There are so many systems in Persona 5 that players have to deal with, from combat to school life to even crafting. This crafting part of the game is one area that some players may not experience that often or try out for several reasons. As such, the infiltration tools that you craft can be some of the most missed items in the game. But here’s what you need to know to not miss out on them in this Persona 5 infiltration tools guide.
This guide is going to give you everything you need to know about the crafting system in Persona 5 from start to finish. I remember this being one of the under-used features that I had in my first couple of playthroughs of Persona 5 but I most recently used it a lot in my third playthrough. I found that it is more valuable than meets the eye. Find out why this is in our Persona 5 infiltration tools guide.
Bottom Line Up Front
The infiltration tools are the crafting items that Joker can make at home on his workbench. It seems like one of the shallowest features in the game, but it can get quite deep when it comes to bonuses, crafting at school, materials, and more.
With the suitable materials gained from battle or stores, you can make items that will make battles easier and exploring dungeons more fun. In addition, there are more infiltration tools you can unlock the more you build your relationship with Morgana.
Persona 5 Infiltration Tools Overview
Crafting is a mechanic I normally adore in RPGs, mainly MMOs, and it is even included in a massive game like Persona 5. It is, strangely enough, one of the only systems in the JRPG that doesn’t change all that much going from the base game of Persona 5 to its Royal variant.
The only changes that happen are with regard to some of the stat bonuses that occur in the background. That said, crafting is a system in Persona 5 that I feel most players don’t engage with that much. It is, after all, one of the least necessary systems in the game.
Even still, there is some value to this system, especially when it comes to a couple of later infiltration tools that I highly recommend every player create. Outside of those, though, it is a feature that you don’t necessarily need all that much. If you’ve always wanted to dive deeper into this almost forgotten Persona 5 element, here’s everything you need to know about how to craft and what to craft in the game.
How to Unlock Crafting
For starters, you need to unlock crafting at the workbench before you can even start making some infiltration tools. Thankfully, this is a relatively straightforward procedure that happens automatically within the main story. And relatively early on within the plot of Persona 5, to boot so, you can begin as soon as you want.
You’ll unlock the infiltration tools through your relationship with Morgana, your trusty cat companion and fellow member of the Phantom Thieves. The infiltration tools and crafting are all tied to your Confidant — basically, relationship — ranks with him. You’ll have to raise your relationship with him to get new tools.
However, the catch is that Morgana’s Confidant, unlike most of the other characters, progresses automatically. You can’t speed up the process and will have to wait until the story progresses to continue. Thankfully, though, the act of at least unlocking crafting and infiltration tools happens within the first few days of your adventure.
On April 15, you’ll unlock the first rank of your relationship with Morgana. At this point, you’ll, technically, receive the ability to craft as a result of that first step in your friendship. However, you won’t actually be able to craft until a couple of days later, on April 17.
On this day, there will be a cutscene in the evening where Morgana has you clean up your room some more and reveal your workbench upstairs in Cafe Leblanc. He will then introduce crafting infiltration tools to you and have you make a lockpick, so you can use it in exploring the first Palace.
From that day forward, you’ll be able to craft infiltration tools whenever you want to.
How to Unlock More Infiltration Tools
The key part about crafting is that you only have access to a certain number of items when you first unlock this feature. There are more, better items that you can unlock but it takes some time within the main story before you’ll have access to them.
Again, unlocking more infiltration tools in Persona 5 is tied directly to your relationship with Morgana. Since you can’t speed up this relationship and hang out more often like you could with Ryuji or Ann, this means you’ll have to bide time until you are able to make the best items in the game.
Thankfully, it isn’t the worst wait in the world; only a couple of months in-game to unlock the rest of the infiltration tools. When July 25 rolls around in the main story, you’ll raise your bond with Morgana to the sixth rank, unlocking the Ace Tools feature.
This allows you to make the best infiltration tools in the game, including the Eternal Lockpick, which enables you to open any chest in the game without breaking this item.
