It wouldn’t be a modern Persona game without All-Out Attacks, so naturally a version of that particular gameplay element made its way into Persona Tactica in the form of Triple Threat Attacks. While the core mechanic of downing enemies by targeting their weaknesses (usually elemental) is largely absent in Persona 5 Tactica and the prospect of downing every enemy in a battle is untenable in any case, Triple Threat attacks compromise by utilizing different means to down enemies and leveraging the genre’s strength’s to focus on mobility and positioning to achieve a similar end. This page will explain how Triple Threat attacks work in Persona 5 Tactica, including useful skills and characters for setting them up, how Triple Threat damage is determined, and how buffs and debuffs affect Triple Threats.
What Are Triple Threat All-Out Attacks in Persona 5 Tactica?¶
When enemies are attacked while vulnerable, you’ll down them and earn a [One More] in the process. Different types of enemies can be rendered vulnerable in various ways, but most foes (Legionnaires, Support Types, and Teleporter Types) are vulnerable any time they’re not in cover. Hitting them with melee attacks and skills is the most common way of dislodging them from cover, but Revenger Types have to be damaged by any attack to render them vulnerable, and Shielder Types are only vulnerable when shot from the flank or rear (Launcher Types are never vulnerable and cannot be downed). Enemies can also be downed via [Follow-Up Attacks], and in some circumstances, when attacked by characters who are [Charged].
While downing enemies and earning One Mores are important enough on their own, Triple Threats makes these mechanics the lynchpin of your offense. When a character downs an enemy, they’ll automatically score a One More, and if the downed enemy survives they’ll be eligible to trigger a Triple Threat attack. What you have to do is essentially surround a downed enemy with all three of your characters, and if a line connecting all three characters encompasses a downed enemy, the character who downed the enemy will be able to perform a Triple Threat attack, which is effectively Persona 5 Tactica’s version of an All-Out Attack.
How Triple Threat All-Out Attacks Work in Persona 5 Tactica¶
Triple Threats are fairly simple, as a core concept. Down an enemy and earn a One More, then the character with a One More can initiate a Triple Threat All-Out Attack if all three of your characters surround the downed enemy. During combat you may notice a blue line connecting your characters - this indicates the boundary line between them. The downed enemy has to be inside the triangle formed by your party member’s positions, and if this happens, the line will turn red. Furthermore, only a character who downed an enemy and has a free turn via One More can initiate a Triple Threat All-Out Attack, and the enemy that character downed to earn the One More must be in the middle of the triangle. Any character with a One More and any downed enemy in the middle of a triangle formed by the party is not sufficient. If a character with a One More is selected and the enemy they downed to earn said One More is in a triangle formed by the party, the line between party members will catch fire. At this point all you need to do to initiate the Triple Threat All-Out Attack is press to see the area affected, then press to confirm.
The requirements may seem somewhat strict, but they make sense in the context of the gameplay. Since the character with a One More gets a free turn - including another action to use and full movement range from the point where the One More was triggered - it’s not hard to move after scoring a One More to manipulate the bounds of the triangle and set up a devastating Triple Threat All-Out Attack. It’s also worth noting that there is no commitment for moving in Persona 5 Tactica, so you can switch between characters at will and have them run about to expand the bounds of the triangle. All enemies within the triangle will be affected by the Triple Threat All-Out Attack, and launching the attack only ends the turn of the character who triggers it - the other two characters are free to be out of cover and positioned solely to exploit the Triple Threat All-Out Attack. It’s entirely possible to cover half a map this way and exterminate most, if not all, enemies - in fact, some quests task you with doing exactly that!
Setting up Triple Threat All-Out Attacks shouldn’t be seen as some happy accident, but rather you should actively go out of your way to trigger them, even if it makes biding your time, moving characters into position, and passing on temporary, less productive attacks. When you do trigger one, check out the affected area and enemies by pressing and reposition your characters until you can do as much damage as possible. There’s no good reason why Triple Threat All-Out Attacks shouldn’t be your primary offensive trick. To facilitate this, an understanding of the game’s core mechanics, including what makes different enemy types vulnerable, is key. But aside from this, there are also some skills you can purchase that will make it easier to trigger Triple Threat All-Out Attacks and increase their potency when you land them - anything that increases movement range, gun range, or spell range and buffs like Tarukaja, respectively.
