Persona 5: Phantom X (P5X) is the newest game in the popular Persona series that mixes the classic RPG style with a modern gacha-game setup.
If you’re new to the game or just starting to learn its unique progression systems, P5X can seem pretty overwhelming at first.
This guide will explain everything you need to know to get started, make the most of your resources, and move through the game smoothly.
Why Focus on the Main Story?
When you first start playing P5X, you’ll see a ton of features, currencies, icons, and mechanics thrown at you all at once. It might be tempting to try out everything right away, but the best plan for beginners is to focus on moving forward in the main story.
The first dungeon, which is basically a tutorial, slowly shows players the main gameplay systems like combat, gacha pulls, equipping weapons, and basic interactions. As you keep going, new features will unlock, such as:
- Dailies: These are daily tasks that give you valuable rewards, including premium currency (called Metadels or gems). If you do four dailies per day, you’ll get about 80 gems. These daily goals are the main way to build up resources in P5X.
- Battle Pass: You can get this in a free or paid version, and it gives you lots of rewards like XP materials, items to refill your stamina (called “espresso cans”), and resources to level up your characters and weapons.
- Guidebook: This beginner-friendly book is full of goals that give you powerful items when you reach them, like five-star character selectors, weapon selectors, and more.
By moving through the story, you’ll unlock these features naturally, which will give you a clear path to grow your in-game power.
Why the Beginner Banner Selector Matters?
Early on in P5X, you’ll get a chance to pull on a Beginner Banner that has big discounts. This banner is really exciting for new players because it lets you get your first five-star character selector.
Selector Recommendations:
- Ann (AOE DPS): Ann is the best choice for beginners because she’s really useful as an area-of-effect DPS unit, which works well in free-to-play team setups. She works great with fire-based teams and can consistently deal a lot of damage, making her stand out.
- Morgana (Healer/Support): If you don’t like Ann, Morgana is the next best pick. As a support unit, Morgana helps keep your team alive during tougher content. Her usefulness really shines in harder battles, especially in the second palace where the damage checks can be pretty tough.
- Ryuji (Single Target DPS): For beginners, Ryuji isn’t recommended as much because he needs a lot of investment to be good at his job as a physical single-target damage dealer. He becomes more valuable later in the game, but early on, he doesn’t seem as useful as Ann or Morgana.
Once you’ve picked your selector, the five-star hero you choose will be the foundation of your main team as you progress through the game.
Building Your Characters: Investing Vertically vs. Horizontally
Building your team the right way in P5X is really important for clearing content and progressing into the middle and end parts of the game. The key to success is vertical investment rather than horizontal investment.
What Is Vertical Investment?
Vertical means putting all your limited resources—like XP materials, ascension items, and skill upgrade materials—into leveling up a single team as much as possible.
By concentrating on a specific group of characters, you’ll make sure they perform as well as they can.
This stops you from spreading your resources too thin across multiple characters, allowing those main characters to handle stronger and stronger enemies.
Suggested Composition for Beginners:
- 1 DPS Unit – Ann is an excellent free choice, as mentioned earlier.
- 1 Sustain/Support Unit – Morgana or Cattle, the free owl mascot, works wonderfully in this role.
- Optional Debuffer/Buffer – Characters such as Key provide debuff support that synergizes well with DPS characters and can amplify damage output.
Progression Priorities:
- Level up characters: Make maxing out character levels your top priority to make sure they survive and deal more damage. Level caps are based on Wonder’s level at first.
- Ascend characters: Ascending characters unlocks special abilities that are really important to how well they perform.
- Upgrade weapons: Upgrading and leveling weapons improves basic stats like attack power and defense, which is just as important for both DPS and healer characters.
Building a small, focused team makes sure these core members can beat content efficiently, earning you higher-level rewards that you can use to develop other characters and teams later.
How to Use Wonder (Main Character) Effectively?
Wonder, your main character in P5X, is one of the most flexible units in the game. He scales differently compared to other characters and has access to multiple personas that dictate his build and combat effectiveness.
