Eternal Bonds Trophy

[AndresLionheart]

I would also like to add my vote for the Merciless Snake King farm instead of that awful Metatron.

 

At first I was too lazy and thought there was a lot of planning to get that Lucifer with all the Ice stuff, but turns out most things come from Black Frost and one other thing form Alice, so it's super easy to set up.

On top of that I added Rebel Soul (which Lucifer learns naturally), Soul Thief (recover SP when causing an ailment. I had a skill card for that one) and Ailment Boost. From my other Personas I had a Yoshitsune that, among other things, had Heat Riser.

The rest of the team should be Ann and Yusuke, since both use the weakness of the boss, and for last I put in Wolf just to use Debilitate, so anyone with Debilitate can work.

 

All that combined made this fight on Merciless EASIER than Metatron on easy. Not only that, it's much less annoying (since there is no need to accept/report a request) and gives triple the Bond Exp. The fight is also shorter than Metatron, too.

 

Playing on Merciless up to that point was very easy with a maxed out Yoshitsune, Lucifer and a Sarasvati for healing. Party members died here and there but they are not really needed. Maxing out Personas is also really fast with that thing to pass on increased stats from one Persona to the next (it's like an hour to set up the first maxed out stats Persona, but from there onwards you can get anything you want instantly).

 

In short, go for that Merciless Snake King if you care about your mental health...

[Ranari_Kai]

I managed to level up my bonds level to from 48 to 99 at the billiken-statue in osaka. It took my roughly 8 hours according to the ingame timer.

at the beginning it wasnt that bad. 5 minutes per level up, it went up pretty well. but from the 80s onwards it become a slough. 15 minutes and more per level up.

 

I splitt the whole grind across multiple days and played other thing between, to make it easier on the mind.

 

yesterday i finally unlocked the last few skills through requests and popped that sweet gold trophy.

 

the whole process wasnt that bad. put on some good music and dont do it in one session. at least i dont have to kill metatron a few hundred times or play merciless.

 

If somebody wants to do the same, here is a little tipp: use a rubber band to hold down the triangle button. that will auto skip all dialoge. sounds like a minor thing, but you dont have to press the button manually anymore. that will make a difference after the first few hundred runs...

[OfficialMonkey1]

I finally got the trophy and the platinum. It was an absolute pain because of how slow and boring the process was... I didn't bother with the Metatron method (apart from levelling up a bit for fusions), but instead I decided I'd do merciless and get up to the second dire shadow. I was super prepared beforehand due to everyone talking about how difficult Merciless was. With my persona setups (most of which I took from the YouTuber Rozalin), Merciless was extremely easy and the only issue was having to put up with the slow and boring grind (though much more bearable than having to refight Metatron 500 times).

 

Specifically I used the 99 all stats video by Rozalin, and then used a 99 level base persona (always the one with all the accumulated power) to create the Alice, Black Frost, Yoshitsune, Sarasvati and Cerberus personas using the build videos also created by Rozalin. They helped a LOT more than I thought they would! However, I mostly just used Alice with a bit of Cerberus to get through the first Jail in Merciless (Sarasvati being my healer persona whenever I needed to heal), then once I reached the second dire shadow, I just used Black Frost to repeatedly destroy it - all I did was spam R1 + X while watching something on my phone, looking at the screen isn't even required (all these SP incenses from Merciless helped a lot here, and this dire shadow drops 6 of one of the incenses after every fight so you're bound to have 999HP and 700ish SP by the end).

 

Merciless is not as difficult as some proclaim it to be (as long as you prepare everything beforehand - at the very least the Alice persona since that has an extremely OP attack that destroys almost everything and every boss, just not those that are immune to curse). Don't be afraid to try it as it cut down on the grind massively and kept me somewhat sane during it. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have been so sane had I used the Metatron method...

[Valaith_90]

Just use statue, remote play and a well known software for PS4 which also works for PS5

[fisty123]

As this game gives you bond for everything you do does anyone know a good level to stop using the statue method and let the rest of the bond take care of itself with the remaining sections of the game?

