Persona 5: How to Beat Cognitive Wakaba

The fourth boss of Persona 5 pulls out some nasty tricks, and being unprepared is an easy way to spell your own doom. If you’re looking to defeat the enormous Cognitive Wakaba boss at the end of Futaba’s Palace, we’ve got all the tips you’ll need to win.

This time around, there’s no shadow to defeat, and (almost!) no treasure to find. Everything is strange, different and new. Instead of targeting some jerk, you’ll work with a hacker and “steal” her heart instead. Rather than battle her shadow, you’ll fight a giant cognition monster, summoned up from feelings of despair and guilt.

Basically — this is a tough fight. Everything you need to know to pull off a stunning victory is listed below, so get scrolling for all our tips and tricks.

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How to Beat Cognitive Wakaba | Boss Guide

Instead of fighting Shadow Futaba at the end of Futaba’s Tomb of Sloth, you’ll instead fight against the monster Cognitive Wakaba. A gigantic, unstoppable sphinx with the head of Futaba’s mother — it’s all her issues rolled up into one killer foe. Dealing with this creature is tough, so come prepared with Despair cures.

Quick Notes:
- Cognition Wakaba uses two types of powerful attacks — Wind and Despair.
  - Don’t bring Ryuji. He’s weak to wind. If you do bring him, guard while Wakaba is flying to avoid Weak status.
- While Wakaba is flying, you can only harm her with bullets or magic skills. They are very weak, however.
- Survive until Futaba aids you. Choose to send a party member to aim the ballista — it should take only two turns to fight.
  - After shooting the ballista, Wakaba will be vulnerable to physical attacks. Unleash lots of physical attacks in this state. She takes 4x damage vs. physical! She stays in the stunned state for four turns.

Before facing off against Cognitive Wakaba, be sure to remove Ryuji / Skull from your team. He’s weak to Wind attacks, which Wakaba uses often. Bring Makoto / Queen, as she can learn a skill that cures the Despair state.

Why is Despair so bad? If you haven’t encountered it, Despair stuns a party member — after three turns, that stunned party member will die instantly.

Curing Despair is very important. Purchase cures from the clinic, and enter the battle. For the first phase, you’ll do hardly any damage at all as Wakaba flies around, launching attacks. Guard and heal, but don’t expect to actually fight. There’s not much you can do.

If Wakaba flies into the air, immediately guard. She’ll stay in the air, far out of sight, for 1-3 turns. Guard the entire time, because she’ll deal superior physical damage when she lands.

Eventually, Futaba will join the fight and drop down a ballista. Select a party member to main it — it should take 2 turns, but it can possibly take longer. When the ballista is fired, Wakaba will be stunned for four turns. Exclusively use physical attacks — special physical skills are especially deadly. Heal up during this time.

After Wakaba recovers, she’ll begin to unleash Despair skills on your party. It targets all party members. Bring Queen to heal Despair, and use items between healing. Make sure to heal your party members before three turns have passed, or they’ll die.

It takes awhile, but eventually Futaba will return and deliver a second ballista. Select a different party member — don’t choose the same one as before, or they’ll be too tired to move it — and you’ll be able to stun Wakaba a second time. If you dish out enough damage, it’s possible to defeat her right here. Otherwise, continue the cycle until she’s defeated.

Prepare to deal with more rich a-holes as we continue our journey. Next up, we’re covering Shadow Okumura.