Persona System:
Wonder, your main character in P5X, is one of the most versatile units in the game. He gets stronger in a different way compared to other characters and can use multiple personas that determine his build and how well he fights.
Fusion Basics:
- Wonder’s personas work kind of like they do in traditional Persona games, allowing him to adapt to different roles like DPS, support, or tank. Fusion is still a big part of this system, letting Wonder get new, stronger personas.
- To fuse personas, you select a target persona and fulfill its requirements. For example, to fuse Dionysus, you’d need specific fusion materials gotten through farming or gacha pulls.
Once fused, personas are saved permanently in your compendium, so you don’t have to buy them back if you use them.
Wonder’s personas also have a rank-up system like character progression. Ranking up increases their stats and how well their skills work.
Your fusion strategies should match what you need to progress, focusing on personas that buff or improve your main team’s combat abilities.
Stamina Management
The stamina system in P5X is pretty strict: Each day, players get 240 stamina points, and if you don’t use them, they don’t carry over. Making the most of your stamina is really important for progressing in the game.
Early Priorities for Stamina Usage:
- EXP Materials: Leveling up your characters.
- Ascension Materials: Required for breaking level caps and unlocking bonus passives.
- Weapon Ascension Materials: Enhancing weapon power.
Don’t spend stamina on farming artifacts (Revelation Cards) early on. Artifact farming depends a lot on luck, and the benefits aren’t as good as improving your characters’ and weapons’ basic stats until the middle of the game.
Important Tip: Don’t use stamina refill items (espresso cans) early on. Save these items for farming high-level personas and artifacts later in the game, as these cost a lot more stamina.
Progression Through Social Stats and Links
Social stats are the foundation of P5X’s improvement system and directly affect your ability to interact with certain characters, unlock shops, and get discounts.
Leveling up social stats is important for developing social links, which give free rewards like premium currency, XP materials, and gacha pulls.
Daily social activities refresh regularly, so you can work on these stats while also doing combat and main story missions.
Understanding the Gacha System
P5X has a gacha system with three types of banners:
- Standard Banner Tickets: Used for pulling regular five-star units, these are often sourced for free through events and dailies.
- Limited Banner Tickets: Used for pulling rare and timed characters. These often cost premium currency or paid resources.
- Weapon Banner Tickets: Used for pulling exclusive weapons with rate-ups on limited banners.
Pity System Overview:
- The soft pity starts at 60 pulls, while hard pity kicks in at 80 pulls for limited characters, giving you a 50/50 chance to get the featured character.
- Weapon banners also use a 50/50 system but let you choose between featured weapons.
Endgame Preparation: Farming Personas and Artifacts
Once you’ve completed the midgame and maxed your first team, you can begin farming for higher-tier personas and Revelation Cards.
Persona Farming:
Higher-level personas, like Oberon, are gotten through combat trials in the metaverse.
These cost a lot of stamina and aren’t guaranteed rewards until you reach certain pity milestones.
Artifact Farming:
Artifacts have random bonus stats that determine how good they are. While farming for perfect stats can be tough, they become really important for being as efficient as possible during endgame activities.
At this point, stamina refill items become very valuable.
Key Tips for Beginners
- Follow the Story: Many features unlock naturally when progressing through the dungeons and missions.
- Spend Resources Wisely: Focus on investing in a small team of main characters to make the most of their usefulness and basic stats.
- Save Stamina Items: Refill items should be saved for high-value endgame farming.
- Choose Your Selector Wisely: Ann or Morgana will have a big impact on your early progress.
- Balance Social Stats: Regularly check social link progress to get free rewards.
Final Thoughts
Starting Persona 5: Phantom X can feel overwhelming, but it rewards careful and focused gameplay.
By prioritizing story progress, focused investment, and using stamina efficiently, players can enjoy a smooth beginner’s experience while getting ready for complex endgame mechanics.
Build your team carefully, invest smartly, and look forward to exploring Tokyo with your Phantom Thieves!
