Persona 5 is a massive game full of tons of characters to meet. Some characters you meet are confidants who you can spend time with and get closer to as you become a part of their individualized story. Time in Persona games is limited, so a total of 23 confidants can be daunting.

Related: Persona 5 Royal, All Palaces, Ranked

While there is time for you to go through all ten ranks of each confidant, some offer much better rewards than others. Getting some of these rewards sooner rather than later can greatly help your playthrough. Here are some of the best confidants you need to spend time with right away.

Updated By Joshua Leeds On January 28th, 2023: With over 20 confidants, there are a lot of stories to be seen and bonus abilities to obtain. So, we've updated this post with five more confidants for you to focus on.

15 Haru

Haru Okumura Awakening Her Persona

Haru is the last addition to the phantom thieves, and being such a late edition, she is missed by many fans who have already fallen into a rhythm of how they spend their free time. While many of her social link bonuses follow a teammate's usual bonuses, she can also be used to grow vegetables.

These vegetables can be used as different healing items in the metaverse, and with enough ranks, can make farming them very efficient. This bonus only falls off as you acquire it so late in the game that SP management may no longer be an issue for players.

14 Yusuke

Yusuke Awakening To His Persona

Yusuke's social link bonuses also follow the usual teammate format while focusing on skill cards. Skill carded to give your personas unique skills they may not usually learn and can be a much easier method to fuse an ability to a specific persona.

Some skill cards obtained later in the game are very powerful and great to be used on many different personas. Instead of trying to get the same skill card many times, Yusuke can duplicate the card multiple times, allowing you to apply a powerful skill to as many personas as you'd like.

13 Shinya

Shinya And Joker At The Arcade

Shinya's social link bonuses revolve around guns, making them even more efficient than they are. Persona 5 Royal saw a significant overhaul to guns to make them more usable, restoring used bullets after each battle.

Shinya allows the player to use Bullet Hail, a gun-based All-Out-Attack that sometimes triggers an ambush. You can also forcibly knock down an enemy using your gun or ignore resistance to make sure your gun is always a worthwhile option.

12 Sojiro

P5R Getting Confidant Points For Sojiro

Sojio's social link shows some of the most significant growth throughout the game, going from constantly giving you the cold shoulder to being a father figure to Joker. As the owner of the café, his bonuses revolve around teaching Joker how to make coffee and curry, which can be used as great SP recovery items in the metaverse.

The later bonuses allow you to make items that restore significant amounts of SP and are usually well worth the time it takes to make them. This confidant also pairs nicely with the Kawakami's bonuses, allowing you to make lots of SP items while also getting other things done.

11 Caroline And Justine

Twin Wardens Social Link Maxed

Caroline and Justine's social links function very differently, acting more as side quests than usual hangouts. Ranking up this social link doesn't require time but does require players to fuse specific personas with specific abilities.

Related: Persona 5 Royal: Best Personas, Ranked

This social link is very useful because their ranks allow you to fuse personas over Joker's level, with it later being at a discount. While you will need a lot of Yen to fuse these personas, you'll be able to effectively have Joker be many levels above the current palace, making even the most challenging boss fights much easier.

10 Iwai

Persona 5 Iwai Confidant Menu Rank 5

A shady model gun store owner who is interrogated by the police in front of customers should be more than enough to get you interested in this confidant line. Being your main supplier of weapons, you'll be going to see Iwai many times throughout the game.

Ranking up this confidant will not only give you access to more guns but also allow you to mod your existing guns. Iwai can upgrade your weapons to do more damage, be more accurate, or add elemental effects to the target.

9 Futaba

Persona 5 Futaba Confidant Playing Videogames

Despite being a member of the Phantom Thieves, Futaba's confidant bonuses are completely different from the others. Futaba is a supporting character who will occasionally act to support your party in combat.

She is able to heal or buff your party randomly, and increasing her confidant gives her those abilities. Mementos can be a grind to get through, and she will have the chance to map out a floor the second you enter it. Her best ability by far allows for the chance for her to switch out two downed party members mid-combat to swing things back in your favor.

