History GameBreaker / Persona

** Incidentally, Daisoujou with Spell Master borders on a GameBreaker by itself, as this makes its Light-based unique skill Samsara spammable, and with Hama Boost Samsara has about 99% chance of instakilling anything not resistant to Light, while useless against bosses this allows to easily and MP-efficiently clear lots of normally-annoying encounters.
* Norn not only has Auto-Masuku which makes for a good base to fuse on Auto-Mataru and Auto-Maraku, but level her up enough and she'll learn Debilitate, making for a strong opener for boss fights.
* Yoshitsune is the best physical attacker in the game because of his Hassou Tobi attack. Eight separate hits, though with light damage, casually offset single hit severe damage like Primal Force. And it hits all targets to boot. Power Charged Hassou Tobi DOUBLES the damage output of a Power Charged Primal Force, the second-strongest physical attack in the game. Not to mention no weaknesses, and Yoshitsune is one of the most customizable Persona in the game (he only needs Power Charge and Hassou Tobi, and you can technically get Power Charge off of a slave), meaning you can have a semi-invincible god slaughtering the field. Also, he has Heat Riser, which is essentially the combination of all three buff spells, and when fused on a certain date, he can also learn Debilitate, which is a combination of all three debuff spells. Combine it with the aforementioned Power Charge and Hassou Tobi and you will have a combo that could defeat Death with at least two usage of it. The tricky part, however, is getting ''to'' Hassou Tobi -- even with a high-level Tower Social Link you'll still be a few levels off and need to grind to get there, but once you have it you're set to destroy everything vulnerable to physical attacks.

* Skill Cards return in this remake, allowing you to teach a Persona a skill of your choice regardless of its inheritance type. Not every single skill has a skill card (for example, Morning Star or Hassou Tobi), but skills like Victory Cry, Power/Mind Charge, and Primal Force all do. Most of the time you earn Skill Cards through the Sword Cards in Shuffle time, but sipping a coffee at Chagall Cafe lets you earn a skill card from a Persona (indicated on their status screen).

* In ''Golden'' to add some AntiFrustrationFeatures, you're allowed to choose what kind of skills your Persona inherits. All the aforementioned GameBreaker stuff listed up above? Just got about a million times easier to pull off.
* With the changes in ''Golden'', including skill cards returning and Shuffle Time allowing you to boost the stats of your Personas, almost any Persona can be extremely powerful if you're willing to put in the work. It's fairly easy to take a Persona with a large number of resistances, apply absorb or reflect skills to whatever it doesn't resist then grind an early dungeon until its stats are at maximum. Not every single skill has a skill card (for example, Morning Star or Hassou Tobi), but skills like Victory Cry, Power/Mind Charge, and Primal Force all do.
* In addition, the upright Magician card in ''Golden'''s Shuffle Time will upgrade any one of your Persona's skills to its next tier (for instance, Zio to Mazio, Garula to Magarula, Megido to Megidola). It will take some SaveScumming, but if you keep getting Magicians during Shuffle Time, you can upgrade Physical skills to game-breaking levels as early as the Bathhouse. For tanking, a simple Slime can become a GameBreaker though this method. Slime is available as early as Yukiko's Castle, and is otherwise unremarkable apart from learning Resist Physical. An upright Magician card will upgrade this skill to ''Null Physical'', granting you complete physical immunity at the very beginning of the game. Once Slime has served its purpose, it makes for great fusion fodder to pass the skill on.
* Yet another ''Golden'' change: the "Ask for Help" feature. When playing online, you can try to call for help during battle from other online players, and it doesn't cost a turn; depending on the number that respond, your party's HP and SP will be healed accordingly. Getting SP healing in ''Persona 4'' is both rare and prohibitively expensive, making you quit dungeons quickly or pay an arm and a leg to the Mysterious Fox. But Asking For Help can be done for free, at any time, and even if you get just ''one'' response, it's much more consistent (and dependable) than Shuffle Time healing with ''none'' of the drawbacks, so you can spend as much time as you want grinding and exploring without ever having to pay the Fox or using Chakra[=/=]Soul items. During the early game, where you don't even have that many SP to heal yet and Dia spells are cheap (and the Fox isn't even available), it can destroy the difficulty of Yukiko's Castle.
* Even more game-breaking than the Fox and Ask for Help is Rise's passive abilities to replenish the Investigation Team's SP and HP after every battle; it may be a small amount, but the healing after repeated battles can keep your team in a dungeon for hours without needing much, if any, healing at all. It also helps make the Fox somewhat obsolete or, at the very least, makes his services much more affordable when needed (since the price of the Fox goes up the more SP that he heals).
* In ''Golden'', the [[MetalSlime Golden Hand shadows]] are now worth a load of experience and money, but in exchange they are highly resistant to most sources of damage and highly susceptible to Almighty. The idea is to fish for {{Critical Hit}}s to knock them down and then unleash a lethal All-Out Attack, but you can bypass the process by using the Megido series of spells -- a situation where the normally AwesomeButImpractical skill really shines. Taotie is the earliest source of it, fusable at level 35. The moment you acquire it, you can farm the Golden Hand shadows with ease and earn great amounts of money and experience.

** The ultimate persona of the Emperor Arcana, Odin. His signature move Thunder Reign is the best of the 4 top tier elemental spells in the game because, in addition to the damage, it has 100% chance of inflicting the Shock ailment, which gives you 100% crit rate against the affected target with physical attacks. It's easily possible to defeat [[BonusBoss The Reaper]] as soon as Odin learns Thunder Reign in both the original ''Persona 3'' and in ''FES'' by stunlocking him with alternated All-Out Attacks and passing turns (this doesn't work as well in ''Portable'' remake, but you can still cause Dizzy on him, making him act only once every 2 turns). Odin also learns Elec Amp (+50% Elec damage) and Spell Master (reduces SP cost of all spells by 50%). It's extremely easy to pass Elec Boost (+25% Elec damage, stacks with Elec Amp) to him. His only problem is the weakness to Wind, but that can be fixed by passing Null Wind to him, or using equipment to give you that resistance.
** The ultimate persona of the Star Arcana, Lucifer (Helel in the [[UpdatedReRelease FES and Portable remakes]]). His stats are sky high, is naturally immune to all 3 Physical attack types (though Helel in the remakes only resists them), and learns Morning Star, which deals even more Almighty damage than Megidolaon with less SP. However, those are almost moot provided the player also has Satan; the "Armageddon" Fusion Spell, which deals 9999 Almighty damage to all enemies at 100% accuracy. While it ''will'' kill every enemy who isn't the FinalBoss or the [[BonusBoss Ultimate Boss]] in the game, Armageddon in itself isn't a GameBreaker, because it costs 100% of your SP to cast. No, what makes it this trope is the passive skill "Victory Cry" which replenishes all your HP and SP at the end of each combat (Lucifer learns it innately in the original game, but for Helel in the remakes it needs to be fused/equipped into). End result: You win everything. To top it off, it's fairly easy to fuse him with the aforementioned "Spell Master" which halves all MP cost. Yes, that includes Armageddon. Now, even going into combat in less than 100% SP lets you win everything as well. However, in ''Portable'', Fusion Spells are done via items which require grinding for more items (and Armageddon requires ''99'' of the main item and 10 more difficult ones to get).

