagic, so they'll only come into play when you're at the endgame.
* While Jihad is commonly considered the ultimate skill, it isn't necessarily the most damaging. That falls to the ultra-rare skill Desperate Hit (only naturally on Demonee-ho, and can only be passed on via demon source), which does a random number of almighty hits. If it does 3 or more to a single enemy, that enemy takes more damage than it would from Jihad. VERY useful against bosses for just 40 MP (half the cost of Jihad).

* Impaler's Animus. It gives the user a Charge/Concentrate, ''and'' a Pierce effect, all for 50 MP. This is as powerful as you can imagine, because not only does it provide essentially the effects of both Charge/Concentrate, but the Pierce effect allows all attacks made to become an ArmorPiercingAttack, regardless of what resistances the for has. Something as powerful as this seems rare, but it becomes common place quickly, and while the 50 MP cost is a lot, it arguably is better then the other buffs later, because it means ''any'' attack can do max damage, rather then needing specific skills. Even end game bosses like Shiva will fold to a team using Impaler's Animus, making it incredibly powerful.

** Rasetsu Feast is the ultimate boss/Abscess softener. It works like a turbocharged Debilitate; for three turns, all enemies have their stats reduced to their lowest level. This affords you crucial time to buff and inflict ailments before the enemy can really get going, and also gives you more room to go on the offensive against bosses that you would otherwise require large amounts of setup. The only downside is that it requires a Jaki in the party, and the highest-level Jaki (Hecatoncheires) is an early-late game demon, though it thankfully is a well-scaling Strength-based demon that can remain relevant for a while. All in all, Rasetsu Feast is the reason why most players will keep a Jaki around for most of the game, and why Turdak, Rakshasa, and Hecatoncheires are viewed as mandatory recruitment or fusion demons.

* Multi-hitting physical moves can mangle anything not immune, only impeded by it's random targeting nature. Bosses are mostly solo. Taken with the above Focus skill and most powerful enemies are in for a beating. Best part, Berserk is an early skill that can be gotten from the first Magatama you get, and it will see a lot of use.

* Idun's SignatureMove, Golden Apple, both heals the party a moderate amount and raises all of their stats. What makes this so powerful is the level you can access this skill: Idun can be fused at level 42, about mid-way through the game. To put it in perspective, by the time a player can fuse her, they likely only recently got access to Ma-kaja skills (that raise a *single* stat for the party) in the mid-late 30's, Chironup's Cautious Cheer (which is a little short of Luster Candy) a little earlier, Luster Candy (which raises all of the party's stats) doesn't come until endgame at level 67-70, and Tao's Light of Order (which is Golden Apple with Dekunda for good measure) is not available until the last quarter of the game (even on a NewGamePlus due to the nature of the "demon"), and she may leave before the final boss, leaving you without that skill. Therefore, from the moment you fuse Idun, you can access a level of buffing that the game doesn't expect you to have for another 30 levels, with a party heal tacked for good measure. The only thing stopping it from being completely broken is its prohibitively high cost, but its common for players to keep Idun until the end of the game thanks to how powerful Golden Apple is.

* Yoshitsune's game-breaking SignatureMove from the {{GameBreaker/Persona}} titles, Hassou Tobi, makes its mainline debut in this game and is no less busted, always dealing eight hits of damage and ''always critting'', guaranteeing the player an extra press turn. Thanks to the new Demon Essence system it's absurdly easy to EliteTweak him to maximize Hassou Tobi's damage potential without having to rely on lengthy and complicated fusion chains. Abilities like Charge, Critical Zealot, and any number of Omagatoki buffs will let Yoshitsune rip through most enemies. This can even include demons resistant to or otherwise immune to Physical moves if [[PiercingAttack Omagatoki: Pierce or Impaler's Animus]] are applied beforehand. Even though he's a mid-level demon instead of an endgame one a steady diet of Strength Incenses will ensure that he'll be able to keep up long after other demons around his level have fallen off.

