Fool Arcana

The Fool Arcana is an Arcana in the Persona series.

Overview
Portrayed as a jester laughing very close to a cliff, accompanied with a dog at his heels. The Fool represents innocence, divine inspiration, madness, freedom, spontaneity, inexperience, chaos and creativity. This Arcana is originally the only one that doesn't have a number, thus it is considered as the Arcana number 0 or number 22.

The Fool Arcana tends to be the "jack of all trades," since its Personas can inherit all skills without preference for any type. Mythological figures of the Fool Arcana are often heroes, fools or the protagonists of their own mythological stories. The common theme between the protagonists of the Fool Arcana is the concept of new beginnings and stepping into the unknown, represented by their transferring into a new city for a year, provoking curiosity and exploration.

As such, the protagonists from recent entries often start out with the Fool Arcana. At the end of Persona 3 and Persona 4 the protagonists are given a Persona of the Judgement or of The World Arcana, probably as a reference to the Journey of the Fool in the Tarot, which is also explained in detail by Mr. Edogawa in Persona 3.

Appearances

 * Megami Ibunroku Persona / Persona 
 * Persona 2: Innocent Sin
 * Persona 2: Eternal Punishment
 * Persona 3 / FES / Portable
 * Persona 4 / Golden
 * Persona 4 Arena / Ultimax
 * Persona 4: Dancing All Night
 * Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth
 * Persona 5 / Royal 
 * Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth
 * Persona 5 Strikers

Megami Ibunroku Persona
The Fool Arcana in Persona is a hidden set of Personas that can only be created through a very rare fusion accident. There are three of them; all are characterized by colorful skill sets, low SP requirements, "Strong: All attacks" properties and origins in Japanese folklore.

One can guarantee a fusion accident resulting in a Fool Arcana Persona by starting from a "hard reset" (as in, not already mid-game and loading a save or selecting "Return to Title") and performing a White Fusion after taking exactly 101 steps in an area where no enemies will attack, such as the Mikage Sun Mall, or 230 steps in the Black Market; it can also be achieved with a Red Fusion by taking exactly 275 or 546 steps.

According to the Persona World guide, the Fool Arcana represents the National Spirit race.

Innocent Sin
The Fool Arcana in Innocent Sin is a hidden set of Personas that requires the exceedingly rare Fool Arcana cards, which are only issued under very special circumstances. Personas of the Fool Arcana are unlisted until acquiring one. In addition, the Velvet Room's Demon Painter cannot convert Blank/Free Tarot Cards into Fool Tarot Cards, making them a valuable commodity.

During demon contact, after an enemy demon asks 4 questions total (does not have to be 4 consecutive questions; demons only ask questions in response to being Angered or Eagered), a contact resulting in Eager initially has a 1/36 chance (increasing to 1/16 after getting the first Fool card) to result in the demon asking the contacting character what manner of human or demon they are; if the character replies with the response that contains "fool" or "foolish," the demon will give them a Fool Card. The Sumaru Genie's fortunes can be used to increase the chances of getting the Fool Question by getting the Five of Cups (IS) or Silver Dragon (EP) fortune, which raise the required emotion levels from 3 to 4, granting the player 1-2 more chances to give a demon an Interesting response to a question beyond the 3rd. A total of 10 Fool Cards are required to summon every Persona of this Arcana once.

Eternal Punishment
The method to obtain the Fool card during random encounters is very much the same as Innocent Sin. However, in this game an NPC named Salam will offer side-quests for completing maps of requested dungeons. If the party completes the map before finishing the final event of that dungeon (since story dungeons are locked from re-entering after all their scenarios are finished), Salam will reward the party with some Fool cards. A total of 15 Fool Cards are required to summon every Persona of this Arcana once.

Persona 3
The Fool Arcana Social Link is represented by SEES, unlike other Arcana, Fool Arcana is unique by itself, as it automatically powers up as the story progresses. Later in the game, should the protagonist choose not to kill Ryoji Mochizuki, the Fool Arcana will max out itself, bestowing the ultimate Persona of the Fool Arcana, Susano-o, the raging god.