** Once you initiate the Tower Confidant, you gain an ability that allows you to knock an enemy down with your Gun even if they aren't weak against Gun attacks. [[AwesomeButImpractical It costs a lot of ammo at first]], but becomes more useful with later abilities from that Confidant, which reduce the ammo cost and allow you to hit targets that would otherwise be immune to Gun skills. With this, it's even possible to knock down [[BonusBoss The Reaper]]. Afterwards, you get the opportunity to use this very ability to win a previously HopelessBossFight, yielding a Null Phys skill card. Not only is this a valuable skill to have (on top of being the ''only'' damage immunity passive skill card you'll ever find), it's also considered a mid-tier skill card, allowing Yusuke to duplicate it if his Confidant is Rank 5. With enough copies of this skill, you can make nearly any Persona NighInvulnerable, considering how many enemies and bosses favor physical attacks.

* Mementos is affected by the weather in reality. When a Heat Wave turns up, there's a chance Shadows will automatically be hit with "Burn"; in Pollen Season, it's "Sleep". But for three days in November and two in December, Flu Season arrives, which has a chance to inflict "Despair", which will automatically kill any enemy in three turns and prevent them from acting. The game-breaking comes from the fact that this includes [[BonusBoss The Reaper]], who does not have ContractualBossImmunity to the flu. Defeating The Reaper pays out a hefty 72,000+ EXP every time, no matter how many times you do it. Given that level 50 is around the average level the player should be at in November, it's possible to hit the level cap for every party member in around two hours, resulting in every party member gaining their strongest skills that would usually take tens of hours of grinding to achieve. Doing this can turn the whole endgame into a cakewalk, including turning the FinalBoss into an absolute joke who can be taken down in as little as four turns. [[note]]It's recommended that you rank up the Star Confidant to Rank 9 to be able to escape on your first turn in case the Reaper doesn't have Despair and you're not prepared to fight him.[[/note]] This bug was fixed in ''Royal'', as the Reaper can no longer be affected by Despair at all.

** The Ring of Sorrow grants a skill that only does minimal damage but is guaranteed to knock down all enemies. The attack is Almighty-elemental, meaning nothing in the entire game can resist it or avoid it (unlike Miracle Punch). [[labelnote:note]]Take note that the closest equivalent of this attack is used by the [[BonusBoss Velvet Room Assistants]] when you fail their threshold and this skill is a {{Nerf}} in comparison to ones used in their fights as they can use the skill [[ExaggeratedTrope at any time]].[[/labelnote]]The caveats are that you can only use it if you start an encounter by ambushing the enemy, and it is unobtainable on a New Game as Jose cannot upgrade the Crystal until after the FinalBoss, by which point Mementos can no longer be visited. But it's extremely useful in NewGamePlus, allowing you to trivialize random encounters with a first-turn All-Out Attack or negotiation. That isn't to say that the Crystal of Sorrow isn't bad by itself, as it gives the Life Aid skill, which restores 8% of the wearer's HP and SP after each battle.

* Luck plays a massive role in this game, with Naoto being one of the most broken party members due to naturally learning ''both'' multi-target variations of the series' signature instant death spells. She also has high enough agility to ensure she can strike first, with Ken being not far behind in that category, and she has no elemental weaknesses to boot. And though Teddie's a bit of a LowTierLetdown in this game, he has the highest luck score out of everyone, and can also be exploited for instant death. All three of them are also good contenders for StatusEffects, ''also'' affected by luck, and unlike the main ''Persona'' games, are far more deadly and far more likely to work on bosses! Add to that the fact that sub-persona have their own SP values which replenish after fights. Once you get one with at least as much SP as your instant-kill move, you have free agency to use one at the start of every battle to thin the enemy numbers with nearly no cost.

* For Persona 3 Portable, Persona 4 Golden, and Persona 5 Royal specifically, ever since the games are released on PC and the Nintendo Switch, there are active GameMod communities that can break the games faster and further than before. Some examples can include unlocking your entire party before even meeting them in-game, buffing them to endgame levels, obtaining maximum money, social stats, and levels, or even increasing the Compendium to the ''Shin Megami Tensei'' games.

* For Persona 3 Portable, Persona 4 Golden, and Persona 5 Royal specifically, ever since the games are released on PC and the Nintendo Switch, there are active GameMod communities that can break the games faster and further than before. Some examples can include unlocking your entire party before even meeting them in-game, buffing them to endgame levels, obtaining maximum money, social stats, levels, etc.

* NewGamePlus is rather obvious as a GameBreaker, but worth listing here for convenience sake. Each New Game Plus allows you to carry over the Persona Compendium, items you collected, money you earned, social stats you've increased, and social link key items you unlocked for fusing Persona. Add all these together, and getting HundredPercentCompletion on those Social Links becomes much easier now that you can just summon your best endgame Persona to sweep the early-mid game while focusing on non-combat matters. ''Persona 3'' had it best, allowing you to retain your level from last playthrough as well. Level determines how much damage you take from enemies alongside the stats of your Persona, so ''Persona 3'' lets you sleepwalk New Game Plus easier than later entries.

