Uploaded October 2022 | Updated September 2026, 2 days ago
Luckily enough, only done in one attempt. I always had this as a goal to do with my "perfect save" run of P3P on Maniac NG. Quite a lucky run until I missed at the end.
Anyways, to explain the strategy, this fight has 5 phases to do. Each having separate gimmicks done. Each phase lasts for 10 turns. There are a handful of general rules to follow in this fight and that is 1)Do not equip the Omnipotent Orb, 2)Do not use Armageddon unless it will kill and 3)You must do approximately 5K damage and above per phase. At least, the first 4 phases. Luckily, the game counts total damage done per phase with rule number 3 so if you fall behind 5K damage in one phase but the extra damage done in the previous phase is enough to get you above the threshold, you should be fine. She has 30K health so you must do around 6K damage per phase in order to beat her without Armageddon. All personas and equipment used is showed at the end of the video.
Something to keep in mind in general. In P3, charge spells only doubles damage dealt so it is used more for stalling purposes. For Power Charge, it is also to lower HP that's reduced when using phys spells.
The strategy per phase is as follows:
Start of the fight, use Oracle and pray you get Power/Mind Charge (Oddly enough, the descriptions of Oracle effects are almost all incorrect. "All Ailments Cured" is the one we are aiming for. For reference, "HP & SP Restored" is Heat Riser, "Reduced HP to 1" is Revolution. Funnily enough, "All HP Restored" does as it says.)
First Phase: Margaret limits your moves by only allowing phys and almighty to deal damage. The type of phys spell she last used will be drained. Vorpal Blade is your friend. Being in great condition, this is the most damaging skill one can use in this phase. Although its crit rate is lacking (As opposed to what this footage shows). If she used a slash spell last, power charge. And hope Vorpal Blade crits a lot.
Second Phase: The Ailment/Almighty/Phys/Magic phase. She does a lot of things here, typically increasing ailment rates and casting 3 ailments (Poison, Charm and Rage). And some Insta-kills and Magic Spells here and there. This is the phase where one can do the most amount of damage. Rage being the key for victory. The best DPS is only possible due to the passive "Raging Tiger" and "Weapons Master". Both boosts your phys attacks significantly. And thanks to Rage's effect of lowering your defense in exchange for being able to do phys attack twice, one can possibly do around 2K damage per turn while enraged (With Tarukaja and Repelling her attacks).
Third Phase: Margaret now exclusively uses magic spells. And she limits the usable skills to the opposite of the last element she used (Fire-Ice, Elec-Wind) and almighty spells yet again. All one can do is hope she uses the element opposite to what your Messiah is made for (He has the best magic DPS when built right). If not, one can stall with Mind Charge. And in the worst case scenario, one can use a generic 4th tier elemental build to attack.
Fourth Phase: Margaret cycles through the Moirae sisters. Supercharging, doing random support/ailments skills, and attacking with Megidolaon and a phys spell. The worst case scenario being her using Makarakarn/Tetrakarn with Lachesis. This is countered by removing these shields by either using an item or attacking. Due to her cycling between 3 personas, it is much more reliable to follow suit with cycling with the same amount of turns. Charging, countering what she does with Lachesis (Either refilling SP if she spirit drains, taking her shield off or if she does neither, use Tarukaja or Best Friends). Repelling her phys spells would net 1.5K damage in the best case scenario (Without any usage of Myriad Arrows). This is where keeping up when is her last turn is important (When using Clotho for the 4th time) due to the 5th phase.
Fifth phase: Margaret will imitate the last move the player does. If one uses a fire spell, she will use that. If one heals, she will as well. If one uses a charge spell, she will use Insta-Kills. You get the idea. Oddly, she carries Elizabeth's personas in this phase and with that, her mechanics involving opposite elements as well (She will take more damage if you attack the opposite of the last skill she used) So it is imperative that one must use an elemental spell on the last turn of the 4th phase so that she loop from the get-go. The idea is to alternate between opposites of two elements. Ideally, using Messiah due to his high magic DPS. If one manages to reduce her to below 6.5K HP in the previous phases, it is possible beat her without Armageddon. Interestingly enough, unlike the first four phases, she will use a Slime if you ran out of turns in this phase instead of Pixie.
For this run, I managed to do around, per phase, 5,816 + 10,114 + 4,902 + 5,360 + 3808 in 48 turns.
The last part is to simply prove it is on Maniac mode. I look forward to doing this again on January 19.
