Phantom Thieves of Hearts

The Phantom Thieves of Hearts , also known simply as the Phantom Thieves , are a group of Persona users in Persona 5 and its related media. Sick of the deception, hypocrisy and corruption around them, the Phantom Thieves are devoted to "stealing" corrupt hearts, usually of adults in positions of power, in order to reform society.
After their first heist, a name can be picked for the group (with the default name being "The Phantoms" which is used in calling cards, dialogue (although voice dubbing will always refer to them as the "Phantom Thieves"), and in online features.
==Appearances==
*Persona 5 / Royal
**Persona 5 (Manga)
**Persona 5: Mementos Mission
**Persona 5 Dengeki Comic Anthology
**Persona 5 Comic à La Carte
**Persona 5 Comic Anthology (DNA Media Comics)
**Tartarus Theater Wild
**Persona 5 The Animation The Day Breakers
**Persona 5 The Animation
***Persona O.A.
**Persona 5 The Stage
*Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight
* Persona 5 Strikers
*Persona 5: The Phantom X
*Persona 5 Tactica
*Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth
**Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth Roundabout Special
*Catherine: Full Body: DLC
==Profile==
The Phantom Thieves of Hearts is a group of persona users largely consisted of former victims of Suguru Kamoshida and Masayoshi Shido (or his co-conspirators). Their goal is to confront "corrupt adults" by stealing their "corrupt hearts," and change the world in order to rebel and fight against the complex, sophisticated and well-ingrained system of slavery they are trapped in, reinforced by the General Public's selective apathy which enables abuse against them to go unchecked and unopposed. They are willing to exploit the supernatural if it means bringing freedom and liberation to the masses.
To combat this injustice, they surpass the preconceived notions of morality: although it is subjective as to whether the Phantom Thieves are "right" or "wrong," they reject both inability and hypocrisy by carefully establishing their tools while working together towards the same vision of righteousness. Unlike Goro Akechi (before his experience as a part of the Phantom Thieves), Takuto Maruki and the Monarchs of Persona 5 Strikers, the Phantom Thieves change hearts in order to simply set them free rather than control them. In the public eye, while some view them as heroes who fight for justice and protecting the innocent, the Phantom Thieves have been met with various illegitimate criticisms conceived for the purpose of swaying public opinion and forcing them to concede, rather than objectively analyzing the events at hand, and events would develop to directly question the strength of their justice by harming them with powerful forces in return: Goro Akechi would actively try to denounce the Phantom Thieves by deeming them to be a dangerous group who have no right forcefully changing the hearts of people, believing that doing so makes them no better than the criminals they target. The story would develop over time, eventually suggesting the false notion that they might be fabricating confessions for crimes that haven't been committed, and even having their work compared directly to the psychotic breakdown incidents and the work of Medjed. Furthermore, Medjed themselves, now ran by the Antisocial Force, would attempt to suppress public support for the group by threatening individuals with "confiscation," and would later announce they'd crash Japan's economy should the Phantom Thieves not reveal their identities, exploiting the powerlessness and gullibility of the public.
Not only that, this resulted in the retaliation of authorities, currently being taken over by the Antisocial Force, backed by unnatural forces. They would partially manufacture the Phantom Thieves's popularity in order to set them up, eventually framing them for the deaths of Kobayakawa and Kunikazu Okumura to plunge their reputation in an instant. The plan was successful, and not only were the Phantom Thieves caught off guard, but after Okumura's death, they were labeled as violent murderers by society and became despised by most. Despite it being said that the Phantom Thieves had lost sight of their original goal before getting framed, that does not stop them from genuinely reforming minor Mementos targets along with Okumura.
In the end, the Phantom Thieves find out that they were sponsored and manipulated by a conductor and were destined for ruin in the end, which explains their morally ambiguous activities and targets not atoning properly after their change of heart. While public reception of them is mixed after the final confrontation against the conductor, they become less morally ambiguous, especially during the events of Persona 5 Royal and Persona 5 Strikers where they are willing to steal the hearts of anyone who attempts to cause disorder and stagnation within the public, including those doing so with well-intent, and actually make them atone as better people. Additionally, several members of the police began to open up to them, namely Zenkichi Hasegawa and Miyako Kaburagi.
In Royal, Kasumi Yoshizawa expresses the belief that while the Phantom Thieves have good intentions, the general public should not become dependent on the group to change society. This is further compounded by how many of the targets who experience a change of heart of do not actually atone, such as Kamoshida who still makes advances towards Ann when he sees her in the Mementos Depths over half a year after his change of heart, instead being reduced to an apathetic, weeping husk of their former self, making their behavior look more like criminal activity than justice. Regardless, with the increasing numbers of changes of heart, the Phantom Thieves consistently attract the attention of the general public, turning them into an international phenomenon.
===Persona 5===
The group is founded by the protagonist, Ryuji Sakamoto, Ann Takamaki and Morgana when they discover that the volleyball teacher of Shujin Academy, Suguru Kamoshida, has abused his students and molested Ann's friend, Shiho Suzui, leading to her attempted suicide which put her in a coma. However, since no other student, parent or teacher is willing to speak against Kamoshida due to favoritism coming from the principal, the group decides to put matters in their own hands and get him to confess his crimes on his own by stealing the distortions in his heart stored within his Palace in the Metaverse.
To make amends for causing Ryuji, Ann and the protagonist so much trouble, Yuuki Mishima, one of Kamoshida's abuse victims, makes the Phantom Aficionado Website in order to help spread their word to the public.
They initially intend to end the Phantom Thieves once Kamoshida's case is over, but after encountering an arrogant politician, Masayoshi Shido, they decide to continue their behind-the-scenes exploits of the supernatural as an official group. Ann would take on the role of an actress, specializing in persuasion for gathering intel; Ryuji would be a charge commander, emphasizing on initiative, while Morgana would play a variety of roles, from rear support to being their tool specialist, but would ultimately start off as their mentor. The protagonist would act as the team's leader, bringing everyone together.
Morgana guides them to Mementos so they may find viable targets. Their first find, Natsuhiko Nakanohara, leads them to an actual target, his former mentor Ichiryusai Madarame who has been exploiting his pupils (to the point of some committing suicide), one of them being Yusuke Kitagawa, the last of Madarame’s disciples. Yusuke speaks highly of Madarame, although it was only in fear of retaliation.
Finally seeing the truth of his mentor's maliciousness and vanity, Yusuke awakens to a Persona of his own and joins the Thieves, designing the Phantom Thieves of Hearts' official logo and both designing and writing their Calling Cards from that point on. With Yusuke's help, the party manages to defeat Madarame’s Shadow and change his heart, but not before he warns them of a "Black Mask assassin" roaming around Palaces.
The victims of the Phantom Thieves often experience drastic and sudden personality changes that cannot be explained via normal means, usually drowning themselves in excessive self-loathing and apathy. As a result, interrogating the victims for answers will usually have no effect. This makes the Phantom Thieves incredibly difficult to track down or investigate via normal means, which is further burdened by the fact that its members appear as normal and unassuming teenagers to outsiders, and the knowledge of their methods are only handled by a select few. Their activities reach the police's attention, particularly prosecutor Sae Niijima, leading the team assigned to the Phantom Thieves case to be formed.
