Persona 5 Minigames Guide: Darts, Billiards, and More Explained

One of the strangest but most alluring parts of a video game is playing a miniature game within it. Occasionally, some games like Persona 5 will offer players the chance to try a minigame, a snippet of gameplay vastly different from the core mechanics. These moments are mainly meant to be some cute levity from the usual combat of Persona 5. These are the minigames you need to know about in this Persona 5 minigames guide.

In Persona 5, and especially its expanded version, Royal, there are a lot of minigames to check out. From setting up the pool table with some friends to swinging some baseball bats at the batting cages, there are a lot of intriguing minigames to check out. They each offer their own incentives for players to explore what they have to offer. Find out about all of them in this Persona 5 minigames guide.

Bottom Line Up Front

Persona 5 and Royal have several minigames for players to check out. Each of these involves changing up the mechanics to allow you to try something else out, usually based on a real-world activity like sports or crosswords.

These minigames offer rewards, such as unique accessories, items, points with your friends to increase your relationship, and social stat boosts. The minigames in Persona 5 include the batting cage, billiards, crossword puzzles, darts, fishing, other video games, and the weekly TV quiz show.

Persona 5 Minigames Overview

There are seven minigames in Persona 5 if you include the ones that were added in Royal. These offer players the chance to try out something new in the game that isn’t the same old repeat of going to school, answering questions, hanging out with friends, maybe watching a movie, and exploring Mementos.

These minigames generally make players think about what they’re going to do and offer some unique gameplay aspects. You’ll need to select the right prompts or even engage in a mini-duel against the computer to complete the minigame in the right way.

This can be some enjoyable levity from the usual gameplay mechanics that can, admittedly, get sort of stale overall. Here’s what you need to know about all of the minigames in Persona 5 and Royal.

Persona 5 vs. Persona 5 Royal Minigames

For starters, if you are playing the original Persona 5 on PS3 and PS4, you probably already know this, but you are playing the inferior version of the game. Honestly, it should be removed from the in-game stores at this point in time. Of the many reasons why it is lacking compared to Royal, there are the minigames.

There are only a few minigames you’ll find in the original Persona 5, including the batting cages, fishing, and crossword puzzles. However, you are going to be missing out on some critical features unless you play Royal, which added the area of Kichijoji with places where you can play billiards, darts, and more.

It is a vastly superior game in terms of minigames. Furthermore, even for some of the minigames, like the batting cages that did exist in the base game, Royal expanded upon them with more content to enjoy. There is no reason not to explore the minigames in the best possible version of the JRPG.

What They Do

The minigames in Persona 5 involve spending a chunk of your time, at least with most of them, to gain some benefits. This is a crucial point here as some of the minigames require your time and money, such as the batting cages, while others are free to accomplish and spend no time at all, like the crosswords.

This difference between the minigames can make them quite confusing for one another. But you should learn about them below and keep details like how much time they take in mind when using them. After all, that after-school time slot where you went batting at the cages could have been spent elsewhere.

Time management is a massive part of minigames and Persona 5 in general. These are fun activities, but they should be treated as the occasional treat rather than what you do every day.

Benefits

There are numerous benefits to the minigames in Persona 5. These aren’t just here for some lighthearted fun that is an escape from the rest of the massive JRPG. There is a rhyme and reason for everything in Persona 5, and the minigames are no exception to this rule in the slightest.

The point of doing these minigames, first and foremost, is to have a break from the other game elements and have fun. You shouldn’t be doing these unless you really want the rewards unless they interest you. They won’t be engaging, fun, and worth doing if you aren’t interested in them.

This is why no matter how many times I’ve played Persona 5 and beaten it — three times, to be exact — I won’t ever dive into the batting cages. But I’ll take on some of the other minigames. That said, if you are interested in some of these activities, they will grant you some excellent rewards in the process.

The rewards vary from game to game, but some of them will boost some of the social stats for Joker. Others will increase the ability to bond with your party members among the Phantom Thieves. Still, others might offer you some exclusive items and accessories you can’t get anywhere else. There are plenty of reasons to check out all of these minigames.

All Persona 5 Minigames List

There are seven main minigames in Persona 5 and Royal that you will find below. I will dive into everything you need to know about these games, from how to unlock them, what they involve gameplay-wise, and the rewards you’ll get for completing them. I’ll also occasionally note some individual tips and tricks for getting the most out of these minigames. Let’s get swinging!

