Ranged Attack

Ranged Attacks are a core mechanic in the series, and are a variant to melee attacks.
==Overview==
Ranged attacks are Gun skills that can be performed by party members in combat with no cost. Damage is calculated according to the power of their ranged weapon and their Strength stat.
=== Shin Megami Tensei ===
The protagonist, the law hero and the chaos hero all acquire guns as part of the story, however the heroine does not have one when she first joins the party. Guns need ammo to be fired, and the attack are a type of physical skills. Some guns can only be equipped by the male party members, and there exists an exclusive gun and ammo type if the protagonist is either Chaos or Law aligned. 
Certain ammo can inflict ailments, and the number of hits and whether the attack targets a group or a single enemy varies between firearms. Guns and ammo can be bought in shops or found in treasure chests in the dungeons. Ammo never runs out when a weapon is fired, and shooting an enemy does not cost MP, as such one can shoot indefinitely.
===Shin Megami Tensei NINE===
Basic ranged attacks are absent. Instead, the protagonist can use Single Shot, Double Shot, Long Shot, Drive Shot, or Shell Shot, depending on which gun they have equipped.
Most demons only have a melee attack skill. However, human enemies have both a melee attack skill and a ranged attack skill.
=== Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne / Maniax ===
Guns are absent due to the setting of the game, and as such there exists only one type of physical attacks, called "physical". While some physical attacks are technically ranged attacks, they're ranged under the same category as melee attacks, and all cost HP to use.
=== Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey / Redux ===
The protagonist starts out with a firearm due to being a member of the military. All guns have a gun attack that doesn't cost MP alongside avanced gun skills and spells, both of which cost MP and depend on the gun used. They require Forma to be constructed and Macca to be bought, with some late gun weapons being rewards for EX missions or found in a chest (the latter being exclusive to Redux). 
Weapon attacks are of the "gun' element, a variety of physical damage. Certain demons have a normal attack that inflict "gun" damage, and as such cost no MP. There exist gun skills which cost MP to use but deal more damage, target multiple enemies, etc.
=== Shin Megami Tensei IV / Apocalyspe ===
Both Flynn and Nanashi acquire guns as part of the story: Flynn finds his firearm after beating the Minotaur alongside his fellow Samurais, and Nanashi gets gifted a gun after becoming a hunter. Guns require ammo to function, and can either be of the "Gun" element, which is a type of physical damage, or they inflict one of the different elemental attacks. Ammo of the gun element can also have different ailments attached to them. 
Ammo will never run out, and doesn't cost anything, so guns can be shot indefinitely. Different guns can either target one enemy or all of them. Both Flynn and Nanashi can either buy guns and ammo in weapon stores or find them in treasure chests. Demons have access to gun skills, though they cost MP to use. How much damage either Flynn, Nanashi, or a demon deal with a gun attack is also determined by their Dexterity (DX). Certain demons have a normal attack that inflict "gun" damage, and as such cost no MP. There exist gun skills which cost MP to use but deal more damage, target multiple enemies, etc.
=== Megami Ibunroku Persona / Persona ===
During the SEBEC route, the party finds firearms as part of the story, after rescuing Brown in the police station. From there, every party member has access to a different type of gun: submachine guns for the protagonist and Brown, handguns for Maki and Ayase, shotguns for Mark and Yukino, and rifles for Nanjo, Elly, and Reiji. In the Snow Queen Quest, Ayase begins with a gun given to her by Nanjo, but further firearms must be bought from shops.
Firearms need ammo in order to function, though use of them is never limited and ammo is not consumed upon use. Guns and ammo can be found in treasure chests within dungeons, received via Mystic Change of Personas or be bought with money in weapon stores. Ammo can inflict different ailments, such as Freeze and Charm. Different guns can change how many times an enemy is hit with one shot, and the range of the attack. Gun skills are one of the two types of physical attacks, with each gun providing a different sub-type of physical damage. 
=== Persona 2: Innocent Sin / Eternal Punishment ===
In the Persona 2 duology, gun attacks are one of five types of physical attacks, and are combined under the "ranged" line of skills. The characters whose normal attack are ranged attacks are Maya, Eikichi and Katsuya. They do not require ammo to use.
=== Persona 3 / FES / Portable ===
Physical attacks are now divided into 3, Slash, Strike and Pierce. The only playable character to use Guns as their weapon is Aigis, and they inflict Pierce damage. 
=== Persona 4 / Golden ===
There is now only one physical type, simply called "physical". As such, despite the fact Yukiko Amagi and Naoto uses ranged weapons, their normal attacks have exactly the same effect as every physical attack in the game, with the only exception is that they cannot Stumble and become Downed if their attacks miss.
