Persona 5 The Phantom X Futaba: Character Guide & Skills

Persona 5 The Phantom X’s Futaba Sakura (Oracle) is a 5★ Elucidator (navigator) who massively boosts team damage by shredding Defense, changing enemy affinities into new Weaknesses, and sharing a chunk of her stats with the party. She is widely considered a top-tier support who supercharges almost any boss-killing team when built around her kit.​

Role and Core Mechanics

• Role: 5★ Elucidator / Navigator Phantom Thief, focused on debuffs and party buffs rather than direct nuking.​
• Analysis Progress: A special gauge that fills when allies act and especially when they hit weaknesses; at 100% it enables her key state, Data Storm.​​
• Data Storm: A teamwide buff state that increases party damage, doubles the bonus when hitting weaknesses, and (via passives) gives the party shields based on Futaba’s Attack.​​
• Virus: A debuff that changes enemy affinities so your main DPS’s element hits as Weak, turning neutral hits into weakness damage and making Resist / Null enemies much easier to crack.​

Because she’s an Elucidator, Futaba also shares part of her stats with the whole team, so stacking Attack and good secondary stats on her effectively buffs everyone.​

Key Skills and Passives

Names vary slightly by translation, but her core skills work as follows:​

• Skill 1 – Pentest Complete!
  • Effect: For 3 turns, decreases all foes’ Defense by 6%, plus about 0.53% extra per 100 points of Futaba’s Attack (up to around 4,600 Attack).​​
  • Bonus: When enemies under this debuff take weakness damage, the Defense Down effect is doubled, making your DPS hit significantly harder.​​
• Skill 2 – (Vulnerability / similar name depending on patch)
  • Typically an Analysis/Progress tool and secondary debuff, used to quickly reach 100% Analysis and set up Data Storm in certain rotations.​
• Skill 3 – Data Link Established!
  • Effect: Buffs 1 ally’s Attack by a flat amount plus a scaling portion of Futaba’s Attack, and inflicts Virus on all enemies that share that ally’s element.​
  • Result: The chosen DPS gets a big Attack buff, and all enemies become weak to that DPS’s element (or at least lose higher tiers of resistance), enabling huge bursts.​
• Passive – Data Scan (Awareness 0)
  • Gains 5% Analysis Progress whenever an ally uses a skill and 20% more when an ally hits a weakness; when Data Storm is active, increases party damage by 10–20%, doubled again on weakness hits, scaling with level.​​
• Passive – Programming Pro / Rootkit (hidden abilities)
  • Starts battle with 100% Analysis Progress at higher levels, so she can immediately enable Data Storm.​
  • When Data Storm is active, grants all allies a shield equal to about 30% of Futaba’s Attack, adding extra survivability.​​

In practice, most guides recommend prioritizing Skill 1 and Skill 3 equally, as they form the backbone of her rotation.​​

Basic Rotation and Playstyle Tips

• Standard opener (once leveled):
  • Start with Pentest Complete! to apply a strong AoE Defense Down and activate Data Storm.​​
  • Follow on her next turn with Data Link Established! on your main DPS, applying Virus to make enemies weak to that DPS’s element and giving them a big Attack buff.​
• Keep Data Storm up as often as possible; its damage and shield effects make every weakness hit significantly stronger and safer.​​
• Always target Virus/Data Link on your main carry’s element (e.g., Queen for Nuclear, Chord for their element), so you’re consistently converting the boss into a weakness target for your best unit.​

Endgame teams often run Futaba alongside a primary DPS (like Queen), a sub-DPS (like Vino), and another support (like Chord), using a rotation of Pentest → Data Link while the DPS repeatedly slams the forced weakness.​

Stats, Gear, and Team Building

• Main stat focus: Attack. Futaba’s debuffs, buffs, shields, and many scaling values improve as her Attack rises, with guides recommending about 4,600 Attack in battle to fully cap many effects.​
• Substats: After reaching the Attack threshold, prioritize Crit Rate/Crit Damage and Element/Pierce bonuses that help both her own occasional damage and the stats she shares as an Elucidator.​
• Revelation Cards (Relics):
  • Resolve + Labor-type sets are widely recommended, especially Labor’s effect that boosts party HP/ATK/DEF when equipped on Navigator Thieves and further reduces enemy Defense on debuff.​
• Weapons: Use her signature 5★ navigator weapon if available (for high Attack and supportive passives); otherwise, any high-ATK staff/navigator weapon with team-boosting passives works well.​

Futaba fits best in teams built around exploiting weaknesses and long boss fights, Guild Boss, Tartarus, Astrolabe, and Palace bosses, where her stacked Defense Down, Virus weaknesses, and Data Storm damage buffs can fully shine.​