Persona 3 Reload throws a lot of difficult battles your way. From the Tartarus bosses to the 12 Arcana Shadows, each of them brings a unique challenge to the game. However, none of these bosses are as strong or terrifying as the Velvet Room resident herself: Elizabeth.
How to start the Elizabeth fight in Persona 3 Reload
Elizabeth is designated by the community as Persona 3 Reload‘s “superboss,” a recurring themed battle in all the Persona games since the original Persona 3. Reprising her role from the original, Elizabeth returns with stronger Personas, more powerful attacks, and new rules to follow during the boss battle. Be prepared with your strongest Personas going forward.
You can initiate the Elizabeth boss battle on Floor 255 in the Adamah block of Tartarus. After completing the Monad door on the same floor, you will come across a locked door instead of the usual treasure chest. If you interact with it, you are notified that you can’t open the door yet. To do so, you must finish Elizabeth’s 100th request and defeat The Reaper.
Following this, return to Elizabeth outside the Velvet Room, and she gives you a new request: Take out the Ultimate Adversary. As you might have guessed, Elizabeth is the Ultimate Adversary, so return to the Monad Door on Floor 255 and head to the end. If you have completed all previous Monad Doors, the final door should now open.
Take a deep breath and head in.
Rules to follow
After some conversation, the battle will begin. But before we get to it, there are a few simple rules to remember in this battle.
- Rule one: You must face Elizabeth alone; no party members are allowed.
- Rule two: You cannot land instant kill skills, like Armageddon, on Elizabeth (except during the final phase).
- Rule three: You cannot use nullifying effects. This includes Personas with Null, Repel, and Drain.
- Rule four: You cannot have passive counterattacking skills (e.g. High Counter).
- Rule five: You must complete the battle within 50 turns.
Breaking any of these rules causes Elizabeth to use an instant-kill Megidolaon on you, ending the battle immediately and requiring you to start over. Because of these specific rules, you need to enter the battle with a unique Persona setup as well.
Necessary setup
Before going into this battle, we recommend completing your Persona Compendium. This includes finishing all Social Links and fusing every Persona you can, including all of the Special Fusions. You need to do this to gain access to Orpheus Telos, who will be your main Persona in this fight. Due to his resistance to every type of damage, save for Almighty, he will be your frontliner.
The rest of your Personas should consist of ones that can heal, cure, and have access to automatic stat-raising skills. This skips the need to pre-buff before you enter the battle and keeps your buffs up for as long as possible. Make sure to have Heat Riser and Debilitate on hand as well as Charge and Concentrate to further boost your damage numbers.
Additionally, getting to level 99 to maximize the efficiency of your Personas is also recommended. You can do this by killing the Reaper until you gain enough experience. If you’re lucky, you might get an experience wand card during Shuffle Time and max out your levels in one fight. If not, hunt the Reaper down until you max out completely.
Now that your setup is ready, it’s time to challenge Elizabeth.
How to beat Elizabeth in Persona 3 Reload
The first thing to note here is that Elizabeth always gets two turns for each turn you get. If Elizabeth knocks you down, she gets a third turn to attack as well. Elizabeth also summons and switches between a variety of high-level Personas, causing her resistances to shift constantly. Make sure you have Fuuka scan Elizabeth every time she switches Personas.
With Elizabeth’s HP pool at 20,000, the fight is long and unlike anything you have fought before, including the game’s final boss. Be prepared for an endurance battle.
First phase
Start with your auto-buff Persona so you gain all the buffs you need on the first turn itself. You need every advantage quickly because Elizabeth won’t stop attacking. Once the buffs are in place, switch to your Heat Riser/Debilitate Persona to buff yourself and debuff Elizabeth. Depending on whether your Persona is a physical attacker or magical, keep Charge and Concentrate ready.
We recommend teaching Orpheus Telos physical damage skills since, with enough critical boosts, there is the potential to knock Elizabeth down, leaving her open to a follow-up attack. You can go down the elemental damage route as well, but Elizabeth does not have any elemental weaknesses, so using elemental damage as a secondary follow-up is a way to go.
This phase is all about chipping Elizabeth’s health down to the 75 percent point.
Second phase
The second phase begins when Elizabeth’s health drops to 75 percent, and she uses Pixie to cast an instant-kill Megidolaon on you. Make sure to have Enduring Soul ready for this because you cannot avoid the attack. Following this point, Elizabeth’s attacks get more aggressive, but it is just more of the same you have seen up until this point.
When Elizabeth finally drops to 50 percent health, she summons Pixie again. Except, instead of an instant-kill move, she heals herself to full health. As soul-crushing as this might be, you must push on because the next part is her final phase.
Final phase
This is where everything goes down. If you have used up more than half of your turns by now, you might be panicking, but don’t worry, there is a trick to this final phase. Follow the same strategy of chipping Elizabeth down while you endure her attacks and build up your Theurgy gauge. When Elizabeth is close to dropping to 50 percent health again, switch to a Persona with Endure.
You need this because Elizabeth uses another instant-kill Megidolaon on you, catching you off-guard. After you survive this attack, heal up to full health and make sure your Theurgy gauge is full. Once it is and you get Elizabeth to less than 50 percent health, anywhere below 10,000, use Armageddon to deal 9999 damage and finish the battle.
Using Armageddon here is the only way to win the battle because once it hits turn 50, Elizabeth uses Megidolaon constantly until you are defeated. Armageddon ensures she won’t be able to heal up anymore because of the instant kill.
Congratulations, you have beaten the most powerful boss in the game.
After completing the battle, you gain the Platinum Bookmark as proof of your victory. Talk to Elizabeth outside the Velvet Room once again to receive the Omnipotent Orb as your reward, which makes New Game Plus a breeze to get through.