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To prove the validity of their “justice” to the world, the Phantom Thieves of Hearts choose the Mafia boss Junya Kaneshiro to be their third major target inPersona 5 Royal. Not only does this raise their standing in the public’s eye, it also nets themtheir sixth member, Makoto Nijima.
However, to accomplish their goal the Phantom Thieves first have to steal Kaneshiro’s treasure, and he turns out to be just as prepared for their arrival as Madarame was. While Kaneshiro doesn’t have as many gimmicks in his boss battle as Madarame, his gimmicks are different enough that players ofPersona 5 Royalmay have trouble figuring out how to deal with them.
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The Perils of Piggytron
The first phase of the battle begins with Kaneshiro’s Shadow, also known as Bael, climbing into a giant piggy-bank robot he calls “Piggytron.” Piggytron is the first boss in the gameto have two full turns per round: Kamoshida could only take two turns occasionally, and Madarame’s painting form had only one turn per painting. Piggytron’s actions include:
Piggytron also has plenty of HP and good defense, so it’s worth spending a turn or twohitting the mech with attack and defense debuffs.
Once Piggytron is down to about two-thirds of its health, Bael will get frustrated and activate Super VIP Form. He’ll fly out of the hatch and start rolling Piggytron, spending the boss’s second action on spinning up. Players should have the whole party guard at this point, because the next boss action is March of the Piggy which will hit everyone with severe Almighty damage.
When Bael activates Super VIP Form again, Joker will have a chance to counter the move. Instead of ordering a party member to sneak behind Bael, each one will suggest a different item to throw to distract Kaneshiro. The items are chosen at random, but if players have a full inventory at least one of them should be especially valuable. Listen carefully to what each party member says, because the one offering the most expensive item will have the most confidence in their choice.
A less expensive item can distract Bael enough to cancel the March of the Piggy attack, but a more expensive item can also cause him to skip additional turns. This will give players enough time to hammer on Piggytron and end this phase of the fight early.
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The Goon Gang Appears
Once Piggytron is down to a sliver of HP, Bael will climb out and begin the second phase by summoning a Hitman-for-Hire and a Bodyguard-for-Hire. Not only do these enemies have no weaknesses, they resist almost every form of damage. The exception is that the Hitman nulls Curse and drains Bless attacks while the Bodyguard nulls Bless and drains Curse. On top of that, the Bodyguard will automatically intercept all the damage that Bael would take. He only takes damage once from all-foe attacks, so using them won’t drain his health any faster.
However,there is one form of attack that works wonderson both the Bodyguard and the Hitman: status ailments. Morgana will suggest using Sleep, but other ailments like Freeze and Shock can also work. Not only can players deal extra damage by using Technicals, any ailment that would force the Bodyguard to skip turns will prevent him from intercepting damage. For his part, Bael has no resistances and has a much smaller pool of HP than either of his hired goons.
In the meantime, players should watch out for enemy attacks. Bael has two turns per round, just like Piggytron, and he has his own set of attack skills.
Both the Hitman and the Bodyguard also have their own actions, with the Hitman’s being more dangerous even without an attack buff.
If players are having trouble hitting the Bodyguard-for-Hire with a status ailment, remember thatPersona 5 Royalhas a long list of items that can inflict ailments. Sleep Vial S, Freeze Spray, and Stun Gun all have high chances of taking the Bodyguard out of action, and any party member can use them. Disaster Shadows randomly drop these items, so even if a player’s last save is in the vault safe room they can stillhead back into the Bank of Gluttonyto get what they need. And if all else fails, the two hired goons have a finite supply of HP that players can power through.
However it happens, once Bael’s HP drops past the halfway point he’ll unleash a new special attack called Make It Rain. This will deal around 70 percent of each character’s current HP, and for his second action Bael will do it again. Unfortunately for him,his cash supply has run lowand the second attack deals no damage. On top of that, the hired goons will leave now that he has no money to pay them with. Bael will still try to put up a fight, but without any backup players should have no trouble finishing him off.
Persona 5 Royalis available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
