Persona 4 Golden – Margaret Fight Tips and Tricks

Your Persona

I likewise recommend Yoshitsune with as many different absorb abilities on him as you can scrounge up. Aside from fusion inheritance, you can get absorb abilities from level 10 skill cards, which drop occasionally in Yomotsu Hirasaka or rarely in Magatsu Inaba. The biggest issue is his innate Repel Electricity, which will give Margaret free heals. You will either need to overwrite it with Absorb Electricity or bring a party member weak to electricity so she’ll target them instead. I brought Yosuke (for his ridiculously high evasion) and Kanji (for his high defense/health pool). I found that trying to keep squishier party members alive was more trouble than it was worth.

Unlike the reaper, Margaret does not use Hama/Mudo skills so you do not need Null Light/Dark.

The Battle

Phase 1:

The fight starts out soft, with Margaret dealing not-very-impressive melee attacks to a random party member. Like the reaper, she gets two attacks every turn. After a few rounds, she’ll bust out the persona compendium.

Phase 2:

Margaret will cast four elemental attacks in this order: Fire, Ice, Electricity, Wind. If one of your party members is weak to a given element, she will ALWAYS cast the single target version on them. If no party members are weak to that element, she will use the AOE version. Because the order is static, you can just have your weak party member guard for that turn (or, if their health is ok, take your chances on an evade.)

After one element cycle, she will cast a Mind Charge followed by a Megidolaon (Ardha), or a Power Charge followed by Hassou Tobi (Yoshitsune). In the early parts of the fight, she will mostly use Ardha, but occasionally swap in Yoshitsune. In the latter parts of the fight, she will mostly use Yoshitsune. The Megidolaon can be rough on the Hero, so it’s important to keep your defense buffed. As the player’s Yoshitsune has innate null physical, the Hassou Tobi is no risk to you, but can easily do in your allies.

Phase 3:

At a little under half health, she will pause to tell you how great you’re doing… and then cast Diarahan. Fortunately, this only happens once. This will be followed by Morning Star (Helel). She will then restart from phase 1, except you’ll be seeing her Yoshitsune a lot more often.

Your Turn

Hero:

Heat Riser > Power Charge > Hassou Tobi. Make sure not to waste your Hassou Tobi on turns a) after Mind Charge (Oberon), as she will be immune to all damage (except almighty) and b) after her own Hassou Tobi, as her Yoshitsune will absorb physical damage. If Rise has recently buffed your defense and attack, skip the Heat Riser.

Allies:

If you’re using Yosuke, keep the party’s Evasion up with Masukukaja/Youthful Wind. If you plan to use elemental skills, Analyze each turn to make sure you aren’t giving Margaret a free heal. Otherwise, just pick whatever does the most damage, guarding and healing as necessary. Remember that the Rise buff “All allies are now charged and focused” gives each party member a free Power and Mind Charge.

Murder by Megidolaon

Every 25 turns or so, Margaret will have Oberon cast Megidolaon. It will wipe you.

This effectively creates a time limit based on how many survival/auto-rez abilities you have. Rise at max Social Link has two – the first one will activate when any party member takes a fatal blow, so if you’re not careful, you may waste it long before the Megidolaon. (It will appear as a barrier with the message “Rise blocked all attacks”.) Her second rez will only be used on the Hero. Other options are the Enduring Soul ability and the Patient Collar accessory. If you activate a barrier ability (e.g. Naoto’s Shield of Justice), Margaret will simply cast something else first to pop the shield and then the Megidolaon.