* Miracles wise, getting Warrior's Conception, Unforgotten Memories, and the Prayer skills from Awakening completely breaks the game later on. This is because they all synergize to make demon fusions hilariously broken; Warrior's Conception and Unforgotten Memories give any newly fused demons stat bonus and EXP based on the stats of the demons fused respectively, while the Prayer skills always ensure a Demon will gain a point in one of their stats when leveling (Prayer of Luck giving +1 Luck on level up). Combined, it means any newly fused Demon will gain a ton of EXP and stats, which can allow them to then fuse into another Demon, and essentially build up stats and EXP that will snowball into Demons jumping sometimes as high as +40 to almost all their stats. It allows Demons around level 50 to outright hit almost 100 in some of their stats, and can make Special Fusion Demons even more busted if you refuse their needed Demons to give them more stats.

* Yoshitsune's game-breaking SignatureMove from the {{GameBreaker/Persona}} titles, Hassou Tobi, makes its mainline debut in this game and is no less busted, always dealing eight hits of damage and ''always critting'', guaranteeing the player an extra press turn. Thanks to the new Demon Essence system it's absurdly easy to EliteTweak him to maximize Hassou Tobi's damage potential without having to reply on lengthy and complicated fusion chains. Abilities like Charge, Critical Zealot, and any number of Omagatoki buffs will let Yoshitsune rip through most enemies. This can even include demons resistant to or otherwise immune to Physical moves if [[PiercingAttack Omagatoki: Pierce or Impaler's Animus]] are applied beforehand. Even though he's a mid-level demon instead of an endgame one a steady diet of Strength Incenses will ensure that he'll be able to keep up long after other demons around his level have fallen off.

* The Fiend equipment from ''I'', ''II'', and the ''IV'' duology. While the Hinokagutsuchi is the InfinityPlusOneSword in all three of these games, the Fiend equipment go another step further and utterly destroy any remaining balance, with absurd strength and accuracy surpassing any other weapon in the game. The only downside is how obscenely rare they are, especially in the former two games where they effectively only have a 1/65536 chance of dropping. While the ''IV'' duology lowers the importance of the weapons, the accessories are still incredibly powerful, with effects such as total ailment immunity, reviving with full HP upon death, and in ''Apocalypse'', one that massively strengthens all of Nanashi's attacks that stacks with Awakened Power, which has its own entry below.

* DLC-exclusive demons/Personas have the capacity to learn strong skills ahead of the curve on top of a good resistance spread. Some of them have exclusive skills that are especially powerful. Of course, this has a side of BribingYourWayToVictory.

* Kannuki-Throw is already a very unbalanced skill —it hits from 1 to 15 times for Physical damage, and it's the signature skill of Uriel, a demon who has very high HP, extremely high natural Str and Dx, and a good propensity for Critical hits. But if you take some time to build him up, you can give him Phys and High Phys Pleroma (multiply natural Phys damage by 1.20 and 1.50), Pierce Physical, and your pick of Beastly or Draconic Reaction (increases accuracy+evasion, therefore, number of hits), Speed or Haste Lesson (increase agility, ergo, accuracy), and Bloody Glee (increase Crit chance). Uriel can already deal obscene amount of damage per hit on base with this skillset, but if during battle he is further buffed with Charge + Dark Energy (increase damage of the next Physical attack by 150 and then by 200% respectively, and they stack), then an Archangel's Law on him for the Smirk multiplier (or three Tarukajas to specifically buff Physical attacks, since Smirk and Tarukaja doesn't stack), along with potentially three Rakundas (reduces enemy physical defense); there is ''absolutely nothing'' in the game who can survive a 15-hit Kannuki-Throw doing over 2000 HP of damage per hit. Pair him up with a demon with Guardian's Eye, and your only concern for the rest of the game is activating the combo before a Fiend or Sanat Kumara can knock out Uriel.

* From the Demon Market, one can purchase several custom-built demons, thereby skipping the process of needing to fuse them oneself. An example includes Demiurge with the highest-strength single target inheritable elemental spells, Concentrate, and Antichthon. While his low MP and middling Magic stat puts him at CoolButInefficient despite his great attacking affinities, he becomes valuable fusion fodder for other Magic-oriented demons as well as passing and augmenting these skills to Nanashi via Demon Whisper.

