Persona 4 Golden

*MISSABLE*

It wouldn’t be a Persona game if its achievement list didn’t have a “Max out all Social Links” achievement. This kind of meticulous planning is at the core of Persona’s gameplay, so it makes sense to include something like this. Plus, it’ll unlock the amazing Izanagi-no-Okami, which will help you defeat Margaret too.

The best news with this one though, compared to Persona 3 Portable, the timetable isn’t as strict. In fact, there’s not only a load more time and less wasted days to get this done, but there’s also some different mechanics.

Firstly, Persona 4 introduces the whole “you feel your relationship with _____ is going to become closer soon” or “you feel your relationship will deepen” before you start a Social Link event. This is great because it means you can plan when everything is going to level up. That means you won’t “waste” a day just spending time with them. And you’ll also know what Social Link you’ll need to pray for at the Shrine.

Because this is your second playthrough, you’ll hopefully have already unlocked Compulsive Reader (10G), as well as maxing out your social stats, which means you’ll have an incredible amount of free time in the evenings to do that. 

So, first things first, let’s run you through a lot of rules you need to adhere to:
 

• Always have a corresponding Persona of the Arcana you want to upgrade on you. So, if you want to level up Rise Kujikawa, you’ll need a Persona of the Lovers Arcana on you.
• There are 23 Social Links in all:
  • 8 party members (Teddie levels up as part of the story)
  • 2 Velvet Room (Marie and Margaret)
  • 2 school clubs (Sports and Cultural)
  • 3 part-time job Social Links (hospital janitor, tutor and the day care)
  • 2 you meet during other things (level 4 of Sports is Ai; while level 4 of the hospital job is Hisano)
  • 1 random school friend (Naoki), who you need to speak to at school to start the link
  • 3 family members & associates (Nanako, Dojima and Adachi)
  • 2 story-related ones (Fool and Judgment)
  • And the fox. Yes, the fox... from the Shrine.
• Don’t finish one link before moving on to the next, try and spread your time evenly, where possible, as you might need to see Yumi on a day when it rains, and you can’t if you’ve already maxed her out.
• If someone comes to see you at lunchtime, that means their Social Link is about to level up.
• Try and finish top of the class for your exams, to give all your school friends an SL boost.
• Focus on non-Investigation Team school friends as early as you can, as you can always focus on teammates during the holidays, while you can’t with Ai, Ayane/Yumi, Daisuke/Kou, etc.
• In Persona 4 Golden, if you get a phone call on a weekend, this time around you can actually level up a Social Link. This doesn’t mean every time, so save often to see whether it was a waste of your time.
• Because you have evenings free, that means you can use the Shrine to boost friendship levels, or even better, create a perfect boxed lunch from the fridge, which again, only advances time in the evenings.
• Save before you use the Shrine, and if you don’t like the outcome, i.e. a “small blessing,” then reload and try again until you get at a minimum a “mild blessing,” but ideally a “great blessing.” You can’t, however, get fortunes on rainy days.
• Sports clubs don’t meet in the rain.
• Social Links can still be done on weekends, which wasn’t the case in Persona 3.
• You can boost Social Link advancement in evenings if the relevant person is out in the game world - a lot of them hang around the Shopping District.
• There are no school friend Social Links before exams, so use this time to work on job Social Links and the Hermit (AKA the fox).
• Certain jobs have Social Links:
  • Daycare job starts Social Link with Eri Minani after 2 visits.
  • Tutor starts S-Link with Shu Nakajima.
  • The Janitor job at the hospital unlocks the Devil S-Link with Sayoko Uehara after 2 visits.
• Get the Devil Social Link to level 4 and you’ll meet the Death Arcana Social Link with Hisano Kuroda, who can now be found by the river.
• Get to level 4 in the Strength Social Link to meet Ai Ebihara, and talk to her after meeting her when at school (if you want to pursue a romantic interest long-term, don’t become her boyfriend at rank 6).
• Make sure you don’t break the Ai Social Link, which you can if you pursue a short-term relationship with her - there is a choice that can break the Social Link, so avoid that.
• Margaret’s Social Link involves making certain Personas for her. Use Skill Cards and your Compendium to make them.
• The Fox is a great way to spend rainy days, where Social Links are slim pickings (starts automatically on May 5th). So, make sure the Quests are all ready to hand in on rainy days.
• Also, clubs, like the drama club (AKA Yumi), are worth saving for rainy days too.
• Save the Scooter excursions for a rainy day too.
• To start Naoki Konishi’s Social Link, after the event with him on June 8th, speak to him 2 further times in the 1F corridor to start the S-Link.
• The three most important links to focus on in the early days are: Adachi, Nanako and Dojima.
• Maintaing the garden when both Nanako & Dojima are there boosts both of their ranks.
• You need to get Adachi to level 6 by November 1st (ranks 7-10 are all automatic).
• Adachi can be found on the following dates: 
  • May 13th, 20th, 23rd, 27th and 30th.
  • June 5th, 10th, 11th, 15th (night), 26th and 28th.
  • July 2nd, 4th, 5th, 12th, 14th, 24th and 25th.
  • August 25th.
  • September 1st, 19th, 20th, 21st, 23rd, 24th, 27th and 30th.
  • October 6th, 12th, 21st, 24th and 26th.
  • November 1st.
• Provided you don’t get the bad endings, February 5th is the last day for Social Links.

Right, let’s now look at availability. As a disclaimer, these aren’t 100%. There will be things like the weather, the case, exams, and such, that will affect whether these people turn up. And this list isn’t exclusive either. It’s best to start all the links as early as possible, to get boosts from things like exams, and various other crossover interactions.

Day:
M - Yosuke, Cultural Club, Yukiko, Chie, Naoto, Naoki, Eri
T - Sports, Cultural Club, Chie, Yukiko, Naoto, Naoki
W - Marie, Yukiko, Kanji, Naoto, Ai, Naoki, Marie
T - Sports, Cultural Club, Chie, Yosuke, Kanji, Ai, Naoki
F - Yosuke, Chie, Rise, Ai, Eri
S - Sports, Yosuke, Chie, Rise, Kanji, Naoto, Marie, Eri
S - Yosuke (at Junes), Marie, Rise, Chie (Shopping District), Kanji, Naoto, Marie*

*Marie will be available a load of other days too, especially holidays. Once you reach Magatsu Inaba, Marie will be available everyday until December 23rd.

Night:
M - **
T - Tutor
W - Hospital
T - Tutor, Hospital
F - Hospital
S - Tutor
S - **

**Dojima and Nanako are available in the evenings too (the day varies from one to the next), but there is seemingly no set pattern, so just look out for them in the living room of the Dojima Residence in the evenings.
It’s absolutely possible to do this without a guide, if all you’re working on is Social Links. While I failed in my first attempt with Persona 3 Portable, my first attempt at this in this game was accomplished with some ease. If you do want to use a guide, however, check out this day-by-day guide.