Fusion Theory

Introduction

The Fusion system in Shin Megami Tensei: Persona is unique in the Persona series. Players have to gather special items called spell cards from demons through maximizing their Eagerness, then use such cards as the ingredient of fusion. Hence, having a spell card from Jack Frost does not allow you to use Jack Frost as a Persona, you will need to fuse it separately.

This section explains the basic fusion theory, then it will further explain other sub-systems such as fusion accidents, hidden potentials, and item- or totem-related fusions.

Fundamental

Tribe and Order

An understanding of the difference between Tribes and Orders is required for successful fusions. In Persona, on top of the Order system, there is also a Tribe system that has been traditionally used in the Shin Megami Tensei series. There are totally 19 Tribes:

JPN ENG Type Characteristics
夜魔 Night Dark Has Energy Drain and is good at Dark spells
妖魔 Yoma Element Good at Element spells and special spells
妖精 Fairy Element Has a variety of spells
天使 Divine Holy Good at Holy - Kouha; Force - Megido
堕天使 Fallen Dark Good at Dark - Eiha; special Force attacks
龍王 Snake Holy Has high HP and is good at special spells
邪龍 Drake Force Has high HP and is good at breath attacks
妖鳥 Flight Element Good at Element - Wind
凶鳥 Raptor Force Good at Force - Blast
魔獣 Beast Holy Good at Holy - Prayer; Force - Special skills
妖獣 Wilder Dark Good at Rush-subtype special attacks
鬼女 Femme Force High St; good at Force-subtype spells
妖鬼 Brute Holy Good at Holy - Hama; Special spell attacks
地霊 Jirae Element High Vi; good at Element - Earth
邪鬼 Jaki Element High Dx; good at special spells; special Force attacks
幽鬼 Haunt Dark Almost all attacks are special spell attacks
悪霊 Spirit Dark Good at Dark - Death, Mudo
屍鬼 Grave Force Mainly uses claw attacks; nulls Guns
外道 Foul Force Has no spell attacks

In addition, there are a total of 22 Orders in the Major Arcana:

Order Type Characteristics
MAGICIAN Element Good at all Element-type spells
PRIESTESS Light Good at healing subtypes, such as Bless and Miracle spells
EMPRESS Force Good at Force - Nuclear, Frei
EMPEROR Element Can use both Curse and Nerve spells, as well as Element
HIEROPHANT Light Good at Light - Expel
LOVERS Element Good at Element spells and dances
CHARIOT Force Come at Force - Normal, Special, Nuclear
STRENGTH Light Good at special spell attacks
HERMIT Element Good at special Force attacks
FORTUNE Light Good at the Rush subtype of physical skills
JUSTICE Force Good at Force spells
HANGEDMAN Dark Good at status-affecting attacks
DEATH Dark Good at Dark - Death, Eiha
TEMPERANCE Force Good at special spell attacks
DEVIL Dark Good at Dark spells
TOWER Dark Good at Dark - Death, Mudo
STAR Elemental Can use a variety of Element spells
MOON Dark Good at Dark - Nerve
SUN Element Good at Element - Wind
JUDGEMENT Light Good at Holy - Expel, Kouha
WORLD Force Good at breath attacks
FOOL Force Can use a variety of attacking methods

The resulting Persona is always expressed in the Order system, but the ingredients that give such result are always expressed in the Tribe system. So, you will see recipe like:

Tribe A X Tribe B = A certain Order

You can only fuse two demons in Persona. However, you can interfere with the outcome by changing the sequence of the demons, applying items, or synchronizing your fusion with the Moon Phases.

Level of the resulting Persona

To determine the Level of the Persona:

  1. First determine the Order of the resultant.
  2. Take the average of the two demons, truncate.
  3. Add 3 to the answer.
  4. The resulting Persona will be the first one that has a Level bigger than your answer.

How to read the icons

Color Meaning
White Normal: Nothing special
Orange Unstable: Higher chance for fusion accident
Blue Beneficial: Result Persona have +5 to its highest stat, and +20 to Magic Def
Sign Meaning
Normal Fusion: No skill inheritance
1st Dominant: Skill will be inherited from the 1st demon entering the recipe, according to the priority
Beneficial 2nd Dominant: Skill will be inherited from the 2nd demon entering the recipe, according to the priority; all stats +1
Unfavorable 2nd Dominant: Skill will be inherited from the 2nd demon entering the recipe, according to the priority; all stats -1
X Cannot Fuse

For all the possible combination, see complete fusion charts.

Why was I denied making or equipping a certain Persona?

  • You may not carry two identical Personas. If you need to fuse a new one, you will have to return the existing one.
  • You may not fuse Personas 10 Levels higher than the MC's Persona LV.
  • A Persona cannot be equipped by a character if their affinity is the worst.
  • A Persona cannot be equipped by a character if the character's Persona LV is lower than that of the Persona's.

What is the combination of Tribes that gives you a FOOL Persona?

There isn't one. FOOL Personas can only be made through fusion accidents.

Skill Inheritance

There are two ways to let your resultant Persona learn a skill that is not in their default skill list: inheriting from the parent demon or learning from a spell tablet. Inherited skills will be available for using after the resultant Persona has reached Rank 2.

Some demons contribute one to three inheritable skills during a fusion. According to their position in the fusion and the sign of the fusion, the resultant Persona will pick up a skill according to the default priority.

