Persona 5 Royal: How to Get All Endings

Like its numerical predecessor, Persona 5 Royal has a true ending to reach for and a number of other, not-so-hot endings. Unlike its predecessor, the Persona 5 Royal’s true ending requirements are not comparable to walking blindfolded through a labyrinth of soul-devouring monsters.

It still takes some work, though, and you’ll want to start early to unlock the third semester and bring everyone’s story to the best possible close. Our Persona 5 Royal true ending guide is here to walk you through it all.

Persona 5 Royal Ending Requirements

Three of Persona 5 Royal’s endings are the same as they are in base Persona 5. Since the dialogue options pushing you down an ending’s path are nestled in lengthy cutscenes, it’s probably easier to just look up bad ending videos on YouTube if you really want to see them.

Persona 5 Royal’s true ending unlocks if you:

• Rank up both Maruki’s and Akechi’s Confidant to level nine and eight, respectively, by November 19.
• Make it to the third semester.
• Refuse to side with its villain.

It’s very good and I found it very much worth the trouble to get there.

Otherwise, make sure to have more than one save file going as a safeguard and re-load to fulfill the ending requirements you want.

As a side note, we’re not counting the bad ending you get from missing a Palace deadline here. That’s more “Game over, chump.” than it is a proper ending.

Our guide presents the endings in the order the branching paths come up, but you’ll need to start working towards the true ending early to get both the ending and Persona 5 Royal’s third semester.

Persona 5 Royal True Ending Requirements

The most important thing is progressing in the Councillor Confidant with Maruki. We’ve detailed how to do that in our Maruki Confidant guide, but here’s a few extra tips. Take every opportunity to rank up the Councillor Confidant.

Maruki’s Confidant

Maruki is available more often than many other Confidants, but getting his scenes out of the way early means more free time for other Confidants. You need Maruki’s Confidant at rank nine by November 17 (11/17) to open the third semester and get a shot at the true endings. It progresses to rank 10 automatically at a certain point, so no need to worry about that.

Akechi’s Confidant

The next Confidant to focus on is Akechi’s, the Justice Confidant. This one takes more effort because you’ll stall at certain ranks without the right social stats.

• Rank 3 — requires level three Knowledge and Charm
• Rank 7 — requires level four Knowledge

You must get Akechi’s Confidant to rank eight by November 17 to unlock the actually true, true ending. Like Maruki’s Confidant, Akechi’s progresses automatically after that.

Yoshizawa’s Confidant

Kasumi Yoshizawa’s Faith Confidant isn’t technically required to see the third semester or true endings. However, you’re missing out on an important chunk of the story both before and after December if you don’t advance the Faith Confidant. Plus getting boosts for Faith Personas makes it more than worthwhile.

Persona 5 Royal Bad Ending 1

You know from the start Sae Niijima interrogates Joker, so saying the first bad ending takes place during the full interrogation isn’t a spoiler. On November 20 (11/20), spill the beans about your friends to get the first bad ending.

If you want to avoid this ending, here’s what answers to choose during Sae’s interrogation:

• First question: doesn’t matter
• Second question: pick the first choice
• Third question: pick the first choice

Persona 5 Royal Bad Ending 2

The second bad ending is very spoilery. The chance for this one comes up on December 24 (12/24) during a conversation with a certain character.

You’ll know when it happens since it involves making a pact with that character. Do that to get the second bad ending.

Refuse the request to move on towards the true ending.

Persona 5 Royal Normal Ending

Persona 5 Royal’s normal ending is the same as Persona 5’s good ending. You’ll get this if you:

• Don’t rank up Maruki’s Confidant by the deadline
• Do finish the last Palace on time
• Don’t sell out your friends
• Don’t make a deal with that character

This is the frozen yogurt of Persona 5 Royal’s endings. It’s just okay.

Persona 5 Royal Bad Ending 3 (New Bad Ending)

You get two shots at the new bad ending in the third semester. The first is on January 9 (1/9) and the second on February 2 (2/2). We won’t spoil the context, but the choices are similar to the previous bad endings. Don’t side with the baddy, and you’re on the right path.

Persona 5 Royal New Good Ending

Persona 5 Royal’s new good ending is what you get if you ranked up Maruki’s Confidant, but not Akechi’s, and refused to side with the third semester’s villain. It’s good, but obviously not the best.

That’s all you need to know about Persona 5 Royal‘s true ending requirements. If you make it that far, you’ll still need to deal with classroom answers in the third semester. Lucky for you, we’ve got a guide just for that, plus plenty of additional Persona 5 Royal guides.