Persona 3 Portable All Secret Boss Battles Guide

The Reaper

While technically not a secret boss since you'll most likely encounter the Reaper at least once during your playthrough, it's worth mentioning because it's a difficult boss that appears in Tartarus and needs to be defeated to complete request #53 (available on 1/1), which in turn allows you enter Monad and unlocks request #55 (Elizabeth/Theodore fight).

To spawn the Reaper, simply hang around in a floor that can spawn shadows and wait. The time it normally takes for the Reaper to spawn can range from 3-12 minutes depending on the floor size. This timer can be further lowered if any of the following conditions are met:

Choose a cursed card during Shuffle Time

Be on a regular floor with no Shadows

Be on a floor with powerful (red) Shadows

Be on a floor that's filled exclusively with gold Shadows or rare chests

Mitsuru or Fụuka will warn you, and after 30 seconds, they'll either repeat the warning or alert you that the Reaper has spawned. When it approaches, you'll be able to hear the sound of rattling chains and see him on the minimap when he draws near. Be aware that it can even climb up small ramps. The only safe zone is the stairs leading to the next floor.

StrategyNow let's talk about how to deal with the Reaper.

Generally speaking, there's two ways people kill it. The cheese, and the head-on fight.

For the cheese, it's quite simple. Just use an Armageddon (guaranteed 9999 damage). If you've farmed 99 Malachites and 10 Rubies, you can purchase one from the Shinshoudo Antique. With that said, you'll want to have an Armageddon for the Elizabeth/Theodore fight in the future, so I recommend doing the fight legitimately.

For a normal fight, your party should be at least level 70+, and you'll want to bring buffs and debuffs (at least attack up and def down) to make it easier for yourself. The best strategy is to fuse Odin with Elec Amp & Elec Boost, then go to town on the Reaper with Thunder Reign - paralyze the Reaper for guaranteed crit from physical attack, follow up with a physical attack crit, all out attack.

Here's a couple general tips related to the Reaper as well:

Make sure to have a few Homunculus if you don't null Light or Dark, you don't want to get insta-killed (Melchizidek & Thanatos Heart Items grants Null Light & Null Dark respectively)

If you're bringing teammates that have elemental weaknesses, give them an accessory that improves their evasion against their weakness (can easily pick them up from Police Station).

Monad (Elizabeth / Theodore Prerequisite)

Starting on 1/1, request #53 will be available. Once you complete it, you'll be able to enter Monad from Tartarus 1F and also take on request #55.

Monad has 10 floors, and it's the best place to level grind as all shadows there are in the high 80s to 90s level range. Here's a list of their important elemental affinities.

ShadowWeakResistNullAbsorbRepelAcheron SeekerFire, Ice, Elec, WindAmorous SnakeIce, MudoSlash, Strike, PierceFireHamaChaos CyclopsHama, MudoIceEternal SandSlash, StrikeFire, Ice, ElecWindDivine MotherIce, MudoZioHamaGrand MagusFireStrikeIce, Hama, MudoHallowed TurretElecHama, MudoSlash, Strike, PierceKing CastleWindHama, MudoElecStrikeTenjin MushaElecWindVehement IdolHamaWindPierce, Fire, MudoVoid GiantSlash, Strike, PierceHama, MudoWhite SigilFireIceSlash, Hama

Elizabeth / Theodore

To unlock the Elizabeth/Theodore fight, you'll need to have accepted request #55 and reached the top floor of Monad. This is widely considered the hardest fight in the game, even harder than the Margaret fight that was added in Persona 3 Portable, so you'll need to prepare some things before even taking on the challenge. I'll be referring to the attendant you battle as Elizabeth for simplicity sake, but Theodore's fight is exactly the same.

This battle is a 1v1, so you'll only need to concern yourself with your own gear and persona setup.

PreparationsLet's start with equipment:

Male Protagonist Weapon - Lucifer's Blade (Weapon Fuse Lucifer)

Female Protagonist Weapon - Vel Vel Muruga (Weapon Fuse Kartikeya)

Armor - Armor of Light (Messiah ♥ Item)

Shoes - Shoes of Light (Messiah ♥ Item)

Accessory - Divine Pillar (Alilat ♥ Item) / Barbaric Bracers (Chi You ♥ Item)*Armor & Shoes of Light are two of many Heart Items you can get from Messiah, so fuse him, get him to level 96, register him to the compendium, and repeatedly level him to 97 till you get the right equipment.

