An enormous shadow called the Hanged Man appears during a mission in Persona 3 Reload as a boss your team has to beat throughout multiple phases. This opponent breaks the rules of combat, making them an incredibly dangerous foe that can be a tough challenge. Only a team with careful coordination has a chance to survive against this avatar of an ominous arcana.

You can find the Hanged Man on November 3rd (11/3) toward the end of the "November Full Moon Operation" mission. This boss fight is mandatory and consists of three distinct phases, so make sure you have your strongest Personas in Persona 3 Reload equipped for this fight. This boss comes right after a battle against Jin and Takaya in this mission, making it important to recover resources as well.

Best Team, Personas, And Strategies For Fighting The Hanged Man

The best team for fighting the Hanged Man is Yukari, Mitsuru, and Akihiko due to how they can take advantage of weaknesses in early phases. You need a wide range of physical attacks since the Hanged Man does not have any weaknesses. The DPS you'll have to do instead will rely entirely upon your strongest moves, which tend to lean toward physical damage at this stage of Persona 3 Reload.

Aigis is another great choice for the fight against the Hanged Man, but she has fewer abilities with her Persona that allow her to debuff the boss like Mitsuru can.

The Hanged Man is resistant to strike attacks and is null to fire damage along with the ability to reflect dark attacks. Avoid using any Personas that rely on fire or dark moves when challenging this boss, from the Protagonist or any team member. While many of the playable characters in Persona 3 Reload have only one Persona to use, you can still rely on buff or debuff abilities that ignore the Hanged Man's strengths.

The best Personas for this fight are the ones that can null dark damage, allowing them to resist some of the Hanged Man's strongest attacks. Any Persona that resists strike damage also helps since the Hanged Man's physical strikes deal that type of damage in Persona 3 Reload. Any gear that shares any of these traits will also be a strong item to give your team in preparation for this boss fight.

How To Beat The Hanged Man (Phase 1)

The Hanged Man starts this fight floating in the sky, and can't be hit until you take down three statue shadows holding it up. These weaker shadows are each vulnerable to a different type of physical damage in Persona 3 Reload. The central statue is weak to slash damage, the one to the left takes extra punishment from strike damage, and the one on the right is weak to pierce damage.

Use Akihiko to deal strike damage, Mitsuru or yourself for slashing damage, and Yukari for pierce damage to instantly get an All-Out attack against the statues. Defeating all these minions will drop the Hanged Man to the ground, where you'll have a turn before it can act. Use this opportunity to apply buffs to your team, or debuffs to the boss before it starts fighting in earnest for the rest of the phase.

Try to lower the Hanged Man's dark and strike damage any way you can before it starts fighting. Then, unleash the best abilities you have to quickly drop the boss' HP until it resummons the statues for you to take out again. You may have some strong attacks from Personas obtained early in Persona 3 Reload that could deal plenty of damage without reducing your resources too much for the next phases.

How To Beat The Hanged Man (Phase 2)

Once you delete enough of the Hanged Man's health, it'll transition to phase 2 by using a new attack called Grim Transcendence. This is considered an Almighty Attack in Persona 3 Reload, or an extremely powerful move that allows the boss to act multiple times on its turn. This phase goes in pretty much the same way as the first, only with more attacks coming from the Hanged Man once it's down.

Continue to buff your allies and heal whenever someone is getting low on health. Boost your defenses during the turn where the Hanged Man is stunned after the statues are defeated to have better protection against the multiple strikes the boss can now do. When the boss' HP reaches about a quarter, it will begin the third and final phase in Persona 3 Reload.

How To Beat The Hanged Man (Phase 3)

The Hanged Man starts off phase 3 by summoning a single statue that has resistance against every type of single attack in the game. The best response to this obstacle is to use a Theurgy attack in Persona 3 Reload before this shadow can deal too much damage. Using this strong attack will once again leave the Hanged Man vulnerable for a turn, so heal or apply buffs while you can.

The Hanged Man will start off the last phase by using Grim Transcendence two times, letting it attack your team six different times in one turn. This ridiculous chain of attacks needs to be endured, but keep in mind that the boss will try to raise its Critical Hit rate and apply many buffs or debuffs too. Even status effects and instant death moves are not off the table as the Hanged Man does everything in its power to win.

Keep fighting and unleash your strongest attacks to reduce the boss' small remaining health to zero. Counter its debuff effects with buffs of your own when you can, but don't sacrifice damage when you're close to winning. Managing to find and beat the Hanged Man in Persona 3 Reload will let you overcome this major boss in the story and continue forward with you and your team.