The stylishly bizarre Shin Megami Tensei series finally returns as a Nintendo Switch exclusive.
Once again, the infamously difficult series of RPGs sends a hapless high schooler into a war between angels and demons. Granted an astounding power, you’ll be able to recruit and summon demons into a party of four and fight in some excruciatingly challenging (at least compared to most JRPGs) battles to determine the fate of the world. SMT V takes some welcome steps into the future, giving you large maps to explore where you can see what enemies you’ll encounter next — and there are plenty of other innovations we’ll get into.
This is the best time for new players to delve into the series. While SMT V can be unforgiving, these games are also incredibly rewarding — once you get the hang of them, they’re not nearly as daunting as they seem at the start. To ease you into the opening hours of SMT V, here are 10 tips and tricks to keep in mind while hunting down demons in the spirit realm of Da’At.
#1: Pay Attention To Team Order
The order your team takes turns is determined by the order they’re listed in the Team Composition menu. That way you can put your main character first (only one with access to Items) or lead with demons with Buff abilities, then save the Heal ability demons for last.
#2: What You Need To Know About Turns
The battle system has changed in SMT V. You can bank up to 4 extra turns by scoring critical hits or by exploiting an enemy’s elemental weakness. In a single cycle, your team can take up to 8 turns — very useful when you need one more turn to heal everyone in a tough fight. You can also swap in demons by using a Pass Turn and avoid the normal turn penalty. But you can also lose banked turns. If one of your attacks misses, is blocked, or is nulled, you’ll lose 2 pass turns.
#3: Spyglasses Work On Bosses & Mitama Now
Save up money and buy plenty of Spyglasses. These items allow you to see enemy weaknesses — incredibly useful, and important for stocking up Pass Turns in battle, making fights much easier to deal with. In SMT V, Spyglasses also work on bosses which is incredibly useful. You’ll also want them for Mitamas — rare enemies that give you huge rewards if you defeat them. Mitamas will run away almost immediately, so the only way to defeat them is to check their weakness with Spyglasses, then attack and use your extra Pass Turns.
#4: Using Amanozako To Find Hidden Items & Mitama
Eventually you’ll be able to get a teammate called Amanozako who can sniff out items in the game world. When exploring, wait for her to get a little “!” exclamation mark over her head. This means a spot has been marked on the map. Go to the icon and search to get an item — you’ll also often find Mitama battles in these spots, so be prepared with plenty of Spyglasses.
#5: Don’t Waste Your Cash On Compendium Summoning
As you play through the game, you’ll find demons to recruit — and you can make more demons using the Fusion feature. Fusion allows you to combine two or more demons to make even more powerful / new demons. Once you’ve recruited a demon, they’ll be saved in your Compendium forever, even if you sacrifice them. Once a demon is added to the Demon Compendium, you can resummon them at any time for a price. Why am I explaining all this? Because there’s a useful trick you can use when using the Reverse Compendium Fusion menu — this shows all the demons you can make through fusion, including combinations that would cost extra due to summoning a demon from the compendium. Use this menu to see what demons you can create; then simply recruit another demon of the type you need instead of summoning it from the Compendium. You’ll save a ton. Resummoning demons is just too expensive.
#6: Save Before Bosses & Reload To Prep
SMT V is REALLY HARD. It is so hard you’ll want to save often — save before every boss. Save before going into a new area. Save ALL THE TIME for one simple reason; you can exploit saves to make fights much easier. Enter a boss fight and use Spyglass. Use the screenshot button on the Nintendo Switch to instantly make a record of the boss’s weaknesses. Now reload your save and you can freely prepare with the knowledge we just gained. This is a legitimate and useful tactic in SMT V!
#7: NPCs Might Have Something Useful To Say
Talk to EVERYBODY. There are useful side-quests everywhere, and some NPCs may give you items just for talking to them. Check the map to see who has new dialogue to share. For example, you can complete a side-quest for Apsaras that will make the first boss much, much easier to deal with. Talking to NPCs can also initiate a battle that’s way too hard to win — so yeah, save all the dang time.
#8: How To Deal With Enemies Using Magatsuhi
In SMT V, the main character has a powerful ability that allows you to instantly take another turn (without using Pass Turns) and makes all attacks deal critical hits. This is the default Magatsuhi Skill — you can swap it out later, but your default is Magatsuhi: Critical, and it is incredibly powerful. There’s just one problem; enemy demons and bosses CAN ALSO USE THIS. To counter bosses with this ability, bring demons with skills like Sleep, Mirage, Seal, Charm and Confusion. Sleep almost always makes enemies skip a turn.
#9: Buffs, Debuffs & You
Buffs and Debuffs are incredibly useful in SMT V. In most JRPGs, Buffs / Debuffs are only mildly useful — Buffs increase the power / defense of your allies, Debuffs weaken enemies. In SMT V these types of powers are required and full-party Buffs that effect all members of your team. Boosting your attack and lowering enemy defense is a basic useful combo that you’ll absolutely want to get through fusion and team builds. This is just a PSA for newbies: don’t ignore Buffs / Debuffs.
#10: Get In Some Very Early XP Grinding
Early in the game, you can grind XP very easily with a simple trick. Using Hama, you can farm Ippon-Datara — Hama can score instakills on Ippon-Datara pretty easily. And because of XP Sharing, you can quickly level up your new fusions. This is strictly for grinding very early in the game if you’re really struggling with boss fights. And that’s understandable. As stated above, this game is very difficult.
And there’s a lot more you need to know. But we’ll cover all that in future guides. For now, this is enough info to get you started.
