Persona 5: The Phantom X – Best Joker build, team comp, and Revelation Cards
By Ryan Woodrow
Given he’s the poster boy for Persona 5, it’s no surprise that Joker is easily one of the best characters in P5X. If you still haven’t pulled him from the limited-time banner, then we recommend you do, as he’s an invaluable asset to your team – follow our guide on the P5X upcoming banner schedule for more details on that. As a Sweeper unit, he is capable of dealing heavy damage to the entire field at once, and he is up there with Panther in terms of the highest DPS output in the game.
If you’ve pulled Joker and want to know how to get the most out of his skills look no further, as this is our comprehensive build guide for Joker in P5X
Contents
All Joker skills and abilities in P5X
Arsene Skills
- Trickster’s Plunder – Deal Curse damage to all goes equal to 54.4% of Attack. 20% chance to inflict Curse. Also gain 1 Will of Rebellion stack.
- Phantom Omen – Deal Curse damage to 1 foe equal to 64% of Attack. When only 1 foe is present, gain 2 Will of Rebellion stacks.
- Arsene’s Chains – Deal Curse damage to all foes equal to 48.6% of Attack. When used on an Extra Action, increases damage by 25%. When attacking foes with debuffs, increases damage by 25% more.
- Thief Tactics – Highlight: Deal Curse damage to all goes equal to 134.4% of Attack, and gain 1 Will of Rebellion Stack.
Hidden Abilities
- Resistance (HA Lvl 1) – Increase Attack by 6% for each Will of Rebellion stack.
- Adverse Resolve (HA Lvl 4) – Increase damage on Extra Actions by 24%.
Awareness levels and abilities
- A1: Calling Card – Increase skill damage dealt to the main target by 30% and increase skill damage to other targets by 10%
- A2: Meditate – On an Extra Action, decrease SP cost of skills by 80%. When Ren’s SP is above 60%, increase Attack by 50%.
- A3: Secret Maneuvers – Increase the skill levels of Arsene’s Chains and Thief Tactics by 3.
- A4: Highway Robbery – Highlight Enhanced: Increase number of Will of Rebellion stacks gained to 3.
- A5: Moonlit Evening – Increase the skill levels of Tricker’s Plunder and Phantom Omen by 3.
- A6: Merciless Pursuit – After taking an Extra Action, if there are foes with 25% HP, deal damage to those foes equal to 250% of Ren’s Attack (once per enemy turn per battle). After using a skill on an extra action, deal Curse damage equal to 50% of Attack to all foes.
What does Will of Rebellion do?
Every time Joker ends his turn with a foe at 60% or lower HP, he’ll gain a Will of Rebellion stack for each foe, on top of whatever stacks you gain from using the specified skill, up to 5 stacks.
When Joker hits 3 Will of Rebellion stacks, he will consume them to perform an Extra Action, letting you essentially take another turn as Joker, with the added bonus that his Arsene’s Chains skill will be significantly more powerful.
How to use Joker in P5X
Build Will of Rebellion stacks
The best way to maximize Joker’s damage output is to try and hit the threshold for Extra Action every turn. If you’re facing off against multiple enemies, then the best way to do this is to use Tricker’s Plunder to whittle down everyone’s health at once to continually farm Will of Rebellion stacks. If it’s only one foe, then use Phantom Omen instead, as it does more damage and offers 2 Will of Rebellion stacks, making up for the lack of enemies to farm.
Have teammates apply debuffs
As we’ll explain in a minute, Joker’s biggest damage potential is when using Arsene’s Chains during an Extra Action, and that skill gets a further damage boost if the target is under the effects of a debuff, so make sure you use characters like Rin or Moko to inflict those onto your enemies.
Use Arsene’s Chains on Extra Action
Arsene’s Chains normally does less damage than his other skills, but when it’s an Extra Action, it is significantly buffed, with a 25% damage increase. Plus, a further 25% if the foe has a debuff, so you should always use this skill when you have an Extra Action.
Joker is your best Highlight attack option
If you’re just going for pure damage (as opposed to targetting a weakness or healing your team), then Joker will almost always be your best option when launching a Highlight attack – with the possible exception of a buffed-up Panther. He deals high Curse damage to all foes and gains a Will of Rebellion stack (three if you’ve upgraded him to A4), which means you’re far more likely to be able to use an Extra Action immediately afterwards too.
Best team composition for Joker in P5X
As far as teammates go, Rin is by far Joker’s best ally. She is also a Curse-based unit, meaning you’ll get the Harmony team bonus to Curse damage by putting them together. While Joker is all about damage, Rin focuses on debuffing foes, with all her skills lowering enemy defenses or increasing their damage taken, which means Joker’s Arsene’s Chains skill will always get the damage buff from striking debuffed targets.
Joker’s skills all deal damage based on his Attack stat, so characters that can buff that, like Leon, are also really good partners as they just keep pushing Joker’s damage potential higher. This is why Okyann is a great Navi to put in the team. While Puppet can be useful to bring some defensive capabilities to an offensive-focused team, Okyann will skyrocket Joker’s potential.
Best weapon for Joker in P5X
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 Joker’s weapons:
- Rebel Knife (2-stars) – HP: 86, ATK: 31, DEF: 14 – Increase Attack by 11.3%
- Athame (3-stars) – HP: 104, ATK: 37, DEF: 17 – When dealing Curse damage, 35.4% chance to inflict 1 Curse stack on a foe.
- Machete (4-stars) – HP: 139, ATK: 50, DEF: 23 – Increase Attack by 12%. When attacking a foe with an ailment, increase Attack by 19.1%.
- Phoenix Dagger (5-stars) – HP: 174, ATK: 62, DEF: 29 – Increase Attack by 30%. After gaining Will of Rebellion, increase Ren’s Curse damage by 10% for 2 turns. At 3 or more Will of Rebellion stacks, increase Ren’s next damage by 23.0%.
Best Revelation Cards for Joker in P5X
As we explain in our guide on the best Revelation Cards for each character in P5X, Joker’s best combination is Departure & Hindrance. The Hindrance set gives a 20% increase to Curse damage and a further 20% boost to foes with debuffs. When combined with the Departure Space card, Joker’s Attack will get boosted by 30% every time he defeats a foe.