Once you have this, you'll also need to prepare a few items:

Infinity x12 (Shinshoudo Antiques - 4 Malachite, 4 Pearl)

Armageddon x1 (Shinshoudo Antiques - 99 Malachite, 10 Ruby)

20+ Beads (Treasure Chests)

1-2 Precious Eggs (Treasure Chests)

3-4 Somas (Treasure Chests)

20+ Homunculus (Treasure Chests)

An IRL Calculator (Surprise Math!)*Optional: Best Friends (It's Tarukaja, Rakukaja, and Sukukaja in one)

Next, let's work on your persona...

Orpheus Telos is your best bet, but if you can't fuse him because you weren't able to max all the social links in one playthrough to receive the Colorless Mask, I'll provide an alternate build using Hokuto Seikun.

Orpheus Telos Skills:

Salvation

Unshaken Will

Sharp Student

High Counter

Mind Charge

Fire / Ice / Elec / Wind Amp

Fire / Ice / Elec / Wind Boost

Ragnarok / Niflheim / Thunder Reign / Panta Rhei*Take your pick on what elemental skill you want to use, just make sure to grab the correct amp & boost skill as well.

Hokuto Seikun (O. Telos Alternative) Skills:

Salvation

Unshaken Will

High Counter

Resist Ice

Resist Wind

Resist Slash

Resist Strike

Resist Pierce*This looks absolutely clown, but it'll get the job done.

To make things easier, I'll list how to acquire skill cards for skills listed above, then talk about fusion inheriting Mind Charge + Ragnarok / Niflheim / Thunder Reign / Panta Rhei for O. Telos.

Skill Card Info:

Salvation: Vishnu (Lv 87 - Sun)

Unshaken Will: Asura (Lv 93 - Sun)

Sharp Student: Zouchouten (Lv 19 - Chariot)

High Counter: Siegfried (Lv 67 - Strength)

Fire Amp: Kumbhanda (Lv 58 - Hermit)

Fire Boost: Hua Po (Lv 25 - Magician)

Ice Amp: Titania (Lv 55 - Lovers)

Ice Boost: Jack Frost (Lv 14 - Magician)

Elec Amp: Odin (Lv 66 - Emperor)

Elec Boost: Take-Mikazuchi (Lv 31 - Emperor)

Wind Amp: Ganesha (Lv 65 - Star)

Wind Boost: Kusi Mitama (Lv 35 - Fortune)

Resist Ice / Wind: Sapphire x2, Pearl x1 (Shinshoudo Antiques)

Resist Slash / Strike / Pierce: Sapphire x1, Diamond x1 (Shinshoudo Antiques)

To fuse O. Telos, you'll need Messiah, Helel, Metatron, Chi You, Asura and Thanatos. You'll basically want to cram as many of the skills you want on O. Telos into those 6 personas (duplicated across them is even better for higher odds) to have at the end to have the highest chance of rerolling the correct skills during fusion. There's many ways to get fuse O. Telos in the end, so I'll just offer a few suggestions for your fusion experience to be less hellish.

Get rid of as many Mudo skills from Thanatos as you can, or they'll keep showing up.

Asura can only inherit Ragnarok, and not the other elemental skills.

Helel & Chiyo can't inherit any elemental skills.

By the end of all this, you'll want to make sure you're level 99 (for max HP and SP), and that your persona has max stats to help you bulk up and do as much damage as possible.

As an extra bonus, you can also consider bringing a Persona with Auto-(Ma)Tarukaja/Rakukaja/Sukukaja for extra damage on your early turns (Start the fight with it, and switch to O. Telos/Hokuto Seikun. Just make sure the persona you're giving those auto buffs to doesn't Null/Absorb/Reflect any type of attacks.

StrategyNow that you're ready, let's talk about the battle plan (having great status here doesn't hurt either).

To start, Elizabeth has a couple Rules of Engagement that you'll need to adhere to throughout the fight. If you don't, you're immediately rewarded with a Megidolaon instant death.

