Standing AAA

• Can not be canceled into Standing B or Crouching B.

• Can only be canceled into Skill Attacks on the last hit.

All Out Attack

• Recovery increased.

SB Myriad Arrows

• Does fewer slashes.

SB Mabufudyne

• Persona is no longer invincible.

• A hop attack that has invincibility to both lows and grounded throws, making it a strong component of Mitsuru's strike/throw mixup game.

• May be directed backwards or forwards for better positioning before the attack comes out.

• May hold the button to charge the attack and increase damage and hitstun.

• Fatal Counters. Mitsuru's best standard punish. Charged 5B (also written as [5B]) crumples the opponent on counter-hit, allowing for high-damage follow-up combos.

• May be forward dash-cancelled. When dash-cancelled, 5B is -3 while [5B] is +4.

• [5B] can be cancelled into most other moves after frame 20.

I wanted to make this Mitsuru Guide for people wanting to pick the character up in the new port for Persona Ultimate 2.5. This goal of the guide is to be helpful for everyone from beginners to veterans, due to that this project is going to be almost a permanent work in progress.

As for me I go by SamTheGawd and I spend a lot of time in the P4AU Persona Fight Club discord server. You can join here : https://discord.gg/p4au Go ahead and Say Hi if you see me around. sᴀᴍ#2332

• Auto Combo : Regular Mitsuru's Auto Combo can be followed up with a B Coup giving Regular Mitsuru a knockdown and a safe jump off any 5A hit no matter the range or position on screen, this gives Regular Mitsuru the edge on far connect 5A confirm and Shadow dwarfing regular in damage when close enough for 5AA > 5B > 2[B] to hit.

  • Regular's Auto combo is also just better in general since the second hit is very strong for staggers and the 2nd and 3rd Hit are great in strike/throw

• Consistent : Regular is going to have consistently high damage when using meter for confirms since you can use your meter freely, and you can use SB Bufula for oki

• Awakening : With awakening Mitsuru's comeback potential is still very strong when combining Mitsuru's above average health with the damage resistance given by awakening. The bonus 50 meter is also helpful since in awakening Mitsuru can rob the opponent with one solid confirm

Mitsuru's kit transitions very well as a shadow character. There's multiple things that synergize together to make Shadow Mitsuru extremely strong.

• Auto Combo : Shadow Mitsuru's auto combo is different from reuglar Mitsuru's auto combo in many ways, but the most important part is that the second hit of Shadow Mitsuru's auto combo steps farther forward allowing her to do 5AA > 5B > 2[B] which allows Mitsuru to turn standing hits anywhere on the screen into full combos making shadow Mitsuru just better at converting hits in some situations.

• Supers : Mitsuru's awakening super Mabufudyne (214214C/D is very strong, but is limited in use since it has a lot of startup so it's usually reserved for combos. Myriad Arrows is also very strong due to the kick followup being chargeable for insane damage, but without Mabufudyne landing that fully charged kick is impossible. Having the huge meter pool from Shadow Frenzy allows Mitsuru to chain both of these super multiple times in a far more practical way that regular Mitsuru.

• Meter Gain : Mitsuru is a character that build meter very quickly for multiple reasons.

  • Long Combos : Mitsuru's Combos are very long so they allow her to build lots of meter.

  • Charm : Mitsuru's 2C (Marin Karin) Inflicts charms which steals the opponent's meter.

  • All Out Attack (AoA) : Mitsuru can combo into AoA very easily and AoA~D gives crazy amounts of meter.

To gain a better understanding of the character, I find it important to breakdown what makes Mitsuru the character she is so first up are the Normals. Mitsuru's Normals are the strongest part of her kit, She has a full array of space control with just her 5A and j.A on their own.

Familiarizing yourself with Mitsuru's moves, getting used to their range, and learning the recovery of her strongest tools will make the character feel more comfortable. Mitsuru has normals with very long range and even longer recovery so learning where to place your tools and knowing when you can act afterwards is going to be integral.

• Mitsuru's strongest anti-air, with a long-range diagonal hitbox and high combo damage afterwards.

• Often used to combo into 2DD and Bufula (Ice Mirror).

• Launches grounded opponents on counter-hit, but 5B is typically a better starter.

• May be charged for additional hitstun, head invincibility, and damage.