** Satanael is made even stronger with the trait Pagan Allure. This innate trait functions as an 50% boost for all magic damage, which stacks with boost/amp skills and gives Satanael an attack power to match his massive resistances. Combine this with his new passive skill, Tyrant’s Mind (further boosts his damage output and breaks the boosting cap), and Satanael can easily output more damage than any non-DLC Persona in the game. Most notably, thanks to Pagan Allure, Tyrant's Mind, and Magic Ability, he is the only persona who can have a skillset with multiple severe elemental skills at the same time (Blazing Hell, Ice Age, etc) AND have them do a comparable amount of damage to a persona with a skillset dedicated to maximizing a single skill with its respective Boost and Amp passives, giving Satanael an unprecedented level of versatility that cannot be effectively replicated by any other persona.
** Wealth of Lotus (Lakshmi) allows buffs cast on allies to extend two extra turns. This doesn't seem like much but this also includes the above Auto- skills and with full application leads to a 5-Turn Full Party Heat Riser at the start of every battle. That alone is insane but apply this Trait to Orpheus F who has Neo Cadenza (50% Heal & Full Party Heat Riser) and that buff is reapplied [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill just in case your fight was to extend beyond normal]].

** Wealth of Lotus (Lakshmi) allows buffs cast on allies to extend two extra turns. This doesn't seem like much but this also includes the Auto- skills (Auto-Maraku, Auto-Masuku, and Auto-Mataru) and with full application leads to a 5-Turn Full Party Heat Riser at the start of every battle. That alone is insane but apply this Trait to Orpheus F who has Neo Cadenza (50% Heal & Full Party Heat Riser) and that buff is reapplied just in case your fight was to extend beyond normal.

** Wealth of Lotus (Lakshmi) allows buffs to extend two extra turns. This doesn't seem like much but this also includes the Auto- skills and with full application leads to a 5-Turn Full Party Heat Riser at the start of every battle. That alone is insane but apply this Trait to Orpheus F who has Neo Cadenza (50% Heal & Full Party Heat Riser) and that buff is reapplied just in case your fight was to extend beyond normal.

* Luck plays a massive role in this game, with Naoto being one of the most broken party members due to naturally learning ''both'' multi-target variations of the series' signature instant death spells. She also has high enough agility to ensure she can strike first, with Ken being not far behind in that category, and she has no elemental weaknesses to boot. And though Teddie's a bit of a TierInducedScrappy in this game, he has the highest luck score out of everyone, and can also be exploited for instant death. All three of them are also good contenders for StatusEffects, ''also'' affected by luck, and unlike the main ''Persona'' games, are far more deadly and far more likely to work on bosses! Add to that the fact that sub-persona have their own SP values which replenish after fights. Once you get one with at least as much SP as your instant-kill move, you have free agency to use one at the start of every battle to thin the enemy numbers with nearly no cost.

* Izanagi-no-Okami and Izanagi-no-Okami Picaro, from a separate DLC pack, quickly gained infamy as an absurdly powerful Persona, even compared to Yoshitsune and Kaguya. Myriad Truths returns, dealing three hits of Heavy Almighty Damage to all foes, making it the strongest Almighty attack in the game. In short, it will obliterate virtually anything you point it at short of a boss, and after being backed up by a Concentrate boost and hitting the boss with Debilitate, entire phases can be taken down in one attack. While it costs 40 SP to cast, Okami can refund it after battle thanks to the Victory Cry skill ''that he starts with''. Okami naturally resists all elements except Bless and Curse, making it easy to fuse him into NighInvulnerability (especially with the St. Hermelin's Badge, an equip that Nulls Bless/Curse, effectively removing his only elemental vulnerabilities AND any potential instakill from Hama or Mudo skills). Finally, Okami's [[MagikarpPower Country Maker]] trait raises attack and defense based on the number of Personas registered. Players with near or complete Persona Compendiums will truly feel like a God among men using this Persona, and even at the start of the game before you can reap the benefits of these boosts, you won't start encountering non-boss enemies who can survive Myriad Truths until about Kaneshiro's Palace. In addition, he provides some useful goods when itemized: the regular version yields the Shining Headband, which adds 2-3 points to each stat as well as Invigorate 3, making it a strictly better SP Adhesive. The Picaro variant gives you a Mediarahan (full HP to all allies) skill card normally, and Salvation (the same, but also removes status effects; note that this is the only way to get this particular card) under a Fusion Alarm, making surviving boss fights trivially easy.

* Gozu-Tennoh/[[DubNameChange Vortek]]. A [[GlassCannon Chariot Arcana]] starting with only Squash and Poison Sting, it's not able to attack well except when it ranks up to 3 when it learns ''[[[[DiscOneNuke Megi]][[TotalPartyKill do]]'', as long as the enemy doesn't [[NoSell block or reflect Nuclear]] it's not hard to wipe the entire enemy. Keep using him and he learns ''Megidola'', the 2nd tier in [[NonElemental Almighty]]. Slap it on to [[CantCatchUp Mark]] and it's possible to have him surpass the party in levels. When he max ranks and is too frail to continue, return him and you get a [[GravityMaster Grydyne Stone]].

** Surt, the ultimate Persona of the Magician Arcana, is very self-sufficient for a level 50 Persona - it starts with Agidyne and Fire Boost, then it picks up Maragidyne, Fire Amp, and its signature skill Ragnarok. You can stack Fire Boost with Fire Amp to unleash some truly devastating fire attacks, and perhaps the only skill you need to pass onto it is something to cover its Ice weakness.

