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Full Moon Operations are a major series turn of events in the Persona 3 series. Full Moon Operations occur every month during every full moon. In these events, one or two unusually powerful Shadows will appear somewhere in Tatsumi Port Island, attempting to cause destruction to an area important to the island’s civilians.

During the day of a Full Moon Operation, the protagonist can not do anything during the daytime or the evening and must stat in the dorm to prepare whenever possible. The Velvet Room is inaccessible during every Full Moon Operation. Likely in order to prevent a softlock from occurring, the player is not allowed to save the game during a Full Moon Operation. The exception to this is the operation on January 31st, as it instead locks the player in Tartarus until they reach the top. Clearing a Full Moon Operation unlocks new floors on Tartarus for exploration, but the protagonist will become fatigued on the days following a Full Moon Operation and cannot explore these new floors instantly whenever they are available.

In some Full Moon Operations, certain party members will be either forced to accompany the protagonist or unavailable in combat, due to story events.

In Reload, the player might save during a Full Moon operation.

The Full Moon Operation on July 7 is the first official one which S.E.E.S. conducted and planned for, as nobody pointed out the connection between full moons and the appearance of Arcana Shadows until June 8th. On May 9, the Arcana Priestess attacked the monorail completely unexpectedly and most of S.E.E.S. had to be woken up. Meanwhile, the team was completely blindsided by the appearances of Full Moon Shadows on April 9th and June 8th, although they were still combat-ready in the latter case due to their separate operation to rescue Fuuka Yamagishi from Tartarus. Regardless, S.E.E.S. still ends up encountering and eventually fighting against these Shadows by chance on every time that they appear.

Full Moon Battles[]

Date Enemy's Name Arcana Location Standard Level
April 9 Magician[1] Magician Iwatodai Dormitory Rooftop N/A
May 9[2] Priestess Priestess Monorail 8
June 8[3] Empress Empress Entrance to Tartarus 15
Emperor Emperor
July 7[4] Hierophant Hierophant Shirakawa Boulevard 21
Lovers Lovers
August 6 Chariot Chariot Underground Bunker 32
Justice Justice
September 5[5] Hermit Hermit Paulownia Mall, Club Escapade 40
October 4[6] Fortune Fortune Iwatodai Station 46
Strength Strength
November 3 Jin Shirato Hermit Moonlight Bridge 53
Takaya Sakaki Fortune
Hanged Man Hanged Man 54
January 31 Jin Shirato Hermit Tartarus 74
Takaya Sakaki Fortune 75
Nyx Avatar Fool - Death Top of Tartarus 76

Notes[]

  • The full moons on December 2 and December 31 are not meant for battle. However, they both still contain major story events as the former is when Ryoji reveals his true form, and the latter has the protagonist forced to decide on an offer which determines the fate of the world, possibly resulting in a bad ending.
  • The protagonist is free during the day on January 31 despite there being a Full Moon Operation on that day, as the January 31 Full Moon Operation is more akin to a typical Tartarus visit.
  • On Full Moon Operations, the protagonist will default to the "Good" status regardless of their previous condition, likely as another softlock-prevention measure. This does not apply to Reload as it does not have the fatigue system.

Trivia[]

  • The Arcana Magician is the only Full Moon Shadow that the player does not engage in battle with (although there is briefly a scripted battle sequence against it in place of an animated cutscene in Portable), as it is instead killed in a cutscene by Death.
  • The Operation on May 9th is the only one to have a time limit. In previous versions of the game, all battles leading up to and with the Arcana Priestess occur under a time limit of 8 minutes total. In Reload, only the Arcana Priestess battle has a time limit, which starts at 30 minutes but is halved each time the boss reaches a certain HP threshold.
  • Although full moons usually occur only once a month, 2 or the full moons in Persona 3’s calendar are in December. This is known as a blue moon, and despite the significance of these dates in the game and the euphemism “once in a blue moon,” referring to extremely rare events, blue moons are not particularly uncommon events in real-life.


