Maxing All Social Links Tips (NG+) (Legend of Inaba Achievement)

In this guide, I will provide some tips for maxing out all social links in Persona 4 Golden. This guide complements the myriad of other similar guides (especially those that cover things such as what choices to make on a certain day, which characters to talk to on what day, and what schedules to follow) and offers “general” tips that are hopefully easier to follow.

A lot of what I have to say is based on my experiences throughout 3 full playthroughs, 2 of them consisting of me attempting to max every social link, so I have a fairly decent understanding of how social links in this game work. Some of the information presented may not be entirely correct, however, and may need further verification.

This guide is mostly intended for players who are playing on New Game+ (NG+), but newcomers to the game are more than welcome to read these tips. Do be warned, however, that THERE WILL BE SPOILERS.

Before we begin, however, there are a few things I need to point out:

In all honesty, trying to get max social links for every single character on a first/non-NG+ playthrough is near-impossible unless you are really good at management or are familiar with the other Persona games (Persona 3 (Reload), Persona 4, Persona 5 (Royal)) and know how to prioritize and manage between your links.

With that said, I highly recommend AGAINST trying to max out all social links on your first playthrough. Enjoy the game how you see fit and explore all that you can. Learn about the masterfully crafted characters and all the minor details of Inaba. Enjoy the spectacular story. Playing the game your own way could be beneficial for when you actually attempt an all max social link run, since you will have the knowledge and foresight from your previous run.

However, in your first playthrough, I highly encourage you to work on and max out social stats (Knowledge, Courage, Diligence, Understanding, Expression). This is very important because some characters' social links and their interactions are locked behind "level requirement", meaning that you cannot make progress unless you meet the requirement. For example, the later interactions with Nanako and Dojima require a Expression trait of Level 3 or higher. Another example includes Shu (tutoring job), who requires a Level 5 Understanding trait in order to even start his social link. Those traits get carried over in a New Game+ save, meaning you can approach (and finish) these social links much earlier than intended.

This guide is not a 100% completion guide. I will only talk about social linking and will not consider anything else (e.g. NPC quests, book reading, etc.) unless they are important for the social link. This shouldn't be a problem if you've already played and beaten the game once, but this guide will not discuss how or where to get personas nor will it go over any fusions of any sort if you happen to not have any personas for a certain arcana. Consult other guides for such information. It is, in fact, impossible to max social link every character if you're going for any other ending.
*cough cough Teddie*
*cough cough Adachi*

Throughout this guide, I will be using certain terms to describe something social links related. These terms are as follows:

An event a unique interaction between you and a character that raises a social links, which requires points in order to be done. Events are characterized by unique dialogues with occasional dialogue choices that can impact the conversation. Example of an event:

(Notice the dialogue options) A non-event is an interaction between you and a character that does not raise a social link, rather it gives you points that are needed to trigger an event.

Most non-events are characterized by there having absolutely no dialogue between you and a character, rather just narration. Narration typically begins with a ">".

Example of a non-event:

A good way to see points are those yellow music notes that pop out of the character's heads when a choice was made. They come out as either 1 note, 2 notes, or 3 notes, corresponding to 1 point, 2 points, and 3 points respectively.
In this example image, 2 yellow notes means 2 points. From my experience, you cannot "farm" or "stack" points, although I require further verification. The following is an example taken from the Persona 4 Golden Google Site[sites.google.com] that helps visualize my point:

This screenshot showcases the point requirements for raising social links for Yukiko. Here, Yukiko needs a total of 42 points in order for her social link to be fully maxed. You are not able to farm up all 42 points for her while she's at Rank 1.

Likewise, say for example you are at Rank 4. Rank 5 requires 4 points and Rank 6 requires 5 points. You cannot get 9 points at Rank 4 so that you can use 4 points for Rank 5 and then 5 points more for Rank 6.

To put it simply, once you get the required points needed to raise a rank, any points you get will NOT be counted until you raise the rank first. HOWEVER, you CAN get points once you're in the event.

Again, this section needs tons of verification, as I am speaking from experience. So any corrections to this section would be greatly appreciated.

