History GameBreaker / ShinMegamiTensei

* In ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIf'', having save data from other Atlus games when you reach the Appraisal Shop in the World of Sloth will get you 18 extra stat points (effectively letting you reach level 117 in a game with a 99 max), increases all of your demons' HP permanently by 25%, gets all of the buff spells on your partner, Sabbatma, and ten somas. That's ten party-wide full-HP and MP healing items, a spell that lets your partner summon demons, and the three most useful spells in the game!

* Luster Candy and Debilitate are by far the most sought-after buffs and debuffs, respectively, in any game that they appear in. The former boosts your entire party's attack, defense, and hit/evasion, while the latter reduces them for the entire enemy party. While the MP/SP cost is often relatively high, it's still more efficient than casting individual stat buff/debuff spells. That said, they do get nerfed in ''Persona 4'' where they become single-target skills, and in ''Shin Megami Tensei IV Apocalypse'' where their MP costs are greatly increased to encourage use of the Affinity system.

[[folder:Persona]]
[[AC:''VideoGame/{{Persona}} 1'']]
* Lucifer comes very close; he has 999 or 99 in all stats, some of the strongest Dark skills, is immune to everything, and has the strongest earth skill. However, he is completely useless against dark demons as he has no light skills, so anything that reflects light will kill his host (always Reiji/Chris). Instead, the real GameBreaker is Vohu Manah; it has the strongest light skills, the strongest healing skill, and the final boss killer Hieroglyphein. That's not the best part, however; the real fun is Binal Strike, which does damage equal to twice the user's HP. If your level is high enough to summon Vohu Manah, your HP will be so high that nothing will be able to stand up to Binal Strike. But you need revive magic, of course, which costs a lot of MP... actually, that's not an issue for two reasons. First, MP cost is calculated by the Persona, not the skill, and skills can be added to a Persona that doesn't learn them naturally, meaning you can abuse the system and, in theory, get a Persona with a single-digit MP cost that has Samarecarm. Second, dead characters are revived with 1HP after the battle ends, meaning that all that's needed is healing and, if you're able to summon Vohu Manah, you've probably found enough Spell Cards and got a high enough level that you have something with Mediarahan (possibly for a low MP cost, as previously stated). By the way, Abracab himself has Mediarahan, and since the dead character will be revived, he or she can then use Mediarahan on him or herself, making Vohu Manah 100% ridiculous. The catch, of course, is that Vohu Manah requires certain demons be fused with his totem, and by the time you are high enough level to fuse him, nothing in the game is a threat anyway.
* Gozu-Tennoh. A [[GlassCannon Chariot Arcana]] starting with only Squash and Poison Sting, it's not able to attack well except when it ranks up to 3 when it learns ''[[ILoveNuclearPower Me]][[DiscOneNuke gi]][[TotalPartyKill do]]'', as long as the enemy doesn't [[NoSell block or reflect Nuclear]] it's not hard to wipe the entire enemy. Keep using him and he learns ''[[UpToEleven Megidola]]'', the 2nd tier in [[NonElemental Almighty]]. Slap it on to [[CantCatchUp Mark]] and it's possible to have him surpass the party in levels. When he max ranks and is too frail to continue, return him and you get a [[GravityMaster Grydyne Stone]].
* When you enter the mall on Aki's side, [[BrokenBridge you can't leave until you beat the boss in the mall]]. This might be extremely difficult if it wasn't for the fact that there is a shop that sells elemental stones. Normally these stones are [[AwesomeButImpractical one-use third tier spells]], however use them in a fusion, and the result is the Persona is guaranteed to learn the third-tier spells at Rank 2. The result is Personas that immediately learn strong elemental attacks that deal [=AoE=].

[[AC:''VideoGame/Persona2'']]
* Lucifer and Satan have an exclusive Fusion Spell, "Armageddon" which ''skips the damage numbers'' and just wipes out the enemy party. Only two bosses in the game actually have some sort of countermove for it. One is an enemy that is immune to all attacks until you remove its barrier, and the other is [[BonusBoss Philemon]], who will reflect the attack on YOU and cause a TotalPartyKill.
** Before this are the spells Hell Desert, Megalo-Fire, Storm Nightmare and Maelstrom. It's technically a TotalPartyKill that can only be avoided by one of two means; luck (as these spells are ungodly accurate) or resistance to a certain element (in respective order; Earth, fire, water or wind). These spells are available even earlier than Trimurti, however.
* What is game breaking is Eikichi's ultimate weapon, the Supernova, in ''Persona 2: Innocent Sin''. Not only is it the most powerful weapon in the game, but you can also get it very very early. It allows you to mow through the first half of the game and some of the latter half with extreme ease. Downside is, it's an extremely difficult weapon to get.
* One broken spell combo is "Trimurti" by the personas Shiva, Vishnu, and Brahma. It will KO all non-boss enemies. It is more broken since these three can be obtain far earlier than Lucifer and Satan and do not require the insane MP consumptions. This only applies to ''Innocent Sin'' since it was {{nerf}}ed in ''Eternal Punishment''.
* Pegasus Combo might not be that Game Breaker, but being able to deal about 400 damage points at level 10 is something to consider.
* ''Innocent Sin'' has its own version of ''Persona 4'''s Hassou Tobi; the fusion spell Dashing Strike, performed by combining the low level spell Zio and weak physical skill Tackle. At least five hits of Havoc + Elec damage to all enemies on the field, and if there's only one enemy such as a ''boss'', it probably won't pose much of a challenge after a few turns. The only catch is that most mid-level to high-level Personas won't be caught dead with Zio in their skill list, so you have to have Zio skill cards to make liberal use of the Fusion Spell in the later half of the game.