Where to Get Crafting Materials
Crafting in Persona 5 requires you to have crafting materials in order to complete the recipe. Each item in the game has a specific set of things that it needs and a certain number of them you’ll have to own before you can craft those items. As such, it is recommended you get the materials before trying to craft.
There are two main places where you can find the crafting materials for the infiltration tools. The first is through some of the stores in Tokyo, where they will sell some of the essential items you find. However, some of the more powerful tools, especially the Ace Tools you unlock later on, will require unique materials.
These are only found in Mementos, the mostly optional dungeon that is present at all points of the game. You’ll have to trek into Mementos, defeat Personas there, and open up treasure chests in hopes of finding these materials that you’ll need and in the right quantity.
How Crafting Works
Once you have the infiltration tools unlocked and the suitable materials in hand, crafting is a breeze. But a time-consuming one at that. There is no specific minigame or anything like that for you to worry about. You simply click on the item you want to make, and you’ll make it.
Occasionally, the RNG gods will shine their light upon you and grant you some bonuses, like an extra free item that you crafted. But in general, you need to know about the time restriction that is involved with crafting. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, Atlus decided to make crafting a time-consuming feature.
Like the other elements of the game, such as spending time with friends or heading to Mementos, you will devote a segment of time to the game. This means that you’ll have to choose wisely when you craft and ensure that you make the right items that you need when you do so.
Worse still, you can’t just craft as many times as you want whenever you spend a period of time at the workbench in Cafe Leblanc. At the beginning of the game, spending time at the workbench will only allow you to craft a single item, and that’s it.
If you want to make more items, you’ll need to raise your Proficiency stat, which is one of the five social stats. You can also read books and grow your relationship with your teacher, Kawakami, to allow for more opportunities for crafting, such as in the middle of class.
Thankfully, the one benefit is that crafting at the workbench will at least grant you some items you make and some points for Proficiency. So, you are always getting better, at least the more times that you craft. However, if you want to raise Proficiency as fast as possible, this isn’t the way to do it.
Note, lastly, that you can only craft items at nighttime. There are a couple of exceptions where you can craft during the day, like on holidays or in class, but these are few and far between. Thankfully, there aren’t generally too many activities you can do at night, so you may have some free time to craft pretty often.
How to Craft All Infiltration Tools
With all of the basics of the crafting system in Persona 5 out of the way now, it is time to dig into every single item that is in the game that you can craft. I will note some details about how to make that item, such as what materials you need, what rank of relationship you’ll need with Morgana to make the item, and what it does in the battles and dungeons. Let’s take a look.
Initial Tools
Let’s start with the first set of infiltration tools that you’ll have when you begin the game and your bond with Morgana. These are the default items you can craft without too much of an issue. Here’s everything you need to know about them.
Element Set
- Materials: 3 cork bark, three plant balm, and three tin clasps
- Infiltration Tool Category: Battle item
First up, going in alphabetical order, we have the Element Set. This battle item is meant to be used against enemies in combat. The set gives you a collection of various things that are great for dealing damage to foes using specific elemental attacks.
These are the four items that you’ll get in the set:
- Air Cannon
- Freeze Spray
- Molotov Cocktail
- Stun Gun
As you might be able to tell, these four items cover the basics of the wind, electric, ice, and fire elements in the game. This also helps if you are early in the game and don’t have the right skills to take advantage of specific weaknesses just yet.
To craft this item, you’ll need nine materials that you can rather quickly get from stores and Mementos.
Goho-M
- Materials: 1 plant balm, one silk yarn
- Infiltration Tool Category: Escape
Goho-M is an item that is not meant for combat but, instead, for escaping the dungeon you’re currently in. Using this item will instantly take Joker and the other members of the group and transmit them right to the start of the Palace or Mementos. This allows you to quickly get out of where you are and leave the dungeon if you’re ready to move on to the next place.
You should be careful and only use Goho-M when you have reached a checkpoint in the dungeon, though. This way, you don’t waste your exploration so far and have to redo all of it again the next time you visit.