• Release on frame 12 for the just-frame version, which has increased damage and slightly faster startup. Just-frame charge is not a low attack.

• Typically not used on grounded opponents because of its low horizontal range and high amount of recovery.

• 5A is a long range, fast startup poke that is a cornerstone of Mitsuru's ground game. At its max range, it is safe to many DPs and simply dominates some matchups. However, it is one of the slowest 5As in the game and has noticeable recovery. Can be low profiled by almost every character, leaving Mitsuru vulnerable to a punish.

• No longer whiffs on crouching opponents but is now Chest attribute, so it will lose to almost every sweep or other moves with chest invulnerability.

Standing AAA (Regular)

• Adjusted cancel timing, comes out as fast as possible.

This buff is one of the biggest, it allows regular Mitsuru to chain auto combo into B Coup giving her a hard knockdown and safe jump off almost any 5A hit.

Auto Combo (Shadow)

• 2-4th hits have less recovery, 5th hit can be canceled into sweep.

This buff makes shadow Mitsuru's auto combo flow better and feel more intuitive.

Standing B

• Reduced recovery.

• Does not push back opponent on hit.

Crouching B

• Head invul begins earlier.

This buff is extremely important, because it now allows Mitsuru's to wait a bit longer before using her 2B to play more reactionary which fits her gameplan.

Crouching B (Charged)

• Launches opponent on ground hit.

Possibly the BIGGEST buff she has gotten this patch, it allows Mitsuru to get confirm Midscreen an Corner meterlessly that she could only dream of before.

Jumping B (Charged)

• Forces opponent into crouching state on ground hit.

All Out Attack

• Autoguard starts up faster.

• Counter hit state shortened.

Ground Throw

• Increased hitstun of all hits except the last.

• Increased blowback on hit.

• No longer pushes Mitsuru away in the corner.

B Coup Droit

• Faster startup.

• Charged version recovery reduced.

This change along with the auto combo change enables the auto combo B Coup combo for Regular Mitsuru.

SB Coup Droit

• Faster startup.

Tentarafoo

• Faster startup on all versions.

• Can be comboed into. 2nd hit floats opponent upwards instead of away.

Probably the second if not the biggest buff Mitsuru got in this patch is the cancel of first hit tentarafoo. This cancel allows Mitsuru to meterlessly combo into Mabufudyne, significantly increasing her damage and comeback potential.

Bufula

• Projectile durability increased. Fatal Recovery state removed.

D Bufula

• Appears away from Mitsuru and moves towards her.

SB Bufula

• Starts near Mitsuru and moves away from her.

• Long-reaching low that is safe on block.

• Leads to high damage with meter.

• Hold A+B to feint the attack and recover more quickly.

Is a charge character that excels in Neutral and forcing/punishing the opponents mistakes. She can use her long effective range to bully the opponent, whiff punish and confirm into her stylish Bufula combos for big damage.

You can perform well with this character by playing good neutral. She rewards good game sense and your ability to make hard reads on your opponent. She has tools to beat Option Selects well and ways to force opponents to take risks challenging her offense.

Her 5B has low invulnerability and beats throws which is a hard counter to the strategy of low profiling her 5A. You can use her 5A to set up scenarios where you can challenge your opponents attempts to low profile them with a CH 5B.

There's little in the way of "bells and whistles" with Mitsuru compared to the rest of the cast, she's one of the more honest characters in the game where what you see is essentially what you get

• May be charged for additional damage and hitstun.

• Charge for 12 frames for just-frame release, which has more damage and faster startup.

• Commomly used as an air-to-ground poke during a lazy jump.

• On counter-hit, charged j.B leads to a combo.

• j.B OMC charged j.B leads to a full combo from an instant overhead and is one of Mitsuru's staple mix-up strings.

• Not comboable on normal hit, so mix-up potential and reward require charging, meter, or a counter-hit.

• Can be performed when hop-cancelling attacks to extend pressure. When executed as a hop-cancel, j.B is -3, j.[B] +4 ~+11F.

Though Mitsuru's doesn't have a large array of supers, they are very useful and versatile. Mitsuru's Coup can completely shutdown some characters, and for her Bufula many people think it's just combo filler ; however, Mitsuru's Bufula mirrors give her some of the strongest and most layered oki in the game.

