Palace Walkthroughs#

Palaces are mazes congealed from corrupted adults’ desires in the cognitive world, and the stage for the Phantom Thieves’ operations: infiltrate, find the Treasure, send the Calling Card, complete the theft — and the real-world person publicly confesses. The game has eight Palaces in total — the original’s seven main-story ones plus the cognitive science research institute added in Royal’s third semester. This page lists each Palace’s open window, deadline, mechanic highlights, and boss strategy in infiltration order.

Two ground rules first: dates and crimes follow the in-game prompts, and missing any Palace’s deadline declares the operation failed and interrupts the playthrough; all “suggested days” below are first-playthrough rules of thumb — the official side has never set a time limit per Palace, and there is no such thing as a difficulty rating.

Progression Rules: Infiltration, Calling Cards, and Deadlines#

Every Palace follows the same three-stage rhythm:

1. Infiltrate and explore: Enter the Palace once the story unlocks it, push to the Treasure’s floor, and open Safe Rooms along the way.
2. Send the Calling Card: Once you reach the Treasure’s floor, send the card at a moment of your choice; sending it consumes that day’s slot, and the heist officially begins the next day.
3. The heist showdown: Before the deadline, defeat the guardians and steal the Treasure. Miss it and the operation is declared failed — reload and retry.

So at each Palace, step one is confirming the deadline, then back-planning exploration and Confidant schedules. All eight Palaces’ windows and deadlines are summarized below:

“Suggested days” means compressing exploration into a few free-action days on a first playthrough — use them for scheduling reference only; the cruise ship, the longest run, is worth an extra day.

Mechanics Common to All Palaces#

Security Level and Ambushes#

When a Shadow spots the Thieves, it raises the security level and calls allies more frequently. Hiding behind cover and ambushing from behind starts the fight with the “player acts first” advantage while keeping the whole floor’s stealth risk low; once spotted, breaking line of sight immediately is cheaper than fighting it out.

Safe Rooms and Supplies#

In Royal, every Palace has Safe Rooms along the route where you can save and briefly regroup. Prioritize finding Safe Rooms on entering a new area, and tune the party’s condition before boss fights. If you get stuck, you can lower the difficulty in-game at any time — it affects no ending or trophy eligibility.

Grappling Hook and Guns#

The Grappling Hook is a Royal-new traversal tool that latches onto hook points to reach platforms that would otherwise take a detour, easing both exploration and escapes. Gun ammo refills automatically after every battle, so unlike the original there’s no need to ration — shoot whenever it helps.

Will Seeds#

Every Palace hides three Will Seed crystals in side paths and puzzle areas. Collecting all three summons a rare Shadow (a Treasure Demon) guarding them; defeating it yields rich rewards themed on that Palace. Will Seeds carry no heist deadline — you can revisit to grab them even after the Treasure is stolen, so don’t delay the story for them.

The one special case is Palace eight: Maruki’s Palace Will Seeds cannot be handed to Mementos’ Jose that playthrough for story reasons — you must carry the third-semester clear save into a New Game Plus to complete the delivery. Grab every crystal you see in the third semester; don’t leave them behind.

Palace 1: Kamoshida’s Castle (April)#

Representing sin: Lust (Castle of Lust), corresponding to the castle-type Palace listed among the silver and hidden trophies.

• Pacing: First infiltration on April 12 with the story — the game’s tutorial Palace. Two story-forced infiltrations cover basic combat and stealth training before free exploration opens. Send the Calling Card by May 1 at the latest; the operation deadline is May 2.
• Boss fight: Shadow Kamoshida. The game’s first proper boss and heavily tutorializing: the full loop of weakness hits, downing, 1MORE, and Baton Pass (Baton Pass) first pays off here. Morgana handles healing and Wind attacks; Ann’s Fire attacks carry the damage.
• Scheduling note: Tutorial segments are fixed story days; leave two to three days for free exploration. Three Will Seeds are scattered across the cell block and side paths on the castle’s floors.

Palace 2: Madarame’s Museum (May)#

Representing sin: Vanity (Museum of Vanity).

