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You’ve fought your way through the beginning floors of Tartarus already inPersona 3 Reload, and hopefully, you’ve picked up enough battle experience from it, as your first boss battle in P3R is against Priestess, a shadow larger, tougher, and meaner than any you’ve faced so far.
With a strict battle timer, support shadows to worry about, and a handful of battles before you get to the boss fight, there’s plenty to worry about before you engage with the first Full Moon battle in P3R. Our guide offers Priestess’ affinity chart and helpful tips to help you win the fight.
If you’re coming from other, more recent entries in the Persona series, welcome to yourfirst boss battleof Persona 3 Reload - get used to these occurring onevery Full Moonfor the remainder of the game.
With theindividual blocks of Tartarusserving as yourprimary dungeonin P3R, defeating a Full Moon boss shadow willunlock the next block of Tartarusfor you to explore before thenextFull Moon.
These boss fights don’t take place in Tartarus, though, but don’t worry about hunting down the Full Moon bosses when it’s time to fight - most of the time in this game,the boss shadows findyou.
A good way to gauge whether you’re ready to take on a boss shadow or not ishow well you’re handling the fights on the last floor of the most recent block of Tartarus.
These Shadows will always be close in level to the boss battle ahead, but we’ll make level recommendations in each of our Persona 3 Reload guides.
Arcana Priestess Full Moon Battle Overview
In the table below, you’ll findArcana Priestess' affinity chart, which details her attacks, strengths, and weaknesses.
For this fight, we recommend havingyour protagonist, Junpei, and Yukari at Level 10before the Full Moon.
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
Bufula
Medium ice damage to one foe with a chance to inflict Freeze.
Summons a Despairing Tiara support shadow.
Invitation to Chaos
Speeds up the monorail, roughly halving your remaining time in battle.
You likely won’t have access to a few damage types quite yet, but since the majority of the fight is an outright exchange of blows with Priestess, focus onyour strongest attacks that aren’t Ice-based.
How To Defeat Priestess Within The Time Limit
In Persona 3 Reload,the battle with Priestess takes place on5/9, so prepare yourself and the team ahead of time!
The Full Moon boss battle against Arcana Priestess has always had some sort of timer across all versions of Persona 3, but in Persona 3 Reload, yourtimer doesn’t start until you reach Priestess herselfin the front car of the monorail.
This means you can take whatever time you need toreach Junpei in Cars Two and Three, but you’ll need to be mindful of the time limit once you actually engage Priestess herself.
Junpei runs off when you first board the monorail, meaning it’sjust you and Yukari until you find Junpei.
You’ll pass some transmogrified passengers, facing ahandful of assorted shadowsas you make your way through the monorail cars to rejoin Junpei further up.
The enemies you’ll need to handle before finding Priestess herself are:
Once you’ve defeated the enemies along the monorail,go up to the very front carof the monorail to encounter the true boss - Arcana Priestess, who’s aiming tocrash the monorailafter assuming control of the train.
Arcana Priestess Full Moon Boss Battle
After your group has defeated all the regular shadows in the monorail,the train begins to speed up.
You’ll receive a transmission from Mitsuru about a reading in the front car from theboss shadow who’s taken over the monorail control, so head up with the group to engage in your very first boss battle of Persona 3 Reload.
When the fight starts, you have a timer for30 minutes, but don’t settle into the idea that you’ve got all the time you want to handle Priestess - she’ll periodically useInvitation to Chaos to speed up the train, decreasing your timer by about halfeach time.
You’ve got the first move in the battle, but as a boss fight,Priestess is stronger than any shadow you’ve faced yet. And as you saw in the table above,she doesn’t have a weakness to exploit.
This means you’ll need to stick withdealing as much damage as you canwith each move to chip away at her HP bar.
Beware that not only will the shadow be speeding up the train, butPriestess can summon other shadowsto throw a wrench into your team’s assault on her.
These will beDespairing Tiarashadows, which areweak to Wind magic, so it may be helpful to assign Yukari to deal with the auxiliary shadows while your protagonist and Junpei handle Priestess herself.
That said, if you defeat Priestess while there are still Despairing Tiara shadows on the board, the battle will be over.
As soon as you defeat her first two shadows, Priestess will make it a point to summon more, which may force her into wasting a turn without attacking you directly if you time it right.
Outside all this, the fight with Priestess is astraightforward exchange of damage, so wail on her until she goes down to finish the first Full Moon battle in Persona 3 Reload.