8 Yoshida

Persona 5 Yoshida Confidant Hang Out

Yoshia's confidant bonuses revolve around negotiations, an important part of getting money, items, and new Personas. Usually, Personas cannot be recruited if they are higher in level than Joker, but Yoshida allows you to be able to recruit them.

With his confidant bonus, you are also able to greatly increase your Yen farming capabilities. In a holdup, you can request money, and if this succeeds, Yoshia's bonus allows you to ask again and again until you fail. This allows you to get thousands of Yen from a hold-up and farm battles to make more money than you can spend.

7 Takemi

Takemi Medicine Store Menu

Takemi is the local doctor and the person who sells you your medical items in the game. As her confidant rank increases, she will offer different and better healing items. Her confidant does require high social stats to finish despite unlocking the confidant early, but this is to lock away the incredible healing items she will eventually sell.

Her healing items are expensive but can outpace most of the healing spells your party members unlock. Being readily equipped with tons of high-end medicine can make any party member into a healer in a pinch.

6 Kawakami

Kawakami in Classroom Asking Joker a Question

To be blunt, this confidant can be a little weird and cringy all the way through. That being said, the most limited resource in the game is time, and this confidant allows you more of it. One of the most noticeable changes to the Royal edition is not having Morgana telling you to go the bed and taking away your nights.

With this confidant you can also go out at night after exploring the Metaverse or doing any random chore around Leblanc while you do something else. Many SP items can be made in Leblanc, and with this confidant they can be done for you without having to make them yourself.

5 Maruki

Persona Maruki Confidant Menu Rank 9

Another addition to the Royal edition is the counselor Maruki. While his confidant is required to unlock the bonus semester and palace, there are also many incredibly good bonuses he gives you along the way.

With this confidant maxed, Joker has the ability to instantly recover from status ailments randomly or to start a battle Charged for a high damage first round. He also helps with SP management by raising Joker's max SP and allows you to recover it automatically when you get low.

4 Kasumi

Sumire as Kasumi Awakening Her Persona

Kasumi's confidant is all about ambushing while in a palace. Spending time with this confidant also allows you to increase Joker's max HP, the same as working out but also adding bonuses for the confidant.

Related: Persona 5 Royal: Best Party Members, Ranked

With this confidant, you're able to ambush shadows from a distance using your grappling hook. You're also given a small window to dodge when a shadow tries to ambush you, flipping over and ambushing them back. With both of these abilities and a good reaction time, you will never be ambushed again, and always start with an ambush yourself.

3 Ryuji

Ryuji In Phantom Thief Attire

Much of Ryuji's confidant revolves around the basics for a Phantom Thief confidant. These bonuses make him more useful in combat, such as possible follow-up attacks and curing party members of status ailments.

Ryuji is a step above the rest, not just with his stealth running but also his instant kill. Stealth runner makes you harder to detect while sprinting, helping keep the security from getting too high. His instant kill ability allows you to instantly kill a shadow in the Palace if you are a certain number of levels higher. This can make driving through Mementos much more bearable and farming at the higher levels much quicker and more efficient.

2 Mishima

Persona 5 Mishima Showing off Phan-Site

It can get tedious having to switch out party members often to make sure everyone levels up equally and stays viable should you need to switch them in. With other confidant bonuses, it's important to keep your back line just as strong as your front to be able to switch mid-combat to adjust your strategy.

Mishima not only increases the overall experience gained but also increases the XP of your backup party members. By max rank, everyone will be earning the same amount of experience. If you have a set party you'd prefer to use, you can save your backline for only the necessities and limit your overall grinding time.

1 Hifumi

Persona 5 Hifumi Beginning of Confidant

Hifumi is a Shogi player, and she teaches Joker how to be a strategist in battle. With this confidant, you're able to earn more money by winning in a single round and also allow for backup party members to provide follow-up attacks. This is not a usual occurrence in the Persona series, and its addition here is an incredible bonus.

Her biggest bonus is giving you the ability for party members to switch themselves out mid-combat with someone from the back line. At her max rank, she also allows Joker to switch anyone out from his turn, allowing you to reconfigure your team for any situation.

Next: Persona 5 Royal: Hardest Bosses, Ranked