This should be a no-brainer for those who have already played the game/played other the other Persona games. This tip is here to emphasize for the people who either (somehow) don't know or care to ensure that you have a persona whose arcana matches the specific character you're interacting with. Doing so will ensure you get the maximum amount of points possible during events. It doesn't matter what persona you choose, just have the right arcana, and keep summoning/releasing personas based on your current needs.

Most (if not all) of your time should be spent only for social inks. Besides non-events, try not to spend time doing activities that doesn't raise a social link. This includes (but isn't limited to):

• Doing NPC Quests
  
• Coffee Cafe
  
• Fishing (unless it's for the Fox Quest)
  
• Eating at Aiya
  
• Going into the TV (unless you have to)
  
• Studying at the library (unnecessarily)
  
• Reading books
  
• Studying
  
• Doing home jobs
  
• Doing nothing

The only non-event activity I would see as important is riding your scooter (to unlock Okina City and Shinchiri Beach), and the best time to do this is when it's raining, as will be explained in another tip below.

Avoid all these and focus ONLY on social linking. A year may seem like a lot of time, but it really isn't, especially with the story getting in your way.

Based on what I've seen, a lot of players like to focus mostly on raising social links of the main character cast (Investigation Team) first, and for good reason: they gain abilities that directly provides benefits to the team. Side characters, on the other hand, do not. They only make persona fusions more efficient. Thus, people (myself included) tend to brush off these side characters and focus a lot more on the main characters first.

However, I believe these side characters should be more of a priority because some of these characters become unavailable temporarily. For example, your "school friends" (consisting of Kou/Daisuke, Yumi/Ayane, Naoki, and Ai) become unavailable during summer break (the month of August). Another example is Nanako and Dojima, who become unavailable due to their hospitalization in November until mid-January (that's 2 months of no links). In a scenario where the rest of your links are maxed out EXCEPT these unavailable characters, that would create what I call "dead days", where you pretty much have no choice but to do anything else BUT do your social links. Dead days is what we want to minimize as much as possible.

On the other hand, the members of your team will almost always be available and I see them as "last resorts" should the side characters be unavailable or interacting with them may be inefficient (as will be explained later).

There are many ways you can go about organizing your priorities for each character. Below was my general approach.

Marie and Adachi are perhaps the most important social links you can max out. For those that need a refresher:

• Marie provides the means towards obtaining the extra content and True Ending, giving you additional days to finish up your social links.
  
• Adachi is important because his schedule for social links is so inconsistent and easy to miss.

Of all the days Marie is available (Wed, Sat, Sun), I used Sundays to work on her social links. For Adachi, I took note of what dates to look out for and made it priority number 1 to interact with him once I reach the date.

What makes these two characters extremely important though is that their links expire the earliest.

⚠️Remember, you have until 11/6 for Adachi (only need Rank 6) and 12/31 for Marie (Maxed) before they become PERMANENTLY unavailable.⚠️

Focusing on your school friends is very important not only because of their overall limited availability (unavailable during exam season and summer break) compared to your team members, but also because one of them (Sports Team) opens up a link with another (Ai), and that should be established ASAP.

Very early on in the game you will unlock the sports team. IMMEDIATELY shift your focus towards them and get their social link to 4 as soon as possible. Doing so will make you able to establish a social link with Ai early. In a non-NG+ playthrough, you would need a rank 3 in Courage. However, your maxed out traits would allow you to start her link much sooner. By the time you start working on Ai, the culture club should also be available, which you should also immediately join. (Do yourself a favor and link with Ayane; you will regert choosing Yumi).

Naoki is introduced in June. By this point, you should have made some steady progress with the other characters. You should switch your focus onto obtaining his social link once he's available. Remember, you have to talk to him 3 times before you're able to start a link. After Naoki, just keep focusing on your school friends and probably ONLY them before they become unavailable for summer break, which lasts from August to September.

My general schedule for tackling events for these characters in my run was (assuming no rain throughout the week):
Mon: Culture club
Tues: Sports team
Wed: Naoki/Ai
Thurs: Naoki/Ai
Fri: Culture club
Sat: Sports team
Sun: N/A

Keep in mind that the sports team and the culture club become unavailable the week before any exams and during the exam period, which in that case you may work on any other social links.

If you find yourself not being able to raise their links because you don't have enough points or when it is summer break, then you could work on your Investigation Team friends or Eri, who is next on my priority list.

