Persona5: The Phantom X: how far behind 4★ Phantom Idols really are
At Lv.99 the typical 4★ Phantom Idol has 69% of a typical 5★'s ATK — and 3 of them still out-hit the weakest 5★. Levelling, meanwhile, treats every idol the same.
At Lv.99, the median 4★ Phantom Idol in Persona5: The Phantom X has 69% of the median 5★'s ATK: 781 against 1,126. That is a real gap, but not a wall: 3 of the 15 4★ idols hit harder than the weakest-hitting 5★. And because levelling works the same way for every idol, the gap you see at Lv.99 is the gap at every level.
The gap, stat by stat
Medians across all 34 5★ and 15 4★ idols, at Lv.99:
| Stat | 5★ median | 4★ median | 4★ as share of 5★ |
|---|---|---|---|
| ATK | 1,126 | 781 | 69% |
| HP | 3,532 | 2,614 | 74% |
| DEF | 621 | 481 | 77% |
| Speed | 100 | 100 | 100% |
ATK is where rarity bites hardest. HP and DEF close some of the distance, and Speed does not depend on rarity at all at the median. A 4★ in a support or utility slot, where its own damage matters less, gives up much less than the ATK row suggests.
The 4★ idols that out-hit a 5★
The weakest-hitting 5★ is Yusuke, at 839 ATK. Kotone (864), Shiratori (849) and Sumi (841) all beat that. Kotone is the strongest 4★ hitter, still well short of the top of the roster (Ann at 1,239), but ahead of the bottom of the 5★ list.
That bottom is not an accident. Yusuke and Ashiya, the two lowest-hitting 5★ idols, carry the two highest DEF values in the whole roster: 819 and 833, against a best of 597 for any 4★. Their stat budget went into defence instead. So "a 4★ beats a 5★" is true on ATK and misleading as a whole: the 5★ traded damage for durability, and the 4★ did not get that durability back.
Rarity decides the size of an idol's stat budget. Role decides where it goes.
Levelling: one curve for everyone
Every one of the 49 idols grows along the same curve shape. At each level, each idol holds almost exactly the same share of its own Lv.99 ATK:
| Level | Share of Lv.99 ATK |
|---|---|
| Lv.1 | 8% |
| Lv.25 | 29% |
| Lv.60 | 61% |
| Lv.85 | 86% |
The curve is close to a straight line. The median idol gains 9.5 ATK per level between Lv.1–25 and 11 per level between Lv.95–99. There is no dead band where levels stop paying and no late spike worth rushing to. Each level is worth about the same as the last, for every idol.
Two things follow. First, because the shape is shared, the order between idols barely moves as you level. Of the 1,176 possible pairs, only 2 ever swap places at any level, and those are idols within 12 ATK of each other at Lv.99. Second, levelling cannot close the rarity gap, since it multiplies both sides equally. A 4★ is worth raising for its kit, not because it catches up.
Pick any idol and level on the stat calculator to see the exact numbers, or compare the full roster on the Phantom Idols page.