Most of the Arcana bosses in Persona 3 Reload come in pairs. The one Arcana to break this trend is, quite naturally, the Hermit. Fuuka has some trouble finding it at first, but she eventually discovers it hiding in Club Escapade.
The Hermit has a strong connection to electricity, as you might expect from a Shadow hiding in a former electrical power station. This connection can make fighting it a huge problem if you have the wrong party lineup, and it has a ton of HP regardless. But with the right team, you can grind down this Persona 3 Reload boss without much trouble.
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Hermit Preparations
The Hermit has a particular love for Electricity attacks. It also has a few physical attacks it uses to switch things up, but most of its regular moves and its super move have the Elec element. This means you should avoid bringing Yukari or Aigis, since both are weak to Electricity. In addition, the Hermit is immune to Electricity, Wind, and Dark, so you shouldn't bring Akihiko or Koromaru. Since Junpei is unavailable for plot reasons, this means the best party to use is Mitsuru, Ken, and Shinjiro.
Prepare by obtaining a Persona with some protection against Electricity. You might also have access to -dyne skills by this point, which will help speed this combat along. Just make sure not to use one of the elements the Hermit ignores. Okuniushi is a good Persona for this fight, if you can get it.
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Fighting the Hermit
The Hermit starts out underwhelming, since it can only use Zio and Mazio. This changes when it uses the ability Initiate Charging. Despite what Fuuka will say later, it's impossible to stop the Hermit from charging up the first time.
After the Hermit finishes charging, it gets access to better skills like Mega Spark. Not only does this skill hit harder, it also has a decent chance of inflicting the Shock status ailment. If the Hermit tries charging again, have all four characters attack to disrupt it. This will prevent it from using Mega Spark again. Unlike in the original, you can't knock down the Hermit even with a Critical, so don't bother trying.
Once you deal enough damage, the Hermit will use a new ability called Accelerated Charging. The Hermit's electricity will switch from yellow to blue, and Fuuka will warn you to watch out. Have the whole party guard on this round to protect against the Hermit's super move, Tera Spark. With that said, both Mega Spark and Tera Spark are Electricity skills, so the protagonist can act normally if their Persona doesn't take damage from the element.
To get through the Hermit's giant HP bar, there are two things you should rely on: buff skills and Theurgy. An Attack buff on the party plus a Defense buff on the Hermit can double your damage output, and this also applies to Theurgy attacks. Don't be afraid to let Ken's SP or Shinjiro's HP drop below half, because they get boosts to their Theurgy bars while these numbers are low. And while Mitsuru can't inflict ailments on a boss, using her Defense debuff can help her Theurgy bar rise faster.
The Hermit fight is a grind no matter what, but the right party and Persona choices can keep this boss battle as quick and painless as possible.
Persona 3 Reload
- Released
- February 2, 2024
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- Mature 17 / Blood, Partial Nudity, Sexual Themes, Strong Language, Violence
- Developer(s)
- P-Studio
- Franchise
- Persona
- Platform(s)
- PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch 2, PC
- Genre(s)
- JRPG, RPG, Life Simulation, Strategy
