The Reaper...your Figthing Strategy

[Rikuo]

OK im at the point in the Journey where it's time to fight the reaper and get that Bloody Button so i can acess Monad Block in the next play threw....soo uhh for anyone who has fought the Reaper and survived, what was your strategy for beating him?
i know you ned to be lvl 80+ to fight it and i know about the Thunder Reign Stragety, but not much else.

[unknown]

Lucifer + Satan

[StrikeRaider]

There are a bunch of videos beating him solo but most of those have Messiah or Orpheus Telos. Mostly its about covering your own weaknesses while keeping everyone at max hp. And don't worry about saving the uber items. If you can beat the reaper you can beat Nyx.

And bleh to using Armageddon! No-skilled hack! It is the easiest way though. And the best way to grind with/out monad.

[Hamel]

Lucifer + Satan

^
That's how I did it

[Freikugel]

You must have lucifer n satan in order to kill him.. Use mix raid skill Armageddon..Almighty skill, all enemies, always 9999 damage..^^

[syl]

Debuff! Debuff! After a while, I didn't have to worry about health.
I was using a Messiah that had "Reflect Dark" as one of its inherited skills. (Fusion Accident from that I passed down to Orpheus)

[Dirjel]

O hai.

Ummm... I'm the first guy to come up with the Thunder Reign strategy. It's cool to see it mentioned on here. You can use it somewhat earlier than level 80. I did it at 77, on hard mode.

[StrikeRaider]

Man I totally forgot about buffs. I thought he would have dekunda and dekaja so I didn't bother.

[Auden]

well, i took the reaper out using a simple bait tactic... since in the FES version of the journey you CAN'T enter monad [how was it spelled...] until u get the reaper, got the reaper i did. this is what i did"

Characters
Me [d'oh] usind odin
yukary [healer]
akihiko [support]
mitsuru [bait]

i equipped everyone with thier respective absorb-element bangles, so that we wouldn't have any weaknesses, except mitsuru. the reaper kept kocking mitsuru down with agidyne, yuka-tan reviving her, akihiko weakining the reapers' stats [awsome help] and me bashin the reaper with odin's thunder magic. it worked very well, since akihiko weakened the reaper, even it's allmighty attacks weren't a threat. i was with a lvl70 party BTW

[Ari]

Spamming Armageddon while screaming "SCHOOP-DA-WHOOP!"

[Luna]

As of now, Die X_X

[DrJonAngus]

O hai.

Ummm... I'm the first guy to come up with the Thunder Reign strategy. It's cool to see it mentioned on here. You can use it somewhat earlier than level 80. I did it at 77, on hard mode.

Can you prove that? I highly doubt that you were the first person to come up with the Thunder Reign strategy.

[Aegis]

Well...i use Odin that's all.

[MomoChan]

In the Journey, Armageddon is the easy way out.

The Odin strategy is the only way to go in the Answer, but it doesn't fly if you're soloing the Reaper since there's no one who can take advantage of the electrified status.

I just cast an elemental break, then a mind-charged severe elemental spell until he croaks, taking a break to cast Diarahan if I'm in any immediate danger.

[dragonfire0612]

I am a lvl 57 plyr and i am wondering if i can beat the reaper with my party almost my level(only 1-3 lvls lower than me)

Is there a way

my strongest persona is alice at lvl 61

[King_Agga]

In retrospect it was probably the stupidest way to fight the reaper, but I relied on the fact that he spammed Megidolaon if I used Makarakarn (From Cybele, about Level 70). My characters could all survive it (barely), and Ken got stuck in an A.I. loop that meant he healed everyone constantly, so a soma or two got me through the battle. :D

[Blizz]

Try fusing Odin with null wind then do thunder regien to it so your teamates can knock it down then all out attack over and over again i was like 73 brought it down to almost no hp till I switched persona's by accident and end up dying :P.

[Zacewing]

I officially deem The Reaper impossible for me to beat.

I've tried fighting him 3 times now. My party is all Lv 77-80 (Protagonist Lv 80, Akihiko and Ken Lv 79, Aigis Lv 77). I have everyone on Heal/Support so Akihiko spams debuffs, Aigis spams buffs, Ken heals/revives.

When his HP gets below about 30%, he ALWAYS hits me with a Mind Charged Megidolaon. Even with Rakukaja on my whole party it kills everyone except Aigis (whose usually left at 25 HP or less) including the Protagonist, so it's an instant game over. And it also bypasses Magic Mirrors so that doesn't work either.

I have Michael equipped on my protagonist because he's immune to both Light and Dark spells.