You may not use any equipment or Personas with Null, Absorb, or Reflect. This includes using the Omnipotent Orb, as well as Makarakarn/Tetrakarn (or Mirrors).

You may not spend more than 100 turns defeating her.

Using Armageddon and not ending the fight on that turn

Elizabeth has 20,000 HP and wields 9 personas which she will switch every turn. She also gets to act twice per turn. Her pattern overall is very simple, so here's how it goes:

From 20,000 HP to 10,000 HP

Surt - Maragidyne / Physical

Jack Frost - Mabufudyne / Physical

Thor - Maziodyne / Physical

Cu Chalainn - Magarudyne / Physical

Metatron - Mahamaon / Physical

Alice - Mamudoon / Physical

Nebiros - Status Ailment / Physical

Masakado - Megidolaon (9999 Insta-kill)*After Megidolaon, she returns to Surt and repeats the cycle.

Under 10,000 HP

First Time Only: Pixie - Diarahan

*She full heals herself the first time she reaches sub-10k HP, and returns to the above pattern.

Under 6,000 HP

Always Diarahan & return to above pattern

Time for your preparations to pay off, here's what you'll have to do to win against Elizabeth:

>Turn 1 Only: Mind Charge (If you brought auto-buffs, switch to O. Telos first) Niflheim / Thunder Reign / Panta Rhei / Physical Atk

Ragnarok / Thunder Reign / Panta Rhei / Physical Atk

Ragnarok / Niflheim / Panta Rhei

Ragnarok / Niflheim / Thunder Reign / Physical Atk

Physical Atk / Mind Charge

Mind Charge / Physical Atk

Infinity

DON'T ATTACK (Heal with Bead/Soma, Salvation if poisoned)*Repeat from step 1 after. Skill priority is from left to right (depends on your persona setup), and you may heal on any turn of the pattern except for when you need to use Infinity

IMPORTANT: Keep track of how much damage you have dealt to Elizabeth! When she's around 10,500 - 10,600 HP (dealt 9,500 - 9,600 dmg), stop attacking. Since she uses Diarahan when she's under 10,000 HP, and Armageddon only does 9,999 dmg, we have to rely on High Counter so she ends her turn with less than 10,000 HP. Once you counter her physical attack on her second move of the turn and she's under 9,999 HP, use that Armageddon you've been holding to win the fight.

*It’s possible to defeat her without High Counter, but the fight will be basically twice as long since you need to deal over 20,000 damage due to her Diarahan (on the bright side, no calculator necessary). You’re also still forced to use Armageddon anyway due to the 5,000 HP insta-kill condition.

Vision Quest (Margaret Prerequisite)

On 1/1, Elizabeth/Theodore will call you and let you know that their sister wants to test you. Head to Tartarus any time after this call, and you'll find a new door on Tartarus 1F. When you enter it, you'll find... Maragret!

Here, you'll find 13 doors, with the top row of 8 corresponding to the 8 Full Moon Shadow bosses you fought, and bottom row of 5 corresponding to each of your persona stats. The boss doors will be the same bosses you fought before except stronger, and the 5 stat doors will be strategy/puzzle based.

It's recommended that you have your active party at level 80+ before tackling Vision Quest to ensure you have all their skills learned. And as a side note, reaching level 99 on any character will max out their HP and SP to 999, which can be helpful if you find yourself struggling.

PriestessParty Conditions: Protagonist, Junpei, Yukari

Like the original fight, this boss is fairly simple. The boss will summon 2 minions, which you'll want to focus down before dealing with the boss.

Empress & EmperorParty Conditions: Protagonist, Junpei, Akihiko

Use physical attacks on the Empress to find weakness, and then elemental on the Emperor until you get lucky with finding both weaknesses for an All Out Attack. Rinse & repeat. Or just Almighty to skip their entire mechanic.

HierophantParty Conditions: Protagonist, Yukari + Pick 2> Junpei, Akihiko, Mitsuru

You'll be using Me Patra Gems after Prophecy of Ruin to remove fear from your party. Defending can also block PoR's fear. You can consider equipping a persona with Unshaken Will to make the fight easy.

