Shin Megami Tensei 5: Vengeance - The Best Demons For The Mid-Game (2024)

We're continuing our coverage of our picks for the best demons in each stretch of Shin Megami Tensei 5: Vengeance, with an eye toward the expansive mid-game this time around. By "mid-game", we're talking about the second and third major regions, plus everything that goes down between them.

Before we begin, we should note that we aren't saying these demons are definitively who you should choose. There are plenty of great options. Rather, we're mulling over our personal favorites. Maybe you're just looking for tips on which ones caught our gameplay-centric eye, but plenty of creatures in the compendium are worth a try!

Alice

Pros

If you need someone with excellent dark-type attack coverage, Alice can scarcely be rivaled even later in the game. Her unique skill, Die For Me!, strikes foes randomly two to six times with medium-rated damage.

If you'd prefer something more traditional, she also comes with Mamudoon, a dark-type attack that strikes all enemies in a more guaranteed fashion.

Alice has Dark Pleroma, which boosts dark-elemental attacks above their normal capacity, so yeah, she's unstoppable.

Alice's sky-high magic stat means these attacks will hit like a truck. She can also use the Freikugal EX Magatsuhi skill, which is a severe level-based single-target Almighty attack. We've seen over 1,000 damage from it even with her level still in the forties range.

Cons

Alice's strength stat is abysmal, so don't expect her to do much there. More importantly, she's weak to light, and you'll fight a fair number of angels around the mid-game.

However, Alice learns Resist Light, which you should definitely keep. Suddenly, she's not only absorbing dark, she's even shrugging off her major flaw.

Hell Biker

Pros

First, take a look at those innate resistances. Hell Biker is naturally resistant to fire, force, light, and dark while having only one weakness: ice. He squares off well against plenty of foes.

Hell Biker's agility stat is excellent, so accuracy and evasion are both above-par. This is solid stuff, but there's more to it than that.

Hell Biker's innate skill, Speed Demon, raises the odds of critical hits against any foe with a lower agility stat. Which means, a lot of them. And since you can pump him with agility incense, it can get pretty wild.

We also love the fact that he's got no fewer than three unique skills. And they're good! Hell Spin deals heavy physical damage to all foes; Hell Exhaust deals medium force damage to all foes while removing buffs; and Hell Burner deals heavy fire damage to all foes.

Cons

The big one's the barrier of entry. In order to gain the chance to fuse demons into Hell Biker, you must defeat Matador after unlocking "Return of the True Demon", a side quest that was DLC in the original SMT 5.

It's not that Matador's fight is especially hard; but it's frustrating at lower levels, as Matador can ramp up his evasion stat quite a bit. Just tackle him when you're around level 30 or higher, and then face off against Hell Biker (an easier fight, we think).

Other than that, none of Hell Biker's stats outside of agility are anything to write home about, meaning he can eventually get outclassed by the more menacing late-game fare.

Hayataro

Pros

Hayataro is a very good pupper. That's all, no notes.

No, but seriously, he's superb. Lightning Speed, Hayataro's innate skill, boosts critical hit rate when accuracy and evasion are raised.

As it happens, Hayataro's Witness Me special skill, raises accuracy and evasion by two stages while drawing enemy aggro. Thus, he's a fantastic "evasion tank" whose attacks are going to hurt quite a bit, indeed.

This, too, synergizes neatly with other aspects of Hayataro's kit. His other special skill, Carnage Fang, strikes one foe with heavy physical damage while improving substantially if it's a critical hit!

Cons

Although Hayataro is immune to electric and resistant to both physical and light, there's no getting around the fact that his weaknesses to dark and force can be costly.

But since you can always use essences to cover weaknesses, and Hayataro doesn't really benefit from a diverse move pool, you can bypass this by filling slots with Resist Dark and Resist Force!

Yosh*tsune

Pros

Yosh*tsune tends to be rather overpowered in most Shin Megami Tensei games, including (heck, especially) the Persona series. He's no slouch in Shin Megami Tensei 5, either.

Stats-wise, Yosh*tsune's strength and agility are almost comically great, so he'll dish out tons of damage with razor-sharp accuracy while dodging plenty of what's thrown back at him along the way.

Yosh*tsune's unique skill, Hassou Tobi, strikes eight opponents at random for weak physical damage. But don't let "weak" fool you here. These are always critical hits, so they're packing a real wallop every time.

He also learns Retaliate, which grants a possibility for him to counter all strength-based attacks. Unlike the more traditional Counter skill itself, Retaliate hits with medium damage instead of weak.

Cons

Well, compared with some of his outings in other SMT titles, Yosh*tsune's a tad underwhelming. Perhaps that says more about how mighty so many of this title's late-game demons can be, though.

Yosh*tsune's unique skill, Yumi Nagashi, can be pretty situational. It's still great that he has this, but still. Actions that typically take more than one Press Turn icon will instead add a Press Turn icon on the following turn.

Finally, Yosh*tsune's weak to dark, which can be rectified with essences, but does require that extra step to mitigate. Like Hayataro, however, you won't feel the need to diversify his build much, so it's no huge loss.

Idun

Pros

Idun is one of the best support-centric demons in Shin Megami Tensei 5: Vengeance, hands down. Her magic stat is frighteningly great, which bolsters not only her considerable healing capability, but her offensive potential as well.

Golden Apple is Idun's unique skill. With it, she'll restore HP to the party while simultaneously boosting all stats by one stage. One stage isn't quite two stages, the max, yes. But it's still a heck of a deal.

Although Golden Apple only heals "slight" HP, Idun's high affinity for healing skills and the aforementioned outstanding magic stat will have this feeling plenty more refreshing than it sounds at first blush.

Cons

Idun's innate skill, Demonic Meditation, is fairly lackluster. It will sometimes give you another shot atnegotiating with a demon if you mess up, which can happen fairly often, but it's hardly a game-changer, and it won't help in tough fights.

Her level-up skills aren't great, either. Diamrita restores moderate HP to one ally while curing ailments, and Life Aid restores a bit of HP after fights. Mahamaon is pretty good, at least - heavy light damage to all foes.