[[AC:''VideoGame/Persona3'']]
* The Lucifer (or Helel in the remakes) persona (in addition to being the most powerful persona on its own, bar none) gives access to "Armageddon", a spell that deals 9999 almighty damage (cannot be blocked or absorbed) to all enemies at 100% accuracy. While it ''will'' kill every non-BonusBoss enemy in the game, Armageddon in itself isn't a GameBreaker, because it costs 100% of your MP to cast. No, what makes it a GameBreaker is that another of Lucifer's abilities, "Victory Cry", replenishes all your HP and MP at the end of each combat. End result: You win everything. To add insult to injury, it's fairly easy to give Lucifer the "spell master" ability, which halves all MP usage. Yes, that includes Armageddon. Now, even going into combat in less than 100% shape lets you win everything as well. Outright removed in ''Portable'', where Fusion Raids are done via items that require grinding for items (and Armageddon requires ''99'' of the main item and 10 of a hard to get one).
* ''Persona 3 Portable'' brings several new Game Breakers to the table, and it's likely that the [[HarderThanHard Maniac]] difficulty was introduced in an attempt to balance the game for challenge-seekers:
** Skill Cards. Think TM's from ''Pokémon'', only 1) you can easily farm them and 2) there are no restrictions to what persona can learn what skill from cards. This means you can get personas with skills that they couldn't have through fusion (ex a Fire type casting Bufu spells). While it doesn't have the unique, superpowerful skills (Morning Star, Black Viper, Die For Me, Thunder Reign, Ragnarok, stuff like that), it ''does'' have the "Absorb ''x attribute''" skills. This makes it ''trivially'' easy to cover up weaknesses in strong personae.
** Also of note: Skill Cards ''can be reproduced for no cost''. The Inari Sushi in the temple can take one card and make a copy of it after a few days. If you religiously go there every time he finishes, you can load up on very powerful skills you can put on any Persona you want. Or if you don't want to wait and have an excess of money, the Compendium will allow you to register a Persona just before it gives you a skill card. Gain one level to get the skill card, fuse that persona into something else, get a replacement from the Compendium, gain one level for another skill card. Lather, rinse, repeat.
** ''Portable'' also introduces Direct Commands. This in itself would not qualify as a Game Breaker, but consider that the [=PS2=] versions do not let you directly control your allies and that [=P3=] was designed with AI-controlled allies in mind. This is especially useful on bosses such as [[DualBoss Chariot and Justice]], who must be killed within the same turn or the one that is killed gets fully revived, as well as the FinalBoss, who has a skill that repels all attacks; in the [=PS2=] versions your allies will [[ArtificialStupidity idiotically attack the boss]], but here you can make them, you know, ''not attack'' until the repelling skill comes off.
** Also broken is the new Great/Good/Tired/Sick system. Combined with the trivial cost of paying the clock for healing (and, later on, the large gobs of money you can get from higher-level Coin cards), you can easily travel from one temporal barrier to the next in a single night, as you and your allies' condition only change after you exit Tartarus. Yes, this will put your whole party into Sick status the next day, but that doesn't affect social activities, and at worst you'll be out of battle condition for a couple of days, given a day of going to bed early and investing in condition-restoring services and items.
** One of the [=NPCs=] you can rescue from Tartarus will give you a stack of 15 Homonculi, automatically-used expendable items that each block one [[OneHitKill Light or Dark]] attack that hits. Get this reward and you don't have to worry about instant-kill spells for a while.
* The Odin persona: Thunder Reign, his signature move, is the best of the 4 top tier elemental spells in the game because, in addition to the damage, it has 100% chance of inflicting the Shock ailment, which gives you 100% crit rate against the affected target with physical attacks. It's easily possible to defeat The Reaper (who is Lv99) as soon as Odin learns Thunder Reign on P3/FES by stunlocking him with alternated All-Out Attacks and passing turns (this doesn't work as well in [=P3P=], but you can still cause Dizzy on him, making him act only once every 2 turns). Odin also learns Elec Amp (+50% Elec damage) and Spell Master (reduces SP cost of all spells by 50%). It's extremely easy to pass Elec Boost (+25% Elec damage, stacks with Elec Amp) to him. His only problem is the weakness to Wind, but that can be fixed by passing Null Wind to him, or using equipment to give you that resistance.
* ''FES'' also brings the MC's ultimate persona: Orpheus Telos. This palette swap of your original persona is clearly specifically designed for the BonusBoss because it resists everything but Almighty and Poison (the BonusBoss will automatically kill you if your persona absorbs or repels any of her attacks, so resist is the best possible option) and has great stats. The only spell that it learns naturally is Victory Cry, but most importantly, it can inherit ''every skill in the game''. If you plan everything out right, you can have a single persona with the eight best attacks in the game. Mix and match to your heart's content to decide what eight skill combination is right for you. The catch? He can inherit '''every''' skill in the game, not just the best ones, and because he has an equal likelihood to inherit every skill, you'll spend hours wading through combinations with inferior skills, hoping for that one-in-a-million perfect combination that you just spent a few hours setting up. Of course, this is all assuming that you maxed out every social link in the game, have the necessary fusion fodder, and are above level 90; the requirements for being able to fuse Orpheus Telos.
* The Omnipotent Orb accessory makes you nullify every element other than Almighty, being this game's version of ''Nocturne'''s Masakados Magatama. There are only 2 ways of getting it, though: one is by defeating the BonusBoss, and the other is a 1% chance at a Heart Item from Messiah. Of course, using this against the BonusBoss [[DevelopersForesight will get you killed]], but it doesn't stop you from destroying everything else on your path.
* Soma are items that restore full HP and SP to the entire party. All versions of ''Persona 3'' give you a decent stock of them should you save them up, which makes surviving some of the harder bosses much easier. ''Persona 4'' and ''5'' severely limit the amount of Soma you can get in a single run because of this.

