The Reaper (2024)

This article is about the enemy that appears at the time limit of each stage. For other similar units, see Death.

”

Run from him. Defy him. Maybe even kill him, should you prove so arrogant. No matter the outcome, Lord Death always wins in the end. You can close your eyes, turn your head, and scream into the void, but with time you all shall wear his mask.

— Ars Gouda, p. 110

See Also

How to defeat Death and survive over 30 minutes in Vampire SurvivorsBest Vampire Survivors Weapons And How to Evolve ThemCelestial VoulgeCurse

The Reaper is an enemy that spawns once every minute after time limit of a stage has been reached, unless endless mode has been turned on.

Behavior[]

Once spawned, The Reaper will quickly fly to the player's character and deal 65,535 damage to them, ending the run. Player is rewarded 500 Gold for surviving to the end. The player can revive if any Revivals are left, increasing the bonus every time by stacking +100 Gold (e.g. total bonus for 3 revives is 500 + 100 + 200 + 300 = 1,100 Gold). This bonus lasts up to +400 Gold, after which it will reset back to +100 Gold for any remaining Revivals.

The Reaper's health pool is set at 655,350 times the player's level when it spawns. The Reaper has -50% knockback resistance, meaning that it is instead pulled towards the player when getting hit. It is possible to freeze The Reaper using the Clock Lancet, Orologion or a weapon affected by Jail of Crystal.

Killing The Reaper the first time unlocks the secret character Mask of the Red Death as a playable character. If The Reaper was defeated with either Infinite Corridor or Crimson Shroud, it will drop 5 Golden Eggs and White Hand will spawn and end the run.

Variants[]

The Reaper 1[]

The Reaper 2[]

Weak Reaper[]

Unlisted Variants[]

These enemies are not listed under "The Reaper" in bestiary, but can be considered its variants.

Cart Reaper[]

Appearances[]

Strategies[]

Crimson Shroud + Infinite Corridor[]

As of version 0.6.1, the most accessible method of defeating The Reaper involves having the Crimson Shroud and the Infinite Corridor: evolutions of Laurel and Clock Lancet respectively. Doing so has the following requirements:

1. Unlocking Hyper mode on 4 normal stages unlocks Moongolow.
2. If the Yellow Sign has not been obtained, a special boss will spawn near the end of a Moongolow run when using a non-secret character. Defeating it grants access to Holy Forbidden once the 15-minute time limit is reached.
3. Within Holy Forbidden, collect the Yellow Sign.
4. The following items will now always spawn on every stage: Metaglio Left, Metaglio Right, Silver Ring and Gold Ring.
5. Having a level 7 Clock Lancet, level 9 Silver Ring and level 9 Gold Ring will allow evolving the Clock Lancet into Infinite Corridor.
6. Having a level 7 Laurel, level 9 Metaglio Left and level 9 Metaglio Right will allow evolving the Laurel into Crimson Shroud.
7. Open 2 Treasure Chests and you will receive Crimson Shroud and Infinite Corridor.

Crimson Shroud caps damage to 10 at a time, making The Reaper's attack far less effective if it attacks you. Crimson Shroud also does amplified retaliatory damage, enough to kill The Reaper without Corridor, though this may take some time. However Infinite Corridor halves all enemies health, making it possible to defeat The Reaper in a fairly short amount of time.

The above strategy can still be done with an unevolved Laurel, though it would be considerably riskier. If skipping Crimson Shroud, be sure to have mastered your usage of Clock Lancet/Infinite Corridor's freeze effect, in order to avoid being attacked by The Reaper as much as possible. Also, be aware that every minute, a new Reaper spawns, which would then need to be frozen near immediately while also likely taking a Laurel charge.

Defeating the Reaper with an Infinite Corridor and without a Laurel at all is not impossible. While normally very risky due to the high probability of dying before being able to freeze the Reaper again, Mirage Robe or its evolution J'Odore can also lock the Reaper in place and, unlike Infinite Corridor itself, help protect the player from all sides. This represents a way for freeze-focused builds to defeat the Reaper without having to waste an item slot on a Laurel. Enough Revives obtained through Tirajisú and Awake (IV) may also allow the player to simply "weather" the Reaper's attacks.

This strategy is required for The Reaper to drop Golden Eggs, and is also the only way for the Reaper's death to summon the White Hand.

Level 200 Toastie[]

Prior to version 0.6.1, defeating The Reaper was intended to be done with the character Toastie. The following special game mechanics apply to this character:

• Toastie begins with 1 HP. At level 100, it gains an additional 9,998 HP.
• At level 200, Toastie gains an additional 65,520 Armor. This reduces the damage from The Reaper's attack to 15.
• By using the Armor PowerUp and Armor passive item, an additional 8 Armor can be earned, reducing the damage from The Reaper's attack to 7.
• By using the Awake Arcana in combination with the Revival PowerUp and Tiragisú, an additional 6 Armor can be earned by reviving six times. This further reduces the damage from The Reaper's attack to 1.

A level 200 Toastie can go toe-to-toe in combat with The Reaper. Max Armor used in conjunction with direct healing from Bloody Tear or Soul Eater and/or passive healing from the Recovery PowerUp and Pummarola will allow Toastie to withstand the Reapers' onslaught indefinitely. Over the course of several minutes, Toastie will deal enough damage to defeat The Reaper.

The challenge with this approach is not in the mechanics of the battle with The Reaper, but rather in devising and executing a strategy to get Toastie to level 200 with the desired stats, all within the time limit.

Other Strategies[]

Before the introduction of Infinite Corridor, other strategies were used to kill The Reaper, mostly relying on certain exploits involving the game mechanics. For more information, see here.

In summary:

• Suor Clerici's temporary Area bonus can be used in Inlaid Library to get Runetracers perpetually stuck in the geometry. By hiding behind the projectiles for protection, Clerici can survive the full 30 minutes at level 2, thereby spawning The Reaper with relatively low HP (1.2 million). Gathering the red experience gem which contains all the XP and Treasure Chests at the 30-minute mark will give enough levels and evolution options to assemble a build capable of defeating The Reaper.
• Prior to verison 0.6.1, Bone would get stuck if spawned inside a large enemy that has been frozen in place. This is because it attempts to bounce off of enemies, but being inside one means it has nowhere to go and it bounces in place very rapidly. With Clock Lancet, Bone could be used to deal very high damage to The Reaper in very little time.
• The character MissingN▯ could be used to defeat The Reaper. Its stats were all randomized every game, and if Max Health rolled a negative number, the character would be invulnerable to all damage. This made defeating The Reaper trivial, but very time-consuming.
• The character Smith IV or Avatar Infernas could be used to defeat The Reaper. Due to both characters reducing cooldowns by -0.25% per level and there is no limit, past -87.5% cooldown, Laurel's shield regenerates faster than the player can take damage. This made defeating The Reaper trivial, but very time consuming.
• The above strategy can also be executed with any other character using the Paranormal Scan to reduce cooldown instead. However, without extreme luck, it is difficult to achieve a sufficient cooldown reduction before the Reaper spawns. Mirage Robe with enough Amount and Cooldown can be effective at staving off the Reapers until such reduction can be achieved, as, unlike the Clock Lancet, it protects the character from all sides simultaneously. Because Reapers do not give any EXP, the character will not gain any more levels once all EXP gems have been collected, so the Reapers' health will not increase, whereas the character will continuously raise their stats with Paranormal Scan, slowly improving their ability to kill Reapers over time. Cosmo Pavone with Impostongue can be used to defeat Reapers in a relatively small amount of time thanks to the weapon's insane damage output.