Shimotsuna's Palace takes the form of an anthill populated by Shadows with a humanoid form but ant-like heads and limbs. While progressing through the Palace, the Phantom Thieves may take on the form of an ant by swearing fealty to portraits of Shimotsuna, allowing them access to new portions of the Palace. In his ant form, Wonder gains the ability to lift objects many times his body weight, open doors that require an ant-like handprint to unlock, bore tunnels through weakened parts of the anthill's walls for travel, and slide across beams of light. Additionally, Wonder is able to use his ant form as a disguise in order to infiltrate protected areas guarded by Shadows who will refuse entry while he is in his human form. Wonder will be forced out of ant form when touching water or can choose to intentionally exit ant form by disrespecting Shimotsuna to one of her portraits.
Throughout the anthill, doors will glow with specific colors indicating what is behind them, with white doors indicating required areas for Wonder to progress, blue doors indicating puzzles or optional areas, yellow doors indicating treasure, and red doors indicating Savage Shadows or forced encounters. Some doors also feature nearby ceiling lights that glow in specific colors; crystals of the corresponding colors must be activated in order to unlock such doors. In some instances, Wonder must use his ant form to carry pheromone crystals to nearby pedestals that match the corresponding colors. In other instances, he may be required to use his gun to shoot nearby crystals with pheromone bullets of matching colors. Pheromone bullets of a specific color can be refilled at large pheromone crystals of that same color. While Wonder is using his gun, the player's perspective shifts to first-person, allowing them to freely adjust Wonder's aim and change which color of pheromone crystal is currently loaded into his magazine.
After defeating Shadow Shimotsuna for the first time, Wonder will visit the publishing house. Within the publishing house can be found new portraits which glow red and transform Wonder into a high-ranking ant with boxing gloves. While he is unable to pass through holes in the wall as a high-ranking ant, he gains the ability to destroy magazine racks covered in wire mesh that he is unable to destroy in his human form, give orders to worker ants, rotate conveyor belts, and fix collapsed stone pillars. When Wonder fixes a stone pillar, this sometimes causes another pillar to become broken, which may block his path. However, he is also able to utilize blue pheromone crystals found in the publishing house to prevent the pillars from collapsing when their linked pillar is fixed. These blue pheromone crystals also have icy properties and will freeze nearby objects. Unlike the anthill which features puddles, within the publishing house the Phantom Thieves are forced out of their ant forms when walking across spilled blue ink or when sprayed by mist machines that trigger when they are walked past. The publishing house also contains transport systems reminiscent of pneumatic tubes that can allow Wonder to travel quickly between two points, regardless of if he is a human or an ant.
The magazine printing mini-game
Deeper into the publishing house, Wonder will obtain blue pheromone bullets which retain the icy properties of the blue crystals. These can be used to exploit structural weaknesses in cracked glass walls or containers and shatter them, disable mist machines, freeze colored ink to allow it to be used as a platform, and overload certain blue crystals to unleash a wave of frigid energy that can freeze water to allow the Phantom Thieves to walk over it. Additionally, Wonder will encounter guillotine-like paper cutters that block his path; these can be frozen using blue pheromone bullets to allow him to pass through safely.
Once in the printing facility, Wonder is also able to engage in magazine printing by interacting with certain control panels. This requires him to connect squares on a grid to each other without having any routes overlap. Depending on the purpose of the machine, the goal is either to properly supply the printer with paper and ink by guiding paper rolls to paper cutters and then the printer while ensuring that the ink supply is also flowing towards the printer, or to bind pages together in order to create a finished magazine. Certain printing machines may ask Wonder to connect certain ink colors to certain printers. Most binding machines also require Wonder to ensure that the pages are in order by connecting different colors of pages together in a certain order before routing the line back to the binding machine. Upon completion of a round of magazine printing or binding, Wonder will be rewarded with Meta Jewels and a random material used for enhancement.
Encounters
Levels are based on level scaling for Wonder level 80.
Deal Physical damage to 1 foe equal to x% of Attack.
Cognitive Osaka will be accompanied by two Worker Ant Shadows represented by Inugami. Osaka has a meter representing his Murderous Intent which determines his form; once the meter is full enough Osaka will enter Attack Form and behave aggressively. After using Execute the Inferior he will then enter Broken Form and attack less often until his Murderous Intent meter raises to a sufficient level.
Increase party's ailment accuracy and ailment resistance by x%, and Speed by 3. For every 25% of the user's ailment accuracy, increase party's ailment accuracy by x% more, up to x%. Lasts for 3 turns.