[[AC:''VideoGame/Persona4'']]
* Though spell combinations aren't included, Lucifer makes his return as the notoriously hard-to-fuse but gloriously broken ultimate Persona of the Judgement arcana. He learns ''both'' Victory Cry and Spell Master naturally and tears up Shadows like nobody's business.
* Even more broken (and even more of a pain to get) is the game's sole Persona of the World arcana, Izanagi-no-Okami. This one starts with Victory Cry as a base skill, and proceeds to learn 4 high-level elemental skills and an amping skill for each one. He is a bit AwesomeButImpractical, because he doesn't inherit any skills, and has no immunities nor any protection from OneHitKill Light and Dark spells.
* Trumpeter, on the other hand, starts off immune to Dark, reflecting Light and Electricity, and absorbing Ice. As a Hexagon fusion, it is moderately easy to get the other three immunities, giving you a person immune to everything except Almighty and Poison. On top of that, Trumpeter gets the best buff and debuff spells and the strongest non-unique Almighty spell automatically. And you can get Spell Master on it for spamming Megidolaons all day (use Skadi to fuse Daisoujou, one of the components for Trumpeter - incidentally Daisoujou with Spell Master borders on a GameBreaker by itself, as this makes its Light-based unique skill Samsara spammable and with Hama Boost Samsara has about 99% chance of instakilling anything not resistant to Light, while useless against bosses this allows to easily and MP-efficiently clear lots of normally-annoying encounters). Unlike Lucifer and Yoshitsune, which require some dedicated grinding, Trumpeter is fuseable at about the level you'll either naturally be or are recommended to grind to (depending on difficulty-based EXP gains) before the final run of the Normal ending.
* Yoshitsune is the best physical attacker in the game because of his Hassou Tobi attack. Eight separate hits, though with light damage, casually offset single hit severe damage like Primal Force. And it hits all targets to boot. Power Charged Hassou Tobi DOUBLES the damage output of a Power Charged Primal Force, the second-strongest physical attack in the game. Not to mention no weaknesses, and Yoshitsune is one of the most customizable Persona in the game (he only needs Power Charge and Hassou Tobi, and you can technically get Power Charge off of a slave), meaning you can have a semi-invincible god slaughtering the field. Also, he has Heat Riser, which is essentially the combination of all three buff spells, and when fused on a certain date, he can also learn Debilitate, which is a combination of all three debuff spells. Combine it with the aforementioned Power Charge and Hassou Tobi and you will have a combo that could defeat Death with at least two usage of it.
** Beelzebub in ''Persona 4'' is the ultimate tank Persona. It's trivially easy to get him immunity or better to every element in the game, meaning the only thing that can touch you is Almighty and certain ailments. Metatron can do the same thing as Beelzebub but is a little bit harder to pull off.
* Random skill changes. Kaiwan in ''P4'' comes with Tetrakarn, which randomly changes to any other equivalent skill on certain days. Since Tetrakarn is a high-rank skill, it can change into skills of the same rank, which includes all of the ''Repel [Element]'' skills (including the ever useful ''Repel Phys''), ''Brave Blade'', ''Mediarahan'', ''Spell/Arms Master'', ''Victory Cry'', and a dozen other high level skills (all of which would otherwise only be available by the last third of the game) as early as ''April/May''.
* Norn is this if you're willing to invest in a little SaveScumming. Having [[StatusBuff Status Buffs]] on ''your entire party'' at the beginning of a fight is pretty good so that you can do a lot of damage right off the bat. If you can also get her Repel Elec and level her up till she gets Debilitate, you pretty much have a good starting Persona for boss fights (though you could still just use Trumpeter for the Debilitate part).
* The level up trick with the [[FanNickname Mr. Pringles]] (King-type enemies that [[MookMaker can summon other Shadows infinitely]]) is also a good way to have a high level. While unfortunately, there's a cap for EXP, there's none for cash. If you have a Phys-Null (or Reflect) Persona on your main character, just let it summon its mooks, turn on Rush Mode overnight and wake up with a lot of exp (at 65k normally, 130k with both equipment pieces (each increasing your exp by 50%)) ''and a million worth of cash'' that you could use on a NewGamePlus (you know, to summon your broken personae listed above). Though as for the [[GuideDangIt two equipment pieces...]]
* Unlike the previous game, you do not keep your level or stats on NewGamePlus. Since you have low SP, summoning late-game Personas with high level spells becomes impractical. However, physical based Personas are fair game, because physical attacks are percentage based, rather than having a fixed cost. If you have Arms Master, then severe physical attacks would now cost ''only around 18 HP''; all physical attack Personas practically become Game Breakers for a third or half of the game! Bonus points if the Persona you're using is the above mentioned Yoshitsune. Oh yeah, and if the Persona nulls or even returns physical damage, it would make [[ThatOneBoss Shadow Kanji]] a [[CurbstompBattle complete joke.]]
* In ''Golden'' to add some AntiFrustrationFeatures, you're allowed to choose what kind of skills your Persona inherits. All the aforementioned GameBreaker stuff listed up above? Just got about a million times easier to pull off.
* With the changes in ''Golden'', including skill cards returning and Shuffle Time allowing you to boost the stats of your Personas, almost any Persona can be extremely powerful if you're willing to put in the work. It's fairly easy to take a Persona with a large number of resistances, apply absorb or reflect skills to whatever it doesn't resist then grind an early dungeon until its stats are at maximum. Not every single skill has a skill card (for example, Morning Star or Hassou Tobi), but skills like Victory Cry, Power/Mind Charge, and Primal Force all do.
* In addition, the upright Magician card in ''Golden'''s Shuffle Time will upgrade any one of your Persona's skills to its next tier (for instance, Zio to Mazio, Garula to Magarula, Megido to Megidola). It will take some SaveScumming, but if you keep getting Magicians during Shuffle Time, you can upgrade Physical skills to game-breaking levels as early as the Bathhouse. For tanking, a simple Slime can become a GameBreaker though this method. Slime is available as early as Yukiko's Castle, and is otherwise unremarkable apart from learning Resist Physical. An upright Magician card will upgrade this skill to ''Null Physical'', granting you complete physical immunity at the very beginning of the game. Once Slime has served its purpose, it makes for great fusion fodder to pass the skill on.
* Yet another ''Golden'' change: the "Ask for Help" feature. When playing online, you can try to call for help during battle from other online players, and it doesn't cost a turn; depending on the number that respond, your party's HP and SP will be healed accordingly. Getting SP healing in ''Persona 4'' is both rare and prohibitively expensive, making you quit dungeons quickly or pay an arm and a leg to the Mysterious Fox. But Asking For Help can be done for free, at any time, and even if you get just ''one'' response, it's much more consistent (and dependable) than Shuffle Time healing with ''none'' of the drawbacks, so you can spend as much time as you want grinding and exploring without ever having to pay the Fox or using Chakra[=/=]Soul items. During the early game, where you don't even have that many SP to heal yet and Dia spells are cheap (and the Fox isn't even available), it can destroy the difficulty of Yukiko's Castle.

