How To Beat Nyx In Persona 3 Reload

Nyx is the final boss in Persona 3 Reload. It's also the longest battle in the entire game and demands patience and diligence. This encounter could be easy or incredibly challenging, depending on your party, your party's level, and the Personas you bring to this fight. 

If you have been struggling to beat Nyx (and ultimately, Death) or need a few tips to get started on this encounter, you're in the right place. In this guide, we cover everything you need to know to beat Nyx in Persona 3 Reload, including our take on the best team composition and strategies that should come in handy when facing the final boss of Persona 3 Reload. 

Nyx Boss Guide In Persona 3 Reload

Before we get into the details on how to beat Nyx, you may want to look at our recommended team for this battle below. In case you want to jump straight into the details of the encounter, the TLDR for this is you need a party with members that can heal, buff, and debuff, as everyone has an equally important role in this battle. 

Best Party Members For The Nyx Boss

We recommend going with:

• Aegis (buff)
• Mitsuru (debuff)
• Yukari (healer)
• Protagonist (default)

Every party member's role has been laid out pretty well for this encounter. 

You will need Aegis to raise the entire party's attack, defense, and evasion rate. 

Mitsuru is great for decreasing the enemy's defense and dealing devastating ice damage, so we recommend bringing her along for this fight, especially if you have unlocked her Concentrate and Diamond Dust skills. 

You will need Yukari to constantly heal the entire party, cure ailments, and revive anyone who goes down. Nyx has some devastating attacks up his sleeve, and not having a healer in your party will result in an early demise. 

Lastly, with the protagonist, we recommend having Personas that can deal heavy or severe damage of all element types. You should also have heal, buff, and debuff skills that other members don't have to cover all grounds.

Best Way To Beat Nyx In Persona 3 Reload

The Nyx boss fight in Persona 3 Reload is a marathon, not a sprint. There are 14 stages in this battle, each associated with a certain Arcana. In every phase, Nyx will change his Arcana, which, as a result, will change his strengths and weaknesses. The key to winning is approaching every encounter differently, depending on Nyx's current Arcana. 

Below is the order of Arcanas, which Nyx will use in this encounter:

• Fool
• Magician
• Priestess
• Empress
• Emperor
• Hierophant
• Lovers
• Chariot
• Justice
• Hermit
• Fortune
• Strength
• Hanged Man
• Death

Every time Nyx's health reaches 10%, it will use Arcana Shift to change his Arcana, with his final form being Death. Nyx's final form boasts the most health and is the toughest to take down.

Note that Nyx has no weakness, so at the start of every phase, make sure to apply appropriate buffs and debuffs and inflict damage until he changes his Arcana. Also, keep an eye on everyone's health and remember to heal accordingly. 

Nyx Boss Guide: Fool, Magician, Priestess Arcana

The battle begins with Nyx using the Fool Arcana. You don't have to do anything in this encounter, as Nyx will immediately use Arcana Shift to change to Magician. 

When using the Magician Arcana, Nyx will deal fire damage to all party members. Make sure to increase Mitsuru's defense, as she's weak to fire attacks. Naturally, he will drain Fire attacks and nullify Light and Darkness damage, so use anything other than these to inflict damage. 

Next, Nyx will change to Priestess Arcana and deal ice damage to all party members. He can also use Ice Break to decrease Mitsuru's ice resistance, so make sure her and everyone else's defense is high. He will drain ice attacks and nullify Light and Dark damage, so try to use Physical attacks and inflict other elemental damage.

Nyx Boss Guide: Empress, Emperor, Hierophant, Lovers Arcana

When using the Empress Arcana, Nyx will deal wind damage to all party members. He can use Wind Break to decrease Yukari's wind resistance, so try to increase her and everyone else's defense before that happens. During this phase, Nyx will drain Wind attacks and, as before, nullify Light and Dark damage. 

Next, Nyx will switch to Emperor Arcana and deal electric damage to all party members. Yukari is weak to electric attacks, so before Nyx can exploit her weakness, erect a magic wall on her or at least raise her and everyone's defenses. As before, Nyx will nullify Light and Dark damage as well as drain electric attacks, so try to avoid those. 

From here onwards, things become a little tricky. Nyx will change to Hierophant Arcana and start to deal Pierce and Almighty Damage. He may also increase everyone's critical rate, including himself, which can be dangerous. In addition to raising everyone's defense and attacks, we recommend using Masukukuja to increase the entire party's accuracy and evasion rate. During this phase, Nyx will drain Strike damage and nullify Light and Dark damage, so keep that in mind. 

Next, Nyx will switch to Lovers Arcana and deal Almighty damage to the entire party. In this phase, Nyx will also try to inflict Panic or Charm on everyone. Yukari can cure all ailments with the Amirta Shower skill, so try to protect her at all costs. You may also want to increase everyone's defense, attack, and evasion rate and finish this phase as quickly as possible. In addition to Light and Dark, Nyx will nullify Wind damage, so keep that in mind. Other than that, you can deal any elemental attacks.

Nyx Boss Guide: Chariot, Justice, Hermit, Fortunte Arcana

After Lovers, Nyx will shift to Chariot Arcana and start to deal Strike damage. He will also try to charge his attack, which will double his next Physical attack, so you may want to erect a physical wall for the protagonist and Yukari since you can't afford to down either of them. In addition to Light and Dark, Nyx will nullify Slash, Strike, and Pierce damage. In this phase, Aigis will be pretty useless in terms of offense but quite useful in buffing your attacks and defense. 

