Persona 5 is a gigantic JRPG with one of the most extended main storylines out of any game in the genre, and that’s saying something for the JRPGs that exist.
There is even some content that you’ll never experience on your first playthrough of the game, requiring you to replay it from the beginning to enjoy that. One such piece of content that is only for those on their second playthroughs or greater is the Persona 5 secret jailer boss fight.
This particular boss fight is considered to be the endgame content for the title. I should note, though, that there are going to be some significant spoilers from here on out for the Velvet Room, specific characters, and Confidants.
I’ll try to avoid the main story spoilers here but there will be some light elements of that for both the original Persona 5 and Royal. With all of that in mind, let’s dive into some of the most impressive endgame content with this Persona 5 secret jailer boss fight.
Bottom Line Up Front
The Persona 5 secret jailer boss fight isn’t one but two fights in total that you can find in the original Persona 5 and its Royal expanded version. They are two separate endgame fights that involve Caroline and Justine in the original Persona 5 and Lavenza in Persona 5 Royal.
Both are themed around having multiple phases for the player to figure out and win before the turn timer runs out. They are the ultimate challenge in both JRPGs for players who have beaten the game at least once.
Persona Secret Jailer Boss Fight Overview
Within Persona 5, you’ll find tons of content to enjoy, like all of the dungeons to explore, Personas to collect, Confidants to spend time with, and main story bosses to take down. There is so much to enjoy in this game that Atlus saved some of the optional content for players for New Game Plus.
New Game Plus lets you replay the entire story from the beginning while retaining some elements like the Personas you’ve collected and all that. In addition, it opens the doorway to some new boss fights like the two secret jailer boss fights. You see, there isn’t just one optional jailer fight but two of them.
They ultimately depend on which version of the JRPG you’re playing at this time. Players in the original Persona 5 on PS4 and PS3 will see a particular endgame boss fight on their New Game Plus run, while the players on Persona 5 Royal on all modern platforms will enjoy a particular other fight.
If you’re ready to spoil who these characters are and how their fights work, you’re in the right place. Get ready to learn all about these insanely tricky boss fights, how each of the phases works, and how to win them right here.
Who are the Secret Jailers?
As mentioned, there are two separate boss fights regarding the jailers in Persona 5. If you are playing the base game only, the fight you will have in the second playthrough will be against Caroline and Justine. The Strength Confidant and the two Velvet Room attendants are your enemies in this battle.
This is meant to be the most brutal endgame fight in the base game as you take on not one but two extremely powerful Persona users. The craziest part is that this isn’t even the only secret jailer fight that you have the option of taking on. Well, that is if you are playing Persona 5 Royal.
In this version of the game, you’ll take on Lavenza, instead of Caroline and Justine. I’ll leave it up to you to find out why Lavenza was chosen for this fight and exactly who she is when you play the main story. But she is the ultimate challenge in Royal, arguably being even tougher to beat than Caroline and Justine are.
How to Unlock the Optional Caroline and Justine Boss Fight
Let’s begin by taking a look at the first of the two secret jailer boss fights with Caroline and Justine in the original Persona 5. As mentioned, you won’t be able to take on this endgame challenge in your first playthrough of the game.
You’ll need to start a New Game Plus and keep in mind that it will need to be the same version of the game (Persona 5) on the same platform you started on.
Before you start your second playthrough, I recommend maxing out Caroline and Justine’s Confidant ranks during your first time playing Persona 5. Not only will this grant you some fantastic rewards and some other intriguing surprises, but it will set you up nicely for this fight on the second playthrough.
I also recommend that you have already explored Mementos on your second playthrough or are prepared to do so leading up to this battle. Once you are ready, you’ll want to keep playing the second playthrough of the game until you reach the date of May 9 at the earliest.
This is the first day in the calendar year of Persona 5 in which you’ll be able to participate in this endgame fight. However, you may not want to do it on this particular day. This is because your overall level doesn’t carry over to the second playthrough so you probably won’t be high enough.
That said, your Personas in the Compendium do so you could theoretically have a level 99 Persona ready to be summoned instantly. But you’ll still need to level up, which is why I recommend you grind Mementos or wait until a later date to do this fight.
When ready, speak with Caroline and Justine outside of the Velvet Room door in Mementos, and you’ll be able to take on this optional fight.
How to Beat Caroline and Justine
The Caroline and Justine fight is the endgame challenge in this game, meant to be harder than anything you’ve faced up until this point, including the Reaper in Mementos and the final main story boss. Thankfully, I’ve got your back when it comes to breaking down how to win this fight from start to finish. Let’s get started.
