Though he’s become something of a staple for your optional battles in the Persona series, Persona 3 was the first to introduce The Reaper, and has brought him back once♈ again in his fullest might. And there are no shortcuts you can take to handle him more effectively on certain days, either – this is might versus might.

Bring an all-star team with you when you summon The Reaper to fight you, but don’t dare attempt the fight before your team has grown – The Reaper is famously one of the🌌 strongest Shadows you’ll face in any Persona title.

The Reaper, Explained

If you’re a longtime Persona fan, then The Reaper will come as no surprise to you as you enter Tartarus, but if P3R is your first Persona game, The Reaper is a super-strong Shadow that spawns if you idle on a floor of Tartarus for too long.

There’s no set time after which he spawns, though – The ♐Reaper’s spawn has to do with plenty of things happening on the floor. His arrival is hastened:

• When your team has been on any non-teleporter floor of Tartarus for too long.
  • Lingering on the floors where you battled Gatekeepers and can use the teleporter doesn’t seem to count, so feel free to wait around here.

• On floors with rare Shadows or strong Shadows.
• On larger floors of any given block.
• Idling on a blackout floor.

You’ll first hear mention of The Reaper in the second half of Arqa, after Fuuka has joined the group as your nav expert. As you climb the second half of 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:the Arqa block, Fuuka will warn you about halfway up that you shouldn’t loiter for too long, as she can sense a powerful enemy approaching.

“Powerful” is not an understatement, either – The Reaper is typically Level 99 in Persona games and is capable of using heavy-level spells and skills covering every affinity. He can also pinpoint your teammate’s weaknesses and exploit them, so don’t fight him until you’re truly prepared.

Team Suggestion

Though there’s 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:no right or wrong team to use in fighting The Reaper in Persona 3 Reload, there are certain elements in your team’s composition that you almost can’t do the fight without. You’ll all but need a healer capable of reviving fallen teammates, as you’re all but promised toꦡ sustain massive damage during this ౠbattle.

And with so many status ailments coming your way, you’ll need to be able to heal status ailments for the team, as these can massively turn the tide in The Reaper’s favor. Teammates who’ve been stricken with Fear may run away from the battle. He can also Shock the team, leaving them unable to move on their next turn, while Confused teammates may attack you instead of The Reaper. Heal ailments as quickly as possible to keep the flow of battle going.

Additionally, with such a need for buff and debuff skills, having teammates capable of using them is essential to keeping The Reaper’s stats to a manageable level, as The Reaper will consistently buff himself. If he buffs himself too much and nobody on the team is capable of debuffing h🔥im, The Reaper will essentially just take chip damage until his buffs time out or he KOs the team, whichever happens first.

After trying the fight with a couple different builds, below is the team we had the best luck with.

Suggested Team For Fighting The Reaper In Persona 3 Reload

* Yukari's Theurgy is up🌌 to your playstyle. She went first for us, and we had her use Tranquility to boost everyone else's damage, but Cyclone Wind is still com༺pletely valid if you'd rather go for outright damage instead.

How To Know When The Reaper Is Coming

If you don’t want to worry about The Reaper that night, the fortune teller at Club Escapade offers a fortune to prevent bad things like The Reaper’s spawn that evening in Tartarus for ¥5,000.

If you’ve been idle for too long, Fuuka will offer one warning call about a powerful Shadow she’s picking up that seems to be heading your way. If you’re not trying to fight The Reaper that day, her saying that is your cue to leave the floor to despawn The Reaper.

After her initial warning, though, the second time Fuuka calls (roughly 30 seconds or so after her first warning), it’s to tell you that The Reaper has spawned on your current floor of Tartarus and has begun to actively hunt the party down.

The edges of you screen will show a distressed red border, and your mini-map displays a pulsing red Shadow that leaves a trail as it beelines for your party.

In older versions of Persona 3, The Reaper wouldn’t be able to catch you if you were standing on the stairs to the next floor. In Persona 3 Reload, The Reaper can attack you regardless of where your party has chosen to wait for him.

Once he spawns onto the map, The Reaper will not stop looking for your group until he either finds you, or you leave the floor to leave him behind and make your escape.

Get Ready For A Difficult Battle

Before you actually take on The Reaper, it pays massively to do some prep work beforehand that night to make the battle flow a little smoother. Whichever party members are coming into the fight will need to be outfitted in the best armor and weapons they can currently use at the time.

It’s because of this that we recommend waiting until January to fight The Reaper for the easiest time, as not only will the team be stronger, but you’ll have a wealth of gear available between 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:the police station and 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Mayoido Antiques in the final month of the game.

Though tempting as it may be to sprint headlong into the fight with nothing but morale and adrenaline, explore a few floors of Tartarus first before you attempt to bait The Reaper out. Doing so allows you to start the fight against The Reaper with 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:everyone’s Theurgy gauges filled completely (including Fu𒉰uk༒a’s, for her passive support boosts).

This is because The Reaper has a massive HP pool, and even your Theurgy attacks will leave him with between a third and half his HP remaining, even using everyone’s evolved Personas. Given this high amount of damage you’ll need to inflict, it’s wise to have someone on the team who knows buff or debuff moves.

A handy one to have is Debilitate, which lꦫowers The Reaper’s attack, defense, accuracy, and evasion for three turns. The Reaper having such powerful damage-dealing moves in his arsenal can be damning, but making him hit less while aiming less accurately is never a bad idea.

