Everybody’s favorite eccentric artist, Yusuke’s role in the original Persona 5 was primarily a melee combatant, focusing more on counters, weapon skills that powered up after Baton Passes and speed than brute force, which was more Ryuji’s domain. In Persona 5 Tactica, weapon skills and counterattacks aren’t really a thing, and the Baton Pass in this game really only shares a name with its counterparty in Persona 5. That leaves poor Yusuke with only speed to call his own, as well as affinity for freeze magic, and one may well worry about his utility in Persona 5 Tactica… Fortunately for Yusuke, however, speed is quite handy, and that along with his good selection of passives ensures he’s useful in many different scenarios. This page will discuss Yusuke’s skill in Persona 5 Tactica, providing information on which skills you should buy and how to effectively use Yusuke in battle.
Yusuke Skill Tree Overview¶
Yusuke has three skill trees in Persona 5 Tactica: “Goemon, Elusive Outlaw”, “A Pinnacle View” and “A Rebellious Resolve”. The former includes his freeze magics, split into three columns - one for passive boosts, another for the small AoE, high-damage variants (Bufu, Bufula, and Bufudyne) and a third for the medium AoE variants (Mabufu, Mabufula and Mabufudyne). In addition to these, this tree also includes Yusuke’s [Voltage] related skills, and his speed-related passives. Spoiler, these speed-related passives are some of his best skills! The other two trees are pretty standard fare, chock full of passives that influence Yusuke’s group buffs, [Charge] effects and [Follow-Up Attacks] and personal passives.
Yusuke is an interesting character in Persona 5 Tactica, having a high base movement speed (7) tied only with Morgana, weapons that generally have great range and a passive roster that includes the useful Magical Mastery and Hawkeye. Range is king in Persona 5 Tactica, and Yusuke has that in almost every possible category - movement range, gun range, spell range. The real winner for Yusuke, however, is his ability to purchase Auto-Masuku, which will give every character the Sukukaja buff at the start of a fight, extending their movement range by +2 for three turns. No other character has access to this buff natively, and since [Triple Threats] are such a key component of your offense in this game, this makes Yusuke indispensable - especially in some quests where you have to clear a map in a limited number of turns.
All in all, Yusuke is a great all-rounder whose native magic may be lacking, but can be improved with persona. His speed and range help him stand out as a key utility character.
Best Yusuke Skills in Persona 5 Tactica¶
Skill | GP | Requirements |
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Bufu | – | – |
Freeze Boost | 20 | Bufu |
Freeze Amp | 25 | Freeze Boost |
Freeze Mega Booster | 30 | Freeze Amp |
Speed Master | 20 | Bufu |
Auto-Masuku | 30 | Speed Master |
Bufula | 10 | Bufu |
Bufudyne | 20 | Bufula |
Crystal Bloom | 40 | Bufudyne, Mabufudyne, Complete Quest 14 |
Mabufu | 10 | Bufu |
Mabufula | 20 | Mabufu |
Mabufudyne | 25 | Mabufula |
Like a Phantom | – | Complete Mission 8 |
Like a Phantom+ | 20 | Like a Phantom |
Like a Phantom++ | 25 | Like a Phantom+ |
Trigger Synergy | – | Complete Mission 11 |
Trigger Synergy+ | 15 | Trigger Synergy |
Trigger Synergy++ | 25 | Trigger Synergy+ |
Ferocious Lion | 0 | Complete Mission 7 |
Clairvoyance | 20 | Ferocious Lion |
Follow-Up | – | Complete Mission 18 |
Follow-Up+ | 15 | Follow-Up |
Broad Perspective | 30 | Trigger Syngery++ or Clairvoyance or Follow-Up+ |
Break & Recovery | 10 | – |
Break & Recovery+ | 20 | Break & Recovery |
Soul Repose | 10 | – |
Soul Repose+ | 20 | Soul Repose |
Stop & Go | 15 | Break & Recovery+ or Soul Repose+ |
Magical Mastery | 10 | Stop & Go |
Hawkeye | 20 | Stop & Go |
Daredevil | 20 | Stop & Go |
God-Like Speed | 35 | Magical Mastery or Hawkeye or Daredevil |
Below you’ll find a list of the best skills for Yusuke in Persona 5 Tactica, and, where relevant, the situations in which you should invest in them:
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Auto-Masuku: At the start of battle, this will give the entire party the Sukukaja buff, which in Persona 5 Tactica increases your movement speed by +2. This is a huge boost in a game where pushing forward aggressively, getting behind cover, and encircling enemies is key, but is especially relevant for quests and missions where you can only take a few turns. Always useful to have, although it’ll set Yusuke back 50 GP to acquire both these skills. It’s often worth bringing Yusuke along for this skill alone.
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Magical Mastery: Range is good, and while Yusuke’s spells aren’t great (prefer the Mabufu line over the generic Bufu), sometimes you just need to hit a distant enemy through cover. Magical Mastery extends the range of all Yusuke’s spells, making this a must-buy for him as well as any other character with access to it.
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God-Like Speed: Range is good, and movement range is perhaps the best kind of range of them all! It’s awfully expensive, but it’s worth trekking down Yusuke’s passives tree to get this.
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Soul Repose: You’ll pick these up on the way to God-Like Speed and other passives, but it’s worth pointing out that you could also choose Break & Recovery instead. For our GP, Soul Repose are better purchases, as they’ll cause you to recover a substantial amount of SP every turn you end in cover… which should be most turns. This allows you to cast spells wantonly, and will contribute far, far more than the odd healing you’ll get from Triple Threats.
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Bufu Spells: The freeze family of spells isn’t the greatest, but all spells knock enemies off cover and can strike through obstacles, so they shouldn’t be ignored… even if we leave Yusuke with basic Bufu for a long while. We generally use spells to open enemies up for [One Mores], or to score them ourselves, so we prefer the Mabufu line over the lower AoE Bufu variants, and except in rare cases, we don’t really care about our spell damage. Freeze spells have good AoE compared to most other types of spells and, as their name implies, can freeze enemies. Frozen enemies will miss their turn (if they’re not attacked) and cannot perform follow-up actions - a frozen Revenger cannot counterattack, for example. On the downside, frozen Revengers don’t become vulnerable to One Mores, so you need to be wary when using freeze spells.
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Hawkeye: Range is still good, but between Yusuke’s movement speed and the already great range his guns tend to have, this skill isn’t quite as imperative to pick up.
Other skills in the tree are largely situational - get Follow-Up+ in levels where there’s a lot of verticality where you may need to perform two such attacks in a turn. It comes up from time to time, but it isn’t always a good idea to keep 15 GP tied up in it. Yusuke’s Charge and Voltage passives aren’t terribly enticing, either, which makes it a pretty easy call to focus on his freeze spells after you have Auto-Masuku and the key passives listed above. Boosting Trigger Syngery is fine, but the impact of this buff is rarely, if ever, pivotal.
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