Persona 5 Royal’s Strength Confidant follows the same basic pattern as the original Persona 5’s. Velvet Room wardens Caroline and Justine task you with a series of Persona fusion tests, most of which require specific skills that aren’t always naturally available to that Persona.
However, it shakes up ranks two through five with different tests and lets you get one incredibly useful skill earlier.
The events where you can take Caroline and Justine out into the real world, starting after you clear Madarame’s Palace, are completely unconnected to the Strength Confidant.
The main goal in those events is acquiring skill cards, as you can only rank up the Strength Confidant through finishing the penal labor tasks they give you.
Strength Confidant Rank 2
Your next task is producing Ame-no-Uzume with the Frei skill. It doesn’t occur naturally in the Persona, and you’ll need to be at least Level 16 to perform the necessary fusion of Suzaku and Berith.
Alternatively, you could fuse Cait Sith (found in Kamoshida’s Palace) with Succubus and use a skill card to teach Frei. If you have Persona 5 save data on your system, you can get a Frei card (among others) by checking out the cardboard box in your attic room.
Strength Confidant Rank 3
The twin wardens’ third task for you is pretty easy in Royal and really isn’t much of a test at all. You need to present Flauros with the Tarukaja skill.
The only way to fuse Flauros is by three-way fusion, using Eligor, Berith, and Orobas. Eligor learns Tarukaja at Level 16, and that’s also the lowest level possible you can obtain it at.
So in other words, just do the three-way fusion and make sure you carry Tarukaja over.
You can choose to train a Persona through Lockdown now, where they’ll gain a new skill or an elemental resistance.
Strength Confidant Rank 4
Attaining Rank 4 will take several fusions, unless you either get lucky or wait just a bit. This time, you have to fuse Phoenix with the Counter skill. The normal way to do this is this:
- Fuse or obtain Yaksini. The cheapest method is fusing Hua Po (Madarame’s Palace or Mementos) with Jack o’ Lantern (Kamoshida’s Palace or Mementos). Yaksini carries the Counter skill.
- Fuse Yaksini with Kelpie (Kamoshida’s Palace, the Mad Marsh Horse)
Whatever your method, you’ll need to be at least level 21 to fuse Phoenix.
Keep Phoenix around or make sure you have money to summon it later. It’s the first Persona of the Faith Arcana, and you’ll need it for a boost in Kasumi’s Confidant events.
Strength Confidant Rank 5
Next up, you’ll fuse Setanta with the Rakukaja skill. Setanta’s base level is 25, but you’ll need to wait until Level 26 to fuse it.
That’s because you’ll need to fuse Lamia first, who gets Rakukaja automatically. Then, just fuse Lamia with Silky, and there you go.
Rank 5 opens up Special Handling, which was previously confined to rank ten. Special Handling lets you fuse Personas of a higher level than your current one, which is incredibly useful.
It’s also incredibly expensive. Trying for a Persona even just five or ten levels higher than your current can cost upwards of 40,000 Yen. You can definitely break the game using Special Handling, but you’ll need to stock up on your cash reserves to do it.
Strength Confidant Rank 6
Rank six still tasks you with fusing Neko Shogun with Dekaja. There are two ways to go about this.
The first is the standard triple fusion, with Anzu, Sudama, and Kodama. Anzu learns Dekaja at level 28, so if you’re Hierophant Confidant is level four or higher, you can raise it to that level through fusion without grinding.
You’ll get Anzu with
- Orobas x Regent (treasure Shadow)
- Black Ooze x Matador
Orobas has the skill naturally, so if you do have Regent, that’s a way to get Dekaja on Anzu without the appropriate Hierophant Confidant rank.
Then just do the triple fusion and you’re done.
Alternatively, you can fuse Orobas with High Pixie to get Sudama. Pass the Dekaja skill from Orobas to Sudama, then use that Sudama in the triple fusion.
Whatever you do, you’ll need to either be level 30 for Neko Shogun or shell out some cash to get it.
Strength Confidant Rank 7
Rank seven wants Lacheisis with Tetraja again, and you’ll need to be level 35 or, again, hand over the money.
