The Gold Dragon’s Arrival is a Subquest in Shin Megami Tensei V. Most Subquests will reward you with a large amount of experience, some Macca, and then you’ll receive an item of sorts. Most of the time, it’ll be a Talisman which allows you to have access to the different Magatsuhi skills in the game.

How to start The Gold Dragon’s Arrival¶

In order to start this Subquest, teleport to the Onarimon Leyline, head out to the south and follow the path to the west until you can turn around and head up the mountain to the north. When you’re on top, walk towards the northern edge and you’ll call out to Huang Long.

Where to find the demons in The Gold Dragon’s Arrival¶

After you’ve accepted the quest, you’ll need to fight four Punishing foes in any order. You can defeat one of them as early as level 22/23, but the rest are all in the level 40+ range. The Punishing foes you need to defeat in order of level are: Xuanwu (23), Baihu (43), Zhuque (43), and Qing Long (45).

Where to find Xuanwu¶

The lowest level of the four foes you need to defeat is Xuanwu at level 23. You can find him northeast of the Kamiyacho Leyline.

Recommended Party¶

Xuanwu (also known as Genbu in some of the other games) is definitely a challenging enemy, as he has high Vitality, meaning he is not going to be taking a lot of damage from attacks, even if it’s from something like Fire skills. That’s why it is a good idea to have Rakunda in this battle to debuff his defense, especially since Xuanwu can even improve his own defense with Rakukaja. You would be in for a very long battle if you left his defense alone, which is not an easy thing to do around the level in which you fight him. Outside of that, Xuanwu does primarily Ice attacks, so having protection from that will be your main goal.

Andras, for example, blocks Ice, so having him in your party is nice, especially since he doesn’t suffer from a low Fire skill potential. That means if you can get Agi/Agilao on Andras, then you’re golden. Another reason why Andras is a great choice is because Xuanwu is weak to Poison and Andras has Poisma right out the gate, which can help a lot due to the high defenses. Feng Huang is another great choice, as he isn’t weak to Ice and has Agilao from the beginning. Your third choice should be either of the two listed above, as they both learn Rakunda, although Fortuna learns it a lot sooner than Kaya-no-Hime. The plus that Kaya-no-Hime has over Fortuna, though, is some natural resistance to Ice, so she won’t get hit as hard.

Delving into the skills Xuanwu has a little more, you have Bufula, which is a medium Ice attack against a single target. While his Magic stat isn’t too high, this can still hurt quite a bit. There is also Ice Breath, which hits random targets up to five times; as with any random-targeting skills, there could be trouble if hits concentrate on a single character. Rakukaja is dangerous, simply because Xuanwu already has high defenses. The last two skills can be a brutal pairing, as Critical Aura ensures the next Strength-based attack will be a critical, and Heavy Blow will deal more damage if it’s a crit. You might even see this potentially one-shot some characters, so make sure you keep everyone healed.

Where to find Baihu¶

The next Punishing foe you should encounter is Baihu who can be found to the west of the Nagatacho Leyline. He is level 43, so you won’t be able to normally take him in battle until you reach the Chiyoda region in the main story.

Recommended Party¶

When you look at Baihu’s stats, you will see that he has high Strength and even higher Agility. That gives Baihu a potential to dodge your attacks, which makes you lose some turns. There are only two ways one could counter this, by either casting Sukunda on him or Masukukaja on your party. Of course, the biggest problem with Baihu is that he has some strong Physical attacks. With two turns per round, if he managed to use something like Damascus Claw both actions, then there’s a good chance you might have one or two characters dying. Casting Marakukaja on your party will give you a better chance at surviving, as well as Tarunda on Baihu.

If you have finished The Tyrant of Tennozu quest and get to level 44, then you could get Belphegor, who has resistance to Physical. Depending on when you do this boss, you could also have a Belphegor’s Essence in your inventory, although it might be better to save that for another battle. Yoshitsune also has resistance to Physical, but is level 45 and might be a bit overkill for Baihu. Since Baihu resorts to only using Mazionga during the Magatsuhi charge, there isn’t really any need to worry about having anyone weak to Electric in your party. The ability to just toss an Elec Dampener when you see the charge is more than enough.

