Persona 5 Royal is generally considered to be an easy game, as the changes to the battle system and gameplay have made it less challenging than the original Persona 5. However, there is one exception to this – the boss of the fifth palace, Kunikazi Okumura.
The battle against this Persona 5 Royal Okumura boss can be particularly difficult because of its unexpected and unfair mechanics. If you save your game after entering the palace to fight him, you may find yourself in a challenging situation.
Persona 5 Royal Okumura boss: How to beat him?
The move “Work Order” used by Okumura in the game releases waves of enemies that become stronger over time, with some waves particularly difficult to defeat. If the player is unable to defeat all the enemies within two turns, they will retreat, resetting all the progress made and requiring the player to start fighting them again from the beginning. This can be extremely frustrating, especially with the time constraint.
Thankfully, Okumura can be defeated by using the appropriate strategies. To provide a comprehensive guide, we will go through all the phases of the battle and explain how to defeat him efficiently within the 30-minute time limit.
Battle tips:
- We suggest putting Haru in the party, her psi attacks are crucial in the latter part of the battle and at normal party levels the Persona 5 Royal Okumura boss is virtually impossible without her.
- Morgana is also recommended for one of the other members because his wind attacks are also very useful. The fourth member doesn’t really matter, but Makoto or Ryuji would be good choices as their attacks will be handy on the third phase.
- Joker with a persona that has psi attacks (preferably Psio and Mapsio) or curse attacks, and a persona that has wind attacks (Garula and Magarula at least) – if you don’t have these already, check every possible fusion available and scroll through your compendium to find them.
- Ideally, a couple of wind items and a couple of psi or curse damage items, particularly the latter pair, these will make it easier so if you don’t have them, it is worth crafting a few before you head in to steal the treasure if you still have the chance.
Now let’s learn how to beat the Persona 5 Royal Okumura boss!
Phase 1: Little blue guys
The first group of enemies is very easy to defeat as they are weak to fire and wind, which means that they can be defeated with a single multi-hitting attack of either element. There should not be any difficulty dealing with them.
Phase 2: Little yellow guys
The difficulty level does not increase much in the second phase. The enemies in this phase are weak to ice and psi, making them easy to defeat with either Haru or Joker. They have such low health that it doesn’t matter if you hit them with other moves, they will go down easily without any problem.
Phase 3: Tall red and yellow guys
This is why we recommend Makoto or Ryuji. The third phase is weak to nuke and electric, and are slightly more difficult. They aren’t a huge concern and can be beaten without these two, but to save time and SP it’s better to use attacks that strike their weakness and dispatch them quickly.
If Joker has a nuke or electric persona, then obviously use these moves as well. On Morgana’s turn, it’s worth attempting Miracle Punch to get a critical hit, so you can baton pass to Makoto/Ryuji, hit them with another attack and finish them off.
It is a good idea to use buffing moves or items when the enemies are close to being defeated, as the most challenging phases are yet to come. It’s a good opportunity to increase your attack power if you have the chance.
Phase 4: Tall Blue workers
This is where the challenge begins to increase. They are not the most difficult part of the fight, but they should not be underestimated. It’s best to use the most effective tactics to ensure safety. They are weak to wind (and bless) which is why Morgana is useful in this part. On his turn, do not cast Magarula.
Hit the first three individually with Garula, and when only one is left on their feet, then use Magarula. This way, even though it costs more SP, three out of four have been hit twice. Once they’re all down, baton pass to power up Joker, who can follow up with a more powerful Magarula of his own, hitting them all again which will take off a lot of their health, and on Joker’s actual turn you can use another Magarula since they’re now all down (if Joker goes before Morgana, just do it the other way around).
Once the turn is not over yet, and depending on the remaining health of the enemies, you can either repeat the same strategy or use a multi-hitting move to save SP.
If you have wind items, you can maximize the power of baton pass by using one first with Makoto/Ryuji, passing to Haru to use another one, then using Garula with Morgana and finally a zero cost, fully powered Magarula from Joker, followed by another one (and of course, you’ll still have Morgana and Joker’s own turns to come). It’s not necessary to go to this extreme, but it’s a nice option to have.
Phase 5: Big green bastards
This is by far the most challenging part of the battle, where strategy is crucial. They are hard to defeat using traditional methods, so it’s time to use Haru and Joker’s psi attacks along with baton passes and if necessary, damage-dealing items.
They are weak to psi and curse, so it’s essential that along with Haru’s psi, Joker has access to individual and multi-hitting attacks of one of these elements. The same basic strategy applies. If you can execute a fully-powered baton pass, which is only possible with psi or curse items, this can give you an important advantage.
