#technically ann rank 9 spoilers

[shufeise]

i did ann's rank 9 and the way akira just. stands there. thirdwheeling.

(also shuake because they live rent free in my head)

[party-of-rpg-muses]

My Strategy for the P5R Superboss (spoilers)

As we know, Persona 5 Royal got a new superboss, which can only be fought in New Game + and during the Third Semester. That superboss being Lavenza and you don’t have to defeat the Twins of max out their Confidant to fight her. Thing is, her fight is incredibly difficult and very strict. I also did the fight with the DLC Personas.

First, the prerequisites:

Attain everyone’s Third Personas. (With the exception of Akechi and Sumire. Akechi will just have Loki, but Sumire must have Vanadis, as they don’t get Third Personas until the end of the second-to-last day). And this goes without saying, but everyone should be at level 99.

Spend a lot of time at the Jazz Jin and increase everyone’s stats (I typically do this on days where there are no Confidants to work on or I just can’t). The PT members and what stats should be increased are as follows:

Ryuji gets Strength and Endurance (Tuesday). Luck isn’t needed.

Ann gets Magic (Thursday) and SP (Wednesday). Again, Luck isn’t needed.

Morgana gets anything involving Luck (can by Tuesday or Thursday). Friday is optional.

Yusuke gets Strength and Luck (Tuesday).

Makoto can have any (with the exception of Sunday).

Futaba is solely for Sunday, which can give new abilities. These directly affect what support skills she bestows, including increasing any or all stats (ATK, DEF, AGI), Charge and/or Focus the party, revive a fallen party member to full health, or even completely heal all party members, increase their stats, and give Charge and Focus.

Haru can get either Strength or Magic, but Luck is most needed. SP is optional.

Akechi can get any (with the exception of Sunday)

Sumire gets Strength and Luck, but can also get all stats increased (Friday)

Everyone should have their Ultimate Weapons (it’s not needed, but it does help). The items I used can be found here. However, I gave Morgana Ring of Lust (for healing), Makoto got Ring of Gluttony (for added defense), Ann got Ring of Envy (for added evasion for everyone), Ryuji got Ring of Pride (for added physical damage), and Haru gets Ring of Greed (for added magical damage). Futaba gets any that increase her luck. Sumire gets Orichalcum R, Joker and Akechi can have pretty much anything, so long as it increases their damage.

Have a few high-level Personas with high stats, but for various roles; damage (preferably one with strong Almighty damage), a healer/reviver, and one with high crit chance, I went with Izanagi-no-Okami Picaro for damage, Seth for both damage and crit chance, and Messiah for healing. But if you don’t have the Persona DLC, replace Izanagi-no-Okami Picaro with Satanael or any Persona with Severe Almighty on a single foe. And replace Messiah for Ishtar or Maria. In both cases, the Almighty damage dealers should have as many passive skills to up their Almighty damage and magic damage as possible while the healers should have Salvation and Samarecarm (and maybe a few ailment recovery spells), but mostly passives to increase the healing damage.

Increase Technical Rank to 4 by playing billiards at Kichijoji. This will be important for the fight. You can also increase the Baton Pass rank.

And now for the fight:

There’s one important thing that must be stressed: Every party turn (where the party attacks between Lavenza’s), the party has to attack and follow the challenge set by Lavenza at the start of each phase. This isn’t so important in the first phase, but becomes more important as the fight goes on. Failure to pass will result in instant defeat, no questions asked.

1st Phase: Ann, Haru, Joker, and Akechi.

This phase is about dealing with Lavenza’s affinity and exploiting it to deal considerable damage. However, at least in my playthrough, I struggled to figure out her affinity, so I stuck with Almighty. Joker and Akechi being the main damage-dealers while Ann and Haru provided buffs. On occasion, I would have Ann use Blazing Hell (either after using Concentrate or having Haru use President’s Insight for the same effect) and deal about 1,000 damage. You have about 9 turns to deal a certain amount of damage. If you deal enough, she moves on to the next phase. It would also be wise to use debuffs before attacking, but when she gets her next turn, Lavenza will remove them.

2nd Phase: Ann, Haru, Joker, and Yusuke.

