"A bond made with another person. Getting to know others is the key to strengthening your Personas."
—Persona 3 FES Dictionary Entry
Social Links, also known as S. Links and known as Community (コミュニティ, Komyuniti)? in the Japanese versions and often abbreviated as "Commu" (コミュ, Komyu)?, are an important gameplay mechanic that appears in Persona 3 and Persona 4. They were renamed Confidants in Persona 5.
Each Social Link represents a single Arcana, and raising a particular Social Link increases the experience bonus the protagonists receive when they fuse Personas of that Arcana. By completing a Social Link, it unlocks the ultimate Persona of that Arcana. Social Links can, however, be reversed if players do not spend time with the respective people holding the Link, end up booking two holiday invitations on one day, or gave an improper answer during their conversations. The reverse effect will also continue to last until the protagonist reconciles with them. At some point a Social Link can even be broken, prohibiting the protagonist from fusing Personas from the respective Arcana.
The Social Link system was first introduced in Persona 3. The whole purpose of the Social Link at this point was to give considerable amounts of experience to newly-fused Personas and unlock new ones.
Persona 3 Portable
Social links in Portable function in the same manner as Persona 3 with some new additions based on the system in Persona 4. Like Persona 4, the protagonist's team members can gain special abilities, such as taking a mortal blow, follow-up attacks and a chance to survive a fatal attack once per fight. However, unlike Persona 4, these abilities are automatically earned for all members when the player ranks up the Fool Social Link (which is automatic throughout the game), rather than from each individual party member's Social Link events.
Social Links play a larger role in Persona 4, where the protagonist's Social Links with his friends are directly related to their battle factor. For example, a level one Magician Arcana Social Link allows Yosuke Hanamura to take a mortal blow for the protagonist that would normally kill him. Maxing out the Magician Arcana Social Link evolves Yosuke's initial Persona, Jiraiya to Susano-O, granting improved elemental resistances.
Margaret advises the protagonist to balance his time of venturing into the Midnight Channel with his spending time with his friends, as Social Links are what create the protagonist's "World." Later, the Social Links created by the protagonist with others play an important role in the "True Ending" route.
Golden
In Golden, S.Links with teammates also give new skills to the Persona of that teammate when the link reaches some certain level (2, 4, 6, etc.), and some functions of the S.Link are moved to higher levels (e.g., taking a mortal blow is moved to level 7; doing so for the protagonist is moved to level 9).
List of Social Links
Italics indicate a Social Link that upgrades automatically via story progression.
An image of a marriage certificate in the game's files.
Some Social Links in the Persona series can be viewed as a romance mechanic for some players.
In Persona 3, unused files in the game indicate that it is intended to be possible for the protagonist to marry a Social Link character that they are having a relationship with using a marriage certificate. This feature is removed in the final game.
In Tarot readings, the Death card is seen as a turning point in the deck, because all Arcana that appear after it feature celestial symbols. This superiority of the other Arcana, starting with Temperance, appears in Persona 3, where every Social Link of these Arcana can be initiated after a "flag" given by another Social Link character or by a special event revolving around another Social Link: Temperance-Hierophant, Devil-Hermit, Tower-Strength, Star-Chariot, Moon-Magician, Sun-Hanged Man.
