The Most Useful SMT V Miracles to Learn ASAP

In Shin Megami Tensei V, the Nahobino starts out rather limited. Want more than a handful of demon allies? Need to learn more skills? You need Miracles for that. But they can also be rather expensive, costing Glory for the honor of equipping some of them. It might be a while before you have enough to get the power you need to travel Da’at right. We’re here to help with some of the best SMT V Miracles for your initial explorations in your first 10-20 hours of the game.

How do you get Miracles in SMT V?

This part is fairly easy. Throughout Da’at, you’ll run into Abscesses. These are nests of demons. You can’t miss them. Literally, as they obscure the map and are gigantic, red, eye-like stalks. Approaching one causes it to summon a horde of aggressive demons. Get past them, and you’ll face a fight with a stronger than average demon or two. Once you beat that fight, the Abscess is destroyed and you get new Miracles in the process.

However, you can’t immediately go and equip these new abilities. You have to earn them. This is done with Glory in the World of Shadows. You can earn Glory by finding Gustav’s Miman in the world. You can see these little red folks in formerly populated areas. Sometimes, they’re hidden in the ruins. Often, you might hear a chuckle from them. You can also get Glory by reaching Apples in the Da’at. Early on, you’ll get 5 Glory per Miman and 50 per apple. However, the amount you earn for each will increase as the game goes on.

Once you have both unlocked Miracles in SMT V and earned Glory, head to World of Shadows. Go into the Apothesis menu. That lets you earn Miracles. These are divided into the Supremacy, Doctrine, Awakening, and Cosmos categories. Supremacy involves skills related to battle. Doctrine Miracles apply to Leyline services. Awakening increases your demon stock, skill slots, and leveling potential. Cosmos Miracles increase the Nahobino’s affinities to certain elements.

What are some of the best SMT V Miracles?

Early on, there are a few priorities to keep in mind. You need to be able to have more demons. You also need to be able to use more skills. So when you first start on your journey in SMT V, I recommend saving up for both.

Some of the earliest Miracles you can learn are Divine Garrison ones. Divine Garrison I and II only add one additional slot to your overall roster. Once you get to Divine Garrison III and IV, you get two each time. In my case, I stopped at Divine Garrison V. That meant I had 14 possible slots for allies. (And even then, I usually only had around 12 on hand at any given time.) This is also one of the absolute cheapest Miracles you can buy right away. The first tier is only 10 Glory. So there’s no excuse. Start investing in it.

Also helpful in the Awakening category are the Demon Proficiency and Divine Proficiency lines of Miracles. Each one increases the number of skill slots you have available. Demon Proficiency applies to demons, while Divine Proficiency is for the Nahobino. While your instinct might be to improve the Nahobino first, which is absolutely fine, I found Demon Proficiency more helpful. You’ll be doing a lot of fusing in SMT V. You’ll miss out on some helpful skills if demons are limited. The demon version is always more expensive, right from the start. So it’ll only cost 30 Glory for the Divine Proficiency first tier. Meanwhile, the Demon Proficiency first tier is 50 Glory.

While Awakening Miracles are great, you also don’t want to neglect Doctrine or Supremacy. There are some critical abilities there. The most important Doctrine Miracle, bar none, is Divine Amalgamation. If you have this, then the Nahobino can take on demon’s resistances with Essence Fusion. When the game starts out, the Nahobino is weak to dark skills. Dark skills can instakill if the target is weak to it. You get a game over screen in SMT V if the Nahobino dies. Get Divine Amalgamation. Other helpful Miracles in this category are Unforgotten Memories, which gives demons extra EXP when they level up based on stats, and the Arts of Essences that let demons and the Nahobino learn additional skills from essences.

The last SMT V Miracles I’d highly recommend come from the Supremacy category. The most important one here is Knowledge of Tools. If you don’t have this, only the Nahobino can use items. With it, allies could use things like shards and gems or dampeners. It comes in quite handy. I’d also recommend Fell Swoop as soon as possible. If you or your allies exploit an enemy’s weakness, then the Magatsuhi Gauge fills more. (It also only costs 30 Glory.) There are many helpful Miracles to increase the rate at which the gauge fills. I found that most useful. But you might want to look into others too. Like Forestall, which increases it if you catch an enemy off guard and initiate a battle and is only 5 Glory, or the Counter Incentives that boost it when an ally does something like nullify an attack and start at 30 Glory. Also, if you find yourself hoarding the Magatsuhi Gauge and using it only when absolutely necessary, get Magatsuhi Wellspring. That will recover your team’s HP and MP by a small amount at the beginning of each turn if it is full. It’s one of the more pricey ones at 150 Glory, however.

Why didn’t you recommend any Cosmos Miracles?

Okay. I added this category, because there’s a noticeable absence. Cosmos Miracles can be great! These make the Nahobino better at using certain types of attacks. But for the first 20-30 hours, I highly recommend investing all Glory into Supremacy, Doctrine, and Awakening Miracles in SMT V.

You will likely be going through demons quickly. You might not know which element you’d want to assign to the Nahobino. While some of the early Mastery levels are inexpensive at only 50 Glory, others get costly! For example, the first Physical Mastery tier starts at 120 Glory.

The only Cosmos one I might suggest considering early on is the Almighty Mastery line. This is a category of magic that very few demons have access to. If you’re exploring Da’at a lot, you’ll be finding Aogami Essences with unique Almighty skills only the Nahobino can earn. But again, that’s also a 120 Glory skill to start, so saving that currency for other Miracles might be wiser initially.

Shin Megami Tensei V is available for the Nintendo Switch.