Social Link: Difference between revisions

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Latest revision as of 17:42, 25 June 2024

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Social Link menu in Persona 3 Reload

Social Links, known as Community (コミュニティ, Komyuniti) in the Japanese version, shortly S. Links (コミュ, Komyu), are a gameplay mechanic in Persona 3, Persona 4, and Persona 5, where they are called Confidants (コープ, Koopu).

Each Social Link represents a single Arcana. Leveling up a particular Social Link raises the experience bonus received when fusing Persona of that Arcana. Completing a Social Link generally grants access to fusing the highest level Persona of that Arcana. In Persona 4 and Persona 5, maxing a party member's Social Link will also evolve their Persona into their Ultimate Persona.

Mechanics by Game

Persona 3

Social Links make their first appearance in Persona 3. Unlike later games there are no social links for male party members, and there is no option to stay platonic when progressing past a certain point in a romanceable character's social link. The player can also "Reverse" any social link by not talking to social links in some time, jealousy, or by picking a bad dialogue option.

Automatic Social Links

While the majority of the Social Link rank ups must be initiated by the player, there are 3 that rank up based on story progression:

  • Fool
  • Death
  • Judgement

Persona 3 Portable

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Reversing social links by jealousy or neglect was removed in Persona 3 Portable. Although no platonic routes were added to the male protagonist route, the female protagonist has the option to be romantic or platonic with potential partners.

Social Link point multipliers:[1]

  • Matching Arcana: x1.51
  • Charm Rank 6: x1.51

Both stack multiplicatively. With Charm rank 6 and while holding a Persona of the Social Link's matching arcana, there will be a x2.28 multiplier on Social Link point gains.

Persona 3 Reload

Main article: Link Episode

The game introduces a new daily life mechanic similar to Social Links known as Linked Episodes were the protagonist can hang out with male characters, specifically male SEES members, Takaya and Ryoji to compensate their absence as Social Links in previous Persona 3 releases and give more development to these characters.

Social Link point multipliers (multiplicative):[2]

  • Matching Arcana: x1.51
  • Charm Rank 6: x1.51
  • Rank 1 on recent school exam: x1.51
  • Rank 2~9 on recent school exam: x1.21

Linked Episodes

Persona 4

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Social Links return in this game and play a larger role. The protagonist can form Social Links with all party members, and developing them gives them more combat capabilities. For example, Yosuke's Social Link will give him the ability to take a mortal blow for the protagonist at level one, and at level ten his Persona will evolve from Jiraiya to Susano-O, improving his elemental resistance and stats. Social Links with non-party members increases the amount of EXP gained when fusing Personas of the Social Link's Arcana.

Persona 4 Golden

After establishing a Social Link with a character, the protagonist needs to interact with them and build points to progress the Social Link further up to rank 10, the max rank. After getting a certain number of points, he can do a rank up event, and selecting certain responses during the event builds points for your next rank up. Some story events will also net Social Link points towards rank ups.

When reacting with responses, the protagonist can choose 2-4 answers that give points towards the next rank up. The exact amount of points given is hidden in-game and instead expressed visually through the game's UI with musical note icons. The visual musical notes represent a range of points; two responses might both show 3 music notes, but give totally different amounts of points. The base amount of points given by responses, before bonus multipliers, are listed on each characters' Gameplay page under their Social Link information.

When giving an extremely unfavorable response during a rank up event, this can cause the Social Link to reverse. In Persona 4, this can only happen during the Moon and Fortune Social Links. The protagonist can form romances with some Social Links which leads to special events such as spending Christmas together. Upon reaching max rank, you gain key items that let you fuse a certain Persona of that Arcana.

Golden adds two new Social Links that weren't originally in Persona 4, Jester and Aeon, and adds in new evening hangouts with friends from school as another way to gain points.

Bonus Multipliers

  • Hold a Persona of the matching Arcana: 1.5x points
  • Make plans during lunch: 1.2x points during that interaction
    • If a school friend is ready to rank up, they might come see the protagonist during lunch and try to make plans. Committing on the spot forces the protagonist to do their Social Link after school, but increases the point gains by 1.2x during that rank up event. This does not happen for all lunch invites as some of them are just reminders to come to a club after school. Ranks where school friends will approach the protagonist during lunch, and accepting gives the 1.2x multiplier, will be noted on their gameplay pages. Note that this cannot happen on days where there is a story mandated event after school.
  • Score rank 1 on exams: 1.5x points until the next exam (school friends only)
  • Score rank 2-10 on exams: 1.2x points until the next exam (school friends only)

The protagonist can have multiple point bonuses at once and the bonuses are presumed to stack multiplicatively.

