How to defeat Margaret relatively simply

Margaret is your velvet room assistant which helps you keep your Persona compendium and our favourite Marie troll. She is also the most difficult boss fight in the game.

Unlike other, more detailed guides, this is just a brief outline of what will go down in her fight, and what you should do to prepare against her.

The Margaret boss fight is only available in NG+. Defeat all optional bosses from Yukiko's Castle to Heaven, and have Margaret's Social Link at Rank 10. On March 20, enter the Velvet Room after obtaining the Orb of Truth and she will give you the Aqua Invitation. Meet her on top of Heaven and face her.
I would like to reassert the fact that Margaret is the strongest boss in the game. This means you should spare no preparations before fighting her.

Your team members should all be at Level 99 or close, with all of their ultimate moves unlocked. For my fight, I brought Chie, Yukiko, and Kanji. With the exception of Yoshitsune, Margaret does not have resistances to physical, and with Chie's God Hand and Kanji's Primal Force, they are able to deal a fair amount of damage against Margaret. Yukiko and her Burning Petals are also extremely powerful against Margaret.

For my own character, I gave him the best armor I could buy from Daidara, which was probably from Mangatsu Inaba. From my experience, Margaret is the easiest Velvet Room boss between the 3 games, and it will be abundantly clear once your bring out Yoshitsune. As long as your equipment are over 200, I think you should be good. If you want to overprepare just to be cautious or you are unable to beat Margaret, you can obtain all ultimate equipment from the Reaper.

In Margaret's fight, she will constantly spam severe elemental attacks, and they will often be targeted at those who are weak to it, including your teammates. Any accessory that increases evasion are useful, however I used Fire Vow for Yukiko to increase her damage, and Chakra Ring for Chie so Dragon Hustle will not cost as much.

For your own Personas, try to give all of them resistances to Fire, Ice, Wind and Lightning, as those will be the elemental moves she will spam. Repel passives are useless and even detrimental in this fight, as Margaret can absorb the reflected damage and heal. I mainly brought 3 Personas to fight against Margaret:

Yoshitsune, Trumpeter, and Izanagi-No-Okami

For Yoshitsune, I gave him Absorb Ice, Fire, Wind and Electric. I also added Apt Pupil and Arms Master, your usual passives.

For Izanagi-No-Okami, he is just the Persona I chose to be my auto-buffer. Any Persona can take his place, as long as they have Auto-Mataru, Auto-Masuku, and Auto-Maraku.

For Trumpeter, he will be the buffer. He has Debilitate, Heat Riser, Power Charge, and Enduring Soul. I forgot to give him the Absorb passives, but it worked out for me in the end. Margaret will inflict a 9999 damage Megidolaon every 25 turns, so make sure you bring Endure and/or Enduring Soul just to be careful. In my run, I was lucky that I had Trumpeter equipped when she used it, but you should probably keep count of how many turns have passed.

All 3 Personas are Level 99, and you should try to increase Yoshitsune's Strength stat to 99, but in the Margaret fight mine was only 79.

I will provide the list of Personas who drop the skill cards I used.

Absorb Wind Horus 68 Sun

Absorb Elec Lucifer 93 Judgement

Absorb Ice Isis 79 Empress

Absorb Fire Hell Biker 66 Hanged Man

Enduring Soul Attis 82 Hanged Man

Auto-Masuku Kingu 58 Aeon

Auto-Mataru Narashimha 47 Sun

Auto-Maraku Setanta 34 Emperor

Any missing skill cards, you can look for them in this list: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/641695-persona-4-golden/70843788

For items, buy some Bead of Life and the best party healing items. SP recharges are also important, as depending on your team it might end up being a long fight.


Now, onto the actual fight. Margaret has 2 phases. She follows an elemental cycle where she uses elemental moves in the same order: Fire, Ice, Elec, then Lightning, then Mind Charge Megidolaon. Whenever she manages to down one of your teammate, she will proceed to use the severe elemental damage to all of your teammates, causing the downed one to become Dizzy. Yukiko's Salvation is extremely important due to this. She will always target someone who is weak to that element. To ensure maximum damage, always use Rise's analyse to check her resistances and make sure she doesn't null or resist your attacks.

You should constantly use Trumpeter to spam Debilitate on her, then Power Charge before Yoshitsune Hassou Tobi. Chie should use Dragon Hustle to keep the Heat Riser buffs on your teammates. Yukiko will heal when necessary otherwise Burning Petals. Kanji can solely focus on Power Charge and Primal Force.

In Phase 2, which occurs the first time you bring her below 50% health, which is 7500 damage, she will use a Morning Star and Diarahan to bring her back to full health. When you bring her back down to 50% health again, she will begin using Power Charge Hassou Tobis at you. Yoshitsune already nullfies Physical, so you're fine.

Pay attention to the number of turns. Once she reaches her 25th turn, she will use a 9999 damage Megidolaon. Make sure your Persona has Enduring Soul. This also means there is a turn limit to Margaret. Assuming Rise Rank 10, Endure, and Enduring Soul, you will have a maximum of 100 turns against her. Although if you were to reach over 50 turns, you might want to consider strengthening your team and Personas.

This fight will be a test of your patience and endurance. Overall with a relatively well built team, you should be able to more than easily defeat her.

Here is my own attempt on Very Hard difficulty. It was my first try, and I made a few mistakes here and there, but I was still able to defeat her with relative ease.


I hope this guide helps anyone who plans to fight Margaret!