Bosses

Persona 3 hands out its bosses on a calendar. Every full moon puts a Shadow in front of SEES on a fixed date, at a level the game expects you to have reached, and the year builds toward one long fight on the roof of Tartarus. This guide sorts our Persona 3 boss pages the way the game delivers them: the dated story fights first, then the guardians you climb past, then Nyx Avatar phase by phase, and finally the three optional monsters that exist only to punish an unprepared party.

Every full moon boss, in date order

Our boss list covers each of these in more detail. The recommended levels below are the ones that page gives, and they are worth treating as a floor rather than a target, because a full moon fight arrives whether you are ready or not.

Boss	Date	Level	What it does to you
Priestess	May 9	10	Ice attacks, and she reflects Ice back at you. Panic and Charm are her other tools, and the fight is on a timer
Emperor and Empress	June 8	16	The first duo. The Emperor takes only magic and swaps which element hurts him, the Empress takes only physical, so the party has to switch stance mid-fight
Hierophant	July 7	24	Heavily resistant to Electricity and attacks with it. No other tricks, which makes it one of the simplest fights of the year
Lovers	July 7	15 on our page	Resistant to everything, so it is a grind. The SP Drain skill is the one attack to play around
Chariot and Justice	August 6	31	No weaknesses, endless status ailments, and the pair can fuse into an invincible form. Split them and hit whichever is unfused
Hermit	September 5	39	Poison and Electricity, plus an Electric drain skill. Nothing is resisted, so bring whatever you like
Fortune and Strength	October 4	46	Fortune is heavy Wind and Pierce damage, Strength is distress, charm and physical. You need both defences up
Jin Shirato and Takaya Sakaki	November 3	53	Jin throws Fire and instant-death Dark. Takaya covers Fire, Ice, Electricity, Wind and Pierce, and Mind Charge doubles his damage
Hanged Man	November 3	54	Hard physical hitter with no weaknesses. It sacrifices its own statues for an Almighty attack, so break them first
Chidori Yoshino	November 22	56	Fire, ailments, debuffs and instant-death Dark. She is weak to elemental damage, which is the fastest way to end it
Jin Shirato, alone	January 31	74	Floor 258 of Tartarus. The same fight as November, with a much stronger Jin and the same instant-death Dark
Takaya Sakaki, alone	January 31	75	Floor 262. Every element plus Dark instant kills, but he is weak to elemental damage himself
Nyx Avatar	January 31	76	The top floor, and the longest boss battle in the series at 14 phases

Three habits carry the whole list. Duo fights punish a single-element party, because each half covers what the other cannot take. Status ailments do more damage over a long fight than any single attack, so charms that resist Panic, Charm and Poison are worth more than a slightly better weapon. And the January bosses are a wall: Jin, Takaya and Nyx all land on the same date, one after another, on floors 258, 262 and the roof.

Tartarus guardians

Between the full moons, each section of Tartarus ends at a guardian that blocks the stairs. Our Tartarus page lists every one of them with its floor and level, and our dungeons guide arranges them block by block. They follow one rule the story bosses do not: a guardian usually has exactly one weakness, and the fight is trivial once you own it and miserable until you do.

Dancing Hands, the fight that teaches the rule

Dancing Hands waits on the 10th floor of the Thebel block and shows up again later in Arqa. It is a Magician Arcana Shadow that appears in a group of three, each with 220 HP and 120 SP, each strong against magic and physical damage, and each weak only to Strike.

At that point in the game the only Strike skill you are likely to own is Bash on Orpheus, which costs 7 percent of your HP and misses about half the time. Fusing Ara Mitama, available at level 6, gives you a much harder-hitting Strike option and no weakness for the Hands to exploit, though Tentarafoo can still panic you. Their kit is Agi, Zio, Bufu, Magaru, a plain Strike attack, Tentarafoo and Dia, so they heal each other while chipping at whichever party member has an exposed element.

Junpei is weak to Wind and Yukari to Electricity, and neither has a Strike skill, so both are support: healing, reviving and physical chip damage. The protagonist does the actual work. Knock all three Hands down with Strike, trigger an All-out Attack, then survive the counterattack and repeat. Carry HP recovery rather than SP recovery, because the fight is decided by staying upright.

Nyx Avatar, all 14 phases

Our Nyx guide walks the fight phase by phase. Nyx Avatar has roughly 25,500 HP, split as 1,500 for each of the first 13 phases and 6,000 for the last, and it changes Arcana every phase, taking its resistances and attacks with it. It is immune to Light and Dark throughout, neutral to everything else, and cannot be knocked down, so there are no All-out Attacks and no extra turns from criticals. Expect to spend more than half an hour.

Phase	Arcana	What changes
1	Fool	Nyx does nothing but smile. Buff the party, debuff Nyx, attack with rush only and spend no SP at all
2 to 5	Magician, Priestess, Empress, Emperor	The full moon bosses again, now with dyne-tier attacks on top of Almighty. Fire, then Ice, then Wind, then Electricity, one per phase
6 and 7	Hierophant, Lovers	Strike and Slash plus charm and panic. Avoid Strike and Wind of your own
8	Chariot	Immune to Slash, Strike and Pierce, and Power Charge turns God Hand into double damage. Defend and heal
9	Justice	Light-based, with new resistance to Fire and Ice
10	Hermit	Dark magic and ailments, boosted by Foul Breath, and it can deflect attacks
11	Fortune	The worst of the first 13. All four elements, none of which damage it. Use Slash, Strike and Pierce
12	Strength	It uses Slash, Strike and Pierce, so answer with elements
13	Hanged Man	Dark magic again with physical defence up. Elements only
14	Death	True form: 6,000 HP, every element and magic in the game, three Almighty attacks, and half damage taken from everything physical and elemental

The last phase has two moments that end runs. Halfway through, Moonless Gown deflects everything including Almighty, which is your window to heal and rebuff rather than attack. At roughly 1,500 HP or less, Nyx starts spamming Night Queen, which charms the party into attacking each other and healing Nyx back up, so charm resistance is not optional. Yukari, Akihiko, Aigis and the protagonist around level 80 is the party our page recommends, with Lightning Gloves on Yukari and Aigis, Yukari healing, Akihiko lowering defence and Aigis buffing. Thanatos, Messiah, Norn, Surt and Metatron are the personas worth fusing for it.

The three optional bosses

All three sit at level 99 and all three are endgame tests rather than obstacles.

The Reaper is also a farming target rather than only a wall. Our mechanics guide covers the Peaceful difficulty trick that turns it into the fastest experience in the game.

Frequently asked questions

What level should I be for each full moon?

Roughly 10 in May, 16 in June, 24 in July, 31 in August, 39 in September, 46 in October, 53 in November and 76 by the end of January. If you are behind, a night or two in Tartarus closes the gap faster than any other activity.

Can I skip the Tartarus guardians?

No. Each one gates the stairs to the next section, and the barricade above it only lifts when the matching full moon boss is dead. Climbing is the only way up.

Which boss is the hardest?

The Reaper, and it is not close. Among fights you have to win, Nyx Avatar is the longest and the only one where a single unresisted status effect can undo half an hour of work.