Persona 3 FES Secret Boss Hard Mode Strategy Created by cainschwartz Version 1.5 On Oct 14th, 2010 Contact Info: cainschwartz@hotmail.com If you have any questions or find any errors, feel free to send me an email. I will add FAQ section if it's needed. If you want to watch my playthrough, follow the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5DuyjaA2Gc Update: v1.5 - Major formatting change on Oct 15th. Table of Content ================================================= 1a. Introduction 2b. Precautions 3c. Preparations A) Level B) Weapon/Armors/Accessory C) Personae ca) Overview cb) Making Metatron cc) Making Asura cd) Making Alice ce) Making Thanatos cf) Making Messiah cg) Making Chi You ch) Making Helel ci) Making Orpheus Telos D) Items and Extras 4d. Strategy 5e. Elizabeth Battle without Orpheus Telos 6f. Afterward 1a. Introduction =============================================== Secret boss Elizabeth is undoubtedly the strongest enemy in Persona 3 FES (Nyx Avatar has nothing on Elizabeth) Beating her in normal mode is already hard enough, but is it possible to beat her in Hard mode? It is, in fact, doable since her attacks have a pattern and when you know what she does, you can prepare for her attacks beforehand. Her pattern is the same in both normal mode and hard mode (I believe so), but in hard mode she deals more damage (for sure) and takes less damage (I think) Beating her is not the problem; preparation takes more effort than actually fighting her. (took me 3 weeks to fully prepare) But even with perfect preparation, you need a lot of luck to finish her off. I want to take this opportunity to share my tips of beating Elizabeth in Hard Mode, so that you can suffer slightly less. Enjoy. 2b. Precautions =============================================== I will cover what her pattern is in Strategy section but I need to mention few things first that you should not be doing when fighting Elizabeth. -> She will use Megidolaon with terrifying 9999 damage instantly if: a) you have any party members with you b) you equip Omnipotent Orb c) you equip a persona with any nullify/reflect/absorb pasive skills and that passive skill protects you from the skill Elizabeth is about to use i.e) You're equipped with a persona with Nullify Ice passive skill and she's about to use Mabufudyne. d) you equip a persona with any nullify/reflect/absorb affinities and that affinity protects you from the skill Elizabeth is about to use i.e) Persona you're equipped with have natural Reflect Dark affinity and she's about to use Mamudoon. e) you use Attack/Magic Mirror item or Tetrakarn/Makarakarn skill f) you try to kill her with Armageddon in the beginning without any plans, thinking you can beat her by spamming Armageddon but when she survives g) you take too much time fighting her (about 80 turns/10 cycles) So taking any of these actions must be avoided at all cost. 3c. Preparations =============================================== A. Level -> You need to be Lv. 99 obviously B. Weapon/Armors/Accessory -> For weapon, I recommend using a bow. With bow you won't stumble when you miss and, believe me, you don't want to be on the ground when she attacks. My first recommendation would be Quintessence Bow from Chi You special weapon fusion. If you want to take less damage, then I would suggest using Orpheus Telos weapon fusion. Orpheus Telos weapon has high resist magic option with Atk of 1, so if you're not going to physically attack her then go ahead with Orpheus Telos weapon. -> For armor, use heart item Armor of Light from Messiah. Many people suggest that resist physical is a better choice but I recommend using the one with resist magic rather than resist physical. But that's just my recommendation, so if you'd prefer resist physical, then use it. -> It doesn't matter what shoes you wear. For all I know, you don't have to wear any shoes. -> For accessory, use heart item Divine Pillar from Alilat. It reduces the damage you take by half, but won't let you dodge any attacks whatsoever. This is a must-have item for Elizabeth battle. C. Personae ca) Overview -> You need total 5 personae: Helel, Satan, Vishnu, Ananta, and Orpheus Telos. -> Helel and Satan are needed for Fusion Spell Armageddon. Armageddon inflicts 9999 damage and will be used only once as finishing move. Give Spell Master to either Helel or Satan. -> Vishnu and Ananta are needed for Fusion Spell Infinity. Infinity will block any attack including Almighty for one turn and needed for Masakado's Megidolaon. Give Spell Master to either Vishnu or Ananta. -> Orpheus Telos is known