Like many role-playing games, in Persona 5, you will get different endings. In total, you will find five ending in the game. Only one of the five endings is true, or you can say Canonical ending in Persona 5. Apart from that, one is a good or normal ending, while the other three are bad endings.
Seeing how many endings there are and that three of the five endings are bad, players may have some confusion about how to get either the excellent or canonical ending in Persona 5. This guide will help you get all the endings in Persona 5.
Persona 5 True Canonical Ending
Let’s start with the P5 true ending that requires you to get to the 3rd semester in the game. First, you want to level your cooperation with several in-game characters to unlock the third semester, like for Maruki, the required level is 9. Most importantly, it would be best to get to this level before November 17th.
Next, you need to increase your cooperation level with Kasumi Yoshizawa’s confidant, faith, before December 19th. Both of these are prerequisites just for entering your third semester.
You can also get some bonus scenes for the ending if you increase your cooperation level with Goro’s confidant before November 17th; it is not a requirement.
After all, this is done, the main deciding point for the true ending has you withstand Sae Niijima’s interrogation on November 20th. During the interrogation, Sae will ask about your friends and whether or not they are part of the Phantom Thieves case.
You are to deny all knowledge of their involvement in the case if you want to progress to the true ending. The dialogue options you want to pick are “No” and “Never heard of them” to ensure all your friends stay safe.
Other than these options, you want to tell Sae about the phone and tell her to show it to the “Traitor” to tip her off. After this, Goro will also interrogate you, but your dialogue choices when talking to Goro don’t matter.
As you approach the end of the game, you come face to face with the antagonist and will be offered to join their side. You must reject the God of Control, provided you get in the velvet room and battle Yaldabaoth to free the world of their control.
This will unlock the Canonical Ending for Persona 5.
Persona 5 Normal Ending
The normal ending of Persona 5 deviates from the canonical ending in that you failed to get to the third semester. If you fail to get a high cooperation level with Maruki’s and Kasumi’s confidants and then refrain from selling out your friends when Sae interrogates you, you will get the base game ending.
This ending doesn’t allow you to battle Yaldabaoth. Instead, you accept his offer to enslave humanity more excellently, so they don’t remember what happened and will continue living normally.
All the charges on Phantom Thieves are down, and they are now the heroes in Persona 5. The world goes to normal under the control of Yaldabaoth.
Persona 5 Bad Endings
Now it’s time to talk about all the bad endings in P5. There are three of them in Persona 5, so let’s talk about them individually.
Bad Ending #1
This is the easiest bad ending to get; you don’t have to do anything for this. To get the first bad ending, you must not steal the treasures from the palaces in Metaverse. There are deadlines for you to steal these treasures, so if you cross the deadline, you will lose out on getting these treasures at all.
If you fail to steal the treasures, you will trigger the first bad ending for Persona 5.
Bad Ending #2
The second bad ending has you betray your friends. During your interrogation with Sae Niijima, you are asked about the members of Phantom Thieves. Usually, the game expects you to refuse to cooperate with Sae and give away your friends, but you can reveal their involvement to reduce your sentence.
If you decide to act selfishly and agree to answer Sae’s question and reveal the identities of Phantom Thieves, this will trigger the second bad ending of Persona 5.
Bad Ending #3
For this bad ending, you must progress properly with all the requirements for the canonical ending. Progress to the third semester, refuse to give away your friends, and head to Velvet Room to talk to Igor, where he reveals that he is Yaldabaoth.
Here, Yaldabaoth offers you to join him, and you can fight him to free the world of his control. Accepting his request will trigger the last bad ending in Persona 5.
Persona 5 Royal Endings
The ending in Persona 5 and Persona 5 Royal are similar except for some new endings and twists. The first twist is on the bad ending where you accept Igor’s or Yaldabaoth’s offer to allow him to control and enslave all humans but let them live on normally, without the knowledge of free will at all.
It shows that the member of the Phantom Thieves get whatever they want, and the cutscene shows them having a wonderful happy life, even after giving in to Yaldabaoth’s demands.
On the other end, the canonical ending has a bitter taste. Even after freeing the world from Yaldabaoth’s influence, you see that it’s not all that you hoped for, but you carry on knowing that at least people can now finally have and fulfill their dreams.
You get an additional bad ending in Persona 5 Royal as well. This ending has players getting to the third semester and rejecting Yaldabaoth’s offer; if you fail to complete the last dungeon before the deadline, all the Phantom Thieves fall into doubt about all their efforts.
They will forgo their dream to purge the world of its false reality, and you will see the protagonist deciding to sleep, indicating he has lost his will to fight in Persona 5.
