I don’t know about optimal route but this guide helped me best:

https://www.powerpyx.com/persona-3-reload-100-walkthrough/

I don’t think I’m capable of doing a blind 100% social link play through without it.

If you want to max all social links, you should definitely prioritize school social links when they are available, since the scheduling is more strict with them. Also, make sure to have a persona on you that is of the same arcana as the social link you are trying to rank up and choose the correct options during the rank, so that you don't have to spend as many days spending time with a social link without ranking them up. (You don't actually need to do that for the Sun social link, since he will always rank up when you spend time with him).

For the school links, try not to ignore too many social links for too long. If you want to focus on maxing a few social links early on or leave a few behind for a bit, so that you don't have to keep switching out personas to get the arcana bonus, that should be fine. But if you leave multiple social links behind until very late in the game, and their schedules conflict, it could be difficult to max them.

As for the social links outside of school, Maya and Akinari have very conflicting schedules, since Maya is only available on Sundays and holidays, while Akinari is only available on Sundays. You will want to get Maya to max, or at least a high rank, by the time you unlock Akinari's social link in August.

There's a few different guides floating around that can give you day-by-day instructions on how to spend your time if you want to take chance out of it. You definitely should try and spend your school days on in-school SLs, since you can't see any of them if you don't have school.

I beat P3FES recently, it's too hard to maxing out all social links

As it should. Anyone who played P3 knows how LITTLE days you have. Unless you follow a strict schedule it's impossible to get all links maxed out.

I'm for that change.

Not if they don't nerf Makoto's pimp energy !

Ain't no way I cheat on Mitsuru Senpai !

I just hope that there's no reversing and breaking like the original, that was a pain. Really excited for this to launch though, glad to have something to hold me over until Persona 6 is announced.

I just got into Sept. and I finally maxed out all my social stats just last night, but I still have alot of social links to complete plus theurgy unlocks with teamates...there doesn't seem to be enough time, especially with the leveling up the damn social stats on your first playthough They take "Forever' to max out "especially" academics. It was the same for "Knowledge" in Persona 5 Royal. And then you have not one but 3 social links you can't even start "until" you max out Charm, Courage, and Academics. It's not overwhelming..it's freaking insane. There's not enough time in the day on top of forced story events, that always slow the process down to do all this in a single playthough. If I manage to max all the social links and theurgy's at this point it will be a miracle from the gods.

I would broadly prioritise like this: guarrantied rank up>school SLs>other daytime SLs>Bunkichi and Mitsuko

I usually do those, that are available on the fewest days, generally. Since school SLs get blocked many times in the story, they aren't available as often as normal SLs. Later when unlocking Empress, she's also a low priority because she's available a lot. Maybe you also should avoid maxing them for some time, so someone is always available in an emergency but I'm not sure, if that's nessasary

I recommend maxing out the Fool Arcana

Get school only ones first and ones that have other locked behind them(chariot, magician, emperor, strength, hanged) on Sundays do hermit or sun

Do the ones you care about

ALWAYS focus on school Social Links. If you can't rank up with someone, choose someone else from school to rank up. You can use your Sundays and days off at this point to gain extra points from Sunday dates and hangouts, or just going to the shrine.

You will have plenty of time to max out non-school links, including Hermit and Sun, so don't be afraid to use Sundays for extra school link points.

your evenings should be slightly more relaxed if you maxed social stats, i’d still stay fairly close to penguin’s guide though because max s. link in FES is bullshit no matter what.

Oh, I should have said that this is in FES

I think if you want enjoy stuff in p3r you shouldnt try to min max, there will be day specific !!! Stuff and characteristic stuff at night you have to do or you miss out on compounding dialogue. So thus you lose days doing that so I would say that it might be harder or straight up impossible if you want to actually get the full experience of p3r.

A few general tips for efficiency:

• On Sundays always do the Sun SL (or Star if Sun is maxed)

• On school days, always prioritize the remaining school social links (Priestess, Emperor, Lovers, Justivce, Fortune, Temperance, Empress, Aeon)

• In November a new shady URL unlocks that allows you to get extra social link points (no rank up) on the computer in the evening.

• In December there are 6 days where Empress is the only school social link available. It's recommended to save 6 ranks of Empress for this period.

• Save Star and Moon for the end of December/early January. At the end of December and early January there are several days of no school, which allows you to focus on them.

When comparing P3 to P4 and P5, it’s insanely apparent the devs never expected the players to go for all SLs in one playthrough - hell, in vanilla P3, Orpheus Telos, the reward you unlock for maxing out all SLs, wasn’t even a thing. It was only added in FES.

So no shame if you can’t max them all out in one playthrough. It’s a common sentiment that, even when using a guide, it’s still really hard to max everyone out.

Definitely focus more on school links.There are times where you’re off from school and can’t level up your classmates. So maybe maxing hierophant and hanged wasn’t the best call but you’re still making good progress. Leave Star and moon on the backburner as they’re available when you’re off from school. Use Sunday for sun obviously.

In November, a method to gain points for your SL will unlock in the club. Use this to avoid wasting a day where you don’t level up since you completed night links already. Use persona that matches for max points and try to avoid hanging out if you’re not going to level up, if you can help it.

P5R is much easier to max out than P3, mainly because the confidants are not mostly locked to daytime only and the calendar randomly skipping a week.

Take advantage of activities that give you bonus social stats because because there are some you will need to max.

Max out Temperance and Star arcana as fast as you can because they will help you save time

It is very difficult to max all your links on a first playthrough without a guide.

This is why New Game + exists, since your social stats carry over and thus you can more easily do social stuff since you don't need to devote any time to social stat upgrades.

There's a lot of time but a lot of things to do, so it's easy if you follow some basic guidelines but hard to do completely blind.

To avoid a detailed guide, you just need to prioritize:

1. Hang out with a time limited or critically important confidant: Chihaya, Kawakami, Yoshida, Maruki
2. Hang out with anyone else who will level up today (check the map)
3. You need to take at least one trip to Mementos between palaces, this might be a good day for it
4. Raise a social stat the best way you know how
5. Do something fun or hang out with a confidant who won't level up

You just need to find time to do darts and billiards to level up technicals and baton pass, and hang out with the Twins if you count that in addition to their social link (not all their hangouts can be done at night as some of the places they want to go are only open during daytime).

Just use a guide. I found a spoiler free one by just searching online. It just gives you a set schedule to follow each day without telling you any spoilers.

Buy this item after school, spend time with Ann, feed the plant, etc.

Helped me 100% all stats and confidants in one playthrough

Always have a matching persona with you and brute force Fortune (Chihaya, you unlock her around arc 3) as fast as possible since you can pay yen to see what a confidant's best answers are or spend yen instead of hanging out with them. Since you played P3R, you should know how good it is to save a time slot in exchange for yen. And on top she also gives more social stats. She's just overall OP for a full confidant playthrough.

Also, Yoshida, Akechi, Yoshizawa and Maruki are all time sensitive so also prioritize them.

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It means it will not rank up because you don't have enough affinity points to trigger the rank up event. it is poorly worded.

It's worded poorly; you do have to spend time with them, it just won't rank up on that specific instance.

Romance is completely optional (in Reload specifically, not the older versions of P3) and affects almost nothing.

For gameplay, no. For your soul, Sun.

No, there isn't mandatory SL like P5R or P4G to unlock extra dungeon content.