LoversParty Conditions: Protagonist, Yukari + Pick 2> Junpei, Akihiko, Mitsuru

Main risk is your party getting Charmed, so watch out for that. Not too much else to note other than the fact that you can throw in Makarakarn for some repel damage.

Chariot & JusticeParty Conditions: Protagonist + Pick 3> Yukari, Junpei, Mitsuru, Akihiko, Aigis

The fight is more or less the same...

HermitParty Conditions: Protagonist + Any 3 except Junpei

This fight is a jump in difficulty compared to the previous ones so far. It'll follow Charge with Giga Spark, and Mind Charge with Maziodyne/Megidolaon. Elec Break + Mirrors will do nicely here.

Fortune & StrengthParty Conditions: Protagonist + Any 3 except Shinji or Ken

Unlike most bosses, these are actually vulnerable to Ghastly Wail, so... just insta-kill after self-inflicted fear. lol

Hanged ManParty Conditions: Protagonist + Any 3 except Shinji

Probably the least changed fight, it just has higher tier skills and more HP so fight will take longer.

*All Full Moon boss fights here have a special activation requirement for an extra reward at the end of the fight. This one in particular is worth nothing because it rewards you with 10x Armageddon, which is really nice and even necessary for the Elizabeth/Theodore battle. To meet the requirement, you need to let Hanged Man detonate one of the Mayas and take damage from it (infinity won't work).

Hall of PowerThese are the 3 patterns the Guardians can change into each time they're hit:

WeakNormalNullAbsorb#1StrikePierceSlash#2SlashStrikePierce#3PierceSlashStrike

The Guardians won't attack at the start until you've hit them, so we'll be abusing this to set up an All Out Attack on all 3 at once. Using the pattern table above, attack one Guardian at a time until you've set all 3 of them to drain Slash. During this time, have Shinji Power Charge and wait. Once the 3 Guardians are set, have Shinji drop Akasha Art and finish them off.

Alternatively, pick them off one by one to play it safe.

Hall of MagicSwitch persona to Raphael and Makarakarn to infinity. Wait for Hamaon repels.

Hall of VitalityThere's 3 catches here:

- Do not cast Dekaja / Dekunda

- Do not cure poison

- Do not take more than 11 turns

Start by having Mitsuru dispel Charm if you're Charmed and have her Mabufudyne spam; Akihiko will be on debuff spam duty (Masukunda & Marakunda) and otherwise Maziodyne spam; Yukari + you will be on Magarudyne spam (with occasional heal) to dizzy the Red Guardian. The White and Black Guardians have 0 accuracy, so they will always miss and slip when they try to attack you. Get those All Out Attacks when all 3 Guardians are down, and hope you don't miss too many times.

Hall of SpeedThe Guardian here has 4 different patterns it can choose, and you'll have to follow the following steps depending on which one it picks (based on the first move). Generally speaking, the plan will still fail if the Guardian crits you, or if you miss important attacks.

Turn 1: Power Charge

Defend

Persona: Mothman -> Primal Force

Bead

Persona: Saki -> God's Hand

God's Hand

Persona: Pixie -> Slash

Bead

Gale Magatama

Persona: Sarasvati -> Garudyne

Persona: Pyro Jack -> Shock Magatama

Bead

Frigid Magatama

Persona: Jack Frost -> Bufudyne

Flame Magatama

Persona: Pyro Frost -> Agidyne

Turn 1: Mind Charge

Persona: Jack Frost -> Slash Attack

Flame Magatama

Persona: Pyro Frost -> Agidyne

Frigid Magatama

Persona: Jack Frost -> Bufudyne

Shock Magatama

Persona: High Pixie -> Ziodyne

Gale Magatama

Bead

Persona: Saki Mitama -> Bead

God's Hand

Turn 1: Life Drain

Slash Attack

Persona: Narcissus -> Brave Blade

Defend

Persona: Pixie -> Bash

Bead

Persona: Mothman -> Primal Force

Bead

Flame Magatama

Persona: Pyro Frost -> Agidyne

Frigid Magatama

Persona: Jack Frost -> Bufudyne

Shock Magatama

Persona: Narcissus -> Bead

Gale Magatama

Persona: Sarasvati -> Garudyne

Turn 1: Spirit Drain

Slash Attack

Gale Magatama

Persona: Sarasvati -> Garudyne

Persona: Pyro Jack -> Shock Magatama

Bead

Frigid Magatama

Persona: Jack Frost -> Bufudyne

Flame Magatama

Persona: Pyro Frost -> Agidyne

Persona: Mothman -> Primal Force (Pierce)

Defend

Persona: Saki Mitama -> God's Hand (Strike)

God's Hand or Bead

Persona: Narcissus -> Brave Blade

Brave Blade

Brave Blade (Pray GG)

Hall of LuckDefend.