EDIT: I beat the Reaper. I unexpectedly discovered a loophole in its AI. If you use Makarakarn or a Magic Mirror, it spams Megidolaon and nothing else. Since it wasn't Mind Charged it left everyone at low HP, except Ken who died. So I set Akihiko's and Aigis' AI to Full Assault and I just spammed Mediarahan every turn, using a Soma when I ran out of SP. It took about 20 minutes to kill it. Akihiko died towards the end but Aigis finished it off a couple turns later. I used 6 Somas and 4 Bead Chains (to help conserve SP).

Though the constant "*gasp* Akihiko-senpai is in trouble!"s I had to hear every turn was rather annoying. :(

[MomoChan]

Though the constant "*gasp* Akihiko-senpai is in trouble!"s I had to hear every turn was rather annoying. :(

That it was.

Here's hoping Atlus USA caves and gets a better NA voice actress for Fuuka in P3P. Otherwise, I'm sticking with the JP version since Mamiko Noto's voice ACTUALLY sounds soothing.

But fair warning to those who think they can still use the Armageddon strategy in the said game: You can't. Why? Because Fusion Spells are expendable items now.

[Blizz]

I found a different way of beating reaper that I just noticed lol. I made Take- Mikazuchi with Null Ice and Spell Master Plus Thor to give the fusion spell Thunder Call and used it every chance I had to knock down the reaper and evenutally killed him. Step one you will need Chariot social link max. Step 2 you will need Emperor social link max. Step 3 Judgement social link max. Step 4 you will need Anubis level 59 with null ice which he gets at level 62, max Judgement will get him the extra exp you need. Step 5 you will need the following personas Anubis( Null Ice), Archangel,Odin(Spell Master lvl 65),Power,Forneus,Zouchuten and Thor. Step 6 Fuse Anubis (null Ice) + Archangel= Uriel (null Ice). Step 7 Fuse (Spell Master)Odin + Power= (Spell Master)Succubus. Step 8 Fuse (Spell Master)Succubus + Uriel (Null Ice)= Raphael (Null ice + Spell Master). Step 9 (Spell Master + Null Ice) Raphael + Zouchuten or you can use Pyro Jack, Hua po, Sati or Ares for a replacement for Zouchuten = Kingu ( Null Ice + Spell Master). Step 10 Fuse Kingu (Null Ice + Spell Master) and Forneus = Take-Mikazuchi (Null Ice + Spell Master).

[Goldreaver]

The first time I fought against the reaper I was so horribly underleveled that it took me like a hundred rounds to take him out.
Basically the fight went like this:

1-Reaper attacks Yukari's Weaknesses.
2-One more! Megidolaon. Yukari dies.
3-MC revives Yukari.
4-Yukari heals the whole party
5-Akihiko attacks the reaper for a laughable amount of damage!
Go back to 1 and repeat ad infinitum.


The fight turned easy at the end, when he just stars spamming Megidolaon.

[hellbiker]

You must have lucifer n satan in order to kill him.. Use mix raid skill Armageddon..Almighty skill, all enemies, always 9999 damage..^^

OK im at the point in the Journey where it's time to fight the reaper and get that Bloody Button so i can acess Monad Block in the next play threw....soo uhh for anyone who has fought the Reaper and survived, what was your strategy for beating him?
i know you ned to be lvl 80+ to fight it and i know about the Thunder Reign Stragety, but not much else.

You dont need to be lv 80+ because I bet him at 69
And you dont need Lucifer OR Satan because I bet him with Orpheus and Shiisaa. You don't NEED things in Persona 3... you WANT things. Period. Persona isn't the game like your average SMT's. Take for EX Lucifer's Call. [Nocturne] With that you KNOW you need to be a certain level. But in Persona... you can be Level 1 and have a Persona at Level [lets say] 37! It's not like that. So... You don't need to be 80+ on LV and you dont need Lucifer OR Satan.

[ShivKH]

I fought it in my high 70's i believe, I pretty much used Cybele to heal, and did some damage with Panta Rhei with my Norn, and i had Yukari, Akihiko, and Koromaru spamming their strongest spells.

[Eldorado112]

I was at lv 90. Used lucifer alot. debilitate, mind charge, then morning star. Everyone else just did what they did and used yukari to heal and I would support too.

[Eldorado112]

Though the constant "*gasp* Akihiko-senpai is in trouble!"s I had to hear every turn was rather annoying. :(

That it was.

Here's hoping Atlus USA caves and gets a better NA voice actress for Fuuka in P3P. Otherwise, I'm sticking with the JP version since Mamiko Noto's voice ACTUALLY sounds soothing.