[[AC:''VideoGame/PersonaQShadowOfTheLabyrinth'']]
* The MissionControl characters TookALevelInBadass upon coming to the Margin World, thanks to the Sub-Persona system. Unlike the combatant characters (who rely on a limited pool of SP to use magic), Fuuka and Rise instead rely on the regenerating "Leader" gauge that builds as you fight shadows. This makes Fuuka one of the most efficient healers in the game, as she can grant the party three turns of recurring healing for only 1/5th of the gauge. Equip her with a Sub-Persona like Kaguya and she easily outshines dedicated healers like Yukiko, Yukari, and Rei.
* Physically-oriented characters like Kanji, Chie, Aigis, Shinjiro, and Akihiko are highly valued because of the fact that most of their abilities are CastFromHitPoints which are easily replenished, both thanks to Fuuka's healing and the HP/SP buffer given by Sub-Personas that's replenished after every battle. One of the most popular strategies involves equipping one of these characters with a Sub-Persona that has several of the various "Link" skills equipped, which allow them to add bonus elemental damage to every allied attack that comes after them. Kanji is a popular choice for this, as he has the highest natural strength score and naturally learns abilities that allow him to go first in battle, allowing him to maximize link damage. Junpei has less Strength, but has the Golden Gemini skill upon getting his ultimate Persona, which gives him a ''very'' high chance of executing ''any'' physical skill twice in a row (and the second is free). This includes Hassou Tobi.
* Luck plays a massive role in this game, with Naoto being one of the most broken party members due to naturally learning ''both'' multi-target variations of the series' signature instant death spells. She also has high enough agility to ensure she can strike first, with Ken being not far behind in that category, and she has no elemental weaknesses to boot. And though Teddie's a bit of a TierInducedScrappy in this game, he has the highest luck score out of everyone, and can also be exploited for instant death. All three of them are also good contenders for StandardStatusEffects, ''also'' affected by luck, and unlike the main ''Persona'' games, are far more deadly and far more likely to work on bosses! Add to that the fact that sub-persona have their own SP values which replenish after fights. Once you get one with at least as much SP as your instant-kill move, you have free agency to use one at the start of every battle to thin the enemy numbers with nearly no cost.
** In addition, the Stun status effect can bring almost any enemy to their knees when specialized properly. Stun status both makes an enemy unable to attack you and makes them unable to avoid attacks. If you use a skill that raises status success chance, then even a boss will probably be affected with only a few tries, rendering them useless for a few turns. Already a very powerful feat, you can then use Stagnant Air, which ''raises the duration'' of ailments to keep this going for a good 7 turns or more. And if you want to be especially mean, just teach your biggest damage dealer Death's Sickle, which raises their damage to enemies with status ailments... then give them a Link move. Curbstomping doesn't even begin to describe how vulnerable this makes bosses, and the really weird thing is it works on nearly EVERY boss.
** Impure Reach is a passive skill that increases the chance of inflicting status ailments. What it also does is that it boosts the success rate of the Hama and Mudo series skills, as the game recognizes instant death as a status ailment. By the middle of the third stratum, you gain the ability to form Skill Cards out of your Sub-Personas, letting you make Impure Reach a permanent part of Naoto's, Ken's or Teddie's skill set and making them ridiculously powerful with instakills.
* Speaking of heavy damage dealers and boss killers, Aigis' Orgia Mode when it comes to facing bosses and/or F.O.Es. A damage multiplier for only two turns doesn't sound impressive, ''on its own''. However, the thing that makes it so unfair to bosses is that it doesn't take up a buff slot[[labelnote:*]]Only three buffs and debuffs can be applied to a unit during battle, with newer ones overriding older ones[[/labelnote]], meaning you can have that, Shura Tensei[[labelnote:*]]Greatly multiplies damage in exchange for losing half of your max health every turn unless canceled by Shura Revert or getting KOed, and ''it doesn't take up a buff slot either!''[[/labelnote]], Heat Riser, Matarukaja AND Power Charge active for an even more powerful multi-hitting attack such as Danse Macabre on a thoroughly debuffed and preferably agility-bound enemy. Alternatively, having Rise as your battle navigator can turn that particular combination of Aigis into one of the best Linkers due to Spotlight, and with the right passive skills, every successful follow-up attack will deal damage in the '''thousands'''.
** In fact, you may not even need Rise for that strategy. Giving Aigis Dragon Cry will not only grant her both the first hit, but also one of the biggest damage buffs in the game[[labelnote:*]]only outclassed by Power Charge and Shura Tensei, which you can ''stack this with''[[/labelnote]].
* Yoshitsune returns from ''Persona 4'' as a sub-Persona, retaining his signature overpowered Hassou Tobi attack, which now has increased base damage in exchange for now distributing 8 hits across all enemies randomly. Against single targets, all eight hits will converge on that one target. While Yoshitsune doesn't learn any other attack skills, he doesn't need them - every other skill he naturally learns is a passive that makes Hassou Tobi ''even stronger''. [[note]]God's Cut passively raises cut damage, Warrior Title raises critical rate and nearly guarantees the user Boost for their next turn, First Star amplifies the damage if the user attacks before all other enemies (which can produce incredible results with Bestial Roar or Dragon Cry), and Heroic Gemini gives a chance of Hassou Tobi ''firing off twice in a turn''.[[/note]] Add in the fact that no enemy in this game is immune to any element that isn't Light or Dark, and Hassou Tobi can decimate anything in the game, Almighty attacks be damned.
* The P3 Hero's ultimate Persona, Messiah, gains Debilitate as its special skill, which is the ultimate F.O.E/Boss killer. Debilitate lowers all of the target's stats in one move, rendering even the worst F.O.Es virtually harmless. Use of this combined with other tactics described above can enable the party to defeat F.O.Es LONG before the game expects them to be able to, resulting in massive exp gain and massively powerful Persona cards, allowing them to break the game even further.
* Likewise, Heat Riser, mentioned earlier, is, in Persona Q at least, exclusive ONLY to the ultimate Persona of the P4 Hero, Izanagi-no-Okami, and is a key component of many of the other game-breaking strategies in the game (like the aforementioned combination with Aigis' Orgia Mode) being the best buffing skill in the game (It's the buff equivalent to Debilitate). Compounding onto this is that Izanagi-no-Okami has the best overall resistance spread of any Persona, with the only element aside from Almighty that Izanagi-no-Okami does not resist or better being Light (It's immune to Dark and resists everything else), and it's only neutral to that, meaning that, by default, the P4 Hero has no weaknesses once he gets his ultimate Persona, and only one attack type that is neutral to him. In contrast, almost every other Main Persona, even Ultimate Personas, have at least one weakness, with only Naoto's being without a weakness (however, Yamato-Takeru only resists Fire and is immune to Light and Dark, so its resistances are nowhere near as plentiful as Izanagi-no-Okami's). If one can give the P4 Hero a Sub-Persona that patches up their lack of resistance to Light, then he can become far and away the overall most reliable tank (other characters can be considered to have greater bulk, but they have weaknesses that can be exploited, and have nowhere near as many resistances) of the team. Combine that with the fact that he's the only character to get access Heat Riser and... yeah. The P4 Hero is viable to be called the overall most powerful character in Persona Q (discounting Instant-kill abuse from Naoto, Teddie or Ken, that is). It also helps that a few powerful endgame Personas like Lucifer, Helel, Trumpeter or, if you're using paid DLC, Magatsu-Izanagi, all learn Resist Light, which, if equipped to the P4 Hero, will let him resist ''every single non-Almighty attack in the game.''

