Persona 3 Reload: Merciless Judge weakness

Just like its namesake, Persona 3 Reload‘s Tartarus can be a hellish experience for players caught unaware. Every floor brings new challenges, with the Merciless Judge Guardian boss among the most frustrating thanks to its absurdly tanky health pool and its backup.

Luckily, if you’ve been struggling with this Persona roadblock, there’s a fairly simple strategy for taking the Merciless Judge down, as long as your luck holds true. Don’t be discouraged if this one takes a few tries!

How do you defeat the Merciless Judge in Persona 3 Reload?

The Merciless Judge awaits you on Floor 184 of Tartarus—the second-to-last section of the sprawling dungeon—so your Persona 3 Reload party is expected to be pretty strong. The Merciless Judge turns the heat up to 11, though, by being one of the few Tartarus bosses with no weaknesses. To add insult to injury, Ice, Slash and Strike attacks are completely useless here, and even your Electric attacks will be partially resisted.

In addition, the Merciless Judge has an Executive Greatsword backing it up—a beefed-up version of the Cruel Greatsword you fought earlier. The Greatsword is mercifully weak to Fire attacks, thus giving you a little bit of wiggle room in this challenging fight. Bring Junpei along to pile Fire damage on the Greatsword, which only leaves the issue of the Judge.

For that, you’ll want to have Aigis in your party to buff your main attackers, whoever they may be. With no easily exploitable weakness, you’ll have to focus on pure damage and scoring critical hits with Pierce attacks to smash its defenses with overwhelming force. Never take your foot off the gas, and this judge will face judgment in no time.