I put Eri up here mainly because I often forget about the daycare job. I also find her links to be a bit more point demanding, and her events don't really provide a lot of points (even with a Temperance persona AND the right responses), thus I have to abuse a feature that I'll go more into detail later in the guide (spoilers: the fortune box). Furthermore, she's ONLY available during the day and ONLY on certain days (Mondays, Fridays, and Saturdays).

Eri is available on the same days that coincide with the sports team (Saturdays) and culture club (Mondays and Fridays). My recommendation is to juggle between sports team, culture club, and Eri and try to get their links all maxed out quickly.

You should finish each Fox Quest ASAP. Keep in mind that some quests take several days to complete and you can only progress through these quests when it's not raining (except for the last quest).

Something to note is that you CAN actually report a completed quest to the Fox during the rain, which raises the link. Doing so consumes also a day slot, so I highly encourage you to turn in at that time. After all, there's not much to do in the rain.

Keep in mind that there are certain Fox quests that can only be done in school, namely:

• Quest 07: I Wish For Love/Fox Quest 1
  
• Quest 12: I Wish I Was Better at Speaking/Fox Quest 6

You cannot progress through these quests during the summer break, so try to plan accordingly. My suggestion is to try to get the 6th quest done by August.

Also try working on getting a fishing rod and a bug net ASAP to prepare yourself for that last Fox quest.

Regarding night links, Nanako and Dojima are perhaps the most important characters to max out first for the reason I stated previously: they become temporarily unavailable from early November to mid-January (meaning 2 months of no links). Nanako and Dojima are also very easy targets to max out quickly. In a non-NG+ run, their later interactions require a decently leveled Expression. But with your maxed out Expression trait in NG+, getting their links maxed out could be done much sooner than expected. These links should be raised once you've gotten Nanako and Dojima maxed out or close to max. If Nanako and Dojima are both unavailable and you're able to work at one of these jobs, you can go ahead and work. Typically, these jobs are handled a bit later in the game, once you have the proper rankings in the Understanding (tutoring) and Courage (janitor) personality traits. But with your maxed out traits, these jobs can be tackled as early as they are unlocked.

Between these two jobs, I would focus more on the hospital janitor job first, because Sayoko provides the means of starting Hisano's social link, who requires a social link rank of 4 from Sayoko. You can work with Shu once you've maxed out Sayoko, Nanako, and Dojima.

Your team members (Yosuke, Chie, Yukiko, Kanji, Rise, Naoto) should be a LAST RESORT if all your other characters are unavailable or do not trigger an event. Their biggest advantage is that they will almost ALWAYS be available, meaning you can interact with them any time throughout the year, especially during the summer break (which I highly recommend).

The only time they ARE NOT available is when you have to unlock a dungeon, but that's not a big deal, as it takes a day or two to unlock them (assuming you follow a guide and do everything correctly). You can just do any other social link during those days they're unavailable.

One good schedule you could follow for when you handle events is (assuming no rain throughout the week):
Mon - Yosuke
Tues - Chie
Wed - Yukiko
Thurs - Kanji
Fri - Rise
Sat - Naoto
Sun - Anyone
(Fun fact: this schedule is just the order of when each character joins your team, excluding Teddie)

Hisano is available on Sundays and holidays, and each of her interactions are a guaranteed raise, so it's really up to you when you want to work on her. I'd work on her when Marie is unavailable/maxed out.

Margaret is almost ALWAYS available and you can literally max her link in one day. Even if you don't have the persona she requires, you can easily just fuse one using the personas registered in your compendium and some guides online.

Story-based links (e.g. Teddie) should be self-explanatory.

If maintaining a priority list from the previous tip is too difficult, then this tip is probably more important to keep in mind, regardless of how you manage your priorities.

To reiterate what I established earlier: Events raise social links, but each event requires a certain amount points. Non-events give you those points, but do not raise social lnks.

You can tell if you will encounter an event or a non-event when you talk to the character before the event/non-event interaction.

• EVENT = If the game says something along the lines of "Your relationship will deepen" or "Your relationship could become stronger"
  
• NON-EVENT = Consists of something along the lines of "Your relationship won't become stronger" or "Your relationship isn't ready to advance".