Lockpick
- Materials: 1 silk yarn, one tin clasp
- Infiltration Tool Category: Exploration
The lockpick is one of the most straightforward items you’ll find on this list. This is the default item you make the first time you’re introduced to the crafting system and, honestly, the most useful. It allows you to instantly open up any locked treasure chest that you find in the dungeon, be it a Palace or Mementos.
When I craft, lockpicks are the only items I’ll make. I won’t even touch the other ones as they are so crucial for chests. Those locked treasure chests generally have some of the best items you’ll find in the game at that point in the story. If there’s one early item to make frequently, it’s this one.
Smokescreen
- Materials: 2 plant balm, two thick parchment
- Infiltration Tool Category: Escape
The smokescreen is one of the more specific items. It is used in desperate situations where you are being chased by a shadow in a dungeon. Using this item will instantly make you essentially invisible to the enemy for a moment and give you a chance to escape to another area.
I would only use this in desperation moments where your team needs to recover and can’t afford another fight.
Spotlight
- Materials: 2 cork bark, one silk yarn, two thick parchment
- Infiltration Tool Category: Battle
The Spotlight crafting tool is another consumable item you can use in combat. The purpose of this item is to force enemies to mainly attack a specific character on your team for a period of time. This might be necessary when you are trying to protect and heal a wounded teammate.
Stealthanol
- Materials: 2 plant balm
- Infiltration Tool Category: Exploration
The Stealthanol item is one of the better ones that you can get from crafting. Like the lockpick, if you need an item that will serve you well in your exploration of the dungeon, this is a solid one. It lowers the current security level of the dungeon that you are in.
As you may know, if your security level reaches max, you’ll be kicked out of the dungeon, and your exploration will be for nothing. I always recommend locating the treasure or reaching the story checkpoint on a single run in Persona 5, so this item can be imperative for reducing security and ensuring you can accomplish that.
Vanish Ball
- Materials: 1 plant balm, one thick parchment
- Infiltration Tool Category: Escape
Vanish Ball is a straightforward one that will let you escape from any battle that isn’t a unique boss or story one. This means that any enemy that you encounter in the game that ambushes you or the like will be possible for you to escape from. It might be worth carrying around one or two of these for emergencies.
Rank 6 Tools
The following list of infiltration tools in Persona 5 is the advanced ones that you unlock once you hit rank six in your Confidant bond with Morgana. In general, these are better versions of the earlier items and the ones you should concern yourself with the most when crafting, beginning on July 25.
Covertizer
- Materials: 2 cork bark, two plant balm
- Infiltration Tool Category: Exploration
The Covertizer is essentially the better version of the Stealthanol item from before. This one aims to reduce the current security level in the Palace. However, it does so at a much greater rate than the original infiltration tool. This makes it the go-to item for this exploration purpose once you unlock it.
Eternal Lockpick
- Materials: 20 aluminum sheets, ten liquid mercury
- Infiltration Tool Category: Exploration
If there is a single item on this list that you craft throughout your entire journey in Persona 5, this is the one to make. The Eternal Lockpick is the single best infiltration tool that every single player needs in their first playthrough of the game.
This advanced tool is like the regular lockpick in that it unlocks special treasure chests that you find in Palaces and Mementos. The difference with this one is that the Eternal Lockpick allows you to open up any chest in the game and it won’t break. It is a permanent lockpick, so you don’t need to make another consumable version again.
Forces Set
- Materials: 3 condenser lenses, three iron sand, three silk yarn
- Infiltration Tool Category: Battle
The Forces Set is similar to the Element Set but involves different items and elements. This set makes four items that you can use in battle to attack foes, which are the following:
- Atom Match
- Curse Bomb
- Happy Bomb
- Psycho Bomb
These four items apply damage to enemies using the four lesser-used elements, including nuclear, curse, bless, and psychic damage. These are more useful the deeper you get into the Persona 5 storyline as they will become even more common elements you’ll need to deal with.
