How to Beat the Reaper in Persona 3 Reload

This article is part of a directory: Persona 3 Reload: Guide Hub and Walkthrough

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Back when it first came out, Persona 3 introduced The Reaper, a special Shadow that would show up if you took too long on a floor of Tartarus and chase you until you left. The idea was to keep you moving so that you wouldn't spend too much time gathering items and farming Shadows. Naturally, The Reaper makes a grand return in Persona 3 Reload.

Just like in the original game (and its sequels), The Reaper is a menace you can't hope to defeat the first time you meet it in Persona 3 Reload. However, a party with enough power and the right equipment can take this dangerous enemy on and defeat it. In fact, one end-game ability can make destroying The Reaper trivial.

Persona 3 Reload: Missing Persons Guide

People wander into Tartarus all the time, and rescuing them gives you one more reason to explore every month in Persona 3 Reload.

General Tips For The Reaper In Persona 3 Reload

Reaper appearances follow a specific formula:

The Reaper first appears on floor 62 during a scripted sequence. After that, it can appear on any floor if you wait too long.
The time it takes for The Reaper to appear depends on the size of the floor: small floors have a shorter timer, and large floors have a longer timer.
Special floors, such as darkness floors and all-rare-Shadow floors, have a shorter timer than normal.
Fuuka will warn you around 15 to 30 seconds before the Reaper appears.
While The Reaper is hunting you, a red filter will cover the edges of the screen.
Unlike in previous games, The Reaper can chase you up several floors. You can stop the chase by using a one-way teleporter, ducking through a Monad door, or climbing up to a guardian floor.
The Reaper always faces you, so you can't attack it from behind. However, you can Ambush it from the front.
If you defeat The Reaper, the edges of the screen will turn green. This filter doesn't stop The Reaper from spawning on a new floor.

Persona 3 Reload: Shared Computer Guide

The Shared Computer has all sorts of uses, and you'll need it to unlock and enhance one of the best abilities in Persona 3 Reload.

How to Beat The Reaper in Persona 3 Reload

The Reaper is a nasty enemy, easily on par with the final bosses of the game. It can use -dyne skills for every element, the best instant-death skills, and Megadolaon. It also has a few physical skills, and it loves to follow up a successful Weakness hit with Vile Assault. And if all that wasn't enough, it can also use Heat Riser, Dekaja, Charge, and Concentrate. Finally, just to add insult to injury, The Reaper takes two turns at once, which even most bosses can't do in Persona 3 Reload.

On the bright side, The Reaper has no elemental affinities, so every kind of attack works equally well on it. The Reaper is also vulnerable to Critical blows, so it's worth focusing on physical skills if you think you can spare the HP.

If you intend to fight The Reaper, you should first wait until January. Your party should be strong enough to take it on by then, and it also helps to have a decent stockpile of Homunculi or other items that nullify instant death skills. You should also focus on using buffs and debuffs to minimize the amount of damage The Reaper can deal at once. If you have to choose between buffing the party's defense or attack, focus on defense.

Something else to keep in mind is that, while The Reaper can use any element, it doesn't automatically target your party's weaknesses. The Reaper is fully capable of wasting its turns by attacking a character with an element they resist or nullify. The Reaper also tends to enjoy using Dark skills more often than others.

Another useful bit of advice is to avoid Ambushing The Reaper. You won't defeat it in one round unless you use the Armageddon strategy, and The Reaper has such a high Agility that it'll likely take four turns in a row following your Ambush round.

Finally, you should make full use of your Theurgies over the course of the fight. The extra damage they deal can go a long way towards reducing The Reaper's mountain of HP, and Almighty attacks like Trickster can hit especially hard.

Beating the Reaper gives you the Bloody Button you need for one of Elizabeth's Requests, not to mention a tremendous amount of EXP. You can then get even more EXP by choosing Wands during Shuffle Time, because The Reaper always deals Jacks (or Queens with Arcana Burst active) no matter what floor you fight it on.

Persona 3 Reload: How Does Theurgy Work?

Theurgy is a new mechanic for Persona 3 Reload, and the way it works is a little different for each character.

How To Easily Beat The Reaper in Persona 3 Reload

If you max out the Star Social Link to get access to Helel, and if you get enough levels to fuse Satan, your reward is the ultimate Fusion Spell: Armageddon. Armageddon deals 9999 damage to all foes, no matter who or what they are. This is enough damage to take out the final form of Nyx, and it's definitely enough to defeat The Reaper.

The only downside to Armageddon is that the protagonist's HP and SP both drop to 1, but there are ways to mitigate this problem. The Victory Cry skill restores your HP and SP to full at the end of a battle so, if you destroy The Reaper while this skill is active, your only real loss is an empty Theurgy gauge.

You can also use the Armageddon and Victory Cry combo to get Persona levels and farm the Soul Sea items you need to make the party's ultimate weapons. Simply swap to the Persona that hasn't dropped its item yet, use Armageddon on The Reaper, then swap to the Persona with Victory Cry and Ambush a normal enemy. Once you win, your HP and SP will come back, and you can do it all over again.

Just remember to max out the protagonist's Theurgy gauge before starting a new fight with The Reaper, and always try to Ambush it when it appears. While letting it take four turns at once is dangerous, that's not a problem when you're wiping it out with a single action.