A more fool-proof (no pun intended) way to insert a skill into the skill list is by throwing in a tablet. Low- to medium-level offensive tablets can be found in dungeon and obtained as loot after battles, top-tier offensive tablets are available in casino, recovery tablets are readily available in pharmacy. Most Personas also rewarded you a tablet upon being returned.

For those who are into save/load or gambling, you may also throw in an item that imparts a "random effect" to the fusion. There is a slim chance that the random effect will turn out to be a skill transference.

The skill inheritance follows these rules:

  1. Only one skill will be inherited. Skill from tablets has priority compared to skill from the demons.
  2. When ranking up to 2, the inherited skill will be learned.
  3. If the resultant Persona already has the skill by default, that inherited skill will not be learned. If the donor parent actually has more than one spell, then the second inheritable skill will be the result.
  4. The property of the resultant Persona may cause an inheritance to fail. For instance, Jack Frost and other ice-based Personas will not inherit Maragion, even if a Maragion Stone is used in the Fusion, etc.

For a complete list of what skills each spell card can add to a Persona, see the skill inheritance page.

Item Fusion

There are five types of items that can be used in a Fusion. Click on the link to find out more:

Item Item Effect(s)
Expendables Random effect, Teaches skill
Stones/Tablets Teaches skill
Equipments Strength/Vitality/Dexterity/Speed/Luck up
Gems Change Persona within Order
Totems Make special Persona

Hidden Potentials

By fusing some particular Tribes at a certain Moon Phase, the resulting Persona may also acquire a hidden skill known as a "hidden potential" (潜在能力). A few conditions need to be fulfilled for the hidden potential to take effect:

  1. The Persona has to be active, i.e. the one being equipped at the first position.
  2. The Persona needs to be at least Rank 6.
  3. The character and the Persona have the Best affinity.

If all of the above are true, then when the character's HP has dropped to red, their hidden potentials may happen based on a chance. The exception is the Latent Revival, which requires the character to die in order to be activated. There are numerous types of hidden potentials, listed below are the most efficient ones. Each Persona can only have one hidden potential:

Latent Recovery

  • Moon Phase: FULL MOON.
  • Condition: Use Drake, Raptor, Wilder, Jaki, Haunt, Spirit, Grave, or Foul in the 2nd position of a Fusion.
  • Effect: 25% chance of reviving character with full HP. Persona returns to Rank 1.

Latent Nullification

  • Moon Phase: NEW MOON.
  • Condition: Use Snake, Flight, Beast, Femme, Brute, or Jirae in the 2nd position of a Fusion.

OR

  • Moon Phase: HALF MOON.
  • Condition: Use Wilder in the 2nd position of a Fusion.
  • Effect: Nullify all attacks when HP drops to red.

Latent Revival

  • Moon Phase: NEW MOON.
  • Condition: Use Drake, Raptor, Wilder, Jaki, Haunt, Spirit, Grave, or Foul in the 2nd position of a Fusion.
  • Effect: 25% chance of reviving character with full HP. Persona returns to Rank 1.

Latent Attack

  • Moon Phase: N/A.
  • Condition: Using Durga, Susanoo, Hokuto Seikun, Bishamonten, Lucifer, Satan, or Illuyanka.
  • Effect: Perform an almighty attack when HP drops to red.
  • Note: This hidden potential is given by default and cannot be replaced. So, it is pointless to design a fusion attempting to let the above Persona inherit other hidden potentials.

Fusion Accidents

At a certain chance, the fusion may not return what was promised known as a "fusion accident" (合体事故). Igor, the host of the Velvet Room, will tell you when something irregular has happened. A quick way to tell if an accident has occurred is by pressing the Start button while the tent is being lowered onto the two demons; if you cannot bypass that scene, then the irregular event has happened. The chance of a fusion accident depends on the accident types:

Accident Effect White Fusion Orange Fusion Blue Fusion
Order Switch See below 8/256 8/256 2/256
FOOL Result becomes a FOOL Persona 1/256 4/256 2/256
Jelly man All Stats -5 7/256 32/256 0
Upgrade All Stats +5 8/256 0 8/256
Random inheritance Persona will randomly inherit a favorable spell from its parents 8/256 20/256 4/256
Result of Order Switch Chance
HERMIT, SUN, WORLD, LOVERS, TEMPERANCE, MOON 32/256
MAGICIAN, EMPEROR, JUSTICE, EMPRESS 10/256
PRIESTESS, HIEROPHANT, JUDGEMENT, CHARIOT 6/256

FOOL Creation

FOOL Personas can only be created through a fusion accident. There are three of them; all are characterized by colorful skill sets, low SP requirements, "Strong: All attacks" properties. They are worth making.

LV Persona Ingredients
30 FOOL Tenjiku Tokubei Total demon LV < 53
47 FOOL Narukami Total demon LV between 54 and 87
61 FOOL Kamakura Gongorou Total demon LV > 87

Notice that even when the resultant Persona has changed, planned hidden potentials or spell inheritance will still happen. This rule applies to Order mutations as well. With some (or a lot) luck, you may be able to create a Persona that inherited an unique skill.

Cheat

A cheat is available for the PSP version. By counting the steps between the Agastya Tree and the Velvet Room, a fusion accident can actually be arranged with 100% certainty. The details are listed on the cheat page.

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