'Persona 5' Flu Season: Why you should avoid grinding in Mementos during these days

Persona 5 has a lot for you to keep track of, like the weather, your confidants, or which Personas you're using. You've got to keep your wits about you at all times. Aside from the weather in general, you've also got to keep track of things like the flu season.

It may sound strange to keep track of things like when to expect that the flu's going around in a video game, but there's a very useful reason you'll want to keep it in mind. Here's why you should remember when the flu season is in Persona 5. 

Persona 5 Flu Season: Which days to avoid dungeon crawling in Mementos

The Flu Season in Persona 5 can be timed down to 11/13, 11/14, 12/8 and 12/9, based on my personal experience. During these days, a very powerful enemy that you can encounter in the Mementos dungeon can be afflicted with a status effect: despair. The Reaper, like in Persona 3, will come for your party if you remain idle too long. It's an extremely difficult fight, so it's best just to avoid the Reaper. 

However, there's a special trophy called "A Unique Rebel" that you can net by defeating the Reaper. There's one very easy way to kill off the Reaper, and it involves flu season. 

Enter mementos during the flu season on one of the days above, and the Reaper may be afflicted with the despair status condition. This will happen at random, so you may want to save before flu season begins and keep trying to nab the Reaper in case you miss out. The despair status will cause the Reaper to kill itself. Make no attempt to fight the Reaper unless you see the despair ailment.

Once you've scouted a suicidal Reaper, you'll be able to nab the trophy and you'll be well on your way to a platinum trophy in Persona 5. Who said flu season wasn't useful?

More Persona 5 news, updates, tips and tricks

For more on the latest entry in the Persona series, check out the rest of what Mic has to offer. Here's a guide to building relationships with the game's Confidant system, and a guide to when and how you can name your main character.