Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance - Best Nahobino Stat Builds

A guide on the best stat builds for the main character (Nahobino) in Shin Megami Tensei V (SMT 5). Included are recommended stat progression for clearing battles and exploring all areas, and recommended builds for the early, middle, and late game stages.

Shin Megami Tensei V - Best Nahobino Stat Builds

Best Nahobino Stat Builds in Shin Megami Tensei V

Shin Megami Tensei V - Best Nahobino Stat Builds

In  Shin Megami Tensei V (SMT 5), it is important to plan how you want to increase each of Nahobino’s stats to make effective use of various skills and abilities while progressing through the game’s main story. This guide will give you the recommended allocation of each stat for a much easier time against enemies, especially bosses, and allow you to access all areas across the Netherworld.

Main Story Walkthroughs

Be sure to check out our Stats Guide below to know the effects of increasing each of the parameters on a character’s performance in battle:

Stats Guide

Since you can only raise your stats by leveling up, you should also take the time to farm experience (EXP). This also allows your demon allies to grow stronger to take on tougher challenges that yield useful rewards.

Learn how to effectively level faster in the game through our guide:

Fast Leveling Guide for Nahobino

Recommended Stats for Building Nahobino During the Early Stages

Shin Megami Tensei V - Nahobino Strength and Agility Stat Build

Strength and Agility (Recommended for Beginners)

Main Role (Early Game) Dealing Physical damage (Physical skills), applying buffs and debuffs.
Priority Skills (Early Game)
  • Agility (★★★★★)
  • Strength (★★★★)
  • Luck (★★★)
Details
  • Easy-to-use build for beginners (and even veterans) for clearing the main story.
  • Recruit and fuse demon allies to cover varying enemy weaknesses (other than Physical damage)

The Strength – Agility build capitalizes on the fact that Nahobino learns a variety of powerful Physical skills in the game, making him a primary damage dealer for that skill type. This is especially effective for increasing the damage of Aramasa, a very good Physical skill that Nahobino acquires early on in the game.

Another advantage of the Strength – Agility build is allowing you to allocate more skill slots to buff and debuff skills (-kaja and -nda). All in all, this is a solid build, especially for beginners, and is not too difficult to use. Consider investing some skill points to Luck as well, making it easier for Nahobino to apply debuffs or trigger critical hits. Since Nahobino will mostly be switching between using Physical skills and using buffs and debuffs, you must recruit and fuse as many demons as you can to cover other enemy weaknesses or handle healing duties.

Magic and Agility (Recommended for Advanced Players)

Main Role (Early Game) All-around
Priority Skills (Early Game)
  • Agility (★★★★★)
  • Magic (★★★★)
  • Luck (★★★)
Details
  • Free-form Nahobino build, essentially making him a jack-of-all trades or adopt a very specialized role in the party
  • More focus on skill customization through essence fusion
  • Recruit and fuse demon allies to cover varying enemy weaknesses that Nahobino cannot exploit

The Magic – Agility build, meanwhile, encourages Nahobino to be somewhat of a jack-of-all-trades by giving him more versatility early on compared to the Strength – Agility build. More experienced players will find experimenting with this build fun and interesting as Nahobino’s role will directly affect team setups to make them more free-form, especially with being able to inherit skills and affinities through essence fusion.

One disadvantage of this build is that some bosses will have little to no weaknesses or have gimmicks to completely nullify their disadvantages. This forces you to adjust your party to have access to Physical and Almighty skills to compensate for such situations.

Tips for Nahobino Stat Builds

Always give priority to Agility.

Agility is arguably the most crucial parameter for engaging enemies as it affects chances of escaping from battle, and Nahobino’s evasion and hit rate. Making enemies miss with their attacks is particularly advantageous since it grants your party bonus actions or press turns. Note that turn order in SMT 5 is now based on party formation instead of Agility.

Lean towards Strength or Magic during the early stages.

Based on the builds described earlier, you must choose whether to focus on Strength or Magic during the early stages of the game based on how you want Nahobino to function during battles. Focusing on Strength first means that you are more likely to rely on demon allies to cover enemy weaknesses which is crucial during boss battles. Giving priority to Magic, meanwhile, requires you to take advantage of essence fusion more frequently to always give Nahobino an advantageous skill pool for various situations.

Start moving toward Strength or Magic during the middle stages.

After putting enough points to your main offensive stat, start increasing either Strength or Magic during the middle stages.

Increase Vitality and Luck.

Try to put a good amount of points to luck as it helps you inflict Ailments at a higher success rate, land more critical hits, and get more items after each battle. Then,  start spending points on Vitality to raise maximum HP. Doing so also increases the damage dealt by Physical skills.

Nahobino Stat Growth (Level-up)

Here is a breakdown of Nahobino’s stat growth or the points acquired for each stat automatically after leveling up (non-allocated):

Level Strength Vitality Magic Agility Luck
3 5 5 5 5 5
4 +1 +1 +1
5 +1 +1 +1
6 +1 +1 +1
7 +1 +1 +1
8 +1 +1 +1
9 +1 +1 +1
10 +1 +1 +1
11 +1 +1 +1
12 +1 +1 +1
13 +1 +1 +1
14 +1 +1 +1
15 +1 +1 +1
16 +1 +1 +1
17 +1 +1 +1
18 +1 +1 +1
19 +1 +1 +1
20 +1 +1 +1
21 +1 +1 +1
22 +1 +1 +1
23 +1 +1 +1
24 +1 +1 +1
25 +1 +1 +1
26 +1 +1 +1
27 +1 +1 +1
28 +1 +1
29 +1 +1 +1
Total 20 21 20 21 21

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7 Comments

  1. I highly don’t recommend this guide. I think it was put out for views, rather than compiling good info. Agility has bad scaling, you should rely on sukunda/kaja skills for accuracy/evasion. Agility is primarily useful for turn priority in encounters. Like with SMTIV and SMTIVA, it’s far easier for beginners to get a good grasp on the game’s mechanics by using magic dps rather than optimizing a game-breaking STR build, so I’d recommend going magic if you want a straightforward DPS build for beginners. I actually would recommend making the MC some combo of support/healer/tank as a beginner with high VIT since support/healer roles are really difficult to get on a demon with high healing & support affinity that has good survivability, not to mention the ability to change your affinities and access to kannabi veil.

  2. Agility is useless , this was already tested with cheats and even with max Agility your crit chance or evasion doesn’t increase at all, Agility is by far the most useless stat because it only affect if you attack first or not which can be also affected if you attack the demon on the map, I would rather put points in a 2:1 ratio on Strength or Magic and Vitality, Vitality reduce damage (again this was tested).

  3. If you can read this comment, beware. I’ve seen better SMTV players saying the scaling on agility is poor and you’re better off dumping your points into nearly entirely into strength or magic.