Suguru Kamoshida is the first target of the Phantom Thieves of Hearts inPersona 5 Royal.His palace is the first one they infiltrate, and so his shadow is the first real challenge players encounter. This means the boss fight is simple compared to the game’s later bosses, but it’s still more complicated than the regular shadows and minibosses players fought along the way.
Another complicating factor is that players never explore a palace and fight its boss on the same day thanks to the uniquePersona 5 Royalformula. This means the developers can pull out all the stops since they expect players' parties to have full HP and SP going into the fight. That’s why it’s so important to have a good strategy and know what to expect before fighting Kamoshida.
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The Battle Begins
The fight begins as Shadow Kamoshida recovers his crown and transforms intoSuguru “Asmodeus” Kamoshida, his combat form. At the start of combat, Kamoshida can use the following actions:
Since all of Asmodeus’s attacks are physical, getting a persona that’s strong against melee damage is a good investment.Obariyonis a level 8 Fool persona that resists physical damage, andSlimeis a level 10 Chariot persona.
Something else to be aware of is that Asmodeus has no strengths and no weaknesses. This is the case with most palace bosses, since the developers want players to be able to defeat them with any party.
Players may also wonder whether theCrystal of Lustaccessory has any impact on this fight. Players get it by collecting all the Will Seeds in Kamoshida’s Palace, and while crystal accessories offer some very useful bonuses (and they can be upgraded) they don’t have any story impact. Specifically, the Crystal of Lustlets the wearer use Diarama, and at this point in the game the skill will completely restore a target’s health.
As soon as players deal a fair amount of damage to Asmodeus, he’ll useLibido Boostand drink from the trophy cup in front of him. This will restore 3,000 HP, but thankfully players will now be able to target the Trophy of Obsession. The Trophy also has no weaknesses, but it only has around one-third of Asmodeus’s HP. Players should focus on it because Asmodeus will keep using Libido Boost until the trophy breaks, and once it does phase 2 will begin.
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A Volleyball Duelist
Destroying the Trophy of Obsession annoys Asmodeus, so he sends his slaves off (removing the Volleyball Assault attack) tofetch Cognitive Yuuki Mishima. The fake Mishima will give Asmodeus a volleyball, and at this point players have one turn to Guard and avoid taking tons of damage from his newGold Medal Spikeattack. The spike deals almighty damage, which means even a Slime persona won’t do anything to help.
Asmodeus then replaces Mishima with Cognitive Shiho Suzui. Players can choose to either target Shiho (who is weak to every element) or focus on Asmodeus. Defeating Shiho is definitely the easier option, since otherwise players need to deal 300 damage to Asmodeus to disrupt his special attack. If players fail to do so, he’ll unleash hisKillshot of Love. The name is new, but this attack deals the same almighty damage to the whole party as the Gold Medal Spike.
De-Coronation
Once players have thwarted the Killshot of Love, Morgana will explain Special Orders. On his turn,Joker can order a party memberto leave the battlefield and try to sneak up on the boss. This reduces the party to three members, and the sneaking attempt may fail, but the reward for succeeding can be massive.
In this case, Joker should send either Morgana or Ryuji since Kamoshidastares too much at Annto let her sneak past him. At this point, players must deal at least some damage to Asmodeus in each round to keep his attention on the party, and they must do around 300 to 400 damage before the sneaking character can advance.
Once the sneaking character advances three times, they’ll steal the crown off Asmodeus’s head. The now dejected Asmodeus will sometimes waste turns and take four times as much damage. Players don’t need to steal the crown to beat Kamoshida, but doing so more than makes up for the party member’s absence.
Asmodeus has no more tricks up his sleeve, so take down the rest of his health bar, enjoy the cutscenes, and then go have a much deserved rest at Leblanc.The reward for defeating Kamoshida is 500 xpand 13,800 yen.
Persona 5 Royalis available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