• Pacing: Unlocks in early May with the story. Exhibits are locked behind keycard zones — collect the cards to advance area by area; the Palace’s Shadows mostly take artistic forms, and negotiation rewards include many Personas usable as Fusion material.
• Boss fight: Shadow Madarame. He shifts forms mid-fight and tries to inflict ailments on the party — ailment-cure items become worth stocking from this fight on; after each form change, re-run the Analyze command to confirm affinities rather than keep attacking on the previous phase’s assumptions. After the fight, Yusuke Kitagawa joins the Thieves, adding an Ice attacker to the lineup.
• Scheduling note: Deadline June 5; two to three days suggested for exploration.

Palace 3: Kaneshiro’s Bank (June)#

Representing sin: Gluttony (Bank of Gluttony).

• Pacing: Unlocks in June; the Palace is a downtown bank. Each area’s gates need passwords, with clues hidden in memo graffiti inside the Palace and in the numbers tattooed on Kaneshiro — jot down every note and number on sight to avoid repeat trips to the doors.
• Boss fight: Shadow Kaneshiro. A compound fight against the giant vault and the man himself: the vault form is hard to dent directly, while the body is the real threat; the ATM cognitions that appear mid-fight disrupt your rhythm — dismantle them opportunistically without overcommitting. It runs long, so recovery and SP management matter more than burst; Ryuji’s Electric attacks have wide applicability in this Palace.
• Scheduling note: Deadline July 9, close to exam period — leave buffer in your schedule.

Palace 4: The Pyramid (July)#

Representing sin: Wrath (Pyramid of Wrath).

• What makes it special: The only Palace of the eight whose “ruler is not a corrupted adult.” The Palace belongs to Futaba Sakura herself — she trapped herself inside a pyramid of self-blame, and the goal is to rescue her, not reform her; the guardian deep inside is a cognitive image of her mother, Wakaba Isshiki.
• Pacing: Unlocks in July, with August’s summer break as a full clear window. The Palace is dense with mechanisms, including direction-adjusting lasers and tripwire alarms — retry mechanisms a few times before moving; forcing through only raises the security level.
• Boss fight: Wakaba Isshiki’s cognition. The guardian leans on powerful all-target attacks, so Guard commands and healing chains matter more than in earlier fights; the battle advances in step with Futaba’s emotional breakthrough, and at its climax she awakens her Persona and rejoins, completing the team’s intel and support core.
• Scheduling note: Deadline August 31; two to three days suggested for exploration.

Palace 5: The Spaceport (September)#

Representing sin: Greed (Spaceport of Greed).

• Ruler: Kunikazu Okumura, a zaibatsu chairman who treats employees as consumables; the Palace is a space station floating in the cognitive world.
• Pacing: Unlocks in September. Progress runs on conveyor belts switching areas, with heavy forced battles and high SP drain — bring plenty of recovery and supplies.
• Boss fight: Shadow Okumura. Famous for consecutive robot wave battles with a turn limit — robots not cleared in time self-destruct en masse, threatening the whole party, making it one of the least forgiving fights in the story. The wave battle’s core question is “who Batons to whom next wave”: never burn all SP and strong skills in one wave. Haru joins in this chapter, adding Psy and Gun attacks; Makoto’s Nuclear attacks are broadly useful in this fight. Bring everyone to full condition before engaging.
• Scheduling note: Deadline October 11; two to three days suggested, with a prep day before the wave battle.

Palace 6: The Casino (October)#

Representing sin: Envy (Casino of Jealousy).

• Ruler: Sae Niijima, the prosecutor hunting the Phantom Thieves.
• Pacing: Unlocks in October. This is the only main-story Palace that doesn’t end in a Shadow showdown: the climax is seeing through a rigged gamble and sprinting out of the casino with classified data under alarm — a timed escape. Infiltration pressure comes from elite guards and alarm management; the escape’s watchword is “don’t fight” — preserve recovery items and SP, and spend all mobility on reaching the exit.
• Ending fork: This chapter leads directly into Sae’s interrogation choice on November 20 — selling out your friends is one thought away from Bad Ending 1, so make a separate save beforehand.
• Scheduling note: Deadline November 20; two to three days suggested for exploration.

Palace 7: The Cruise Ship (November)#

Representing sin: Pride (Cruiser of Pride).