Furthermore, their methods are seen as questionable and unorthodox, and the Phantom Thieves have also received opposition and criticism for their actions. A high school detective, Goro Akechi, makes an appearance on TV, where he is asked for his opinion on the Phantom Thieves of Hearts. His response is that they, whether or not they truly exist, are criminals who should be brought to justice; he goes on to denounce their actions, and believes that forcing people to change what's in their hearts is wrong.
Principal Kobayakawa, knowing the possibility of the school sheltering the Phantom Thieves due to being pressured by his higher-ups, orders student council president Makoto Niijima to investigate them. Makoto knew who the Phantom Thieves were, but nonetheless blackmailed them to reform a dangerous mafia boss of unknown origin, whose scams are threatening the school's students. In an investigation, they discover that the identity of the mafia boss is Junya Kaneshiro, actually a highly insecure and petty man who, upon being confronted, blackmailed the Thieves for 3 million yen simply because they appeared in front of him. The Phantom Thieves change his heart as well, with Makoto now on their side: she would act as an advisor and strategist, examining the weak points of enemies and making use of everyone's prowess to make the most out of it. However, Kaneshiro, before his defeat, also warns them of a Black Mask killer in the Metaverse like Madarame who was manipulating the Palaces for his own needs.
The Phantom Thieves gain popularity and trust thanks to the reformation of multiple high profile criminals that the police failed to apprehend and track. Yet, this popularity earns interest from what seems to be a group of hackers, Medjed, who was declaring threats against them, threatening that they will target the Thieves' and their supporters for their false justice, and launch a Japan-wide hacking attack that will crash its economy, known as "the Cleanse." As Medjed seemingly declares an all-out war against them, an unknown hacker known as "Alibaba" sends threats against them as well, telling them to change the heart of "Futaba Sakura," or they will reveal their identities to the public. In reality, "Alibaba" and Futaba Sakura are one and the same, and wants them to help her after falling into suicidal depression after her mother "committed suicide" and "declared that she should never be born." The Thieves steal her suicidal depression away and she joins the Phantom Thieves, putting an end to Medjed. They then spend their summer vacation adjusting Futaba to the outside world and helping her get accustomed as a member of their team. Futaba specializes in gathering info online and supporting them from the rear in combat.
Medjed's defeat has piqued intrigue among the public, making them famous. The approval rate of the Phan-Site poll increases twofold within the matter of a day, then steadily increases to close to 80-90% at the end of the month. It has went to the point where businesses have started producing and selling Phantom Thief merchandise. Due to these circumstances, Mishima starts an additional poll on the Phantom Aficionado Website, allowing people to vote for their next target.
Meanwhile, Morgana begun questioning his role in the group, as neither did he have a reason to participate with them, and he would no longer be consistently reliable as many of his side jobs were taken over by members that would specialize in these fields. He would deeply wonder about what his role was due to comparing himself to Futaba, even if he respects her. The group would fail to notice something's wrong with him, and even he couldn't bring up that he might no longer serve a purpose to the group, following the fact that he might not turn out to be human, hence the group's reason why they promised him to help him investigate Mementos.
During the Shujin Academy's trip to Hawaii, the members learn the Phantom Thieves have become internationally known, being mentioned by several locals. However, upon their return to Japan, the Phantom Thieves are shocked to learn that the principal of Shujin Academy apparently committed suicide. The Thieves consider their next target according to the votes of the public: the president of a food manufacturing company who also runs Big Bang Burger, Kunikazu Okumura who was abusing his employees and enlisted the Black Mask to shut down his competition. However, unsettled by the abnormal enthusiasm of the general public, they begin to question whether it's right for them to act solely on their vote, and were initially indecisive about pulling a heist on Okumura. Because of the fame, or simply for listening to the popular vote and letting it decide their next step, the Thieves also lost sight of their goal to remove society's corruption.
Morgana would end up running away as a result, wanting to prove himself and his place in the group. However, the rest of the team was left worried, and tried to find him and repair their relationships, eventually healing the divide when they act on their morals by directly rescuing and giving shelter to his recent ally and friend Haru Okumura from a man she is related to. They successfully restored the group back to normal, as well as having the Thieves return to acting on their own terms, with Morgana also having found purpose in carrying out the team's goals. In spite of no longer having been able to multi-task between all of his roles, Morgana would act as their guide and be the fuel of the team, always encouraging them in their aims.
Although they did not entirely act on the popular vote on the Phan-Site, a major incentive for the heist appeared when they found out Kunikazu Okumura was also planning to sell his daughter Haru to an arranged marriage with a sleazy playboy for no reason other than his political gain, officially rendering the heist against him justified. Haru also wanted to change her father's heart, yet did not manifest enough power to do so. Awakening Milady for real in her father's Palace once fully aware of how depraved he has become, she joins the party on official terms.
They managed to pull the heist off and find that Okumura wasn't supposed to be this corrupt and may actually atone, only for a mysterious masked Persona user to kill Okumura's Shadow after the Phantom Thieves all escape. On the day the Thieves were celebrating in Tokyo Destinyland, the real Okumura suffers a mental shutdown during a press conference, after confessing his crimes but before he can reveal the mastermind behind the conspiracy. On the next day, public opinion of the Phantom Thieves takes an abrupt turn for the worst, with the Phantom Thieves labeled as violent murderers instead of allies of justice even when they were celebrating Okumura's death on the previous day. It turns out that the events happening during the past two months are all plans to catch them off guard and frame them by surprise. Medjed was not actually involved with the Phantom Thieves, but the name was used by a third party to make blank hacking threats in order to inflate the popularity of the group. They also artificially inflated the view counters and the heist requests of Okumura on the PhanSite, leading to the opportunity where he can be killed to frame the Thieves and to ensure Shido inaugurates uncontested. Furthermore, the principal's murder has also been pinned on the Thieves, as before the killer disposed of him, he placed a fabricated calling card on his desk. The Phantom Thieves conclude that those moves were predicted to bait them into arrest.
While trying to find a way to prove their innocence, they decide to resort to Akechi due to his ties with the police: unfortunately, Akechi was one step ahead and reveals that he knows the protagonist and his friends' identities as the Phantom Thieves and the existence of Metaverse, as well as having photo evidence of their entrance. Saying he believes they are not the ones who killed Okumura, he offers to help them clear their name. In order to do this, he suggests they steal Sae's heart to stop her from investigating the Thieves and to prevent the risk of a false accusation. Although a rookie for the team, Akechi would use his natural instincts to bypass and find loopholes within the twisted rules of Niijima's Palace, saving the group. In reality, Akechi was leading them to their arrest, where they would be most certainly be put on death row. It's also implied that he would induce a mental shutdown on Sae once the Thieves were done for. Furthermore, authorities encourage people to expose the Phantom Thieves' identities by placing a 30 million yen bounty on their heads.
After fulfilling their mission in Sae's Palace, information about their whereabouts has been leaked, so the protagonist uses himself as a bait, leading to his capture. While being interrogated by Sae, he tells her the group's history besides some key moments blocked out due to a drug. When Sae offers the protagonist to tell her about his accomplices, he refuses, and instead rats out Akechi as a traitor. He makes a deal with her to save himself and deceive Akechi, who comes to kill the protagonist. He presumably kills him, but in reality, the protagonist within were all cognitive beings, and the real person never died. Having successfully deceived him using the reality-altering ability of the Metaverse and with Sae's help, the protagonist safely escapes his confinement and goes into hiding after his apparent death is broadcasted, alerting the rest of the group that he successfully fooled the traitor and the conspiracy.