Igor also takes care to mention that the number of the Fool Arcana is zero. He, as well as other unrelated characters, remark that while the number zero suggests nothingness, it's also undefined and has no boundaries. Not only does this reflect in the fact that the protagonist will eventually have almost two hundred Personas to choose from, but also that the personality of the protagonist himself is a blank mold, which the players can shape as they see fit.

FES / Portable
The protagonist can gain access to a higher level Persona of the Fool Arcana than Susano-o, namely Orpheus Telos. True to Igor's words, Orpheus Telos of the Fool Arcana truly stands for nothingness, undefined and has limitless possibilities, as Orpheus Telos has only one skill, Victory Cry. The rest of Orpheus Telos' skills can only be acquired via the predecessor Personas used to fuse him. In Portable, due to the absence of Social Links for male party members and the availability of others, the Fool Social Link grants all party members with Co-op strikes and other assist skills.

Persona 4
The protagonist starts out with the Fool Arcana, with its initial Persona being Izanagi of the Fool Arcana. The Fool Arcana Social Link is represented by the Investigation Team, where the Social Link is initiated after the protagonist, Yosuke Hanamura, and Chie Satonaka became the founding members of the Team, with the protagonist serving as the field leader. When the Social Link reaches maximum, the ultimate Persona of the Fool Arcana, Loki, the Shape-shifter, will be unlocked.

Persona 4 Arena
The Fool Arcana is co-represented by Yu Narukami and Aigis, the protagonists of Persona 4 and Persona 3 FES - The Answer, signifying their ability to wield the Wild Card.

Arena Ultimax
Both Yu Narukami and Aigis once again represent The Fool Arcana. In Ultimax the Arcana is also shared with Elizabeth, who gained it during the events of Arena, when she began a new journey of her own.

Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth
Due to two individuals coming together in the special space that the game takes place in, the power of the Fool is strengthened enough to allow all persona users to use two personas, one as the main persona and another as a Sub-Persona. Due to not having Personas, Zen and Rei cannot harness this power. The protagonists, on the other hand, have their power limited to two personas, which Margaret theorizes to be due to the world they are currently in being finite in its existence.

Persona 5
The protagonist starts out with the Fool Arcana, with his initial Persona being Arsène of the Fool Arcana. The Fool Arcana is represented by the Confidant with Igor, which ranks up automatically since 12th April as the story progresses.

It along with the Chariot Arcana Confidant is one of the first 2 Confidants to be unlocked during the progress of the game. However, as the Confidant maxes out during December 24th and before entering the last dungeon Qliphoth World where no other Confidants can be progressed, it will always be the last one to max out during the game. When the Confidant reaches maximum, the ultimate Persona of the Fool Arcana, Vishnu, will be unlocked. However, before the protagonist may fuse it, he must reject the conductor's offer right after the confidant maxes.

Royal
In Persona 5 Royal, Fool Arcana has been adjusted with the relocation of Decarabia and Dionysus to the Councillor Arcana and the addition of Orpheus (F) and Raoul as DLC Personas.

Additionally, it is no longer guaranteed to be the last Arcana to be maxed out during the game, due to the events of the Third Semester allowing other confidants to be ranked up during the final Palace infiltration.

Persona 5 Strikers
Just like Persona 5, the protagonist starts out with the Fool Arcana with his initial Persona Arsène.

Trivia

 * In Persona 4 The Animation, when Yu gets The Fool Arcana, the face of the card, instead of facing to the left, is facing to the right.
 * Protagonists possessing the Fool Arcana always have a party member who is secretly jealous of their special abilities, specifically Junpei Iori (Makoto Yuki and Kotone Shiomi), Yukari Takeba (Aigis), Yosuke Hanamura (Yu Narukami), and Goro Akechi (Ren Amamiya).
 * In Persona 5, the Fool Arcana's Confidant is associated with Igor, a standalone character rather than the Phantom Thieves. In the previous games, the Arcana was associated with the protagonist's own team of Persona users, which are S.E.E.S and the Investigation Team respectively.
 * Before Persona Q2, the protagonist of Persona 5 was the only character to have an Ultimate Persona of the Fool Arcana.
 * The Fool is the only Major Arcanum which has no enemies associated with it.