A Coup Droit

• A Droit is very fast and causes the opponent to fly backwards on air hit.

• Fast recovery, used as a means of approach.

• Can follow up with a combo on counter hit.

B Coup Droit

• The B version can be charged for more damage. Charged B Coup Droit is however extremely minus and punishable on block.

• Causes ground slide on hit.

• Trajectory can be changed by holding either 4 or 6.

• Fatal Recovery.

SB Coup Droit

• The SB version is very fast and causes ground slide on air hit.

• A better A Coup Droit with more damage, faster startup and a larger distance covered.

• It's the only Coup Droit that allows chaining after hit in the corner under normal circumstances.

C Bufula : Mitsuru place a Mirror above that moves forward. The move is extremely strong in combos and is often for oki, and sparringly used in neutral to keep the opponent on the ground.

D Bufula : The most versatile and important version of Mitsuru's Bufulas is D Bufula. She can use this move for oki, combos, neutral, pressure, etc.. The move starts out in front of her and moves forward so it covers her in neutral and is very good as long as the opponent isn't in close range, and if the opponent isn't paying attention can pressure reset for heavy plus frames.

SB Bufula : Doesn't have many uses, but it excels at it's main use which is okizeme.

• High range, high priority, low reward horizontal jumping attack.

On the surface Mitsuru's supers look underwhelming, but when you study them and use them together she has some of the strongest supers in the game.

Mitsuru has :

• Myriad Arrows : A true 8 frame reversal super, that has a lot of uses outside of that mashing on wakeup.

• Mabufudyne : Setup super to unlock some of the highest damage in the game.

• Long-range projectile whip attack that pulls the opponent in on block and hit.

• 5DD can be followed up with 2DD midscreen for a combo.

• Significantly plus on block

• Combo tool and anti-air

• 2D freezes the opponent, 2DD unfreezes the opponent and pulls them in towards you.

• In the corner, 2DD whiffs, so cancel 2D to [5B]

• Similar to grounded 2D, but angled downwards

This section is going to bread down Mitsuru's three strongest pokes. Poking your opponent is going to be your bread and butter when playing Mitsuru, your must have you range and poke confirms down to a science to maximize her potential.

This section will be talking about:

5A : Mitsuru's quick jab with range that would make every character in the game jealous.

j.A : An air poke that shares the range of her 5A while being in the air giving it the potential to cover even more space.

2B : Your staple anti air that every space control character like Mitsuru needs to stay afloat.

• Artemisia creates 8 large shards of ice. Mitsuru can move and attack freely during the super, but loses access to other Persona related attacks.

• Pressing C will shoot two shards straight forward, pressing D will shoot all remaining shards with tracking.

• Can lead to high damage when used in combos that involve Myriad Arrows.

• Reversal and midscreen combo ender. Can be One More Cancelled for safety on block.

• The first flurry of attacks crumples grounded opponents. Hold down the A or B button to continue charging the last kick for more damage. However, if you wait too long, the opponent will recover.

• Fully charged final kick does 4000 damage by itself. Can be combo'd into with a freeze.

• A version is fastest, but does the least damage. B version is does more damage and has more invincibility, but is slower. SB version does the most damage.

Your typical 2B anti air with upper body invincibility. Her 2B covers a long of vertical space, and gives a very strong reward on hit. The move is high risk high reward, but is necessary to round out Mitsuru's oppressively space control.

Thanks to the 2.5 Buffs Mitsuru's 2B has a faster startup on the upper body invincibility. This makes it easier for her to use her 2B reactionarily.

The biggest downside of her 2B is that it has 31 frames of recovery, making it especially bad on whiff and a really easy whiff punish.

Another extremely strong poke is Mitsuru's j.A, It's not as strong as her 5A however, it has over 4 times the active frames making it just as important for her gameplan. It allows her to check air dashes, and keep people from approaching her for free in the air.

The main strength of the move is her ability to do j.A from a safe range and possibly get a confirm from it on counterhit. If you add that on top of the massive range of the move allowing her to do it from spaces that other characters won't be able to anti-air from, makes the move very problematic for most of the cast.

Mitsuru has her three whip normals that are very useful in their own right at countering the opponent choices in neutral.

