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Shin Megami Tensei V

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How to defeat Ishtar

By
Jarrod Garripoli

This is a walkthrough for the boss Ishtar found in Tokyo Station in the Chiyoda region in Shin Megami Tensei V. All of her weaknesses, resistances and skills to avoid.

Ishtar will be the boss blocking you from entering the Demon King’s Castle

Stats and Resistances

Icon Name Lv Weakness Resistances Location
SMT_V_Ishtar_Icon.jpg Ishtar 52 Force_Icon_Shin_Megami_Tensei_V.png, Dark_Icon_Shin_Megami_Tensei_V.png Electric_Icon_Shin_Megami_Tensei_V.png/Light_Icon_Shin_Megami_Tensei_V.png (BLOCK) Chiyoda - Tokyo Station

Skills

Type Skill Effect
Electric_Icon_Shin_Megami_Tensei_V.png Dreadful Gleam +2 Heavy Electric attack to all foes. Ignores affinity and pierces through. Chance of inflicting Seal.
Electric_Icon_Shin_Megami_Tensei_V.png Ziodyne +2 Heavy Electric attack to 1 foe.
Electric_Icon_Shin_Megami_Tensei_V.png Mazionga +2 Medium Electric attack to all foes.
Light_Icon_Shin_Megami_Tensei_V.png Hamaon +3 Heavy Light attack to 1 foe. Chance of instakill when striking weakness.
Light_Icon_Shin_Megami_Tensei_V.png Mahamaon +3 Heavy Light attack to all foes. Chance of instakill when striking weakness.
Ailment_Icon_Shin_Megami_Tensei_V.png Sexy Dance Chance of inflicting Charm to all foes.
Healing_Icon_Shin_Megami_Tensei_V copy.png Diarama +2 Moderate HP recovery to 1 ally.
Support_Icon_Shin_Megami_Tensei_V.png Marakunda +2 Lowers Defense of all foes by 1 rank for 3 turns.

Recommended Party

The difficulty of this battle with Ishtar will depend entirely on how many of her devices you have deactivated. If you chose to do none of them, then she will have eight turns per round, which can prove to be the toughest battle in the game, thus far. If you deactivated all of the devices, then she will only have a single turn per round, plus her strongest move will be removed from her pool of actions. Any combination in between 0 and 7 devices will still allow her to use Dreadful Gleam. Speaking of it, Dreadful Gleam is a very dangerous attack, as it deals Electric damage to the entire party and has a chance of inflicting Seal.

(1 of 2) Ishtar can have a maximum of 8 turns if you don’t touch her devices

Ishtar can have a maximum of 8 turns if you don’t touch her devices (left), Destroy them all and she will be reduced to a single turn per round (right)

You might think to just block it with resistances, but it ignores those and pierces through, so you have no way to avoid the damage at all, unless you happen to dodge the attack. Because of that reason, buffs can be extremely important in the battle, even moreso if you allow her to have multiple turns. You will definitely want to counter her Marakunda with either Dekunda or Marakukaja. Otherwise, Ishtar has no way of doing anything to debuffs or buffs, outside of the Marakunda. You will also possibly have to deal with Sexy Dance, which has a chance to Charm the entire party, so having someone with Me Patra is a great idea, preferably whomever is designated to do the healing.

There’s also really nothing you can do about Ishtar using Diarama, unless you try and inflict Seal on her, but she resists all ailments, so it would be challenging. Ishtar has access to a single target and party-wide skill for both Electric and Light elements. There is no real move she does when charging the Magatsuhi, so you can’t really predict whether a Light or Electric move will follow. Thus, the best way to counter the charge is to possibly just guard on the following turn, to minimize the risk of Ishtar gaining more turns during that round. There is one huge trick you could do, though, to help in this battle, especially if you allowed Ishtar to keep her multiple turns.

(1 of 2) She will lose access to Dreadful Gleam with all devices deactivated

She will lose access to Dreadful Gleam with all devices deactivated (left), Her devices have no impact on her power, so you still want to be careful (right)

Whenever a demon repels or absorbs an element, the opposing enemy will lose all of their turns, unlike with just losing two Press Turns during a block. With this in mind, there are two demons in that range that can absorb/repel Electric and Light, which are Naga Raja (Electric) and Horus (Light). Include them in your party, should you be facing an 8-turn Ishtar, and have them with Taunt/Fierce Roar to make sure that Ishtar targets them. This will ensure that her AI will be focused on those demons, where she will likely use Ziodyne or Hamaon, instead of the party-wide abilities. Note that should you use this strategy, you will probably want to put Resist Light on Naga Raja; Horus already resists Electric, so you don’t have to do anything for it.

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Guide Information
  • Publisher
    Atlus, Nintendo, Sega
  • Platforms,
    Switch
  • Genre
    Action Adventure, Action RPG, RPG
  • Guide Release
    5 November 2021
  • Last Updated
    18 February 2022
    Version History
  • Guide Author

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