Out of all the Shadows players encounter in Persona 4 Golden, the Reaper remains the most powerful as an optional boss that requires a high level party with the strongest Personas, Social Links, and strategies at their disposal in order to have a chance to defeat this avatar of death. Even with a plethora of healing items, this challenging enemy has the capacity to wipe out entire parties with ease. Players should be prepared for a prolonged battle, but even finding the Reaper in the first place can be a difficulty in the TV World without proper knowledge on how to summon it.

Only after players open 21 Red Chests and only these type of containers will the Reaper have a chance to appear, indicated by a rattling of chains and a moaning sound that reverberates around the TV World after the twenty-first Red Chest is unlocked. The Reaper could show up in the next Red Chest, but if players reset the number by leaving the current castle, they will have to reach that specific goal again. Furthermore, the Reaper only appears on the same floor the final Red Chest was on, so if there are no more Red Chests on that floor, the number resets if players leave toward the ending of Person 4 Golden's castle dungeons.

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Have High Social Links with the Party Before Fighting The Reaper

As players interact with other characters during the events of Persona 4 Golden, they can level up their Social Links to higher Ranks and unlock higher tier Persona for their allies. These will be necessary before challenging the Reaper, as players likely require Personas of the second tier at least to have the best skills needed for the battle. Although there are multiple party combinations through these elevated Social Links in Persona 4 Golden that players could accumulate, a recommended team composition for the Reaper would be Yosuke, Kanji, and Chie for a healthy spread of damage and buffs for other .

A universal part of combat comes from Rise, who acts as the Navigator within a majority of fights. Upgrading her Social Link to its maximum, Rank 10, gets players an opportunity to have the protagonist Yu revived if they go down at least once to give them another chance at taking the Reaper down. Not only does Rise's guidance give an overall defensive protection to the party, but players also can receive special intelligence on the Reaper's elemental attributes through the max Persona gained after the Winter Event called Kouzeon, the final evolution of her Persona.

Understand The Reaper's Overwhelming Strengths

The Reaper has access to every third tier elemental skill in Persona 4 Golden, including the variants that target multiple enemies at once. A level 85 Shadow of the Death Arcana, the Reaper has 25 skills at their disposal, ranging from instant kill moves to highly damaging attacks boosted by maxed out stats in Strength and Luck. Even with the strongest Persona, players need to worry about the Reaper's two moves it uses to attack on its turn. The Reaper tends to target those with a certain resistance or nullification, wearing them down with elemental attacks until it breaks through that defense.

The Reaper's Skill List

The entire battle with the Reaper can be gauged by the player's ability to resist or recover from the damage dealt from Megidolaon, Vorpal Blade, or one of the highly damaging elemental skills. The Reaper also nullifies all Light and Dark skill attacks on it, so players should make sure their Persona are not equipped with moves of those types. With this boss constantly having access to Persona 4 Golden's advanced techniques such as Life Leech, the Reaper presents a constant threat with moves that cover every option present in the game.

Strategies and Skills for Fighting the Reaper

A primary method to making the Reaper fight easier would be to have skills such as Debilitate, Sukunda, and Masukunda at the player's disposal. Debilitate lowers all the Reaper's stats at once, so players can immediately get a head start in the battle. Sukunda lowers the Reaper's accuracy and evasion, while Masukunda decreases its hit rate and evasion rate. Lowering the chances of the Reaper using its two attacks to land highly damaging moves one after another helps the party last longer in the fight. While All-Out Attacks are indeed possible as well on the Reaper from enough debuffs, they are a rare opportunity rather than a solution.

Referring back to the of the party, protagonist Yu in Persona 4 Golden should be the one applying Debilitate before buffing their own moves with Power Charge or a similar skill to steadily keep the Reaper at bay while dealing damage occasionally. Meanwhile, Chie and Kanji need to go on the offensive, with Power Charge and God Hand being used in combination for massive points off the Reaper's HP. Yosuke provides the final strategy to beat the Reaper in Persona 4 Golden, using the Youthful Wind skill to boost the team's evasion and extend the fight long enough for the player to secure victory.

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