If it says 1, use Mudoon.

If it says 2, use Hamaon.

Margaret

To unlock the Margaret fight, you'll have to clear the 13 doors in Vision Quest. Once done, Pandora's Door appears and you can challenge her.

Luckily, this battle is easier than facing Elizabeth/Theodore, since you're working with a full party, instead of just your protagonist. However, this also means more gear prepping...

PreparationsLet's start with equipment:

Male Protagonist Weapon - Lucifer's Blade (Weapon Fuse Lucifer)

Female Protagonist Weapon - Vel Vel Muruga (Weapon Fuse Kartikeya)

Armor / Aigis Armor - Armor of Light / Soul of Athena (Messiah ♥ Item)

Shoes / Aigis Shoes - Shoes of Light / Swan Legs (Messiah ♥ Item)

Accessory - Divine Pillar (Alilat ♥ Item)

Aigis Accessory - Lightning Gloves (Thor ♥ Item)*A ton of Heart Items necessary from Messiah, so fuse him, get him to level 96, register him to the compendium, and repeatedly level him to 97 till you get the right equipment.

**I won't list all party member's best weapon fusion, since that seems a bit excessive. Basically, most your equip will be from Messiah, with some slight changes on Aigis because she can't use Armor & Shoes of Light.

While we're on the subject on party members, you should decide who to bring to the fight. I advise against Junpei and Koromaru because of High Counter, since Margaret can absorb certain physical attacks during parts of the fight. Aigis is nice, and I advise using her due to her providing Matarukaja and Marakukaja; just keep in mind she can't use Divine Pillar due to her elec weakness.

Once you have the gear, you'll want to prepare a good number of elemental gems/magatama, 20 Homunculus, and an Armageddon. Most of this is optional but they'll make the fight go quicker.

Lastly, there's Personas.

Bad News: You'll most likely need to build more than 1 persona for this. Though technically you can easily clear with just a specialized almighty build (I'll provide both setups).

Good News: Unlike Elizabeth, you can equip Null/Absorb/Repel personas without any worry; and you're not restricted to any specific personas, you just need to have the right skills.

Persona 0 - Almighty Spam

Here's the deal, you don't want to deal with Margaret's mechanics and just want to beat her. In that case, it's time to build an Almighty spammer. Satan's Black Viper is the strongest Almighty skill, so let's work with that (you can use Helel as well with his Morning Star, which is slightly weaker but he comes with more resists).

Black Viper

Mind Charge

Absorb Wind

Unshaken Will

Spell Master

Salvation

Persona 1 - Physical Attacker

Siegfried looks nice here. Give him the following skills:

Arms Master

Apt Pupil

Power Charge

Vorpal Blade

Repel Dark

Unshaken Will

Persona 2 - Magic Attacker

You'll want any persona with the four elemental -dyne skills: Agi, Bufu, Zio, Garu. Throw in a few elemental buffing passive skills (refer to Elizabeth/Theodore section for some detail on the skill cards), and avoid elemental repel.

Same as Elizabeth/Theodore fight, make sure your active party is max lvl, and the same goes for your persona stats being maxed.

StrategyNow let's talk about Margaret's attack pattern and combat plan (having great status here doesn't hurt either).

First, Margaret has a few of her own Rules of Engagement that you'll need to adhere to for the fight. If you don't, you're immediately rewarded with a Megidolaon instant death.

You may not equip Omnipotent Orb

You may not use Infinity

You may not spend more than 50 turns defeating her

You must deal 5,000 damage every 10 turns (damage requirement is cumulative, so it's okay to deal 6,000 damage on first 10 turns, and only 4,000 damage on the second 10 turns)

Using Armageddon and not ending the fight on that turn

Margaret has 30,000 HP and wields a total of 22 personas. She acts twice per turn, and her moveset can be split into to 5 phases, with each phase taking 10 turns (she will not skip to the next phase even after you reach the damage threshold.