===Persona 5 / Royal===
In Persona 5 and Persona 5 Royal, ranged attacks play a major role in combat. They are only available to party members, and enemies have no access to them. They can use up their turn to shoot and toggle between any enemy as many times as necessary. If the gun is shot at least once, leaving the menu will use up the combatant's turn.
Ranged Attacks are interrupted as soon as Hold Up is initiated, so ammo will not be wasted by accident.
Ranged Attacks can land Critical in Persona 5. This is no longer possible in Royal.
Unlike Multi-hit skills, some conditions are affected by the individual rounds of the attack, rather the end of the user's action:
* If the user has Charged, only the first shot is boosted.
* Each individual shot is examined by the reflection rate of Counter, Counterstrike and High Counter.
* Secondary effects of weapons, such as the Gravity Gun having a chance of afflicting Despair, are handled so that each individual shot has a chance to afflict the respective ailment;
* On ailments that are removed upon being attacked, such as Freeze and Sleep, those are removed as soon as the first shot. If such volatile ailments also get Technical from gun damage, it is only applied to the first hit.
* If the target is knocked down during any attack, it will cause them to take increased damage from following hits as per principle of the Down mechanic.
* The user's turn is forcefully canceled right when one of the shots gets blocked, repelled, or absorbed, whether from affinity, Tetrakarn, or from Counter skills.
** This simultaneously prevents them from gaining One More if they have successfully Downed an enemy. This function applies regardless of whether the user has Downed an enemy via an earlier shot, or has done so simultaneously in a multi-target attack (in Haru's case.)
** However, cancellation of an attack does not prevent the party from getting a Hold Up even if their turn is canceled out at the same time. This tactic is only possible to achieve by Haru.
*** If an All-out Attack is chosen for this Hold Up, the protagonist is always the one who launches it (and performs the finishing touch if possible.) This follows the principles of One More, where if characters who have initiated Hold Up do not have a One More in place, the focus is given to the protagonist by default.
====Rounds and Ammo====
Unlike melee attacks, guns are restricted in several ways: each individual gun is restricted to several rounds per turn. For example, the Riot Police has 8 rounds, meaning it can be shot 8 times maximum in a single turn.
In addition, each party member also has a limited number of overall ammo, which does not replenish unless the party leaves the Palace for the day: the only other way to restore ammo is to craft Reserve Ammo. For data on each party member's max ammo, see Ranged Weapons → Persona 5 / Royal.
In Persona 5, exclusively to the Qliphoth World, talking to Lavenza will not only restore the party's HP and SP, but also replenish their ammo.
In Persona 5 Royal, ammo and rounds were repurposed so ammo replenishes at the end of battle (the weapon's rounds determine the value), and Reserve Ammo has been removed.
====Unique Gun Types====
Each party member's ranged attack is titled according to their gun type , however those can only be viewed if the characters act automatically, which can be toggled via the tactics. Some party members' guns also function differently than others.
User 	Gun Type 	Property
Ryuji Sakamoto 	Shotgun 	
Morgana 	Slingshot 	Morgana's weapons function as normal, but as he uses slingshots rather than regular guns, this influences certain terminology: in Royal's customization features at Untouchable, his "balancer" can be tweaked rather than the "barrel." For example, Long Barrel [LB] and Giga Barrel [GB] are instead called "Long Balancer" and "Giga Balancer" for his weapons, all while preserving the respective abbreviation.
Ann Takamaki 	Machine Gun 	Ann Takamaki's guns always aims towards a random target.
Yusuke Kitagawa 	Assault Rifle 	
Makoto Niijima 	Revolver 	
Haru Okumura 	Grenade Launcher	Haru Okumura's guns target all enemies at once.
Goro Akechi 	Laser Gun 	
Sumire Yoshizawa	Antique Rifle 	
==Trophies & Awards==
Trophy 	Icon	Description 	For 	Reward
Skilled Gunman	 	Defeat 3 or more enemies at once with a single round of bullets.	P5 trophy 	
Crack Shot 	 	Defeat 100 enemies with bullets. 	Thieves Den	50P
Perfect Aim 	 	Performed 100 shooting attacks. 	P5T trophy 	
==Gallery==
GunAttack Morgana.gif|Morgana using his slingshot
GunAttack Skull.gif|Ryuji using his shotgun
GunAttack Panther.gif|Ann using her machine gun
GunAttack Fox.gif|Yusuke using his assault rifle
GunAttack Queen.gif|Makoto using her pistol
GunAttack Noir.gif|Haru using her grenade launcher
P5 Bishoujo firing her gun.png|Haru dealing a ranged attack
Category:Mechanics
!