Persona 5 was a revolutionary JRPG. It combined elements of every good RPG and JRPG in the world, making a long but somehow engaging game that's easy to follow if the player takes the time to understand. Of course, the Persona series is long and old but with its beautiful animation style, intricate plot, and engaging characters, Persona 5 is truly the stand out game of the series. With Royal coming this year, it's only going to get better.
Although most of your focus might be on defeating the palaces — places where evil shadows dwell in an alternative universe known as the Metaverse — your time in the real world is spent in a social simulation setting, living the life of a highschooler. One of the things you have to do to advance the game and do better is build social stats, and there are so many ways to do this that you may have missed.
10 Knowledge: Answer Questions In Class Correctly
Every so often, you'll be sitting in class and the teacher will fire a question at you. You might think it doesn't matter if you get this wrong, since there seem to be no in-game consequences, but if you get it right, your knowledge stat will gain points.
If you join the network at the start of the game when given the option, you can press on the touchpad to see what other people chose and get a sense of the right answer. It's probably best to do that — some of the questions can be a little tough.
9 Kindness: Nurture Your Plant
You live in the attic of a cafe named Leblanc, thanks to the tough associate of your parents who took you in after you were put on probation. On the right hand side of the room is a plant. Investigate it — you'll see that it's not in good condition.
If you go to the underground mall and visit the flower shop, you can buy nutrients. Check the plant every day to see how it's doing and give it nutrients when it's not doing so well and your kindness will be boosted. Kindness can be a hard stat to get points for, so this is the easiest way.
8 Charm: Visit The Bathhouse
Early in the game, you'll be given access to the bathhouse. Visit it often for your charm to raise (and sometimes even your guts!). If you visit it on a rainy day, you'll be given the option to stay in there longer, meaning even more charm points. Apparently being clean means people find you charming — who knew?
You don't get the chance to clean yourself elsewhere, so...
7 All Stats: Watch Some Movies
As you build social relationships with people, they'll occasionally ask you to the movies. This might seem like a waste of your time (especially if you aren't interested in raising the relationship of that confidant), but do it — depending on the movie, your stats will raise. You don't get to pick the movie, sadly, but you could always use some stat raises and this is an easy way to do it.
6 All Stats: Play Some Video Games
You can buy a video game console and some games and then check the TV in Leblanc and set up your console. This may initially seem like another waste of time when you have so much to be doing, but it's actually a great way to quickly raise your stats (depending on the game, just like the movies!) and raise your relationships with friends.
5 Guts: Participate In Clinical Trials
Towards the beginning of the game, you'll meet a doctor in Leblanc called Takemi. She seems — shady. She's in some medical trouble and she doesn't exactly present herself professionally, which is supposed to suggest that she's a bit of a back alley doctor. Still, she'll sell you medicine and if you're willing to participate in her clinical trials, it'll raise your guts. That medicine will knock you out for a whole evening but to raise your confidant level with her and get some guts... Well, it's as worth doing as anything else.
4 Guts: Study In The Library...?
Everyone knows you can study in the library to raise your knowledge stat — but did you know it'll raise your guts too?
You come to the school as an outcast, so it's considered brave to sit and study openly in the library. Morgana even prompts you by asking if you're going to be okay studying there, but it's best to go ahead — you can raise two stats at once just by pressing a button!
3 Kindness: Get A Job At The Flower Shop
The flower shop in the underground mall isn't just good for plant nutrients. Check the job board in the walkway above and you can call them for a job. Working there will raise your kindness and since this might just be the stat with the least options to power it up, it's a good idea to get the job.
The only caveat is that your charm must be at level two to get this job. Time for many, many bathhouse trips.
2 Proficiency: Spend Your Evenings Making Tools
You can sit at the workbench on the left hand side of the attack and make lockpicks and other neat tools to use in the palaces. Even if you're not bothered about opening chests, do it — it'll raise your proficiency level! It takes up an evening but since you're limited early in the game to what you can do in the evenings anyway, this is an easy raise.
1 All Stats: Complete Palaces ASAP!
The most broad — but effective — way to make sure you can raise your social stats is simply to make sure you complete the palaces as quickly as possible, giving you more time between palace deadlines to socialize and be a productive member of society. Some palaces can even be beaten in one day (or two, if you count coming back to the real world to send the calling card). Of course, you may need a break during them — especially playing on hard mode — but on safe or easy mode, you have no excuse! Blast through them in a day and save your time for other stuff.