Note: Third Semester spoilers, of course.
Lavenza was added as a new Super Boss in Persona 5 Royal, available during the 3rd Semester in NG+ (after securing a route to the treasure in the Final Palace). She is a fair bit tougher than the Twins, and her fight has various requirements that you have to fulfill in order to beat it. I posted two videos recently, one beating Lavenza with a full party and one with solo Joker. First part of this post will focus on beating Lavenza with a full party, second half is with the solo route.
Party
Lavenza has 4 Phases and moves twice per turn. She periodically uses Dekaja to remove buffs on the party and Dekunda to remove de-buffs on herself. In Phases 1?3, you must deal 5000 damage within 8 of your turns, or she will knock down your party and end the fight.
Phase 1 has these characteristics:
- Lavenza will start by using Dekaja on the party to remove buffs, and Heat Riser on herself
- She?ll then start trying to apply ailments and rotate between Fire, Electric, Ice and Wind damage
- After Lavenza has just finished her turn, she takes more damage from certain elements. After Fire, she takes more damage from Ice attacks. If Electric, then Wind. If Ice, then Fire. If Wind, then Electric.
- Lavenza seems to have a hidden resistance to Almighty during this phase, so using the right element will really do more damage than anything else
Phase 2:
- In this phase, Lavenza is susceptible to all ailments. You must deal Technical damage every turn, or the fight ends.
- Here?s a list of ailments in P5R and what can be used for a Technical
- Sleep/Dizzy allows for any attack to be a Technical, while Rage halves Lavenza?s defense
- She can use Bless/Curse insta-kills during this part so watch out for those
Phase 3:
- Lavenza loses her resistance to Physical/Gun attacks during this phase
- You must land a critical hit every turn, or the fight ends
Phase 4:
- This phase doesn?t have any requirements, you just need to finish off Lavenza?s health bar
- Lavenza will use a physical attack (her chainsaw) every time after a party member acts
- After 5 party turns, Lavenza will use Concentrate + Megidolaon, which is a one-shot to everyone no matter what. But, if Joker has a Persona with Enduring Soul equipped, he?ll live and restore all HP (as long as Enduring Soul wasn?t used up prior to this point).
The party I used for most of this fight was Makoto, Haru and Sumire. Makoto because you need a healer, and Makoto?s endgame stats tend to be a lot higher than Morgana?s due to her ultimate gun that gives +11 All Stats. Ryuji could be swapped in as the healer if you have sufficient Somas/Bead Chains or the Salvation Crown, as his Tier 3 skill Fighting Spirit can benefit Haru/Sumire.
Haru is in the party because she can land technicals off nearly all ailments with Psiodyne, land criticals using One-Shot Kill, her trait lowers ailment susceptibility by 50% and her tier 3 skill Life Wall can be useful during the last phase. Sumire can raise the critical rate of the whole party and land criticals with the most consistency due to Sword Dance and Apt Pupil. Sumire?s trait Veil of Midnight also has a chance to prevent allies from being downed when their weaknesses are hit. I switch Yusuke in for Makoto during Phase 4, because his trait helps the party avoid Lavenza?s chainsaw attacks, but it?s def not 100% necessary. This is the just the party I prefer using, not necessarily the most ?optimal? one. Accessories: Apt Pupil for Haru (Advanced Home Run Mini-Game or Itemize Tsukiyomi), Orichalcum R for Sumire (Itemize Orichalcum), Salvation Crown for Makoto (Tanaka?s Shady Commodities).
The basic strategy was Concentrating with Joker first, Makoto could heal/support, then Haru and Sumire would go for crits with One-Shot Kill and Sword Dance, Baton Passing to Joker for the big damage hit. I used a good number of different Personas in the video, but you could definitely condense their roles down and not have to fuse as many.
- Phase 1, start with a Will of the Sword Persona equipped on Joker. Will of the Sword is bugged to give an Auto-Concentrate when you begin with it, and Dekaja can?t remove Concentrate. I had Jack Frost and Baal with Diamond Dust and Panta Rhei to deal damage. With Crits and Baton Passes (and good RNG), this phase can end in a couple turns.
- Phase 2, casting Rage on Lavenza halves her defense, Haru Psiodyne and Joker Psycho Force (with Kohryu?s Universal Law) can end the phase in 1 turn.