5D is particularly strong when the opponent is content with staying fullscreen, low is virtually none fullscreen if the opponent doesn't have a projectile and your reward is huge.

Her 2D is another move Mitsuru can use beside her j.A and 2B to keep people out of the air. It covers a more horizontal angle than her, giving all of her anti-air tools their own niche,

Lasty Mitsuru's j.D is really good, because it allows her to retreat and go for an attack at the same time at a pretty low risk. The reward along with all of her whip moves is really good so the low risk from retreating pairs well.

For those who don't know, a Strike/Throw mixup is where you have you opponent guessing on defense upon whether or not you will strike them with an attack or throw them. There are two aspects that make Mitsuru's Strike/Throw game scary.

• Throw Combo : Mitsuru gets a full combo from her throw in the corner into a combo for solid damage and a safe jump and or oki for mixups.

• 5B Throw Bait : When Mitsuru does 5B she is invulernable to ground throws, so if the opponent tries to tech the throw you can 5B and it will make their throw whiff and you Fatal Counter them for insane damage.

Mitsuru dominates the mid range game, She always wants to keep the opponent at her 5A range. No other character in the game can match the speed and range combination of Mitsuru's 5A at mid range. No other normal in the game can cover the mid range at 8 frame, and Mitsuru is able to confirm off the normal too.

Mitsuru retains the ability to fight from fullscreen too using her 5D, the only downside is the deadzone on her 5D. 5D doesn't have the crazy speed of her 5A though so, you most know before hand that your opponent isn't going to throw out an option against it, or doesn't have their own projectile to counteract it.

The curse that Mitsuru receives in exchange for her oppresive range is her weakness at close range even though I say her 5A is quick, it's only quick in the context for a Mid range poke. For a jab, being 8 frames is extremely weak and makes Mitsuru close range boxing weak and her abare even weaker.

Mitsuru's 5A is one of the strongest pokes in the game, It's the cornerstone of her neutral and her neutral is the strongest facet of her character.

The move has extreme weakness to low profiles though, every character in the game has a move to low profile and beat Mitsuru's 5A. The good part is that getting people to attempt to low profile her 5A opens people up to getting high crushed by her 5B.

On hit her 5A will lead to pretty high reward in 2.5 too, Regular Mitsuru will be able to confirm 5A into a B Coup knockdown for a Safe Jump and Shadow Mitsuru will lead to even bigger combos but only on a close connect.

To get the upperhand on the opponent you need to know what options that have against your strongest tools. So the next is to understand the weakness 5A has to low profiles, and learn our option to beat low profiles.

Mitsuru's option to Beat Low-profile goes to:

• 5B : Her 5B has lower-body invincibility so it can go over low profiles and fatal counter the opponent.

• j.D : A lower risk option to beat low profiles, but also offers a lower reward.

Mitsuru's option to Low-Profile the opponent is :

• Sweep : Mitsuru has a long range sweep that is a full low-profile and gives a big reward on hit.

Though it's not the strongest poke, Mitsuru's sweep can be useful for a hard callout. It's not frequent that Mitsuru will need or want to low profile another character's pokes, but if necessary she has a tool for it.

Extremely important in Mitsuru's gameplay for her Strike/Throw mix and Fatal Counter punishes, however; the important part here is lower body invincibility.

When your opponent tries to counter play Mitsuru's oppresive 5A with low profiles, you can abuse the lower body invincibility of Mitsuru's 5B to counter poke the opponent for huge damage.

Mitsuru j.B has a hitbox that hits really far downward, so she can use it as a 16 frame instant overhead. She needs to jump j.B then omc it into a charged j.[B] which forces crouching. If she has another 25 meter she can extend the combo with an SB coup in the corner, and shadow Mitsuru can shadow frenzy off the j.B for a full combo.

Combo Theory Concepts

AoA~D Followups

Mitsuru's routes allow her to combo into Aoa~D and that gives Mitsuru multiple enders for her combos. This concept is more fleshed in the Okizeme section.

• Dash Forward/ IAD Back : This is usually used to setup a safe Marin Karin for the charm and get a meaty 5A/2A after. This is really strong for shadow. Dash Forward midscreen and IAD Back for the corner

• B Coup : B coup ender allows for big damage and a safe jump, most times can be cancelled into a super after for even more damage; however in longer combos a followup super won't connect.

