Persona 5 Royal Social Stats, including best ways to increase Knowledge, Guts, Proficiency, Kindness and Charm

Why increasing Social Stats in Persona 5 Royal is important

If you're diligent about pursuing Social Links with each confidant, there will come a point at which you need a certain Social Stat to progress their storyline. Sometimes, you won't be able to make a deal with a character at all before you don't have the required stat.

Iwai, the owner of the Airsoft Shop for example, requires Dauntless Guts until you can start his Social Link and, by extension, use the gun customisation feature. Diligent student council president Makoto won't even look your way until you've got Scholarly Knowledge. Other Social Links can’t be progressed further until you hit a certain level, and rank 7 for Sojiro requires maximum kindness.

So in order to enjoy Persona 5 Royal to the fullest, you'll have to put a bit of extra work in - thankfully there are many ways available to quickly raise your stats by participating in all kinds of side activities, and we’re here to tell you how to raise these quickly to avoid wasting days.

New ways to increase Knowledge, Guts, Proficiency, Kindness, Charm in Persona 5 Royal

Persona 5 Royal introduces many new features - including ways to spend your free time and, in turns, increase your social stats:

Reading and cleaning at Leblanc

Previously, it could take time to fully develop your social stats in the original Persona 5, because many options weren’t available each and every day. In Persona 5 Royal, you can work on your Social Stats even if Morgana doesn't let you leave the house, thanks to more options to read and study at Leblanc after hours.

If you want to do Sojiro a favour, you can now look at the bathroom at the café and decide to help clean. This will go towards your Kindness and if he’s there, you can boost your confidant rank with Sojiro by one point. Not only does this make your guardian happy, it goes a long way towards completing his Social Link.

Studying at the School Library

Until you beat Kaneshiro's palace, studying at the school library will raise both Knowledge and Guts, but as people are whispering about you there, the gain in Guts comes at the cost of a Knowledge point. After May 2nd, it's back to just gaining Knowledge.

Spending time with your Confidants

You can also gain Social Stat points while you're hanging out with one of your Confidants. As an example, spending time with Iwai grants two Proficiency points, while Kindness is boosted upon advancing through Social Link ranks with Sojiro. This was previously limited to a few characters only, such as Guts with Tae Takemi, the clinic doctor.

Easier access to DVDs

The DVD rental also now charges you a one-time fee for the entire year instead of charging you late fees, which helps with getting the two settings that are required to finish a film and actually get the points. Like with library books, there's one new film per stat available each semester.

Playing video games

Video games certainly make you smart, and you can now also boost Social Stats by playing games on your retro console. This is available after you beat Futaba's palace and unlock Akihabara. You can find the console at the second-hand shop in Yongen-Jaya, the retro game shop in Akihabara provides the games, each of which raises a different Social Stat.

Best ways to increase Knowledge, Guts, Proficiency, Kindness, Charm in Persona 5 Royal

With the new stuff in mind - which methods are best to increase your Social Stats? Let's go through them one by one:

Guts

Guts can be a bit tricky to raise as the only consistently available method are books, DVDs, and games. Until you beat it, you can take the Big Bang Burger Challenge which costs between 1,200-1,800 yen and also raises Knowledge and Charm, if successful. Each visit with Takemi at the clinic will net you Guts for participating in her shady trial, too. If you eat the Surprise Sando at the Diner while studying, your Guts and Knowledge both rise.

Charm

Charm can be increased by taking a bath in the bathhouse. If you save that for a Monday or Thursday you'll gain 3 points of Charm here instead of 2. The Shibuya Diner will start serving Frui-Tea when the heatwave hits in August, which earns you a point of Charm (in addition to two or three points of Knowledge).

Doing well in your exams can also grant Charm, but you'll need to rank up your Knowledge first - your score is partly based on how well you answered the questions, but also partly on your base Knowledge score.

Meeting with Ohya at Crossroads makes you charming, and fans of Yusuke can kill two birds with one stone during the summer holidays: spend time with him when he comes to visit you at Leblanc, and you gain charm for partaking in sophisticated activities such as reading art books and watching documentaries together.

Knowledge

The easiest way to gain a steady amount of Knowledge is just by answering questions correctly in class - of which we have a list of Persona 5 Royal test answers to help. That’s useful because Knowledge requires more points than other stats to level up, maxing out at 192 points compared to Kindess’ 136 points, which is the second highest. You can also gain a point by completing the crossword puzzle when available.

