How To Farm The Reaper

The Reaper drops some of the best loot in the game. Unique weapons for each character, strong armor, and when you've got all that, omnipotence orbs.

That said, he's a good deal harder to find in P4G than he is in P3 or P5. The creators overshot how much harder they wanted it to be to get him in this game versus the accidental sweeps that could happen in Persona 3.

The trigger for flagging the Reaper battle is to open 21 small chests, largely uninterrupted. This count can be kind of hard to keep track of, especially because certain events can set the count back. This guide will walk you through a pretty reliable way of successfully (and repeatedly) triggering the Reaper fight called the Yukiko method.

Note: this is NOT a battle guide. I'm just here to show you how to get to the fight, combat strategies can be found somewhere else. I can tell you he has no weaknesses, immunity to light and dark, and a bunch of high damage moves of all types INCLUDING almighty. so good luck.

This method involves Yukiko's Castle. Yukiko's dungeon is ideal for two reasons:

1. The first floor consistently has 4, occasionally 3 small chests, and no golden chests.
2. There 5th floor is a set floor, meaning its layout (and number of chests) is perfectly consistent.

PREP:

First things first, you're gonna want a bunch of Goho-ms. However many times you plan to fight him, you need a GohoM, plus one for setup. Or a persona with Traesto.

Go to Yukiko's castle and climb to the fifth floor without opening any chests. Once you hit F5, use a GohoM and return to the entrance. You now have a save point that lets you go directly to Floor 5, which you'll be needing near the end of this farming method.

For best safety purposes, save here.

Great, now the prep is done.

OPENING CHESTS:

Several actions can mess with the chest count, but not reset it entirely, which is why it can be kind of annoying to track this. Changing floors or leaving after the Reaper trigger are a couple of these annoying events. HOWEVER, that's where the first floor comes in--leaving the first floor of a castle from the entrance does NOT reset the count. It also doesn't reset your ability to enter from the 5th floor.

So, you'll be coming in and out of F1 several times. Open the chests on the floor, exit from the front door (or you can speak to Risette and ask to return to the entrance; this saves time and doesn't affect the count).

You will be opening twenty (20) chests EXACTLY on the first floor. Keep careful track of these, it can get repetitive. I keep a tally.

These chests MUST be the small, colored chests that take nothing to open. I've never found a golden chest (one you need a key or item to open) on F1 of Yukiko's Castle, but better to be safe than sorry: opening a golden chest will COMPLETELY reset your count.

Once you have opened twenty chests, leave the castle from the entrance again. I HIGHLY recommend you save here. There is a chance the Reaper fight won't trigger, and the count will be set back again, complicating everything. If you don't save here you'll likely have to start all over again.

TRIGGERING THE FIGHT:

After leaving F1, enter the Castle from your Floor 5 checkpoint. As earlier stated, this is a set map floor, the layout is always the same, as are enemy positions. Fighting enemies doesn't affect the count, I just find it annoying. You do you.

There are exactly two chests on F5. If you've done everything right, opening the first chest will be your 21st chest, and the trigger that should flag the possibility of a Reaper fight. Stop for a few seconds and listen--you should hear the sounds of echoey, rattling chains. This means that the Reaper is watching.

The second chest on the floor is where the Reaper could be hiding. It is NOT a guarantee. This is honestly one of the most annoying parts about this, because it's entirely up to chance, and if the Reaper DOESN'T pop, the count is set back some again. This is why I suggest a save--if it doesn't pop, load the game before F5 and jump back in to open these two chests again. Eventually the coward will stop hiding and face you like a man-death-entity-thing.

You'll know when the chest is about to work because it doesn't open immediately. You'll be prompted TWICE on whether or not you actually wanna go through with this. When you get that, it's reaper fightin' time. You win, and the chest item will be the Reaper's loot.

LOOT:

The Reaper drops pretty much the best armor in the game: super high defense and decent evasion, plus a +10 to ALL stats. It also drops the most powerful unique weapons for each member of your party. It will ONLY drop weapons for a party member that participated in the fight however--so if you want Chie's unique ass-kicking shoes, Chie has to be there to get them.

The order I got these was--first set of armor, weapons for all my party (in order of earliest-joining party member to latest, if you want to try and get them in a specific order), and more armor after. Once all your party is tricked out, the Reaper will start dropping Omnipotence Orbs--an accessory that nullifies ALL DAMAGE TYPES, except for Almighty.

(Note: do NOT equip Omnipotence Orbs against the big secret bosses, including the Reaper himself and Margaret. If this item is equipped, it will trigger them both to use a secret variant of Megidolaon that one-hit kills your entire party with 9999 damage each. You can use it against story bosses, but not the bosses put in there specifically to be difficult.)

Once you've beaten the Reaper, the count will reset completely, and you can GohoM to keep F5 saved and start again from F1 to farm this edgy scarecrow guy for more loot.

Keeping track of the count can be hard, especially on the first run. Even if when you headed up to the fifth floor the first time without opening chests, you may have a partial count from an earlier trek up Yukiko's castly. To be honest, the exact math of this is a mystery to me.

If you hear the chains while you're still on floor 1, make a note of how many chests you've opened thus far, and open one less. (if you've opened 10 chests and the chains start, that 10th was the trigger, so you needed to open 9.) If there are chests lefts to try your luck with on this floor, go ahead and give it a go--otherwise reload and count out the number you need to complete your first farm.

Farming chests tip: dungeon maps are randomly generated, however, they only change between trips to and from the dungeon whole. Every time you leave floor 1, Risette will offer to take you back to the TV world entrance. If you go, coming back will net you a whole new layout of Floor 1; if you stay, the layout will be the same with the chest respawned.

This doesn't affect the count, but you CAN use it to your advantage. Some random generations will spawn a chest like two feet from the enterence--either in a room, or just at the end of the hall. if you get this, it is honestly faster and easier to run back and forth between that chest and the door than it is to map out the whole floor for the 3-4 chests scattered throughout it. If you get a map like this, returning to the TV entrance will reset it.

(Be extra careful with your tally if you use this quicker method, I personally find the even more condensed repetition a bit easier to lose track of. I think that may vary by person though. And I still use it because i am EXTREMELY impatient.)

You should now be well equipped to consistently fight the Reaper for sick loot. Once again, not a battle guide--I do suggest having a maxed out SLink Rise: she can buff and protect your party in battle, which is great when the enemy has both Mamudoon and Mahamaon. The Reaper is the second strongest boss in the game, so be prepared.

However, provided you're confident you can survive, you now have a fairly consistent method of catching the Reaper! Good luck, godspeed, everyone believes in you, etc.