as anti-Elizabeth Persona. He is strong against all physical, elemental, and hama/mudo-type spells. Also, Orpheus Telos can inherit any skills you want (has equal chance of inheriting any type of skills/passives) Now, the problem is......that it is extremely difficult to put 8 skills of your choice into Orpheus Telos. So you need to prioritize which skills are more important than the others. * I heard that it is much easier to do so in Persona 3 Portable; apparently you can use skill cards to overwrite any unwanted skills. If you own PSP and P3 Portable, I recommend beating her in Portable rather than in FES. Skills Orpheus Telos MUST have: - Unshaken Will Becomes immune to all status ailments. - High Counter 50% change of repelling a physical attack while not knocked down. - Salvation Recovers all HP and status ailments. Even with Unshaken Will, you will be get poisoned. That is why you need Salvation; you'll cure poison as well as fully heal yourself. High Counter, ironically, is an essential damage dealing passive skill) Any offensive/support/passive skills Orpheus Telos may have: - Ragnarok - Niflheim - Thunder Reign - Panta Rhei - Fire/Ice/Elec/Wind Amp - Fire/Ice/Elec/Wind Boost - Morning Star - Black Viper - Mind Charge - Enduring Soul - Bow Master - Spell Master As you know, in order to make Orpheus Telos, you need to max all Social Links. Making Orpheus Telos is already a pain since it requires Helel, Asura, Chi You, Thanatos, Messiah, and Metatron. You can also make Orpheus Telos with 3 Fool Arcana Personae, but then Orpheus Telos will inherit only 6 skills so this method is not advisable. You need to find a way to effectively give each skill to those 6 ingredient- personae, but I cannot say which way is the right way. It took me almost 3 weeks to do this and I assure you, this process IS the longest and the most painful process for preparing Elizabeth battle. (You probably will pull all your hair out at this stage and may go bald, so manage your stress level) I'll list how I gave each skill into 6 ingredient-personae, but feel free to experiment. I'm sure my way is not the most convenient way so if you found a better way to give skills, then do so. ** As I mentioned earlier, in Persona 3 Portable, you can use skill card to eliminate unwanted skills. However, keep in mind that there are no skill cards for Ragnarok, Niflheim, Thunder Reign, and Panta Rhei. Only Thanatos, Messiah and Metatron can inherit Niflheim/Thunder Reign/Panta Rhei/Ragnarok. (Helel, Asura, Chi You won't inherit any elemental skills) Asura will inherit Ragnarok only, not the other 3. -> I decided to give Unshaken Will, High Counter, Salvation, Niflheim, Ice Amp, Thunder Reign, Elec Amp, and Mind Charge for my Orpheus Telos. So every instruction from now on will reflect my decision, but you can always customize to your own taste. *** You can try to inherit all 4 Ragnarok, Niflheim, Thunder Reign, and Panta Rhei but it won't be as effective. (aside from it being practically impossible) *** Using Mind Charge with Amp skill (exploiting her weakness) takes down about 700~800 damage and this is far more effective than having 4 ultimate elemental skills without Amp or Mind Charge. (200~300 damage with Amp skill without using Mind Charge exploiting her weakness) *** Just so you know, if you have Boost skill as well as Amp skill, your damage goes up to 1,000 (of course if you exploite her weakness). *** Think how much damage those skills will do without Amp and Mind Charge, and remember, you'll be busy healing yourself and using only 2 skills at most. (Niflheim/Panta Rhei with either Ice Amp or both Ice/Wind Amp may be the best option but by the time I realized, I was too lazy to start over) First off, I gave Unshaken Will, High Counter, Ice/Elec Amp to Helel. (Helel is fairly easy since he already has Mind Charge and will learn Salvation later) Second, I gave Unshaken Will, High Counter, Ice/Elec Amp, Mind Charge, and Salvation to Asura. (Despite of requiring 6 personae, he's somewhat easy to make) Third, I gave Unshaken Will, High Counter, Ice/Elec Amp, Mind Charge to Chi You. Fourth, I gave Niflheim, Thunder Reign, Ice Amp, High Counter to Thanatos. (Thanatos is the hardest) Fifth, I gave Niflheim, Ice Amp, Mind Charge, High Counter to Messiah. (He'll learn Salvation later. Second hardest) Last, I gave Thunder Reign, Ice/Elec Amp, Mind Charge, Salvation to Metatron. **** You may need to make each persona more than once **** You absolutely must master how normal/triangle spread fusion works. cb) Making Metatron -> I suggest you start from