In reality, the Phantom Thieves knew that Goro Akechi was hiding something since he was lured by a comment made by Morgana during their visit in the TV station, and being able to understand him can only mean that he has been in the Metaverse before. (Implying that he has been spying the Phantom Thieves when they were confronting Madarame) Therefore, the group formulated a plan to work against him. The only thing that had a chance to prevent the protagonist from executing the plan was him being administered with drugs. Futaba's investigation into Sae Niijima also included her programming an app to tap into Goro Akechi's phone conversations, which confirmed the plot to kill the protagonist.
In advance, they checked to confirm if the police building's interrogation room was identical to the one in the real world, allowing a modified Metaverse app to seamlessly transport Goro Akechi into the Metaverse to kill Sae's cognitive copy of the protagonist, which was in the interrogation room due to being caught on purpose. To make sure it goes through, they did not actually steal the treasure or have Sae go through a change of heart, but pretended to do so in order to hide their plan. Since this was the first time where Akechi actually saw their methods up-close, he had no idea that her treasure wasn't stolen. The "treasure" was just an empty briefcase. However, he was presumed to be dead by the public and by the police force, due to Shido's conspiracy being so confident that they refused to even give him a death certificate. To avoid detection, the protagonist is no longer able to attend school.
From the recording of Akechi's phone conversation, they learn that the mastermind behind the conspiracy is Masayoshi Shido, who is running for prime minister, and was the one responsible for framing the protagonist and his subsequent probation. Shido also manipulates Akechi to do dirty deeds for him, and he used to be a minor politician that didn't have much power or history in the past. By this point, every member of the public disregards how Shido actually is as a person and votes for him unerringly and exclusively as he makes charismatic speeches about steering Japan to a golden age to make himself more relatable and convincing.
When exploring Shido's Palace, the Thieves receive major revelations about the events that occurred up to this point. Madarame and Kaneshiro are all tied to Shido by financing him and his campaign with forgery and drug money, Okumura and Kobayakawa were assassinated due to being a thorn for Shido's campaign and to frame the Thieves, the IT company president issued blank hacking threats using Futaba's Medjed Moniker, artificially inflated the Phan Site's view count and votes to frame them and encrypted Wakaba's research after her murder under behalf of his boss' orders, and the Yakuza sided with Shido only because he had the best pay.
After all invitations from the Shadow Selves of his five noblemen associates within his Palace have been taken, Akechi steps in to stop them per Shido's orders. Akechi reveals himself to be disloyal, merely taking advantage of him so he may expose his identity as his bastard father when the time comes. (Due to Shido heavily implied to have been birthed Akechi from a one-night stand with a call-girl, this will be absolutely detrimental to Shido's standing.) The Phantom Thieves try to bring him back to his senses, but he was too frenzied to the point that he's now officially trying to dispatch them for personal reasons instead of for Shido.
Despite displaying his ability to cause psychotic breakdowns on Shadows, fighting the group in his "Prince" Robin Hood outfit, and finally revealing his Black Mask form of Loki as well, he was overwhelmed by the group's teamwork, leading to his defeat. The group would point out his talents and would encourage him to join them, much to his surprise. Before he could however, a cognitive Akechi appears and tries to kill the real one. The fake reveals that Shido already knew who he is and planned to betray his own son after his election as well, and Akechi finally realize he's been manipulated and the Phantom Thieves are his true allies. He seemingly sacrifices himself in an ambiguous fate to allow them to proceed stopping his father. The group, having realized Akechi isn't as bad of a person as they thought, and that they could've turned out like him if they were alone, use their experiences as an incentive to finally stop Shido.
Securing Shido's treasure, Futaba hijacks the nationwide broadcast system to expose Shido as the culprit behind the recent incidents in Tokyo and declare war against him. The Phantom Thieves enter a daunting final battle against Shido and emerge victorious, and he confesses his crimes on election day following his party's landslide victory.
The Phantom Thieves celebrate their success, assuming it's all over for good. The conspiracy is largely pulverized save for several scurrying remnants, and Sae begins to establish a case against Shido. Unfortunately, on the 23rd of December, things suddenly take a deep dive for the worst; not only does the public still wish for Shido to be Prime Minister despite his confession, but the Phantom Thieves are treated as if they never changed the hearts of their targets, almost as if they had never even existed. Despite the Thieves' expectations, Shido's inauguration as Prime Minister is merely postponed instead of cancelled. Shido's henchmen and personal doctor also use the excuse that he is currently in poor health and won't allow anyone to meet him, which means he cannot be tried despite having already confessed. They also fire Sae off the prosecution process, much to her shock and dismay. In order to bring people back to their senses, Morgana suggests they go to Mementos' core. Since Mementos is the Palace of the people, destroying it will cause the entire Metaverse to cease to exist, and doing so will probably make them unable to steal the hearts of criminals and expose their crimes, potentially forcing the Phantom Thieves to retire. To reform society for good, the group agrees to make this their one last heist on the next day.
As they enter the Depths of Mementos, the Phantom Thieves find that they never actually made their targets better people: in fact, they were merely made unambitious and returned to be a part of the Prison of Regression, and they praise it just like other of the inmates. This, alongside the heavy security present within the Depths of Mementos, alerts the Phantom Thieves that it might not be the public's Palace, but was most likely supervised by a higher being.
When they reach the core of Mementos, they confront its treasure, which turns out to be a godly being called the Holy Grail, the true master of Mementos and the Conductor of the Conspiracy, being formed by humanity's desire for perfect rule under one. The Grail drains from the "Will of the People" to render itself unbeatable, and chides the Phantom Thieves for being intoxicated by an unwanted form of justice. It expels them out of Mementos back into the real world, and proceeds to fuse it with the Metaverse to form the Qliphoth World. Nobody other than the group and their allies can notice the changes, and the Grail manipulates the public to believe that the Phantom Thieves do not exist shortly thereafter, causing them to disappear from existence.
The protagonist awakens in the Velvet Room, where Igor goes completely out of character and orders Caroline and Justine to execute him. Once exposed thanks to the protagonist and the Twins' combined form, Lavenza, he reveals himself to be the Holy Grail impersonating Igor to sponsor the protagonist in his "rehabilitation" (an excuse to keep tabs on him). The protagonist is offered a deal by the Grail, where it will restore reality to normal and allow the Phantom Thieves to continue gaining fame, but at the cost of sacrificing humanity's free will and leaving them as nothing more than slaves to the Holy Grail. The protagonist rejects the Grail's offer, and it abandons the Velvet Room, allowing the real Igor to be released from his captivity. The protagonist would later look for his imprisoned teammates and encourage them to reawaken to their rebellion: Morgana would later show up on his own, having remembered he's been created by Igor with the purpose of guiding them.
