Quick Links
- How To Get Ready For Tartarus
- Shadows In Block One Of Tartarus
- Shuffle Time Personas Available In Block One Of Tartarus
- Mini-Bosses In Block One Of Tartarus
- How To Leave Tartarus After Exploring Thebel
With Persona 3 Portable now available on current-gen consoles, many fans of the series are diving into this 2009 hit title for the first time. If you’re expecting outright dungeon-crawling, though, you may be surprised to come across Tartarus instead.
Block One is called Thebel, and it’s your first glimpse at what combat in P3P is going to look and feel like. Gather your friends, steel your nerves, and climb the double-digit number of floors required to finish Thebel. For all the info you’ll need on getting through the first block of Tartarus in P3P, check out our guide below.
We're always trying to be careful of them, but this guide will contain spoilers for parts of the story of Persona 3 Portable.
How To Get Ready For Tartarus
As this will be your introduction to how Tartarus works in P3P, there won’t be much to do ahead of time to prepare for your first exploration.
You’ll head in for the first time automatically on 4/21 with your story progression in the early days of the game, where you’ll slowly but surely learn the mechanics of P3P.
Just be mindful as you’re going through of your team and their condition, as this is a mechanic that didn’t continue past Persona 3 Portable and may be new for some returning players.
We’ve got a whole guide to conditions to help you keep things straight and change your condition before exploring Tartarus if need be.
It’s always wise to be in the best shape possible before exploring. The SEES Team is difficult to reliably raise above Good, but there are several ways to get your protagonist to the Great condition before venturing into Tartarus for the night.
Just beware that teammates who grow Tired or Sick inside of Tartarus will have a decreased battle performance until they can rest.
The first time you go in, you’ll only be checking out the first floor. Reach the end of that and leave when Mitsuru prompts you. There’s nothing else to do the first night, and nobody will come along to join you if you try to go back in again after leaving.
You can then return to Tartarus to continue exploring and climbing. You’ll need to reach Floor 15 before the first Full Moon, so take your time to explore and learn the game, but don’t wait too long to return.
Shadows In Block One Of Tartarus
It wouldn’t be a Persona game without Shadows to fight inside of Tartarus, and P3P, while the combat system is a little different from the modern Persona games, delivers in spades.
For your introduction to Tartarus, though, Persona 3 Portable kept things simple with a cool eight possible Shadows for you to battle.
Persona 3 Portable Affinity Table Key
Label | Explanation |
|---|---|
Str | This shadow is strong against this element, and attacks of this element deal less damage. |
Wk | This shadow is weak against this element, and attacks of this element deal more damage. |
Rep | This shadow will repel attacks of this element, reversing the damage onto you. |
Nul | This shadow will nullify attacks of this element, and as such, they deal no damage. |
Drn | This shadow will gain health from attacks of this element, so attacks of this heal the shadow. |
– | Attacks of this element deal normal damage to the shadow. |
Tartarus Block One – Thebel Shadows List
Shadow Name | Level | Spawns on Floors | Affinities and Weaknesses | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Slash | Strike | Pierce | Fire | Ice | Electric | Wind | Light | Dark | Almighty | |||
Cowardly Maya | 2 | All | – | – | – | Wk | – | Wk | Wk | – | – | – |
Muttering Tiara | 3 | All | – | – | – | Str | Wk | – | Wk | – | – | – |
Merciless Maya | 3 | All | – | – | – | Str | Wk | Wk | Wk | – | – | – |
Magic Hand | 4 | All | – | – | – | Wk | Str | – | – | – | – | – |
Wealth Hand * | 1 | All | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | Nul | – | – |
Obsessed Cupid | 5 | 6-9, 11-13, and 15 | – | – | – | – | Wk | – | Str | – | – | – |
Grave Beetle | 7 | 6-9, 11-13, 15 | – | – | – | – | – | Str | Wk | – | – | – |
Trance Twins | 6 | 11-13, 15 | – | – | – | Wk | Wk | Str | – | – | – | – |
* Wealth Hand is one of the rare shadows known as Gold Shadows. It runs away when it sees you, but approaching it from behind and striking it will engage it in battle.
You'll need to fight them for one of Elizabeth or Theodore's requests. In P3P, they only spawn in the Thebel Block.
Shuffle Time Personas Available In Block One Of Tartarus
Shuffle Time is the mechanic that begins after your protagonist lands the finishing blow in battle that allows you to obtain a number of cool rewards.
One of the possibilities will often be a Persona to add to your Compendium. If you pull a Persona card, and you don’t already have that Persona, it will join your stock as long as you have space to add it. If you don't have space, you will be prompted to choose one to replace or throw away the new card.
This is how you get new Personas in Persona 3 Portable, so if you're working toward building your Compendium, it's always wise to grab as many new Personas as possible to register when you leave.
If you pull the card of a Persona that’s currently in your stock, nothing happens, making them act like blank cards that result in no reward.
You will not have the Compendium available yet when you first go into Thebel, so you do not currently have a way to register your Personas.
This means you'll need to go back to Thebel after unlocking the Compendium to register the Personas below, if you don't unlock them early and keep them in your party.
For more information about the mechanics of recruiting new Personas (as well as other helpful information to get you through the Dark Hour), check out our Complete Guide to Tartarus.
Below are all the Personas you can find in Shuffle Time decks in the Thebel block of Tartarus.
Tartarus Block One: Thebel Shuffle Time Personas List
Persona Name | Level | Arcana |
|---|---|---|
Pixie | 2 | Lovers |
Apsaras | 3 | Priestess |
Angel | 4 | Justice |
Nekomata | 5 | Magician |
Alp | 6 | Lovers |
Ara Mitama | 6 | Chariot |
Forneus | 7 | Emperor |
Okoikane | 7 | Hierophant |
Mini-Bosses In Block One Of Tartarus
While your actual boss fights are more tied to the phases of the moon in P3P, there are still a couple of mini-boss fights you’ll need to beat before you can continue your crawl through Tartarus.
Mini-Bosses In The Thebel Block Of Tartarus
Mini-Boss Name | Floor |
|---|---|
Venus Eagle | 5 |
Dancing Hand | 10 |
Rampage Drive | 14 |
How To Leave Tartarus After Exploring Thebel
When you arrive at Floor 16, you’ll come face-to-face with a barrier preventing you from going any higher on that particular night, meaning you’ll need to wait for the game’s story to progress before you can continue onto the next block, Block 2 -Arqa.
Mitsuru will tell you that’s it for tonight when you arrive, but before you head back to the entrance, be sure to grab the briefcase you see next to the barrier.
It contains Old Document 01, which offers insight into research formerly performed by someone at the Kirijo Group.
You’ll find one of these briefcases on every ending floor for the block of Tartarus you've just finished exploring throughout the game, until you've collected all eight. Be sure to grab Old Document 01 before returning to the entrance to leave.
Regardless of how prepared you feel, the next block past the one you’ve just finished in Tartarus will never unlock until after the next Full Moon.
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