The Reaper

The Reaper is a shadow in the persona series.

Appearances

 * Persona 3 / FES / Portable: Death Arcana, Optional Boss
 * Persona 4 / Golden: Death Arcana, Optional Boss
 * Persona 4 The Animation: Enemy
 * Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth

Profile
The Reaper of the persona series has several features that distinguish it from other "grim reapers" in popular culture. The Reaper, instead of carrying a gigantic scythe, wields two long-barrel revolvers. Its face is shrouded in bandages, with only one ominous yellow eye to see its surroundings. It wears two long steel chains each across its left and right shoulders, forming a cross.

Persona 3
The Reaper lurks in Tartarus, and will appear to the player when certain conditions are met. This involves staying on one floor of Tartarus too long, or choosing a card from Shuffle Time that is appended with an ominous black crossbones. When he approaches the party, the player can hear a loud rattling of chains, and he also appears on the mini-map, and can even climb up small ramps in floors, something all other shadows cannot do. The Reaper's appearance is hastened when choosing a skulled ("cursed") card in Shuffle Time or when on a regular floor with no Shadows. He also appears on a floor where there is NO regular shadows, only a floor filled with rare golden shadows or rare chests, as the risks of the large rewards are all affected by "cursed" cards.

The Reaper cannot follow the player to the stairs that lead to the next floor, which makes the stairs a safe haven from the reaper. Unless the party is Lv.70 or higher, The Reaper will be an almost impossible opponent.

As one of Elizabeth's Requests (#53), the protagonist must defeat the Reaper. Because the Reaper is a very challenging opponent, players should come prepared with a strategy in place or utilize the fusion spell Armageddon and instantly destroy the Reaper. If the request is active, the Reaper will drop the Bloody Button upon its defeat, in which you can turn in to unlock the Monad Depths.

Persona 4
The Reaper is an exclusive boss that can only be fought in the second playthrough of the game. In the second cycle, the Reaper can be found in ordinary chests, and upon examining it, the protagonist is forewarned that a powerful force dwells within the chest and repeatedly asked whether he is ready to open it. Should the protagonist choose to open it, the Reaper will attack the protagonist, engaging the party to a battle. Similar to its predecessor, the Reaper can be challenged multiple times as long as the protagonist manages to locate the treasure chest he dwells within.

Defeating the Reaper may grant the respective characters their strongest weapons per defeat; however, should all of the in-battle characters have received their strongest weapons, The Reaper instead drops the strongest armor. If all of those have already been received as well, the Reaper drops the Omnipotence Orb, an accessory which voids all attacks excluding Almighty.

He will only drop a character's weapon if they are in the team that fights him. One must re-organize their team if they want to gain every weapon.

Golden
The Reaper works the same way as the original Persona 4, except he can be encountered on the first playthrough of the game. To spawn the Reaper, the player has to open a total of 21 chests. The sound of chains will appear across the dungeon. At the 22nd chest, the player will be warned of a dangerous presence. The sound of chains will disappear, signalling the chest counter has been reset, when the player leaves the floor, or if the chest does not spawn the Reaper. Defeating the Reaper for the first time unlocks a trophy.

The Animation
Three Reapers show up when the Investigation Team confronts Adachi in his own reality, Magatsu Inaba. The first one confronts Kanji and Naoto at the Central shopping district, the second one fights Chie, Yukiko and Rise at the Amagi inn, and the last one battles Yosuke and Teddie at Saki Konishi's house. The Reapers prove to be powerful opponents for the Investigation Team, but eventually the Investigation Team managed to beat the Reapers after banding together.

Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth
The Reaper is an F.O.E who appears on the second floor of the Clock Tower and all floors above it. Zen realized The Reaper has appeared to remove him for upsetting the natural providence of the world by creating the world from Rei's memories and preventing her soul from returning to the sea of souls.

Trivia

 * In Persona 3 the Reaper's total HP, 4444, refers to one of the pronunciations of the Japanese word for "four", shi, which is the same as "death" . The number four is also known in Japan and China as the number of misfortune.
 * The Reaper's garments bear some resemblance to Tatsuya Sudou's clothes, from the Persona 2 duology. Additionally, considering Sudou eventually loses his right eye during the events that take place during the duology, and the Reaper itself is missing that eye as well, one can speculate the two of them are some how connected.