Lavenza reveals that, while Igor believed that a trickster will appear and lift the world's distortions, the Grail laughed at this aspect, defeated Lavenza and imprisoned Igor while taking his form. He then came into contact with the protagonist because he sensed a potential of him to be the "Trickster." Supposedly, his goal was to see if the protagonist's desire to rebel against distortion, or Akechi's desire to bring forth destruction and recreation of the world is stronger in a "game." In reality, this was a ruse, and he sought to use the "conspiracy" he set up as a mockery against humanity, believing that they do not deserve freedom for sponsoring Shido no matter how much misery he would inflict upon all of Japan if he were to be elected. At the end of the day, the Grail will not hold its end of the bargain, and he would turn the public against the trickster and cast him into despair in order to prove that humanity needs his perfect rule or they will drive themselves towards ruin with their indolence.
The Phantom Thieves scale the Qliphoth World manifested by the Grail and bring the public back to their senses by defeating shadows of Uriel, Raphael, Gabriel and Michael, causing them to panic as they finally notice the obvious abnormalities around them. They finally reach the Holy Grail and defeat it, and it reveals itself to be merely a part of a much larger entity: Yaldabaoth. As the administrator of the collective unconsciousness and the true master of Tokyo, he believes that humanity will guide themselves into ruin by abusing their freedom and only he can guide them into proper development by ruling over them with an iron fist. The Phantom Thieves deny him and commence their first true rebellion by declaring a final confrontation against him. Despite Yaldabaoth ultimately managing to overwhelm the Thieves, with the help of Morgana getting the masses to remember the Thieves, the people's faith in them causes the protagonist manages to awaken Satanael and defeat Yaldabaoth once and for all, resulting in the Metaverse to disappear for good, and public view of Shido being corrected to a negative light. Unfortunately, Morgana would disappear alongside it, secretly knowing of his fate in spite of suggesting they'd do so to begin with, leaving the rest of the team heartbroken.
On Christmas Eve, Sae asks the protagonist to turn himself in so he can testify against Shido since there's a lack of witnesses or solid evidence. However, this means the protagonist may have to be imprisoned again, due to his history with Shido and because the police and prosecutors are desperate to restore their own reputation and prevent anyone from viewing the Phantom Thieves as heroes. To change the world and protect his friends, the protagonist agrees to Sae's request.
In response to his arrest, his friends try their best to prove his innocence and eventually succeed in doing so two months afterwards when they find the woman he saved, who retracts the testimony Shido forced her to make and resulting in the initial charges of assault being expunged, allowing the protagonist to be freed earlier. Morgana, whose been the driving force behind the group's motivation to save the protagonist, would also return unscathed in his cat form, explaining that it's likely because they kept him in their minds.
Since the protagonist's probation has been dropped, he has to go back to his hometown next month. When the protagonist leaves Tokyo during the 20th of March, he rides on Makoto's new Citroen H van and goes back home with his friends. However, men in black began to tail the van only for Morgana to have broke their spark plugs. Now a free man again, the protagonist and his allies drive back home.
===Persona 5 Royal===
In October, while the Phantom Thieves were dealing with their increased popularity, the protagonist and Morgana attempt to return a charm to Kasumi Yoshizawa, but the three are accidentally transported into an unknown Palace due to an offhand mention of a laboratory. There, Kasumi awakens to her Persona, Cendrillon. After they escape, Morgana offers Kasumi the choice to join the Phantom Thieves; she declines, citing her need to focus on gymnastics. Back at Leblanc, the protagonist and Morgana conclude that they shouldn't burden the rest of the Phantom Thieves with the additional stress of knowing there's a new Persona user, and decide to not tell anyone. 
If the protagonist maxed out Takuto Maruki's Confidant before November 18th, an alternate sequence of events will occur.
After defeating Yaldabaoth, the Phantom Thieves, along with the rest of the general public, find themselves living in an altered reality where everyone's deepest desires have come true. Every one of them, save for the protagonist, Goro Akechi, and Kasumi, are content with their reality and unable to rebel. When Kasumi notices that the mysterious palace from October is visible in the real world, the trio group up to investigate inside. As they penetrate the entryway and explore the development areas, more and more evidence of Kasumi's true self is presented, up until they encounter the Palace ruler, Maruki.
He reveals himself as the creator of the new reality, and that he made it to end all of humanity's suffering. Kasumi, frenzied with confusion and scared of what she's discovering, demands Maruki show her who she really is. At her request, Maruki shows the group Kasumi's memories, which reveal that she is in fact Kasumi's younger twin sister, Sumire. After blaming herself for the death of her sister, she came to Maruki for therapy. During a session, he used his actualization abilities to make her believe she was Kasumi. The revelation returns Sumire's cognition of her identity and sends her back into the grief and depression she sought to escape by allowing Maruki to change her.
As the protagonist denies Maruki's ideal world, he seizes Sumire, who wishes to be reestablished as Kasumi, and orders a Hastur to attack the boys, forcing them to unleash a Showtime and defeat it. Maruki then tells them to reconsider, giving them a week to explore his reality for themselves. The protagonist uses this week to talk to the rest of the Phantom Thieves living in Maruki's reality. Once the protagonist and Akechi return at the end of the week, he gives them an offer to accept his reality for the sake of their happiness, as well as their friends'. They refuse, which stirs Sumire into attacking them, desperate to escape her grief. When she is defeated, Maruki forcibly restrains Sumire, holding her out of the reach of the boys. This separates Cendrillon from Sumire and causes the Persona to go berserk. Cendrillon absorbs all of the Byakhee that Maruki summons and is virtually invincible, up until Ryuji appears to block its finishing strike, heralding the arrival of the other Thieves. Once they defeat Cendrillon, Maruki allows Sumire to be taken away and tells them to return on February 3rd for their final decision.
Lavenza reveals that Maruki may be in possession of his own Persona, who is said to be able to manipulate cognition itself. However, he is also channeling power from Mementos, and if not stopped after a month, Mementos would merge with the real world and turn this version of reality into the true reality. Due to the lack of any rebellion, strife or hardship, not even the Velvet Room is able to save a world like this.
The Thieves now enter Maruki's Palace, with Sumire joining the party as "Violet." When attacked and surrounded by several Shadows, Sumire tears off her mask only to have nothing happen, as the old Cendrillon has been destroyed. She receives a new mask and as she tears it off, the real Kasumi's soul reaches out to her and replaces the old Cendrillon, officially marking Sumire as a rebel against her old, cowardly self.
Upon awakening their third tier Personas, the initial seven Phantom Thieves regret and feel ashamed for accepting Maruki's reality so easily, and resolve to change for the better, no matter how painful reality is, admitting that facing these traumatizing events head on are a part of their growth. They also lament being caught off guard by their subconscious desires, being rendered unable to protect the protagonist as a result, despite that being their utmost priority, having drowned in their blissful ignorance all the while when he was in danger.
After locating the Treasure on top of the Garden of Eden, the Thieves propose that the protagonist await Maruki at Leblanc to directly give him the Calling Card. On February 2nd, Maruki comes to Leblanc of his own volition, followed by Akechi, if the protagonist had previously maxed the Justice Confidant. He then explains that, due to the protagonist regretting Akechi's death and wishing to keep his promise to him, Maruki wished to give both of them a fresh start in his new reality. However, if this reality were to be destroyed, Akechi would go with it. Akechi, however was aware of this from the start, having no memories after his encounter with his cognitive self in Shido's Palace.