Example of being able to trigger an event:
Example of being able to trigger a non-event:

Simply put, never accept a non-event interaction, unless you absolutely have to, because you could use your precious day slot for raising another social link.

Occasionally on Sundays or holidays, you are called by one of your teammates/school friends who ask you to hang out.

Decline these.

They are the same as non-events, except they generate points for possibly multiple characters instead of one. Thus, it consumes a precious day slot. You could instead use that time to actually raise a link, especially for Marie or Hisano.

(Visual example of what I'm talking about) Always select "I'll pass."

Now you might be wondering how you could possibly accumulate points if told not to accept non-event interactions, which is the means of getting points. This brings me to my next section.

Simply put, the BEST way to accumulate more points is by pulling fortunes during night time.

You have very limited things to do at night, which also gives you VERY limited options for gathering points during this time. Your options include:

• Talking to characters outside
  
• Going to sleep and dreaming of a character
  
• Fortunes

The problem with talking to characters outside is that their schedules are very inconsistent and you will likely need to consult another guide to see who's available. Likewise with going to sleep, gaining points and for what character is determined by RNG and thus too unreliable.

With fortunes, though, you are able to choose the character you need points for regardless of availability. This feature is unlocked after May 6th (so pretty early on in the game) and you CAN draw fortunes either during the day or night, however, you should be drawing fortunes at night since you'll be using your day time to work on a link.

The only problem is that how many points you get from drawing a fortune is entirely based on RNG and you might need to go more than once to the shrine to ensure that you have enough points to trigger an event. You can have a better idea of if an event is ready if you get a "Small", "Mild", or "Great" blessing, as well as the comment that follows what blessing you have received.

From my experience, Eri was the character I drew the most fortunes out of because she is not out at night and the only other way to accumulate points for her is through the daycare job (mostly consisting of non-events). Furthermore, a lot of her social links require a good amount of points to trigger an event, especially the later ones. Other characters to consider drawing fortunes for include Marie and Adachi, Adachi especially because you want to minimize non-events for him, considering his limited schedule.

There are certain characters that You DO NOT need to give fortunes to despite the feature allowing you to:

• Hisano - her events are a guaranteed raise, regardless of arcana/responses.
  
• Any character that you have maxed out - should be self explanatory.

Another way to effectively get points is to give good/correct responses when given the opportunity.

During events, you are given dialogue options that can potentially net you more points, and thus lessens how many points you need towards the next event. Ideally you want to choose the correct dialogue option that gives you the most points. Therefore, during a social link event, look up the best responses online.
This is an example pulled from Dojima's Social Link event from Rank 7 to 8. Based on guides online, the best response is "Because you're a coward", as it rewards you with 3 points. Meanwhile, choosing the other two options will give you 2 more points (1 if you don't have a Hiero. persona).

In this particular event, this is the only dialogue option available to the player. Many other events have more dialogue options, meaning more opportunities for points and a better likelihood of triggering the next event without delay.

⚠️Ai is a character you especially want to look out for and choose your answers real carefully, refer to APPENDIX C for more information.⚠️

During school, the teacher would occasionally ask random trivia questions to your teammates, who would then rely on you to answer for them. Choosing the correct response would give the respective character 2 points. So it would also be in your best interest to answer these questions correctly.

Choosing "Two" will result in 2 more points for Yosuke, in this case.
There are other times throughout the story where you have dialogue options, which can also generate points for certain characters.
For example, in the image above, choosing any of these options will give you points for the corresponding character. Choose your favorite or whoever is in dire need of points. However, the correct answer is to choose the last one because Yukiko is best girl.

The methods stated above are probably the best alternatives for accumulating points that do not involve spending a day slot for a non-event. The remaining methods listed below are just some other ways you COULD get points but are not as effective, as they either rely too heavily on RNG, are too infrequent to effectively farm, or are generally just as effective (if not less effective) as non-events. The opportunities are still there though.

You can make boxed lunches (bento box) during the evening and can share it with a friend to gain more points for them. This is not a bad way to gain points passively, as it happens during school time. There are downsides to this, however:

• You have to make a "perfect bento box" in order to gain points. Anything less will give you less points, or even not give you any points at all.
  