* Surt, the ultimate Persona of the Magician Arcana, is very self-sufficient for a level 50 Persona - it starts with Agidyne and Fire Boost, then it picks up Maragidyne, Fire Amp, and its signature skill Ragnarok. You can stack Fire Boost with Fire Amp to unleash some truly devastating fire attacks, and perhaps the only skill you need to pass onto it is something to cover its Ice weakness.
* The ultimate persona of the Emperor Arcana, Odin. His signature move Thunder Reign is the best of the 4 top tier elemental spells in the game because, in addition to the damage, it has 100% chance of inflicting the Shock ailment, which gives you 100% crit rate against the affected target with physical attacks. It's easily possible to defeat [[BonusBoss The Reaper]] as soon as Odin learns Thunder Reign in both the original ''Persona 3'' and in ''FES'' by stunlocking him with alternated All-Out Attacks and passing turns (this doesn't work as well in ''Portable'' remake, but you can still cause Dizzy on him, making him act only once every 2 turns). Odin also learns Elec Amp (+50% Elec damage) and Spell Master (reduces SP cost of all spells by 50%). It's extremely easy to pass Elec Boost (+25% Elec damage, stacks with Elec Amp) to him. His only problem is the weakness to Wind, but that can be fixed by passing Null Wind to him, or using equipment to give you that resistance.
* The ultimate persona of the Star Arcana; Lucifer (Helel in the [[UpdatedReRelease FES and Portable remakes]]). His stats are sky high, is naturally immune to all 3 Physical attack types (though Helel in the remakes only resists them), and learns Morning Star, which deals even more Almighty damage than Megidolaon with less SP. However, those are almost moot provided the player also has Satan; the "Armageddon" Fusion Spell, which deals 9999 Almighty damage to all enemies at 100% accuracy. While it ''will'' kill every enemy who isn't the FinalBoss or the [[BonusBoss Ultimate Boss]] in the game, Armageddon in itself isn't a GameBreaker, because it costs 100% of your SP to cast. No, what makes it this trope is the passive skill "Victory Cry" which replenishes all your HP and SP at the end of each combat (Lucifer learns it innately in the original game, but for Helel in the remakes it needs to be fused/equipped into). End result: You win everything. To top it off, it's fairly easy to fuse him with the aforementioned "Spell Master" which halves all MP cost. Yes, that includes Armageddon. Now, even going into combat in less than 100% SP lets you win everything as well. However, in ''Portable'', Fusion Spells are done via items which require grinding for more items (and Armageddon requires ''99'' of the main item and 10 more difficult ones to get).

* ''FES'' also brings the MC's ultimate persona: Orpheus Telos. This palette swap of your original persona is clearly specifically designed for the {{superboss}} because it resists everything but Almighty and ailments (the {{superboss}} will automatically kill you if your persona absorbs or repels any of her attacks, so resist is the best possible option) and has great stats. The only spell that it learns naturally is Victory Cry, but most importantly, it can inherit ''every skill in the game''. If you plan everything out right, you can have a single persona with the eight best attacks in the game. Mix and match to your heart's content to decide what eight skill combination is right for you. The catch? He can inherit '''every''' skill in the game, not just the best ones, and because he has an equal likelihood to inherit every skill, you'll spend hours wading through combinations with inferior skills, hoping for that one-in-a-million perfect combination that you just spent a few hours setting up. He's only available after you've maxed out all your Social Links in a single playthrough, and a [[PurposelyOverpowered worthy reward for all that effort]].

* Surt is very self-sufficient for a level 50 Persona - it learns Agidyne and Fire Boost, then it picks up Maragidyne, Fire Amp, and its signature skill Ragnarok. You can stack Fire Boost with Fire Amp to unleash some truly devastating fire attacks, and perhaps the only skill you need to pass onto it is something to cover its Ice weakness.

* The Omnipotent Orb accessory is this game's version of ''Nocturne'''s Masakados Magatama, it makes you nullify every element except Almighty. There are only 2 ways of getting it, though: one is by defeating the BonusBoss, and the other is a 1% chance as a Heart Item from Messiah. Of course, using this against the {{Superboss}} [[DevelopersForesight will get you killed]], but it doesn't stop you from destroying everything else on your path.
* ''FES'' also brings the MC's ultimate persona: Orpheus Telos. This palette swap of your original persona is clearly specifically designed for the BonusBoss because it resists everything but Almighty and ailments (the BonusBoss will automatically kill you if your persona absorbs or repels any of her attacks, so resist is the best possible option) and has great stats. The only spell that it learns naturally is Victory Cry, but most importantly, it can inherit ''every skill in the game''. If you plan everything out right, you can have a single persona with the eight best attacks in the game. Mix and match to your heart's content to decide what eight skill combination is right for you. The catch? He can inherit '''every''' skill in the game, not just the best ones, and because he has an equal likelihood to inherit every skill, you'll spend hours wading through combinations with inferior skills, hoping for that one-in-a-million perfect combination that you just spent a few hours setting up. Of course, this is all assuming that you maxed out every social link in the game, have the necessary fusion fodders, and are above level 90; the requirements for being able to fuse Orpheus Telos.

** Skill Cards. Think TM's from ''Pokémon'', only 1) you can easily farm them and 2) there are no restrictions to what persona can learn what skill from cards. This means you can create Personas with skills that they couldn't have through fusion (ex a Fire type casting Bufu spells). While it doesn't have the unique, superpowerful skills (Morning Star, Black Viper, Die For Me, Thunder Reign, Ragnarok, stuff like that), it ''does'' have the "Absorb ''x attribute''" skills. This makes it ''trivially'' easy to cover up weaknesses in strong personae. Even when the 2023 ports of ''Portable'' do not include manual inheritance, the customizability offered by Skill Cards is a great solace.
** The Antiques shop also offers some Skill Cards in exchange for the gems you acquire from defeating Shadows. Really valuable passives offered include Resist [Element] cards which means you won't have to worry about patching weaknesses, and the Growth cards (up to Growth 3!) that bestow LeakedExperience for levelling multiple Personas.

** ''Portable'' also introduces Direct Commands and Guarding. These in itself would not qualify as a Game Breaker, but consider that the [=PS2=] versions do not let you directly control your allies and that [=P3=] was designed with AI-controlled allies in mind. This is especially useful on bosses such as [[DualBoss Chariot and Justice]], who must be killed within the same turn or the one that is killed gets fully revived, as well as the FinalBoss, who has a skill that repels all attacks; in the [=PS2=] versions your allies will [[ArtificialStupidity idiotically attack the boss]], but here you can make them, you know, ''not attack'' until the repelling skill comes off. The ability to Guard rather than just Wait also lets you avert the loss of a party member in a pinch (especially if their weakness would have been exploited) or even avoid a TotalPartyKill, which, again, the enemies are not balanced around.
** You and your allies' Condition only updates once you leave Tartarus (and in your allies' case, if they die and then get revived). This means that you can ascend multiple Tartarus floors in one sitting and grind to your heart's content without worry of the Tired status cutting your expeditions short. Healing at the clock is very cheap, especially when your income from the Coin Shuffle Time cards far exceeds healing costs. Yes, this will put your whole party into Sick status the next day, but that doesn't affect social activities, and at worst you'll be out of battle condition for a couple of days, given a day of going to bed early and investing in condition-restoring services and items.
** One of the [=NPCs=] you can rescue from Tartarus will give you a stack of 10 Homonculi, automatically-used expendable items that each block one [[OneHitKill Light or Dark]] attack that hits. Get this reward and you don't have to worry about instant-kill spells for a while.