Edited May 29, 2021 by fisty123

[escoletsgo69]

On 5/29/2021 at 2:37 AM, fisty123 said:

As this game gives you bond for everything you do does anyone know a good level to stop using the statue method and let the rest of the bond take care of itself with the remaining sections of the game?

I'd also like to get the answer on this one if anyone happens to know. I'm currently griding the statue method and was wondering when it would be ok to stop and let the remaining bond levelling happen naturally.

[lostlemon]

On 2021-05-23 at 11:32 AM, Valaith_90 said:

Just use statue, remote play and a well known software for PS4 which also works for PS5

It does work with PS5 but only with a DualShock 4, couldn’t get it to work with the DualSense. Just fyi to anyone else trying this, hope to save you some time on the setup.

 

…And this was by far the best method for me since I had an Osaka save. 7 hours to let it do its thing and then just finished the next jail for the bond request that unlocks the last bond cap. Metatron was exhausting and I couldn’t get through the merciless opening lol

[SublimeHawk]

On 18/07/2021 at 2:24 AM, lostlemon said:

It does work with PS5 but only with a DualShock 4, couldn’t get it to work with the DualSense. Just fyi to anyone else trying this, hope to save you some time on the setup.

 

…And this was by far the best method for me since I had an Osaka save. 7 hours to let it do its thing and then just finished the next jail for the bond request that unlocks the last bond cap. Metatron was exhausting and I couldn’t get through the merciless opening lol

On 23/05/2021 at 4:32 PM, Valaith_90 said:

Just use statue, remote play and a well known software for PS4 which also works for PS5

Can anyone explain how this method works? What software is needed? I have remote play on my PC and a DualShock 4. I really don’t want to grind Metatron or play on Merciless. 

[SublimeHawk]

I've downloaded PS4 Macro but I can't seem to get it to work correctly. I'm recording my controller inputs but after I set the macro to play, it just keeps running into walls and opening the save menu. In the time it would take me to figure out how to make it work, I'd be better off just doing it manually or grinding Metatron.

[lostlemon]

2 hours ago, SublimeHawk said:

I've downloaded PS4 Macro but I can't seem to get it to work correctly. I'm recording my controller inputs but after I set the macro to play, it just keeps running into walls and opening the save menu. In the time it would take me to figure out how to make it work, I'd be better off just doing it manually or grinding Metatron.

Once I figured out the Dualsense wasn't working, it went pretty smoothly for me and I didn't have to fiddle with any other settings. If you scroll though some of the older github issues, there's some suggestions on how to improve sluggish playback or errant inputs. Otherwise sorry it's not working out for you mate

[dargon_lover]

Okinawa dire shadow farm on Merciless. Gives about 104,000 bond XP each time. Dire Shadow spawns right next to the 2nd checkpoint, no going through minor enemies.

 

Plus you naturally gain bond XP just by playing through the story up to Okinawa (technically Kyoto since you need to initiate the next dungeon in order for the Okinawa dire shadow to start spawning).

[DaveMcDamage]

I was looking forward to this but after seeing the requirement for levelling everyone up, I started having flashbacks from the FInal Fantasy 10 platinum.

 

Chappy don't do grinds. 

[Milktastrophe]

On 7/27/2021 at 8:09 AM, SublimeHawk said:

I've downloaded PS4 Macro but I can't seem to get it to work correctly. I'm recording my controller inputs but after I set the macro to play, it just keeps running into walls and opening the save menu. In the time it would take me to figure out how to make it work, I'd be better off just doing it manually or grinding Metatron.

My observation is that PS4Macro doesn't properly record the DS4's input. What you need to do is use the remapper to play with your keyboard and a second instance of PS4Macro to record and play the macro. The number in bottom right of PS4Macro should shoot up very fast if it's actually recording.

