Persona 3 Portable

As the first playthrough is all about maxing your social qualities, you’re going to want to go hard on this from day 1. It’s likely you’ll be able to max this out well before the end of the year, leaving you plenty of time to do a load of Social Links as well. And the good news is, because most of this happens at night, when the male main character only has 2 Social Links to concentrate on, you can literally do Social Links in the day, with some odd social qualities level building, and then just focus on them at night.

You’ll likely do Charm and Courage fairly quickly (as they only need 100 and 80 points respectively), but Academics will take a while (as it needs 230 points!). 

The 3 social qualities and the best way to level them up is as follows:

• Academics
  • Quiz Show game in Paulownia Mall’s Game Parade arcades on Wednesday and Saturday.
• Charm
  • Print Club game in Paulownia Mall’s Game Parade arcades on Monday and Thursday.
• Courage
  • Horror House game in Paulownia Mall’s Game Parade arcades on Tuesday and Friday.

The arcades can be accessed day and night for massive boosts as well. There are other ways to boost everything as well, but those three are the best. That said, it costs a bit of yen, which you might not have in the early days. So, if you need money and want to up for stats, try the following: 

• Be Blue V - Working here in the day on Monday - Friday will earn you 4,500 yen and boost Academics and Charm.
• Chagall Cafe - Working here at night on Monday - Weds will earn you 3,500 yen and boost Charm and Courage.
• Screen Shot -  Working here in the day will earn you 5,000 yen and boost Academics and Courage.

There are also other ways to raise your social stats in Persona 3 Portable, for instance:

• You can take medicine at the Nurse’s Office at school when you’re sick or tired to raise Courage.
• You can raise Academics by studying in the library in the day, or studying at your desk in your room at night. You’ll also increase Academics if you “Stay awake” in class and get answers correct. Helping Junpei answer questions right, and getting high scores on your tests will boost your Charm.
• You can donate money at the Offertory Box in the Naganaki Shrine to increase your Academics. If you’re in a “Great” mood, you’ll get a bigger boost.
• You can watch a movie at Screen Shot at Port Island Station and boost social stats (Monday & Tuesday will boost Courage, Wednesday and Thursday will boost Charm, and Friday to Sunday boosts Academics).
• Eating the Mystery Burger at Wild-duck Burger in the Iwatodai Strip Mall in the daytime will boost Courage.
• Eating the Prodigy Platter at the Wakatsu Restaurant in the Iwatodai Strip Mall (2F) in the daytime will boost Academics.
• Eating the Pork ramen at Hagakure Ramen in the Iwatodai Strip Mall (2F) in the daytime will boost Charm.
• Singing karaoke at night at Mandragora in the Paulownia Mall boosts Courage.
• Drinking coffee at night at the Chagall Cafe boosts your Charm.

As we said though: focus on the Game Parade arcade games first if you have the money, they’re a bigger boost than all the other acts. The other activities are helpful if a.) you need money; b.) don’t need the specific social stat boost from the arcade that day.