Persona 5 Strikers guide: Bonus Request bosses

After playing Persona 5 Strikers for a while, you’ll start getting Requests from Futaba, who’s been spotting blue butterflies. Unfortunately for you, these blue butterflies coincide with strong readings from Shadows appearing in the Jails. But there’s an upside! Taking these Requests and smacking down these bonus bosses in Persona 5 Strikers will net you the ability to fuse them as your very own Personas.

These foes aren’t to be taken lightly, though. They’re bonus bosses, and they’ll arguably destroy the unprepared even faster than the Dire Shadows. Fortunately, that’s what this guide is for. If you’re after these Request bosses, we’ve got their identities, strengths, weaknesses, and attacks. If you’re having trouble finding them, just accept the request and cycle through the relevant Jail map. They’ll show up as a Request icon.

Do note that there are spoilers within. You’ll be in spoiler territory by the time you can take on most of these anyway, but consider yourselves warned.

An Ebon God Descends: Seth

The first bonus boss Request in Persona 5 Strikers is “An Ebon God Descends,” and is in the Sendai Jail. As it turns out, this is Seth, and he’s around level 51.

Seth has a host of strengths and not many weaknesses. He nulls Fire, drains Wind, and is strong to Curse, so you probably don’t want to bring in Morgana or Ann. Fortunately, he’s weak to Bless, so Sophie is a strong choice. As for his attacks, he primarily uses Physical, Gun, and Curse abilities.

This gives you a few options, depending on the Personas you have available to you. Arahabaki is relatively low level but it’s still a solid choice as it nulls Curse and is strong to both Physical and Gun damage; this’ll turn the fight into a bit of a war of attrition. Hecatoncheires is another strong choice since that drains Curse, letting you heal up from some of Seth’s own attacks, and its attacks are mostly Physical. Depending on how you’ve fused it and how high it is in level, it’s also probably got some healing and buff skills — as well as Endure, which will let you survive a fatal blow.

Still, you probably want to take along at least one Persona with some Bless skills. Gotta love hitting those weaknesses.

The Hound of Hades Howls: Cerberus

The second bonus Request boss in Persona 5 Strikers, “The Hound of Hades Howls,” asks you to battle Cerberus in the Osaka Jail. This oversized pup is around level 57, and he’s not exactly a pushover.

As you’d expect from the guard dog of the underworld, Cerberus drains Fire attacks and is strong against Nuke. Conversely, he’s weak to Ice. His own attacks are pretty much exclusively Physical and Fire-based.

I did this bonus boss with a combination of Yusuke, Sophia, and Ann, though this maybe wasn’t the best choice. While Yusuke has Ice, he’ll die a lot against the slew of Fire attacks that Cerberus uses. Nonetheless, Sophia and Ann as healers was nice, and Ann’s innate resistance to Fire helps out a fair bit.

This is also the first time we need to start talking about individual attacks. Assault Dive is a straight-on dash, so run to the side. Double Fangs is repeated melee attacks, so just stay the hell away. Maragion will likely catch you out the first time; this is a targeted ball of flame that hits where you were standing, and then explodes outwards in a wave of fire. Basically, run around until the ball launches, then leap over the shockwave. Finally, Burning Hell is a massive AoE centered on Cerberus himself: just run to one corner of the arena to avoid this.

Make Way for the Frozen King: King Frost

The third bonus boss Request in Persona 5 Strikers, “Make Way for the Frozen King”, tasks you with taking on King Frost in the Sapporo Jail. King Frost seems to be around level 65. He’s also a gigantic arsehole. At least you reach him by snowboarding down a hill.

His weaknesses and strengths are about as you’d expect: he drains Ice, nullifies Bless, and is weak to Fire. Equally expected are his attacks, which are mostly Ice-based, barring the Gun-based Flash Bomb and a basic attack. And initially, he’ll seem simple enough; his attacks aren’t hard to avoid and you should have plenty of Personas that can deal with them. Equally, you can use the ice blocks around the field as cover should you need it.

Lilith and Trumpeter are both solid choices here. Lilith nulls Ice and has access to Maragidyne, while Trumpeter outright drains Ice, so most of King Frost’s attacks will heal. If you’re using Lilith, though, be careful not to use her Persona Attack in the middle of a melee combo: it’s Mabufudyne, so it’ll actually heal King Frost.