• Ruler: Masayoshi Shido, a politician openly campaigning to remake Japan; the Palace is a luxury cruise liner.
• Pacing: Unlocks in November — the longest main-story Palace; the final area requires collecting enough approval tickets, so stock up on power and supplies first. Reserve at least two days.
• Boss fight: Shadow Shido. Forms shift with the battle’s course and weaknesses change with them — the most mechanically complex head-on duel in the story; run the Analyze command at each phase’s start to confirm affinities before picking your main attacker, and keep a dedicated healer in the party. Royal adds a fight against Goro Akechi in this Palace’s engine room, with Akechi fighting as a playable ally.
• Aftermath: The post-Shido story leads to December 24’s Holy Grail showdown at the bottom of Mementos and the deal with the “god of control” — accepting it is Bad Ending 2. After this fight, leave your save at a Safe Room.
• Scheduling note: Deadline December 18; three to four days suggested for exploration.

Palace 8: The Cognitive Science Research Institute (January-February, Third Semester)#

Representing sin: Melancholy, while the crime labeled on its Will Seeds is Sorrow.

• Unlock condition: The sole condition for entering the third semester is Takuto Maruki’s (Councilor) Confidant reaching Rank 9 before November 17, after which the story auto-raises it to max on November 18; miss this line and the story ends in late December on the original structure, with this Palace and the true ending gone with it.
• What makes it special: Because the Palace’s ruler is himself a Persona user, no Shadows are garrisoned here — the ruler is Takuto Maruki in person, and the final opponent is a human, not a Shadow. The Palace’s real-world model is a cognitive science institute on a former stadium construction site in Odaiba; the Treasure is a torch, modeled on a newspaper clipping about the murder of Maruki’s girlfriend’s family.
• Pacing: Progresses with the third-semester story from January; after “reaffirming your will” on February 2, Maruki and Akechi formally appear and the final battle begins. The final deadline is February 3 — overdue means operation failed, time rewinds one week, and the true ending is voided.
• Boss fight: Maruki’s Persona is Azathoth, awakening into Adam Kadmon at the battle’s climax. The fight runs in multiple phases, and endgame Adam Kadmon is strong on both ends; the most stable approach remains landing weakness hits to create extra turns, then widening the damage gap with Baton Pass and Technicals. Akechi and Kasumi Yoshizawa are both playable allies in the third semester — bring their condition and gear up to par before the final battle.
• Will Seed reminder: This Palace’s Will Seeds cannot be handed to Jose that playthrough for story reasons — carry the third-semester clear save into a New Game Plus to complete the delivery.

First-Playthrough Scheduling and Practical Tips#

• Days are reference only: No official time limit exists for the eight Palaces; the suggestions above assume exploration compressed into two to three days — leaving more free days for Confidants and the five social stats is the true-ending schedule.
• Will Seeds first, but don’t overcommit: Sweep side paths for crystals on entering each new area; grab what you can see, and revisit after the heist for the rest.
• Resource management: Start stockpiling SP recovery items from the first Palace on; Physical skills cost no SP, so make them your standard output when SP runs tight.
• Ambush openers: Circle behind patrolling Shadows before engaging — an ambush grants a free first turn, extremely cost-effective early and mid-game.
• Elemental coverage: Each Palace’s Shadows have different elemental makeups; prioritize Personas from negotiations that fill coverage gaps, and run Analyze before every boss fight.
• Save discipline: Make separate saves on ending-fork days (November 20, December 24, January 9) and before every boss fight — reloading always costs less than a bad ending.

The True-Ending Dates: Miss Not One#

The ending structure in one line: 5 main endings — 3 bad endings, 1 Normal Ending, 1 True Ending; the Royal Ending is the True Ending with one added scene, not a separate sixth ending. Branch details in the Endings Guide.

Further Reading#

• Walkthrough — the date-by-date main story with every Palace deadline side by side
• Boss Guides — strategy essentials for all nine main-story showdowns and the battle calendar
• Mementos — side Requests, Reaper encounters, and the Stamp Rally
• Confidants — unlock conditions and rank abilities for all 22 Confidants
• Combat System — the full breakdown of 1MORE, Baton Pass, Technical, and All-Out Attacks