General tips for a max social link run?

#1Wii306Posted 2/18/2013 2:51:22 PM
I'm about to start a playthrough of this game after finishing P3:FES, and I want to be able to max out as many social links as possible without the use of a step-by-step guide. Are there any general tips you all have that will help me prioritize the social links and optimize my use of time (without outright telling me what to do on every single day)? I don't expect to be able to maximize EVERYTHING without the use of a guide (and I don't think it's required for anything other than a trophy, as opposed to unlocking Orpheus Telos in P3), but it'd be nice to be able to get as many as I can regardless.

For an example of the kind of advice I'm looking for, here are some tips that I would have given for Persona 3:

-Focus on maxing Courage first, then Charm, then Academics, since that is the order in which the social links that require those attributes become available.

-Focus on classmate social links while school is in session. Classmates become unavailable during holidays and pre-exam weeks, so non-school social links should be saved for those days.

-Dating more than 2 girls at once is not recommended, as it is very easy to get a reversal if you do not manage your time very carefully. Dating more than 3 is borderline impossible. As such, try not to let too many datable social links become "intimate" (usually occurs around Rank 6 or so). Once a social link is maxed, reversal is impossible, so feel free to move on to the next girl.

-If you find that you won't be able to max all social links by the end of the game, at least make completing the Star social link a priority. Maxing it unlocks Helel, which is essential for beating the secret boss.

So... yeah. Anything along those lines would be greatly appreciated. Which attributes to prioritize, which social links to prioritize if I have to sacrifice some, how to avoid reversals, etc. Thanks in advance!

(In the meantime, I'll be doing some research of my own looking through the FAQs here.)
Currently Playing: P3F, LoL
#2demunpuncherPosted 2/18/2013 3:17:47 PM
Unless you're doing NG+ you're gonna have to forfeit the book trophy as it's pretty hard to get both of them done without either using a guiding or saving and reloading for the most notes.

However, a few tips:
Jester is storyline auto-advanced after 6, while Fool, Judgement, and Star are fully storyline auto-advance.

Death and Hermit are (for the most part) guaranteed rank ups and you don't need to take the Arcanas Persona with you. Hermit does require two visits to go from 9 to 10 though. Empress can be done whenever as it's just fusion requests like some of the quests in P3.

I believe the only S. Link with a reversal is Moon, and it has two reversal points, both of which are specific options that require not paying any attention at all to how the person acts to choose.

You can date as many girls as you want, they don't find out until Valentine's Day and forget that they found out about the next day.

Sun and Hermit are the only two available on rainy days, so there's really no point in doing them on sunny or cloudy days.

Party members get skills on every even rank and support bonuses (co-op attacks, recover you from ailments, etc...) on odd ranks. Also make sure you max them out by January in order to have no worries about getting their third tier Personas.

Party members aren't avialable while there is an investigation (depending on how quickly you act this can be from a couple days to a couple weeks).

I think level 3 or 4 (pretty sure it's not maxed though) Expression is needed to max out Hierophant and Justice, max Understanding is needed to start Tower.

Save maxing Temperance for after you have the nighttime S. Links (Justice, Hierophant, Tower, Devil, and part of Jester) and draw fortunes at night (save beforehand and try for a Great Fortune), otherwise it'll just eat up a lot of days spending time with them.

Sun and Strength have two different people associated with each. For Sun, one has self-esteem issues and the other has daddy issues (unfortunately they're not the kind that leads to waiting at Hooters or stripping), self-esteem girl is slightly less annoying to read through. With Strength you have the choice between a guy that hates girls and a guy that loooooooves balls (his words, literally) and becomes emo halfway through, join soccer, much less emo.

Lastly, take along a Persona of the respective Arcana always.
#3Lord_KagatoPosted 2/18/2013 5:04:58 PM
Also, learn how to fish and research what you need in order to catch the King of the Sea. That's Hermit Rank 10 and requires quite a bit of prep time in order to guarantee swift success.

Best advice, however, is to max all your personal stats before the game finishes so they carry over to new game +. This will allow more time spent with social links, including the evening meet-an-greets in the shopping district, making rank-ups that much easier and allowing more time to do extra beneficial activities, such as fishing or grinding.

A first-time-max run is possible but it really makes it hard to do much else. So if you insist on a first-time-max-run, play the game on Easy or Very Easy. You'll need more time to grind and collect equipment on harder difficulties and a first-time-max-run pretty much demands you only visit the TV one time per kidnapping.
Watch my LPs and UMvC3's Courtroom Drama! -
#4Wii306(Topic Creator)Posted 2/18/2013 6:28:57 PM
Wow, that's plenty - exactly what I was looking for. Thanks for the advice, you two!

