Persona 3 Portable

Ahhh, the infamous “max out all Social Links” achievement. Another staple in the Persona franchise in years gone by. Firstly, let’s run through a few quick tips and questions that might arise from this achievement.
 

• Firstly, yes, it is all in one run. I know this because I failed in another run, and had to do another New Game Plus.
• Secondly, this doesn’t mean all the different Social Links in the game (male and female), it just means what’s accessible to the player on that current run.
• And lastly, before we talk about strategy, this is incredibly tight. There isn’t a lot of wiggle room, and you absolutely must do it on your second and female runthrough for two reasons: 1. You’lll have maxed out social stats; 2. The female playthrough has kinder Social Links, thanks to the fact that more than 2, which the male character has, actually take place at night.

Right, so now that’s out the way, let’s talk about absolute essentials if you want to try and get this without having to consult a day-by-day guide.
 

• Absolutely always have a Persona with you that corresponds to the Social Link you’re trying to advance. If you’re trying to advance Yukari, for instance, have an Alp or a Pixie with you (anything from the Lovers Arcana).
• Do not accept phone calls on a Sunday. I foolishly did this and wasted so much time in my failed Social Link run.
• Social Link points do not stack. If a character is ready to level up their Social Link, any points earned towards them at that point are wasted.
• If a school friend comes to visit you at lunchtime, asking whether you’ll see them after school, that means their Social Link is ready to level up.
• Don’t waste free time on a school day on characters that don’t go to your school (i.e. the old couple, Akinari, Maiko etc.). Because of exams, and holidays, it’s imperative that you use all the school time for them.
• Use days off, time before exams, or when there’s no-one else around, to advance the aforementioned none school member Social Links.
• Some characters don’t need a corresponding Persona for them to level up: namely the Devil and Sun.
• Some Social Links are unlocked within other Social Links. They are as follows:
  • The Devil, for instance, is one of those, in that you need to get to Hermit level 4 and speak to Saori in the corridor outside your classroom. 
  • You’ll unlock Sun by getting to level 3 of the Hanged Man Social Link. And then getting the fountain pen from Koromaru when he joins the team on August 15th.
  • To start Temperance, you need to meet Bebe in the Hierophant Social Link (the old couple) at level 3.
    • Quick note: Start Bebe’s Social Link before the third full moon or he disappears for good.
  • After getting Chariot Social Link level 3, speak to Rio in the hallway outside the classroom and she’ll mention the monk, who is the Tower Social Link.
• To get access to Mitsuru’s Social Link on November 22nd, you’ll have to have been 1st in your class in an exam.
• To start Koromaru’s Social Link, you need to get the “dog food” from Fuuka’s Social Link.
• To start the Hanged Man Social Link, you need to buy Mad Bull from the vending machine on the 2F in the Dorms, and Weird Takoyaki from the stand in the Iwatodai Strip Mall.
• Sundays at a certain point are for visiting the Fortune Box at the Shrine to advance relationships with school friends (and SEES members). 
• Lastly, but by far the most important note is: there are a couple of Social Links that are incredibly time sensitive. Ryoji, for instance, if you miss one event, you won’t reach rank 10. And Shinjiro is only around for 1 calendar month.
• Further to the above, December and January should be mostly about maxing out Mitsuru and Aigis.

Those are the main tips. Let’s talk about availability. Below is a general calendar of when you’ll be able to speak to people, broken up into day and night. All the names are mentioned, but a lot of them need to be met in the story first, like Fuuka, Mitsuru and Aigis. We’ve also separated out key dates for when you can start some of Social Links that aren’t readily obvious, and also got 2 key categories on the two majorly missable Social Links (Ryoji and Shinjiro).

Day Schedule:
M - Rio (Gym), Student Council, Maiko, Akihiko, Fuuka
T - Junpei, Yukari, Bebe, Saori, Ryoji
W - Rio, Student Council, Bebe, Maiko
T - Junpei, Saori, Ryoji, Fuuka
F - Rio, Student Council, Bebe, Akihiko, Yukari
S - Old Couple (every day except Monday), Maiko, Fuuka
S - Old Couple, Dying Man (Akinari)

Night Schedule:
M - Shinjiro, Koromaru
T - Tanaka, Ken
W - Shinjiro
T - Tanaka, Monk, Ken
F - Monk. Shinjiro
S - Monk, Shinjiro, Tanaka, Koromaru
S - Monk, Koromaru

Key dates to start Social Links:
Young Girl - 6th May
Fuuka - 15th June
Koromaru - 15th August
Ken - 1st Sept
Shinjiro - 7th Sept
Akihiko - October 5th (reopens up)
Ryoji - November 9th
Mitsuru - November 21st
Aigis - 8th Jan (Mon to Sat availability)

Shinjiro Social Link:
With Shinjiro, you should attempt to speak to him at every opportunity in the Dorms. Literally every night from September 7th - most nights he won’t be around to do things, but it’s worth trying anyway. You should be able to finish with 4 days to spare if you speak to him every chance you get.  Then, you can grab the pocket watch from the police station on the 29th, after achieving rank 9 on the evening of the 28th, and then speak to him on the 30th, before the full moon event on October 4th. It’s tight, but not as tight as…

Ryoji Social Link:
With Ryoji, you have 10 chances to do 10 links. You miss one, and that’s it, you’ll miss him. So, the dates for all 10 events are as follows.
Level 1 - November 9th - Social Link starts automatically.
Level 2 - November 12th - Ranks up automatically after train ride.
Level 3 - November 13th - Speak to him after school.
Level 4 - November 15th - Speak to him after school. Say “I’d be totally up for it” to date at the end.
Level 5 - November 19th - Event automatically happens if you agreed to it on the 15th. Say “Okay” to the next date at the end.
Level 6 - November 22nd - Event automatically happens if you agreed on the 19th.
Level 7 - November 27th - Event automatically happens.
Level 8  - November 29th - Agree to go out with him when he phones.
Level 9 - December 1st - Speak to him after school.
Max - December 31st - Social Link will max out, if you decide to be a pacifist.

General Notes:
Finally, it should be noted that August and December don’t have a massive amount of Social Link days (due to exams and holidays), so don’t rely on them to get you through. Also, September is massive for the female main character, with so many day and night Social Links to fly through.

If you want to compare how you’re doing to a successful run. By the end of September, I had 144 levels completed of the 220 you need (including the mandatory ones like the Fool and Death, which were still at ranks 5 and 6 respectively), and by the end of October I had 164 (with 12 completed S-Links), to give you an indication of where you should be. I was pretty much done with all but Ryoji, Mitsuru (starts later) and Aigis (January) by the school trip in  the middle of November. December and January are all about Mitsuru and Aigis, so take that into account.

And if all else fails, you can follow this excellent day-by-day breakdown by penguin knight, from way back when.