So far, so easy. The difficult part is that King Frost doesn’t fight alone. He’ll routinely summon entire hee-hordes of jacked-up Jack Frosts, which will pelt you with snowballs that aren’t Ice elemental. You can very, very easily get stunlocked to death by 20 snowballs coming out of nowhere and slapping you in the face, and these things seem to have a habit of inflicting Dizzy on you too.

The one character of note here is Ann, who functions as a complete glass cannon and is as risky as she is potentially effective. Agidyne and Maragidyne are both incredibly useful for damage against both the boss and the Jack Frost hordes. Not only that, but with Soul Thief and her fire-imbued whip mode, she’ll routinely inflict Burn and regain all of her SP — and her wide-ranging combos can clear out the hordes easily too. The downside? She’ll die if anyone so much as breathes on her. If you want to take her along you’ll need to take control of her yourself, and you’ll probably want an accessory that nulls Dizzy or Freeze to boot. If you’re not confident, you might want to take anyone except her.

Halt the Strutting Little Imp: Black Frost

After the frozen hell that was King Frost, you’d probably expect Black Frost, the fourth bonus boss Request in Persona 5 Strikers — and the boss you’ll face in “Halt the Strutting Little Imp” — to be worse. But somehow, he’s… incredibly easy.

Black Frost drains Ice attacks and nullifies both Fire and Curse. Not only that, but he’s strong to Ice. His only weakness is Bless. The majority of his attacks are Ice-based, though he has some physical abilities like Deathbound, and he also loves to use Evil Smile.

The arena works heavily in your favor here. You can use the buses to hide from the snowballs he lobs (or just keep running in a circle), and Mabufudyne is another attack that you can just jump over.

Sophia is an obvious choice considering she runs double duty with both Bless attacks and healing. Haru is also an excellent choice, as she should have Heat Riser to massively boost your stats, and Amrita Drop or Amrita Shower can remove status effects. As for your fourth party member? Morgana, Ryuji, and Zenkichi are all solid picks. I’d go with Zenkichi myself, but any of them will work.

Dragon Slayer Enters the Fray: Siegfried

Siegfried, the boss you’ll face for the “Dragon Slayer Enters the Fray” request, doesn’t have many gimmicks, but hits hard. The only element he nullifies is Electric… but he’s strong to both Ice and Physical, which means your basic combos aren’t going to do much. Thankfully, he’s weak to both Wind and Nuke.

The biggest annoyance here is his resistance to Physical damage, because that drastically increases the length of the fight. Not only that, but Siegfried loves to use Heat Riser to buff his stats further. Basically, expect this fight to take a while.

Every attack I noted down was Physical, so anything that resists or nulls that will neuter him a fair bit. Megaton Raid is a directional blast, Vorpal Blade is an AoE around him, while Giant Slice has him dash towards someone while inflicting damage around him. The other attack of note is a variant of Megaton raid. Basically, he’ll disappear, and a glowing spot will appear on the ground. After a short period of time he’ll smash into the spot, inflicting damage there, and sending out a massive shockwave across the arena. Either jump over that shockwave or perch on one of the pillars to avoid it.

Siegfried isn’t a difficult fight — it’s just one that will probably take some time.

The Writhing Nightmare Rises: Mara

This is a Shin Megami Tensei game, so of course you’re going to have to fight the wheeled ribbed penis that is Mara. The throbbing king of desire is the boss of the “The Writhing Nightmare Rises” request, and… he’s actually really easy. As long as you can stop laughing or cringing at him. Somehow, it’s not a surprise that he turns up in the Okinawa Jail, either, especially considering his boss arena is the Cage of Desolation.

Mara has a slew of resistances. Specifically: he drains Fire, he nullifies both Gun and Curse, and he’s strong to both Nuke and Bless. On the flipside, he’s weak to Psi, because obviously mental attacks are the best way to deflate a giant dong.

The only attack I bothered noting down for Mara was Mararagidyne, and that’s because I had to tip my hat to that spell name. You can avoid that by running away from it. Pretty much every other attack he has can be dodged by running and jumping, including the one that follows you around and slams down on you.

Haru’s an obvious pick her for Psi damage (especially if you have her Master Art that lets you extend a Psi cast for a lengthy period). Zenkichi’s generally a good pick for anything because of his skillset. After that, it’s really up to you. Sophia is an apt healer, even though Mara is strong to Bless. Ann is risky since Mara drains Fire, but she won’t take as much damage as usual. Honestly, though, I’d probably go with whoever you feel the most comfortable. Pretty much any of the Thieves can work in the fourth party slot.