** Skill Cards. Think TM's from ''Pokémon'', only 1) you can easily farm them and 2) there are no restrictions to what persona can learn what skill from cards. This means you can get personas with skills that they couldn't have through fusion (ex a Fire type casting Bufu spells). While it doesn't have the unique, superpowerful skills (Morning Star, Black Viper, Die For Me, Thunder Reign, Ragnarok, stuff like that), it ''does'' have the "Absorb ''x attribute''" skills. This makes it ''trivially'' easy to cover up weaknesses in strong personae.
** Also of note: Skill Cards ''can be reproduced for no cost''. The Inari Sushi in the temple can take one card and make a copy of it after a few days. If you religiously go there every time he finishes, you can load up on very powerful skills you can put on any Persona you want. Or if you don't want to wait and have an excess of money, the Compendium will allow you to register a Persona just before it gives you a skill card. Gain one level to get the skill card, fuse that persona into something else, get a replacement from the Compendium, gain one level for another skill card. Lather, rinse, repeat. Even when the 2023 ports of ''Portable'' do not include manual inheritance, the customizability offered by Skill Cards is a great solace.

** The revised Condition system only updates once you leave Tartarus. This means that you can ascend multiple Tartarus floors in one sitting and grind to your heart's content without worry of the Tired status cutting your expeditions short. Healing at the clock is very cheap, especially when your income far exceeds healing costs. Yes, this will put your whole party into Sick status the next day, but that doesn't affect social activities, and at worst you'll be out of battle condition for a couple of days, given a day of going to bed early and investing in condition-restoring services and items.
** One of the [=NPCs=] you can rescue from Tartarus will give you a stack of 15 Homonculi, automatically-used expendable items that each block one [[OneHitKill Light or Dark]] attack that hits. Get this reward and you don't have to worry about instant-kill spells for a while.

* The Omnipotent Orb accessory is this game's version of ''Nocturne'''s Masakados Magatama, it makes you nullify every element except Almighty. There are only 2 ways of getting it, though: one is by defeating the BonusBoss, and the other is a 1% chance as a Heart Item from Messiah. Of course, using this against the BonusBoss [[DevelopersForesight will get you killed]], but it doesn't stop you from destroying everything else on your path.

** Also of note: Skill Cards ''can be reproduced for no cost''. The Inari Sushi in the temple can take one card and make a copy of it after a few days. If you religiously go there every time he finishes, you can load up on very powerful skills you can put on any Persona you want. Or if you don't want to wait and have an excess of money, the Compendium will allow you to register a Persona just before it gives you a skill card. Gain one level to get the skill card, fuse that persona into something else, get a replacement from the Compendium, gain one level for another skill card. Lather, rinse, repeat.
** ''Portable'' also introduces Direct Commands. This in itself would not qualify as a Game Breaker, but consider that the [=PS2=] versions do not let you directly control your allies and that [=P3=] was designed with AI-controlled allies in mind. This is especially useful on bosses such as [[DualBoss Chariot and Justice]], who must be killed within the same turn or the one that is killed gets fully revived, as well as the FinalBoss, who has a skill that repels all attacks; in the [=PS2=] versions your allies will [[ArtificialStupidity idiotically attack the boss]], but here you can make them, you know, ''not attack'' until the repelling skill comes off.
** Also broken is the new Great/Good/Tired/Sick system. Combined with the trivial cost of paying the clock for healing (and, later on, the large gobs of money you can get from higher-level Coin cards), you can easily travel from one temporal barrier to the next in a single night, as you and your allies' condition only change after you exit Tartarus. Yes, this will put your whole party into Sick status the next day, but that doesn't affect social activities, and at worst you'll be out of battle condition for a couple of days, given a day of going to bed early and investing in condition-restoring services and items.

* Izanagi-no-Okami and Izanagi-no-Okami Picaro, from a separate DLC pack, quickly gained infamy as an absurdly powerful Persona, even compared to Yoshitsune and Kaguya. Myriad Truths returns, dealing three hits of Heavy Almighty Damage to all foes, making it the strongest Almighty attack in the game. In short, it will obliterate virtually anything you point it at short of a boss, and after being backed up by a Concentrate boost and hitting the boss with Debilitate, entire phases can be taken down in one attack. While it costs 40 SP to cast, Okami can refund it after battle thanks to the Victory Cry skill he ''starts with''. Okami naturally resists all elements except Light and Dark, making it trivially easy to fuse him into NighInvulnerability (especially with the St. Hermelin's Badge, an equip that Nulls Bless/Curse, effectively removing his only elemental vulnerabilities AND any potential instakill from Hama or Mudo skills). Finally, Okami's [[MagikarpPower Country Maker]] trait raises attack and defense based on the number of Personas registered. Players with near or complete Persona Compendiums will truly feel like a God among men using this Persona. In addition, he provides some useful goods when itemized: the regular version yields the Shining Headband, which adds 2-3 points to each stat as well as Invigorate 3, making it a strictly better SP Adhesive. The Picaro variant gives you a Mediarahan (full HP to all allies) skill card normally, and Salvation (the same, but also removes status effects) under a Fusion Alarm, making surviving boss fights trivially easy.

* The ultimate persona of the Star Arcana; Lucifer (Helel in the [[UpdatedReRelease FES and Portable remakes]]). His stats are sky high, is naturally immune to all 3 Physical attack types (though Helel in the remakes only resists them), and learns Morning Star, which deals even more Almighty damage than Megidolaon with less SP. However, those are almost moot provided the player also has Satan; the "Armageddon" Fusion Spell, which deals 9999 Almighty damage to all enemies at 100% accuracy. While it ''will'' kill every enemy who isn't the FinalBoss or the [[BonusBoss Ultimate Boss]] in the game, Armageddon in itself isn't a GameBreaker, because it costs 100% of your MP to cast. No, what makes it this trope is the passive skill "Victory Cry" which replenishes all your HP and MP at the end of each combat (Lucifer learns it innately in the original game, but for Helel in the remakes it needs to be fused/equipped into). End result: You win everything. To top it off, it's fairly easy to fuse him with the aforementioned "Spell Master" which halves all MP cost. Yes, that includes Armageddon. Now, even going into combat in less than 100% SP lets you win everything as well. However, in ''Portable'', Fusion Spells are done via items which require grinding for more items (and Armageddon requires ''99'' of the main item and 10 more difficult ones to get).