• This only applies to Investigation Team members and school friends.
  
• You can only make bento boxes if there's food in the fridge. Typically Nanako lets you know if there's food in the fridge. But you can check the fridge yourself and see.
  
• Meals are ONLY good for one day (i.e. the following day during school). If you don't use it, you lose it.
  
• Some bento boxes are locked behind the story, meaning you have less options the earlier you are in the story.
  
• You can only make a bento box during night.

That last point, if anything, is the main reason I personally did not bother with bento boxes during my runs. In fact, I forgot this feature existed in the game as the fortunes offer a much better way to get points. However, this is an option that you could take. You could talk to your school friends/team members at night, which also provides a relatively effective way to accumulate more points. Assuming you have the persona that matches their arcana, you are guaranteed 3 more points, which may be enough to trigger an event the following day(s). Furthermore, you can get more points by answering correctly any dialogue options they throw at you (triggers based on where you're at in the story).

The biggest problem is that this feature is only limited to characters who attend your school and their schedules are very inconsistent.

I rarely ever used this method, as I favor abusing the fortunes more. One thing to note is that you get an item when you talk to the character, but I found myself rarely ever using them.

When you sleep, you have the chance of having a dream with a random character, which as a result generates more points for said character. I don't recommend doing this unless it's raining at night and you have no night job nor Nanako/Dojima to worry about . After all, trying to have a dream itself, alongside the character you want points for, is all determined by RNG. Once you progress through the game and unlock new areas, you have the option to watch movies with your friends. With this method, you are rewarded with 3 points for that character you choose. This method has its share of limitations, however:

• Watching a movie takes time, meaning it will be night once you finish the movie
  
• There's only one movie per month and only one character "really" enjoys that movie while the others don't as much, and as a result won't generate any points.
  
• Movies are only limited to members of the Investigation Team, so no side characters.
  
• You could watch a movie ONLY ONCE with a character to get points. Any other attempt afterwards won't give any.
  
• Naoto does NOT have a favorite movie.

Much like watching movies, studying with your friends is only limited to the Investigation Team and is only available the week before an exam. Furthermore, studying with a friend yields 2 points for that friend (possible 3, but needs verification) and can increase social stats (should you still need to raise them). Limitations, however, include:

• Studying takes time, meaning it will be night once you finish studying.
  
• Exams are very infrequent (happens only 4 times throughout the ENTIRE game).
  
• Only one member of your team can be selected.
  
• The character has to WANT to study (i.e. they will invite you to study with them when you talk to them), otherwise they might be interested in an event/non-event instead.

Getting a high/the highest score on exams can also get you some points for your Investigation Team and school friends, so definitely answer every question correctly AND have a maxed out Knowledge rank. Two big problems are:

• Exams are very infrequent (happens only 4 times throughout the ENTIRE game).
  
• You only get points for these characters ONCE per exam.

Rain is perhaps your biggest enemy for social links because it severely limits what you can do. No one is available, you can't progress through the Fox Quests, and you can't draw any fortunes. However, there are still some ways you can work efficiently.

You are still able to interact with the culture club in the rain, granted they're available. You can also interact with Adachi and raise his social links during the rain. As I said before, the best time to turn in a completed ema quest is at days when it rains because the Fox is still available. You can also accept a quest in the rain, but you cannot attempt to finish them since you can only progress through them when it isn't raining.

Fox Quest 9/Quest 15: "I Wish to See the Samegawa's Guardian" actually REQUIRES the rain in order to progress, as catching the Guardian fish in the beach can only be accomplished in the rain. You are also able to finish the quest any day in December but it's a lot better to get this quest done sooner than later.

Once you unlock the scooter, you are given the option to ride it around town (to unlock Okina City) or to take a long trip (to unlock Shichiri Beach). While the game encourages you to ride the scooter to unlock these new places as soon as possible, I would actually recommend you to only ride the scooter when it is raining, as it is possible to do so. Unlocking these new places isn't as urgent, as you would only require Shichiri Beach for the last Fox Quest, so you might as well take a ride while no one's out. Furthermore, you only need to ride the scooter around 3 times before the new place is unlocked.