Angel of Contracts Descends: Metatron

The final bonus boss Request in Persona 5 Strikers (at least, until you scroll down…) is the Shadow of God itself: Metatron. Before we get into the fight itself, I want to issue a big, fat warning. If you’ve accepted this Request and then you go and do the refight of the final boss, winning that refight will place you directly into the Metatron fight. Naturally, this means you’ll have to do both in a row with zero chance to heal between. With that out of the way, here’s how to beat down the highest of the angels.

Bizarrely, Metatron’s resistances aren’t what you’d expect. No Bless resistance, here. Instead, Metatron will drain both Psi and Nuke and nullify Wind, but is weak to Lightning and Curse.

Metatron’s attacks are mostly Bless and Physical, though after you drop it to about 50% health it’ll also bring out some Almighty attacks. At the same time, it’ll spawn in a load of Kali enemies to occupy you. At 25% health, it’ll summon in basic Shadows, and then as its health lowers further it’ll bring in more Kali and some Dominion foes to try to slow you down.

Yatagarasu is an excellent choice of Persona for most of this fight, as it nullifies Bless attacks and should have Electric attacks to hit those weaknesses. The one dangerous spot is when Metatron summons in the basic shadows at lower health, as the spider tanks and the flying ones both have Gun attacks, which Yatagarasu is weak to. Maybe swap to something else to clear them out, like Thor.

The Megido attacks aren’t too hard to dodge, but Metatron does use two variants of Sword Dance which bear mentioning. The basic one tracks you and strikes where you were standing, so just keeping running into the blades stop dropping to avoid this. The second is used after Metatron teleports away, and this one is just a barrage of swords that fly directly at you. Be wary of immediately closing the distance after a teleport, or running straight towards or away from Metatron when you see this happen.

If you’re in shape to tackle the end boss (which is a necessity to open this Request, if I remember right) then you’re ready to take down Metatron.

And with that, all the bonus bosses via Requests are done! Except… wait…

Knocking on Death’s Door: The Reaper

Yeaaah. The final challenge of the game, unlocked after doing everything else (including, I believe, the Dire Shadows) is a request to take on The Reaper. This is also the Request that unlocks New Game + mode, so you’re going to have to do this eventually if you want to get access to the stuff specific to New Game +.

The Reaper has no resistances or weaknesses, and uses every single element in the book, so you can bring in whomever you like. The best I can do here, really, is warn you that he hits both hard and fast, and go over his attacks. For success here, you’ll pretty much need to remember how to dodge most of these attacks (or bring in a billion healing items). Still, the Reaper is a “fair” boss — it’s tricky, but not stupidly overpowered. This isn’t your typical Atlus bonus boss.

Mabufudyne: Ice elemental AoE around the Reaper.
Magarudyne: Whirlwinds form in front of the direction the Reaper is facing, and then shoot out in a cone formation.
Maragidyne: Fireballs target where you’re standing and swoop in at you. Just keep running.
Maziodyne: This targets a spot on the ground which then explodes into an arena-wide shockwave. Try to stay away from that spot and leap over the shockwave.
Psiodyne: A circle indicator will follow you, which will then explode into the Psiodyne cast. The downside is that the Reaper will usually be casting something else before the Psiodyne cast finishes, so you’ll probably have something else to dodge at the same time.
Freidyne: A fairly simple targeted blast.
Maegion: The Reaper rushes across the arena, leaving Curse explosions behind it.

Once the Reaper drops to 50% HP, it picks up a few new attacks.

Megidolaon: Another targeted blast that hits where you’re standing. As far as I can tell, you can’t avoid this by running — you have to dodge this or eat the damage.
Riot Gun: Repeated, targeted shots at one party member, followed by a big charged up shot.

If the Reaper also uses Kougaon, I didn’t see it, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it has it. Aside from these, the Reaper uses unnamed Gun attacks to inflict heavy damage. It’ll either shoot directly in front of itself, or it’ll fire in a 180 degree arc in the direction it’s facing. Both of these hit surprisingly hard, but they are Gun attacks, so any Personas that resist or nullify Gun are helpful.

Okay. With that, you are actually done with the bonus bosses from Requests, and are also done with the game. Turn in this Request to get Joker’s ultimate weapon (before New Game +, at least) and then head to the Velvet Room to unlock New Game +.