Fierce Roar’s Taunt doesn’t come into play here, but the increase in Defense does not help you at all, so Rakunda can be a good thing to include on someone. Likewise, you might want someone with Me Patra, too, since Frenzied Chomp has a chance to inflict one of three different ailments, on top of doing some decent damage. Baihu is weak to Force, so you should be including Zanma/Wind Dracostrike on your team, as you do want to get those extra Press Turns. Note that Baihu is actually weak to Confusion, so that is another method in which you can make the battle much easier on yourself. While he may still use the stronger skills mentioned above, there is a chance he will do nothing or even attack himself. As long as you don’t miss many attacks and keep on top of healing your party, Baihu shouldn’t be too much trouble.

Where to find Zhuque¶

You can find Zhuque south of Tokyo Tower, in the ruined Shiba area. Go to the Tokyo Tower Leyline, then head north, west and south, down the long stretch of land, until you reach the very end, which is where you’ll find Zhuque flying around there.

Recommended Party¶

While Xuanwu was Ice and Baihu represents Electric, Zhuque will be the Fire boss during the quest. That means you will not want anyone weak to the element in your party. Zhuque has access to both Agilao and Maragion, but the latter is only used whenever it charges the Magatsuhi, so you can predict that. Besides the normal attack, the above two skills are the only actual damaging attacks in Zhuque’s arsenal, as the rest don’t hurt. That means if all of your party can block Fire, then the only way for Zhuque to deal damage is with normal attacks. The recommended team doesn’t all block Fire, though, as that might limit your damage output.

In addition to the above skills, you will also see Zhuque cast Masukunda on your team, decreasing their accuracy and evasion. Counter this with Masukukaja (or any other skill that has the same effect), or you could try Sukunda on the boss itself. However, there is a slight problem with that, as Zhuque knows Dekunda, which removes all stat buffs on itself, so it will always try to revert back to normal. If it keeps doing this, then it might be better to ignore stat debuffs and just concentrate on offense. You might also see Lullaby from it, although it doesn’t seem to use it very often. Zhuque is weak to Ice, so you should be blasting it with that element the entire time, plus it is also weak to Charm, if you happen to have any skills that can inflict that.

Where to find Qing Long¶

Finally, you can find Qing Long in the area east of the Hamamatsucho Leyline. From the Leyline, travel southeast, until you can finally enter the little area to the east, with all of the ruins. Qing Long will be flying around the cliffside there.

Recommended Party¶

Qing Long is the highest level out of the four demons you face during the quest, and could be the most challenging, as he has access to two elements, Ice and Force. Thankfully, he only seems to uses Wind Breath as his Magatsuhi charge maneuver, so you can easily just toss a Force Dampener on your party to negate it. Just to be on the safe side, though, make sure both elements are at least neutral for your entire party, to avoid any random happenings. You also won’t be able to use those same two elements, as Qing Long resists Ice and blocks Wind, but everything else is fair game, especially the weakness of Electric. The only problem with the recommended party is that none of them learn anything Electric naturally, so you will have to add those skills to the skillset.

Apart from the Ice and Force, you will also see Qing Long use Matarunda to lower your party’s attack. This will make the battle last longer, but you can simply counter it with Matarukaja, if you have it. Alternatively, you could also use Rakunda on the boss to reduce its defenses. Honestly, at this point in the game, debuffs are always going to be welcome in tougher battles like this, so you should have some way to always inflict them. Eat Whole, while it may do decent damage to a single character, doesn’t seem to give Qing Long much HP back, so the drain portion shouldn’t really be a factor at all. Qing Long is also weak to Sleep, so you could put him to sleep right before your round is over to hopefully make him skip over his turns.

After defeat all four gods, return to Huang Long to turn in the quest for completion.