An interesting note about unlocking new places is that once a new place is unlocked, you are still able to do daytime activities, meaning you have a chance to kill 2 birds with 1 stone by unlocking the new place AND doing a social link (if available). This can only happen twice though.

Refer to the previous section. Refer to the previous section. If nothing above is available, then there really isn't much left. Do whatever you want in this case. Whatever you do, however, DO NOT GO INTO THE TV. Sometimes it stops raining at night, which gives you the opportunity to raise a link/go to the fortune box. Should you go into the TV, your stamina will be drained and you can't do anything but sleep once it's night time.

I think it is seen as a general rule of thumb that dungeons should be completed in one day, particularly being done the day you unlock them, and in a max social link run, this is even more important than ever.

Simply put, the more days you spend completing a dungeon, the less days you get for accomplishing social links. After all, dungeons can only be completed during the day, much like social link events.

It honestly doesn't really matter WHEN you complete a dungeon, more so as long as you complete it in one day.

Also, consult a guide for unlocking dungeons. Some dungeon take a few days in order to become unlocked and offer VERY little room for making mistakes, which may result in waiting a few days or so just to fix them. We want to minimize these errors, as your Investigation Team friends become unavailable for any interaction since they are so busy helping you out in unlocking the dungeons.

Another thing to point out is to only go into the TV for the sake of completing dungeons. After you beat a dungeon, don't bother going back in there for whatever reason (grinding, item fetch quests, persona farming, etc.) until the next time the story requires you to. Unnecessarily going into the TV, again, only wastes a precious day slot that could've been used for social links. Do all these grindings and farmings or whatever WHILE you're tackling a dungeon due to needing to rescue someone.

There is an important exception to this tip. Refer to Appendix A: IMPORTANT Notes about Adachi.

This may seem like a no-brainer but it's often easy to forget that you have a new social link to establish once a new key character is introduced. Even more forgettable is that some of these characters require extra steps in order for you to be able to link with them. Here, we want new social links to be created as early as possible, but some characters just love to delay it. Characters that you should be on the look out for when you're trying to establish a new link include the following:

Once they become available for social linking (look up their dates online), these two characters both require that you talk to a certain NPC before you can start social links with them, so be sure to talk to those NPCs the day Kanji and Naoto become available. Once Naoki is introduced (around June), he must be talked to 3 times before you can start linking with him. The first interaction does not use a day slot, but the other two do, so be aware of that. Ai simply requires a social link rank of 4 from the Sports Team and a Courage rank of 3 (that part shouldn't be a problem). Once you've started working as a hospital janitor, you do not immediately start linking with Sayoko. She requires another visit to the hospital after your very first one before you can start her link. Similar to Ai, Hisano requires a social link rank of 4 from Sayoko. Similar to Sayoko, once you've started working as a daycare worker, you do not immediately start linking with Eri. Eri requires another visit to the daycare job before you can start her link.

Some smaller tips that I can provide that aren't as big/important compared to my previous tips include:

If you are able to create an easy-to-understand spreadsheet that can provide you additional information other than simply your current rank for each link (i.e. whether a character is ready or not or how much points you have for each link) as the game provides, then it could be easier for you to manage your priorities and can help ensure that no one is being neglected or left behind. I made one that I referenced on the side, and if people want this spreadsheet, I can provide it. Pretty sure most people do this anyways, but it's a good idea to utilize a good majority of your save slots in case you mess up or realize you could walk a better, more efficient path. For me, I made separate save slots each time a new character got rescued in the story (save slot for Yukiko, Kanji, Rise, etc.) as well as a save slot that gets overwritten each month. This is a small story bit, but one thing to consider declining is helping Nanako do her homework, which becomes an option during the summer break and at the end of January. You do generate points for her, Dojima, and maybe some of your Investigation Team crew, but it consumes a night slot, which could be better used for your jobs or spamming the fortune box. The only consequence of this decision is that she'll just do her homework on her own and nothing is really affected. Another small story bit like above, but during the summer break, you have your own share of homework. The game implies that you should spend the last few nights of your summer break completing it by working at your desk, thus sacrificing your night social links. But if you don't, at the very last day of summer break, you spend the whole day doing all your homework. Even more convenient is that it rains that day (needs verification), so that's a perfect opportunity to get that finished since no one would be out anyways. Yet again another story bit, but starting on November 22, you will be given the opportunity to visit Nanako at the hospital with the Investigation Team. Don't do this unless you are in DIRE need of points for a majority of your teammates. If anything, this guide is really telling you to be an awful big brother. Can't help it when we have social links on the line.