 

1. Start remote play (don't connect)

2. Start PS4Macro

3. Open Remapper

4. Connect remote play

5. Open 2nd PS4Macro

6. Disable record on touch

7. Record

8. Play

9. Do the macro on keyboard

10. Stop recording, and now it should be playing back properly

 

Edit: saving and reloading macros also doesn't seem to work with this thing. I had it going for an hour or two last night and it never messed up. Saved and reloaded this morning and it misses inputs after a couple minutes. Pre-recorded the macro and it's going strong again. The loop for rubbing the statue takes about 20 seconds on PS5.

Edited January 16, 2022 by Milktastrophe

[starcrunch061]

Play Merciless mode. Lots of fun. More power. Here’s a good Yoshitsune for you:

 

Attack Master

Defense Master

Speed Master

Technical High

Rebel Will

Knockdown Style

Enduring Soul

Hassou Tobi

 

Basically, you’ll have an eternal heat riser. Yoshitsune crits naturally, and speed master raises that further. Crits prolong all of the -kaja skills (Technical High), and crits decrease the down gauge a ton (Knickdown Style). Rebel Will gives you tons of Showtimes, and Enduring Soul is just insurance, which you likely won’t need. Hassou Tobi is just there because it’s his unique skill; put whatever you want.

 

Use Alice or someone for magic (I stuck Maziodyne and Magarudyne on her, and stuck Ice Age and Blazing Hell, along with Morning Star on Lucifer). It’s pretty awesome. Hit an enemy’s weakness with magic, switch to Yoshitsune to get some crits in, prolonging your heat riser and killing the down gauge, while raising your showtime gauge to the skies.

[Baker]

6 hours ago, starcrunch061 said:

Play Merciless mode. Lots of fun. More power. 

I don’t like Merciless mode at all.
 

You are so dependent on SP restoring and revive items because your AI teammates find it fun to keep walking into one hit kill attacks. What I think is really missing in this game are Team Commands.

 

Came of Normal mode and thought because I put some time into doing the Fusion loop to get 99 stats on all my Persona’s with the best skills it would be easy. Therefore I didn’t have many SP items or revive items going into Merciless. Stupidly enough I had overwritten my Normal savefile so there was no turning back. And then I died in the opening fight. ?

 

I can see Merciless being fun only if you have a ton of SP restoring items. 

 

Initially I wanted to beat the game on Merciless and figured I would get close to getting the bond trophy that way. But I’m at the Sendai Dire shadow now with the recommended Lucifer setup and this is as far as I will go. A couple hours of grinding left.

Edited January 18, 2022 by Baker

[starcrunch061]

6 hours ago, Baker said:

I don’t like Merciless mode at all.
 

You are so dependent on SP restoring and revive items because your AI teammates find it fun to keep walking into one hit kill attacks. What I think is really missing in this game are Team Commands.

 

Came of Normal mode and thought because I put some time into doing the Fusion loop to get 99 stats on all my Persona’s with the best skills it would be easy. Therefore I didn’t have many SP items or revive items going into Merciless. Stupidly enough I had overwritten my Normal savefile so there was no turning back. And then I died in the opening fight.

 

I can see Merciless being fun only if you have a ton of SP restoring items. 

 

Initially I wanted to beat the game on Merciless and figured I would get close to getting the bond trophy that way. But I’m at the Sendai Dire shadow now with the recommended Lucifer setup and this is as far as I will go. A couple hours of grinding left.

SP is a problem early, but once you get some SP incense, it’s not a big deal. 
 

With regards to the shadow, raise Alice to level 90 to get the skill that lowers SP cost, and pass that to Lucifer in lieu of something like Ice Boost. That way, his ice attack costs around 20 SP or so.

 

After a while, though, you’ll get so many SP Incense, that you won’t care. My Joker was ending the battle with the dire shadow with about 400 SP, and this was despite not having the SP reducing skill, so Ice Age cost 38 SP. 

 

And the Yoshitsune I described should get you through most battles with no SP at all.

[Baker]

14 minutes ago, starcrunch061 said:

SP is a problem early, but once you get some SP incense, it’s not a big deal. 
 

With regards to the shadow, raise Alice to level 90 to get the skill that lowers SP cost, and pass that to Lucifer in lieu of something like Ice Boost. That way, his ice attack costs around 20 SP or so.

