Persona 5 Royal: Why You Need To Find Hifumi And Make Her A Confidant
One of the defining features of "Persona 5 Royal" is that, in addition to the dungeon delving and boss battles, Joker also spends a lot of his time simply hanging out with friends. Not only does this allow the player to learn more about the backgrounds and motivations of the various characters that they are working alongside in the game, but it also grants the Phantom Thieves new abilities. This may tempt many players to focus a majority of their time and effort exclusively on upgrading their fellow Phantom Thieves team members since they are the ones who will gain special abilities in the cognitive world, but other confidants can grant significant bonuses as well.
Getting to know the Tower confidant Shinya Oda will unlock a special Shoot-Out ability that is randomly activated at the start of certain battles and upgrading the Temperance confidant Sadayo Kawakami will grant the player access to a special massage that energizes Joker to go out at night after spending the day in the Metaverse. Some of the most valuable of these special abilities come from the Star confidant, Hifumi Togo. She can't be unlocked until about a third of the way into the game, but there are a few reasons why players should endeavor to find her and make her a confidant as soon as possible.
Swapping out teammates is invaluable
Nearly all of the confidants in "Persona 5 Royal" grant Joker bonus abilities, but few of them are as useful in the Metaverse as the ones he obtains from the Star. This is because Hifumi Togo is a master shogi player. Shogi is an ancient Japanese game similar to chess that is known for requiring its players to think tactically in order to win, so it makes sense that learning from a master would allow the leader of Phantom Thieves to pick up a few tips.
There are six abilities that Joker can obtain from Hifumi. The first of these is one of the most important skills in the game. Koma Saba allows the player to swap out party members during Joker's turn. This costs the player Joker's turn, but it's invaluable if the player needs to swap in a character who has the ability they need or if they need to swap out a character who has an elemental weakness to the enemy's attacks. Uchikomi makes it so that there is a chance that an ally will follow up with an attack after Joker downs an enemy, Kakoi Kuzushi allows players a chance to escape if they are surrounded, Narikin grants players double money rewards if they ambush an enemy and defeat them in a single turn, Touryou, allows players to escape from battle without having to wait through a turn delay, and finally, the Togo System is an upgraded version of Koma Saba that allows Phantom Thieves to be swapped out on any turn.
How to gain Hifumi as a confidant
In order to unlock Hifumi as a confidant, players first need to get the Emperor confidant Yusuke Kitagawa to rank 2. This means that they won't be able to even meet her until at least part of the way through the museum palace that belongs to Ichiryusai Madarame. At this point in the game, players will begin to hear about a prolific shogi player who often spends time at a church in Kanda.
It isn't quite as simple as going to the church and having Joker introduce himself to Hifumi, however. Several of the Star confidant's ranks are locked until Joker has a high enough level in certain social stats. He needs to be rank 3 in Charm just to gain Hifumi as a confidant and he will need to have maxed out his Knowledge stats in order to get her confidant level to 8.
The easiest way to level up Charm in the early game is by spending time in the local bathhouse, though players can also increase this stat by ranking up the Devil and Sun confidants and by working at the Crossroads bar or eating at the maid café in Shinjuku. Ranking Knowledge all the way to max will take some time, but players will get some of these points simply by spending time with Hifumi. Players can also consistently level this stat up by studying, listening in class, answering questions correctly in class, and sleeping in class.