Luckily enough, only done in one attempt. I always had this as a goal to do with my "perfect save" run of P3P on Maniac NG. Quite a lucky run until I missed at the end.
Anyways, to explain the strategy, this fight has 5 phases to do. Each having separate gimmicks done. Each phase lasts for 10 turns. There are a handful of general rules to follow in this fight and that is 1)Do not equip the Omnipotent Orb, 2)Do not use Armageddon unless it will kill and 3)You must do approximately 5K damage and above per phase. At least, the first 4 phases. Luckily, the game counts total damage done per phase with rule number 3 so if you fall behind 5K damage in one phase but the extra damage done in the previous phase is enough to get you above the threshold, you should be fine. She has 30K health so you must do around 6K damage per phase in order to beat her without Armageddon. All personas and equipment used is showed at the end of the video.
Something to keep in mind in general. In P3, charge spells only doubles damage dealt so it is used more for stalling purposes. For Power Charge, it is also to lower HP that's reduced when using phys spells.
The strategy per phase is as follows:
Start of the fight, use Oracle and pray you get Power/Mind Charge (Oddly enough, the descriptions of Oracle effects are almost all incorrect. "All Ailments Cured" is the one we are aiming for. For reference, "HP & SP Restored" is Heat Riser, "Reduced HP to 1" is Revolution. Funnily enough, "All HP Restored" does as it says.)
First Phase: Margaret limits your moves by only allowing phys and almighty to deal damage. The type of phys spell she last used will be drained. Vorpal Blade is your friend. Being in great condition, this is the most damaging skill one can use in this phase. Although its crit rate is lacking (As opposed to what this footage shows). If she used a slash spell last, power charge. And hope Vorpal Blade crits a lot.
Second Phase: The Ailment/Almighty/Phys/Magic phase. She does a lot of things here, typically increasing ailment rates and casting 3 ailments (Poison, Charm and Rage). And some Insta-kills and Magic Spells here and there. This is the phase where one can do the most amount of damage. Rage being the key for victory. The best DPS is only possible due to the passive "Raging Tiger" and "Weapons Master". Both boosts your phys attacks significantly. And thanks to Rage's effect of lowering your defense in exchange for being able to do phys attack twice, one can possibly do around 2K damage per turn while enraged (With Tarukaja and Repelling her attacks).
Third Phase: Margaret now exclusively uses magic spells. And she limits the usable skills to the opposite of the last element she used (Fire-Ice, Elec-Wind) and almighty spells yet again. All one can do is hope she uses the element opposite to what your Messiah is made for (He has the best magic DPS when built right). If not, one can stall with Mind Charge. And in the worst case scenario, one can use a generic 4th tier elemental build to attack.
Fourth Phase: Margaret cycles through the Moirae sisters. Supercharging, doing random support/ailments skills, and attacking with Megidolaon and a phys spell. The worst case scenario being her using Makarakarn/Tetrakarn with Lachesis. This is countered by removing these shields by either using an item or attacking. Due to her cycling between 3 personas, it is much more reliable to follow suit with cycling with the same amount of turns. Charging, countering what she does with Lachesis (Either refilling SP if she spirit drains, taking her shield off or if she does neither, use Tarukaja or Best Friends). Repelling her phys spells would net 1.5K damage in the best case scenario (Without any usage of Myriad Arrows). This is where keeping up when is her last turn is important (When using Clotho for the 4th time) due to the 5th phase.
Fifth phase: Margaret will imitate the last move the player does. If one uses a fire spell, she will use that. If one heals, she will as well. If one uses a charge spell, she will use Insta-Kills. You get the idea. Oddly, she carries Elizabeth's personas in this phase and with that, her mechanics involving opposite elements as well (She will take more damage if you attack the opposite of the last skill she used) So it is imperative that one must use an elemental spell on the last turn of the 4th phase so that she loop from the get-go. The idea is to alternate between opposites of two elements. Ideally, using Messiah due to his high magic DPS. If one manages to reduce her to below 6.5K HP in the previous phases, it is possible beat her without Armageddon. Interestingly enough, unlike the first four phases, she will use a Slime if you ran out of turns in this phase instead of Pixie.
For this run, I managed to do around, per phase, 5,816 + 10,114 + 4,902 + 5,360 + 3808 in 48 turns.
The last part is to simply prove it is on Maniac mode. I look forward to doing this again on January 19.