Stats and Resistances
Let’s begin by taking a look at our two jailers and their stats in this particular matchup. When it comes to the overall stats that Caroline and Justine have, you are in for a painful ride. Here are the full stats for Caroline and Justine. Note that these are the stats for only one of them but they have the same overall stats.
- Level 99
- 8000 health
- 999 SP (could theoretically run out of SP but almost impossible to happen due to the turn limit)
- 99 strength
- 99 magic
- 99 endurance
- 99 agility
- 99 luck
Those are wholly maxed-out stats right there, with 8000 health each for both of the twin sisters. That means you have two level 99 bosses with max stats to take on that has 8000 health each, for a total of 16,000 health that you’ll need to eliminate entirely in this fight.
For better or worse, the twin sisters are a totally blank slate when it comes to the resistance department. They have no weaknesses that you can exploit in combat, but at the very least, they have no resistance either, so you don’t have to worry about what you use in battle. But don’t expect status ailments to work on them, so avoid that.
Boss Skills
There are quite a few boss skills that you need to worry about in this fight. Both Caroline and Justine have access to pretty much every elemental type and skill you can think of. They have the best skills when it comes to physical attacks, gun attacks, elemental attacks of all types, and more.
They can revive, heal, wipe any debuffs you put on them, and eliminate any buffs that you put on yourself. Their skill set is the strongest out of any boss in the entire game, with heavy and nuclear attacks possible at all times.
Thankfully, with the phases (more on that below), you won’t usually have to worry about more than a few attacks that are possible at a time.
That said, you need to watch out for the possibility of Caroline and Justine taking full advantage of all of the weaknesses that you have on your team and try to account for that as best as you can. Some accessories, Personas, and upgrades for your party members through their Confidant ranks will help with this.
How to Prepare
There are a number of things you can do to prepare for the fight against Caroline and Justine. For starters, I recommend being as high of a level as you possibly can as Joker. You can attempt this fight lower than the max level of 99, but you need to be aware of the disadvantage you’ll be in at that point.
You want the best Personas, without a doubt, which is why this second playthrough is great since it gives you immediate access to them. I recommend equipping Personas that have the most possible resistance without leaving room for any weaknesses.
I also recommend ranking up all your Confidants and unlocking their final Personas so that they are able to possibly evade some of their weaknesses, too. If I had to put a number on the lowest level to attempt this fight, I recommend no lower than 75 for the normal difficulty.
You can do this fight and win at a lower level than that, but I don’t recommend it for players trying this out for the first time. The key here is to buy as many recovery items as possible and the best equipment that money can buy.
Since your money carries over from playthroughs, you should be swimming in yen right now. Again, while you can do this fight in early May, it may not make sense since you shouldn’t even be close to level 75 at this point.
That said, you can grind out Mementos on the way to this fight and possibly be ready. If you have the time and desire, you can equip your late-game Personas at an early level, go into Mementos, and farm the Reaper there for XP. This can level you up pretty fast and get you well on your way to 75 on this single Mementos run alone.
Lastly, before you start the fight, save. While losing the fight won’t result in a game over, it will take away your health and any items you lose, so it isn’t worth trying unless you are truly ready. Save, and you’ll be able to safely see if you’re prepared for this boss fight.
Phase 1 Explained
In total, there are six phases to the Caroline and Justine fight. Each of these phases has a couple of quirks to them. Firstly, you must deal 1350 damage to each of the two Velvet Room attendants to move on to the next phase. Worse still, you have a turn limit to get that done.
Secondly, and I will remind you of this later, you must defeat both Caroline and Justine in the same turn. Starting with phase one, the turn limit here is six turns, which is more than the following phases to give you a bit of time to adjust.
The key here is to deal at least 1350 damage to both Caroline and Justine (2700 in total damage) before six turns have passed to move on to the next phase in the secret jailer boss fight. Thankfully, this fight starts out relatively easily with only two attacks that the duo uses each turn.
Caroline will use the Vajira Blast, while Justine will use Triple Down. Physical and gun are all you have to worry about here, so you may already have some resistance to these. If so, use this time to buff and deal as much damage as possible.
As mentioned, they have no resistance so go all out with whatever your strongest attacks are. If you can, aim for area-of-effect attacks that deal damage to both of them to maximize your damage potential with each turn.
In total, the goal I give you is to deal at least 300 damage to each sister (600 in total) across the four party members per turn to ensure you make it to the next phase.
Phase 2
The second phase has a slight change that carries across the rest of the phases below. Instead of six turns, you only have five turns from here on out to deal 1350 damage to each sister.
