Quick Links
Though you’ll only just have defeated his friend, Jin Shirato, downstairs in Tartarus, Takaya Sakaki himself is also there waiting to stop you from trying to stop the Fall inPersona 3 Reload. You’ve faced Takaya before, but never like this – not only is he stronger, but he can use Theurgy skills just like you.
Wade through Takaya’s taunting flavor text as he challenges you head-on one last time with a completely revamped move pool from previous versions of the game. Protect your SP, be prepared to revive and replenish teammates, and take on Takaya Sakaki in Persona 3 Reload.
This guide contains spoilers for the January 31 events of Persona 3 Reload.
Affinities and Weaknesses
-
Attacks and Skills
Severe Almighty damage to the entire party.
Maziodyne
Heavy Electric damage to all foes with a chance to inflict Shock.
Use Shadows To Charge The Team’s Theurgy
Like when you were heading up to fight Jin, you’ll again find afloor full of Shadows, where we’d advisefighting the Shadows tocharge your Theurgybefore challenging Takaya.
He, like Jin, has completely revamped stats and a much higher HP pool, so it helps to come prepared to immediately deal an onslaught of damage to get the ball rolling on the fight. Additionally, Takaya is capable ofsapping all your SP, so having a reliable way to occasionally deal good magic damage is a helpful leg up in the fight.
Takaya Sakaki January 31 Battle Guide
After you arrive on Takaya’s floor of Tartarus, he spends quite a while taunting you before he engages you in battle. He tells you he won’t hold back, and he means this - Takaya isn’t a tough fight, per se, but he is a tricky one.
His very first turn in battle, Takaya starts by usingSoul Drainafter more chatter, targeting your protagonist andsiphoning all of your SPfor himself, rendering your protagonist with zero SP for his next turn. As if that wasn’t bad enough, Takaya follows with Mamudoon to try toinsta-kill the party with Dark magic.
It’s helpful to keep a fewHomonculion hand for this exact reason - KOing your protagonist with an insta-kill skill is an immediate end to the battle.
On your first, you’re free to use absolutely any SP move, since you don’t technically need to be too mindful of conserving your SP quite yet.
Because of this impending SP drain, it’s wise tosave your protagonist’s Theurgy until your second movein battle. Though we’d advise you to bring a Persona capable of HP-based physical damage, you’ll now be limited on your magic damage output, so do as much of it as you’re able to to Takaya using your Theurgy skills, as this doesn’t pull from your SP.
If you’re particularly attached to dealing magic damage with your protagonist, you can always use one of your more powerful SP-replenishing items, but Takaya can and will use this attack more than once.
Takaya’s Theurgy
Once you’ve gotten his HP almost completely depleted, then like Jin did moments ago, Takaya will throw a Hail Mary and reveal that he’s not shown you his full power quite yet - he’scapable of using Theurgynow as well.
Takaya’s Theurgy is calledParadise of Quietusand deals damage in a number of ways: the attackdeals physical damagethat hits your entire party, it stands a chance ofinflicting Fearto everyone it hits, and your whole team will have theirSP reduced to one.
Thankfully, this happens when Takaya has very little HP left, but you’ll still need to handle him afterward, as well as reviving your teammates and curing any Fear that may have been inflicted, as this may cause your teammates to not attack on their turn or even run away from the battle.
The best way to handle this last segment of Takaya’s fight is todeal HP-based physical damagein lieu of wasting time replenishing your SP this close to the end of the battle. He doesn’t have much left in him, so hammer on Takaya with your physical skills until he goes down and clears the way to the final battle.