Characters
Playable Male protagonist - Female protagonist - Yukari Takeba - Junpei Iori - Akihiko Sanada - Mitsuru Kirijo - Fuuka Yamagishi - Aigis - Koromaru - Ken Amada - Shinjiro Aragaki - Metis
Social Link Kenji Tomochika - Hidetoshi Odagiri - Bunkichi and Mitsuko - Kazushi Miyamoto - Chihiro Fushimi - Isako Toriumi - Keisuke Hiraga - Yuko Nishiwaki - Maiko Oohashi - Pharos - Bebe - President Tanaka - Mutatsu - Mamoru Hayase - Nozomi Suemitsu - Akinari Kamiki - Rio Iwasaki - Saori Hasegawa - Ryoji Mochizuki
Major Igor - Elizabeth - Theodore - Shuji Ikutsuki - Officer Kurosawa - Takaya Sakaki - Jin Shirato - Chidori Yoshino - Takeharu Kirijo - Kouetsu Kirijo - Eiichiro Takeba - Natsuki Moriyama - Nyx - Erebus - Margaret
Minor Kiyoshi Sakuma - Mr. Edogawa - Mr. Ekoda - Ms. Miyahara - Ms. Ounishi - Mrs. Terauchi - Kikuno Saikawa - Yuu Kimijima - Souta Aizawa - Kyouka Sayama
Cameo Yukiko Amagi - Noriko Kashiwagi - Man Drinking Alone
Location
Port Island Gekkoukan High School - Paulownia Mall - Iwatodai Station - Port Island Station - Naganaki Shrine - Dorm - Moonlight Bridge - Velvet Room
Tartarus Blocks: Thebel - Arqa - Yabbashah - Tziah - Harabah - Adamah - Monad Depths
Abyss of Time Malebolge - Cocytus - Caina - Antenora - Ptolomea - Judecca - Empyrean
Other Kyoto - Great Seal
Music
Albums Original Soundtrack (JP / US / FES / Portable) - Bonus CD - Burn My Dread -Reincarnation- - Spring of Birth OST - Midsummer Knight's Dream OST - Falling Down OST - Winter Of Rebirth OST - Persona 20th Anniversary All Time Best Album
Songs "Burn My Dread" - "Aria of the Soul" - "Want To Be Close" - "When the Moon Reaches for the Stars" - "Iwatodai Dorm" - "Mass Destruction" - "Color Your Night" - "Deep Breath Deep Breath" - "The Meaning of Armbands" - "Deep Mentality" - "It's Going Down Now" - "Changing Seasons" - "Current Net Price Tanaka" - "Battle Hymn of the Soul" - "Kimi no Kioku" - "P3 FES" - "Mass Destruction -P3fes version-" - "Heartful Cry" - "Brand New Days" - "Soul Phrase" - "A Way of Life" - "Time" - "Wiping All Out" - "More Than One Heart" - "Fate is In Our Hands" - "One Single Word" - "One Hand, One Heartbeat" - "One Determination" - "Sound of the Beast" - "Storm for a Butterfly" - "Light in Starless Sky" - "My Testimony" - "Self Redemption"
Archives
Terminology Persona (Initial / Prime / Ultimate) - Persona user - Shadow - Wild Card - Evoker - Attack Properties - Tactics - All-out Attack - Shuffle Time - Dark Hour - Moon Phase System - Full Moon Operations - SEES - Kirijo Group - Nanjo Group - Strega - Artificial Persona user - Suppressants - Apathy Syndrome - The Fall - Death - Who's Who - Phoenix Ranger Featherman R - Plume of Dusk
P3RE: Shift - Theurgy - Combat Characteristics
Lists Arcana - Personas (P3 - FES - P - R) - Shadows - Bosses (P3 - FES) - Skills - Items (Heart Items / Vending Machines) - Status Effects - Elizabeth's Requests - Activities - Calendar - Trophies (Portable / Reload) - Steam Profile Items - Patches and Updates
