There are so many systems at play in Persona 5 that it can be overwhelming for some new to this type of JRPG. After all, outside of the core story and dungeons, you can hang out with friends, work a part-time job, summon hundreds of Personas, and even build your social stats.
That last feature is what I’d like to focus on in this Persona 5 social skills guide.
The five social stats in Persona 5 are some of the least explained parts of the game. Even though they are optional, the game does a lousy job of explaining what they do, how they work, and how to raise them best.
Older players might have a handle on them (even though they work slightly differently here), but newcomers could be in a rough spot. After beating Persona 5 three times on different platforms and maxing out the social stats each time, I have the tips you need in this Persona 5 social skills guide.
Bottom Line Up Front
Five social skills exist in Persona 5. These are Knowledge, Charm, Kindness, Guts, and Proficiency. These names are slightly different from the past two games in the mainline series, but they generally function the same.
The idea is for social skills to allow you to raise ranks with your Confidants, acquire specific part-time jobs, and even do well in some side quests and minigames. Raising them requires working, reading, and more.
Persona 5 Social Skills Overview
The heart of Persona 5 is its turn-based combat, complete with various skills and attacks you use in battle. But some stats exist outside of battle that are a massive part of your overall everyday life.
These five skills determine much of the side content in the game and what you are able to do about it. Here’s what you need to know about the Persona 5 social stats.
What they Are
Persona 5 social stats are an extra set of stats that your main character, Joker, has set on him. These are separate from your general attack, magic, and other battle stats that also your character has. Think of them like life stats that affect only the parts of the game outside of dungeons and battles.
Essentially, if there is some type of side content that you want to do in Persona 5, chances are the social stats will be involved in some way. They will either need to be upgraded for that particular activity, or they’ll receive some benefits from you engaging in that.
They are heavily versatile and crucial to anyone who is a completionist or wants to see everything Persona 5 offers.
Each of the five social stats has five levels to them, with Joker starting from the first level for each. Throughout the adventure and as you do certain activities, the social stats will rise in rank, allowing you to accomplish more in the game.
What they Do
The social stats in Persona 5 represent the core personality attributes of Joker that you help determine. They also represent the gates by which you are able to interact with characters in specific ways or complete certain tasks that you usually wouldn’t be able to do.
For instance, Knowledge is the number one determiner of your intelligence in the game. It decides how well Joker does on exams and other things, which can be highly beneficial in the game. On the other hand, some other skills might decide whether a certain Confidant character will spend time with you.
And then there are still other purposes for these, including some skills needed to be upgraded to a certain level in order to start a part-time job. They have their hand in almost every side activity that you can enjoy in Persona 5, so it is imperative that players get to know this system and take control of it as soon as possible.
How to Raise Them
There are a few ways that you are able to raise your social stats in Persona 5. The first one is by reading books or studying, which can affect specific stats, depending on the item in question. Another way is through working some part-time jobs, which will raise certain skills for doing them.
Then some paid activities will immediately boost your stats for partaking in them. There is just so much to Persona 5 and raising these skills, which is by far the most confusing part that I find for everyone.
Be it a newcomer or a veteran player, the ways of increasing your stats can be frustrating for anyone. Thankfully, I’ve got your back on this part.
All Persona 5 Social Stats
Five main social stats are present in Persona 5. These are the five:
- Knowledge
- Charm
- Kindness
- Guts
- Proficiency
There is an argument to be made that some are more important than others, especially depending on the people you’re trying to spend time with and what your goals are for Joker. Regardless, I have the answer for you below about each social stat you need to know about.
I’ll break down exactly what each stat is used for in the massive JRPG so that you know who and what it will be helpful for. In addition, I will let you know the best ways that you can grind levels for these stats, as the point system is one that isn’t well explained by the game itself.
Hopefully, this will alleviate some of the pain involved with these stats. Let’s get started.
Knowledge
First off is my favorite skill in the Persona games and one of the more unique ones: Knowledge. Unlike the skills below, it doesn’t necessarily work in the same ways as those. You don’t generally get points for this one and the same ways and what it’s for are unique, too.
A lot of the focus for the Knowledge skill is related to your school work. This is the skill to use if you want to be the smartest student in your class and get recognized for that.
It is also one of the most demanding skills in the game since it requires the most points to level up to the fifth and final level fully. Yes, not all stats are created equal, unfortunately.
What it’s Used for
Knowledge in Persona 5 is helpful for a variety of features, starting with your activities at school. When you are in class, your goal is to do the best you can as a student. As such, there are exams that happen periodically throughout the school year, and your Knowledge plays a direct role.
Sure, there are questions you can manually answer during these exams that will determine your overall score. However, on the final day of exams, every single time, your Knowledge skill will determine how well you do on that day. This affects a significant portion of your overall grade, so you can’t solely rely on your correct quiz answers.