But fair warning to those who think they can still use the Armageddon strategy in the said game: You can't. Why? Because Fusion Spells are expendable items now.
really i thought it fit fuuka, annoying and stupid.

[Pash]

What difficulty are you on... Because if i remember correctly when i fought him on normal it was a cake walk... All i did was abuse the fact that Vorpsl blade has a high chance to crit if you are in good condition... I set my people to knock down or heal support and just worked my way through it all. Of course it helps when you are using a Siegfried with 100 attack power... Oh how he let me cheese my way through that part of the game...
Start battle, Vorpal blade, 400-600 dmg to everyone...

[Symphonia]

To defeat Reaper in around level 80, you'll need these personas: *I just recommend, if you have difficulties please let me know and you don't need to use this list.*

Norn with Absorb Elec, Regenerate 3 and Invigorate 3, Vishnu with Mind Charge and Repel Dark *since if his HP is around half, he will instant kill everyone with Mamudoon or Mahamaon*, Odin with Spell Master and Thunder Reign (if you can, fuse Odin with Absorb Wind), and Surt with Ragnarok. You all set.

For party, have Yukari, Mitsuru and Koromaru along with you. Have Yukari spam Mediarahan every round, if everyone is at high health (not MAX) let Yukari spam Garudyne. Koromaru is not a big deal if he spams Agidyne, but with Thunder Reign, let him criticize Reaper so you can get all out attack. Equip Mitsuru with Eye of Flame (which gradually decreases the ice damage she dealt. I wish they give us 2 accessory slots.) so she can evade Reaper's Agidyne.

I hope this can help.

[StrangeWig]

I don't remember my lvl, but it was much lower than 80, certainly!
Perhaps that's why the strategy was so complex!

My strategy:
1. Use the persona that gives you the most possible brutal attack possibility.
2. Put in the team: Junpei, Akihiko, Aigis.
3. Equip everyone (except, perhaps, Junpei, depends on his max HP) with that acessory (I forgot the name xD) that gives you +30% of max health.
4. Akihiko and Aigis will ALWAYS remain in Heal/Support strategy!
(their debufs and Aigis's "Samarecarm" are the key to victory)
5. You will need to micromanage Junpei: first, make him launch his Marakukaja skill (put him in Heal/Support), the next turn, make him attack!
6. Careless what happens, the Reaper will always be able to kill somebody (specially with his Megidolao skill). When that happens, Aigis will need to revive them (if she is the one killed, revive her imediatelly!).
7. Don't give up, it doesn't care if half your party is dead! This fight is much more a matter of endurance than anything! Sometime, the Reaper will make a stupid movement.
8. Never launch an All-Out! Use that time to recover your party!

And that's what I did! :)

[Symphonia]

I don't remember my lvl, but it was much lower than 80, certainly!
Perhaps that's why the strategy was so complex!

My strategy:
1. Use the persona that gives you the most possible brutal attack possibility.
2. Put in the team: Junpei, Akihiko, Aigis.
3. Equip everyone (except, perhaps, Junpei, depends on his max HP) with that acessory (I forgot the name xD) that gives you +30% of max health.
4. Akihiko and Aigis will ALWAYS remain in Heal/Support strategy!
(their debufs and Aigis's "Samarecarm" are the key to victory)
5. You will need to micromanage Junpei: first, make him launch his Marakukaja skill (put him in Heal/Support), the next turn, make him attack!
6. Careless what happens, the Reaper will always be able to kill somebody (specially with his Megidolao skill). When that happens, Aigis will need to revive them (if she is the one killed, revive her imediatelly!).
7. Don't give up, it doesn't care if half your party is dead! This fight is much more a matter of endurance than anything! Sometime, the Reaper will make a stupid movement.
8. Never launch an All-Out! Use that time to recover your party!

And that's what I did! :)

Some of....What did you call it? Ah, forget it.
Aigis did learn Samarecarm but if you keep running her with Samarecarm, no doubt you'll low of SP in more or less 10 turns. Especially if your party are under leveled, no doubt Reaper will able to whack whole party with his Megidolaon.
Buffs spells are help, I should agree there.
If you keep running up Aigis to cast Samarecarm, had at least 10 Somas in your inventory. Samarecarm casts 40 SP and it will drains Aigis' SP quickly. Or have at least 15 Chewing Soul and 10 Precious Eggs with you.

3. Equip everyone (except, perhaps, Junpei, depends on his max HP) with that acessory (I forgot the name xD) that gives you +30% of max health.
You called that Vitality Ring. Also, the one that get highest max HP is Aigis.

