Persona 4 Golden - Margaret (Very Hard, No Direct Party Control)

Timestamps: 0:00 Persona & Party Setup 0:55 Fight Starts 12:01 Morning Star/Diarahan 12:36 Kanji punches Margaret to the ground LOL 17:38 9999 Megidoloan 23:34 Final Phase (Hassou Tobi instead of Megidoloan from now on) 30:50 Finishing Blow Important things about Persona 4's party A.I. compared to Persona 3's: -They will not cast buffs, debuffs, power/mind charge, or barriers -The exception to the above quirk is Yosuke's Youthful Wind, which is treated like a healing spell since it recovers HP. However, that's not reliable for this fight since Yosuke will only cast it when characters are low on HP, not when we actually need the evasion buff. -There are less tactical settings to work with. More importantly, there's no Stand By command. There's no way to force the A.I. to guard on their own. They will only do it if they have no other option (none of their attacks work and no one needs healing). Margaret's rules for the fight: -No Omnipotent Orb (null all except almighty) -Every 50 turns, she will use Megidolaon with 9999 damage (she uses Oberon to cast this one, this is different from her normal Megidolaon with Ardha) -At full HP, she'll just use basic attack. After dealing some damage to her, she'll actually start fighting. -She will cycle through attacks like so: Fire → Ice → Elec → Wind → Mind Charge → Megidolaon. -After getting her below half HP, she will use Diarahan and you'll repeat the first phase again. -Getting her below half HP a second time will change her cycle like so: Fire → Ice → Elec → Wind → Power Charge → Hassou Tobi -Note that she will absorb whatever element she uses on you. The Strategy: Max out all party member social links, obviously. The way the fight is reworked in Golden basically makes it impossible without the perks you get from them. You want to make sure all your party members have Godly Robes (dropped by The Reaper) and God's Love (chance of acquiring through gold chests in the final dungeon) equipped. We don't actually care that much about the other stat bonuses. The only one we care about is Agility. Having a higher base evasion will add up better with evasion buff and Evade X passive skills. Margaret will single down on anyone weak to the element she's using. If she knocks someone down, she'll follow up with a full party attack of the same element. Because the A.I. will not guard their weaknesses, you'll have to rely on them to evade their weakness most of the time. Start the fight with Auto-Mataru and Auto-Maraku. On her initial phase using her basic attacks, just have your party go ham. Set up Masukukaja and Debilitate as it won't take long for the fight to actually start. Repel Damage from her attacks will deal a good chunk too. I had the protagonist take on a mostly supportive role, but still having Yoshitsune to squeeze in any attacks if I could and also keep up the pace with damage. I can only take one 9999 attack, so I can't waste too many turns. Matarukaja was not needed since attack boost is Rise's favorite buff to spam anyway. Marakukaja is pretty much only there for Megidolaon and Hassou Tobi. You CANNOT allow Rise to use up her one-time party save until Margaret uses her 9999 attack. You should also try to not let your party members use up their Endures too soon. That's why I also had Mediarahan on my protagonist in case I didn't want Yukiko to waste a turn healing or if Yukiko was dizzy and couldn't heal. When Margaret uses her 9999 attack for the first time, her turn cycle with be off-sync which will make things a bit easier. This means Margaret won't be able to charge with Oberon and attack with Megidolaon/Hassou Tobi on the same turn. If she stops after charging, this leaves her on Oberon who is immune to every kind of attack. This will actually force your party to defend, but make sure everyone is good on HP so Yukiko doesn't heal. She won't survive unless she guards. Also make sure you keep an eye on your buffs so that everyone's always ready to evade their weakness or tank a charged attack (VERY IMPORTANT). If she's within kill range, or she's on her second "basic attack spam" phase, you can get a nice charged Hassou Tobi in there. Rise will actually double charge your party pretty often throughout the fight, so don't even bother charging it yourself. She'll probably do it for you before you even need it. My Party: Don't bring Yosuke or Teddie to the fight. If Margaret hits an elec weakness, she will use her extra turn to move on to her wind attack and this will mess up the cycle too soon. I had Chie and Kanji for their high phys damage. Chie having Apt Pupil and her Moses Sandals will raise her crit rate through the roof. An All-Out Attack on Margaret won't do that much extra damage, but it's still better to take the free damage over doubling down on HP consuming skills. Yukiko for heals, obviously, but you'll need the protagonist to play a mostly supportive role too. What I could've done better will be in the pinned comment. Character limit.