In addition to that, the Knowledge skill determines where you rank in the class, which can lead to some intriguing and lucrative benefits later down the road. Knowledge is also crucial to one particular Confidant, Hifumi Togo, who requires the fifth level of the social stat in order to access the final ranks of her relationship.
If you want to max out her friendship and possibly romance her, or just max out every Confidant in the game, Knowledge is imperative to your experience.
How to Best Raise Knowledge
Thankfully, the challenging task of getting all of the necessary points to get to the max rank in Knowledge is at least offset by the number of activities you can do in the game regarding this. There are several different methods, and some of them are always available to you each day of the in-game calendar.
First and foremost, there is studying at school or in your room. If you go this route, which I only recommend on days when you have nothing else to do, be sure to take advantage of rainy days when your studying will net you more overall points. Also, studying in the time leading up to an exam with your friends is also welcome and helpful.
Reading certain books will give you Knowledge points, but this isn’t my favorite, either. Every question that you answer right in class will net you points, so when in doubt, look them up, as they are nice freebies.
Here are the methods I use in the game when I play. I generally forget about the Knowledge skill and go about my time, answering the class questions right when I get them. The key is to watch the trivia show on TV on Wednesdays as there is a question there that answering will net you some more points.
Then I like to head to the Shibuya Diner on rainy days and drink the specific drinks that affect Knowledge. This will guarantee the most points. Outside of that, I take advantage once or twice of studying with friends right before exams to boost my friendship with them and gain a fair amount of points.
Charm
Charm is one of my other favorite social skills in Persona 5 because it is useful for certain game characters. If there are some Confidants that you have your eyes on for building your relationship or even romancing, there is a decent chance that Charm might be related to it.
This social stat measures the allure that Joker has, which some characters favor nicely. But there are other needs for this skill, and it is one of the easier ones to level up, in my opinion.
What it’s for
Charm is used for Confidants, first and foremost. Some of the romance partners in the game, like Makoto Niijima and Ohya at the Crossroads bar, require you to have a certain level of Charm. This is by far the most critical part of this skill, even if you have no desire to romance them and befriend them.
In addition, Charm is necessary for some other additional side activities.
How to Grind Charm Levels
There are many ways to raise the Charm ranks in Persona 5. A lot of them are the same as the others, like eating at the Big Bang Burger restaurant and taking on the challenge, assuming that you have a high enough Guts level. Reading books will also raise this Charm level if you have the right ones.
But the best way to raise Charm is through a few methods I use in my playthroughs. The first is to raise Knowledge up and do well in exams. Believe it or not, one of the benefits of mastering your exam scores is that everyone around you will notice, and it will give a significant boost to your Charm score.
When not doing that, since those are rare occasions anyways, I like to take a bath once a week, if I’m not busy with Confidants, on either Monday or Thursday. This is outside of Cafe Leblanc, and taking a bath on those days will grant you the most Charm points out of any other day of the week.
Lastly, I like to go to the diner in Shibuya, as always, and drink certain beverages there. It takes time for the Charm beverage to appear but drinking it on certain days, especially on rainy days, will grant you some points towards both Charm and your Knowledge levels.
Kindness
Kindness is the other social stat that I prefer to level up and is one of my favorites for Joker. This one is rather self-explanatory, showing how kind Joker is towards his fellow people. As you might expect, it is helpful for a variety of scenarios, and it has a more substantial purpose for jobs than some of the others here.
What You Use Kindness for
Kindness is helpful for several of the main Confidants in Persona 5. This includes some of the romance partners in the game, so if you want to show them that you are genuinely a good person, this is the social stat that lets you do so. Otherwise, you may be locked out of the higher ranks of some of the Confidants.
How to Raise Kindness Fast
Kindness is considered by many to be one of the most challenging social stats to level up in the game. I disagree, personally, but that is possible because I spend a lot of time grinding it throughout my journey. I also think it’s frustrating since Ann, one of the first Confidants needs it early on in her relationship ranks.
Here’s what I like to do to raise Kindness the fastest. Sure, books and the Big Bang Burger challenge will get the job done sometimes. However, the most reliable way is to spend time cleaning up your room as soon as you can in the game.
This will give you access to a house plant that you can feed and grow over the course of the game. Be sure to use the Bio Nutrients on the plant whenever you can, and you will passively gain some Kindness points without needing to do much at all. However, this isn’t often and won’t grant you max Kindness on its own.
In addition to that, unlock the Rafflesia Flower Shop part-time job as soon as it becomes available on April 18. This job can be worked in the daytime or nighttime, so feel free to work it whenever there are no Confidants to hang out with.
It is the best way to get Kindness points and, honestly, the only part-time job I regularly work in the game. The key here is to get your orders correctly, as it will net you more Kindness points toward your levels.