 

After a while, though, you’ll get so many SP Incense, that you won’t care. My Joker was ending the battle with the dire shadow with about 400 SP, and this was despite not having the SP reducing skill, so Ice Age cost 38 SP. 

 

And the Yoshitsune I described should get you through most battles with no SP at all.

Well I actually can just spam Diamond Dust all the way through the fight thanks to the SP incenses I got throughout the game. One loop takes me about 5 minutes to do.

 

Much faster, easier fight than Metatron on easy and it gives almost quadruple the exp.

And because of the Fusion loop I did I have all the Persona’s I want at lvl 99 with lvl 99 stats with all the best abilities.

 

Still. What annoys me on Merciless is the AI.

When I go down to low health, and I have Morgana as my healer, I need to wait 30-60 seconds before she decides to heal me so I always end up doing it myself. In fact I spend a lot of time healing and helping my party in a big boss fight. Not good.

 

Really enjoyed this game though. For me much better than Persona 5.

 

If this is what Musou games are like give me some more. It’s just an action JRPG but you fight dozens of enemies at the same time instead of a couple.

 

So I got a question. Is Dragon Quest Heroes similar to this?

Edited January 18, 2022 by Baker

[Optinooby]

The problem with Merciless is it is very fast once you GET to the farming spot, but the journey there including the deaths and trial and error that come with learning Merciless as well as the Persona preparations all add to the time. So although the grind spot itself maybe a lot quicker, it's kind off a illusion because the hours you gain from the XP from the spot, are not really gained because off the hours your spent preparing, getting there and potentially dying!!

 

The Shrine and Metatron gain XP slower but they take no preparation, I think it all balances out mostly. 

 

The most comfortable way is perhaps to grind each spot for a few hours as you play, breaks it up then rather than just a hardcore tedious 8 hours or so at once. Do the last Shrine for a few hours, then Metatron and perhaps finish with Lucifer, or plan out to allow you to do Merciless for a few hours.

 

I went through Merciless, I just thought it's so much trouble getting used to it and prepping personas. I just feel in the time, I could have done it the other ways in the same time.

 

Killing Reaper and Mara at the same time on those 2 requests get quite a lot of XP and is pretty fast.

 

Really, it's a shame they put this in, they should have just done a full merciless trophy, would have saved all this trouble!!

[Baker]

20 minutes ago, Optinooby said:

The problem with Merciless is it is very fast once you GET to the farming spot, but the journey there including the deaths and trial and error that come with learning Merciless as well as the Persona preparations all add to the time. So although the grind spot itself maybe a lot quicker, it's kind off a illusion because the hours you gain from the XP from the spot, are not really gained because off the hours your spent preparing, getting there and potentially dying!!

 

The Shrine and Metatron gain XP slower but they take no preparation, I think it all balances out mostly. 

I would have to disagree here.
 

Setting up my Persona’s at the end of my Normal playthrough took me around 2 hours. Count another 2 hours to get to Snake King and overall it’s much faster than fighting Metatron.
 

I don’t know how fast the Shrine is because I play on PS4 so it’s not worth it for me and it’s just boring to do.

 

Also apart from the very first fight I didn’t die on Merciless because I now knew what to expect. Jumped to Merciless at lvl 80 or something and when I got to Snake King I was exactly lvl. 90 so I could get Lucifer. That was a bit of luck. 

 

I recorded one Snake King loop to show how fast and easy it is for people who are thinking about grinding at Metatron or the Shrine.
 

 

 

[starcrunch061]

2 hours ago, Baker said:

Well I actually can just spam Diamond Dust all the way through the fight thanks to the SP incenses I got throughout the game. One loop takes me about 5 minutes to do.

 

Much faster, easier fight than Metatron on easy and it gives almost quadruple the exp.

And because of the Fusion loop I did I have all the Persona’s I want at lvl 99 with lvl 99 stats with all the best abilities.

 

Still. What annoys me on Merciless is the AI.

