Goro Akechi has made himself a real thorn in your side throughout , so if you’re not a huge fan, the Black Mask fight during Shido’s Palace is your chance to kick his ass. You’ve hꦰad a hunch there was something weird going on since Okumura died on live television, and after learnཧing Akechi is behind the murders, it’s time to do something about it.

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Though he was previously in your team, his battle a🎐s Black Mask is completely unique from Robin Hood in Sae’s Casino, so throw out everything you think you know. We’ve got all the tips to help you take this twerp down a peg.

Preliminary Info

As part of your crawl through Shido’s Palace, you should already be appropriately leveled for the fight. You’ll of course level up throughout Shido’s Palace, but we recommend being around Level 65 before taking on Black Mask.

Black Mask fights you after the mini-boss fight with The Cleaner, on whom you’ve probably expended some decent SP. Heal the party before leaving the Engine Room, as Black Mask attacks you immediately as you leave, making this your only chance to do so before the fight.

Be sure you have a good number of SP-replenishing items. Additionally, with Joker as Akechi's primary focus, he'll take a lot of damage, so be prepared with HP-replenishing items and spells, too.

It’s a good idea to bring a dedicated healer and relegate them mostly to healing your three attackers during the battle, so bring Morgana or any other Thief you’ve equipped with healing spells.

Akechi focuses on physical attacks in the second phase of the fight, and his target is most typically Joker. As such, give Joker a Persona that drains, repels, or nullifies physical damage to use during this sta🤪ge to minimize damage taken.

To help you anticipate Black M𒁃ask’s attacks, we’v♔e listed them for you below.

First Phase

Second Phase

First Phase: Cerberus, Cu Chulainn, And Robin Hood

The battle begins with a lengthy expository cutscene from Akechi, in which you learn that Shido is his father and Akechi is out for vengeance. To kick things off, he summons two shadows — Cerberus and Cu Chulainn — revealing that he, like Joker, can also sum🌞m𒅌on multiple Personas.

Though you’ve seen the shadows before, their affinities are different in this fight, and they're much stronger. Akechi is able to make them go berserk, too, upping their attack stat at the expense of their defense, so weigh your options and strike hard when able.

If you defeat Cu Chulainn and then exploit Cerberus’ weakness to ice to finish it with an All-Out Attack, you skip the Akechi phase of this fight and move onto the second immediately.

Once they go down, Akecꦑhi steps in to fight you himself. He’s not terrifically difficult to fight here and, like his shadows, has no weaknesses or affinities.

To conserve SP for the next section, handle him with physical and gun moves. Note he focuses most of his attacks on Joker. It’s good storytelling, but it’s also irritating, so make sure you’re focused on keeping Joker in top shape. Beat on him and drain his HP toꦫ carry 🉐onto the second phase.

Second Phase: Black Mask

Turns out Akechi has been the mysterious Persona User that you heard Madarame and Kaneshiro meꦓntion before you saw him kill Okumura. Akechi’s been at this for a while, it seems, and now he’s come to tak𒈔e the Phantom Thieves out, too.

To begin, Black Mask erects a wall using Tetrakarn that repels all physical attacks, so you’ll be relying on elemental SP moves to damage him. Still, he’s got his focus primarily on Joker, so equip Joker with a Persona that repels physical attacks for this section if you can. A good strategy for this section is to have two or three party members attack with SP while Joker heals. If anyone is inflicted with despair, be su﷽re to heal it quickly using spells or items to minimize damage.

The only thing to keep in mind with his affinities here is that Black Mask is strong against bless and curse moves, while any other elemental attack will hit him normally. Avoid those two🌟 types, and throw everything else at him.

After you’ve gotten him down to half-health, Black Mask switches his strategy to focus on magic attacks, complete with a Makarakarn to repel your magic back at you. As with the first portion of this stage, simply focus on hitting Black Mask with physical attacks during this section.

Bring him down to a third of his health to usher in the last section of this fight. Now, Black Mask will be switching up his tactics and doesn’t fight with a pattern. Though it’s critical to note that he’s now 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:able to use Laevateinn, which will cause almighty damage to Joker that cannot be avoided or deflected.

To handle this, have Joker guard when Akechi is staring at him, as this is the preamble to Laevateinn. Use the time to have the party heal Joker while he’s guarding, as he’ll still take massive damage e✅ven with the guard.

Unless you’re preparing to handle Laevateinn, lay into Black Mask and take down his HP. He falls eventually, and so long as you’ve reached Rank 8 with him before this, defeating Black Mask is how you max Akechi’s confidant. When he goes down, sit back and watch the cutscene ahead before saying goodbye and carrying on with 🐲Shid𒆙o’s Palace.

NEXT: Persona 🎉5 Royal Confidant Guide: Justice - Goro Akechi