Best Vino (Chizuko Nagao) Build in Persona 5: The Phantom X

Vino, or Chizuko Nagao, is a valuable and versatile member of the Phantom Thieves in Persona 5: The Phantom X. Her proficiency in Curse skills and supportive abilities makes her an essential asset for tackling challenging shadows and navigating the Metaverse. This guide will delve into constructing the optimal Vino build, encompassing her best skills, strategic use of Space and Heaven Cards, recommended weapons, and ideal team compositions. We aim to provide a comprehensive strategy for maximizing Vino’s potential and ensuring her contribution to your team’s success.

Vino’s Core Strengths and Playstyle

Before diving into the specifics of the build, it’s crucial to understand Vino’s core strengths. Vino excels as a Curse-based damage dealer with significant support capabilities. Her unique skills allow her to inflict status ailments, debuff enemies, and provide crucial healing and buffs to allies. This makes her a flexible character who can adapt to various combat scenarios. Her primary role is to weaken enemies with Curse skills, creating opportunities for follow-up attacks from other party members. She can also serve as a secondary healer and buffer, enhancing the team’s overall survivability and damage output. Understanding her strengths and applying them to her build makes her extremely strong.

Optimal Skill Selection for Vino

Selecting the right skills for Vino is paramount to maximizing her effectiveness. Prioritize skills that amplify her Curse damage, inflict debilitating status ailments, and provide essential support functionalities.

Essential Curse Skills

• Mamudoon/Maeigaon: These are Vino’s core Curse damage skills. Mamudoon is an all-target Curse skill with a high chance of instant death, while Maeigaon is a heavy single-target Curse skill. Maximize the use of these to destroy shadows.
• Eigaon: A potent single-target Curse skill. This will serve as a main damage skill for a single target.
• Curse Boost/Amp: These passive skills significantly increase the damage dealt by Curse skills. They are essential for maximizing Vino’s damage output. Always prioritize to max this skill.
• Curse Pleroma: Further enhances Curse damage, providing a significant boost to her offensive capabilities. Make sure to max this skill.

Debuff and Ailment Skills

• Evil Smile: Inflicts Fear on all enemies. Fear reduces enemy stats and makes them more vulnerable to follow-up attacks. This is one of her strongest abilities.
• Pulinpa: Induces Confusion on a single target. Confused enemies may attack themselves or their allies, creating openings for your team. This is also one of her strongest abilities.
• Tarunda/Rakunda/Sukunda: These skills debuff enemy attack, defense, or accuracy/evasion, respectively. Lowering enemy stats improves your team’s survivability and increases damage output.

Support Skills

• Media/Mediarama/Mediarahan: Healing skills are crucial for sustaining the team’s health. Mediarahan fully heals the entire party.
• Energy Shower: Cures various ailments from allies, ensuring they remain effective in combat.
• Recarm/Samarecarm: Revives fallen allies. Samarecarm revives with full HP. This is a vital skill for handling unexpected enemy attacks or status ailments.
• Growth 3: This skill increases experience gained, which helps your entire team level up faster.

Passive Skills

• Invigorate 3/Regenerate 3: These skills restore SP each turn, allowing Vino to use her skills more frequently without running out of resources. Vino relies on skills that cost SP, that is why this skill is helpful.

Leveraging Space and Heaven Cards

Space and Heaven Cards can significantly enhance Vino’s abilities. Choose cards that complement her skill set and bolster her strengths.

Space Cards

• Curse Boost: Further increases the damage of her Curse skills.
• Magic UP: Increases her overall Magic stat, improving the effectiveness of all her skills.
• SP Recovery: Restores SP each turn, allowing her to use her skills more frequently.

Heaven Cards

• HP UP: Increases her overall HP, improving her survivability.
• Endure: Allows her to survive a fatal attack with 1 HP.
• Resist Physical/Magic: Reduces damage taken from Physical or Magical attacks.

Selecting the Best Weapons

Vino’s weapon choice should prioritize increasing her Magic stat and providing additional benefits like increased critical hit rate or status ailment infliction.

• Staves with High Magic Stat: Weapons that significantly boost her Magic stat will directly increase the damage of her Curse skills.
• Weapons with Ailment Boost: Some weapons may have a chance to inflict status ailments, further enhancing her ability to control the battlefield.
• Weapons with Critical Hit Rate: A higher critical hit rate can provide additional damage spikes and opportunities for follow-up attacks.

Ideal Teammates for Vino

Vino’s effectiveness is amplified when paired with teammates who complement her strengths and cover her weaknesses.