When I go down to low health, and I have Morgana as my healer, I need to wait 30-60 seconds before she decides to heal me so I always end up doing it myself. In fact I spend a lot of time healing and helping my party in a big boss fight. Not good.

 

Really enjoyed this game though. For me much better than Persona 5.

 

If this is what Musou games are like give me some more. It’s just an action JRPG but you fight dozens of enemies at the same time instead of a couple.

 

So I got a question. Is Dragon Quest Heroes similar to this?

Dragon Quest Heroes (and especially Heroes 2) I found to be superior. Heroes is a pretty basic plat, so you can start with that to see what you think, although I like Heroes 2 much more (the plat is 100+ hours, though, so be warned).

 

Heroes games are more like the classic DW and SW musou, but Heroes 1 has a bit of tower defense thrown in. Nothing much, though (which is good, because I can’t stand tower defense). Think of protecting 2-3 Futabas during a hack.

 

The AI does suck. I don’t know why they don’t heal. It’s the reason I decided to experiment and do my Yoshitsune-magic caster loop. That way, you don’t get hit (it’s a bit slower, because of swapping out, but not much; I was beating the dire shadows in about 6-7 minutes instead of 5). It’s great for bosses, though; they won’t even touch you for the first few dungeons (though be warned - the Demiurge on Merciless is one of the most annoying bosses I’ve ever fought).

Edited January 18, 2022 by starcrunch061

[Optinooby]

8 minutes ago, Baker said:

I would have to disagree here.
 

Setting up my Persona’s at the end of my Normal playthrough took me around 2 hours. Count another 2 hours to get to Snake King and overall it’s much faster than fighting Metatron.
 

I don’t know how fast the Shrine is because I play on PS4 so it’s not worth it for me and it’s just boring to do.

 

Also apart from the very first fight I didn’t die on Merciless because I now knew what to expect. Jumped to Merciless at lvl 80 or something and when I got to Snake King I was exactly lvl. 90 so I could get Lucifer. That was a bit of luck. 

 

I recorded one Snake King loop to show how fast and easy it is for people who are thinking about grinding at Metatron or the Shrine.
 

 

 

 

That's 4hrs on top of the grinding already, so although the farm is quicker, you already added 4 hours to it so puts it more or less the same.

 

Plus sounds like you already farmed a bit in NG to get that higher a level for Lucifer.

 

I went into NG+ without any farming and was only like level 70. So I couldn't use Yoshi or Alice etc, or Lucifer once I got to him, I was just getting destroyed and so avoided it.

 

What about the max stat boosting you did much earlier in the game, that time sort off needs adding to the Merciless overall time as well as max stats are not really needed otherwise

Edited January 18, 2022 by Optinooby

[starcrunch061]

5 minutes ago, Optinooby said:

 

That's 4hrs on top of the grinding already, so although the farm is quicker, you already added 4 hours to it so puts it more or less the same.

 

Plus sounds like you already farmed a bit in NG to get that higher a level for Lucifer.

 

I went into NG+ without any farming and was only like level 70. So I couldn't use Yoshi or Alice etc, or Lucifer once I got to him, I was just getting destroyed and so avoided it.

 

What about the max stat boosting you did much earlier in the game, that time sort off needs adding to the Merciless overall time as well as max stats are not really needed otherwise

No question that maxing out Joker persona takes some time (I went crazy on that, moving skills around and getting tons of Persona maxed out - you should see my high pixie goddess). I didn’t do much with Metatron, though it was nice to get Joker to level 87 to max out Yoshitsune’s level.

All in all, I found the grind to be comparable (I finished at almost exactly 50 hours with the plat, though I wasn’t efficient in Merciless, since I pushed ahead a bit). But what makes Merciless better is that you’re powering up characters. Ryuji with his best weapon, an Emerald Brooch, and mostly 99 stats (coupled with the bond boosts) is a force to be reckoned with; he doesn’t just die immediately. It’s got nothing to do with the plat, but it helped with moving forward, whereas grinding with Metatron does nothing for you other than gaining a few levels.