** Ongyo-Ki's Demon's Bite doubles HP restored to the user. This normally isn't overpowered, but by passing it on to Maria, who learns a unique passive that restores 20% HP per turn and another that restores 15%, you get a Persona that heals ''80-100%'' of Joker's health at the start of every turn (depending on how many other passive healing skills you stack). Combine that with Enduring Soul, Firm Stance and the party's Protect abilities, and Joker will become nearly impossible to kill.

* Mementos is affected by the weather in reality. When a Heat Wave turns up, there's a chance Shadows will automatically be hit with "Burn"; in Pollen Season, it's "Sleep". But for three days in November and two in December, Flu Season arrives, which has a chance to inflict "Despair", which will automatically kill any enemy in three turns and prevent them from acting. The game-breaking comes from the fact that this includes [[BonusBoss The Reaper]], who does not have ContractualBossImmunity to the flu. Defeating The Reaper pays out a hefty 72,000+ EXP every time, no matter how many times you do it. Given that level 50 is around the average level the player should be at in November, it's possible to hit the level cap for every party member in around two hours, resulting in every party member gaining their strongest skills that would usually take tens of hours of grinding to achieve. Doing this can turn the whole endgame into a cakewalk, including turning the FinalBoss into an absolute joke who can be taken down in as little as four turns. [[note]]It's recommended that you rank up the Star Confidant to Rank 9 to be able to escape on your first turn in case the Reaper doesn't have Despair and you're not prepared to fight him.[[/note]] This bug was fixed in ''Royal'', as the Reaper can no longer be affected by Despair at all.
* Yoshitsune's back in this game, and his signature move, Hassou Tobi[[note]]An attack that hits eight times for light damage, but becomes very powerful with Power Charge and an attack buff against defense-debuffed opponents[[/note]] is just as powerful as before. While he already has a handful of natural immunities and no weaknesses, it is possible, through careful fusion, to make a Yoshitsune that repels, nullifies, or drains ''all but two'' of the elements -- which, in conjunction with Hassou Tobi, make him a nigh-unstoppable killing machine.[[note]][[http://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/archive/2017/04/14/how-to-fuse-an-invincible-killing-machine-in-persona-5.aspx This article]] goes over the process in-depth.[[/note]] The only downside is that since one of the Personas required to fuse Yoshitsune, Futsunushi, can only be fused after completing Morgana's Confidant, Yoshitsune can only be fused at the start of the final dungeon on a first playthrough.
* Once you initiate the Tower Confidant, you gain an ability that allows you to knock an enemy down with your Gun even if they aren't weak against Gun attacks. [[AwesomeButImpractical It costs a lot of ammo at first]], but becomes more useful with later abilities from that Confidant, which reduce the ammo cost and allow you to hit targets that would otherwise be immune to Gun skills. With this, it's even possible to knock down [[BonusBoss The Reaper]].
** Afterwards, you get the opportunity to use this very ability to win a previously HopelessBossFight, yielding a Null Phys skill card. Not only is this a valuable skill to have (on top of being the ''only'' damage immunity passive skill card you'll ever find), it's also considered a mid-tier skill card, allowing Yusuke to duplicate it if his Confidant is Rank 5. With enough copies of this, you can make nearly any Persona NighInvulnerable, considering how several bosses at this point favor physical attacks.

** Chihaya has two great skills that, while expensive to use, save a lot of time.

** Caroline and Justine's Rank 10 ability allows you to pay money to fuse Personas that are at a higher level than Joker, which would otherwise be impossible. With how easy it is to get money, this makes gaining access to top level personas (such as Yoshitsune) trivially easy. Since Special Fusions usually require high-level Personas, fusing the material Personas and the final result this way may be too costly... except for one particular Special Fusion. [[spoiler:Rangda can be easily recruited by the time you max the Confidant, and Barong is just one level above the minimum needed to max the Confidant, so his fusion fee isn't astronomical. Yes, you can fuse Shiva almost right away! Although doing so will cost around 300,000 yen if you try it at the first opportunity, it's a fair bit cheaper than most other high-end Personas. Even better, rank-up fusions via treasures can turn Shiva into Satan.]]
** In a game where time is scarce, Kawakami's Confidant abilities are the most valuable, giving the player additional time slots for certain activities or letting her take over time-consuming chores so the player can do other nighttime activities. This also means that you can have essentially an endless supply of coffee and curry, allowing you to easily clear dungeons on the first night you go (assuming the dungeon doesn't have any roadblocks that force you to leave for the night) since you should be able to avoid running out of SP (often one of the biggest reasons you will have to quit the dungeon for the night). Her biggest boon is her special massage service, which lets the protagonist do a nighttime activity after a day in the Metaverse, making a Palace or Mementos trip less of a time investment. This last boon is only given by maxing her Confidant, but it carries on a NewGamePlus and you get to use it to its fullest extent.
** SP being essentially the equivalent of magic, it can be used to heal your fighters and effectively counter enemies. Thus, because [[MagicIsRareHealthIsCheap it cannot be as easily recovered as HP]], the drain on your SP often limits the amount of time you can spend crawling dungeons. However, with the SP Adhesive Bandage (available at Takemi's Confidant Rank 5), you can recover SP every turn in a battle, up to 7 at rank 3. That means if you purchase a bandage for every member of your party, while notably expensive (to the tune of at least 240,000 yen), it makes it so you can effectively traverse an entire dungeon in one calendar day, which is infinitely important in a game where time is as important as in Persona 5. Get Takemi's Confidant to Rank 7, and everything she sells is offered at half price, making it incredibly easy to fit the party with the adhesive.

* The DLC Personas, by way of BribingYourWayToVictory, stand out above the regular Personas you can access at their level.
** Izanagi Picaro learns Null Phys at level 25 and Growth 3 at level 28. Once Izanagi Picaro gets these, you can pass them around to any Persona of your choosing, meaning by mid-game you can have a team of NighInvulnerable Persona you don't even have to ''use'' to unlock ''their'' skills. His SecretArt Cross Slash isn't half bad either, dealing the equivalent of two highly accurate Assault Dives to a single target.
** Kaguya is a monster. On top of having incredibly useful skills you can pass on through Fusion at an outrageously low level (Mediarama from the start, Diarahan at level 21, Repel Phys just a level later), she has nice resistances, one easy to fix weakness, and above all, her SecretArt [[LightEmUp Shining Arrows]] is essentially magical Hassou Tobi. It hits randomly between 4 and 8 times unlike Hassou Tobi's guaranteed 8, and cannot crit, but can do more damage because of damage-boosting passives that do not exist for physical attacks.
** Messiah isn't too impressive a Persona despite what its high level would suggest, but itemizing it will give you the Lucifer Guard armor. Lucifer Guard sits at 250 defense and reduces all magic damage by a high amount, putting it only second to the ArmorOfInvincibility that needs you to itemize Satan to obtain. And you can make it as early as August for the whole party.