Next, Nyx will shift to Justice Arcana. This can be a deadly phase if you don't equip the right Persona on the protagonist. In this phase, Nyx will mainly use Insta-Light attacks to wipe you off in a single turn. Make sure to increase everyone's evasion rate and especially change the protagonist to anyone except someone weak to Light Attacks. Nyx will nullify Fire, Ice, Light, and Dark damage types, so your best bet is to use Yukari to deal Wind damage, Aigis to deal Physical damage, and the protagonist to deal either of those. 

After Justice, Nyx will shift to Hermit Arcana. There's still a long way to go, so buckle up. This will be another tricky phase to get through. Try to keep everyone's health and SP above 50%, if not full.

 Nyx will have a few deadly tricks up his sleeves this time. Firstly, it can increase its chance of inflicting ailments on the entire party with the Foul Breath skill. Everyone will be susceptible to these attacks, and you will have to look out for Poison and Panic. Again, you will need Yukari to cure both of them, so try to keep her alive at all costs. 

Next, Nyx may deal Almighty damage to everyone or use a Dark Insta-kill attack on one party member. Please make sure that the protagonist's currently equipped Persona is not weak to Dark damage or it will be instant game over. During this phase, Nyx will nullify Wind, Light, and Dark damage, so aside from Yukari, you can use everyone else' offensive abilities to the fullest. 

The fight will become more challenging in the next round as Nyx will shift to Fortune Arcana. During this phase, Nyx will nullify all elemental attacks except Almighty. Naturally, it also means Nyx can deal Wind, Electric, Fire, and Ice attacks. You may want to increase everyone's invasion and defenses as everyone's weak to at least one of the elements. Also, it's best to erect a magic wall on the protagonist. 

 Aigis' physical attacks will be incredibly beneficial in this phase. This will also be a great time to use a couple of Theurgy abilities to deal extra damage and finish this round quickly. 

Nyx Boss Guide: Strength, Hanged Man Arcana

After Fortune, Nyx will change to Strength Arcana. Don't lose hope. We are nearing the end! During this phase, Nyx will try to lower everyone's defenses and deal Almighty or Slash damage. He will nullify Light, Dark, Slash, Slice, and Pierce attacks. 

 Again, increased evasion and defense is a good strategy, and Aigis can get you both. You can use Mitsuru and Yukari to deal their respective elemental attacks to finish this phase quickly. 

After this, Nyx will change to the Hanged Man Arcana. This phase is quite dangerous as Nyx can use two insta-kill attacks to wipe you out. 
The first is an insta-kill Dark attack, so make sure your protagonist hasn't equipped a Persona that's weak to Dark damage. In the second, it will first try to inflict Fear on you and then use Ghastly Wail to insta-kill you. Make sure to cure Fear as soon as you get inflicted, as Nyx will probably use Ghastly Wail in the next turn. 

During this phase, Nyx will resist Strike and Pierce attacks and nullify Light and Dark attacks. You can everyone's elemental skills to deal damage while using Aigis' skills to buff up the party. 

Nyx Boss Guide: Death Arcana

Lastly, Nyx will shift to the Death Arcana. It's the final phase of the battle, and Nyx will have a massive health bar. 

During this phase, Nyx will resist all attacks except Almighty. It will still nullify Light and Dark attacks, so those are not an option. It can only take normal damage from Almighty attacks. For the rest, you will have to negate all his elemental resistances one at a time. 

If you have been saving Fuuka's Theurgy, now would be a good time to use it to grant a positive effect to all allies. If it doesn't increase everyone's attack, defense, and evasion, begin by casting Matarukaja to increase the party's attack. Next, use Yukari's Wind Break and Mitsuru's Ice Break to negate Nyx's resistance to those elements. When the protagonist's turn comes, use Concentrate, and if not, just deal Almighty damage. Mitsuru can also use Concentrate, so don't forget to use that in the next turn.

Nyx can deal all the attacks he has used up until now. This includes all elemental attacks, ailment infliction, and debuffs. He also has a few far deadlier attacks this time around, such as the Apocalypse skill, which will wipe out 90% of the entire party's health. Yukari will again be incredibly useful here, so don't forget to use Mediarahan to fully restore everyone's health. 

How you use everyone's Theurgy will also be important in this encounter. There's no need to hold back, but there's also no need to rush. Firstly, if you didn't Concentrate before, use Yukari's Tranquility Theurgy to double everyone's next magic attack. Once that's out of the way, feel free to use the rest of the team's Theurgy. You should be able to clean a huge chunk of Nyx's health. 

Another one of Nyx's special attacks is Night Queen, which deals heavy Almighty damage to all foes and inflicts one random ailment to everyone. If everyone's defense is high, they won't take much damage. As for the ailment, make sure to remove it as soon as possible by using an item or using Yukari or the protagonist's Me Patra or Patra skill.

If you recall the Hanged Man shadow boss, you may remember him using the skill - Grim Transcendence. Using this gave him extra actions. Nyx will start using Grim Transcendence once his health goes below 50%. Before that happens, make sure to increase everyone's defense and evasion rate. 

Upon getting extra actions, Nyx may use a skill called Sweep, which deals Critical damage and gives Nyx an additional action over the existing extra ones. He can use another skill called Sunder to deal critical damage to a single enemy and get more extra action. He may also use this opportunity to use the Heat Riser skill to increase his Attack, Defense, Accuracy, and Evasion. It will be incredibly dangerous, so you must nullify its effect as soon as possible. Lastly, Nyx may also erect a Physical or Magical wall, so act carefully.

Keep all his resistances in mind and deal damage accordingly, and he should be out soon enough. Congrats, you have overcome death. There's a long cutscene after the battle, which we won't spoil for you, but rest assured this is the final encounter in the game.