After receiving the Calling Card, Maruki leaves to prepare for the final battle. Akechi has resolved to fix reality no matter what happens to him, and asks the protagonist if he can do the same. If he admits he would stay and has confirmed to do so, he commits to accepting Maruki's offer. Akechi's fate in the original reality remains unknown.
Once the protagonist refuses the second and indirect offer, the Thieves will reach the top of the Garden of Eden to fight Maruki, in which the Persona's true form is revealed; the blind idiot god Azathoth, a golden cross laced with tentacles. Once Maruki is defeated, the party steals his Treasure, only for him to steal it back and evolve Azathoth into Adam Kadmon, the almighty being who is the giver of human wisdom, appearing as a massive and brilliant humanoid robot.
While Adam Kadmon is virtually invincible and threatens to decimate the Thieves, the group gathers to block the attack, unleashing their Personas for a final display of their rebellious will. Futaba orders the protagonist to shoot it in the head while it's distracted, shattering Maruki's mask and destroying Adam Kadmon.
The Palace quickly collapses. Morgana, unable to move with his vehicle form, transforms into a helicopter to transport the Thieves away. However, Maruki now pulls the protagonist off the Monacopter and asks him to fight him hand to hand, as a way of finally expressing his immeasurable grief. Once both are exhausted, he lies on the ground, fully accepting his fate and falling off one of the glass panels, only for the protagonist to save him and the Monacopter transports the two out of Odaiba.
Once the party returns to the original reality, the protagonist has been sent to juvenile detention, with Akechi no longer there to take his place. His maxed Confidants, including ones he maxed in the third semester, will support his release under Sumire's suggestion. Akechi remains missing. When the Phantom Thieves all met together on the next month, they decided to pursue their own ideal realities and part their own ways; Ryuji will go back to his hometown to receive physical therapy so he can recover his leg, Ann wished to go to overseas and study fashion, Yusuke wished to stay in Tokyo and finish his painting, Makoto and Haru will be moving far away from their current location, Futaba will return to high school and will strife to go to college and study cognitive psience, and the protagonist wishes for everyone to connect no matter what. While not stated, it's also implied that Morgana no longer wishes to become human unlike in the original ending. Once the protagonist was about to go to bed that night, Sumire confesses her love and gives parting words to the protagonist on her break at gymnastic meet via SNS, before she too goes on the path she chooses, both of them promising to see each other again. It was also revealed that a star-shaped stone used to power Showtimes given by Jose drained all of its power to transform Morgana into a helicopter and save the Thieves.
On the 19th of March, the protagonist is tailed by men in black as he attempts to leave Tokyo. The other Thieves distract them while Maruki, now a cab driver, escorts him to the train station, offering some final words of farewell and thanks. At the station, the protagonist says goodbye to Sumire and boards the train. He briefly sees himself as Joker reflected back at him in the window. If Akechi's Confidant has been maxed out, a glimpse of what appears to be him walks past the train after the credits roll.
These events mark Maruki as the first adult target of the Thieves to be genuinely made a better person, as this is the first heist they made after being freed from Yaldabaoth's control.
===Persona 5 Strikers===
Despite the Phantom Thieves's disbandment, the group still maintains close bonds with each other; Ryuji, Ann and Yusuke are now in their last year of high school, Futaba is enrolled as a high school student, and Makoto and Haru are now in college. They arranged plans to travel all over Japan during their summer vacation. The protagonist also comes across a popular digital assistant known as EMMA, known for its highly accurate decisions in improvising daily life.
However, this was momentarily cut short when Ryuji, the protagonist and Morgana went to buy camping utensils. The trio encounter Alice Hiiragi, an uncannily popular idol hosting an event near the 705 building, who grants the protagonist a card with her EMMA keyword "Wonderland" written on it. When Ryuji inserts the keyword however, he accidentally triggers a Metaverse Navigator secretly mounted within the application, sending them to a distorted version of Shibuya where a malicious form of Alice with scant clothing tells the crowd to give up their desires and the trio in their Phantom Thief outfit once again. This is followed by hordes of Shadows encroaching the crowd, extracting a diamond-like object from them. The trio fights hordes of Shadows and attempts escape, only to be surrounded by a massive Shadow horde and sent to interrogation by Shadow Alice.
She stomps the protagonist into the ground and aggressively flirts with him, only to get nothing, so she decided to just dump the trio into the underground sewers where they encounter Sophia, an AI of unknown origin who claims to be humanity's friend. Displaying the ability to combat Shadows, she escorts the party in escaping the Jail. Once they go out, Sophia manifests in the real world as an application, and the crowd within the Jail before received a Change of Heart, becoming mesmerized and obsessive with Alice. They explain everything to the rest of the Phantom Thieves, prompting them to investigate Alice before starting their trip.
After some investigation, they found out fans of Alice were causing property loss and violent incidents all over Shibuya, namely people buying Alice merchandise until they go bankrupt or buying them with loaned money, people who dislike Alice being fired, and street fights against anyone disliking Alice. In order to investigate her personally, Ann, Morgana and the protagonist go to attend the "Good Morning Japan" talk show on the next day. While Alice's behavior is seemingly normal at first, as soon as the host starts talking about her boyfriend he was abruptly silenced, before breaking into a fervent confession of love in front of her despite he's supposedly married. 
The broadcast ends abruptly, with Ann, Morgana and the protagonist lurking within the hallway. They eavesdrop Alice's manager following and questioning her, only for her to physically attack and verbally humiliate him, even remarking that the previous manager refused to leave his room because of this and it isn't the first time that she did this to the current manager. Ann and the protagonist temporarily convinced her to stop, in which she tries to hand the protagonist her keyword again only to recognize him in the 705 building, which alerted her because he wasn't mesmerized.
The trio reports the incident to the rest of the party members, officially reforming the Phantom Thieves with 9 members. Back home after their first investigation, they also encounter a police inspector known as Zenkichi Hasegawa who frames them as suspects for the Change of Heart incident against the TV Manager a day ago. Apparently, the police are still attempting to capture the Phantom Thieves to save their image as a public failure, with the opportunity arising when Change of Heart cases, similar to those from the Phantom Thieves, began to appear nation-wide. This investigation is spearheaded by officer Miyako Kaburagi and Zenkichi, who lists the protagonist as a lead suspect of the cases.
After an intense fight against a massive horde of Shadows, the Phantom Thieves storm Alice's castle and locate the topmost area. Unlike in Palaces, there is no treasure. Instead, all of the desires Alice stole manifest as a pink fog cluster, and a blockade prevents access to the Monarch's Throne. When Ryuji investigates the blockade, a flashback of what seems to be Alice being bullied at school starts playing. When they exit the Metaverse, Zenkichi gives them a clue to Alice's school; she graduated from Shujin, prompting the Thieves to infiltrate an isolated area of the Jail in Shujin Academy, where they realized that Alice is not intentionally malicious, but was driven by a desire of retribution against bullies who humiliated her, walked all over her and took away her boyfriend out of jealousy. They then combat a powerful Lock Keeper shadow and defeat it, which results in the blockade within the Shibuya Jail vanishing and send a calling card to Alice using a grandiose broadcast hijack to signify their triumphant return.