Metatron but don't fuse him yet. Have Gabriel inherit Niflheim/Ice Amp from Skadi. Have Michael inherit Thunder Reign/Elec Amp from Odin. Give Ice/Elec Amp, Mind Charge, High Counter to Raphael. Give Ice/Elec Amp, Mind Charge to Uriel. (He'll learn High Counter later) -> After making Asura, remake Gabriel, Michael, Raphael and Uriel, then add High Counter, Mind Charge and Salvation. Have Metatron inherit Mind Charge, High Counter, and Salvation. -> If you made Messiah learn Niflheim/Ice Amp, then make Metatron learn Thunder Reign/Elec Amp, and vice versa. cc) Making Asura -> Asura requires Vishnu, Sparna, Horus, Jatayu, Quetzalcotl, and Yatagarasu. You want Asura to inherit High Counter, Ice/Elec Amp, Mind Charge and Salvation. (He already has Unshaken Will) Try to make Vishnu from Raphael or Uriel, and have Vishnu inherit Ice/Elec Amp, High Counter. (He already has Mind Charge and will learn Salvation later) You should know by now how same arcana fusion works; use it here. Make Sparna, Horus, Jatayu, Quetzalcotl, and Yatagarasu learn at least three or all of Ice/Elec Amp, High Counter, Mind Charge and Salvation. cd) Making Alice -> Making Thanatos is the hardest since he (and ingredient-personae required to make Thanatos) has likely chance of inheriting Mudo-type/Status Ailment skills than Elemental/Passive skills (he will not inherit Mind Charge and Salvation) That's why making decent Alice is essential. Use Lv.2 Pixie with only Dia in her since Alice will not inherit Dia or any other cure/support skills. (Do not attempt same-arcana fusion to make her; if you do she'll learn Purinpa and will likely to inherit this to Alice and ultimately to Thanatos) Make Narcissus learn either Niflheim/Ice Amp/High Counter or Thunder Reign/Elec Amp/High Counter BUT try to erase any Status Ailment skills. Save any cure skills such as Charmdi or support skills such as Dekunda. Same story with Lilim. Make her learn either Niflheim/Ice Amp/High Counter or Thunder Reign/Elec Amp/High Counter. Try your best to erase Status Ailment skills and to save any cure/support skills. Have Nata Taishi inherit Ice/Elec Amp, and High Counter. (will not inherit Niflheim and Thunder Reign) Have Alice inherit Niflheim, Thunder Reign and either Ice Amp/Elec Amp or High Counter (or all three). Make sure to erase "Die for me!", and other Bad Status Ailment skills. Save Marakunda. ce) Making Thanatos -> After making decent Alice, proceed to make Mot from Raphael. (if you know other ways, then by all means do it) Have Mot inherit either Niflheim or Thunder Reign, then give him Ice/Elec Amp and High Counter. Make Samael, Loa, Pale Rider, and Ghoul learn either (or both) Niflheim or Thunder Reign, either (or both) Ice or Elec Amp and High Counter. Make sure to erase any Mudo-type skills and preserve any support skills. Making Thanatos inherit both Niflheim/Thunder Reign, both Ice/Elec Amp and High Counter is very very hard. (Second to making Orpheus Telos) Try to make Thanatos learn either Niflheim or Thunder Reign and all three passive skills. At least this is doable. -> When using Thanatos as Messiah fusion ingredient, preserve his physical attacks. Messiah will not inherit any physical attacks. ***** Remake Thanatos after making Messiah and have him inherit both Nifleheim/Thunder Reign and any three passiave skills. (If you don't feel like don't do this part) cf) Making Messiah -> Have Orpheus inherit Mind Charge (or Amp skills/High Counter). Have Messiah inherit either Niflheim/Ice Amp or Thunder Reign/Elec Amp. Also, make him learn Mind Charge and High Counter. cg) Making Chi You -> Fuse Horus, Garuda and Baal Zebul and make Chi You. (Make sure Baal Zebul is the highest level persona) Have Horus and Garuda inherit Ice/Elec Amp, High Counter and Salvation. For Baal Zebul, I made him inherit Unshaken Will and High Counter. ch) Making Helel -> If everything else are made, making Helel with 6 skills is a piece of cake since he already has Mind Charge and will learn Salvation. If you don't want to pass on Morning Star, erase it. ci) Making Orpheus Telos -> He has equal chance of inheriting any type of skills. Undoubtedly it will take several hours, several days to get 8 skills of your choice. If you can't have all the skills you want, you need to compromise. In my case, I was able to get Unshaken Will, High Counter, Salvation, Mind Charge, Niflheim and Ice Amp. D. Items and Extras -> For healing items, make sure you have 20 or more Beads, 1-2 Precious eggs, 3-4 Somas and 20 or more Homunculi. -> If you have finished Elizabeth's Request #78, then you'll have Plume of Dusk. This is like one-time-only-life-insurance-policy in case either you screw up or she crits and kills you. -> Have a calculator ready. You need to keep track of how much damage you dealt on Elizabeth. 