Phase 1: Physical Attacks (Turns 1-10 / 25,000 HP Threshold)

This is generally regarded as the hardest part of the fight, so pay careful attention.

Margaret will hit your party with physical attacks. You'll want to remember what attack she ended her turn with, as that will determine what she absorbs. Here's a list of attacks and what physical damage type they are.

Vorpal Blade (Slash)

Brave Blade (Slash)

Akasha Arts (Strike)

God's Hand (Strike)

Myriad Arrows (Pierce)

Primal Force (Pierce)Since Margaret can only take physical damage that she doesn't absorb (and almighty damage), teammates that can't do damage can be on support duty with heals and buffs, or otherwise on defend mode to minimize the odds of being downed from crit.

For players with almighty spam, just do Mind Charge > Almighty nuke.

For players with a physical attacker persona, go with Vorpal Blade, and Power Charge if Margaret absorbs slash attack.

Phase 2: Status Ailments (Turns 11-20 / 20,000 HP Threshold)

Margaret will change her strategy to applying ailments on your entire party. She will cast Stagnant Air, and attempt to Charm/Poison/Enrage your team. Unshaken Will on your persona will prevent Charm and Enrage, so at least one member is guaranteed to be able to act each turn to dispel it (you don't want your teammates healing her). Salvation and remove ailments as necessary, otherwise follow the strategy from Phase 2. She only nulls Light and Dark, which shouldn't matter to you.

Phase 3: Elemental Attacks (Turns 21-30 / 15,000 HP Threshold)

Margaret has taken a page out from the Elizabeth/Theodore fight and will only take damage from one specific element each turn. She will use each turn to cast an AoE followed by a single target elemental skill, pay attention to what element that is, and use the opposite element:

Agi (Fire) ⇄ Bufu (Ice)

Zio (Elec) ⇄ Garu (Wind)

If you're almighty spam, you can just ignore this and do Mind Charge > Almighty...

Your teammates will most likely be on buff support duty, and can throw out an elemental nuke for extra damage when possible, or use elemental gems/magatama which I mentioned you should prepare. This will probably be the slowest phase due to the limited damage sources.

Phase 4: Power Charge / Mind Charge (Turns 31-40 / 10,000 HP Threshold)

Margaret will always open this phase with Power Charge & Mind Charge on the first turn. After this, she'll use a mixture of Charge, debilitate skills, and offensive skills. You'll mainly want to watch out for Marakunda and Evil Smile (AoE Fear) + Ghastly Wail Combo for debilitate skills, and her offensive skills are mostly comprised of physical attacks, plus Megidolaon (not insta-kill version). Attack Mirrors/Tetrakarns are nice to have here, and you can use any attack to hurt her because she only nulls Light and Dark.

*If she uses Tetrakarn/Makarakarn, have a party member do a regular attack/use a weak single target gem to remove it.

**If you have an Armageddon, feel free to use it here. Be absolutely sure that Margaret has less than 10,000 HP, as you'll be immediately punished with instant death if Armageddon doesn't finish her off.

Phase 5: Imitate (Turns 41-50 / 5,000 HP Threshold)

It's the final stretch. Margaret will imitate what the protagonist does if elemental magic is used, and she'll equip the same personas that were used in the Elizabeth/Theodore fight (don't cast heal either lol). Refer to the "Elizabeth / Theodore" section for what element to use. If you're using almighty strat, she now resists it. Party members should follow phase 3 strats and (de)buffs + gems.

End Notes

Please feel free to point out any mistakes, inconsistencies, or additional information you would like to see fixed/added.

Check out a few other guides I've made for Persona 3 Portable:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2920228498 https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2920228429 https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2920229818

Source: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2920967247

All Secret Boss Battles Guide

The Reaper

Monad (Elizabeth / Theodore Prerequisite)

Elizabeth / Theodore

Vision Quest (Margaret Prerequisite)

Margaret

End Notes

More Persona 3 Portable guilds