Otherwise, you study at Leblanc in the evening. If the café still has customers, listen to their conversation once or twice to make them leave, then you get to have the booth all to yourself. For Social Links, play shogi with Hifumi in Kanda for extra smarts. Ahead of exams, some friends will likely ask you to study with them. If you meet up for such a study session, you get three Knowledge points, alongside making your friends happy.

Proficiency

Crafting in your room will earn two or three Proficiency points - the exact amount is random, but the higher your Proficiency skill the more likely you are to get the extra point. It's also likely to increase on rainy days when you're able to craft extra tools.

Taking the part-time job at the Beef Bowl in Shibuya not only earns Proficiency, but also pays reasonably well. Or you can try your luck at the Batting Cages but be careful, there's no guarantee you'll get anything from that!

Spending time with Iwai at the Airsoft Shop during Social Links also raises Proficiency.

Kindness

Feeding the plant in your room with Bio Nutrients, available at the shop next to the cinema in Shibuya, earns one point, and the more expensive Organic Nutrients from the flower shop earn two, but this can only be done once every couple of weeks. So, your best bet is to take the part-time job at the Flower Shop in Shibuya Underground Mall which provides a reliable source.

You also earn Kindness cleaning Leblanc for Sojiro, which you can do every evening after the customers leave, or by brewing coffee and making curry. Helping Sojiro out during his Social Link also makes you kinder. The same is true for visiting Shinya at the arcade in Akihabara. However, this social link is only available upon finishing the Mementos request 'Winners Never Cheat'. Eat the steak made with love at the diner while studying at the diner for extra Kindness.

Things to look out for to quickly increase Knowledge, Guts, Proficiency, Kindness, Charm in Persona 5 Royal

Here are some other methods to increase social stats quickly:

Get new books

Per completed semester a new book unlocks at the bookstore in Shibuya. With each new Phantom Thief that joins your team, there is also a new book available at the school library.

Persona 5 Royal introduces a book on speed-reading which you can get in Shibuya after the summer holidays. It allows you to finish a book in one go that you would usually sit down twice with, so make sure you obtain this as soon as possible. Once you unlock Jimbocho, you can also get more books there. These are, however, a bit dry and take three attempts to finish.

You can read a book whenever you get a free seat on the train, when you slack off in class, or during any evening at Leblanc by looking at the stack of books on the counter by the pay phone.

Raise Social Stats on busy days at your part-time jobs

Once you've got a part-time job at the flower shop, the convenience store, the beef bowl shop, or the Crossroads bar, you’ll get texts on certain days when your help is sorely needed. Not only do you get more money on these days, Persona 5 Royal also now tests your skill for extra Social Stat points.

Previously, you only gained a little extra Kindness for picking the right bouquets at the flower shop and extra Charm for handling visitors at Crossroads. Now you also get extra Charm for scanning barcodes the right way at the convenience store and extra Proficiency for remembering orders at the beef bowl shop.

The hints are always in the text, as long as you don't skip anything you can't get this wrong.

Take the Big Bang Challenge

Big Bang Burger in Shibuya lets you take a challenge that can earn you Guts, Knowledge, Charm, and Proficiency if you win. Participating costs 2000 yen. The lower your existing Guts score the less chance you have of success, but should you succeed, it's a good small boost for most stats. If you lose, that’s unfortunate, but you will still earn Guts for having made the attempt.

Slack off in class

From the second rank of the Temperance arcana onwards, which you build with your teacher Kawakami, Joker can sometimes slack off in class. You can read one of your books, make infiltration tools, sleep, or simply follow the lecture. Actually listening to your teacher nets you three Knowledge points, whereas for the other available activities, you gain the same amount of points as usual.

Drink juice or watch a movie with friends

You can get a stat boost from watching a movie or by drinking juice from the stand in Shibuya Underground Walkway on a Sunday; the affected stat changes each time so they're less useful for building one in particular, but juice drinking doesn't cause the time to pass and movies can boost your Confidant Rank with Yosuke, Ryuji, Makoto, or Ann, so they're worth bearing in mind.

Have fun increasing your Social Stats in Persona 5 Royal!