Once the Thieves return to the unlocked Bird Cage, they encounter Shadow Alice while thinking how to take the desires to the real world despite its massive size. Alice, despite initially maintaining her usual composure, snaps quickly after being confronted by Ann about her trauma and attacks the Thieves by transforming into a monstrous rabbit-like creature. Once defeated, Alice gives up after some banter from Ann and the protagonist, takes off her crown and vanishes, releasing all of the people she mesmerized. The real Alice can be seen confessing on the next day. 
However, the broadcast hijack on the previous day had resulted in the police being alerted and believing that the Phantom Thieves were behind the nationwide Change of Heart cases, with a part of the justification being trying to save their faces from their previous defeat. This mindset was heavily implied to have been triggered the failed pursuit against the protagonist during the end of both Persona 5 and Royal. Zenkichi himself suspects that the Phantom Thieves didn't do it, but takes advantage to use the Phantom Thieves' summer vacation to help him investigate the suspicious Change of Hearts all over Japan. When he reports back to his superior Miyako Kaburagi, she warns that if Zenkichi found any proof of the Phantom Thieves responsible, he must arrest them at all costs.
When stopping to Sendai and Sapporo, the Phantom Thieves encounter several nearly identical cases as the Change of Heart case instigated by Alice in Shibuya, which all feature people who felt disdain against being wronged or taken advantage of using EMMA to artificially inflate their popularity so they take back what they had lost. During their first dinner in Sendai, a mysterious woman named Kuon Ichinose also approaches them. After defeating Natsume and attending Konoe's talk in Ichinose's university, she overhears that the teens are the rumored Phantom Thieves. Ichinose exposes herself as the creator of EMMA and accomplice of Akira Konoe, the maintainer of EMMA, then makes a deal with them to assist their investigation. Due to a lack of a Prison of Regression as well as their new less forceful approach to changing hearts, all targets that the Phantom Thieves changed hearts of voluntarily reform as intended and provide valuable info against the case.
During their midway stop to Kyoto, they meet Zenkichi's daughter, Akane Hasegawa, who does not hold him on a high regard because her mother was killed in a planned murder, and the crime was blamed on a patsy who quickly committed suicide. To top it all off, Zenkichi gave up on the case and considered her a burden, forcing her to live at home alone for most of the time. She developed an obsession about the Phantom Thieves and even broadcasts the hijack directed against Masayoshi Shido. However, this was done in hopes that they will crush the police.
In Okinawa, they also found that the locals went berserk due to having their heart changed by an experiment to grant EMMA psientific knowledge. The Monarch, Shuzo Ubukata committed suicide by jumping off a nearby cliff due to a mastermind telling him to "hand his desires out" (functioning as a calling card). A voice resembling Sophia's tells her that she's worthless at the Bird Cage before a Lock Keeper combining the previous three attack them. When the Thieves return to reality after killing the Lock Keeper, the islanders gained back their senses. 
The Phantom Thieves make a brief stop again to Fukuoka, only for Zenkichi to warn them about something important. Makoto was not feeling well, so Haru rushes them back to Kyoto instead using Makoto's van within a single day. Zenkichi informs the party that he found the culprits of the case, namely Chief Cabinet Secretary Jyun Owada, a former lobbyist for Shido, and Akira Konoe, who deliberately induced Change of Hearts against Owada's political opponents and various police officers, many of them which were involved in scandals themselves and all of them entered Osaka before, which was also the location of Konoe's Jail. Konoe also framed the Phantom Thieves for hacking into EMMA and killing Ubukata, which are all blatant fabrications, and Owada bribes Kaburagi into raiding the hot springs hotel that the Phantom Thieves are in. She quickly commands a horde of police in riot gear stationing in front of the hotel, only for Zenkichi to take her place instead. 
Due to suspicions that Zenkichi made himself an accomplice for the Phantom Thieves, Police inspectors search the Hasegawa household, who tell his daughter, Akane Hasegawa that her idols, the Phantom Thieves are working with the father that she absolutely hates, shocking her. She then absentmindedly tells "someone" to save her after the inspectors emptied her residence, only for EMMA to respond unprompted, creating a Jail and dropping Akane into a coma. Konoe consults EMMA on a way to capture the Phantom Thieves. The AI suggests using a Jail formed by one of their associates and turn her into a Monarch, without telling him about Akane at all. Konoe follows suit, and EMMA fabricates a distress call from Akane, luring them into the newly formed the Kyoto Jail where all combat members were trapped by a resentful Shadow Akane who was furious about them assisting Zenkichi. Futaba escaped thanks to her low physical strength and Zenkichi was freed by Sae Niijima.
Zenkichi and Futaba infiltrate the Jail and Zenkichi confronts Akane about the incident. Akane tells Zenkichi that Owada murdered her mother and he admits being thrown a death threat. Due to Owada being associated with Shido which is a god-like figure with full control over the jurisdictional system, it is impossible for Zenkichi to investigate. However, Akane was controlled fully by EMMA and wasn't in the right mind to reason, being more concerned about the patsy Owada killed than her family and announcing that after the Phantom Thieves she will go after Owada and change his heart herself. Angered about the truth and Akane being used by Konoe and EMMA for nefarious reasons, Zenkichi gives himself in to the Phantom Thieves and awakens Valjean, who dispatches the Shadows that Shadow Akane sent against him. Shadow Akane reveals herself as a projection, and Zenkichi frees the other combatants with Futaba. Zenkichi is given the codename "Wolf" and uses non-elemental moves alongside buffs. The Phantom Thieves, now with 10 members, confront the real Shadow Akane who deliriously calls the Phantom Thieves "fakes" and summons a group of cognitive copies of the original 8 Phantoms whom she calls the "real ones" against them, with the protagonist fighting a copy of himself known as My Dear Joker. Once it's gone, Shadow Akane reforms and Zenkichi goes back to his home to confirm Akane's condition. It turns out that she never left her room, and she now genuinely recognizes Zenkichi as a good parent while stating that she never left her room since she contacted EMMA.
The Phantom Thieves, with assistance from Zenkichi and Ichinose, arrive in Osaka so they can apprehend Konoe. During the end of this Jail, they were shocked to find out that Konoe had a bird cage, and that he was not a malicious target, but all of his actions are genuinely motivated by altruism. When Konoe was a child, he was abused by his father who tried to kill him after killing his mom. Konoe only survived because he murdered him, accidentally mistaking that he was a burglar. When he got EMMA in his hands, he wished to modify it with psientific functions so nobody would end up like him, although by full fledged mind control instead of respecting free will, and his plan to set Owada as the next prime minister is heavily implied to be a plan to trick him; once the Thieves are done for, he will induce a change of heart on him immediately. After sending the calling card to Konoe, they confront him for the incident, chiding him that his plans to systematize the Phantom Thieves' methods rob the Monarchs and the public out of their free will and Sophia even states that the many that he "saved," Monarchs and the public included, do not look happy. Enraged by Sophie's words, he transforms his attire to match his childhood hero Zephyrman to confront them, first on a robot, then on foot, but was defeated. The real Konoe confesses and willingly turns himself to Zenkichi and Kaburagi next day, with the latter whom Zenkichi requested to reform.
