How to Save Chidori in Persona 3 Reload (P3R)

Things start going south really fast as you approach Persona 3 Reload’s endgame, and the main cast starts suffering loss after loss. But one of these tragedies, namely Chidori’s, can be avoided if you do everything right.

What Happens to Chidori in Persona 3 Reload?

During the main story, we learn more about Strega and the mysterious Chidori, a member of the group who takes a liking to Junpei after assuming he is the leader of SEES. But she gets captured instead and slowly starts opening up to Junpei even though he was partially to blame for her downfall. Their feelings get more serious, and she ends up exchanging her life for his when he gets shot at a later point in the game.

During this event, Chidori’s Persona merges with Junpei’s and becomes Trismagistus. This is a story event, and it’s completely unavoidable as it’s a core part of their dynamic. However, Persona 3 FES introduced a way for you to save Chidori, although there’s a price to pay for that. This was adopted for every subsequent release of the game, Reload included.

How to Revive Chidori in Persona 3 Reload

Chidori can survive the events that happen during 11/22, depending on your previous actions. While the method was previously just talking with Junpei during certain days, it was vastly changed for Reload. In this version, you need to hang out with Junpei after school at the right moment during November. On 11/6, you see a scene of him and Chidori, and he’ll be available as a hangout on the following day.

If you hang out with him, you see him wanting to buy Chidori some flowers and visit her again, but he ultimately gives up on the idea. The next day, visit the Flower Shop in Paulownia Station and buy the White Flower for 250 Yen during the day, then give the flowers to Junpei during the night at the dorm. He will visit Chidori again and give you some good news the following day.

You must complete these two interactions between 11/7 and 11/21. Chidori gives her life to Junpei on the 22nd, so Junpei must have visited her before that. You don’t need to do it on 11/7 precisely, but I wouldn’t delay it just to keep it safe. Skip Social Links if needed, but make sure to spend a single afternoon with Junpei, or your chance’s gone.

The Chidori sacrifice scene plays out as always on 11/22, but if you did everything correctly, you get an extra Late Night scene with Mitsuru on 11/30, where you can overhear her making a phone call.

Now continue playing as normal until you reach 1/21, where you’ll lose your free time during this day. But you get her revival scene in return, which is worth your effort. Despite a miracle having occurred, she lost her memories of everything related to the Dark Hour due to not having her Persona anymore.

Should You Revive Chidori in Persona 3 Reload?

There is no reward for reviving Chidori. Junpei’s hangout events are unrelated to it, and you won’t get any new Persona, item or anything for doing this. In fact, reviving her essentially means losing two days of free time in the whole year, which can be detrimental when trying to complete all Social Links. You can still safely complete all of them and revive her in a fresh file if you manage your time well, though.

Is Chidori Surviving Canon?

Canonically, Chidori wasn’t revived according to The Answer prologue in Persona 3 FES. But later in Persona 4 Arena Ultimax, Junpei hints at her still being alive. The hint is pretty vague, which allows it to cover for both choices a player could make regarding Chidori.

However, Persona 3 Reload is it’s own canon. Some players have data mined info showing that ATLUS will be adding the post game story mode, The Answer, to Persona 3 Reload. Meaning, hopefully soon, we can once and for all see if Chidori surviving is canon or not.

So it’s up to you if you want to save Chidori or not. I saved her since I enjoy the sweet scenes of hers and Junpei, but it’s completely understandable if you prefer her gone to give bigger meaning to Junpei’s resolution. It’s not a “save Shinjiro” case, at the very least.