Persona 5 Royal

This achievement ties to the boss of the Pyramid Palace, a flying Sphinx creature whose head is that of Wakaba Isshiki, the mother of Futaba Sakura.

In contrast to the three previous Palace bosses, cognitive Wakaba stands out with being an impressive damage sponge, as she boasts the highest bank of HP so far at 11,000 HP. She also carries a good array of medium to very high damage attacks, ranging from physical attacks like Slam to one party member and Wind elemental Wing Blast to all party members, to a Sphinx Dive attack that can put Joker and co. out of commission and impose Game Over on you, but thankfully always comes after a Rapid Ascent, offering a window of 1 to 3 turns for which you can prepare your party through defense stat buff spells and/or Guard. She can also impose Dizzy and Despair statuses through the aforementioned Wing Blast as well as Dreadful Scream, respectively. It's very important to remove the latter status from any party member ASAP, as they'll die immediately upon their third turn the spell is imposed on. This can be done either with the Energy Shower spell from Makoto that is unlocked upon her reaching level 27, or by using the Relax Gel item that can be purchased for 900 yen each from the Takemi Medical Clinic in Yongen-Jaya. The Dizzy status can be removed with Morgana's Patra and Me Patra spells (covering one member and the entire party respectively) as well as the Wide Eye Drops item that can be bought for 200 yen a pop at the Aohige Drug Store in Shibuya's Central Street. For these reasons, it's well recommended to have both Morgana and Makoto in your party, and also worth noting that the former is resistant to Wind attacks. For the last party member it's best to choose Ann, as she has a Tarunda spell that can lower an enemy's attack stat, and she can also be the person to pick to man the Ballista arrow cannon where Wakaba can be taken down to the top of the pyramid and give your party an open window of two turns to issue physical attacks, an option not possible while she's in flight.

At the start of your battle, Wakaba will be in flight. Only gun and SP attacks can damage her in this state, so use your first couple of turns however you wish, after that she will make Rapid Ascent, for which she will issue her most powerful attack that is Sphinx Dive on her following turn, so apply Guard to all your party members. After you endure the attack, go through another turn with your party before a long cutscene comes in, where the truth of Wakaba's death is revealed from the cognitive Futaba to her real-world self, and from there Futaba confronts the cognitive form of her mother, and that's where her Persona is revealed in the form of a UFO with alien-like tentacles named Necronomicon.

Before the battle resumes, Wakaba will try another Sphinx Dive, but Futaba with her newfound power puts it to great use, putting a reflection barrier over her team and where Wakaba takes all the damage instead. You'll get a prompt before this how you respond with Futaba's assurance, but the option you pick won't affect the outcome. There will be two instances however where Wakaba berates Futaba for choosing the Phantom Thieves over her, and your responses will determine whether Wakaba either succeeds in a subsequent heavy attack or sustains heavy damage as a result of repels from Futaba. But for now, Futaba will point out the Ballista arrow cannon behind the party, and you'll get a prompt whether you decide it's time to send a member to man the cannon. Press for Yes and select Ann. You will need a couple of turns before she'll fire the arrow that brings Wakaba aground and you can unload your strongest moves. After your turn, the first instance where you'll need to make the correct choice of responses take place. Your choices should be "That's not true." and "You're a fake". After these, Futaba will successfully rebel Wakaba's attack, and you'll get one more turn before the Ballista cannon fires. Use that opportunity to debuff Wakaba's defense and/or bolster your party's attack stats. Go through your turn, then the Ballista cannon fires, and Wakaba will be atop the pyramid, unable to do anything for a couple of turns. If you've done everything right, you should have her health bar down to nearly halfway empty. After a couple of turns, Wakaba will take flight again. Remember too that you can keep applying debuffs to Wakaba's defense+buffs to party's attack stats every few turns: There's one last trump card in Wakaba's sleeve from her moveset called Megidoalon, an Almighty-type attack that can potentially wipe your whole party out. This is only carried out if your fight drags on for too long, but using the support skills strategy will wipe these concerns away, not to mention make this battle end faster. Keep using SP attacks and any gun moves you still have available until you get the HP bar down to around 20% filled, and the second instance of responses will pop up. This time, the correct responses are "You're wrong" and "We've Got Her Back." Once Futaba makes another repel, you'll get the prompt again to have a party member man the Ballista. Select Yes and choose Ann once more. Again, you'll need a couple of more turns before the Ballista fires and Wakaba is brought aground, by this point her HP count should be low enough you can finish her off in this state. You'll know you've reached the end when you enter a "Hold Up" sequence with Joker pointing his gun at Wakaba and you'll get a choice how to respond to Wakaba's sentiment towards you. It'll hold no impact on the fate of the battle, so respond however you like, and Futaba will give you the order to fire by pressing , and Wakaba will take the bullet and go tumbling down the pyramid to the very bottom, battle ends!

Like all the other Palace related achievements in the game, this achievement won't unlock immediately after defeating Wakaba, but instead when you reach the deadline date for events that you'd otherwise face the end of your game if your Palace treasure raid isn't carried out. For this instance it's when you reach 8/21, when Medjed is supposed to carry out their threat against the Phantom Thieves, only for Futaba to thwart this attempt with her hacking skills. After she finishes her work on that date, the achievement should pop on-screen!