Persona 5 The Phantom X: Best Riddle Build

Haruna Nishimori, known in the Metaverse by her codename “Riddle”, is a 5* Psy Element Strategist in Persona 5 The Phantom X who excels at applying party-wide attack buffs, with a secondary focus on buffing healing and boosting shields. This makes her a fantastic and flexible support character in a lot of different team compositions.

This Persona 5 The Phantom X guide will explain the ins and outs of Haruna’s moveset, discussing each of her skills and which should be prioritized first when enhancing them, her best weapons, the best revelation cards to use with her, and some suggested team compositions that take full advantage of her abilities.

How Does Riddle Work in Persona 5 The Phantom X?

Riddle is a Psy Element Strategist whose main focus is applying powerful attack buffs to the party. When she uses her first skill, “Surprise Squad”, she allows her allies to generate Childish Heart stacks for her whenever they attack. Gaining Childish Heart Stacks also causes Haruna to gain the same number of Mystery Stacks, and both can stack up to 5. Whenever Haruna uses any of her skills, she’ll spend all of her Childish Heart Stacks, applying a stacking attack buff to all party members for each stack spent. Her Highlight allows her to deal a ton of Single-Target Psy damage and spend all of her Mystery stacks, granting a stacking attack buff to all party members for each Mystery stack spent.

This makes up the majority of her moveset, with her second skill, “Ready for Adventure”, providing a healing, shield received, and defense buff to all party members. It also grants her two stacks of Childish Heart if she doesn’t have any. Her third skill, “Courageous Campaign”, applies a party-wide attack buff that grows more powerful if she has at least 2 Childish Heart stacks when activating it.

Riddle’s Skills:

Riddle’s Awareness:

Getting extra copies of Riddle from the Contract Banners will allow you to unlock Awareness Skills, which further empower her.

What Skills Should Riddle Level Up First in Persona 5 The Phantom X?

Haruna performs best when she’s buffing up the party and using her highlight regularly, so it’s especially important to level up Courageous Campaign and Thief Tactics first. After that, Ready for Adventure should be your next priority, since it makes the team a lot more durable when used well, especially if you bring someone who can apply shields. Finally, level up Surprise Squad last, since you’ll mainly be using it to get the Affection buff on your party, which doesn’t require it to be leveled up. Of course, it’s still worth leveling Surprise Squad eventually so you can squeeze extra damage out of Riddle’s playstyle.

Best Weapons for Riddle in Persona 5 The Phantom X

Riddle uses an assortment of pickaxes as her weapon of choice, with the best option being the 5* “Sweet Pickaxe.” This offers a sizable attack boost while also providing stacks of the “Whimsy” buff whenever Haruna spends Childish Heart stacks. Whimsy raises Haruna’s attack, and will be automatically spent when an ally deals damage with a skill to provide the same attack buff to them instead. Whimsy lasts for 2 turns.

Since the Sweet Pickaxe is a 5* weapon, it can be a bit irritating to get hold of, so players seeking an efficient alternative should look for the “Chirpy Pickaxe” instead. This 4* Weapon provides a decent attack increase to Haruna, while also applying a stacking attack buff to allies when she uses a skill on them. She applies stacks of this attack buff equal to the number of attack buffs that the ally has, capping at 3 stacks, which can make this effect incredibly potent when paired with her buff-heavy skillset.

Best Revelation Cards for Riddle in Persona 5 The Phantom X

Riddle’s Courageous Campaign skill scales off her Attack stat, which makes the Power card set bonus very useful to her. When paired with a Trust Space card, she can get the Trust and Power bonus, raising all allies attack by 10% at the start of battle too. Since her skillset is all about applying attack buffs to her allies, this synergizes well with her playstyle.

That said, easily the best option for Haruna is to grab a full set of Abundance cards and a Trust Space card. This will provide her with an 8% reduction to damage taken, fill the highlight gauge by 25% at the start of battle (making it easier to spend her Mystery stacks for an early boost), and applying an 8% damage buff to the entire party for 2 turns whenever she uses a skill on an ally.

Best Team Compositions for Riddle in Persona 5 The Phantom X

Riddle is excellent in nearly any party due to her powerful attack buffs, which are welcome in any setup. She performs especially well when working alongside Leon/Leo Kamiyama, Yuki/Yukimi Fujikawa, Puppet/Miyu Sahara, and any other character who can apply shields, since Ready for Adventure boosts Shield Received. For similar reasons, she pairs well with any Medic. Since attack buffs are especially potent when used with characters that can attack multiple times or otherwise increase their number of attacks per round, like Closer/Matoha Arai, Fleuret/Seiji Shiratori, and Bui/Yui.

For an easy-to-assemble but very effective team using Riddle, pair her up with Closer/Matoha Arai, Sepia/Toshiya Sumi, and Puppet/Miyu Sahara. Closer and Sepia will both benefit from Riddle’s attack buffs, with Closer’s multi-striking attacks allowing Sepia to gain Verse stacks and trigger his follow-up attacks. Puppet’s shields are powerful on their own, but become even better with help from Riddle’s Ready for Adventure skill, and it’s not too tricky to set Wonder up as either a guardian to apply more shields, or a medic to keep the group healthy.