Hypno Mist
- Materials: 3 iron sand, one plant balm, three silk yarn
- Infiltration Tool Category: Escape
The Hypno Mist item is a dual-purpose tool that puts all of the nearby shadow enemies to sleep. This is only during exploration and not during combat, so keep that in mind. The idea is to put them to sleep so you can run away from them and avoid another battle.
Alternatively, you can put them to sleep to let you carefully attack them from behind and guarantee a preemptive attack, which will significantly boost your chances of winning.
Limelight
- Materials: 2 aluminum sheets, four condenser lenses, four tanned leather
- Infiltration Tool Category: Battle
The Limelight item is the same as the Spotlight item but on a greater level. It has the same idea of using it on a teammate to make them more likely to be attacked by enemies. However, the chances now are far higher than before, which is helpful for creating a tank of sorts on your team.
Megido Bomb
- Materials: 2 liquid mercury, three red phosphorus, four tanned leather
- Infiltration Tool Category: Battle
The Megido Bomb is one of the stricter battle items to craft due to the niche materials, but it is worth it if you can stock a few of these. It deals 100 Almighty damage to all enemies on the battlefield. Almighty damage is the hidden element in Persona that most enemies can’t even be resistant to.
This makes it extremely useful in fights against Treasure Demons, certain bosses with lots of resistance, and more. It also doesn’t hurt to quickly eliminate a group of foes while you’re exploring.
Reserve Ammo
- Materials: 10 aluminum sheets, ten iron sand, ten red phosphorus
- Infiltration Tool Category: Battle
The Reserve Ammo item will instantly give your entire team a complete set of ammunition for their ranged weapons. This is useful when you are exploring for a long time and know that you’ll use up all your ammo in the process. Otherwise, it’s primarily ignorable for players who won’t use their guns much.
Treasure Trap
- Materials: 1 cork bark, three plant balm, two silk yarn
- Infiltration Tool Category: Exploration
Lastly, one of the most useful exploration items you can craft is the Treasure Trap. This item will give you have a higher chance of finding the elusive Treasure Demons while exploring a Palace. Treasure Demons are valuable foes for their rewards and the ability to capture them for the Compendium and fusion purposes.
They are difficult to find so this can make the process a lot easier for the completionists out there.
FAQs
Question: Where to Buy Materials for Infiltration Tools Persona 5?
Answer: There are a few shops where you can buy infiltration tool materials in Persona 5. There is the store in Yongen-Jaya, where you live, the flower shop in Shibuya, and the electronics store in Akihabara. They each have a different selection of materials, so check all three often.
Question: How do you get Kawakami to Make Infiltration Tools Persona 5?
Answer: You’ll want to raise Kawakami-sensei’s Confidant rank all the way up to at least seven. From there, you’ll be able to call her up and hire her to make some infiltration tools for you, which will save you some time in the long run.
Question: When can I Craft Persona 5?
Answer: You can only craft in Persona 5 at nighttime, with only a few exceptions. For the most part, you’ll want to craft at night in your room at Cafe Leblanc. But, if you unlock specific methods, you can craft them during class sometimes and even on holidays.
What Infiltration Tools Are For
I’ll be the first to admit that you don’t have to worry about using or crafting infiltration tools in Persona 5 that often. Some of them, like the lockpicks, are items that you should always have in stock with your equipment for raiding the Palaces but other than that, you don’t need to be too concerned with this.
That said, the few items like lockpicks are almost mandatory if you want to get the most out of your playthrough. Some of the armor and weapons you’ll find in the locked treasure chests are highly recommended for doing your best, especially if you’re playing on a higher-difficulty setting. As such, you should find out more about the Palaces you’ll take on in the game to make the most of your infiltration tools.
- Persona 5 Manga Guide: Where to Find All Persona 5 Manga - April 2, 2023
- Persona Tarot Cards Guide: Where and How to Buy Persona-Themed Tarot Cards - April 2, 2023
- Ishtar Persona 5 Guide: How to Unlock Ishtar in Persona 5 - March 29, 2023