Given that Makoto is a heavy favourite among Persona 5 fans, it’s no surprise that P5X goes out of its way to do her justice, making her one of the strongest characters in the game, but in order to get all of that potential out of her, you need to build her right. Queen is a powerful attacker who focuses on single-target strikes powerful enough to break even the toughest of foes, and leverages elemental ailments to deal even more damage.
We’ll break down the best Queen build in P5X, including who to team her with, and her best Revelation Cards.
Johanna Skills
Hidden Abilities
Awareness levels and abilities
Tenacity and Crash Out are Queen’s unique mechanics. She gains 1 Tenacity every time she hits a foe with a Persona skill and will gain 1 more Tenacity at the end of her turn for every elemental ailment inflicted on a foe.
If Queen starts her turn with 5 or more Tenacity, she will activate Crash Out. This increases her Attack by 40%, her Defense by 20%, and evolves her Nuclear Fury skill into the much more powerful Thermonuclear Fury.
Use Sanctioned Drift Turn 1
For Queen to be effective, the foes need to have elemental ailments. The best way to do this is to have other characters in the party that can do this job before Queen acts, but Sanctioned Drift gives her an option to do it herself. If it goes well, then you’ll be able to get 5 Tenacity stacks by Turn 2.
Use President’s Power before powerful attacks
Getting the elemental ailments set up is good, but you don’t want to blow it too early when you could get even more power. Crash Out gives you two turns of Nuclear Fury being evolved into Thermonuclear Fury, so if you know that’s coming, use President’s Power the turn before to give Queen that 32% Attack boost.
Use Thermonuclear Fury whenever available
If it’s available, you should use it; it’s as simple as that. It is one of the most powerful offensive Persona skills in the entire game, and after activating Crash Out, you only get two turns to use it, so don’t waste them. Even if you have multiple targets, this single-target attack is so powerful that it’ll be worth it, especially if the rest of the party has done their job and set up ailments on the foes you want to target.
Both of the other Nuke-element units in P5X are perfect for buffing Queen as much as possible. Vino is a must-have as she is able to inflict elemental ailments even more consistently than Queen, while Leon focuses on all-around Attack buffs for his party, though you can switch him out for someone like Mirian if you need a healer or Panther if you need a second strong attacker. Okyann is the best choice for Navigator because, on top of increasing Attack, she increases Ailment Accuracy, which is vital when working with a Nuke-based team.
The progression for weapons in this game is pretty simple: the more stars a weapon has, the better it is both in terms of stats and its abilities, so you should always try and pull the best weapon possible when building a character. Here are the stats and effects of all of Queen’s weapons:
As we explain in our guide to the best Revelation Cards for every P5X character, Queen’s best combination is Truth & Awareness. Truth increases her Nuclear damage boost Queen’s Nuclear damage by 10% while increasing her Attack by 30% while targeting an ailing foe. Put Awareness on top of that and you get a futher 12% Attack boosts that pair well with a character like Vino using the Truth & Harmony combination.