Hangouts

If a Social Link character isn't ready to rank up yet, you can instead do hangouts with them that give +10 Social Link points. You can also visit the shrine and draw a fortune to increase points by +3/4/7.

At night time, you can find daytime Social Links in the Central Shopping District on set days each month. You can't rank up with them at night, but you can spend time with them and do evening hangouts that might help with ranking up during the daytime. Each Social Link has 1-3 special chats per month, some of which are time sensitive and can only occur on specific days. After the player has seen all of these, they will start getting the generic hangout. During a generic evening hangout, you get +5 points and a random consumable item from a pool of 5. During the special hangouts, you get dialogue choices which can increase your points further, and the pool of items changes to 5 different items. When the Social Link is maxed or if you're in a romance, the items you can obtain during these special events changes again to 5 different items.

Obtaining Social Link Points

  • Selecting favorable dialogue options during Rank Up events
  • Selecting options during the main story, as noted on the calendar
  • Praying at Tatsuhime Shrine
  • Going to sleep early and dreaming about Social Links (very rare chance)

Party Member Social Links

Party members gain various battle effects on some rank ups, listed below. Upon reaching rank 10 with a party member, their Persona will transfigure into a new form and gain a new Evasion skill (with the exception of Rise). During the new Social Link events that take place during winter, they gain a 2nd transfiguration for their Personas and a new active skill. For example, Yosuke's Susano-o will become Takehaya Susano-o and he gains a unique active ability called Youthful Wind. With the addition of Scooters, party members also gain a new Social Link ability where they ride in and assist even if they aren't in the active party. On certain days, you'll see a party member sitting on their scooter at Moel Gas Station. You can go on a ride with them and they can relearn an old skill by remembering the past, or learn a new skill by thinking towards the future. Which skills are learned from Social Links and which skills are learned from scooter rides are listed on their individual gameplay pages.

Party Member Actions
Rank Effect
1 Chance to cure a party member of Down or Dizzy
3 Chance that a party member will ask if they can do a Follow-Up attack if they're in the party, a Scooter Follow-Up attack if they're not in the party, and a combo attack with another party member if an All-Out Attack fails to kill enemy Shadows
5 Chance to cure a party member of Rage, Panic, or Fear
7 Survive a fatal blow once per battle
9 Take a lethal blow in place of the protagonist
10 The party member's Persona transfigures and gains an Evade skill
10 During winter semester, your party members who are rank 10 can have their Personas transfigure yet again and gain a unique skill

Fusion EXP Bonus

When fusing Personas of a Social Link's Arcana, the fused Persona gains an EXP bonus based on what rank the Social Link is. This applies to all Social Links, whether they are party members or not. Fusion Forecast can increase this bonus by 1.1x to 1.5x.

Persona Fusion EXP Bonus
Rank Effect
1 1 level + 10% of next level's EXP
2 1 level + 50% of next level's EXP
3 2 levels
4 2 levels + 50% of next level's EXP
5 3 levels
6 3 levels + 50% of next level's EXP
7 4 levels
8 4 levels + 50% of next level's EXP
9 4 levels + 80% of next level's EXP
10 5 levels + 10% of next level's EXP

Automatic Social Links

While the majority of the Social Link rank ups must be initiated by the player, there are 4 that rank up based on story progression:

  • Fool
  • Star
  • Judgement
  • Jester (After Rank 6)

Persona 5

The protagonist creates Confidants with all party members and with various citizens he meets around Tokyo for a total of 21 Confidants. Cultivating a Confidant will increase the experience bonus upon fusion of any Persona from their associated Arcana. Maximizing a Confidant will unlock the fusion of a specific high-level Persona of that Arcana, and in the case of party members will evolve their Person a new form, which also provides an passive skill boosting evasion to their respective elemental weakness. For example, Ryuji Sakamoto's Persona Captain Kidd will evolve into Seiten Taisei when the his Confidant is completed.

As a Confidant relationship increases in Ranks from 1 to 10, it will periodically provide various benefits that can improve daily life, Metaverse exploration, or combat. Perks include discounts at Confidant-run stores, improved experience points from battles, improved negotiation opportunities with Shadows, the ability to swap party members during combat, reduced security levels in Palaces, increased free time in daily life, and others. Spending time with Confidants can also improve the protagonist's Social Stats.

