Dungeons

Persona 3 has one dungeon, and it is 264 floors tall. Tartarus rises out of Gekkoukan High every night during the Dark Hour and is the only place to fight Shadows outside the full moon, which makes it the game's gym, its wallet and its clock all at once. This guide takes our two Persona 3 dungeon pages and lays the tower out block by block, with the dates each section opens and the guardian waiting at the top of it.

How the tower works

Our Tartarus guide has the full breakdown. The floors are randomly generated apart from a handful of fixed ones, the first floor is the entrance and the 264th is the roof, and teleport points sit at the entrance and at each section break so you never have to reclimb what you have cleared.

The tower is barricaded into blocks, and a barricade only lifts once the matching Arcana Shadow has died on a full moon. That single rule sets the pace of the whole game: you cannot finish Tartarus in one night no matter how strong you are, because the story bosses arrive on their own dates. The advice our page gives is to push up to the following barricade within a night or two of it opening, then spend the rest of that month on social links while there is nothing left to climb.

Two things break the routine. People from Tatsumi Port Island wander into Tartarus during the Dark Hour, and Elizabeth will tell you which block they are lost in so you can bring them out for a reward. The Reaper also shows up if you linger too long on one floor, which is a death sentence early and an experience piñata late.

The six blocks

The gap between Harabah opening in November and Adamah opening on December 31 is the quietest stretch of the calendar, and it is the right time to close out social links before the last month collapses into boss fights. What happens on New Year's Eve is covered in our quests guide, since the choice decides whether Adamah opens at all.

Every guardian, block by block

Each section ends at a guardian sitting on a fixed floor. The levels below are the ones our Tartarus page records, and they are a good gauge of whether you have climbed too fast.

The Dancing Hand on floor 10 is the one that stops most first-time players, because it arrives in a group of three with a single weakness you may not own yet. Our bosses guide has the party and persona answer to it, and the two Adamah names at the end of the list are story fights rather than guardians, waiting on the last night of January.

The Command Room that does not exist

One dorm objective sends players in circles. On the evening of 5/11 Yukari mentions broken equipment in the First Floor Lounge and the game asks you to find the Command Room, which is not a room Persona 3 has. Our Command Room page explains that the game means the Meeting Room, up on the 4th floor behind the double doors on your right.

Inside is a hall with sofas, bookshelves and a console on the left wall. There is no equipment to repair. Interact with the console, play the recording, and the objective completes itself as soon as it finishes.

Frequently asked questions

How many floors does Tartarus have?

264, from the entrance on floor 1 to the roof on floor 264, plus the 10 optional floors of the Monad Depths.

Can I climb the whole tower in one night?

No. Barricades between blocks only open after the matching full moon boss dies, and those bosses arrive on set dates through the year.

When should I go to Tartarus?

As soon as a new block opens. Clearing to the next barricade in one or two nights levels the party ahead of the next full moon and leaves the rest of the month free for social links.