Batting Cages

• Location: Yongen-Jaya
• Time: Nighttime-only (unless you have a coupon)
• Price: 500 yen-8000 yen

Suppose you ever visit Tokyo in real life (not virtually). In that case, one of the most amazing parts of the largest city on the planet is that you’ll find places like batting cages, virtual golfing centers, and other random activities spread throughout the city. They are there possibly due to the lack of greenery, besides the amazing parks, for this sort of thing.

So, batting cages are pretty common, and this hilarious minigame gives you the opportunity to live like a Tokyo citizen. The idea is to head to the batting cages in Yongen-Jaya and swing your baseball bat at some balls to get the highest score possible.

This location is right near your home at Cafe Leblanc, so it is one of the easier-to-find minigames in Persona 5. But it will cost you, depending on the difficulty level of the course you’re trying to take on. This is one of the more interactive minigames, meaning you’ll have to hit the balls manually.

There are ways to make the minigame easier, but you’ll need to fulfill specific steps to do so. While I’m not the biggest fan of the batting cages in Persona 5, I will admit that it has some of the best and most varied rewards on this list.

How to Unlock

First and foremost, you’ll need to unlock the batting cages before you can do anything else with this minigame. Thankfully, it is one of the more accessible minigames to unlock and you can do so quite early in the game. Unfortunately, this is another situation where Persona 5 doesn’t explain something well to you, as you, technically, could miss out on this entirely.

What you want to do first is clean your room. Not the mandatory room-cleaning cutscene that happens at the start of the game, either. There comes a time when you can optionally clean your room, which will take up an entire segment of time. Do this as early into the game as you possibly can.

Not only will it give you some other benefits, like being able to craft tools, but it will let you read. One of the books that are in your room is Yoncha Walker 04 about the neighborhood. Read it in your free time for another single segment of time, and you’ll learn about the batting cages and the bathhouse. You’ll then be able to partake in this minigame.

Difficulty Levels

There are several difficulty levels to the batting cages; you can only do one daily. Furthermore, there’s no way to force an unlock of the other ones, as they only become available throughout the course of the main story. As such, I recommend that people tackle and master each difficulty level one at a time as they get them. Here are the six difficulty levels in Royal:

• Beginner: 500 yen. This is the automatic difficulty you have from the start of the game.
• Intermediate: 1000 yen. This unlocks on May 1, which is not too long after the beginning of Persona 5.
• Advanced: 1500 yen. This unlocks on July 1.
• Expert: 2500 yen. You can start taking this batting minigame on October 1.
• Insane: 4000 yen. This one becomes available on December 1. This is the final difficulty option for base Persona 5 players.
• The Fader: 8000 yen. This is the most bonkers difficulty option, and it becomes available on January 13 in the third semester. It is exclusive to Persona 5 Royal.

Tips

Here are a few of the tips and tricks to the batting cages, including some ways to make the gameplay a whole lot easier for you:

• Raising the difficulty level will make the balls come toward you much faster, which makes it more challenging to see when to hit it and how to. The goal is to hit five home runs, if possible.
• Reading the Batting Science book is the best way to improve your chances of hitting a home run. This is in Shinjuku and unlocks Third Eye for this minigame. It lets you slow down the gameplay and hit it perfectly, no matter the difficulty level.
• This is the main minigame to check out if you are trying to raise your Proficiency social stat.

Rewards

The batting cages have the most varied set of rewards out of any minigame on this list. Though it isn’t my favorite due to its gameplay style, and I’m just not a baseball fan, there’s no denying that the rewards are worth the effort.

For starters, you get a bonus to your Proficiency social stat for doing this minigame. Just for participating in this minigame, you’ll get one point for Proficiency. But you’ll get two points if you land five hits during your session.

In addition to that, players can receive other items depending on how well they do in the batting session. If you get three home runs or more, you’ll get a free coupon to try out the batting cage again another time. The intriguing catch about this method is that it allows you to swing around during the daytime, which is the only one to do so.

Furthermore, if you hit all five times (it doesn’t have to be a home run), you’ll get an item as a reward. In general, these are usually buff items that will boost your evasion, defense, attack, and so on. Honestly, though, they aren’t the items you should be aiming for.

Instead, you should try to get the six accessories if you perfect your hits and nail five home runs during a single session. If you do so, you’ll get unique accessories that are capable of helping you to land critical hits, avoid specific status ailments, and more.

Billiards

• Location: Kichijoji
• Time: Nighttime-only (Persona 5 Royal-exclusive)
• Price: 800 yen per session

Pool is one of the newer games in Persona 5 Royal and also one of the most versatile. This minigame involves playing some pool, but this isn’t a game that is meant to be played alone. Instead, this is all about playing together with your friends and party members from the Phantom Thieves.

