Getting Every Trophy in Persona 5
Persona 5 has around 53 achievements on PlayStation and Steam. Most of them are straightforward. The social link grinding catches people off guard because you have to build every single confidant to level 10, and several require specific story progressions that can't be reversed once locked. The platinum is called The Answer and it's not terribly difficult if you know what to expect. The real bottleneck isn't the combat achievements - it's the calendar constraints. You have limited days per month and certain confidants close their arcs after specific story events. Miss the deadline and you're stuck rerolling or waiting for New Game+. I learned this the hard way on my first playthrough. I spent three hours trying to max out the Sun confidant late in November, only to realize the game had already locked me out of multiple social links for December. The workaround is simple but easily overlooked: check the in-game calendar after each major event and immediately see which confidants are expiring soon. I started keeping a spreadsheet of deadline dates, which saved me from wasting an entire weekend trying to chase ghosts.
Here's how the achievement categories break down in practice. Combat achievements account for maybe six or seven of the total. Things like winning 100 battles, performing a critical strike, or using specific attack types. These happen naturally during normal play. You don't need to grind excessively because the game gives you enough conflicts each month to earn these without any extra effort. The confidant achievements are where people actually struggle. You need to reach level 10 on all 22 regular confidants. Some are tied to main story progression. The Magician confidant closes after the Kamoshida arc. The Priestess closes even earlier. If you miss them, you either get a game over screen or just can't unlock the achievement. I discovered something counter-intuitive about the Fortune confidant. Most guides tell you to prioritize it early because it helps with battle stats. But reaching Fortune level 10 actually requires spending time with Akira Kurusu, and his social link can only be built after a certain story point. The optimal approach is to focus on the earlier confidants first, then come back to Fortune when the timeline allows. This usually cuts the grind time down from maybe 8 hours to about 3 hours total across all social links.
The true endings achievement requires seeing all four endings. Some people don't realize this because they rush through the story. The good ending, the normal ending, and the two bad endings all require specific choices at key moments. If you want to unlock everything on a single playthrough, you need to make deliberate "bad" choices in three different scenarios. This usually takes about 12 to 15 hours total for all endings combined. Here's a practical walkthrough for the most challenging achievements. The 100 Confidant Invites achievement requires inviting all party members to your place. This happens naturally but you need to trigger specific dialogue options in each character's arc. The trick is to visit them at the right time - usually after a major story event when they're available in the city. The fusion guide achievement requires performing 100 fusions. This one catches people off guard because fusion is somewhat random in Persona 5. You don't have full control over which Personas appear during each fusion. The workaround is to use the Trust fusion method at Leost, which usually gives better odds for high-level Personas. This typically saves about 2 to 3 hours compared to pure random fusing.
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Combat achievements require specific battle conditions. Things like winning 100 battles, performing 50 critical strikes, or using every attack type in combat. These are straightforward but some require specific strategies. For example, the "All-Out Attack" achievement requires performing 50 all-out attacks, which only happen when you hit an enemy's weakness in battle. The year-end party achievement requires hosting a year-end party. This happens automatically at the end of the game. You don't need to do anything special except complete the main story. The party scene triggers after defeating the final boss and seeing the credits. Some achievements have specific timing requirements. The Valentine's Day achievement requires giving a gift on February 14th. The Christmas achievement requires being at the mall on December 25th. If you miss the date, you either wait until next year or reload a previous save. This usually takes about 5 to 10 minutes to fix depending on how far back you need to go.
The strongest recommendation is to keep a checklist of all achievements during play. Write down which ones you've unlocked and which ones are still pending. This usually saves 1 to 2 hours of confusion at the end of the game when you're trying to figure out what's still missing. Most people forget about at least three or four minor achievements by the time they reach the endgame. For Platinum hunters, the main challenge is the calendar management. You have about 100 days in the game and each day has limited actions. The trade-off is between building confidants, studying for exams, and completing requests. Prioritizing based on your playstyle usually saves 2 to 4 hours total compared to random decision-making. The achievement guide itself doesn't cover everything. Some community discoveries are worth knowing. For example, you can use the Trust fusion method at Leost to guarantee certain high-level Personas. This saves about 3 to 5 hours of grinding compared to pure random fusing. Another useful tip is that some confidants can be maxed out faster if you visit them at specific locations during certain times of day.
Persona 5 is a solid choice for achievement hunting overall. The process takes about 120 to 150 hours for a thorough run. Most of that time goes toward social link grinding and combat practice. The game gives you enough freedom to approach achievements in multiple ways, which is uncommon for trophy-heavy titles. If you want to speed things up, focus on the confidant achievements first because they're the most time-consuming by far.