* The Skill Augment app. It makes demons more likely to mutate skills. With a little luck, it's possible to get useful skills early in the game and get even more powerful skills as you proceed. You even get to see what skill's being changed and what it will become before deciding, removing most of the risk around skill changes.
* Odin's Thunder Reign attack is a Severe-level, all-targeting Thunder skill...that costs only 22 MP. To compare, Maziodyne is one tier lower, also targets everyone on the enemy team, and costs 32 MP. While Odin himself has a pretty bad Magic stat, Thunder Reign can be passed on either via Demon Whisper if you have a high Magic stat, or to a new, magic-oriented demon via fusion. This was, ahem, ''[[{{Pun}} reined]]'' [[{{Nerf}} in]] in ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIVApocalypse'', where it instead costs 70 MP before affinities.

Due to this game very similar mechanics, most examples in the original ''Shin Megami Tensei IV'' will also apply here.

** On the other side of things, Fairy Banquet is a very powerful way to come back from a dangerous situation. The main gimmick is that it will automatically buff your stats to the max they can be independently of any debuffs you or your demons might have, meaning it's essentially a Dekunda with two Luster Candies shoved on top. This is absolutely ''huge'' no matter what part of the game you're in, thanks to Luster Candy being so expensive compared to most other games in the franchise.

* Taunt and Fierce Roar, which DrawAggro to the user. If it's used by a demon that blocks whatever element that the enemy uses, it can cripple their offense by taking away their press turns. Girimehkala and Siegfried, who reflect and absorb physical attacks respectively, can remove ''all'' of the enemy's press turns if they're hit with a basic attack, which is so strong defensively that it can even be worth pitting them against enemies and even endgame bosses that can hit their three weaknesses and having them use these abilities.
* '''Dampeners.''' Holy moly, dampeners. Cheap, easily-purchasable items that are obtained from Cadaver's Hollow, dampeners can be used to completely nullify one elemental attack on every party member for one turn. This includes physical attacks. There are some catches: you can only hold three of any dampener type at once, you can only be shielded against one type of attack at a time, and any other type of attack will ignore the dampener's effect, but those are very minor weaknesses in contrast to their ability to completely end a bosses' turn if you guess correctly. A player who understands the AIRoulette can also accurately guess what attack an enemy or boss is going to use on the turn after they charge Magatsuhi, meaning it's entirely possible for a boss to set up for a powerful attack only for you to null it and completely waste their turn. If you've obtained the Miracle that provides bonus Magatsuhi on blocking an attack you can fill a good portion of it in one go, too! Dampeners are useful the moment you get you get your hands on them and remain powerful right up until the end of the game. Even better, since demons can now all use items as per the Knowledge of Tools miracle, it's entirely possible to roll through an optimized turn, earn four additional turns, and then drop a dampener right at the very end to protect yourself and obliterate the boss next turn.

* The ChargedAttack skills: Focus / Charge / Power Charge for physical attacks and Concentrate / Mind Charge for magic attacks (the names vary by game). They force you to wait until the next turn to do damage, but causes that next attack to do at least double damage. In most cases the damage multiplier is 250%, allowing you to do more damage than if you just attack every turn, even more if you can get some multiplicative damage buffs on top of that. Even in games where these skills only multiply damage by two, they're still useful for conserving MP; using 75 SP to cast a Mind Charged Megidolaon is still 60% more efficient than using 120 SP to cast it twice in a row. Some games have the charge effects expire after one turn, but the more recent games make the charge last indefinitely until expended, meaning you can charge first before taking the time to prepare buffs that might get countered or dispelled.

** Accursed Poison doesn't seem like much. A free Debilitate and a random ailment slapped on top? Surely there are better uses of your Magatsuhi gauge, you might say. Well, you'd be right... later in the fight. As it turns out, a free opening salvo of Debilitate and an ailment is pretty powerful, especially if you get something like Seal (itself an example of {{Gamebreaker}} as detailed below), Charm, Sleep or Mirage, which can cause the boss to waste turns. The sheer head start that Accursed Poison allows you can make certain bossfights much easier than they would be otherwise, as the boss either wastes turns buffing themselves back up or wallows in the ailment until it wears off. The skill prioritizes "stronger" ailments, meaning it will actively ''try'' to find whichever ailment your opponents are weak to, and then default to Seal if it can't find any. Since Magatsuhi builds up fast in this game, it's entirely possible for a player to debuff a boss with Accursed Poison, buff themselves to high heaven, and then debuff the boss ''again'' to nullify most of the danger they pose.

