Persona 5 Strikers: Final boss guide

And here we are: the actual, genuine final boss of Persona 5 Strikers. False God Demiurge is wonderfully varied fight with a lot of mechanics to it, making for a fitting end. I mean, it wouldn’t be a Shin Megami Tensei game if you didn’t punch some sort of god in the face at the end, even if it’s a false one.

First things first: this fight involves every single one of the Phantom Thieves, so make sure they’re all kitted out as best you can before you head into this battle. Yes, even the ones you haven’t been using.

Beating False God Demiurge opens up the post-game, and yes, there’s an EX refight for this boss (in addition to the regular refight). I’ll be going over that after the regular boss battle.

False God Demiurge: Phase One

Drains: None
Nulls: None
Resists: Wind, Fire, Electricity, Ice, Nuclear, Psi
Weak to: Curse, Bless

When the fight starts out, you mostly just want to beat up the boss a bit while staying as safe as possible. Until Oracle finishes her analysis, its attacks will largely come out of nowhere. Once she’s ready, you can really start piling on the damage.

False God Demiurge will use roughly five attacks in this phase, though none of them are indicated by text, so I’m mostly going by what it says as it uses each attack.

Shining Hammer (Oracle warns you of a frontal assault) has beams of light come out of the front of the arena in two waves. Step back a bit, then move between them.
Rays of Judgment (Oracle warns of a flanking attack) will have beams of light come from the left side of the arena, but they’ll only pass through the front half of the area. Just stay back and move in once they pass.
Stars of Guidance (Oracle says they’ll track you down) summons a load of stars that slowly home in on you. Just keep running to avoid this.
Ray of Light (Oracle warns that the platform is about to get nuked) will rain down veritable hell on the platform, so use the wires to move to another platform and continue the fight there.
Finally, if Oracle says you’re surrounded, smack the wings that are blocking the wires. This’ll also down False God Demiurge for a bit, letting you get some free hits in.

Simple enough, right? Right.

False God Demiurge: Phase Two

But of course it’s not over. This is kind of a mini-phase while Oracle does another analysis, but there are still four new attacks to avoid.

Maragidyne: A multiple cast of fire orbs that will home in on you. Just keep running.
Mabufudyne: A triple cast of ice orbs that target where you were standing and emit a shockwave. Move away, then jump to avoid the shockwave.
Maziodyne: Lots and lots of random spots on the platform will light up and get fried. Avoid those spots.
Magarudyne: A single whirlwind that follows you around the platform.

Once Oracle finishes her analysis, you’re done with this phase — for now.

Spheres

Now you need to split into three teams, with two teams each taking on six spheres, while Joker and whoever else fights False God Demiurge. There’s a vast mix of elemental affinities across the spheres, but considering False God Demiurge itself, I’d recommend your “main” team be Joker, Sophia, and Zenkichi. The first set of spheres pretty much all have weaknesses, while the second set don’t: the only weaknesses in the second set are Bless, Psi, and Lightning, so you might want that team to include Haru and Ryuji. It’s up to you, though. Just make sure you have at least one character you feel comfortable playing in each team — that’s the single most important thing.

You’ll now play out each battle sequentially, even though they’re technically taking place simultaneously. In the first set of spheres, you want to take note of Keter and Chesed in particular. Chesed likes to cast healing spells, so that’s an easy choice to take out first. Meanwhile, Keter summons Lock Keepers, and you don’t need them messing with you while you’re trying to take down six mini-bosses at once.

With the second set of spheres, Malkut summons hordes of Shadows, while Hod likes to cast Megidolaon (which, once again, pulls you in towards it). These are probably your priority targets, but frankly, almost every sphere does something nasty. One unleashes Bless and Curse attacks; another hurls out elemental spells. Either way, you’ll need to take them all down.

False God Demiurge: Phase Three

Technically, this is just “Phase Two, but properly,” but screw it. It’s the last gasp for this boss.

In addition to all the attacks above, False God Demiurge now has a slew of new ones. Two nameless ones involve its spear: one is a series of three spear thrusts which you ideally need to sidestep, and another swipes the spear horizontally across the arena and then back again. Jump over that one. Then there’s the rest:

Makougaon: Slow moving Bless spheres that track you.
Maeigaon: Sort of like Shining Hammer, but with Curse orbs: they’ll start at the front of the arena and move forwards. You should be able to safely jump them.
Megidolaon: This targets the center of the platform and pulls you in; just run away.
Voltaic Purge: A massive energy beam that tracks you from platform to platform. Hop onto the wires and move platform, and keep moving to avoid this.

None of those new attacks are particularly nasty except for Voltaic Purge, and if you’ve made it this far, you’ve got what it takes to bring down False God Demiurge for good.

EX Refight

And then there’s the EX refight, which, unsurprisingly, is quite nasty. This is probably one of the last Requests you’ll want to do in the post-game: get kitted out with better Personas and some ultimate weapons before taking this on.

Firstly, attacks come thick and fast in all phases, and finding a gap to hit anything is a bit of a mission. There are also changes to the attacks themselves. Shining Hammer’s second wave of beams are much closer together, making dodging them much harder. Not only that, but when the wings block off the sides of the arena, energy beams will target where you’re standing. You can’t just sit at one wing and hammer away at it or you’ll get blasted.

What else? Well, in the Spheres stage, minions will buff the spears and you’ll start seeing a lot of -Dyne level spells flying out.

Treat the EX refight against False God Demiurge mostly as a longer battle of survival. Take it slowly in the actual phases against Demiurge itself, and learn both its attacks and when you’re safe to engage. The AI generally does a pretty good job of dodging things and inflicting damage, so at times your role will simply be to avoid everything targeting you. With the Spheres, pick your targets carefully and focus them down. If you start getting interrupted by Lock Keepers or another Sphere that’s launching multiple annoying attacks, it might be worth dealing with them first.

It’s the longest refight in the game (even discounting the fact that it’s got so many phases!), so settle in for the long run. But if you’ve cleared most of the rest of the post-game content, you should be in good shape for this.