Persona 5 Strikers is only a few weeks away, so it’s time to rally the Phantom Thieves together for one last adventure. Developed by Omega Force and P-Studio, Strikers is a radically different style of game than the smash-hit JRPG Persona 5. Combat is no-longer turn-based, but a mix of the army smashing battles of the Dynasty Warriors franchise and the strategic combos of Final Fantasy VII: Remake. While you will often use a ton of items purchased from stores, some of the best items are locked behind cooking. A new mechanic introduced in Persona 5 Strikers, players will be able to buy ingredients to cook healing meals.
How to Cook
Cooking is unlocked a couple of hours into Persona 5 Strikers’ prologue. Right as you’re about to leave Tokyo, Sojiro will give you some ingredients along with the recipe for his curry and coffee. This will unlock the ability to cook meals, which is accessed via a menu when your party is in the RV. You can cook meals any time you are given access to the RV, but it cannot be done while exploring a Jail. Cooking is strictly tied to the camper, so you’ll need to prepare your meals before heading into the Metaverse.
Prepared meals are almost always better than items you can find in stores. While there are a few exceptions, cooked meals often let you heal or recover SP for the entire party. This can be invaluable in the later Jails where you’ll often come across tough bosses who can deal a lot of area of effect damage. Being able to heal your entire party can make these battles far less stressful, so definitely make sure to stock up on food whenever you can. However, to create the best meals you’ll need to upgrade your Master Chef Bond in the Bond submenu. Doing so gives Joker the ability to cook better meals.
Where to Get Ingredients
In order to actually cook meals, you’ll need to obtain the needed ingredients. Produce can be typically be procured in most towns you’ll visit. Each area usually has a grocery store that exclusively sells ingredients for cooking, however, some restaurants will also sell specialty ingredients. Because of this, I strongly recommend that you check every store in town before proceeding into that area’s Jail. Plus, you’ll often find a lot of recipes simply by visiting other restaurants, allowing you to expand your catalog of healing and SP recovery options.
Eventually (around the third Jail), you’ll be given a Request option which rewards the player with more items in Sophia’s shop inventory. Make sure to complete this, as it will let you start buying ingredients from her. Unfortunately, your options will be limited, so you’ll need to keep an eye out for more Requests that expand her wares. Requests are often given either when you first arrive in a city or after a major event takes place, such as the player getting ready to send a calling card.
Once you have ingredients in her shop, you can simply scroll to the bottom and purchase the ingredients you need. Since she usually restocks every day, I just buy up every piece of food any chance I get. It’s only going to cost you a few thousand yen, which can easily be earned by exploring a Jail. Finally, you can earn some rarer ingredients by completing Requests, but these are typically tied to quests that end with you getting a recipe for those ingredients. Your best method is to just purchase all your food whenever it’s available in stores or Sophia’s online shop.