This is why it is imperative you deal at least 300 damage each turn to each sister (600 in total) across the Phantom Thieves for the possibility of making it to the next phase.
With each phase, the twins change up their attacks, and this phase is no different. They now have two elemental attacks each that you’ll have to watch out for in terms of weaknesses. Caroline will use Maragidyne on one turn and then Mabufudyne on the next turn.
Meanwhile, Justine will use Maziodyne on one turn and Magarudyne on the next. This is where the Star Confidant comes into play. Hopefully, you maxed her out so you can switch party members if they are weak since you already know what attacks they’ll use on what turn.
The goal remains the same other than that: heal up if you need to and, otherwise, deal 2700 total damage to the two sisters before the five turns are up, and you’ll complete this particular phase of the boss fight.
Phase 3
The third phase remains the same: deal 2700 total damage across the three sisters before the five turns are up. However, their attacks change as they now have two new attacks that will switch up each turn. For Caroline, she will use Mapsiodyne and then Makougaon.
On the other hand, Justine will use Mafreidyne and then Maeigaon. This is another case where you know what they’ll use ahead of time so you can switch out weak party members if necessary. In the midst of this phase, they will heal each other entirely back to total health. This is part of the fight, so don’t think you messed up.
Just focus on the same rinse and repeat of dealing 2700 total damage (divided between the two) before five turns are up.
Phase 4
Once again, you have five turns to deal 1350 damage to each one. The cycle continues with the same skills as before in the same exact order. Switch out, continue dealing damage, use any recovery items you have, and rinse and repeat at this point.
Phase 5
For this phase, they mix up all of their attacks together for five turns of precise moves.
Here are the moves that Caroline uses in exact order:
- Vorpal Blade
- Blazing Hell
- Wild Thunder
- Psycho Blast
- Divine Judgement
These are the moves that Justine uses in each of the five turns:
- Riot Gun
- Ice Age
- Vacuum Wave
- Cosmic Flare
- Demonic Decree
You know what’s going to hit you each turn, so you can switch out party members and prepare accordingly. In addition, this is a great time to use magical reflect items if you have them to reflect the damage back at Caroline and Justine to protect your team and deal some severe damage before the time limit is up.
Phase 6
This is the final phase, and it is the same idea as before. Just note that this is the final phase so you will eliminate them here. Thankfully, there is no turn limit this time other than 50 turns in total. But it would be best if you won long before then unless you mess up on defeating them together.
Make sure to defeat both in the same turn, or the other one will resurrect her sister with a ton of health back, which will ruin your entire momentum and possibly spell doom for your battle.
If you’ve been using AOE attacks only, though, they should roughly have the exact same health so keep that up to beat them at the same time. They have the same skills in this phase as in the last phase.
However, you don’t know in what order they’ll use them. Their attacks’ randomness means you won’t know what element they’ll use next.
The idea here is to use the magic repel items if you can to avoid taking damage for attacks that you might otherwise be weak to. Other than that, it is pretty much a rinse and repeat of before. Deal as much damage to both of them at the same time each turn, and you should theoretically win this fight in the next five turns or so.
Caroline and Justine Boss Fight Rewards
Now, this Caroline and Justine fight is a bit generous. You’ll still get some rewards if you don’t win the fight. That said, if you can beat them, you’ll gain all of the items at once. Here are the rewards from this fight:
- Last 11 turns: Expedite Ring
- Last 21 turns: 20 Balms of Life plus the ring
- 31 turns: 5 Bead Chains and everything else
- 41 turns: 3 Somas
- Win: Bookmark, Omnipotent Orb, 10 Soul Foods, and everything else
How to Unlock the Optional Lavenza Boss Fight
Lavenza is the endgame boss for Persona 5 Royal. This change isn’t just for show, as the battle is different, and the requirements for unlocking it change, too. For starters, what remains is that you must be on at least your second playthrough of Persona 5 Royal.
Note here that you are unable to carry a save over from another platform or version of Persona 5, including the base one, so you’ll need to play Royal twice.
On your second playthrough, you’ll have to make it all the way to the third semester after being Caroline and Justine before the end of the original Persona story, which requires maxing out Maruki’s Confidant if you didn’t on the first run.
At this point, you need to almost complete the final Palace in this third semester by finding the way to the Palace ruler’s treasure. Once you’ve done this, don’t beat the game just yet, but head to Mementos before the end. There, you’ll be able to save and then face off against Lavenza now.
How to Beat Lavenza Persona 5 Royal
Here’s everything you need to know to win this tough fight against Lavenza.