• Bufula : With 25 Meter Mitsuru can spend 25 meter for a Bufula that gives a crazy amount of blockstun giving her enough time to run two full mixups with a combo after.

• Bufudyne : Super finish, specifically used in longer combos where B Coup into Bufudyne won't connect. Can also be used for double supers.

Mabufudyne

Mitsuru's awakening super Mabufudyne is what enables her higher damage and more advanced combos, It allows her to chain charged normals and coups with freezes and also gives her a way of comboing into her fully charged Myriad Arrows kick. Her ways of comboing into Mabufudyne are:

• Tentarafoo 46C/D : The best way, but is very tricky due to the cancel window of Tentarafoo being extremely small. The tentarafoo into mabufudyne link is the main obstacle of Mitsuru's hardest combos, but when mastered unlocks the character true damage potential.

• SB Bufula [2]8CD : Really easy to use, can be used after combos for a mixup and on hit go into Mabufudyne. Not nearly as versatile as tentarafoo, but far easier to utilize.

Mitsuru does a really good job of pressuring the opponent from a safe range using her normals, her stagger pressure isn't very threatening since at max 5A range she isn't able to abuse her Strike/Throw game. The true purpose of Mitsuru's stagger pressure is to frame trap and annoy the opponent into trying to mash out or a use a reversal.

Mitsuru has a lot of tools to use in her stagger pressure such as:

The shadow combos may seem like a mess, but the combos for shadow might be better thought of as examples of what is possible since Mitsuru has many different things she can do to go into shadow Frenzy and what she can do while in it. She has a lot of high damage combos off any starter and various amounts of meter.

To simplify Mitsuru's combo theory you can think about it like this:

Into Shadow Frenzy :

Midscreen :

• 2[B] > [2]8D > [4]6C > Mabufudyne/Frenzy

• 5AA > 6B > Frenzy > Microdash Auto Combo > [4]6B > [4]6D > Mabufudyne

• Throw (11 Hits) > Frenzy > 2[B] > 6[B] > Sweep > [4]6B > [4]6D > Mabufudyne

• Jump back j.B > Frenzy > Auto Combo > [4]6B > [4]6D > Mabufudyne

• 5DD > 2DD > Frenzy > Sweep > [4]6B > [4]6D > Mabufudyne | Burst Safe

Corner :

• Combo Filler > AoA~D > [2]8D > [4]6C > Mabufudyne/Frenzy

Shadow Frenzy Filler :

This section is going to broken into Shadow Frenzy Filler examples for varying amounts of meter. The two section will be Shadow Frenzy Cancel for when you cancel a move into Shadow Frenzy mid combo and for Raw Frenzy when you cancel tentarafoo into mabufudyne then Raw activate.

Shadow Frenzy Cancel :

• 27 Meter : 27 Meter gives you enough to immediately cancel into Mabufudyne then SB Myriad Arrows. This is most useful in corner combos at really low meter.

• 78 Meter : With 78 Meter you have enough shadow frenzy to fit in a Mabufudyne into A Myriad Arrows, then finish the combo with an SB Myriad Arrows.

• 90 Meter : The last value will be 90 and above where you will be able to fit Mabufudyne and two SB Myriad Arrows in a combo for huge damage.

Raw Frenzy :

• 51 Meter : This route is really useful as it preserves burst and gives plenty damage, With 51 meter you have the 50 to cancel into Mabufudyne and with 1 meter you are still able to fit in a SB Myriad arrows for good damage.

• 100 Meter : One of the most signature routes for shadow is her 100 meter raw frenzy route, which gives her a portion of her burst back and the ability to do Mabufudyne into double myriad arrows still.

Mitsuru can followup her AoA~D with a Marin Karin to charm the opponent. The charm status affect steals the opponent's meter and gives it to Mitsuru.

To setup the Marin Karin midscreen you have to forward Dash Cancel and in the corner you need to Instant Airdash Backwards. After either dash you can Marin Karin and have time to meaty the opponent with 5A.

The downside to this setup is that Mitsuru will be put at a range that the Meaty 5A will put Mitsuru too far away to confirm in a 2B after the 5A and unable to throw for her Strike/Throw Mixup. For the upside at this range Mitsuru will still be able to fully utilize her 5A range to bully the opponent safely and keep the charm up, because as soon as she gets hit the status affect on the opponent goes away.