[[AC:''VideoGame/Persona5'']]
* Mementos is affected by the weather in reality. When a Heat Wave turns up, there's a chance Shadows will automatically be hit with "Burn"; in Pollen Season, it's "Sleep". But for three days in November and two in December, Flu Season arrives, which has a chance to inflict "Despair", which will automatically kill any enemy in three turns and prevent them from acting. The game-breaking comes from the fact that this includes [[BonusBoss The Reaper]], who does not have ContractualBossImmunity to the flu. Defeating The Reaper pays out a hefty 72,000+ EXP every time, no matter how many times you do it. Given that level 50 is around the average level the player should be at in November, it's possible to hit the level cap for every party member in around two hours, resulting in every party member gaining their strongest skills that would usually take tens of hours of grinding to achieve. Doing this can turn the whole endgame into a cakewalk, including turning the FinalBoss into an absolute joke who can be taken down in as little as four turns. [[note]]It's recommended that you rank up the Star Confidant to Rank 9 to be able to escape on your first turn in case the Reaper doesn't have Despair and you're not prepared to fight him.[[/note]]
* Yoshitsune's back in this game, and his signature move, Hassou Tobi[[note]]An attack that hits eight times for light damage, but becomes very powerful with Power Charge and an attack buff against defense-debuffed opponents[[/note]] is just as powerful as before. While he already has a handful of natural immunities and no weaknesses, it is possible, through careful fusion, to make a Yoshitsune that repels, nullifies, or drains ''all but two'' of the elements -- which, in conjunction with Hassou Tobi, make him a nigh-unstoppable killing machine.[[note]][[http://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/archive/2017/04/14/how-to-fuse-an-invincible-killing-machine-in-persona-5.aspx This article]] goes over the process in-depth.[[/note]] The only downside is that since one of the Personas required to fuse Yoshitsune, Futsunushi, can only be fused after completing Morgana's Confidant, Yoshitsune can only be fused at the start of the final dungeon on a first playthrough.
* Once you initiate the Tower Confidant, you gain an ability that allows you to knock an enemy down with your Gun even if they aren't weak against Gun attacks. [[AwesomeButImpractical It costs a lot of ammo at first]], but becomes more useful with later abilities from that Confidant, which reduce the ammo cost and allow you to hit targets that would otherwise be immune to Gun skills. With this, it's even possible to knock down [[BonusBoss The Reaper]].
** Afterwards, you get the opportunity to use this very ability to win a previously HopelessBossFight, yielding a Null Phys skill card. Not only is this a valuable skill to have (on top of being the ''only'' damage immunity passive skill card you'll ever find), it's also considered a mid-tier skill card, allowing Yusuke to duplicate it if his Confidant is Rank 5. With enough copies of this, you can make nearly any Persona NighInvulnerable, considering how several bosses at this point favor physical attacks.
* All your Confidants (excluding story-mandated ones) now bestow additional perks or access to extra services to augment your daily life. Some stand out head-and-shoulders over the rest:
** If you get up to the second rank of the Sun confidant, you gain the ability to repeatedly extort money from Shadows during negotiations. While there's a chance of the Shadow getting angry and attacking or summoning reinforcements, it's possible to get thousands of yen from a single battle. Even if you max out the link, provided the contact doesn't show up with "Show me the money", you can continue to exploit the demons no matter the Sun Link!
** Chihaya's Rank 7 ability is the use of the shrine without wasting time; you can significantly speed up bonding with your teammates with none of the time wasted. Play your cards correctly and you can eliminate holdover periods, like with Sojiro's notoriously slow Confidant.
** Caroline and Justine's Rank 10 ability allows you to pay money to fuse Personas that are at a higher level than Joker, which would otherwise be impossible. With how easy it is to get money, this makes gaining access to top level personas (such as Yoshitsune) trivially easy. Since Special Fusions usually require high-level Personas, fusing the material Personas and the final result this way may be too costly... except for one particular Special Fusion. [[spoiler:Rangda can be easily recruited by the time you max the Confidant, and Barong is just one level above the minimum needed to max the Confidant, so his fusion fee isn't astronomical. Yes, you can fuse Shiva almost right away! Although doing so will cost around 300,000 yen if you try it at the first opportunity, it's a fair bit cheaper than most other high-end Personas. Even better, rank-up fusions via treasures can turn Shiva into Satan.]]
** In a game where time is scarce, Kawakami's Confidant abilities are the most valuable, giving the player additional time slots for certain activities or letting her take over time-consuming chores so the player can do other nighttime activities. Her biggest boon is her special massage service, which lets the protagonist do a nighttime activity after a day in the Metaverse, making a Palace or Mementos trip less of a time investment. This last boon is only given by maxing her Confidant, but it carries on a NewGamePlus and you get to use it to its fullest extent.
* Certain bosses in Mementos avert ContractualBossImmunity, which means you can use status-inducing spells on them. Enemies affected by the Confusion ailment cannot act, and have a chance to instead throw money at you. By intentionally prolonging the fight, you can easily earn hundreds of thousands of yen with very little effort. This is best done with a Persona that has the skills Pulinpa, Confuse Boost, and a high Luck stat (which increases the chance of the enemy throwing money and how much you get).
* Lucky Punch and Miracle Punch don't do much damage, but they're relatively cheap and have a higher than usual chance of getting a Critical Hit. This is quite useful for knocking down enemies without any weaknesses, or for starting a Baton Pass.
** Similar to the above skills, One-Shot Kill is an attack that does severe Gun damage and has a high chance to crit, but without the reduced-accuracy drawback. Trigger Happy and Apt Pupil will bump up its critical rate to nearly 100% and you can combine that with Snipe and Cripple, which increase damage from Gun skills by 25% and 50% respectively, letting the skill hit much harder than Miracle Punch can ever hope to get (there are no physical-boosting passives in the game). As long as the target doesn't repel or nullify gun damage, knocking down entire teams is absurdly easy. And you can combine that even further with Charge, increasing the damage by 250% next turn.
* The DLC Personas in general can fall under under this with a touch of BribingYourWayToVictory. Each of them can be summoned from the Compendium for free once, meaning you can tear apart the early and mid game Palaces, along with {{That One Boss}}es like Shadow Madarame, with several of the higher leveled ones until the rest of the game catches up to them. Even among them however, a few stand out in terms of gamebreaking goodness.
** Izanagi Picaro comes with some of the best support passives in the entire game, at an incredibly low level for their value. He learns Null Phys at level 25 and Growth 3 at level 28. Once Izanagi Picaro get these, you can pass them around to any Persona of your choosing, meaning by mid-game you can have a team of NighInvulnerable Persona you don't even have to ''use'' to unlock ''their'' skills. His SecretArt Cross Slash isn't half bad either, dealing the equivalent of two highly accurate Assault Dives to a single target.
** Kaguya is a monster. On top of having incredibly useful skills you can pass on through Fusion at an outrageously low level (Mediarama from the start, Diarahan at level 21, Repel Phys just a level later), she has nice resistances, one easy to fix weakness, and above all, her SecretArt [[LightEmUp Shining Arrows]] is essentially magical Hassou Tobi. It hits randomly between 4 and 8 times unlike Hassou Tobi's guaranteed 8, and cannot crit, but can do more damage because of damage-boosting passives that do not exist for physical attacks.
** Messiah isn't too impressive a Persona despite what its high level would suggest, but itemizing it will give you the Lucifer Guard armor. Lucifer Guard sits at 250 defense and reduces all magic damage by a high amount, putting it only second to the ArmorOfInvincibility that needs you to itemize Satan to obtain. And you can make it as early as August for the whole party.
* Itemizing Michael nets you the Judge Of The Dead, a 380-power revolver for Makoto that increases all of her stats by 10. And if you max out Caroline and Justine's confidant, you can craft this weapon as early as Level 51, turning Makoto into a crazy powerhouse for the rest of the game.
* It's possible to circumvent the once-a-day limit of strengthening a Persona by fusing/deleting/itemizing/sacrificing it after strengthening and registering it, then resummoning it. Doing this enough times with sufficient luck (as stat point allocations on level-up are random) lets you max out the attacking stats of the Persona of your choice, making it [[MagikarpPower a much better attacker than other Personas with high base level]]. The downside to this method is that it's going to cost a lot of yen, especially in the higher levels.
* The Persona Rangda can render the battle arena in [[spoiler:Sae's Palace]] a mere joke. It just so happens that Rangda can be obtained in the same palace. By having Rangda equipped you can easily defeat all three opponents. The Ganesha duo is only capable of using physical attacks so you can either play the entire fight in Rush Mode or guard the entire battle and win without doing anything. All three members of the Rangda trio have low HP and only use attacks which they themselves nullify, so having Rangda active gives you time to use restorative items if needed. And while Thor can take advantage of Rangda's weakness, his primary tactic is to use charge and then a powerful physical move, and having Rangda reflect it will cause his HP to severely drop. If that doesn't kill him, it should leave him weak enough that you can swap to another Persona to finish the job.
* SP being essentially the equivalent of magic, it can be used to heal your fighters and effectively counter enemies. Thus, because [[MagicIsRareHealthIsCheap it cannot be as easily recovered as HP]], the drain on your SP often limits the amount of time you can spend crawling dungeons. However, with the SP Adhesive Bandage (available at Takemi's Confidant Rank 5), you can recover SP every turn in a battle, up to 7 at rank 3. That means if you purchase a bandage for every member of your party, while notably expensive (to the tune of at least 240,000 yen), it makes it so you can effectively traverse an entire dungeon in one calendar day, which is infinitely important in a game where time is as important as in Persona 5. Get Takemi's Confidant to Rank 7, and everything she sells is offered at half price, making it incredibly easy to fit the party with the adhesive.
* Firm Stance halves the damage you take but also renders you unable to dodge attacks.[[note]]Hama and Mudo are exempt from this rule so you won't get instantly killed every time.[[/note]] The Divine Pillar accessory, obtained from the Reaper, does the same thing. When you combine the two, their effects stack, giving Joker ridiculous damage resistance before even factoring bonuses from armor and his actual Persona's stats and affinities.
* [[spoiler: Satanael]] is by far the most insane Ultimate Persona yet. It resists every single element in the game, [[NoSell is naturally immune to both elements]] that have OneHitKill attacks, learns powerful Curse, Nuclear, Gun and Almighty skills, is the only Persona in the game who learns Victory Cry and has fairly high stats across the board. However, you can only fuse it on NewGamePlus after reaching the GoldenEnding and can only access it at level 95 (unless you have maxed out the Strength confidant), by which point the only thing you'll likely need it for is probably the BonusBoss; the Persona then becomes a BraggingRightsReward afterwards.
* If you trek through Mementos on 24 December, you'll find the last two Treasure Demons in the game within the lower floors of the Sheriruth sector. They are some of the best Treasure Demons for varying reasons, and it's no wonder you only can access them this late in the game.
** Crystal Skull, the final treasure demon, can be itemised into an accessory of the same name which grants +5 to all combat stats, on top of a large boost to evasion against magical skills. While it is only available when TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon manifests itself, it isn't too difficult to make enough for everyone on the team (provided you collected enough black rocks), making it much more difficult for enemies to exploit their elemental weaknesses.
** Hope Diamond, the penultimate Treasure Demon, is easily the most useful of them in fusion, due to having a lot of incredibly useful passives. Being able to pass all three Auto-group-buff skills onto a Persona lets you tear through random encounters and have a great opening turn in boss fights, and the rest of its options are still incredibly helpful, running between [[LastChanceHitPoint Endure]], [[HealingFactor Fast-Heal]], and [[CounterAttack High Counter]].
* All of your endgame-tier weapons and armor carry over in a NewGamePlus, and there's nothing preventing you from using them right off the bat. This means that, for at least the first few dungeons, your melee attacks will be insanely powerful, doing far more damage than your skills, allowing you to breeze through those dungeons in just a couple of days since SP is typically your limiting factor in how much you can explore a dungeon in a single day. Weapons are by far one of your biggest expenses in the game, so having all of your weapons carry over will also help you save up lots more money during your second playthrough.
[[/folder]]