* It's possible to circumvent the once-a-day limit of strengthening a Persona by fusing/deleting/itemizing/sacrificing it after strengthening and registering it, then resummoning it. Doing this enough times with sufficient luck (as stat point allocations on level-up are random) lets you max out the attacking stats of the Persona of your choice, making it [[MagikarpPower a much better attacker than other Personas with high base level]]. The downside to this method is that it's going to cost a lot of yen, especially in the higher levels.
* Firm Stance halves the damage you take but also renders you unable to dodge attacks.[[note]]Hama and Mudo are exempt from this rule so you won't get instantly killed every time.[[/note]] The Divine Pillar accessory, obtained from the Reaper, does the same thing. When you combine the two, their effects stack, giving Joker ridiculous damage resistance before even factoring bonuses from armor and his actual Persona's stats and affinities.

* Swift Strike (which deals 3-4 light hits to all foes) is a very strong skill for how early in the game you can get it: just level 19 by fusing Matador ([[ThatOneBoss who else?]]), and Ryuji also learns it by the time you reach the fourth dungeon. It can deal damage on par with endgame attacks like Vorpal Blade, and is more consistent than other crowd-hitting attacks like Deathbound and Agneyastra. Don't be surprised if you end up passing it along to subsequent fusions, or if Ryuji ends up still having it when you reach the final boss.
* Oni is a very powerful early-game Persona that you can fuse as early as the second dungeon. It has fairly good stats for a physical-oriented Persona, resists physical and gun skills, and has ''no weaknesses''. You'll probably replace it later on, but it's a solid choice or the second and third palaces.
* A minor one occurs for in-class questions. If you're using the network features, you can see what everyone else answered before choosing. It's a sure bet that at least 95 percent of all players have chosen the correct answer. So it's less about seeing what everyone answered and more of a "here's the correct answer" button. Getting the questions right only provides a minor boost to Knowledge, but it basically makes the boosts a guaranteed thing.
* Having trouble with the mouse puzzles in [[spoiler:Shido's]] palace? Use a Hypno Mist before entering the designated rooms, which will put the enemies to sleep for quite a long time. You still need to solve the puzzles themselves, but this becomes a cake walk without the constant threat of death looming over one's head.

* The "Legacy DLC Bundle" for ''Royal'' compiles all of the DLC from the original ''Persona 5'', including a number of overpowered Personas and accessories (to increase money and experience earned, or increase the strength of All-Out Attacks, among others). And because the Personas are instantly registered to the compendium and can be taken out for no charge, this lets Joker have up to a level 90 Persona as soon as he gets access to the Velvet Room. The best part? The Legacy Bundle is ''free'', meaning anyone who feels like breaking the game with no effort can do it as soon as they want.
** Oh, and it's ''even more overpowered''. In particular, Messiah can be itemized now into the even more defense-packed (but less evasive) Sirius Armor as early as ''May''. Sure, there are better armors, but you need to either get them from the new dungeon in the Third Semester ''or'', again, itemize Satan. With the right DLC packs, you can finish Madarame's Palace with two of your party members with endgame protectors.
** With the release of ''Royal'' on the other current gen platforms, all of the DLC is free, adding the likes of Izanagi-no-Okami and Raoul mentioned below to the Persona compendium for maximum breakage. Accessories-wise, the Camera Strap (formerly from the Persona Q2 costume DLC) fulfills almost the same role as the SP Adhesive, providing a ''10% heal and 10 SP per turn'' when enemies are ambushed (easy to do consistently with enough practice). This effectively trivializes SP management for Palace infiltration, given that SP items can just be saved for bosses, until the point when SP Adhesives are made available. The fact that the game gives more than enough to outfit the entire party from the moment DLC accessories are accessible (way before SP Adhesives can even be bought) is icing on the cake.

* The new Persona Traits, passive abilities present in each persona, can prove to be this depending on the skills available. In particular, Morgana's Proud Presence, which increases the effect of the party's healing skills, and Makoto's Gaia Pact, which increases the likelihood of various status effects to land. That's not even getting into some of the Traits that Joker can use late game:

*** The above Traits works incredibly well with Yoshitsune which turns the already powerful Persona into an unstoppable force. Very few enemies can stand to an Apt Pupil Charged Yoshitsune's Hassou Tobi with the 'Will of the Sword' or 'Undying Fury' Traits.

** Ongyo-Ki's Demon's Bite doubles HP restored to the user. This normally isn't overpowered, but by passing it on to Maria, who learns a unique passive that restores 20% HP per turn and another that restores 15%, you get a Persona that heals ''80-100%'' of Joker's health at the start of every turn. (Depending on how many other passive healing skills you stack) Combine that with Enduring Soul, Firm Stance and the party's Protect abilities, and Joker will become nearly impossible to kill.
** Satanael has been made even stronger with the trait Pagan Allure. This innate trait functions as an 50% boost for all magic damage, which stacks with boost/amp skills and gives Satanael an attack power to match his near-impenetrable defense. Combine this with his new passive skill, Tyrant’s Mind (further boosts his damage output and breaks the boosting cap), and Satanael can easily output more damage than any non-DLC Persona in the game.
*** Most notably, thanks to Pagan Allure, Tyrant's Mind, and Magic Ability, he is the only persona who can have a skillset with multiple severe elemental skills at the same time (Blazing Hell, Ice Age, etc) AND have them do a comparable amount of damage to a persona with a skillset dedicated to maximizing a single skill with its respective Boost and Amp passives, giving Satanael an unprecedented level of versatility that cannot be effectively replicated by any other persona.