This phase is about dealing technical damage. And this is where that “important thing” I mentioned comes into play. Each party turn, you have to deal Technical Damage to Lavenza. Meaning she has to be afflicted by in ailment and you must take advantage of that ailment in the same turn before hers comes up. Anyway, I would often use items and depending on what they are and who afflicted it, either have Haru use Psychokinesis or one of the others use a physical attack. Also, I personally used items, since I believe they’re a bit more reliable. When I played, Joker would always go first, so he would use an ailment on Lavenza, followed by Haru’s Psychokinesis. If it failed, Haru would use an item and have Ann or Yusuke follow up with a physical. Put simply, three chances to hit her with an ailment before hitting her with a Technical. This is where the Technical Rank comes in. At Rank 4, she’ll be Knocked Down. However, don’t do an All-Out Attack. Instead, use a Baton Pass to increase one’s damage. Preferably, Baton Pass to Yusuke so he can Deadly Fury, which gets stronger with a Baton Pass. You can also use a Psychokinesis or Nuclear item upon hitting Lavenza with an ailment.

3rd Phase: Morgana, Haru, Joker, Sumire.

It would be wise to try and slowly switch Ann and Yusuke out for Morgana and Sumire, as trying to replace both in the same turn would drastically cut down on your damage and run the risk on not getting Technical. In this phase, you have to deal a Critical Hit and I believe this to be the hardest. Have Sumire use Brave Step to increase everyone’s critical rate and have Joker switch to Seth. Haru and Joker both use One-Shot Kill, Morgana use Miracle Punch, and Sumire use Sword Dance. And just like in the previous phase, don’t use All-Out Attacks when she gets Knocked Down. Instead, Baton Pass to someone and keep the damage up. If healing is needed, Baton Pass to Morgana and have him use Salvation or Mediarahan. If only one person needs healing, Champion’s Cup, which will heal them while also increasing their attack stat. But if not, Baton Pass to whomever it best at dealing damage (most likely one of Joker’s other Personas) to deal even more damage.

4th Phase: Anyone (I went with Ryuji/Ann, Makoto, Joker, and Haru)

This phase is just a straight-up fight. Unleash everything and deal as much damage as possible. I like to have Makoto use Vault Guardian whenever possible. She’s on support, but if not supporting needs to be done, I have her attack as well. Ryuji and Ann can make use of their own Rings too. Ryuji with Tyrant’s Will can grant Charge to anyone and not just himself while Gambler’s Foresight can make it harder for Lavenza to hit your party. You can also bring Haru in for the same reason as Ryuji. She can also use Lucy’s Life Wall, which grants both physical and magical reflect on the entire party. This can be useful to squeeze in extra damage. And her chainsaw hurts. I’ll also say this; Charge-God’s Hand and Concentrate-Blazing Hell can deal insane damage. Also in this phase, Lavenza can interrupt your turn and perform a normal attack on a party member. This is the main point where Futaba comes in. She can increase your party’s defense, meaning Lavenza deals less damage or she can protect your party and have them take no damage at all. And if she knocks a party member down and will attack them, Futaba can completely block the attack. And there can be times where she triggers Ultimate Support, where she’ll heal everyone to full health, bestows effects of Thermopylae/Heat Riser to everyone, give everyone both Focus and Charge, and give them increase critical rates. However, after about 6 turns, Lavenza will summon Lucifer and use Concentrate, followed by Megidolaon, which can and will destroy the party unless Joker equips a Persona that can revive him if he’s defeated or allows him to withstand a mortal blow. I haven’t been able to find any other way around it, so I suggest beating her before then. Not even Guarding from full health works. That was the main reason why I said to use Baton Passes instead of All-Out Attacks, as by the time you reach this phase, she should be weak enough to be beaten before she uses that skill. 

With any luck, you should be able to beat her. And like I said, for the 2nd and 3rd phase, you have to deal at least one Technical or one Critical between Lavenza’s turns. And if a party member (or multiple members) is low and health and/or afflicted with an ailment, have Joker switch to the healer (if he gets to go first in the party) and use Salvation. And don’t worry about ailments afflicting Joker. SInce you’re on the Third Semester, that means you maxed out Maruki’s Confidant, meaning you have Detox DX, which can allow Joker to heal an ailment as soon as it’s afflicted. You might also have to try a few times too. It took me several attempts before I got it.