The Phantom Thieves, believing that they had won, makes their way back to LeBlanc, going detour to a fireworks festival at Yokohama as Zenkichi makes his plans to disable EMMA's servers. However, before they can make their way back to Yongen-Jaya, Sophia discovers that a massive Jail spanned all over Tokyo with Tokyo Tower being its core. Zenkichi also dials the protagonist, telling them that the Police cannot shut down EMMA due to an unknown error, and it fired back up without any human interference. Once the party and Zenkichi rush to Tokyo Tower, they encounter an abnormal crowd of people yearning EMMA to guide them to the destined land, and the EMMA application now resembles an autonomous entity, dragging the Thieves into the Jail of the Abyss unprompted. When they reach the Jails' central tower, the party found that the EMMA application has evolved into a Physical God known as the Holy Torah, who briefly greets them and vanishes, followed by Kuon Ichinose arriving to confront the Thieves herself.
Ichinose explains the truth and logic behind EMMA, revealing that EMMA was only using Konoe to spread the application's popularity. The AI genius deliberately created EMMA for the very purpose; to decide the one and only answer to humanity's happiness. The Change of Heart events instigated by Konoe are largely unrelated to EMMA's current state, and it was daily usage of the application that resulted in it trying to remove all desires. Ichinose, after a long explanation and trying to justify her own actions, moves on to wipe out the Phantom Thieves, first by proving that Sophia is a failure by forcing her to attack the Phantom Thieves with one vocal input command, only for her to snap out very quickly and drop off the cliff. Ichinose now claims that her friendliness is an act and claims that she is in fact a "heartless doll," then summons a diamond-like weapon to blast the Phantom Thieves off a cliff herself.
Once the Phantom Thieves return to her, she sends a massive amount of Shadows against them to buy time so she can recharge her weapon, only for her shot to be blocked single-handedly by Sophia. Once she partially goes back to her senses, Sophia attempts to convince Ichinose to stop obsessing over her misguided creation. Ichinose explains her past, where people basically treated her as a freak. It turns out that Sophia was created to let her understand why she was a freak, only for her to push Ichinose's buttons, motivating her to create EMMA to see the heart was even needed. Ichinose harbors no ill-intent and was largely motivated by altruism when she created EMMA, but she was heavily disturbed by Sophia's words and did not bother giving it any proper empathy or understanding upon its creation. Therefore, she didn't actually collect any desires other than people asking the application for advice, and was mistakenly led to believe that the answer to humanity's happiness is when she decides everything in their place. To change Ichinose's heart, Sophia awakens Pithos into its true form, Pandora. Now further pushed in denial, Ichinose confronts the party one last time with a Hecatoncheir before officially declaring her reform, assisting them in stopping her misguided creation once and for all.
When the party and Ichinose returns to the surface world, all of Tokyo goes into a blackout and the Tree of Knowledge physically manifests over Tokyo. The public standing in front of the Tokyo Tower willingly goes in and gives in their desires to the EMMA for eternal happiness in the form of the artificial goddess thinking for them, similar to an incident that happened half a year ago as remarked by Morgana. 
With Ichinose unable to directly interfere, the party storms to the top of the tower where they encounter the Holy Torah, who traps them in a forest of fog that only permits escape once the protagonist repeatedly moves sideways into the corner. The Torah leaves a Desire fog and the only way to summon it back to action is to hack into the EMMA application and use it to send a calling card. Despite facing major difficulties, Ichinose comes in and cooperates with Futaba, successfully hacking into the system and hijacking it with the Calling Card, allowing the Torah to be summoned into action. Once she's summoned into action, the Torah manifests as the False God Demiurge but was defeated in a grueling battle and a 10-man All-out Attack.
After the evolved EMMA application is destroyed, the destruction near Tokyo Tower lifts as if it never happened, and the crowd near it vanishes. Back to LeBlanc, the Thieves use the day to open a celebration meal. 
At the next day when they are going to leave, Ichinose offers to meet the protagonist. The television broadcasts Owada's arrest made possible thanks to Kaburagi and Zenkichi's efforts and valuable testimony from Konoe, but Ichinose was late. It turns out that she turned herself to the police because she was the true culprit, although due to the supernatural circumstances of this case, the police set her free because they do not believe her testimonies. She then requests the protagonist to transfer Sophia so they can travel to parts unknown and investigate humanity. During the post credits scene, Zenkichi arrives to Owada's residence to witness his arrest. The Thieves disband and part their own ways once more, stating that they shall meet again at this year's winter.
===Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth===
The Phantom Thieves are the main focus in the game with Joker being their leader. At the beginning, they are sent into the Cinema while Goro Akechi a member of the team, but his stuttering near the end of the game and his absence from the post-credit events implies that he is still the traitor.
The group goes into a regular exploration session in Mementos and suddenly the Morgana van loses control, dropping them into a TV screen on a wall which leads into a movie. They escape from the movie and into a theater, but a chicken-like F.O.E kidnaps Makoto Niijima and Haru Okumura when they escape. They are later freed by the remaining Phantom Thieves and the P3P heroine.
Prior to their final confrontation with Enlil, the Phantom Thieves (with assistance from Hikari), come up with a plan to allow the those trapped within Enlil's theater to regain their will by playing the movies edited by the protagonists to inspire them to fight back against Enlil's influence. Wanting to support the Phantom Thieves in their efforts, both SEES and the Investigation Team, join the group in enacting their plan, ultimately forming the "Grand Phantom Thieves" encompassing the members of all three teams and Hikari. With their goals aligned, all three teams give the Thieves their support before sending the Calling Card to challenge Enlil. 
Following the defeat of Enil, the Phantom Thieves, alongside SEES and the Investigation Team, were able to change Hikari's heart, allowing her to be free from the Theater District, as well as many others like her. However, because the Theater District was destroyed, each of the three teams, including Hikari, had to lose their memories. 
After losing their memories and arriving back in their original times, the Phantom Thieves sans Akechi are back at the hideout in Leblanc, with Ann bringing up a movie festival, and Ryuji and the others feeling compelled to go to it. After watching the movie, titled "New Cinema Labyrinth," the director Hikari appears, and the protagonist smiles upon seeing her. Whether he remembers her or not is left ambiguous.
==Members==
Member 	Code Name 	Role 	Comical title* 	Period active
Ren Amamiya 	Joker 	Leader, Attacker 	- 	April 15, 2016-August 31, 2017
Morgana 	Mona 	Attacker, Navigator* 	Acting Guide 	April 15, 2016-August 31, 2017
Ryuji Sakamoto 	Skull 	Attacker 	Charge Commander 	April 15, 2016-August 31, 2017
Ann Takamaki 	Panther 	Attacker 	Actress 	April 15, 2016-August 31, 2017
Yusuke Kitagawa 	Fox 	Attacker 	Artist 	May 21, 2016-August 31, 2017
Makoto Niijima 	Queen 	Attacker, Navigator 	Advisor 	June 20, 2016-August 31, 2017
Futaba Sakura 	Oracle 	Navigator 	Hacker Prodigy 	Earliest July 28, 2016-August 31, 2017
Haru Okumura 	Noir 	Attacker 	Noble Daughter 	Earliest September 19, 2016-August 31, 2017
Temporary 	Temporary 	Temporary 	Temporary 	Temporary
Goro Akechi 	Crow 	Attacker, Navigator* 	Charismatic Detective 	October 26-November 19, 2016, January 2-February 3, 2017
Sumire Yoshizawa 	Violet 	Attacker 	- 	January 12 -February 3, 2017
Sophia 	Sophie 	Attacker, Vendor 	- 	July 27-August 31, 2017
Zenkichi Hasegawa 	Wolf 	Attacker 	- 	August 23-August 29, 2017
* While the years in-game are listed as 20XX, various clues suggest that Persona 5 takes place in 2016.	* While the years in-game are listed as 20XX, various clues suggest that Persona 5 takes place in 2016.	* While the years in-game are listed as 20XX, various clues suggest that Persona 5 takes place in 2016.	* While the years in-game are listed as 20XX, various clues suggest that Persona 5 takes place in 2016.	* While the years in-game are listed as 20XX, various clues suggest that Persona 5 takes place in 2016.
