While your last Full Moon Operation battle in Persona 3 Portable saw you taking on two shadows at the same time, the battle against Lovers comes directly on the heels of the battle with the Hierophant shadow, which it used to lure you and SEES to the hotel for its own fight.
But between needing to find the shadow before you can fight it and some slight trickery throughout the process, this fight can be a bit daunting. For everything you’ll need to know to take on the Lovers Full Moon Operation in P3P, follow along with our guide below.
As a central boss fight, this guide will contain spoilers for the story of Persona 3 Portable.
Lovers Full Moon Battle Setup
Recommended Party
At this point in the game, your party set-up is still a bit limited. It’s made even more selective by Yukari, who insists on being part of this battle. Attempting to replace her will be unsuccessful.
Thankfully, she brings a good selection of healing and stat-canceling moves to the battle, which you’ll definitely need ahead.
Junpei is a good choice for the battle due to his fire resistance dampening the effect of Maragion.
You can round out the party with either Mitsuru or Akihiko – Mitsuru brings another catalog of healing moves to the table, while Akihiko makes for great support with plenty of damage-dealing options to boot.
If you’re bringing Mitsuru, be mindful of her fire weakness. If you can’t cover it with accessories, it may be best to leave her behind.
Recommended Level And Personas
Lovers is a Lv. 25 shadow, only one level higher than her predecessor. Since you won’t have time to grind between battles, if you were okay with your level for the Hierophant fight, you won’t have any more trouble with Lovers.
Try to bring a Persona with a fire resistance or a resistance to charm, as these are the primary attacks Lovers uses.
Sati is a Lv. 20 Persona who blocks fire, and it also knows Media, adding a healing option to your party.
However, be careful of Lovers inflicting charm while you’ve got a Persona who knows healing magic, as being charmed may lead to you unintentionally healing the enemy.
If you’ve gotten Narcissus, who we’ve recommended using a few times, to Lv. 24, it will give you its heart item, which is an accessory that makes the wearer immune to being charmed.
Any party member on whom this accessory is equipped can safely battle Lovers without fear of falling to its charm!
A Persona who knows Getsu-ei, a move dealing medium slash damage, is usually helpful against a Full Moon shadow that doesn’t have a strength against slash. Getsu-ei is powered up on the Full Moon and will deal higher damage than normal.
Lovers does not have any strength against slash, so Getsu-ei may come in handy.
Lovers Arcana Stats And Affinities
Persona 3 Portable Affinity Table Key
| Label | Explanation |
|---|---|
| Str | This shadow is strong against this element, and attacks of this element deal less damage. |
| Wk | This shadow is weak against this element, and attacks of this element deal more damage. |
| Rep | This shadow will repel attacks of this element, reversing the damage onto you. |
| Nul | This shadow will nullify attacks of this element, and as such, they deal no damage. |
| Drn | This shadow will gain health from attacks of this element, so attacks of this heal the shadow. |
| – | Attacks of this element deal normal damage to the shadow. |
P3P Lovers Affinity Chart
| Affinities and Weaknesses | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Slash | Strike | Pierce | Fire | Ice | Electric | Wind | Light | Dark | Almighty |
| – | – | – | – | – | – | – | Nul | Nul | – |
| Skills and Attacks | |||||||||
| Maragion | Medium fire damage to all foes | ||||||||
| Holy Arrow | Light pierce damage to one foe with a 25% chance to inflict charm | ||||||||
| Strike Attack | Standard attack dealing strike damage | ||||||||
| Heartbreaker | Medium almighty damage to all foes, dealing extra damage if the foe is afflicted with charm | ||||||||
| Pulinpa | 40% chance to inflict panic to one foe | ||||||||
| Marin Karin | 40% chance to inflict charm to one foe | ||||||||
| Sexy Dance | 40% chance to inflict charm to all foes | ||||||||
| Life Drain | Steals 35 HP from one foe | ||||||||
| Spirit Drain | Steals 20 SP from one foe | ||||||||
While Lovers does have an arsenal of attacks, it seems to focus the most on charm, so be prepared to break its love spell!
How To Find The Lovers Boss Shadow
After you’ve finished the battle against the Hierophant Full Moon shadow, you’ll be in the hotel room where you fought it, but you’ll find that the door will not open.
Take a second to heal the party if you need before interacting with the large mirror hanging on the wall. Doing so will warp you and the rest of the team into a long, rather suggestive cutscene.
Who you appear with in this scene will depend on not only which protagonist you’ve chosen, but who’s in your party.
The female protagonist appears with Akihiko if he’s in the party, but Junpei if not. The male protagonist will always appear with Yukari.
You have a series of dialogue options as the shadow tries to mess with your head.
Choose the following answers to continue on:
- “That’s not true…”
- “I can’t give in…”
- “Not now…”
Even if you choose the incorrect answers here, the game will loop you back around until you choose the correct ones.
The party member you were transported with will come out of the bathroom just as Fuuka breaks through to you. You’ll regain control of your protagonist on the first floor of the hotel, with the party member from your cutscene in tow.
Go back to the second floor to reunite with the rest of the team. Fuuka will tell you she believes the source of the problem to be the mirrors.
Now, like you did to escape the room where you fought Hierophant, go around the floors of the hotel to check the rooms, and smash the mirrors that don’t have reflections.
If you can see your protagonist in the mirror, smashing it will make you start the entire section over, so choose wisely so as not to erase your progress.
The first mirror is in Room 205 on the second floor. The second mirror is in Room 304 up on the third floor.
After you’ve smashed these two mirrors, go back to the room where you fought Hierophant once again to begin your next boss battle for the evening.
Lovers Full Moon Boss Battle Strategy
Keep a sharp focus on removing charm immediately if it’s inflicted on someone in the party, as charmed teammates may turn on your party. We’ve mentioned that they may heal Lovers, but they can deal damage to party members instead of the shadow as well.
Thankfully, Yukari has made sure she’s present for this, as she learns Charmdi at Lv. 16 to dispel charm from one ally. With this being one of Lovers’ primary attacks, use Charmdi as needed to keep the party free of ailments that could prolong the battle.
Outside Yukari dispelling charm, the fight is just about dealing as much damage as possible. Lovers doesn’t have anything to which it’s weak, so you’ll be doing a normal amount of damage with your other physical or elemental moves to chip its HP down.
Whoever has filled your other spots should be focused on dealing damage and using their buff and debuff moves.
Junpei will be of great help with Rakukaja to bolster your teammates’ defense, while Akihiko can use Tarunda to decrease Lovers’ damage output. Mitsuru, meanwhile, can also focus on healing, something she can supplement with Spirit Drain to steal Lovers’ SP. if she’s got it already.
Outside this status information, simply keep the party in good health and free of charm, and the battle will be won before long.