Shimotsuna's Palace is first discovered in Mementos after the Phantom Thieves witness Takami Shimotsuna's behavior towards Shoki Ikenami and her secretary Daichi Osaka. Upon arriving in the Path of Kaitul, Lufel is able to sense the entrance to her Palace, confirming that she is a Palace ruler. Once inside the portal to Shimotsuna's cognition, the Thieves find themselves in a large open wooden area near a small village of worn-down and uninhabited shacks. Venturing further in, the Thieves see a tall glowing skyscraper and go to investigate. Once there the group finds a procession of ant-like Shadows in office attire begging a guard for entrance into the tower so they may speak with Shimotsuna's Shadow, confirming that this is her Palace. Wanting to avoid confrontation with the guards, they head towards the Shadow Swarm Area and discover more ant-like Shadows working furiously on articles, which the Thieves posit are representative of how Shimotsuna views her coworkers at Shubunsha.
Delving deeper into the Shadow Swarm Area, the Thieves run into a dead end near a large portrait of Shimotsuna. After his teammates suggest the possibility that it may be the key to moving forward, Wonder feigns loyalty to the portrait and the party finds themselves transformed into ants, surprising them but confirming their suspicions that the ant-like Shadows are cognitive forms of her subordinates. Using this new ant form, the Thieves are able to move forward in the Palace until they eventually run into another dead end. Out of options, they attempt to ask the nearby guard Shadows for information, who are caught off guard. However, to their confusion, the guards are initially only interested in Wonder and Soy, referring to them as "studs". After defeating the Shadows, the group, still confused and without a path forward, decide to exit the Palace for the time being at the suggestion of Wind, who feels that they know too little about Shimotsuna herself to understand the rules governing her Palace.
Later, the group is forced to visit the Palace to escape from a Sheyd who appeared after Shoki mistakenly activated the Metaverse Navigator app that had appeared on his phone. As the group are unable to safely retreat with the Sheyd lurking outside, they realize their only option is to continue investigating the Palace with Shoki in tow. After explaining the circumstances of the Phantom Thieves to a confused Shoki, they consider the idea that Wonder's real-world investigation into Shimotsuna alongside Aran Hirano showed that she typically gives special treatment to young attractive men. Shoki then offers to help the Thieves gain access into the Palace, as he knows that Shimotsuna has paid special attention to him for his looks. Approaching the guard Shadows from earlier, they gain access to the foyer immediately with Shoki's assistance, only to find that within the Palace there is a long line of Shadows waiting for access to the Audience Room so they can meet with Shimotsuna. Unwilling to wait as Shimotsuna has threatened Shoki in the real world, they opt to explore another portion of the Palace known as The Underground in order to reach the Audience Room by another method.
Once in The Underground, they discover Shadows that are in the form of regular humans who seem to be repeating demeaning statements about themselves. Shoki recognizes one, however, and realizes that these Shadows represent Shimotsuna's victims, raising the possibility that she thinks of her victims as people she saved. Disturbed, the party moves forward until reaching yet another dead end, only to witness a guard Shadow firing a bolt of energy at a pheromone crystal to unlock a door. Tailing the Shadow further, they are soon forced to dispatch the Shadow after being discovered. To the group's surprise, upon defeating the Shadow, Wonder's pistol floats out of his holster and merges with a nearby pheromone crystal and discover that his bullets are now capable of being charged with pheromones to unlock doors by firing them at crystals, much like the earlier Shadow. Using this newfound power, the group moves on.
The party is forced to stop upon encountering another cognitive being representing a victim of Shimotsuna's whom Shoki recognizes as his mother, who describes herself as a whore and a homewrecker. Explaining that the reason his mother was forced to move back to Italy is because of a series of libelous articles which falsely claimed she was having an affair, he realizes that the author of these articles must have been Shimotsuna herself, cursing her for cozying up to the son of a woman whose life she ruined. He then also explains that the reason he and his father remained in Japan was at his mother's own request, not wanting her misfortunes to prevent them from finding happiness in their home country. The Thieves support him and promise him that they will change her heart, prompting him to request that he come with them into the Palace in the future. The group sadly tell him that because he has no Persona, following this incursion he can no longer accompany them, as it would put his life at risk. Understanding, he still pledges to do what he can in the real world while the Thieves affirm their determination to steal Shimotsuna's Treasure.
English
Simplified Chinese
Screenshot of the magazine printing mini-game
Screenshot of the magazine binding mini-game