If you want to keep your party's health high enough to survive his Megidolaon, equip your comrades with the most decent armor you can and cast Marakukaja in start of battle and refresh it every time the effects worn off. Replenish Akihiko's SP once his SP is dropped around 140.

[StrangeWig]

Yeah, everything you said are also problems I had to deal with during the fight!
(I forgot to add these xD)

Aigis's SP will be drained very quickly since her Samarecarm will be so necessary!
But I think around 5 Preciouss Eggs and a pack of Chewing Souls are enough, and Somas aren't really imperative, although they'd be a big help (well, by the end of the game it should be easy to have a bunch of these itens).

Actually, all the buffs and Vitality Rings are just for one reason: the Reaper's f* Megidolaon (that attack is crazy cheap! xP). Without them, his attack will deal more damage than your party's max HP, and everybody will die!
(Yeah, my level was THAT low!)
So only buffing your party's defense isn't enough, you'll also need to debuff the Reaper's attack.

obs:
Also, the one that get highest max HP is Aigis.
Oh well...
Them I don't remember why I didn't equip Junpei with the Vitality Ring! xD
(actually, Koromaru has the highest HP in the game. But you're just considering this case, ain't I right?)

[Symphonia]

Yeah, everything you said are also problems I had to deal with during the fight!
(I forgot to add these xD)

Aigis's SP will be drained very quickly since her Samarecarm will be so necessary!
But I think around 5 Preciouss Eggs and a pack of Chewing Souls are enough, and Somas aren't really imperative, although they'd be a big help (well, by the end of the game it should be easy to have a bunch of these itens).

Actually, all the buffs and Vitality Rings are just for one reason: the Reaper's f* Megidolaon (that attack is crazy cheap! xP). Without them, his attack will deal more damage than your party's max HP, and everybody will die!
(Yeah, my level was THAT low!)
So only buffing your party's defense isn't enough, you'll also need to debuff the Reaper's attack.

obs:
Also, the one that get highest max HP is Aigis.
Oh well...
Them I don't remember why I didn't equip Junpei with the Vitality Ring! xD
(actually, Koromaru has the highest HP in the game. But you're just considering this case, ain't I right?)

You right.

5 Precious Eggs isn't enough. You'll always need to replenish everyone's SP once they arent' able to cast any buff/debuff and healing/support magic. In case you're using Aigis to cast Samarecarm, I assume Protagonist will be the one who handling recovery spell.

Don't forget this isn't Persona 4. Buff spells with drain more SP than it does in P4.

Don't waste your time with debuffing Reaper's attack. Once you get most decent armor you can find and cast Marakukaja at the first turn and replenish its effect once it wore off, you'll be fine. But in your case, you'll need to debuff Reaper's attack at all.

And next time you mention your strategy, please don't forget to mention always your problem during the strategy and fight.

Thank you.

[StrangeWig]

Unfortunately, I still haven't played Persona 4 :frown:

[Symphonia]

Unfortunately, I still haven't played Persona 4 :frown:
That doesn't matter.
I just remind the one who start this thread, not you. (if he keeps checking this thread, though)
Oh yeah, yesterday I played Persona 3 again and kill Reaper at lv. 88
I'll fix my strategy:

Personas:
>Norn around lv. 70 or above
Lv. 69 Norn will learn Absorb Elec along with Regenerate and Invigorate 3. Blast it with Panta Rhei.

>Vishnu around lv. 83
You won't need Vishnu that learns Salvation. Just have him inherit Repel Dark so Reaper won't be able to whack you with his Mamudoon.

>Michael lv. 79
He has learned Heaven's Blade and knock Reaper out with it. I used it so many times and resulted in critical.

>Odin lv. 66
Spell Master + Thunder Reign + Elec Amp + Mind Charge -> hell yeah!

>Surt lv. 62
Ragnarok + Fire Boost + Fire Amp + Mind Charge -> Burn it right to the death

>Skadi lv. 87
Niflheim + Ice Amp -> Why you don't freeze it right to the death and let Koromaru criticize it?

Of course, you'll need high SP to do it. Equip Magic Ring on the protagonist and replenish his SP once it drops aroud 200. Rather than Magic Ring, you can equip Rhonggowenan that adds 40 SP to his full SP.

I finish him with this strategy around 30-40 turns.
And this is my party with each strategy if you want more details.

Yukari: Heal/Support
She is around lv. 86

Mitsuru: Act Freely
She is around lv. 86 too.

Koromaru: Act Freely
He is around lv. 88

[Abhorrent Zero]

Helel. Mind Charge. Morning Star. Really my last resort because he, uh, killed everyone else.