- Before Phase 3, ideally have Sumire use Brave Step. Then just hope you land a crit with someone, and do as much damage as possible when Lavenza is downed.
- Phase 4 is actually where you can breathe a little bit. If Joker has an Enduring Soul Persona, you really have 10 of your turns to finish off Lavenza. You almost want to get to the Megidolaon turn, because if Lavenza knocks everyone out but Joker, Futaba?s Ultimate Support can activate, reviving/healing everyone and giving the whole party Heat Riser. Just keep chipping Lavenza down until you win. (If Ultimate Support doesn?t activate after the others die, use Maria?s Holy Benevolence or a Revive-All item from Takemi.)
Speaking of Futaba, how well your fight with Lavenza goes can often just come down to whether you get good RNG with Futaba?s support skills. If Futaba gives you full party Charge/Concentrate or Ultimate Support often, it can be a breeze. Or, she can just not show up at all.
That is basically the gist of the fight. You can watch the video I posted to see how it plays out turn by turn, and I showed the Personas I used near the end.
Solo (with DLC)
The first Lavenza solo video I posted back in May, using Izanagi-nO
Beating Lavenza solo is a bit different. Because you don?t have party members, reaching the 5000 damage thresholds and landing technicals by yourself every turn can seem impossible. But luckily, it is possible and made a lot easier with the help of DLC. Credit to a Youtuber named ??, who had a great breakdown on how to complete this fight solo.
In Phase 1, Lavenza?s pattern is always the same. It?s Wage War (Rage)+Fire, Nocturnal Flash (Dizzy)+Electric, Lullaby (Sleep)+Ice and Tentarafoo (Confuse)+Wind. So if you come in with the right Personas, you can take 0 damage and deal the 5000 damage needed. Start with a Will of the Sword Persona equipped, because the bug will give you Auto-Concentrate. Next, the most important Persona is either Asterius or Izanagi-no-Okami. Asterius? trait Frenzied Bull, ?Increases damage to foes when low on HP?, this means that when you are below 50% HP, Frenzied Bull doubles your damage. Izanagi-nO?s trait Country Maker, ?Increases Attack/Defense based on Inmate Registry completion?, meaning when you have a full Persona compendium it doubles your damage. Both these traits provide the same 2x multiplier, Frenzied Bull just requires you to be below 50% HP, Country Maker is best with a full compendium. You want to have Panta Rhei on either of these Personas, because you?ll attack after Lavenza has used an Electric move.
Otherwise, you?ll need a support Persona (or multiple support Personas) with Debilitate, Rebellion and Concentrate. This Persona should have the trait Positive Thoughts or Wealth of Lotus to extend their buffs by 2 turns (for Rebellion). This Persona should also ideally block Fire, Ice, Elec and Wind, with its natural resistances and/or using Null/Drain/Repel passives. If you block everything Lavenza uses in Phase 1, then you can rely on Insta-Heal (passive or via an accessory) to heal from the ailments she uses. Once you have the right Persona(s), the Phase 1 turn order is just:
- Debilitate/Dekaja, Debilitate/Heat Riser, Panta Rhei, Concentrate, Rebellion, Debilitate, Panta Rhei
That?ll get you to Phase 2, where you have to land a technical every turn. This is the part where it?s all luck based. Going into the fight, you need to have the Cocytus Ice gun equipped (from the Airsoft shop), because it will allow you to freeze Lavenza. You need to freeze her using one of your first 3 bullets, then technical using another bullet. This will count as your technical hit for the turn, and you?ll get a 1 More, where you should Concentrate using either the Persona you had equipped, the Ring of Greed accessory or a Star Onion. Then on the next turn, your goal is to crit Lavenza using a physical move that applies Sleep/Dizzy (Dream Needle, Dormin Rush, Sledgehammer, Flash Bomb). Dream Needle seems to be the best because it can be used in conjunction with Apt Pupil and Trigger Happy, plus it has a Medium chance of Sleep. Knocking her down here and applying the ailment will allow you to switch to the highest damaging Persona you have (namely Izanagi-no-Okami with Myriad Truths), and hit the technical while Lavenza is down. A Concentrated Myriad Truths here does over 11k damage, letting you entirely skip the whole Critical Hit Phase 3 of the fight. Putting Repel Fire on Izanagi-nO can be useful, because Lavenza will always use Blazing Hell after Phase 2 is done.