The easiest way to do this is to start with Principality (level 29), because it knows Tetraja automatically. Your cheapest option for this is fusing Archangel with Regent (assuming you got it back in Madarame’s Palace) or High Pixie with Onmoraki.
Next, get Sandman. You’ll find them in Futaba’s Palace or you can fuse your own with
- Nekomata x Regent
- Leanan Sidhe x Black Ooze
Sandman with Principality gives you Thoth, and you’ll obviously need to pass Tetraja on to it. Fuse Thoth with Anzu, and you’ll get Lachesis.
The other option involves fusing Clotho with Regent, after leveling your Clotho up to 28 so it learns Tetraja. If you’ve established the Fortune Confidant at rank two or more, that won’t require any grinding either because Clotho’s base level is 27.
You can get Clotho by fusing two low-leveled Persona: Silky and Pixie.
Strength Confidant Rank 8
Next up, you’ll be fusing Hecatoncheires with Masukunda, and that requires you to be level 42. Assuming you haven’t acquired the skill through alarm fusions (more on that below), there’s only one way to get this combination:
- Lilim x Anzu
The kicker is Lilim has to be level 34 to learn Masukunda. You’ll first encounter Lilim in Okumura’s Palace as the “Woman Who Brings Ruin” Shadow, at level 32.
Or, you can rank the Devil Confidant (Ohya the journalist) up to four or higher and fuse
- Andras x Queen’s Necklace (treasure Shadow)
- Ara Mitama x Naga
And avoid grinding that way.
Strength Confidant Rank 9
Bugs with Samrecarm is your next task, just like before. It’s level 49 this time, though. There’s a super easy way to do this one that doesn’t involve grinding of any kind.
First, make sure you’re taking the Twin Wardens out on excursions. The fourth is a trip to the church in Kanda, and you’ll get a Samrecarm skill card as a reward. If you haven’t already used it without making copies with Yusuke, you can just do the triple fusion of Hariti, Pixie, and Pisaca, then use the skill card on the resulting Persona.
Strength Confidant Rank 10
Rank ten’s task is fusing Seth with High Counter, which means you’ll need to be level 51 or loaded. This one has two paths depending on when you want to finish it.
If you want it as fast as possible, first get Dakini to level 52, where it learns High Counter. You can find it in Shido’s Palace, starting November 25 but the non-grindy way to get it is, as always, fusion.
The catch is you’ll need the Empress Confidant (Haru) up to level three or four to get Dakini from its base 50 level up to 52. That means maxing out Proficiency and doing every Confidant event once it starts on October 30. If that’s what you want to do, then fuse:
- Byakko x Lachesis
- Lamia x Queen’s Necklace
Either way, once your Dakini has High Counter, fuse it with Ame-no-Uzume to get Anubis, then use Anubis in a four-way fusion with Isis, Thoth, and Horus to get Seth with High Counter.
The Velvet Room Alarm
One other thing to briefly note is the Alarm system in the Velvet Room. This feature unlocked right as I was ready to fuse for Lamia, after securing the route to Kaneshiro’s treasure (though obviously that will vary for you depending on how you manage Joker’s level).
The Velvet Room can randomly enter an alarm state after you win a battle in a Palace or Mementos. Everything’s unstable, and chances are high your fusions and itemizations won’t go as planned.
After one successful use of the Gallows, Guillotine, or Electric Chair, your chances of an accident go up even more.
On the bright side, you’ll get either a powerful Persona or a Persona with powerful skills they shouldn’t actually have. These are perfect for re-fusing to pass these skills on to a more powerful Persona.
But, because everything is so unstable, you never want to attempt fusing for the twins’ tasks during an Alarm state. You probably won’t get the desired result (or the skill you need will change anyway), which means you’ll just be spending more money on summoning Personas to try again.
—
That’s all you need to know for navigating Persona 5 Royal‘s Strength Confidant changes. Be sure to check out our other Persona 5 Royal guides for more tips and tricks, including
- Persona 5 Royal Confidant Guide: Akechi
- Persona 5 Royal Confidant Guide: Maruki
- Persona 5 Royal Confidant Guide: Kasumi
- The Best Way to Farm Money in Persona 5 Royal