[Raptorg]

If this is the one that spawns randomly, I just outstalled him when I did it.

Team: Akihiko, Aigis, Yukari.

All three on heal/support.
Keep Yukari high on SP while hitting with the MC.
???
Profit.

I did this at about level 73-75, I got to the point he started spamming his megidolaon or whatever almighty spell he uses instead of anything else.
With buffs up, Yukari is the only one who gets even close to dying, but she will end up spamming Mediarahan which will drain her SP, so you gotta keep it high.(Under 150 will usually cause her to use Diarahan on herself instead and you will likely die the next turn he gets unless you're at a decent level to take two megidolaons)

Oddly enough my fight went completely different than what other people are describing, so I feel like I'm forgetting something.. Like there is a harder reaper somewhere out there I don't know about, cause the one I fought is a complete pushover.
Then again, this was normal mode, not hard mode.. I guess it differs depending on the difficulty.

[MinatoXAigis]

The strategy I always utilized was:
Mitsuru- Main attacker, with a mind charged bufudyne
Junpei- Attacker with fingers crossed for a crit
Aigis- Main buffer, usually Agility up -> Def up -> Mitsuru's Atk up
I have everyone except me equipped with a ring that nulls the element they're weak against, so I find The Reaper using Vile Assault repeatedly on Aigis who blocks it.
Is there a better method? I find myself getting screwed for multiple reasons during the fight, usually because of a stray Maragidyne or Arrow Rain, and the strategy I use takes too long but is quite stable.

[FallenZero]

First time i fought it was around Lv74-77 with a party consisting of...
Akihiko with Frozen Stone *Null Ice* to debuff with~
Junpei with Storm Ring *Null Ice* set to Knock Down~
Aigis with Lightning Gloves *Null Elec* to Ma-kaja the party

This setup is good for the ones fighting using the Thunder Reign Strategy but that tends to mess up bad since either Akihiko debuffs or attacks The Reaper while shocked~ I just used mostly physical attacks and Diarahan/Samarecarm if Mahamaon/Mamudoon/Myriad Arrows/Vorpal Blade wipes out the party~

Main Persona used : Succubus Lv71 with Null Light,Apt Pupil and High Counter
Support Persona used : Cybele Lv 79 with Spell Master

That was my P3 setup,but in FES it's hard to pull right because if allies are set to Heal/Support,they tend to attack The Reaper while knocked down~

*My very 1st post in the Atlus Forms*

[Flagg]

I pretty much accidentally found actually quite good strategy against him if this happens always.

So first i level myself to level 75 and my team mates that were Akihiko, Yukari and Koromaru to 72-75.

After that i started looking him right away because i heard that with Odin you can "stun" him and get easily all out attack's on him. I started with that but that strategy really weren't working that well because it made Yukari attack the reaper on his turn always even if all on my party were on low health (and she had order to heal and not attack but i guess she didin't like taking order's) so because the reaper do quite big amount of damage and Yukari was dumb enough not to heal i used magic mirror to give me sometime but i got unwanted result's. After i used it reaper avoided completely using elemental attack's and started spamming his almighty attack for the rest of the battle. What was great about this is that the spell never actually manage's to finish of anybody so now that i stopped using stunning Yukari started healing everybody again on his turn. This meant that i and my party member's had opportunity to freely to attack reaper and reaper never could kill us so basically i won by just burning him out.

It will take quite sometime and you need few sp recovery item's to do this but you eventually beat him by doing the same exact thing every turn.

So just to clear this up

1. Put Yukari to healing position and everybody else to just attack the enemy
2. Keep Yukari's SP up and you will eventually win the battle because his attack dosent seem to crit and doesn't do enough to kill anyone (but make sure that everyone has best items to max health)

While doing this just use the persona that does most damage (not physical strikers of course that take your health)

[XadioEXE]

Thunder Reign so you can use all out attacks

[Alexkill]

OK im at the point in the Journey where it's time to fight the reaper and get that Bloody Button so i can acess Monad Block in the next play threw....soo uhh for anyone who has fought the Reaper and survived, what was your strategy for beating him?
i know you ned to be lvl 80+ to fight it and i know about the Thunder Reign Stragety, but not much else.
I got no idea, that thing is annoying.

[King Moloch]

My super cybele wither thunder reign, elec amp and mind charge!
followed by an all out attack!
it was still hard.

[izanagi_the_creator]

The first time I beat Death was a long time ago. It was my first playthrough and my second encounter as that I was afraid of losing the first time I ran into Death. I thought Death was strong but I still managed to win using just one persona. With high counter and strike attacks, all I need was healing items. It did took awhile to win the battle though..