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Hopefully you’ve spent some of your free evenings over the last since the last Full Moon inPersona 3 Reloadtraining your team in Tartarus, since the June Full Moon operation brings with it not one but two Shadows you’ll need to defeat. Thankfully, though, you’ll have an advantage in a new teammate.
Fuuka Yamagishi has been lost inside Tartarus, and in the process of saving her, you’ll find her navigational and scanning capabilities far exceed Mitsuru’s. With Fuuka’s new powers, you’ll need to take on the Emperor and Empress Full Moon Shadows at once as they change their affinities.
This guide contains spoilers for the second Full Moon boss battle in Persona 3 Reload.
Emperor And Empress Boss Battle Overview
For your second boss battle in Persona 3 Reload, you’ll be up against not one buttwo powerful Full Moon Shadows- arcanaEmperor and Empress, who attack Tartarus together during the Full Moon on6/8.
Leading up to the fight, you’ll have heard talk ofdisembodied voices summoning people into Tartarus, and without Personas of their own, these civilians don’t typically fare too well against the gruesome monsters seeking to kill them inside.
As such, whenFuuka Yamagishi is trapped in Tartarus during the Dark Hourby accident, the team knows how urgent it is to rescue her before it’s too late. However, in the process of doing so, they’ll be attacked by the Full Moon shadows and made to fight for their lives before earning anew and more powerful navigatorfor the team after the fight has been won.
We recommend having your party members at or aroundLv. 20for this fight. Mitsuru and Yukari will be present, butonly Akihiko and Junpei fight the Full Moon shadows with you, so if you’re giving preference to anyone as you grind for EXP, give it to them.
For the most part, Empress will have a weakness to physical attacks, while Emperor takes damage from magic skills.
Damage Explanation
Str
This shadow resists this kind of damage, so attacks of this kinddeal less damage.
Wk
This shadow is weak to this kind of damage, meaning attacks of this kinddeal more damage.
Nul
This shadow nullifies this kind of damage, which leads to attacks of this kinddealing no damageto it.
This shadow repels this damage type,reversing the damage onto youinstead.
Drn
This shadow regains health from this damage type, leading to these attackshealing the shadowinstead of hurting it.
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Affinities and Weaknesses
Skills and Attacks
Heavy Slash damage to one foe that lands 1–2 times.
Getsu-ei
Medium Slash damage to one foe that deals much higher damage based on the lunar cycle.
Paradigm Shift
Changes the Shadows' affinities.
Just be wary of the Shadows' current affinities before or after Paradigm Shift when choosing an attack - your options for dealing damage outside their weakness are pretty limited.
How To Defeat Emperor And Empress
Enter Tartarus To Rescue Fuuka Yamagishi
The mission begins when your groupgoes to Gekkoukan just before the Dark Houron the night of the next Full Moon,6/8. In the real world, you’ll sneak in before you divide and conquer tofind the key to the gym.
You and Yukari go to theFaculty Officein search of the key, which you’ll find on arack of keys on the back wallafter some dialogue.Choose any answerwhen prompted, and you’ll meet back up with the group afterward.
Except, when the Dark Hour begins and Tartarus erupts from the school,you, Akihiko, and Junpeiget separatedwhen you spawn into the Arqa block of Tartarus. As youwalk around searching for the stairs to rejoin your party, you’ll periodically heara girl’s voiceasking if you’re there and if you’re human.
Thankfully, you all meet back up right nearFuuka, who’s beenhiding in Tartarusavoiding the Shadows this long becauseshe can sense where Shadows arearound Tartarus.
However,Mitsuru calls to say they’re being attacked downstairs, and Fuuka confirms that two powerful Shadows are back at the entrance to Tartarus. However, just as you arrive to find Mitsuru and Yukari having a hard time with the Full Moon Shadows,Natsuki, the girl who’d been bullying Fuuka, enters Tartarus as well.
Desperate,Fuuka awakens to her Persona, a large navigational Persona namedLucia. And not only does Lucia allow Fuuka to protect herself and Natsuki, but she’s also able toascertain the affinity charts and attacks of enemy Shadows.
Just in time, too - the Emperor and Empress don’t give you long to chat before they attack, andthe fight begins before your party has any actual time to regroupor strategize.
Use Fuuka’s Full Scan Ability To Counteract Paradigm Shift Changing The Shadows' Affinities
Mitsuru and Yukari were having a hard time handling these two Full Moon Shadows because they each have a unique move -Paradigm Shiftenables arcana Emperor and Empress tocompletely change their affinitiesin the middle of battle, which they’ll usually do right after you’ve finally figured out what they were weak to.
By casting Paradigm Shift on their turn in the fight,each enemy’s affinities swap, meaning what was super-effective on your last turn may now deal no damage, or worse,healthe enemies. Additionally frustrating,each Shadow has its own affinities, so using multi-target moves trying to take them both out at once is a waste of SP.
After one full turn has passedin battle and everyone on the field has gotten a chance to attack,Fuuka can scan the enemies for their weaknessesand present you with a full affinity chart each time you ask.
It’s pretty easy to handle here, but new to P3R, Fuuka has an SP meter, and scanning costs 35SP per Shadow, so just keep this in mind for scanning requests going forward.
Each time the Shadows use Paradigm Shift, have Fuuka scan them againto figure out exactly how their affinity chart has changes, and don’t worry too much about attacking until you’ve found a weakness to exploit - other attacks won’t do much.
By cycling through the Shadows' affinities, continue toexploit enemy weaknesses as they changeto deal consistent damage to the Shadows until they go down for the count. Not only is this theonly way they’ll take meaningful damage, but you’ll also be able touse All-Out Attacksto damage them both at the same time.
You’ll likely defeat one Shadow a turn or two before the other, but thefight ends after both Shadows have been defeated. After the fight, you’ll watch a few cutscenes with the group before heading back to the real world at the end of the Dark Hour with your mission firmly accomplished.