Billiards has one of the distinct advantages of being a team game that can involve multiple people and give you several rewards, too. If you find the pool to be a more exciting sport than, say, baseball, this might be worth checking out. Here’s what you need to know.

How to Unlock

To reach the billiards area in Persona 5, you need first to own Royal, which this minigame is exclusive to. The goal here is to defeat Madarame, the second Palace ruler you find in the game. After his arrest, you’ll have a moment in the story where you visit the Royal-exclusive neighborhood of Kichijoji.

You’ll find the billiards game area, among other new features in this new area. Keep in mind that, like the batting cages, you’ll need to pony up some yen to pay for a session of playing pool.

Technical Ranks Explained

One of the most essential parts of playing pool is that it affects your technical ranks. This is a frustrating system that is hard to learn, even for veterans who have beaten the game before. Basically, some hidden ranks in the game affect technical attacks, which are critical attacks against enemies with specific status ailments and elements.

It is a confusing combo involving using the right element against enemies you have inflicted with a specific status effect. However, you don’t have access to all of them at the start of the game. Raising your technical rank will allow you to do this and provide more damage to your technical attacks, too.

How this has to do with billiards is that you have to first play this game to unlock the ability to raise your technical ranks in the first place. This minigame plays an integral role in evolving this gameplay mechanic, along with certain books in Shibuya.

Tips

Here are some of the tips that I have for you involving the billiards game:

• This isn’t a game that is about your input and ensuring you do the right thing. Instead, it is all about spending time with friends and having a good time.
• As such, I recommend only bringing along people you want to rank up in your Confidants. For instance, if you already maxed out Ryuji’s Confidant, there is no reason to bring him along.

Rewards

You get a few rewards from playing billiards, including the technical rank upgrades that I previously mentioned. I’ll be the first to note that this isn’t the most necessary aspect of turn-based combat, so feel free to completely ignore it unless you plan to take on a particular endgame boss.

However, that is not why I play billiards in Persona 5 Royal. I do it for the other rewards, which include a boost to some of the social stats. This is entirely RNG-based, so you never know what stat will get some points, except that it won’t ever happen to Kindness for whatever reason.

Lastly, playing billiards will grant one point towards the relationship with the people who you invite. It pays to invite as many people as you can and those who you don’t have a max Confidant relationship with yet.

Crossword Puzzles

• Location: Cafe Leblanc
• Time: Daytime or nighttime (make sure to do it on that specific day)
• Price: Free

Crossword puzzles are some of the more straightforward minigames that you can do in Persona 5. These are precisely what they sound like: puzzles you can solve on specific dates of the game that will grant you a nice little boost to your Knowledge.

The points you get from this aren’t fantastic, but they are a nice enough bonus that it will take care of having to study or read some books a few times. This can save up some time to do other things that are much more important.

The best part about all of this? Crossword puzzles take up no time at all, so you can tackle these and still do your other activities during that time slot, like spending time with friends or even trying your hand at one of the other minigames.

The goal of the crossword puzzles is simple: you have a single word that you have to figure out the answer for. To get the answer, you need to look at the other words already filled out for you and use the overlapping letters to come up with the answer. Take as long as you need to figure out the solution for each one, or simply search for the answer online.

When to Solve Crossword Puzzles

The one trick with crossword puzzles is that they are only available on certain days out of the year. If you miss a puzzle on a specific day, you won’t be able to do it again on another day, so it is imperative you don’t skip these as they are free Knowledge points with almost no cost involved. Here are the dates to take note of for crossword puzzles:

• April 18
• April 27
• May 2
• May 10
• May 18
• May 26
• May 31
• June 3
• June 7
• June 16
• June 22
• June 30
• July 7
• July 12
• July 19
• July 27
• August 3
• August 8
• August 14
• August 17
• August 25
• August 30
• September 2
• September 19
• September 28
• October 6
• October 10
• October 31
• November 4
• November 14
• November 28
• December 2
• December 7
• December 12
• December 19
• January 14
• January 19
• January 23
• January 27

Darts

• Location: Kichijoji
• Time: Nighttime
• Price: 800 yen

Next up is the darts game, exclusive to Persona 5 Royal. This one is also in Kichijoji and is another minigame that involves the Phantom Thieves. You can invite group members to play darts with you in an intimate setting, like a date, and hang out.

As you might expect, it gives a lot of the same benefits as billiards, but the catch this time around is that it is more involved in the way of the batting cages. You actually throw the darts yourself and directly affect how good or bad you do in the process.