Given the requirements of Phase 2, the solo success rate is not high. In my experience, you land a Freeze using your first 3 bullets about 50% of the time. And then getting the crit/ailment afterwards is like a? 20?30% chance. So it?s about a 1/8 chance you get past Phase 2 using this method.
Once you finish Phase 2 and skip Phase 3, Phase 4 is very simple. Just concentrate and Myriad Truths until it?s finished. Check out the posted video above if any of this didn?t make complete sense (I have all the Personas I used included at the end).
Solo (No DLC)
Beating Lavenza Solo without DLC is similar to the previous section, but it requires many more attempts due to the amount of RNG present. Big credit to RobLu L (check out their Lavenza vid), I thought this fight was likely impossible without DLC, until I saw their strategy for Phase 3. If attempting solo, I?d recommend just using Izanagi-nO, cause it would save a lot of time. But if interested in knowing how the No DLC route works, read ahead.
In Phase 1, the pattern was Dekaja/Debilitate, Ice damage, Concentrate, Fire damage, Concentrate, Debilitate, Critical (One-Shot Kill/Sword Dance) and Wind damage. With Repels (from a Persona with Retaliating Body), this allows you to deal 5000+ damage and end the phase with Lavenza?s stats lowered. The Ice and Fire Personas were Jack Frost and Surt with Intense Focus (Mighty Gaze and Will of the Sword also work). The Wind Persona was Satanael, as he has max magic damage due to Tyrant?s Mind (not counting DLC obvs). The critical in this phase boosts on the damage on the Wind attack, letting the Phase end before Lavenza uses Dekunda.
For Phase 2, having Lavenza?s stats lowered beforehand matters because she starts the phase with Heat Riser. If Lavenza?s evasion is raised here, it makes the following steps even less reliable, so that?s why it?s important. Next is the Freeze (or Shock) technical with the gun, and the Dream Needle critical/ailment. Once these are applied, Kohryu should be used for his trait Universal Law (Technical damage +50%), doing ~6.5k damage and ending the phase.
In Phase 3, Lavenza can use Tetrakarn, making it impossible to progress alone. But you can force Lavenza to not use Tetrakarn by using Personas that are weak to her attacks (Psy/Nuke). Lavenza will go after Joker?s weaknesses instead of setting up Tetrakarn, and this is why Kohryu and Arahabaki are used. Ali Dance and Angelic Grace don?t stack so using Evade skills, with Enduring Soul, is the best bet on these two.
One-Shot Kill with Gun Boost/Amp and Trigger Happy can also be used here
As Arahabaki was the Critical dealing Persona, I put Vitality of the Tree (Allows use of ambushed skills normally) and Adverse Resolve (Critical rate up when ambushed) on him. Based on this post by bryanktr, Adverse Resolve does work with Vitality of Tree (although other passives like Last Stand don?t). That?s why Vitality of the Tree was on the critical-hit Personas (Attis, Rangda, Arahabaki). I used Sword Dance instead of One-Shot Kill because it allowed for more space for passives like Regenerate 3 and Evade Psy/Nuke. Even with Apt Pupil and Adverse Resolve, a critical hit cap of 60% exists in P5R, so Undying Fury (Phys skills +30%) could be used instead of Vitality of the Tree. This Phase requires 2?3 crits, depending on if Futaba buffs your attack or if you dodge Lavenza?s moves (which prevents her from using Dekunda). Debilitate/Heat Riser and Hassou Tobi are the best moves after getting a critical.
Endure and Enduring Soul work separately, so Endure can be used for this Persona (you don?t need HP in Phase 4)
Phase 4 is the simplest, just equip a Repel All Persona with Retaliating Body (Gun/Fire/Elec can be Drain/Null instead of Repel bc Lavenza blocks those) and lower defense. Repelling everything does more damage than attacking in this part. One of either Endure, Enduring Soul or Futaba?s Final Guard needs to last until this point to make it past Lavenza?s Megidolaon with Lucifer. If you make it this far, congrats! This is definitely the hardest challenge fight in Persona 5, and one of the hardest in the series for sure. All the Personas I used are at the end of the video above as usual.