Guts
Guts is the final social stat that I consider to be extremely important in Persona 5. This is your Courage from past games, and it indicates how brave Joker is outside of battle. Several intriguing activities have to do with Guts, and it is one of the more unique ones to level up.
Purpose
The purpose of the Guts skill is to be able to talk to certain Confidants, first and foremost. Some of the side and main characters require a certain level of Guts to be able to see the higher ranks for their relationships.
That is what most people are going to care about. This is doubly true for Iwai, the gun shop owner, who has one of the most finicky and weird Confidants I’ve seen.
In addition, though, Guts is crucial for winning the Big Bang Burger challenge. You want to be able to do good at this, if possible, since completing stages of it with your Guts will grant you points towards the other three social stats, excluding Knowledge in general.
I will admit, though, that I generally don’t use this method in my playthroughs early on, and I do fine.
Fastest Way of Grinding
When it comes to leveling up Guts as fast as possible, it comes down to a few areas. What I like to do is focus on Tae Takemi, the shady doctor lady at the medical clinic near Cafe Leblanc. She has a Confidant rank, and raising her ranks will automatically give you some Guts points.
I will supplement that with drinking some of the specific beverages at the diner in Shibuya, which will further your points. Hopefully, with enough of these, I then, later on in the game, take on the Big Bang Burger challenge, but this is usually much later in the game.
This is because my Guts is likely a little bit higher than it was before, and I can progress through the challenge somewhat. This then allows most of my social stat skills to rise together, which is highly beneficial. It helps, too, since I usually have more money than I need once I am more than halfway through the game.
Proficiency
Finally, there is Proficiency, which is the weirdest social stat for me. I’ll be the first to admit that this is my least favorite stat and the one I neglect the most in my playthroughs. This is intentional, too, since its usefulness isn’t nearly as valuable as the other four, in my opinion.
What it indicates is how proficient the player is outside of battle. In layman’s terms, this usually means how skilled Joker is at crafting items and all that. But it has its uses outside of crafting, which makes it necessary eventually, but it’s not one that I recommend focusing on early in the game for most players.
Purpose
To be clear, Proficiency does have to do with Confidants in the same way the other four social stats do. As such, it is highly recommended that you max it out eventually. But, in my opinion, the characters that need this stat mean that you can ignore this one for a good portion of the game.
The other benefit of Proficiency is affecting your crafting. It can be much easier to craft items in the game with a higher rank, letting you quickly churn out these items. However, I don’t like the crafting in Persona 5, and it is the one system that I have literally not touched in a playthrough before.
For the Confidants alone, it is worth maxing out, but I don’t recommend worrying about it until later on unless you are someone who likes crafting, in which case, more power to you.
Best Way to Grind Proficiency
When it comes to grinding Proficiency, there are a couple of ways that you can go about this. The first is the more obvious one and that is by crafting in the game.
Doing this will grant you some solid points, and, thankfully, Proficiency requires the least amount of points to max out. That is another reason I ignore it early on in favor of the harder skills.
The other possible method of grinding is through the use of the beef bowl shop part-time job. But what I like to do is read books and take on the Big Bang Burger challenge.
With these two alone, I have maxed out the Proficiency stat in the past. I find that there is honestly no reason to waste time crafting unless you truly feel like you need those items for whatever reason.
FAQs
Question: What is the Fastest Way to Level Up Social Stats in Persona 5?
Answer: The fastest way to level up your social stats in Persona 5 is going to vary for each one. However, the general consensus is to level up your Guts so you can take on the Big Bang Burger challenge. This will help with four of the five stats at once but it is tricky to accomplish.
Question: Can You Max All Stats in Persona 5?
Answer: I assume you mean maxing all stats in Persona 5 in one playthrough. Yes, it is possible to do this, and I did this all three times I beat the game. I was able to accomplish that and max out all of the Confidants in a single playthrough, but you must plan out your schedule wisely.
Question: How Do Social Stats Work in Persona 5?
Answer: There are five social stats in Persona 5, and they are as follows: Knowledge, Guts, Proficiency, Kindness, and Charm.
They each have five levels associated with them and affect activities like ranking up Confidant relationships, working part-time jobs, completing minigames, and doing well in school. Various activities get them points to level them up.
Combat Skills should be Your Next Focus in Persona 5
The social stats in Persona 5 are some of the most confusing parts of the game but also the most crucial. It is highly recommended that you begin to understand them early on in the game so that you can take full advantage of grinding them out from the moment you start Joker’s new school year.
This is imperative if you want to max out all of the Confidants in one single playthrough, which is possible.
But the social stats aren’t the only stats and skills that you need to know about in Persona 5. The game has an entire set of skills and stats that are also related to the combat system in the game.
There are elemental fire skills known as Agi, wind known as Garu, and others that can be pretty confusing. If you want to know more about the battle skills in Persona 5, be sure to check out my previous breakdown of that.
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