Hey all, I am new to the Persona games and I'm in the third semester of my first runthrough. I feel like I've been fumbling around a lot with the fusion mechanic and strengthening personas. I was wondering if anyone had any insights, because I keep expecting to have easier access to the "severe" and "colossal" level of damage and it just seems really difficult to get where I want to go with it. I just have a feeling that when I go to up the difficulty on my NG run like I usually do with JRPGs, I'll hit a wall with the current way I've been doing things.

One thing I know I've under utilized is skill cards - both getting them from the twins and from the electric chair I haven't done that much. Is that the only way to consistently guarantee the higher level skills?? All the other party members' Personas seem to cap at Heavy or at best Severe for their skills, and of course you can't fuse theirs so it has to be skill cards. I am also trying to avoid using a lot of the overpowered DLC personas.

Not looking for an optimized team guide or anything like that, just some tips to improve my personas a bit! Thanks!