* Idun's SignatureMove, Golden Apple, both heals the party a moderate amount and raises all of their stats. What makes this so powerful is the level you can access this skill: Idun can be fused at level 42, about mid-way through the game. To put it in perspective, by the time a player can fuse her, they likely only recently got access to Ma-kaja skills (that raise a *single* stat for the party) in the mid-late 30's, Chironup's Cautious Cheer (which is a little short of Luster Candy) a little earlier, Luster Candy (which raises all of the party's stats) doesn't come until endgame at level 70, and Tao's Light of Order (which is Golden Apple with Dekunda for good measure) is not available until the last quarter of the game (even on a NewGamePlus due to the nature of the "demon"), and she may leave before the final boss, leaving you without that skill. Therefore, from the moment you fuse Idun, you can access a level of buffing that the game doesn't expect you to have for another 30 levels, with a party heal tacked for good measure. The only thing stopping it from being completely broken is its prohibitively high cost, but its common for players to keep Idun until the end of the game thanks to how powerful Golden Apple is.

* '''Dampeners.''' Holy moly, dampeners. Cheap, easily-purchasable items that are obtained from Cadaver's Hollow, dampeners can be used to completely nullify one elemental attack on every party member for one turn. This includes physical attacks. There are some catches: you can only hold three of any dampener type at once, you can only be shielded against one type of attack at a time, and any other type of attack will ignore the dampener's effect, but those are very minor weaknesses in contrast to their ability to completely end a bosses' turn if you guess correctly. A player who understands the AIRoulette can also accurately guess what attack an enemy or boss is going to use on the turn after they charge Magatsuhi, meaning it's entirely possible for a boss to set up for a powerful attack only for you to null it and completely waste their turn. Dampeners are useful the moment you get you get your hands on them and remain powerful right up until the end of the game. Even better, since demons can now all use items as per the Knowledge of Tools miracle, it's entirely possible to roll through an optimized turn, earn four additional turns, and then drop a dampener right at the very end to protect yourself and obliterate the boss next turn.

Just because ''Shin Megami Tensei'' is infamous for being [[NintendoHard Atlus Hard]] doesn't mean you can't break it. Hell, in some cases, these breakers just might be your only chance at victory.

* While several of the Magatsuhi skills are DeliberatelyOverpowered, Atlus went a bit overboard with them in this game.
** Omagatoki: Critical is hands down the best Magatsuhi skill in the game. It makes every attack, including Magic, to be a guaranteed CriticalHit. With a single use of the skill, you can decimate any enemy within a single turn or in the case of bosses, take a large chunk of their HP. Since every attack is a critical hit, your Press Turns won't immediately disappear allowing for some set up game, especially early on where a single round of said skill can turn a number of bosses into nearly jokes through proper planning. The only downside to the skill is that you can still miss and lose Press Turns but with all the power the skill provides, it's almost negligible.

* Idun's SignatureMove, Golden Apple, both heals the party a moderate amount and raises all of their stats. What makes this so powerful is the level you can access this skill: Idun can be fused at level 42, about mid-way through the game. To put it in perspective, by the time a player can fuse her, they likely only recently got access to Ma-kaja skills (that raise a *single* stat for the party) in the mid-late 30's, Luster Candy (which raises all of the party's stats) doesn't come until endgame at level 70, and Tao's Light of Order (which is Golden Apple with Dekunda for good measure) is not available until the last quarter of the game (even on a NewGamePlus due to the nature of the "demon"), and she may leave before the final boss, leaving you without that skill. Therefore, from the moment you fuse Idun, you can access a level of buffing that the game doesn't expect you to have for another 30 levels, with a party heal tacked for good measure. The only thing stopping it from being completely broken is its prohibitively high cost, but its common for players to keep Idun until the end of the game thanks to how powerful Golden Apple is.