Your social stats in Persona 5 play an important role in the experience, and in this guide will take you through how to increase Knowledge, Guts, Charm, Proficiency, and Kindness as quickly and efficiently as possible.
It’s important to note that social stats, while seemingly useless in Palaces and Mementos, are increasingly important in establishing social links, which leads to Confidants and new abilities.
You’ll find yourself ranking up naturally as you progress through the game, and things like romancing — which we cover here — dictates you reach a certain level and rank before progressing down the intimate relationship route.
Let’s take a look at each social stat, what it represents, why it’s important, and how you can increase it quickly.
Knowledge
Knowledge is, as you might expect, related to the general intelligence of the protagonist. The smarter and higher the Knowledge rank, the better and more positively NPCs will react towards you and perceive you.
How To Increase Knowledge
Primarily, you want to do things that relate to school and studying.
Things like reading — specifically those that focus on Knowledge — and studying in the Library will help boost this stat.
Attending school regularly, and helping others with their work will also help this stat increase quickly.
Finally, answering exam questions correctly will boost the Knowledge stat. View our exam results guide for all of the right answers.
Guts
Guts is an important stat as it can lead to a better arsenal. It will allow you to purchase weapons from Untouchable, and certain NPCs will also become approachable once you reach a certain Guts rank. For example, the teacher Sadayo can only be romanced once you have the Guts to call her. She is a teacher, after all!
So, essentially, Guts is how bold, brazen and courageous you are.
How To Increase Guts
As with all other stats, if you find a book related to Guts, reading the whole thing will boost your Guts rank. Establishing a relationship with Tae Takemi — as detailed in our romance guide — will also help raise the rank.
Guts will help improve your efficiency while studying, so the more you study and ignore noises and distractions, the more this rank will rise. Studying in the Shibuya cafe and drinking coffee is another way to boost it.
Finally, competing in and winning the Burger Joint eating contest in Shibuya will grant you some hefty Guts rank boost. This will also boost Proficiency.
Charm
Similar to Guts, Charm is an important social skill when attempting to establish relationships, particularly romantic ones. As we detail in our romance guide, you’ll need it to get in Ann’s good books.
How To Increase Charm
You can read Charm-specific books, and work in the flower shop to boost this rank.
Spending 500 Yen in the Leblanc Bathhouse will also grant a Charm boost, but be cautious of the time, as time advances when bathing at that location. You’ll get additional ranking experience if you visit on Mondays and Thursdays.
Finally, if you build a relationship with the politician, attending their events will grant you Charm, albeit not much. It’s still a fairly simple way to boost the rank, though.
Proficiency
Proficiency is a stat that will make you more efficient and creatively succinct, so it’s useful when crafting different infiltration tools.
How To Increase Proficiency
Reading and completing a proficiency-specific book will increase this stat, as will crafting infiltration tools. You’ll need Proficiency to craft, but the more you craft, the more your Proficiency rank is boosted.
Working in the Beef Bowl restaurant in Shibuya is another way, as is hitting the batting cage every now and then (just make sure you hit the ball!).
Kindness
Kindness is a nice blend between all social stats, and will allow you to open up different jobs and relationships with certain NPCs. Some NPCs won’t talk to you unless you have a benchmark Kindness rank.
How To Increase Kindness
Reading a Kindness-specific book — and completing it — will raise this rank. Certain NPCs will also grant a rank boost if you successfully complete a request for them. Some restaurants will offer customer service jobs, and being a face-to-face task, you can boost the Kindness rank. Leblanc is probably your easiest bet for that.
For more Persona 5 guides, check out our game hub.