If you don’t have these items, the real damage is done on Haru and Joker’s turns. Again, avoid the temptation to cast Mapsio immediately – cast Psio instead. Hit the first three enemies individually, then finish off with Mapsio. This way, again three of the four have taken two hits. If Joker has access to psi, then it makes sense to pass the baton from Haru to Joker, or vice versa, to add extra power.
If you don’t have access to the necessary items, the main damage will be dealt during Haru and Joker’s turns. Avoid the urge to use Mapsio right away, instead use Psio. Target the first three enemies individually, then finish off with Mapsio. This way, three out of four enemies will have taken two hits. If Joker has psi abilities, it is advisable to pass the baton from Haru to Joker, or vice versa, to increase the power of the attack.
You will have to adjust your strategy depending on the order of the turns. That’s four Mapsios, one fully charged with baton pass, in one turn. This may not be enough to defeat them, but you will have another turn to finish them off, using individual Psio attacks on three enemies, Mapsio on the fourth, and then another Mapsio after they’re all knocked down.
If you don’t have access to the necessary items, it’s important to follow the pattern of using individual attacks before multi-hitting moves between Haru and Joker. Your other party members should be focusing on increasing attack power or reducing the defense buff that Okumura can put on one of his minions.
You can still get three Mapsios and a few Psios in per turn, and across the two turns you have, you should be able to defeat them. Even though Mafreila and Magarula may not do a lot of damage, they are better than nothing if needed to finish them off.
There are various ways to win, but this is the most effective and needs the least amount of preparation because, like me, you might get locked in the palace with no chance to grind in Memories due to the difficulty of this battle.
Another option is for Joker to use Concentrate on one of his personalities during his turn if he has access to it after Haru has individually taken them all out (using, of course, three Psios and a final Mapsio). then releasing a very strong Mapsio from Joker, which should defeat them.
Phase 6: Executive Director
The executive director may appear intimidating and large, but because there is no longer a two-turn opportunity to defeat him, he isn’t as challenging as the prior phase.
Do not misunderstand; you still need to exercise caution. Keep yourself well-rested, give your attack and defense any necessary boosts, and then use your most potent techniques to hit him. He doesn’t have any weaknesses, thus the only particular strategy here is to inflict pain and, if you can, use technical attacks.
Only his Big Bang Order needs to be anticipated; you can see it coming a turn before when he charges up. This is a powerful attack that can kill you if you aren’t in good health. When it comes, forget about attacking; instead, heal, boost defense, lessen the director’s attack, and, if you don’t have the Joker’s HP above 300, keep an eye on him to make sure he doesn’t get hurt.
Although it is an attritional aspect of the battle, it is not really challenging if you just rinse and repeat.
Phase 7: Haru
Haru is simple because she would soon be given the command to commit suicide. It would be better for you to heal yourself and make sure you can endure the explosion rather than trying to defeat her before this. You’ll have two complete turns to arrange yourself.
Use healing maneuvers on your first turn, then guard on your second turn. Although there is no real need and your group should easily survive as long as they are at approximately half health, you can boost your defense if you want more security.
Phase 8: Okumura
At last, Okumura is alone.
He has pitifully little health and is quickly defeated. The only thing I’ll add is that if the timer is getting low, skip the conversation and use Rush to kill him as soon as you can.
Otherwise, if anyone was knocked out, revive them before concluding the fight.
The most annoying aspect of the game is now over, allowing you to find the treasure and leave without losing your mind.
Last resort: Change the difficulty
Although we believe that these suggestions should be sufficient, there is still one more choice available. Put up to Merciless to change the difficulty. By choosing Config from the pause menu’s System section, you can accomplish this before to the battle.
This isn’t a joke, either. You will deal three times as much damage from technical, critical, and weakness hits on the merciless difficulty. In reality, this makes eliminating the green workers in phase 5 much simpler. However, because adversaries frequently deal greater damage and because the triple multiplication works both ways, you must still exercise extreme caution, paying special attention to Joker. You won’t need as many turns to eliminate the workers, so you may afford to spend an extra one to heal and boost defense if necessary. Make sure he stays healed at all times, and don’t take any risks.
The Executive Director, who doesn’t have a vulnerability, is perhaps the hardest phase for Merciless. Going all out to inflict status illnesses is more prudent because your normal damage inflicted will drop when you are not targeting weaknesses. He can be subjected to Forget, Shock, and Freeze, all of which have the added benefit of preventing him from activating his Big Bang Order.
When the Director is defeated, Haru should use the same strategy as before: heal up, get a buff, and have Joker watch. Once she explodes, you can exhale in relief and, once you have access to the menu once more, simply change the difficulty back to normal (or whatever you picked).
We hope you now know how to beat the Persona 5 Royal Okumura boss. Thanks for reading! Don’t forget to checout the Persona 3 FES classroom answers! The game is available on Steam.