** Caroline and Justine's Rank 10 ability allows you to pay money to fuse Personas that are at a higher level than Joker, which would otherwise be impossible. With how easy it is to get money, this makes gaining access to top level personas (such as Yoshitsune) trivially easy. Since Special Fusions usually require high-level Personas, fusing the material Personas and the final result this way may be too costly... except for one particular Special Fusion. [[spoiler:Rangda can be easily recruited by the time you max the Confidant, and Barong is just one level above the minimum needed to max the Confidant, so his fusion fee isn't astronomical. Yes, you can fuse Shiva almost right away! Although doing so will cost around 300,000 yen if you try it at the first opportunity, it's a fair bit cheaper than most other high-end Personas.]]

* If you get up to the second rank of the Sun confidant, you gain the ability to repeatedly extort money from Shadows during negotiations. While there's a chance of the Shadow getting angry and attacking or summoning reinforcements, it's possible to get thousands of yen from a single battle. Even if you max out the link, provided the contact doesn't show up with "Show me the money", you can continue to exploit the demons no matter the Sun Link!
* Chihaya's Rank 7 ability is the use of the shrine without wasting time; you can significantly speed up bonding with your teammates with none of the time wasted. Play your cards correctly and you can eliminate holdover periods, like with Sojiro's notoriously slow Confidant.

* Caroline and Justine's Rank 10 ability allows you to pay money to fuse Personas that are at a higher level than Joker, which would otherwise be impossible. With how easy it is to get money, this makes gaining access to top level personas (such as Yoshitsune) trivially easy. Since Special Fusions usually require high-level Personas, fusing the material Personas and the final result this way may be too costly... except for one particular Special Fusion. [[spoiler:Rangda can be easily recruited by the time you max the Confidant, and Barong is just one level above the minimum needed to max the Confidant, so his fusion fee isn't astronomical. Yes, you can fuse Shiva almost right away! Although doing so will cost around 300,000 yen if you try it at the first opportunity, it's a fair bit cheaper than most other high-end Personas.]]
* In a game where time is scarce, Kawakami's Confidant abilities are the most valuable, giving the player additional time slots for certain activities or letting her take over time-consuming chores so the player can do other nighttime activities. Her biggest boon is her special massage service, which lets the protagonist do a nighttime activity after a day in the Metaverse, making a Palace or Mementos trip less of a time investment.

* Crystal Skull, the final treasure demon, can be itemised into an accessory of the same name which grants +5 to all combat stats, on top of a large boost to evasion against magical skills. While it is only available when TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon manifests itself, it isn't too difficult to make enough for everyone on the team (provided you collected enough black rocks), making it much more difficult for enemies to exploit their elemental weaknesses.
* Hope Diamond, the penultimate Treasure Demon, is easily the most useful of them, due to having a lot of incredibly useful passives. Being able to pass all three Auto-buff skills onto a Persona already makes random encounters end a lot faster, on top of giving a good opening setup for boss fights, and the rest of its options are still incredibly helpful, running between [[LastChanceHitPoint Endure]], [[HealingFactor Fast-Heal]], and [[CounterAttack High Counter]].

** 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.

** Dante may not learn Pierce, but he does learn Son's Oath, which increase his offensive output by 50%. He possesses a freakishly high crit rate in 'Rebellion' and his 'Showtime' is basically a cheap Medigolian with more flash. Sure, you don't get him till near the very end of the game, but then you can watch him wipe out any DemonicSpiders with style and ease.

** God's Bow and Hell Gaze are basically the same attack, just with different elements (Bow is Expel, Gaze is Death). Either they can block that element, or they die. Simple as that.