I guess the only question I have remaining is whether or not there is any preferred order to raise attributes, or whether I should just try to raise them evenly? (Like in P3, it's recommended to raise Courage first, then Charm, then Academics.)
Currently Playing: P3F, LoL
#5ConMan8Posted 2/18/2013 6:40:19 PM
I'd say max Expression first for Justice and Hierophant, Diligence to rank 3 for Devil, Understanding for Tower, Courage and Knowledge for Fortune.
Official [character] of the [game] board.
"We'll go get you some mashed potatoes." - Naoto
#6demunpuncherPosted 2/18/2013 6:40:26 PM
For the most part the ways of increasing them allows more than one to increase at the same time. Some of the books will raise both Courage and Diligence or Understanding, or Expression and Understanding. Eating at Aiya's on rainy days (Shopping District, North next to the South end exit) will randomly raise 3 out Courage, Knowledge, Diligence, and Knowledge (get all 3 maxed and eat there to get a trophy) for 3k. Some of the part time jobs will also raise stats (and 3 coincide with S. Links), day-care job raises Dnderstanding and Temperance, hospital janitor raises Courage (doubles if you read the Ghost Stories book) and Devil, tutoring (requires maxed Understanding) raises Expression and Tower, crane-making raises Understanding, envelope folding raises Diligence, and lastly translating raises Expression. Additionally, the book Expert Study Methods will give an additional increase to Knowledge when studying, which along with the random extra increase (you can save before studying to try and get it) effectively triples the regular Knowledge increase from studying.
#7mms78Posted 2/18/2013 7:05:44 PM
- getting the hook and catching bugs uses no time at all. You'll need the bugs to get the hook to get the fishing rod which you need to max hermits social link.

- doing hermit's quests as well as getting quests requests doesn't take up time, so get the requests as soon as you can and do them as soon as you can since it takes up to time and you can do it before doing something else which advances the time. Once you complte the quests, dont reporting back immediately as it will advance the time. Save it for when there are no other social links to do or when its raining.
-Sun is the only other available on raindays other than hermit. Make use of that and try to spend time with sun when its raining.
- When you're in the middle of a story driven event, ie rescuing someone, party member s. links wont be available. You can either finish the dungeon as fast as you can, like in a day. Or you can focus on non party member s.links. you're call
- Non-party member s.links are not available 1 week before exams/vacations and during holidays. Best to focus a little more on them two or three weeks before exams since they wont be available while party members are available during holidays and vacations as well as before the exam. So, focus on them during that time period.
- there are 4 s.links available at night, justice, devil, tower, and one other...hiero i think. Justice and devil sucks balls, hiero sucks even more balls as you need some of your stats to be at level 3-4 or something. Try to get justice and hiero out of the way as soon as possible so that you can allocate some nights to drawing fortunes.
- make sure to always have a matching persona on you before spending time with a certail, it helps a lot in the points department. also, always save before doing an, this way, you can re-load if you messed up with your answers. You'll know if you gave the best answer since it has the most notes coming out of their heads. Or you could use a faq, which I dont recommend since you know, it'll take away from the experience.
- if you focus on giving the right/best response as well as always having a matching persona, there will be little reason to use the fortune. And having free nights will help you get the "read all books" trophy if you're into that kind of thin
- if you're going after the book trophy as well, better to chose the soccer team as oppose to the basketball team. There are some restrictions to getting some of the books if you join the basketball team, but the soccer team has no such restrictions. Just make sure to always go into your room at night before going out. That way you wont miss any calls.
- Marie, the new is available almost everyday in December, just raise her to 2-3 before december then max it out during that month.
- Temerence sucks balls. a lot of the time, its always raining or there is a story event taking place during the days that she is supposedly available. Get her out of the way as fast as you can.
- Devil levels up automatically, just make sure to allocate 10 sundays for her.
- Moon requires that you get strenght to lvl 4, so as I said, best to chose the soccer so that you can lvl up that without having to worry about missing any books.
- The jester will only lvl up to 6 and the rest will be dictated by the flow of the story and by some of your choices. He is available during the day and sometimes at night.
- About Rise, if you care about the "Hardcore Risette Fan trophy", try to stay as low level as possible until you get her. Then when you enter the tv for a mission, try to get all of her lines already like the lines saying "its a strong enemy" and such so that you can start spending here time and maxing her
Lastly, I cant stress this enough, spend more time with non-party schoolmate s.links during the first half of the school year, before summer vacation. Strength, Moon, Sun, and hangman are not available for s.links for a good 4-5 weeks or so.
#8Wii306(Topic Creator)Posted 2/18/2013 11:13:47 PM
Sounds good, thanks for the help everyone.
Currently Playing: P3F, LoL
#9KotetsuPosted 2/19/2013 12:07:16 PM
Eating at Aiya is usually the most productive thing you can do on a rainy afternoon. Save at Shopping District South before you do if you're aiming to raise specific stats.

Getting the Aeon SLink started is very un-intuitive. I completely missed it my first time around. Per KADFC's guide, go into the Velvet Room on 4/18, then leave, then go back in, Check On Dwellers -> Listen to Marie's Request