For Mitsuru's final oki setup we have the most versatile which are her Bufula mirrors. She can utilize all three version of her Bufula to setup different mixups.

• C Bufula : Since the mirror is placed above Mitsuru, it allows her Midscreen Strike/Throw mixups to be scarier since the throw will send the opponent into the mirror giving her a combo Midscreen. The weakest Bufula mixup but, works in every matchup where other setups wouldn't (For Example: D Bufula beating eater by Koromaru in the Ken matchup).

• D Bufula : This mixup is stronger than the C Bufula mixup since it allows Mitsuru to abuse her instant overhead j.B and her 2A for a meterless high/low mixup. The way the opponent can avoid the mixup is by delay teching and Mitsuru has to 2A to check it; however, in the corner D Bufula will catch all tech timing so they must hold the mixup.

• SB Bufula : For the last mixup we have the best, for 25 meter Mitsuru can use her SB Bufula. This mixup only works in the corner since the mirror moves backward, but the strong part about is the ease that you can combo off it and the insane blockstun that it provides. SB Bufula locks down the opponent long enough for Mitsuru to run 2-3 mixups and still keep her turn after.

Mitsuru wants to in her combos in AoA~D, because it gives her big damage, optimal meter gain, and makes all her best oki option readily available.

After a AoA~D knockdown Mitsuru next course of action variest between:

• Marin Karin Charm Setup

• B Coup into a Safe Jump

• Meaty Bufula

When playing Mitsuru if you ever find yourself blocking, you will likely be blocking for a long time unless you reversal out. Due to Mitsuru's lack of quick normals it is very hard for her to get buttons out in the gaps in the opponent's pressure.

Finding low risk ways to get out of pressure is extremely hard for Mitsuru without using meter. In order for Mitsuru to find her way out of pressure she's going to have to instant block to create bigger gaps in pressure and abuse OS's like fuzzy jumps to cover multiple defensive options at once.

While Mitsuru's abare is lacking her defense is made up for by her strong reversals.

Her reversals consist of:

• Getsu'ei (DP) : Mitsuru definitely has one of the strongest DPs in the game, there isn't anything that makes it special; however, there isn't any glaring weakness with her dp. It's 360 degree 10 frame reversal will full invincibility on startup.

• Guard Cancel : While guard cancel is a universal mechanic, Mitsuru in specific has a really strong one since the hitbox on hers is so huge. This is important because when characters are trying to pressure Mitsuru from a safe range, her Guard Cancel is typically still going to be a threat unlike almost every other character in the game.

• Myriad Arrows : This is going to be Mitsuru's metered reversal super. Mainly used over Getsu'ei if you want to gamble on a reversal for more damage, or you want to Super > OMC to force your turn. This option is especially strong on Shadow Mitsuru since she can conver raw Myraid arrows into 6k+ damage.

Mitsuru alongside a lot of the cast has access to Safe Jumps. For those who don't know what a safe jump is a Safe Jump is a tactic in Fighting Games where a Jump is timed so that the opponent can not punish with a reversal.

She has access to her safe jump whenever she ends a combo in B Coup and gets the sliding knockdown, when that happens if she times an instant airdash immediately after recovering from B Coup the following Jump-in will have a safe jump timing.

Questions

Why does the sweep in 5AA > 5B > Sweep not combo?

• 5B > Sweep is a crouching confirm, the combo only combos if the opponent is crouching.

When i try to do 5AA > 2[B] the 2[B] does not hit?

• The combo works when you are reasonably close to your opponent, so get closer and try it again.

When i try to do 5AA > 5B > 2[B] the 2[B] does not hit?

• When you add 5B to the confirm, It pushes the opponent back slightly so the 2[B] will not hit short characters.

What is the trick to Tentarafoo > Mabufudyne?

• There is no trick, the super cancel window is just small. Try to input the super right before the tentarafoo hits, the key to learning the combo is practice.

Should I play Regular or Shadow Mitsuru?

• You can read the write up for this here, But both have their pros and cons and you aren't forced to pick either.

Why is the double Coup route not working for me?

• The double drill route is character specific, it doesn't work on Marie, Margaret, Elizabeth, Chie, Rise, and Yukari. Mostly small body female character.