Snow Empress Mariko, also called Shadow Meriko Hyodo, is an enemy boss in Persona 5 strikers, the third boss that the Phantom Thieves will face. We have this step-by-step Persona 5 Strikers Snow Empress Mariko Boss guide for you on how you can get to the boss and defeat it with different strategies.
Persona 5 Strikers Snow Empress Mariko Boss
You will encounter Snow Empress Mariko in the Sapporo Jail of P5 Strikers
The snow empress has a beefy 12,800 HP. She also has about 8 Stagger shields you need to break for an All-out Attack! It’s recommended that you face her at level 36 for the base game and higher up for Painful past encounters.
Get to the Empress
The first appearance of Shadow Mariko will be in the form of snow queen and then she will transform into her original blob-like shape.
Sapporo Jail is where you will face the Snow Empress Mariko, which is a metaverse version of the original Sapporo. Sapporo is the capital of Hokkaido prefecture of Japan and this district is popular for the winter festival, beer, and food.
Keep in mind that in order to reach the final boss of the level, you will have to first face the Sapporo Jail Lock Keeper and defeat him before you can face the final boss. The final reward you get after defeating the final boss is “Cage of Gluttony Trophy.”
Boss Skills and Effects
- Rage: The empress will turn red and your defense will be heavily lowered.
- Dinner Time: With this skill, the boss will swallow one of your party members. To save that party member, you will have to hit the boss with any chandeliers or a showtime.
- Freeze and Shiver: As the name suggests, with this skill, Mariko will create a blizzard that will slow down your movement and you will have to attack any heater in the room to get the situation back to normal.
- Pounce Attack: Mariko will pounce and will create snow shards around the area.
- Mabufula: This skill will allow her to spread medium ice damage over a large area.
- The politicians will dance: This is the attack in which Mariko spins around very fast and throws ice shards randomly.
- Tentacle Swipe: With this skill, Mariko uses utensils to charge on enemies.
- You are annoying: Mariko will spin and will create ice glaciers around her.
Strategies to Defeat Mariko
Start with Debuffs
Start the final boss fight with lots of debuffs on Mariko like attack power decrease (Tarunda), evasion power (Sukunda), defense power decrease (Rakunda), etc.
Psy and Curse Attacks
Mariko is weak against psychokinesis and curse attacks, so make the most out of this and make sure to use Joker’s Arsene and Noir’s Milady against Mariko. Use elemental attacks to stagger the boss and break the shields.
Time for Buffs
Once you are done with debuffs, follow them up with party member buffs like attack power increase, defense power increase, and evasion increase.
Keep SP Recovery Items
Make sure to keep a stock of HP and SP recovery items before you jump into the final boss battle. You can buy these items from vending machines, stores, restaurants, and food stands or also from Sophia’s shop.
Cure Ailments
Make sure to get and give access to your party members to the status recovery skill called Amrita Drop. This will be very useful in curing ailments if you or your party members get inflicted with some kind of ailment like sleep, freeze or dizzy.
Showtime Attacks
Showtime gauge is the yellow color gauge that you see on top of your screen. As you are fighting with Mariko, the showtime gauge will build up slowly. When it is full, you can do the showtime attack on Mariko.
More Technical damage
First, hit Mariko with some status ailment like burn and then make sure to inflict some kind of technical damage to her using wind attack or psychokinesis.
Dodge Ice Attacks
Mabufula is a strong ice attack that Mariko can use, and it can also inflict freeze status ailments, so make sure to dodge them.
Rewards
You get about 4,000 exp and about 39,000 yen for beating her the first time. She gives more exp and even an accessory during painful past encounters
