remakes a game that kickstarted the Persona series as most players think of it today - Social Links, time management, school life, an extended cast with heaps of development. If there's one thing, however, that ties it to its series predecessors, it'♊s a relatively heavier reliance on leveling.

Which isn't 🐷to say this classic RPG staple doesn't exist in Persona 3's successors; but this game goes well out of its way to hammer home the need to toughen up your SEES. Thankfully, there are plenty of ways to make leveling less of a hassle. Some are, frankly, pretty rad.

Take Advantage Of Rush And Ambush

Not long after your introduction to Persona 3 Reload's Tartarus dungeon, you will be shown a tutorial on the Rush mechanic. This handy feature serves as a fast-forward during combat. In literal terms, then, this adds up to becoming a tremendous time-saver on the road to leveling up.

Just take care not to overindulge on Rush, so to speak. It limits your party's actions significantly, after all, and any halfway-powerful foe will be a serious problem. You should disengage from Rush mode at the first sign of trouble.

Far better than Rush, however, is Ambush, which you will be able to utilize from Tartarus' third block onward - around mid-July per the in-game calendar. By running for a few seconds, you can not only gain the time-saving benefits of a preemptive strike, but inflict Distress on many Shadows as well.

Equip The Proper Persona

Bear with us, here. We're still centering on some of the more incidental grinding tactics for Persona 3 - we'll get to the best stuff soon. Honestly, though, keeping an eye on which Persona you head into fights with can shave precious seconds off your grind.

When we say this, we mean focus on setting the Persona with the most powerful offensive stats in your current stack. In Persꦐona 3 Reload, much like in most games, might can make right.

Of course, deducing enemy weaknesses is critical, but bludgeoning hard with a high Strength or Magic stat straight out tജhe gate elimina🐎tes small fry with ease.

Learn To Love Fuuka

Well, perhaps 'learn to love' is harsh; Fuuka's hard not to love. We digress. Fuuka (and early on, Mitsuru instead) is not only your doorway into analyzing enemies for their weaknesses, but also the game's portal into one of its finest remake-exclusive features: automatically targeting those weaknesses.

On PlayStation, this is done by pressing R1. On Xbox, it's LB. On PC, it's... we're actually not sure o🎉ffhand, but we'll up꧋date this with that ASAP.

The point is, once you have sussed out a foe's weakness, you should use this mechanic more often than not. Not only does it make leveling less frustrating; it makes the entire notion of🦹 Tartarus easier to handl﷽e. As you've no doubt noticed by now, quickness in combat means swiftness in Tartarus.

Seek Out The Great Clock

Now for the grand prize. The Great Clock is the single most valuable leveling tool in Persona 3's remake, and, we suspect, it will be looked upon quite fondly for many years. Once it's been unlocked, it will allow players to select up to two party members per visit whose levels can be boosted to reach Makoto's.

Unlocking the Great Clock occurs during the third block of Tartarus as soon as you use a Twilight Fragment to open one of its associated chests.

Let's give you a cool example. When we first got a certain late-July party member, we were overleveled, no doubt thanks to all the ways we've been going on about. The party member in question was level 27, whereas Makoto was level 35.

In the span of a single subsequent battle, the party member's level shot up to 35. In a game with so many party members, this is invaluable.

Beat Bosses And Gatekeepers

It goes without saying that you'll have to take on all the mandatory battles in order to finish Persona 3 Reload. It's on the tin, so to speak. What we're getting at here is that boss fights of all sorts provide a tremendous amount of experience points in Persona 3 Reload.

Pound for pound, they cough up far more EXP than they do in, say, Persona 4 and Persona 5. There's logic in retreading Tartarus' myriad floors when seeking to level up, but don't put off those harder fights for too long.

Unless you're quite overleveled, they're virtually guaranteed to get your active squad a level-up.

Keep Picking The Same Personas During Shuffle Time

It's tempting to rely upon a steady stream of money cards during Shuffle Time, since yen can be so scarce in this game (especially early on). But consider how long it takes for Personas in Makoto's stack to le🍃vel up naturally.

It's far more effective to grant your current Personas a level raise by picking their card even though you alr𝔉eady have them. The mightier your Personas can become, the hastier your fights become.

Needless to say, it's important to choose EXP Gain cards in Shuffle Time as well, since they, you know, net you more EXP.

Increase The Spawn Rate Of Rare Shadows

Don't underestimate the power of psychic persuasion. Club Escapade's fortune-teller charges a set fee for an increasing number of Tartarus-affecting services, including one which increases the odds of encountering a rare Shadow every time you climb to a higher floor.

Rare Shadows are worth gobs of experience points, not quite as much as bosses, but a heck of a lot more than more mundane clashes have to offer you. Get into the swing of paying the fortune-teller a visit before every dungeon-diving evening.