Triple Threat All-Out Attacks deal massive damage to all enemies affected, usually one-shotting weaker foes and significantly damaging strong enemies, like Revenger Types and Launcher Types. The exact damage dealt is based on the combined Melee Damage and Gun Damage stats of the characters involved, and hence buffs like Tarukaja can further increase the damage dealt by Triple Threat All-Out Attacks. Characters who have been afflicted by a debuff (sans burning and despair) cannot participate in Triple Threat All-Out Attacks, hence making them impossible to perform for the duration of the debuff. You can perform multiple Triple Threat All-Out Attacks in a single turn provided you have multiple characters with One More turns active and you can manage to encircle downed enemies. Practically speaking, you’re only likely to ever pull off two in a single turn if for no other reason than most enemies aren’t likely to survive more than that, and once you burn through victims you won’t be able to trigger more Triple Threat All-Out Attacks.
Best Characters for Triple Threat All-Out Attacks¶
Range and mobility are king in Persona 5 Tactica. The greater your movement range, the more ground you can cover in a turn, which makes it easier to get in range of enemies to shoot them, cast spells, or melee them, all of which can, under the right circumstances, trigger One Mores. In addition, being able to move further simply allows you to extend the range of the area affected by Triple Threat All-Out Attacks. Movement range is so important that every character with access to the God-Like Speed passive should make it a priority, and characters with naturally high movement range have a distinct edge over slower characters. It’s not the sole factor that should determine who you keep in your party, but it’s an important one, along with a character’s offensive skills.
Speaking of offensive skills, these can play a significant role in combat. Some spells like Garu, Psi, and Frei move enemies in addition to dealing damage, pulling or pushing them out of cover or to a location where they’ll be affected by Triple Threat All-Out Attacks. Other spells have greater range or AoE, and it’s quite common where you’ll want to both strike a vulnerable enemy to score a One More and hit another enemy in cover, hence making them vulnerable and setting them up for a future One More. You can always [equip Persona] with whatever skills a character may be lacking, but having them natively can be a huge boon, especially their otherwise inimitable [Ultimate Spells], and for our money Garu (Morgana) and Psi (Haru) are the characters with the best innate spells for moving enemies, and Frei (Makoto) and Megido are the best spells due to their AoE. Characters who have access to Magical Mastery also have an edge over those who don’t.
Finally, a character’s choice of firearms also plays a role in landing Triple Threat All-Out Attacks. Some characters tend to have more range than others, some have AoE attacks with their guns, and list other passives, some possess the Hawkeye passive that further improves gun range. Guns are ultimately a tertiary consideration for several reasons, namely that creation guns via [Weapon Fusion] tends to erase some of the range woes suffered by some characters, and in practical terms, most guns are only going to be effective up to a certain range anyways, after which point some obstruction or another becomes increasingly more likely to block your aim. Unlike spells, guns do not dislodge enemies in cover nor do they strike through cover, so you’re generally going to want to be using spells most of the time (Launcher Type enemies notwithstanding). In effect, as long as a character can get a range of 10+ with their gun attack, they’re fine, although we prefer single-target guns to AoEs for situations where we want to ensure we hit one enemy, and only one enemy (every character has an AoE spell they can use if we absolutely must hit more than one foe).
Toshiro and Triple Threat All-Out Attacks¶
For most of the game, Triple Threat All-Out Attacks will function as detailed above, but at the end of Kingdom 3 you’ll gain Toshiro as a guest character, and while he’s not a full-feature character like the others, he can contribute to Triple Threat All-Out Attacks since he can trigger them for you. To do this, Toshiro merely has to down an enemy in the triangle formed by your other three characters and have a One More turn active. As long as those conditions are met, Toshiro can trigger a Triple Threat All-Out Attack anywhere on the map, making him an ideal candidate for such work. On the downside, Toshiro does not contribute in any way to determining the perimeter of the triangle itself - it is entirely up to your other three characters to surround enemies, and if one of them is debuffed, KO’d, or otherwise incapacitated you cannot perform Triple Threat All-Out Attacks.
No Comments