** Daisoujou. Immune to every status ailment in the book in some way, has good Magic stat, and can restore its own HP and MP during boss fights with Meditation, and also learns Prayer, which makes him a stellar support caster, especially if you sacrifice demons to level him up.
*** Recarmdra, with proper exploiting and fusion, you can create an infinite cycle of healing or one powerful mage. When the HP/MP of your party is low, have that demon use Recarmdra, Blammo; your party gets back all their HP and MP, next have another demon use Samrecarm to resurrect it, and summon it again. Mana Drain also is useful, give it to a powerful magic user and let them do all the damage dealing; it is even better if they know Megido class magic.

* All of your endgame-tier weapons and armor carry over in a NewGamePlus, and there's nothing preventing you from using them right off the bat. This means that, for at least the first few dungeons, your melee attacks will be insanely powerful, doing far more damage than your skills, allowing you to breeze through those dungeons in just a couple of days since SP is typically your limiting factor in how much you can explore a dungeon. Weapons are by far one of your biggest expenses in the game, so having all of your weapons carry over will also help you save up lots more money during your second playthrough.

* Fusion in general can get you some hilarious results, if you get lucky with the save scumming. Most games since TheNewTens have adopted the "pick-and-choose" skill inheritance system. Signature skills are usually restricted, and certain games also add in restrictions on which skills demons can inherit, but barring those restrictions, anything is fair game. If you cultivate your fusions correctly, it is possible to fuse a demon that, with the combination of their natural immunities and Null/Absorb/Repel skills, is invulnerable to anything that's not [[InfinityPlusOneElement Almighty-elemental]].

* Yoshitsune's back in this game, and his signature move, Hassou Tobi[[note]]An attack that hits eight times for light damage, but becomes very powerful with Power Charge and an attack buff against defense-debuffed opponents[[/note]] is just as powerful as before. While he already has a handful of natural immunities, it is possible, through careful fusion, to make a Yoshitsune that repels, nullifies, or drains ''all but two'' of the elements -- which, in conjunction with Hassou Tobi, make him a nigh-unstoppable killing machine.[[note]][[http://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/archive/2017/04/14/how-to-fuse-an-invincible-killing-machine-in-persona-5.aspx This article]] goes over the process in-depth.[[/note]] The only downside is that since one of the Personas required to fuse Yoshitsune, Futsunushi, can only be fused after completing Morgana's Confidant, Yoshitsune can only be fused at the start of the final dungeon on a first playthrough.

* Chihaya's Rank 7 ability is the use of the shrine without wasting time; so you can significantly boost up the speeds of bonding with your teammates with none of the time wasted. Play your cards correctly and you can eliminate holdover periods, like with Sojiro's notoriously slow Confidant.

** Similar to the above skills, One-Shot Kill is an attack that does severe Gun damage and has a high chance to crit, but without the reduced-accuracy drawback. Apt Pupil will bump up its critical rate to nearly 100% and you can combine that with Snipe and Cripple, which increase damage from Gun skills by 25% and 50% respectively, letting the skill hit much harder than Miracle Punch can ever hope to get (there are no physical-boosting passives in the game). As long as the target doesn't repel or nullify gun damage, knocking down entire teams is absurdly easy. And you can combine that even further with Charge, increasing the damage by 250% next turn.

** Tyrant + Megidolaon + leader with Magic Yang = free one-turn kill every turn. And if you've got Awakening as well, even better!

** Blood Treaty + Victory Cry for free Megidolaon attacks. Blood Treaty can also greatly amplify the damage done with Drain.

** Shiva as well as [[spoiler:The Demiurge]] appear as the demons with the highest starting level for the Chaos and Law alignments respectively. Both naturally start with the aforementioned Victory Cry + Jihad combo and have respectable resistances (both are immune to expel and curse and have several other elements which are ineffective against them). Additionally Shiva has Enduring Soul (a full revive after death once per battle) and [[spoiler:The Demiurge]] has luster candy (boosts all stats for the party). Shiva gets bonus points here for being considerably easier to summon (he only requires the player to be level 91 and is created in special fusion with his traditional recipe, while [[spoiler:The Demiurge]] is the bonus boss and must be beaten, only in the second playthrough and later, before you can fuse it from 3 specific demons.)
** There are several guns that allow you to cause the Stone element. This counts as instant death. Almost everything except bosses are weak against this attack. Your Main Character gains 4x the EXP he would normally get if you have no demons out. Manshonyaga (an early game weapon with the stone element) will allow you to gain levels every 2-3 fights for a while.

** 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 agaist bosses. Not to mention it's only 40 mp.

** Forneus from ''Redux'' has Death Bite, which deals "light" physical damage but always hits 4 times. Compare this to Megaton Press or Madness Crush, which deal stronger individual hits, but strike randomly between 1 to 4 times. As far as consistency is concerned, Death Bite stands among the strongest physical skills in the game. Forneus also comes with Charge and Acid Breath to let him hit even harder. Impart Phys Boost and Phys Amp via D-Sources, and watch him lay waste to anything not resistant!

* Cocytus in the first game. It's a random-hit ice spell that has an ''absurdly high'' rate of inflicting the Freeze status, which ''makes the target lose all their resistances and turns any physical attack on them into a CriticalHit''. Also, if it hits a same target twice, it deals more damage than Bufudyne, the top tier ice spell. Slap Ice Boost and/or Ice Amp, and the game will be a walk in the park for the most part. It's especially useful against the BossInMookClothing Arahabaki enemy, which repels everything but Ice (which it's weak to). It was nerfed in the second game, though.

* Likewise, Heat Riser, mentioned earlier, is, in Persona Q at least, exclusive ONLY to the ultimate Persona of the P4 Hero, Izanagi-no-Okami, and is a key component of many of the other game-breaking strategies in the game (like the aforementioned combination with Aigis' Orgia Mode) being the best buffing skill in the game (It's the buff equivalent to Debilitate). Compounding onto this is that Izanagi-no-Okami has the best overall resistance spread of any Persona, with the only element aside from Almighty that Izanagi-no-Okami does not resist or better being Light (It's immune to Dark and resists everything else), and it's only neutral to that, meaning that, by default, the P4 Hero has no weaknesses once he gets his ultimate Persona, and only one attack type that is neutral to him. In contrast, almost every other Main Persona, even Ultimate Personas, have at least one weakness, with only Naoto's being without a weakness (however, Yamato-Takeru only resists Fire and is immune to Light and Dark, so its resistances are nowhere near as plentiful as Izanagi-no-Okami's). If one can give the P4 Hero a Persona that patches up their lack of resistance to Light, then he can become far and away the overall most reliable tank (other characters can be considered to have greater bulk, but they have weaknesses that can be exploited, and have nowhere near as many resistances) of the team. Combine that with the fact that he's the only character to get access Heat Riser and... yeah. The P4 Hero is viable to be called the overall most powerful character in Persona Q (discounting Instant-kill effects, that is). It also helps that a few powerful endgame Personas like Lucifer, Helel, Trumpeter or, if you're using paid DLC, Magatsu-Izanagi, all learn Resist Light, which, if equipped to the P4 Hero, will let him resist ''every single non-Almighty attack in the game.''

