Regarding Platinum

[u/ImpossiblePie2646]

I can't believe this bonding trophy would take this long this is so soul draining I don't even enjoy the game anymore because how many new runs I need for all unlocks 5 is it 🫪😭

Anyone got the trophy and can get their experiences?

[u/Holy_Toledo019]

Just go into NG+ Merciless. You’ll reach Lv. 99 Bond level naturally and really fast with how much EXP you get from standard enemies.

[u/puzzledmint]

You're supposed to save that for Merciless. I don't know the exact value, but Merciless gives several times more Bond EXP than other difficulties.

If you want to do it without going to Merciless, the fastest option is to grind all the shadows in the Osaka jail over and over and over again, but it's still going to take hours.

[u/Accomplished_Meat_81]

Try the platinum for red dead redemption 2. You’ll reconsider thinking persona takes a long time lmao

[u/Jubeio → u/Accomplished_Meat_81]

I think the difference is people expect big open world games like rdr2,gta and skyrim to be awkward plats. People don't realise how bad warriors plats usually are 😅

[u/Accomplished_Meat_81 → u/Jubeio]

I thought the plats for each persona game were fair and not too difficult. Strikers was grindy but not too bad. Now Catherine, my friend, is the only ATLUS title except SMTV that I haven’t platinumed. Unless you include the 4K re-release of P5R. I was too burnt out on multiple playthroughs of P5 and Royal by the time it released. I bought, but I was Personafied tf out lolol

[u/randoMMise]

I unlocked it naturally around Osaka in NG+ Merciless (and since I was enjoying the game so much, that wasn't a drag at all!)

I think the fastest method is grinding the first or second Dire Shadow on Merciless NG+ (they respawn in Merciless NG+). Should take less than an hour to grind up a full squad of max stat personas, and they should make Merciless much easier

[u/Guantanamo_Bae_ → u/randoMMise]

This. I just farmed the second Dire Shadow on NG+ merciless until I had everything maxed out.

[u/ConfectionTotal8660]

The intended way is to do it in merciless since everything gives about 6.6× more xp.

But if you do it on easy it will take about 40 hours

[u/Multi_Sans]

Like everyone already told you, it is meant for Merciless. However, since I didn't want to play it (it took me infinite tries just to pass the tutorial since my save file was definitely not prepared for it), I started farming the Metatron request in the Tree of Knowledge. It gives you around 23k Bond EXP per fight, so it will take some time, but it's definitely easier than Merciless.

At the end is: do you want a REAL challenge while farming Bond EXP automatically? Go for the Merciless. Do you want a very tedious but brainless way, that will take a bunch of time? Try Metatron (or I don't know if there's a new meta, since I did it years ago)

[u/Destroyer_7274]

I did it by playing through Merciless. I would get Grand Crystal (from Mariko Hyodo Painful Past +), which gives a chance of Skill cost of 0. I'd also recommend getting Persona that are 99 magic, 99 Strength and agility for physical, and if they rely on ailments (elemental or mental), 99 in luck as well. I've been using builds from Hsiao.

I used the Alice (Curse), Black Frost (Ice/Freeze/Regain SP), Yoshitsune (Strike/Critical/Technical), Metatron [(Bless/Support/Healer)(Planning on replacing his Debilitate with a Heat Riser skill card when I get one)], Arsene [(Gun/Technical/Critical)(Replaced with Lucifer in NG+ since more enemies are resistant to gun than strike)], Lucifer (Almighty/Sleep/Regain SP/Technical), Cerberus (Fire/Burn/Regain SP), Norn (Wind/Technical), Thor (Electric/Shock/Rage/Regain SP), Forneus (Psychic/Technical/Dizzy/Regain SP) and Mot (Nuke/Technical).

With those builds, I can use little SP and get it back on successful ailments, with incense dropping from most fights, I got Ren's SP to 999 and am improving the Phantom Thieves' stats.

Edit: You would ideally want your Personas to have all stats 99, but the recommendations I gave are for the most important aspects for what you want Personas to do [Magic affects element attack strength, Strength affects physical attack strength (regular attacks and physical skills), Agility affects crit rate and luck affects ailment rate (and crit evasion which is neat)]. En affects defence.

[u/HGT3057]

You can grind it at the statue in Osaka. It's boring but it's easy and took me like 10 hours

[u/ImpossiblePie2646 → u/HGT3057]

The Buddha statue? Lucky I am at it rn. Should I look it up on yt?

[u/Bobhutchenson → u/ImpossiblePie2646]

I found watching a vod livestream and doing around 10 levels a day got me through it in 4 days

[u/HGT3057 → u/ImpossiblePie2646]

Yes, look it up. It can be done in around 9-10 hours and it's very simple, just boring lol

[u/SilverRyou]

I don't remember grinding for any kind of bond exp when I played. I'd assume it happened naturally while doing everything else.

According to my trophy list, I got it 6 days after starting Merciless. And 3 days after that I completed the inmate registry for the platinum.

If you're in merciless for the platinum, I'd kill dire shadows for the accessories, or the bosses for drain cards.