Finally, before drawing The Reaper out of hiding, you’ll want to double-check everyone’s gear and accessories. Not only are armor and footwear important, but accessories can change the tides in battle. A handy accessory for your protagonist during this battle (or any major fight, really) is anything that grants the effect of Enduring Soul, which allows you to revive to full HP once per KO in battle.

Given the massive amount of damage The Reaper is capable of dealing, being able to revive upon death prevents you from immediately being made to try the battle over. Accessories stack with Personas that know Enduring Soul, too, which offer🌄s additional revival opportunities, which may come in handy during the fight with The Reaper in Persona 3 Reload.

If you don’t have a teammate with a revival skill, be sure to bring plenty of revival items, as you’ll likely lose a teamma꧃te or two along the way, and KO’d teammates don’t earn EXP after the battle if they’re still fainted when it ends.

Additionally, with so many insta-kill skills at The Reaper's disposal, you'd do well to bring a Homonculus or two to prevent an🍎yone on the team - especial꧂ly your protagonist - from being KO'd.

The Reaper Battle Strategy

To get a leg up in the battle, you can ambush The Reaper to ensure your team goes first, instead of waiting for him to attack your party and giving him the first move in the battle. You can improve your ambush abilities using websites from the Shady Dealer at Club Escapade and spending time using them on the Shared PC at Iwatodai Dorm.

On your very first move once you’ve begun the battle with The Reaper, the first teammate up to bat should use Fuuka’s Theurgy immediately to grant any additional boosts to the party for the fight ahead. With the team having full HP and SP, you’re quite likely to get the boost that leaves the team charged and focused, which is a guaranteed way to increase the damage dealt on every teammate’s next attack

And while this extended damage output is in effect, it’s the best time to use everyone’s heaviest-hitting Theurgy skill on their first move in ba💧ttle to immediately put the heaviest dent into The Reaper’s HP pool.

Doing so does a colossal amount of damage to The Reaper before he even gets his first turn. The Reaper gets a couple moves per turn, so you may see him focus more on buffing himself than dea🧸ling outright damage.

That said, The Reaper is capable of immense damage if you don’t debuff him somehow. Not only does he deal heavy elemental or physical damage to one or all teammates, but he’s also capable of inflicting status ailments that can turn the battle in his favor if yoꦏu’re not quick to🥂 heal them.

We had Mitsuru use Blade of Execution on her turn to lower all of The Reaper’s stats, and after Koromaru used his Theurgy on his first turn, we had him follow up with Debilitate. In all, this gives you six moved on which The Reaper has lowered stats. Six may souꦏnd exc🧔essive, but with a health pool as high as his, you’ll likely be here at least that long.

As much as you focus on inflicting damage, though, be sure to also spend some time healing and buffing your team as needed. When The Reaper’s attacks do land, they still deal a lot of damage, and with The Reaper able to hone in on and exploit weaknesses, you’ll be taking some damage along the way.

Additionally, do your best not to let The Reaper get One More attacks off his critical 🌱damage from exploiting weaknesses. Dealing a♉s much damage as he does, the last thing you want is a second dose right after the first – it may prove fatal.

Once your Theurgy moves are expended, it’s unlikely you’ll be in the fight long en♒✤ough to recharge, especially with The Reaper not having weaknesses or any susceptibility to ailments.

We suggest using Lucifer comes in handy – Lucifer repels Dark and drains Fire and Electric, rendering half The Reaper’s 🌟magic useless against your protagonist.

Stack in Ali Dance to increase our evasi🤪on against Fire, Ice, Electric, and Wind magics to make your protagonist neigh impossible to hit and a pain to deal with when The Reaper does, lest he heal you on accident.

From here, it’s just a matter of dealing as much damage as you can while keeping an eye on your own health and reviving fallen teammates whenever possible to ensure everyone gets🦋 the huge EXP payout for defeating The Reaper.

How To Cheese The Reaper Battle

If you're not into the outright exchange of blows with this difficult foe, there's still a reliable way to end the battle with The Reaper fairly easily, but your protagonist needs to be at least Lv. 88, as this method relies on your Theurgy skills.

While the Armageddon Theurgy skill 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:your protagonist can learn may be dicey in fights against the Ultimate Enemy or Nyx, it's pretty helpful here. When you have both Helel and Satan registered in෴ your Compendium, you'll be able to use the Armageddon skill in battle.

This Theurgy skill is considered the Ultimate one for your protagonist, as it deals 9,999 Almighty damage when used, but a move that powerful doesn't come without a caveat - using it reduces your HP and SP to one, meaning it's risky to use if you're not sure it'll do the trick. Here, though, it's typically enough to defeat The Reaper in one blow.

What Do You Get For Beating The Reaper?

Since taking on and besting The Reaper is a completely optional challenge that brings no penalty for not completing it, you’ll receive a wealth of perks for choosing to take on this beast of a battle. And given that defeating The Reaper is one of 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Elizabeth's Requests, you'll ✱receive a p🎐rize from her for your efforts, too.

After the battle, though, not only will everyone involved earn an extremely large amount of EXP for their tremendous efforts in the battle, but The Reaper also drops a Bloody Button. After showing this to Elizabeth to complete the request, feel free to sell it to Officer Kurosawa for a cool ¥100,000 the next time you're at Paulow🐻nia Mall.

Finally, defeating The Reaper is one of more than 40 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:ach༒ievements a෴nd trophies for Persona 3 Reload. Upon his fall in battle, you'll pop the Reaper Reaped trophy or achievement for your hard work.