4d. Strategy =============================================== Elizabeth uses total 9 personae: Surt, Jack Frost, Thor, Cu Chulainn, Metatron, Alice, Nebiros, Masakado and Pixie. She is incredibly powerful and cheap. She attacks twice and probably takes down about half of your life in one turn. (%@&K!) But thankfully, all her moves are based on a simple pattern. -> Her Pattern 1st Turn - With Surt, she uses Maragidyne or any physical attacks. 2nd Turn - With Jack Frost, she uses Mabufudyne or physical. 3rd Turn - With Thor, she uses Magiodyne or physical. 4th Turn - With Cu Chulainn, she uses Magarudyne or physical. 5th Turn - With Metatron, she uses Mahamaon or physical. 6th Turn - With Alice, she uses Mamudoon or physical. 7th Turn - With Nebiros, she uses any bad status ailment magics or physical. 8th Turn - With Masakado, she uses Megidolaon. This is her pattern and she does not deviate from her pattern no matter what (unless you do those things I mentioned earlier in Precautions section) After her 8th turn, she goes back to the first and repeats her cycle. If you exceed 10 cycles (sometimes more, sometimes less) and you still haven't beaten her, then she'll switch to Pixie and spam Megidolaon. You know what she does, and now you need to do the following -> Your Turn (0th Turn - This is your very first turn of the battle, so use Mind Charge) 1st Turn - Use Niflheim or heal yourself 2nd Turn - Use Ragnarok or heal yourself 3rd Turn - Use Panta Rhei or heal yourself 4th Turn - Use Thunder Reign or heal yourself 5th Turn - Use Physical attack, use Mind Charge, or heal yourself 6th Turn - Use Physical attack, use Mind Charge, or heal yourself 7th Turn - Use Fusion Spell Infinity 8th Turn - Do not attack at all. She'll block everything. Switch to Orpheus Telos. Heal yourself with Beads or Somas. Use Salvation only when you're poisoned. After 8th, go back to the 1st and repeat the process. Memorize this or write it down somewhere. You MUST keep track of how much her life is left. If you have dealt about 9500-9600 damage (so she'll have 10500-10600 life left), this is the part that requires some luck. Well, enourmous amount of luck. As you know, she attacks twice. Do not attack her. Just heal yourself. Then wait. Wait more. Pray to God that her second attack is physical and you repel that physical. If her first attack is physical and you repel that attack, then just start over the battle. She will take about 600-700 damage. (with Nebiros, she'll take about 400 damage) Which means, her life is below 9999 but her turn is over...... Which means she can't heal...... Which means she'll be DESTROYED with Armageddon...... She heals herself only once when her life goes down under 10,000 for the first time. (After that, when her life goes down under 9,000 she spams Pixie) Inflicting decent damage on her is already hard enough, if she heals herself you won't be able to take her life down under 10,000 again and finish her in time. If you take too much time, without a warning she will switch to Pixie and spam Megidolaon and heal herself. This is why, in Hard Mode, you cannot give her the chance to heal herself. Without High Counter skill, you have slim to none chance of beating her. You can do about 1,000 damage in one cycle (1,500-2,000 if you're lucky with High Counter). I mentioned earlier that you require enormous amounts of luck to beat her and yes, that is true. However, it is also true that you will get luckier and luckier with each preparation you make. Beating her in Hard Mode is doable, guys. Just be patient and don't make any mistakes. 5e. Elizabeth Battle without Orpheus Telos =============================================== Will be added upon request. 6f. Afterward ================================================= Try this for few times and you'll beat her in no time. She'll fall down on her knees and give you a B... Ahem...I mean she accepts her defeat, will have a spontaneous epiphany and gives you a Platinum Bookmark which is just a gift. Nothing more. Go back to Velvet Room and she'll award with Omnipotent Orb. Congratulations! You have beaten Elizabeth in Hard mode. Now you get to brag about how you beat Elizabeth in Hard Mode and wasted about 3 weeks of your precious time stressfully creating different Personae hoping that Orpheus Telos would inherit skills you want. ........................... .......Wait.