* Likewise, Heat Riser, mentioned earlier, is, in Persona Q at least, exclusive ONLY to the ultimate Persona of the P4 Hero, Izanagi-no-Okami, and is a key component of many of the other game-breaking strategies in the game (like the aforementioned combination with Aigis' Orgia Mode) being the best buffing skill in the game. Compounding onto this is that Izanagi-no-Okami has the best overall resistances and bulk of any fixed Persona, with the only element aside from Almighty that Izanagi-no-Okami does not resist or better being Light (It's immune to Dark and resists everything else), and it's only neutral to that, meaning that, by default, the P4 Hero has no weaknesses once he gets his ultimate Persona. In contrast, almost every other Main Persona, even Ultimate Personas, have at least one weakness, with only Naoto's being without a weakness (however, Yamato-Takeru only resists Fire and is immune to Light and Dark, so its resistances are nowhere near as plentiful as Izanagi-no-Okami's). If one can give the P4 Hero a Persona that patches up their lack of resistance to Light, then he can become far and away the overall most reliable tank (other characters can be considered to have greater bulk, but they have weaknesses that can be exploited, and have nowhere near as many resistances) of the team. Combine that with the fact that he's the only character to get Heat Riser and... yeah. The P4 Hero is viable to be called the overall most powerful character in Persona Q. It helps that a few powerful endgame Personas like Lucifer, Helel, Trumpeter or, if you're using paid DLC, Magatsu-Izanagi, all learn Resist Light, which, if equipped to the P4 Hero, will let him resist ''every single non-Almighty attack in the game.''

* Likewise, Heat Riser, mentioned earlier, is, in Persona Q at least, exclusive ONLY to the ultimate Persona of the P4 Hero, Izanagi-no-Okami, and is a key component of many of the other game-breaking strategies in the game (like the aforementioned combination with Aigis' Orgia Mode) being the best buffing skill in the game. Compounding onto this is that Izanagi-no-Okami has the best overall resistances and bulk of any fixed Persona, with the only element aside from Almighty that Izanagi-no-Okami does not resist or better being Light (It's immune to Dark and resists everything else), and it's only neutral to that, meaning that, by default, the P4 Hero has no weaknesses once he gets his ultimate Persona. In contrast, almost every other Main Persona, even Ultimate Personas, have at least one weakness, with only Naoto's being without a weakness (however, Yamato-Takeru only resists Fire and is immune to Light and Dark, so its resistances are nowhere near as plentiful as Izanagi-no-Okami's). If one can give the P4 Hero a Persona that patches up their lack of resistance to Light, then he can become far and away the overall most reliable tank (other characters can be considered to have greater bulk, but they have weaknesses that can be exploited, and have nowhere near as many resistances) of the team. Combine that with the fact that he's the only character to get Heat Riser and... yeah. The P4 Hero is viable to be called the overall most powerful character in Persona Q. It helps that a few powerful lategame Personas like Lucifer, Helel, Trumpeter or, if you're using paid DLC, Magatsu-Izanagi, all learn Resist Light.

* Likewise, Heat Riser, mentioned earlier, is, in Persona Q at least, exclusive ONLY to the ultimate Persona of the P4 Hero, Izanagi-no-Okami, and is a key component of many of the other game-breaking strategies in the game (like the aforementioned combination with Aigis' Orgia Mode) being the best buffing skill in the game. Compounding onto this is that Izanagi-no-Okami has the best overall resistances and bulk of any fixed Persona, with the only element aside from Almighty that Izanagi-no-Okami does not resist or better being Light (It's immune to Dark and resists everything else), and it's only neutral to that, meaning that, by default, the P4 Hero has no weaknesses once he gets his ultimate Persona. In contrast, almost every other Main Persona, even Ultimate Personas, have at least one weakness, with only Naoto's being without a weakness (however, Yamato-Takeru only resists Fire and is immune to Light and Dark, so its resistances are nowhere near as plentiful as Izanagi-no-Okami's). If one can give the P4 Hero a Persona that patches up their lack of resistance to Light, then he can become far and away the tankiest member of the team. Combine that with the fact that he's the only character to get Heat Riser and... yeah. The P4 Hero is viable to be called the overall most powerful character in Persona Q. It helps that a few powerful lategame Personas like Lucifer, Helel, Trumpeter or, if you're using paid DLC, Magatsu-Izanagi, all learn Resist Light.

* Likewise, Heat Riser, mentioned earlier, is, in Persona Q at least, exclusive ONLY to the ultimate Persona of the P4 Hero, Izanagi-no-Okami, and is a key component of many of the other game-breaking strategies in the game (like the aforementioned combination with Aigis' Orgia Mode) being the best buffing skill in the game. Compounding onto this is that Izanagi-no-Okami has the best overall resistances and bulk of any fixed Persona, with the only element aside from Almighty that Izanagi-no-Okami does not resist or better being Light (It's immune to Dark and resists everything else), and it's only neutral to that, meaning that, by default, the P4 Protagonist has no weaknesses once he gets his ultimate Persona. In contrast, almost every other Main Persona, even Ultimate Personas, have at least one weakness, with only Naoto's being without a weakness (however, Yamato-Takeru only resists Fire and is immune to Light and Dark, so its resistances are nowhere near as plentiful as Izanagi-no-Okami's). If one can give the P4 Protagonist a persona that patches up their lack of resistance to Light, then he can become far and away the tankiest member of the team. Combine that with the fact that he's the only character to get Heat Riser and... yeah. The P4 Protagonist is viable to be called the overall most powerful character in Persona Q.

* Physically-oriented characters like Kanji, Chie, Aigis, Shinjiro, and Akihiko are highly valued because of the fact that most of their abilities are CastFromHitPoints which are easily replenished, both thanks to Fuuka's healing and the HP/SP buffer given by Sub-Personas that's replenished after every battle. One of the most popular strategies involves equipping one of these characters with a Sub-Persona that has several of the various "Link" skills equipped, which allow them to add bonus elemental damage to every allied attack that comes after them. Kanji is a popular choice for this, as he has the highest natural strength score and naturally learns abilities that allow him to go first in battle, allowing him to maximize link damage. Junpei has less Strength, but has the Golden Gemini skill upon getting his ultimate Persona, which gives him a ''very'' high chance of executing ''any'' physical skill twice in a row (and the second is free). This includes Hassou-Tobi.

** Two Berserkers on the same team as a Magic-heavy leader with healing spells makes that team very difficult to defeat. Berserkers always have [[LastChanceHitPoint Endure]] as one of their passive abilities and although they are weak to ailments, it's easy to cover that gap in their defenses if you know what you're doing. You can alternatively give them ''Paladin Soul'' so that they will take damage for the team leader if the attack will be lethal and reduces the damage taken. This team setup gets used against you a couple of times in the first game and can't be used in Devil Survivor 2 because Berserker is a unique demon in that game.

* 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.