• Physical Damage Dealers: Teammates who excel at dealing Physical damage can exploit enemies weakened by Vino’s Curse skills and status ailments. Examples include the protagonist and other Phantom Thieves.
• Support Characters: A dedicated healer or buffer can provide additional support, ensuring the team’s survivability and increasing damage output.
• Characters with Technical Damage: Characters who can inflict Technical damage on enemies afflicted with status ailments can synergize well with Vino.

Specific Team Compositions

• Vino, Protagonist, Ryuji: This composition provides a balance of Curse damage, Physical damage, and support. The Protagonist can cover elemental weaknesses, Ryuji provides powerful Physical attacks, and Vino weakens enemies with Curse and ailments.
• Vino, Ann, Morgana: This composition focuses on Magical damage and status ailments. Ann provides Fire damage and ailment infliction, Morgana provides healing and support, and Vino provides Curse damage and ailment infliction.

Detailed Battle Strategy and Tactics

Vino’s role in battle is to weaken enemies, inflict status ailments, and provide support to the team. Use her Curse skills to deal damage and inflict ailments like Fear and Confusion. Debuff enemies to reduce their attack, defense, or accuracy. Use healing skills to keep the team healthy and revive fallen allies.

Prioritizing Targets

• Enemies Vulnerable to Curse: Target enemies with weaknesses to Curse skills to maximize damage output.
• Enemies with High Attack: Debuff enemies with high attack to reduce the damage they deal.
• Enemies Resistant to Physical Damage: Use Curse skills on enemies resistant to Physical damage.

Utilizing Status Ailments

• Fear: Inflict Fear on enemies to reduce their stats and make them more vulnerable to follow-up attacks.
• Confusion: Induce Confusion on enemies to make them attack themselves or their allies.
• Other Ailments: Utilize other ailments like Sleep, Shock, and Freeze to disable enemies and create opportunities for follow-up attacks.

SP Management

• Use SP Recovery Skills: Utilize skills like Invigorate 3 and Regenerate 3 to restore SP each turn.
• Use Items: Use items like SP Adhesive to restore SP during battle.
• Conserve SP: Avoid using skills unnecessarily to conserve SP for crucial moments.

Optimizing Vino’s Equipment and Accessories

The right equipment and accessories can further enhance Vino’s abilities.

• Armor with High Magic Defense: Armor that provides high Magic Defense will reduce the damage she takes from magical attacks.
• Accessories with Magic UP: Accessories that increase her Magic stat will directly increase the damage of her Curse skills.
• Accessories with Ailment Resistance: Accessories that provide resistance to status ailments will prevent her from being disabled in battle.
• Accessories with SP Recovery: Accessories that restore SP each turn will allow her to use her skills more frequently.

Detailed Skill Progression and Leveling Guide

This is a suggested skill progression to maximize Vino’s effectiveness throughout the game.

• Early Game: Focus on learning Mamudoon/Maeigaon and Evil Smile. These skills will provide essential Curse damage and ailment infliction.
• Mid Game: Prioritize learning Media/Mediarama and Tarunda/Rakunda/Sukunda. These skills will provide essential healing and debuffing capabilities.
• Late Game: Focus on learning Mediarahan, Samarecarm, and Curse Boost/Amp. These skills will provide the ultimate healing, revival, and damage boosting capabilities.

Advanced Strategies and Tips

• Utilize Hold Up: Use Vino’s skills to inflict status ailments and trigger Hold Ups. This will allow you to negotiate with shadows or perform an All-Out Attack.
• Exploit Weaknesses: Use Vino’s skills to exploit enemy weaknesses and deal massive damage.
• Adapt to the Situation: Be prepared to adapt your strategy based on the enemies you are facing and the situation in battle.

Understanding Vino’s Character Arc and Narrative Significance

Vino’s character arc in Persona 5: The Phantom X is deeply intertwined with themes of self-discovery, societal pressure, and the courage to confront personal demons. As Chizuko Nagao, she grapples with anxieties and insecurities stemming from societal expectations and personal relationships. Her journey within the Metaverse as Vino allows her to confront these issues, develop her sense of self, and find her own unique voice. This narrative arc adds depth and resonance to her gameplay, making her a compelling and relatable character. Understanding her motivations and struggles enhances the player’s connection to her and provides additional context for her actions in battle. By mastering Vino’s build and playstyle, players can not only optimize her combat effectiveness but also appreciate the richness of her character and her significant contribution to the Phantom Thieves’ cause.

By combining these detailed strategies, players can construct a formidable Vino build that maximizes her potential in Persona 5: The Phantom X. Her versatility as a Curse-based damage dealer and support character makes her an invaluable asset to any team. Remember to adapt your strategy based on the enemies you are facing and the situation in battle, and always prioritize teamwork and communication.