Persona 3 Reload: How to Get Money Fast

It can be hard to earn money when you’re still in high school, and that’s just as true in Persona 3 Reload as it is in real life. You need money to get better weapons and armor, buy recovery items, get better Social Skill boosts, and retrieve registered Personas from the Velvet Room.

All of this means that getting money is a priority for every Persona 3 Reload player. There are plenty of ways to do so, but some of them are more effective than others. The biggest question you need to ask is whether you’d rather spend your time or the protagonist’s time to earn yen.

Work a Part-Time Job

From the beginning of the game, you can have the main character work at one of two part-time jobs: the cinema at the Port Station, and Chagall Cafe in the Paulownia Mall.

The cinema, Screen Shot, is available for work when the protagonist has the day off. This means Sundays, holidays, and all of summer break. Wages start at 5,000 yen per shift, but this can go up after you work there several times. The job also boosts Academics and Courage by a small amount each time, but working there means you don’t get to spend the day improving a Social Link.

Chagall Cafe offers part-time work on every Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday night. Wages are 2,500 yen, but like the cinema this can go up after you work there for several shifts. It also improves Charm and Courage, so it’s a good place to visit early on when you don’t have much money and haven’t unlocked the evening Social Links yet.

Run Through Tartarus

Part-time money can help when you’re in a pinch, but the real way to make money in Persona 3 Reload is by exploring Tartarus. That being said, you can make money faster by paying attention to where the yen comes from.

• Enemies in Tartarus don’t drop yen, but they do drop items you can sell at the police station for cash. Think of it as the game adding one extra step for the sake of realism.
• The breakable objects throughout Tartarus hold a variety of items, including valuables and recovery items you can sell at the police station. Unlike chests, these objects respawn every time you reenter a floor, so you can make a decent amount of money by replaying the last set of floors and collecting items while avoiding Shadows.
• When you Confuse a Shadow, they sometimes drop special items like Copper Coins, Silver Coins, and Gold Coins. These coins are worth a lot more than normal valuables, and Confused Shadows are the only way to get them.
• Choosing a card from the Coins suit after a battle gives you a pile of money right away, with more money coming from higher card values. If you complete an Arcana Boost, all the card values become one higher than normal.
• The Rare Shadows, which are all golden hand enemies, drop special coins that are worth a lot more than regular valuables. For instance, the Wealth Hand drops a Worldly Coin worth 1,000 yen, while the Treasure Hand drops an Odd Coin worth 2,500 yen. Much like breakable objects, new Rare Shadows can appear when you reenter a previously explored floor.
• The Escapade Fortune Teller’s first fortune is the Rarity Fortune, which causes more Rare Shadows to appear throughout Tartarus. Her second fortune, Gamble Fortune, causes both Rare Shadows and Formidable Shadows to appear more often. You can only choose one fortune each night, and more Rare Shadows appear with Gamble Fortune active compared to Rarity Fortune, so it’s worth choosing if you can handle the Formidable Shadows.

Plan Your Persona List

The biggest money sink in Persona 3 Reload is Persona purchasing. The best way to improve Social Links fast is to carry a Persona that matches the friend’s Arcana, but you only get so much space to stock Personas and you also need to fuse Personas to keep up with enemies and fill out the list.

What this means is that you should check your Persona stock when you’re ready to exit Tartarus. Do they all match the Social Links you’re currently working on? Do you have any Arcana duplicates you could get rid of by fusing? Would it be worth your time to head back in and try to get more Personas to fill up your stock? You can save a surprising amount of money by using Tartarus to get Personas instead of the Velvet Room, and money you avoid spending on Personas is money you can spend in other areas of the game.