What’s Golden Arena Mode in Persona 4 Arena Ultimax

Persona 4 Arena Ultimax may be a fighting game through and through, but developer Arc System Works hasn’t entirely forgotten about the role-playing mechanics that power the main entries in the Persona series, adding them in their fighting game in a unique play mode called Golden Arena Mode.

Here’s everything you need to know about Golden Arena mode and its mechanics.

What’s Golden Arena Mode in Persona 4 Arena Ultimax

Persona 4 Arena Ultimax’s Golden Arena Mode is a unique play mode that features the same role-playing games mechanics that power the original Persona 4. In this mode, it is possible to choose any of the playable characters and use them to make it through a series of dungeons while leveling them up, improving their stats and assigning them skills that can buff them even further.

Golden Arena mode features five different Courses, dungeons with varying difficulty levels. Bathhouse Course is the easiest while Heaven is the hardest, so you will need to have a powerful character to hope to complete the latter. Upon defeat in any Course, characters will retain their level and acquired skills, so the more you use a character, the more powerful they will become, regardless of the course you have used them for.

Just like in the main Persona games, leveling up characters is done by acquiring enough EXP points. Once you do level up, you will be able to assign three attribute points to your character’s stats, allowing you to customize their combat capabilities. Skills will also be learned after leveling up past certain levels, buffing certain stats. Further improvements to a character’s performance come from the skills granted by the character that you pick as your partner at the start of a run. These Partner Skills are extremely useful, and they can help you quite a bit during the hardest Courses.

As you can only assign 4 skills to any of your characters in Golden Arena Mode, you will have to think hard about what you want your character to specialize in. Focus on what they are good at, hone your fighting skills and you will not have too many problems conquering this very engaging play mode.