School Life Daily Life - Seasons - Social Link - Social Stats - Yen - Class - Studying - Movie Theater - Bed - Part-time Jobs - Shrine - Tanaka's Amazing Commodities - Crane Machine - Chagall Café - School Club - Linked Episode - Computer - Refrigerator - Gardening / Books / DVDs / Cooking - Studying - Fortune Telling
Other Media
Games FES - Portable - Reload - Dancing in Moonlight
Productions The Movie - The Movie: Escape from the Dark Hour - the Weird Masquerade: -Ao no Kakusei- / -Gunjou no Meikyuu- / -Souen no Kesshou- / -Ai no Seiyaku- / -Hekikuu no Kanata e- - Persona Stalker Club - 「PERSORA AWARDS」 - PERSORA AWARDS 2 - PERSORA AWARDS 3 - Persora -The Golden Best-
Drama CDs A Certain Day of Summer - Daylight / Moonlight - Character Drama CD Vol. 1 / Vol. 2 / Vol. 3 / Vol. 4 / Vol. 5 - New Moon / Full Moon - Portable Vol. 1 / Vol. 2
Publications Manga - Shadow Cry - Memento Mori - Owari no Kakera - Alternative Heart - Velvet Blue - Persona Magazine - Dear Girls Comic Anthology - Dengeki Comic Anthology - Tartarus Theater - Persona VS
Mobile Games The Night Before - Persona Ain Soph - Social - Escape - Illust Puzzle - Broken Shadow - Aegis: The First Mission - Qix - Chaining Soul - Em
Events Music Live 2008 - Music Live 2009 - Music Tour 2010 - Music Live 2012 - Music Fes 2013 - Music Box 2014 - Super Live 2015 - Livehouse Tour 2015 - Super Live 2017 - Super Live 2019- 25th Anniversary Symphonic Concert
20th Anniversary Festival - 25th Anniversary - 25th FES
Miscellaneous Merchandise
Major Arcana
0. Fool Arcana - I. Magician Arcana - 1(E). Councillor Arcana - II. Priestess Arcana - III. Empress Arcana - IV. Emperor Arcana - V. Hierophant Arcana - V(T). Apostle Arcana- VI. Lovers Arcana - VII. Chariot Arcana - VIII. Strength Arcana/Justice Arcana - IX. Hermit Arcana - X. Fortune Arcana - XI. Justice Arcana/Strength Arcana - XI(T). Hunger Arcana - XII. Hanged Man Arcana - XIII. Death Arcana - XIV. Temperance Arcana - XV. Devil Arcana - XVI. Tower Arcana - XVII. Star Arcana - XVIII. Moon Arcana - XIX. Sun Arcana - XX. Judgement Arcana - XX(T). Aeon Arcana - XXI. World Arcana - XXI(T). Universe Arcana - (VS) Faith Arcana - (VS) Hope Arcana
Minor Arcana
Suit of Coins - Suit of Cups - Suit of Swords - Suit of Wands
Shadow Arcana
I. Arcana Magician - II. Arcana Priestess - III. Arcana Empress - IV. Arcana Emperor - V. Arcana Hierophant - VI. Arcana Lovers - VII. Arcana Chariot - VIII. Arcana Justice - IX. Arcana Hermit - X. Arcana Fortune - XI. Arcana Strength - XII. Arcana Hanged Man - XIII. Death
  1. Not directly fought in battle.
  2. Junpei is initially unavailable during this operation, but will join later.
  3. Yukari is unavailable in combat throughout this operation, while the protagonist is forced to fight alongside Junpei and Akihiko against the Arcana Emperor and Arcana Empress.
  4. The protagonist is forced to fight alongside Yukari throughout this operation.
  5. Junpei is unavailable throughout this operation.
  6. Ken and Shinjiro are unavailable throughout this operation. Shinjiro will also be permanently removed from the party after the battle.
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