persona 5 social link guide confidants

Unsurprisingly, social links make a return in Persona 5. By choosing to spend your free time with characters that you meet during the game, you'll be able to increase their confidant rank. Increasing this rank unlocks bonus passive abilities and allows personas to gain more experience points upon being fused as long as their arcana matches that of your confidant.

Let's try explain the process with an example:

Ryuji is tied to the Chariot arcana. By spending time with Ryuji, you'll gradually increase his confidant rank. Not only do you unlock bonus abilities at set ranks, but your personas will also benefit from your efforts to socialise. In this instance, any Chariot persona that you fuse will gain an increased amount of experience at the point of its creation, based on the strength of your relationship with Ryuji. The higher his confidant rank, the more experience your persona will gain.

This means that with a high enough rank, you may be able to immediately level up your fused persona, allowing it to learn extra skills right off the bat.

How to increase confidant ranks in Persona 5

Increasing confidant ranks in Persona 5 is quite simple. Once you've unlocked confidant rank 1 with a character - many of these occur automatically during the story - you'll then be able to meet up with them at certain times and hang out. By spending time with confidants, their rank will gradually increase.

The maximum confidant rank for all confidants is 10.

How to increase confidant ranks quickly in Persona 5

A character's confidant rank may not increase after every meeting. Sometimes, you may have to meet with a character several times in order for your relationship to rank up.

There are two ways to ensure that confidant ranks increase faster:

  • Select the right dialogue options during conversation. This can sometimes be a difficult task, but during conversations with confidants, try to pick dialogue options that you think the character in question will like. For example, if Ryuji is feeling down, try saying something like "I'm here for you" to cheer him up. Pick an effective dialogue option, and you'll see more music notes appear above the character's head. The more notes that appear, the more their confidant rank has just increased.
  • Bring a persona that is of the same arcana as the confidant. Confidant rank will increase at a faster rate if you have a persona that belongs to the same arcana as the character in question. For example, hanging out with Ryuji while you have a persona of the Chariot arcana in your possession will make it easier to level up his confidant rank.

All confidants in Persona 5 and where to find them

Please note that confidants aren't always available to hang out with you. Most can only be found on certain days of the week, and some require you to have unlocked specific social stat ranks before you can befriend them. For example, in order to befriend Makoto, you'll need to have at least rank 3 Knowledge, or she simply won't want to hang out with you.

Be warned: potential spoilers below.

Ryuji Sakamoto
Arcana: Chariot
Where to find Ryuji: Ryuji can be found on the second floor of the school during the day, near the stairs next to your own classroom. When there's no school, he can be found at the arcade in Shibuya during the day.

Where to find Morgana: Morgana's confidant rank will increase automatically as the story progresses.

Ann Takamaki
Arcana: Lovers
Where to find Ann: Ann can be found in the Shibuya Underground Mall, near the accessory store during the day.

Arcana: Fool
Where to find Igor: Igor's confidant rank will increase automatically as the story progresses.

Caroline and Justine
Arcana: Strength
Where to find Caroline and Justine: Caroline and Justine can be found in the Velvet Room, but you can't simply hang out with them. To increase their confidant rank, you must show them certain personas that have learned specific skills.

Sojiro Sakura
Arcana: Hierophant
Where to find Sojiro: Sojiro can be found in Cafe Leblanc, behind the bar at night.

Tae Takemi
Where to find Takemi: Takemi can be found in her clinic in Yongen during the day.

Yuuki Mishima
Arcana: Moon
Where to find Mishima: Mishima can be found on Shibuya Central Street at night. Later in the game, he can instead be found in Akihabara at night.

Yusuke Kitagawa
Arcana: Emperor
Where to find Yusuke: Yusuke can be found in the Underground Walkway during the day, near the drink stand.

Toranosuke Yoshida
Arcana: Sun
Where to find Yoshida: Yoshida can be found in Central Square, giving speeches at night.

Sadayo Kawakami
Arcana: Temperance
Where to find Kawakami: Kawakami can be requested at night by calling her using the payphone found on the ground floor of Cafe Leblanc.

Makoto Niijima
Arcana: Priestess
Where to find Makoto: Makoto can be found next to the library on the third floor of the school during the day. When there's no school, she can be found outside of the school gates during the day.

Futaba Sakura
Arcana: Hermit

Hifumi Togo
Arcana: Star
Where to find Hifumi: Hifumi can be found inside the church at night.

Ichiko Ohya
Arcana: Devil
Where to find Ohya: Ohya can be found inside the Crossroads Bar in Shinjuku at night.

Chihaya Mifune
Arcana: Fortune
Where to find Chihaya: Chihaya can be found in Shinjuku at night, at her fortune telling stand off to the right of the main road.

Goro Akechi
Where to find Akechi: Akechi's confidant rank will increase automatically as the story progresses.

Sae Niijima
Arcana: Judgement
Where to find Sae: Sae's confidant rank will increase automatically as the story progresses.

Haru Okumura
Arcana: Empress
Where to find Haru: Haru can be found on the school rooftop during the day.

Munehisa Iwai
Arcana: Hanged Man
Where to find Iwai: Iwai can be found in his store in Shibuya at night.

Shinya Oda
Arcana: Tower
Where to find Shinya: Shinya can be found in the arcade in Akihabara during the day.

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