===Confidants===
On the official Japanese site of Persona 5, those who the protagonist can form Confidant bonds with, besides the core members, are also considered part of the Phantom Thieves, or collaborators, as most of them are mentioned during the protagonist's interrogation by Sae Niijima.
Confidant 	Involvement 	Comical title
Sojiro Sakura 	Takes the protagonist in 	Guardian of Spongers
Chihaya Mifune 	Provides accurate divination 	Prophetess Who Sees Fate
Munehisa Iwai 	Supplies equipment 	Defective Weapon Provisioner
Tae Takemi 	Supplies barely legal drugs 	Dark Physician
Sadayo Kawakami 	Provides domestic services andallows the protagonist to skip classes 	Double-faced Teacher
Ichiko Ohya 	Reports in favor of the gang 	Paparazza
Shinya Oda 	Teaches gun skills 	Young Marksman Never Misses
Hifumi Togo 	Teaches battle strategies 	Crafty Female Shogi Player
Yuuki Mishima 	Creates and managesthe Phantom Aficionado Website 	Self-appointedPublic Relations Officer
Toranosuke Yoshida	Teaches speechcraft 	Unyielding Politician
Takuto Maruki* 	Conducts therapies with the protagonist and the rest of the Phantom Thieves	-
Sae Niijima 	Interrogates the protagonist 	-
* * In Persona 5 Royal only.
== Gallery ==
===Persona 5===
P5 Wanted Poster.jpg|Wanted poster promotional artwork
PERSONA5_20th_Anniversary_package_visual_of_the_Phantom_Thieves_of_Hearts.png|PERSONA5 20th Anniversary package visual of the Phantom Thieves of Hearts by Shigenori Soejima
Phantom Thieves of Heart Group 2 P5.jpg|The Phantom Thieves of Hearts
Illustration of Phantom Theives of Heart for P5 Maniax User Handbook Cover Illustration.png|Persona 5 Maniax User Handbook Cover Illustration of Phantom Thieves of Hearts by Shigenori Soejima
Persona 5 Phantom Thieves.png|The Phantom Thieves of Hearts
Phantom Thief Calling Card.PNG|Calling card
P5 SplashScreen.png|The Phantom Thieves in the splash screen
Persona 5 intro.gif|The Phantom Thieves in the main menu
Persona5Title.gif|The Phantom Thieves in the main menu
HereToTakeYourBride.png|The Phantom Thieves in Okumura's Palace
AllThieves.png|The Phantom Thieves in Niijima's Palace
PhantomThieves.gif|The Phantom Thieves on Shido's Palace
===Persona 5 Royal===
P5R LetUsStartTheGame.png|Splash Screen
Persona_5_royal_official_art_.png|Credits
P5R SteamBadge5.png|Steam Badge Level 5: Phantom Thieves of Hearts
===Persona 5 (Manga)===
P5CharacterAnthology.jpg|Persona 5 Character Anthology
CharacterAnthologyArt.jpg|Illustration by Persona Q: Side P4 manga author Mizunomoto
P5 manga Phantom Thieves of Hearts.jpg|The Phantom Thieves of Hearts in the manga adaption
===Persona 5 The Animation / The Day Breakers===
PERSONA5 THE ANIMATION - THE DAY BREAKERS - DVD package visual by Shigenori Soejima.png|The Phantom Thieves of Hearts on the cover of Persona 5 The Animation The Day Breakers
Phantom Thieves.png|From The Animation
===Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight===
P5D key visual art.jpg|Promotional artwork
P5D SplashScreen Starlight.png|Splash Screen
===Persona 5 Strikers===
P5S TitleScreen.jpg|Main menu
P5S Steam Emote3.png|Steam Emote - :Mask3: (Phantom Thieves, Common)
P5S Steam Emote3 18x18.png|Steam Emote - :Mask3: 18x18 (Phantom Thieves, Common)
===Persona 5: The Phantom X===
File:Persona 5 The Phantom X Game Promotion Wonder and the Phantom Thieves.jpg|The Phantom Thieves with the Persona 5: The Phantom X Protagonist
===Persona 5 Tactica===
P5T phantom thieves.jpg|The Phantom Thieves in Persona 5 Tactica
===Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth===
PQ2_Concept_Art_2.jpg|Concept Art
===Tribute Art===
P5 Illustration of the main characters by Akaume (PQ Roundbout illustrator).jpg|Illustration of the Phantom Thieves of Hearts by Akaume (PQ Roundabout author)
==Trivia==
* The name of the Phantom Thieves likely originates from the , a stock character often used in fiction. One instance of note is , the character which inspired the protagonist's Persona Arsène.
* So far, Sophie is the only character who joined the Phantom Thieves who was not involved with one of the following: Suguru Kamoshida, Masayoshi Shido (or through his associates) or Yaldabaoth.
* The innate theme for the group, the "phantom thieves," was coined by Morgana in an early heist.
* The gloves worn by the Phantom Thieves (except for Morgana who does not wear any, as well as Sophia and Zenkichi from Persona 5 Strikers) correspond to the elements or roles their Personas (or Initial Persona in the case of Joker's Arsène) primarily represent:
** Joker: Red (Curse)
** Skull: Yellow (Electricity)
** Panther: Pink (Fire)
** Fox: Cyan (Ice)
** Queen: White (Nuclear)
** Oracle: Neon green (rear support)
** Noir: Violet (Psy)
** Crow: White (Bless)
*** In Persona 5 Royal, Violet and black mask Crow are exceptions to this rule. Rather, the colors of their gloves are flipped to match their opposite element (Bless vs Curse.)
* The Phantom Thieves of Hearts share the unique distinction of not bearing a bond associated with the Fool Arcana, in contrast to S.E.E.S or the Investigation Team. Rather, the Fool Arcana bond is with Igor.
* Unused files in Persona 5 point to several cut books that revolved around the Phantom Thieves:
** "PT Bible" is a book that "has everything a Phantom Thief devotee should know."
** "Phan-Sightings" is "a book documenting alleged phantom thief sightings."
===Appearances in Other Media===
* 
* Identity V
* 
* Sword Art Online: Integral Factor
* Alchemy Stars
* NieR Re[in]carnation
====Super Smash Bros. Ultimate====
SmashPhantomThievesSpiritBattle.jpg|The Phantom Thieves Spirit Battle in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
====Identity V====
IdentityV PhantomThieves.jpg|Illustration of the Phantom Thieves as part of the 2nd Identity V collaboration event
Category:Organization
Category:Persona 5 Allies
Category:Persona 5 Strikers Allies
Category:Persona Q2 Allies
Category:Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth
Category:Persona 5 Tactica Allies