* ''Speaking of which.'' Izanagi-no-Okami and Izanagi-no-Okami Picaro, from a separate DLC pack, quickly gained infamy as an absurdly powerful Persona, even compared to Yoshitsune and Kaguya. Myriad Truths returns, dealing three hits of Heavy Almighty Damage to all foes, making it the strongest Almighty attack in the game. In short, it will obliterate virtually anything you point it at short of a boss, and after being backed up by a Concentrate boost and hitting the boss with Debilitate, entire phases can be taken down in one attack. While it costs 40 SP to cast, Okami can refund it after battle thanks to the Victory Cry skill he ''starts with''. Okami naturally resists all elements except Light and Dark, making it trivially easy to fuse him into NighInvulnerability (especially with the St. Hermelin's Badge, an equip that Nulls Bless/Curse, effectively removing his only elemental vulnerabilities AND any potential instakill from Hama or Mudo skills). Finally, Okami's [[MagikarpPower Country Maker]] trait raises attack and defense based on the number of Personas registered. Players with near or complete Persona Compendiums will truly feel like a God among men using this Persona. In addition, he provides some useful goods when itemized: the regular version yields the Shining Headband, which adds 2-3 points to each stat as well as Invigorate 3, making it a strictly better SP Adhesive. The Picaro variant gives you a Mediarahan (full HP to all allies) skill card normally, and Salvation (the same, but also removes status effects) under a Fusion Alarm, making surviving boss fights trivially easy.

* Tsukiyomi Picaro, [[BribingYourWayToVictory DLC Persona]], comes with the absolutely absurd boon of being able to itemize into Spell Master (or Arms Master during a Fusion Alarm) skill card. Both passives cut the required HP for a Physical attack and the SP for a spell in half respectively. Both are some of the best passive abilities in the game, and since you can summon this Persona from the Compendium for free, and the removal of being limited to only being able to itemize one Persona a day, you can hoarde these skill cards with enough patience.
* One more treasure demon has been added: Orichalcum, which can be itemized into an accessory that gives +6 to all stats (+7 in an alarm) along with Evade Physical, one of the largest overall boosts that any team member can benefit from.

* The Jazz Club is a new evening activity that you can share with party members. For a measly 3000 yen, they get some sort of bonus based on the drink of the night: boosts to ability scores, extra HP and/or SP, or learning skills that aren't normally available to that character, such as Debilitate or Spell Master. On nights when there's a live singer, the bonuses are even doubled. What really drives this into Game-Breaker territory, though, is that all of the above carry over into NewGamePlus. With enough investment, you can build Ann from a GlassCannon into a LightningBruiser with more HP than [[MightyGlacier Ryuji]] and more agility than [[JackOfAllStats Makoto]], or give [[MagicallyIneptFighter Yusuke]] a massive SP pool and high magic stat to turn him into a MagicKnight.

* The once [[ScrappyMechanic hated]] Insta-Kill now awards experience and money on use. While it only works on enemies a good number of levels lower, avoiding going into battle drastically lowers the amount of time it takes to accumulate a good amount of money and levels. It even works with Chihaya's money-boosting fortune or Jose's augments. It only activates while dashing and enemies weak enough to be killed by it will have a green outline if viewed through the Third Eye, so the player can clearly see when it will work and only activate it when intending to do so. Best of all, insta-killed enemies still count as battles, meaning that they build up to more alarms in the Velvet Room at no cost. The formerly monotonous Mementos can become your personal PeninsulaOfPowerLeveling!\\
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Keep in mind, since Insta-Kill now only activates when you're dashing (And thanks to Rank 4 of Chariot, that also means enemies will find it harder to notice Joker while he's dashing.), if you still want to grind enemies that can give out lots of money or have a rare item you want through a hold up, you can do so without any risk of the enemy getting a attack in or you being so high leveled that Insta-Kill kicks in.
* Strength's "Special Treatment" ability is now in Rank 5 in Royal, meaning you can start to fuse high level Personas even sooner and even get Strength as far as Rank 8 as soon as you unlock "Special Treatment"[[labelnote:*]] Rank 9 requires the Player to make Bugs, a Persona that is locked until you complete "The Lovesick Cyberstalking Girl" Request in Mementos[[/labelnote]]. The new Rank 10 reward for Strength is a discount for "Special Treatment" so you can even save money while getting some of the best Personas the late game has to offer.

* ''Royal'' (potentially possible in the original game as well) also includes a risk-free infinite money farm in the third Palace that requires a couple of prerequsites but is worth the needed investment. Got plenty of time to farm money in Kaneshiro's Palace, at least a three ranks in Yoshida's Confidant and at least one SP Adhesive Bandage accessory? Put one on Makoto, and start attacking the Shadows in the entrance lobby area until you get an encounter with just three High Pixies. Kill two of them, and then knock down the third and start wringing her for money ''non-stop'' until she gets fed up. Rinse and repeat while keeping one High Pixie alive to continually knock down and hold up. There is literally no risk involved - all she can do is either heal herself, try to put one of your party members to sleep or summon another High Pixie. In fact, the first and third actions are actually ''helpful'' for keeping this strategy going, and the second action is basically useless since she can't exploit it in any way. Because High Pixie is purely a support shadow that is only a problem when paired with a different type of shadow that actually can attack, you can keep farming them for money ''perpetually'' as long as Makoto is regenerating SP, and killing any extras will net you a bit more money and experience. And there's the backup option of using a bullet to cause a knockdown just in case something unexpected happens or you don't want to waste time waiting for the one remaining enemy to heal herself.

*** The above Traits works incredibly well with Yoshitsune which turns the already powerful Persona into an unstoppable force. Very few Persona can stop an Apt Pupil Charged Yoshitsune's Hassou Tobi with the 'Will of the Sword' or 'Undying Fury' Traits.

** With the release of ''Royal'' on the other current gen platforms, all of the DLC is free, adding the likes of Izanagi-no-Okami and Raoul mentioned below to the Persona compendium for maximum breakage. Accessories-wise, the Camera Strap (formerly from the Persona Q2 costume DLC) fulfills almost the same role as the SP Adhesive, only marginally better, providing a ''10% heal and 10 SP per turn'' when enemies are ambushed (easy to do consistently with enough practice). This effectively trivializes SP management and removes the need to get SP Adhesives in the first place, beyond boss fights (remedied by stockpiling SP items). The fact that it is available even earlier than the Velvet Room Personas and way before SP Adhesives can even be bought, not to mention the game gives more than enough to outfit the whole party for free as opposed to SP Adhesives' steep price at first is icing on the cake.