Stats and Resistances
This is a much more brutal fight, due to the stat and resistance changes seen below:
- Lavenza Level 99
- 20,000 health
- 999 SP (again, don’t count on it running out)
- 99 strength
- 99 magic
- 99 endurance
- 99 agility
- 99 luck
Unlike Caroline and Justine, she has resistance across the board. She is completely immune to both bless and curse, and is robust against every other element, meaning less damage will be dealt. Even Almighty has a reduction of 50% damage against her.
Boss Skills
Lavenza has access to just about every max-level version of every elemental skill you can think of that will attack the entire party. In addition, she can charge up her attacks, deal with some status ailments on the party, buff herself, and take away your buffs.
Worse still, she takes on the persona of Caroline and Justine by, despite being one person, being able to attack twice each turn.
How to Prepare
Your preparations here are the same as before. Have the max level in the game, no questions asked, and equip your best armor, weapons, and accessories.
And have the best possible Personas that have resistance to every element you possibly can. If you don’t have the best possible equipment on everyone in your party and full maxed-out stats and Confidants across the board, don’t even bother with this fight.
Phase 1 Explained
Some of the similar rules to the Caroline and Justine fight apply here except with, thankfully, only four phases. For the first three phases, you must deal 5000 damage now in eight turns or less to move on.
After buffing and using status ailments, she will rotate between elements each turn. Interestingly enough, the opposite of the element she uses in the previous turn will deal more damage in the next. For instance, if she uses fire in the last turn, takes advantage of ice attacks next, and so on.
Use your best skills to deal at least 400 damage across the Phantom Thieves each of the eight turns to move on.
Phase 2
Once again, deal 5000 damage over eight turns to move on. This is a wild part where you have to deal technical damage each of your turns, or you lose. Technical damage happens when a status ailment is applied, which she is weak to for this phase.
I recommend using dizzy and sleep since they offer the best options for technical attacks. Other than that, watch out for insta-kill attacks and otherwise, rinse and repeat.
Phase 3
This is another gimmicky phase. Deal 5000 damage within eight turns as before. However, the difference now is that Lavenza is no longer strong against physical and gun-based skills.
However, the trade-off is you have to deal critical damage each of the eight turns, or your fight is over. Your goal here is going to be to use physical and gun skills that have guaranteed crits since she has no weaknesses. Otherwise, deal the most significant possible damage you can.
Phase 4
If done right, Lavenza should only have 5000 health left. Unfortunately, she will one-shot kill everyone in the party after five turns in this phase. Though you can, technically, have Joker survive with specific equipment like the Enduring Soul ability that some Persona has, you may want to finish it before then.
However, that is hard to accomplish, so the goal will be to have Joker survive that attack and resurrect everyone. The goal is to survive that and use your best attacks. Thankfully, she loses resistance to electric, wind, and psychic attacks after she stops using the Persona Atavaka.
Then after she stops using the Persona Thor, she will be neutral to ice, wind, and nuke attacks. Take advantage of those to win.
Lavenza Boss Fight Rewards
Congrats on winning this insanely tough fight! Here are the rewards you get for defeating the most formidable opponent in all of Persona 5 Royal:
- Omnipotent Orb: This item allows the player to be immune to all attacks in the game except for physical, gun, and Almighty.
Of course, it isn’t hard to be resistant to physical attacks and guns, so basically, nothing will touch you from here on out. This makes sense, given that you have already defeated the most formidable enemy in the JRPG.
FAQs
Question: What Level should I be to Fight Caroline and Justine?
Answer: You should be at least level 75 or higher to fight Caroline and Justine comfortably. You can beat them at a lower level, but it isn’t recommended.
Question: How Many Stamps do You Need to Fight Jose?
Answer: Jose is another new optional boss enemy in Persona 5 Royal. You need to obtain at least 123 stamps from him to fight Jose in Mementos.
Question: Do You Need to Beat the Twins to Fight Lavenza Persona 5 Royal?
Answer: Yes, you do need to finish off the optional boss fight against Caroline and Justine before the end of the main story to unlock the fight against Lavenza.
Your Next Persona Challenge is Here
The two secret jailer boss fights in Persona 5 and Persona 5 Royal are the most demanding challenges you’ll find in both of those massive JRPGs. These fights will test your limits as a player to see if you grasp the combat and everything it contains.
But these boss fights are far from the only challenges you’ll find in the series from the Velvet Room attendants. If you want to know about another challenge that you should take on, you should challenge Caroline and Justine’s older sister, Margaret, in Persona 4 Golden.
This will give you a similarly extraordinarily difficult challenge for that legendary JRPG.
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