How to Unlock Darts

To unlock the darts minigame, you’ll need to follow the same procedures as the pool one. You’ll need to complete Madarame’s Palace and then head to Kichijoji at night. Pay the required amount, and you’ll be good to go. Make sure to invite whoever you want to up your Confidant rank with.

In addition, you’ll receive some Proficiency points, upgrades for your Baton Pass rank with that character, and have the chance to evolve your technical rank, too.

Tips

• Upgrade your darts capability by using the books and items that are found in the sports store in Shibuya. This will make playing easier.
• Only invite the characters you don’t have max rank with. Otherwise, it’s a waste unless you want a better Baton Pass rank with them.
• You have to give instructions to your partner in the game, and each person has an optimal answer that maximizes your rewards.

Fishing

• Location: Ichigaya
• Time: Anytime (but the cost changes)
• Price: 3000 yen during the daytime. 1000 at night

Fishing is its own minigame in Persona 5 that involves collecting fish for a period of time. There are many different types of fish in the game, and you can opt to collect all of them for maximum rewards. These points you earn from the fish will let you turn them in for items.

There are ways to expand your fishing prowess by reading certain books.

How to Unlock

Unlocking fishing is done in a couple of ways. First off, the easiest way is to hang out with Ryuji on July 6 when he invites you. The other is to read the Fishpond Spotter book from the Shibuya Bookstore, which will unlock Ichigaya and the fishing area.

Rewards

Different fish will grant you different points. The higher the points, the close you will get to turning in those points for better rewards. Some of the rewards grant you better items to catch the even better fish with, which should be your first items to get.

In addition, you can get accessories and other items here that are exclusive to this minigame and can do some crazy stuff like raising your critical hit rate when ambushed.

Video Games

• Location: Cafe Leblanc
• Time: Daytime or nighttime (when you have access to the TV)
• Price: Free to play, but the games cost money

Yes, you can play video games within a video game in Persona 5. I liken this system to the books you can read, in how it takes up time to do, and you can expand your collection over time. Plus, they have similar rewards that you deal with.

Video games, unlike books, though, are interactive and require you to win at these little minigame activities. Some of them are pretty tough and need you to work hard to win at them.

How to Unlock Video Games

To start, you’ll need to buy a game console from the secondhand store near the cafe in Yongen-Jaya. It is available on June 5 for 5000 yen. Once you buy that, you can purchase other games for varying prices, of cheaper or even more than that. Check out the game store in Akihabara.

You can get better at games by purchasing and reading the Game Secrets book from Shinjuku. This will lower the overall difficulty of the games and make them easier to win.

Rewards

A few rewards are involved with the video games in Persona 5. For starters, each game works like a book. Once you complete the game, which usually takes a few playthroughs, you’ll get some points toward one of the five social stats.

In addition, if you complete it, you can turn in completed games in Akihabara for special gameplay bonuses that boost your overall elemental skill damage.

Weekly TV Quiz Show

• Location: Cafe Leblanc
• Time: Thursday daytime-only
• Price: Free

The weekly TV quiz show is another hidden minigame at Cafe Leblanc. It happens every Thursday, but you can only watch it a total of about ten times. So once you do 10 or 11 Thursdays in a row, you are finished with this.

All the weekly quiz show is a single question you need to answer for some Knowledge points. The quiz show can be watched on TV at Cafe Leblanc on the first floor during the daytime on Thursdays.

FAQs

What Element of Persona 5 to Check Out Next

The minigames in Persona 5 are some of the most underrated parts of the entire experience. I see few people talking about features like the billiards and darts you can partake in. That said, I highly recommend you check them out, especially in the third semester and towards the end of the main storyline when you probably have completed most everything else necessary in the game, like Confidants.

If you want to find out more about some of these minigames, be sure to explore Cafe Leblanc more. This is the home of the player, Joker, and the location where you’ll engage in several of these minigames. Playing video games, doing crossword puzzles, and even watching the weekly TV quiz show will happen at this location. But those are far from the only activities you’ll be able to do here.

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Cody Perez

Cody is a writer who discovered the Persona series about 10 years ago. As a huge Pokemon fan growing up, he was recommended to check it out on his PSP. He started with the very first game and when in sequential order before catching up with Persona 3 Portable and Persona 4 Golden cemented his love for the series. He was proud to be able to eventually spread his passion into the Shin Megami Tensei series and be there in time for the launch of Persona 5, which is one of his favorite games of all time.

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