To close, the key takeaways from this very long guide are:

1. Focus on your side characters first
2. Choose the best/right responses always
3. Spam the fortune box at night
4. Minimize non-events

In my playthrough where I followed my own advice and attempted to max out all social links and ONLY attempt that (no going for 100%), I ended up getting all applicable links maxed by January 15, 2012. For reference, the absolute final day to work on social links is February 5, 2012. The game will then timeskip to March 20, 2012, where if the True Ending is active, Adachi's final social link rank will be obtained, thus every social link has been maxed out.

By the end of 2011, I was able to max out every side character and 4 out of the 6 Investigation Team members (Teddie excluded from this count since he's story-related). The remaining two were high enough (around Rank 8) to where getting the remaining links just took 4 days.

Maybe with better planning and perhaps better luck with the fortunes, it may be possible to max out all social links by the end of 2011, but luckily the extra content triggered by maxing out Marie's social links gave me more time to finish up.

(As proof that I maxed everyone)

In any case, I hope this guide gives you a better insight on how to approach maxing all social links. This is my first ever written guide and I feel that there is much more to discuss when it comes to general guides like this.

Try not to over-rely on this guide alone. Seek out others as you attempt maxing all social links. They might provide better insight that this guide missed or did not explain well. Regardless, any feedback is greatly appreciated.

Thanks for reading and I wish you the best of luck!

Adachi provides interesting and noteworthy exceptions that have the potential to screw up your run. Below are special notes about his social links that I could not provide above due to running out of space.

On December 7th, after learning that Adachi is the culprit, you are given the option to confront him alone or confront him the next day with your team. CHOOSE TO CONFRONT HIM ALONE.

Choosing otherwise will prevent you from maxing his social link. Many guides online will tell you that his social link will progress naturally by playing the story, but they fail to emphasize confronting Adachi alone.

Choose "Go see him alone"
If you choose to see him alone, you will see this image above after you beat his dungeon, meaning you have made the correct choice and you're guaranteed for a full max link with Adachi. If you see an 8, then you did not choose to confront him alone, and if you see any lower than 8, then you did not get Adachi's link to 6 before 11/6. Adachi's dungeon provides a special exception to the pattern of completing dungeons in one day AND on the day you unlock it. For Adachi, complete his dungeon on 12/22 (the last day to complete his dungeon). Completing his dungeon before that date will automatically skip to 12/23, and will disable you from doing anything during those days since you completed the dungeon - meaning no social links. For example, if you complete his dungeon on 12/12, you will lose 11 days worth of social linking. Ultimately, in this case, it is better to work on your social links while his dungeon is active, but before 12/22.

Much like Adachi, there are also some important notes about Marie and her social links.

Unlike most Social Links, where you can max them out very quickly (e.g. Nanako, Dojima, Investigation Team, etc.), some of Marie's links cannot be attained until you've progressed a bit further in the story. This is because her links involve the investigation Team, so if you do not have the member needed for her link, the link simply won't be available until you get the character.

If you find yourself in this situation, simply work on other links and occasionally check on Marie after you beat each dungeon to see if she's finally available (or search online when she'll next available). Once you have all members of the Investigation Team however, Marie's links should not provide anymore stalls, so you can breeze through them.

Ai is another character to look out for as you attempt to max out her social link.

Ai is a character that I would STRONGLY suggest that you look up other guides for the best responses, as will be explained below. Most of these guides will classify two possible routes to take:

• Normal Route
  
• Temporary Lovers Route

To put it simply, do not take the Temporary Lovers Route. Choosing the wrong option throughout this route could lower the rank by 1 or even BREAK the link entirely, meaning your run is ruined and you'll have to revert save (or possibly start all over again). In fact, don't even be in a relationship with her.

I will not go over tips on how to fix the broken link, as I took the safe way and simped for Yukiko instead went for the normal route. It is up to you to figure out how to fix it, whether it means looking up other guides or simply reverting to a past save.