Persona 5 Royal

Confidant progression no longer unlocks the Baton Pass ability for party members, as it is available by default. Some Confidants have revised abilities, or the rank at which certain abilities are unlocked is adjusted.

The Justice Confidant is no longer tied to plot progression, and the Faith Confidant and Councillor Confidant are both added as new relationships.

If Joker is carrying a Persona of the Confidant's matching arcana, then any Confidant points gained will be multiplied by x1.5. Occasionally, Confidants will text Joker and invite him out on a day off school. If Joker accepts these invites, then he will get an additional x1.2 bonus point multiplier. These two bonuses stack multiplicatively, rounding to the 6th decimal.[3]

Persona 3 Em

Social Links are also present in the mobile game Persona 3 Em. The game features six Social Links, consisting of first six S.E.E.S. members and Elizabeth. They can be ranked up only during dialogue or free-time events. Since Personas do not level up in this game, maxing Social Links grants the player unique items.

Persona 3: Dancing in Moonlight / Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight

A similar mechanic to Social Libks appear under the name Social in which both protagonists talk to their respective teammates and Velvet Room attendants. Similar to Social Links, the protagonists can select the dialogue option and rank each Social Link. In Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight the Sociald are numbered by their respective Arcana unlike Persona 3: Dancing in Moonlight were they go simply by their names instead of being numbered with their Arcanas.

Persona 3: Dancing in Moonlight marks the second time Makoto Yuki can hang out with male party members and Elizabeth as Socials.

List of Social Links

Arcana Persona 3 series
Male Protagonist
Persona 3 Portable
Female Protagonist
Persona 4 series Persona 5 series
0. Fool S.E.E.S. Investigation Team Igor
0. Jester Tohru AdachiPersona 4 Golden
I. Magician Kenji Tomochika Junpei Iori Yosuke Hanamura Morgana
I. Councillor Takuto MarukiPersona 5 Royal
II. Priestess Fuuka Yamagishi Yukiko Amagi Makoto Niijima
III. Empress Mitsuru Kirijo Margaret Haru Okumura
IV. Emperor Hidetoshi Odagiri Kanji Tatsumi Yusuke Kitagawa
V. Hierophant Bunkichi and Mitsuko Kitamura Ryotaro Dojima Sojiro Sakura
VI. Lovers Yukari Takeba Rise Kujikawa Ann Takamaki
VII. Chariot Kazushi Miyamoto Rio Iwasaki Chie Satonaka Ryuji Sakamoto
VIII. Justice Chihiro Fushimi Ken Amada Nanako Dojima Goro Akechi
IX. Hermit Y-ko Saori Hasegawa Fox Futaba Sakura
X. Fortune Keisuke Hiraga Ryoji Mochizuki Naoto Shirogane Chihaya Mifune
XI. Strength Yuko Nishiwaki Koromaru Daisuke Nagase (Soccer)
Kou Ichijo (Basketball)
Caroline and Justine
XII. Hanged Man Maiko Oohashi Naoki Konishi Munehisa Iwai
XIII. Death Pharos Hisano Kuroda Tae Takemi
XIV. Temperance Bebe Eri Minami Sadayo Kawakami
XV. Devil Tanaka Sayoko Uehara Ichiko Ohya
XVI. Tower Mutatsu Shu Nakajima Shinya Oda
XVII. Star Mamoru Hayase Akihiko Sanada Teddie Hifumi Togo
XVIII. Moon Nozomi Suemitsu Shinjiro Aragaki Ai Ebihara Yuuki Mishima
XIX. Sun Akinari Kamiki Yumi Ozawa (Drama)
Ayane Matsunaga (Band)
Toranosuke Yoshida
XX. Judgement Nyx Annihilation Team Seekers of Truth Sae Niijima
XX. Aeon AigisPersona 3 FES
Persona 3 Portable
Persona 3 Reload
MariePersona 4 Golden
Faith Sumire YoshizawaPersona 5 Royal

Trophies and Awards

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Gallery

Trivia

  1. "Block 6: Commu", Persona 3 Portable Official Perfect Guide, Famitsu. Published by Enterbrain (2010). Japanese. p. 302-382. ISBN-13: 978-4047262935.
  2. "Chapter 1: System: Community", Persona 3 Reload Official Complete Guide, Dengeki. Published by Kadokawa (2024). Japanese. p. 54. ISBN-13: 978-4047337176.
  3. "Chapter 1: Systems: Cooperation", Persona 5 The Royal: Official Complete Guide, Dengeki. Published by Kadokawa. Japanese. p. 39. ISBN-13: ‎ 978-4049128871.