As a gamer who plays a ton of action-adventure games, JRPGs, and a few hack and slash games, Persona 5 Strikers has a more difficult – but less punishing way – of dodging attacks.
While there are a ton of skills that complement dodging, you cannot dodge everything with the dodge button like other games.
This guide will teach you how to dodge in Persona 5 Strikers and we’ll look at the other mechanics involved with dodging.
Dodging Attacks
To dodge attacks, you need to use the L2 button (depending on the platforming you are playing on) and time it with the enemy’s attack. If the enemy attacks with a skill, it is still possible to dodge but most of the skills in the game have a huge radius so it will be difficult. You can spam the L2 button to dodge multiple times until you get used to the timings.
Once you get used to the timings, you can dodge once and attack accordingly. It will save you some extra frames to get attacks, skills, or heals out. Another good strategy is using the environment to your advantage. If you are being overwhelmed, you can look for any interactable place or object to dash to instantly with the circle button.
Another thing to note is that the character you are controlling will be the main focus of all the enemies in the vicinity and sometimes it is best to be defensive with your movement, especially on higher difficulties. There are also a few combinations you can do to improve your combat capabilities by following the combat tips in our beginner guide.
Skills That Affect Dodging
Phantom Striker
The Phantom Striker bond skill will increase your damage after performing the phantom dash or the dodge. Once you get used to dodging, this will greatly increase your damage output. This is best paired with the Avenger bond skill which will be just below this section.
You can also do ambushes and dash before doing an all-out attack. Usually, enemies get destroyed without this damage buff but for stronger enemies, you to always remember to phantom dash before executing an all-out attack. Not only is this a powerful combination to wipe out mobs of enemies in an instant, but it can also be used as a farming strategy when entering jails and fighting enemies that you do not even need to clear out.
Avenger
Avenger is the best bond skill you can get for dodging. While it does not help you dodge as much, the damage output you do on counterattacks after executing dodges will be insane. If you evade an attack with perfect timing, you will counter the enemy with your character’s Persona affinity.
This means that when you perform a perfect dodge into a counter, Makoto, for example, will counter with a nuclear ability such as Frei. That is crazy good especially when the enemy you are fighting is weak against your current Persona’s affinity.
The last rank of the Avenger bond skill is extremely niche but it depends if you are having a hard time in a specific section to be useful. With skills such as Evade Ice and other evade affinities, you will counter each time you auto-evade when that skill activates. It is a much lazier form of dodging and countering and it costs a great number of bond points.
If you do decide to get this, it will be insanely strong when you pair it with high amounts of Agi. If your characters have high Agi from the bond buffs, accessories, and even Yusuke’s Master Art, this might be the strongest bond skill in the game.
Conclusion
Dodging is just one defensive aspect of Persona 5 Strikers’ combat and it is not mandatory to always look for dodges for counters. Most of the time, dashes are used to get around the battlefield quicker so the Phantom Striker ability is actually the most efficient bond skill to take just because of the raw damage output increase from it. If you are not used to doing perfect dodges, it is alright as long as you can dash out of danger beforehand as countering is just a bonus.
