Persona 3 Reloadhas plenty of major boss fights, plus plenty more sub-bosses. Most of the latter will be encountered as you ascend the game-long dungeon called Tartarus. We’re covering them all in detail so you’ll never feel the sting of defeat, and that coverage begins right here with Ruthless Ice Raven.

As the game’s very first sub-boss, players shouldn’t anticipatetoomuch trouble with Ruthless Ice Raven. That said, this battle tests your skill with grasp of several of Mitsuru’s lessons, so it’s important that you tap into them all in order to secure your success, especially on higher difficulty settings.

Junpei Iori preparing to cast an Agi spell against Persona 3 Reload enemy Ruthless Ice Raven-1

Ruthless Ice Raven Overview

You’ll be fightingtwo Ruthless Ice Ravenenemies. Thankfully, they’re identical in every way, soyou can use the same strategy against them both. Since you’re quite early into Persona 3 Reload, you’ll lack access to numerous key features of the battle system, but you’ll hardly need them here.

Affinities and Weaknesses

Makoto Yuki and Yukari preparing an All-Out Attack in Persona 3 Reload

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Take carenot to equip any Persona weak to Ice, as that will cause you a great deal of grief -Ruthless Raven’s major attack is Mabufu, which deals light Ice damage to the entire party.

At this stage in the game, ‘light’ damage is enough to cause a real headache when it strikes a target’s weakness, as the enemy will be able to take advantage of the ‘One More’battle mechanic tostrike again- often with another round of Mabufu. This can be lethal to an Ice-weak Makoto.

Ruthless Ice Raven Battle Strategy

There’s a lot working to your advantage in the skirmish with the two Ruthless Ice Ravens. First,Junpei is capable of casting Agi, the basic Fire-elemental spell. Junpei’s magic stat is never exactly impressive, but in this case, it won’t need to be. Just down the first enemy with an Agi,and then cast it again on the other one.

But Junpei Iori’s heroics are just half the equation. Makoto’s default Persona,Orpheus, can also cast Agi, as well as a handful ofother Personas available for capture and/or fusion,even this early on.

So long as Makoto can join Junpei in lighting these birds aflame, they shouldrarely get a chance to attack youafter the initial volley of Mabufu.

Keep your health topped off withYukari, asher main role in this fight will be healing. Her light curative spell,Dia, will restore one target’s HP to a decent enough degree. If, for whatever reason, Yukari’s SP is terribly low, have her use Life Stones instead.

If the battle with the Ruthless Ice Ravens didn’t put too much hurt on your party, then by all means, continue exploring a few more floors. These sub-bosses tend to includetwo-way teleporters, so they’re always great ‘bookmarks’ for your progress.