The Tome of Atrophy and Deviant Convict are a Tartarus boss double-act in Persona 3 Reload. You’ll encounter them on floor 90 (90F), which is in the Yabbashah block. Now all you need to know is what their weaknesses are—if they even have any
I found this to be the hardest battle in the game up to this point, and the Deviant Convict proved to be the very first Persona 3 Reload enemy to kill me. More than once, in fact. But there is an effective strategy to employ here, and for once it isn’t about exploiting weaknesses.
What are the weaknesses of the floor 90 boss, Tome of Atrophy and Deviant Convict?
The Tome of Atrophy is weak to Fire damage and Resistant to Electric damage, which is good to know. But the Tome of Atrophy isn’t the main threat here. The Deviant Convict is the only one of these two enemies that actually does any damage, but it does a lot. Unfortunately, the Deviant Convict has no weaknesses, so you can’t easily knock it down. It has no resistances or immunities either. But doing damage isn’t the key here. The trick is to survive one devastating attack.
How to beat the floor 90 boss, Tome of Atrophy and Deviant Convict, in Person 3 Reload
The first thing I’ll say is that your party loadout can really matter here. After losing the fight a coupIe of times, I chose Junpei, Mitsuru, and Aigis. Junpei’s Fire damage can knock down the Tome of Atrophy. Mitsuru’s Ice attacks can sometimes freeze one of the enemies, allowing you an easy critical hit. And the most important party member is Aigis, whose Dekunda skill will allow you to nullify the Tome of Atrophy’s debuffs.
As for your Leader’s Personas, buying or fusing any that can do Fire damage will be good, as well as any that are resistant to Strike damage. You definitely don’t want one that’s weak to Strike damage. You’ll quickly die.
Begin the fight by killing off the Tome of Atrophy as quickly as possible, using Fire and anything else besides Electric attacks. Whenever it casts its debugs on your party, use Aigis’ Dekunda to nullify them. Don’t worry, you can still do enough damage with the other three. Once the Tome of Atrophy is dead, switch to your Strike-resistant Persona if you have one.
Next, the most important part. Pay close attention to what the Deviant Convict is doing. It’s using its turns to buff itself and to charge a really powerful Herculean Blow attack, so watch the top left of the screen for the following notification:
- Deviant Convict’s power is fully charged!
After you see that message, it’s absolutely essential that you Guard with every single party member. Any character that doesn’t Guard simply won’t survive the Herculean Blow. But if every character Guards, they should come out of it with about 25 percent to 50 percent HP.
Following the Herculean Blow, the Deviant Convict will be exhausted, and won’t do anything for a few turns, which should be enough time to kill it off before it charges another attack. I didn’t even bother healing until after the battle, just to make sure I finished it off as quickly as possible.