[Optinooby]

6 minutes ago, starcrunch061 said:

No question that maxing out Joker persona takes some time (I went crazy on that, moving skills around and getting tons of Persona maxed out - you should see my high pixie goddess). I didn’t do much with Metatron, though it was nice to get Joker to level 87 to max out Yoshitsune’s level.

All in all, I found the grind to be comparable (I finished at almost exactly 50 hours with the plat, though I wasn’t efficient in Merciless, since I pushed ahead a bit). But what makes Merciless better is that you’re powering up characters. Ryuji with his best weapon, an Emerald Brooch, and mostly 99 stats (coupled with the bond boosts) is a force to be reckoned with; he doesn’t just die immediately. It’s got nothing to do with the plat, but it helped with moving forward, whereas grinding with Metatron does nothing for you other than gaining a few levels.

 

The Max Stats grinding can be done much quicker if you incorporate Tri-Fusions and apply the stats increases a little different. The guides out there on it all seem to have copied the same formula, though there are much faster formulas; I got Pixie from default stats to Max Stats in under 30 mins!!

 

Merciless is definitely great if you want more from the game, I was just speaking from a Platinum perspective, I'm not too sure if Merciless grinding is faster overall than the NG grinding. I've not truly grinded the numbers down, but I fell overall the numbers are all very similar no matter the grinding method as they all save time in their specific area, but then lose time in their specific area as well.

 

 

Edited January 18, 2022 by Optinooby

[Baker]

18 minutes ago, Optinooby said:

 

That's 4hrs on top of the grinding already, so although the farm is quicker, you already added 4 hours to it so puts it more or less the same.

 

Plus sounds like you already farmed a bit in NG to get that higher a level for Lucifer.

 

I went into NG+ without any farming and was only like level 70. So I couldn't use Yoshi or Alice etc, or Lucifer once I got to him, I was just getting destroyed and so avoided it.

 

What about the max stat boosting you did much earlier in the game, that time sort off needs adding to the Merciless overall time as well as max stats are not really needed otherwise

Well I did take my time throughout my Normal playthrough so maybe that’s why I was at a higher level end game? I did not do any sort of grinding in NG.

 

The max stat boosting and getting all the higher Persona’s took me 2 hours using the Fusion loop. Which was really something I just did for myself as I like getting max stats. I got a couple of Fusion accidents making it go faster.

 

And I went from lvl 80 to 90 just doing the first Jail in NG+.

 

So 4 hours extra time investment and doing Snake King? Or Metatron? I think Snake King would be much faster..

 

I mean I still need to do this loop for 6 hours to reach max bonding level I estimate. So a Metatron only grind would take around 20 hours? So that’s 10 compared to 20 hours. Don’t know exactly. Just speculating here.

Edited January 18, 2022 by Baker

[Optinooby]

12 minutes ago, Baker said:

Well I did take my time throughout my Normal playthrough so maybe that’s why I was at a higher level end game? I did not do any sort of grinding in NG.

 

The max stat boosting and getting all the higher Persona’s took me 2 hours using the Fusion loop. Which was really something I just did for myself as I like getting max stats. I got a couple of Fusion accidents making it go faster.

 

And I went from lvl 80 to 90 just doing the first Jail in NG+.

 

So 4 hours extra time investment and doing Snake King? Or Metatron? I think Snake King would be much faster..

 

I mean I still need to do this loop for 6 hours to reach max bonding level I estimate. So a Metatron only grind would take around 20 hours? So that’s 10 compared to 20 hours. Don’t know exactly. Just speculating here.

 

Can't remember where I read it now, but one poster said they put the Script on the PC for the Shrine and they went from level 60 Bond or something to max Bond in just under 9 under as it was times.

 

That's apparently WAY quicker as mostly everywhere says the slower methods will take like near 15-20 hours and the Shrine is the slower method.

 

So it sorta tells me that a lot of player and their estimates are not kind off optimal setups so are perhaps slower.

 

I'm going through platinum for a 3rd time and I'm going to try all 3 methods, but try and accurately time it all, like everything involved to try and get an idea of accuracy timewise

Edited January 18, 2022 by Optinooby