Persona 3 - Low Level (Optional/P27): Reaper

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MoogleBoss

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Published on November 1, 2014 2:55:29 PM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWBoF5eR27M

Game:

Persona 3 (2006)

Duration: 11:22

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An optional fight and possibly part 27 in the video series of Persona 3 Low Level Challenge, depending on whether the access to Monad granted by defeating Death permits the victory against Nyx.

Challenge playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbSv8zSDR9c28XzFFSOOfN_E02Ybp1SK5

So here's the story in brief: Nyx is an inhumanly hard bastard, which is something anyone following or doing this type of run could've seen coming from a mile away, but that's beside the point. Nyx exploiting AA (the Almighty Attack), an ability that deals unreflectable physical damage, damage that can be bolstered through Power Charge and which can crit (critting more likely if Nyx previously used Revolution / Rebellion), and acting twice per turn, also rendering Akihiko's debuffs less than half as potent as they usually are makes things really difficult for having some non-negligible chances of success in the final fight.

We have previously dealt with enemies who cannot be taken care of by mirrors alone, and we emerged victorious in those fight either by employing an all-out-offensive assault with Great condition Vorpal Blade and the like or having evasion hax work out in our favour with speed buffs on the party and debuffs on the boss - often both I suppose. Nyx leaves these speedy strats ineffective by virtue of being absurdly healthy - the party needs to be able to endure a really long fight, and quite reliably at that.

This is where the idea to face Reaper, unlocking Monad and its treasures, comes from, suggested initially by soulgrunt (who has completed a low level run in Persona 4 Golden, highest difficulty, available on his channel of the same name on YouTube). Reaper does make the victorious party level up a good bit due to giving 20K experience (what do you expect from a lv. 99 superboss?), but we ARE trying to beat Nyx at the lowest level we can possibly be at while still playing on an entirely new file.

A compromise himself, the Reaper is still a challenge on this playthrough, rivalling the last Takaya battle and World of Balance in difficulty. I think he just might be the second toughest enemy in the game after Nyx. Luckily, he moves just once per turn, unless he gets a Once More from exploiting somebody's weakness and excluding the first turn (always ambushes the party).

Now, the exploiting the weaknesses part can mostly be taken care of. Aigis is fused a weapon that resists electricity and Akihiko gets a weapon achieving the same outcome for his ice weakness. This leaves Ken with his Dark weakness that we can't really do much about - however, our stock of Homunculus takes care of the instant death attacks that target Ken's weakness. One exception to this rule is when the MC is about to die to single-target instantdeath - somebody will take the hit and get reduced to 1 HP (consuming a Homunculus wouldn't affect current HP at all).

People have noticed Reaper can be exploited by making him inflict elemental breaks on characters with elemental immunities (of the four magical kinds). Ken and Aigis lack these, as does the FeMC!Persona whose stats I maximised with the arcade grind + cards. So after FeMC switches to Taraka from the ice-immune Persona, only Akihiko is susceptible to Elec Break, which kinda limits the number of turns Reaper can waste.

I was initially bothered by this and used a mostly low-levelled party of Akihiko, FeMC, Mitsuru and Yukari so that he'd have targets to spam elemental breaks on every turn, but this was a bad idea - the Reaper's AI must have sensed there are two weaklings on the field so he just spammed AoE magic disregarding resistances/weaknesses, easily taking Mitsuru and Yukari out. Back to our original party then.

I really don't know if the game's mechanics make level differences count in hit rate calculations just like they matter in damage dealt and received, but it did look like a speed debuff on the Reaper and a speed buff on the party wasn't nearly enough to dodge his attacks most of the time, and we can't really tank them (FeMC sure can with 99 endurance though, I should point out).

This is where I started using my carefully saved but modest stock of Cadenza - Persona 3 Portable's response to fusion spells. Their evasion buffs appear to stack with Masukukaja with both of these functioning simultaneously. After trying Cadenza out, I did notice a difference in dodging rates.

Besides Elec Break, turns spent on casting instantdeath spells and Mind Charge (overkill damage most of the time) extend the party's survival - and Reaper is quite healthy.

One good thing about Akihiko dying is that he loses his elemental break (together with good speed buffs) upon being revived, so there's a chance Reaper will repeat his Elec Break, wasting a turn.

Megido Gems are our sole source of damage here, dishing out a fixed 150 each use. I'll have to refill the stock again for Nyx, but oh well.

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