Beating the Reaper

Bring a Great melee weapon when you fight the Reaper if you want its dark weapon upgrade. If you fight in a group, agree who will take the killing hit before the fight.

Preparation

Follow your chosen branch of the weapon tree until you have a Great melee weapon. If you land the killing hit and survive, it becomes the matching dark weapon. You can keep it in your inventory and finish the fight with a different weapon.

Great weapon	Kill upgrade
Great Axe	Dark Axe
Great Sword	Dark Sword
Great Spear	Dark Spear
Great Daggers	Dark Daggers

Engagement

1. Approach the marked zone at the map center with room to retreat. The Reaper can chase outside that circle, so crossing its boundary does not end the fight.
2. Use melee when you can stay in reach without taking hits. After 5 seconds, a surviving Reaper recovers up to 80% of projectile and explosion damage dealt to it. Melee damage does not cause that healing.
3. Keep damage landing when you can do so safely. After 6 seconds without damage, the Reaper regenerates up to 125 health per second. In a group, keep attacking while a wounded member retreats rather than having everyone leave together.

The Reaper ignores players with Spawn protection, so protected allies cannot draw its attention.

Wrath

After it takes 625 damage outside wrath, the Reaper can start a wrath volley while it has a target. That damage count resets when wrath starts or it loses all targets. Damage during wrath does not count toward the next volley.

During wrath, the Reaper stops chasing and starting melee attacks. After a 1.5-second windup, it throws 5 scythes at 1.25-second intervals. It updates its aim between throws while it has a target; losing its target does not cancel the volley. Keep moving out of each throw’s path.

During wrath it takes 10% of normal damage. Focus on avoiding the scythes during this phase. A thrown scythe deals 6.66 direct player damage before shield reduction, can pull you toward it, and applies Bleeding while the Reaper is alive.

Bleeding

The Scythe deals 0 direct melee damage to players, but a connected swing can pull you closer and applies Bleeding. Each application deals 5 damage plus 5% of your maximum health when the hit lands, spread over 6 seconds. It reduces incoming healing to 20%.

Repeated hits add separate Bleeding effects, stacking their damage and healing reduction. A shield or spawn protection can block direct damage without preventing Bleeding from a connected hit. Spawn protection blocks Bleeding damage while active, but Bleeding can outlast the protection. Retreat before taking more hits, and wait for Bleeding to end before relying on healing. Bleeding already on you continues after you leave melee reach or the Reaper dies.

Fight away from your structures. The Reaper’s melee Scythe deals 6,666 structure damage. Its direct damage to structures and its thrown-scythe damage to players heal it; Bleeding damage does not.

Rewards

A melee killing hit pays the finisher 10,000 gold and an experience reward of 35,000 experience. A bow or turret killing shot pays 50% of each reward. Your own damaging hits also earn experience. Nearby players and group members receive no share of the kill reward, dark weapon upgrade or lifesteal.

Stay alive to claim the dark weapon upgrade and Dark lifesteal. Dark lifesteal restores up to 12% of melee damage dealt to players, zombies or the Reaper. Bleeding reduces this healing too. Lifesteal lasts for the rest of your life, stays with you when you switch weapons, and stacks with further Reaper kills. You receive it even without a Great melee weapon, but then you miss the weapon replacement.

Next steps

The Reaper respawns at the map center after 10 seconds. Move away from its spawn before recovering or arranging another attempt.

• Reaper behavior covers the encounter rules.
• Player versus player covers fights after you leave the zone.
• Weapon tree covers the route to a Great melee weapon.