Red Reaper Farming now impossible

[Dorkwing]

Let me start by saying that I fight red reapers in melee, with some limited spell usage and such. I am NOT and never did try to cheese them.

Now that they implemented this 'patch' which has broken multiple things including boss weapons (RIP everyone's chunks lol) among other things, Red Reapers are basically 'immortal'.

My strat for fighting reapers has always been to clear out a decent little arena area, and fight the reaper on open ground where I can dodge any attacks and wear it down on flat terrain. Now that this patch has come out, the reaper will randomly fully vanish (not even a red trail to mark location) and re-appear with FULL HEALTH AGAIN.

Yes, I have tested it multiple times now with 4 different reapers and every fight the reaper will drop anywhere from 5% to 50% health and based on whatever so-called 'pathing' improvements they implemented the Reaper will vanish completely , and then suddenly appear behind me to do a stab attack with full health again.

This is insanity and clearly someone or multiple someones needs to be actually testing these changes and thinking about the players instead of just throwing out hot garbage changes and calling it a 'patch'.

[Baron01]

I was farming Scarlet Shadow for fun and vigor multi in NG at Adyr's shrine. I was killing umbral enemies around the area right in front of the shrine and fought the Reaper when it appeared. No tricks, no bugs. I'm now in NG+ but will see if it is still possible but it will be harder since they also nerfed Radiance auras, which I used as a Sword & Board paladin build.

If Scarlet Shadow is now broken because it randomly regain health, I'm done with the game. Not because it would in any way impact my NG+ run but because these changes do not make the game better. These changes just annoy people and make things frustrating for no reason at all.

[AlmaDarkSpell]

Maybe you are right and this is what is happening now, but just in case, let's try to rule out another possibility. About 4 days ago my friend and I were trying to melee farm the Red Reaper and my friend, by mistake, placed a seed in the same area. Apparently the Red Reaper regains all life points if the host approaches an area where a vestige or seed exists. That could be the case, if you could confirm that is not your case, that would be nice to know. Thank you.

[Rubyeyed]

I made a post about this like an hour ago. It just heals itself on a timer. I literally can't kill it now, always being 2-3 hits short. I tested this 3 times, no seeds or anything. He just goes underground when the time is up and pops back up with 100% hp mid fight.

[HO ANU]

If its unkillable now then how are people supposed to get the achievement?, and the eye drop?

[AlmaDarkSpell]

Originally posted by HO ANU (ScepteredFish):

If its unkillable now then how are people supposed to get the achievement?, and the eye drop?

cheese

[elstirthibaut]

how short is the timer? mught try myself to kill him even if i don't have uber dps

[Baron01]

I can confirm that Scarlet Shadow, aka Reaper, is broken as of latest patch.

I regularly farmed him in NG at Adyr's shrine with my sword & board paladin build (ideal for it as I can heal myself infinitely).

I have just tested it in NG+ in the same spot. I was able to kill first Reaper just fine, pretty much the same as before. He was just more annoying because it can instantly disappear, lose lock-on and re-emerge with his attack. More annoying, not more difficult.

However, as the time progressed 2nd Reaper spawn and things went south real fast. More and more enemies were spawning and he started to bug, ie. heal himself. It feels that he heals when you lose lock-on and do not re-engage it quickly.

[Rubyeyed]

Originally posted by elstirthibaut:

how short is the timer? mught try myself to kill him even if i don't have uber dps

Hard to tell, 15s maybe? You just have to try.

[50shots-1kill (Corpsemaker)]

I managed to kill two in a row but have had several more despawn and heal which is super frustrating to deal with for farming shrimp.

[Wizard of Weebs]

"Now that this patch has come out, the reaper will randomly fully vanish (not even a red trail to mark location) and re-appear with FULL HEALTH AGAIN."
You sure you aint unknowingly running to a checkpoint? That will do that lmao

[Baron01]

So, more findings after some testing.

Scarlet Shadow, aka Reaper, is definitely possible to defeat but it is now more annoying rather than difficult...this is not a coincidence. Reaper is also definitely buggy because he can just heal himself to full (more on this later).

First point, latest patch did not make the fight harder, it just make it more annoying to fight but also easier at the same time. Reaper no longer tries to melee you or use his jump/whirling attack. His most common attack is submerge & jump attack from underground.
This has 3 effects:

• 1.) this makes the fight more annoying because the lock-on system is bad and you now regularly and frequently lose lock-on;
  
• 2.) this makes the fight also easy because his emerging attack is easy to dodge and punish with dodge-attack;
  
• 3.) this also makes the fight much shorter because he no longer tries to melee you, which you need to dodge or chase you while submerged. He submerge and immediately attack, which you dodge, punish and repeat. The only challenge is to manage your stamina.

Second point, Reaper is definitely bugged. It seems to me that his buggy healing is related to your targeting/lock-on. I fight him in front of Adyr's shrine, which is relatively flat area without any obstacles that could get him stuck or force him to reset. I could kill him 6 times in a row in my latest test run. However, he healed multiple times on my previous run for no apparent reason. The only difference I could observe was that on my successful kill streak I solely focused on the Reaper and did not actively target, ie. tried to lock-on any other enemies that were spawning. Once I focused just on the Reaper, engaged lock-on as soon as he appeared and constantly attacked him, he did not heal again.

I'm saddened a bit by the latest patch as Hexworks seemed to genuinely care to make the game better and more enjoyable for broader player-base. Latest patch wasted a lot of goodwill built up in previous patches because it introduced changes such as this.

[Savager]

I doubt they intended it to be immortal since you need to kill it for achievement and eye. So lets wait it out before they fix it.

[Rubyeyed]

My spot for fighting is right at the start of Empyreon, that open plaza right outside the corridor with the vestige. I killed him there like 15 times or so before so idk what they broke. I'm not even running away from it or going far, why would it lose track of me MID FIGHT and just go to heal is crazy.

Maybe they will fix it next week or whenever the consoles will let them publish next patch.

[Dorkwing]

Originally posted by Wizard of Weebs:

"Now that this patch has come out, the reaper will randomly fully vanish (not even a red trail to mark location) and re-appear with FULL HEALTH AGAIN."
You sure you aint unknowingly running to a checkpoint? That will do that lmao

If you're going to reply in the most arrogant and dismissive way possible, try it for yourself first before making an assumption that just shows your own low IQ.

Go try upper Calrath, the arena with some dogs and and a ruiner... let me know if there is a checkpoint you can unknowingly run into anywhere in sight there. Oh wait... there aint one lmao.

[Dorkwing]

Originally posted by Baron01:

So, more findings after some testing.

Scarlet Shadow, aka Reaper, is definitely possible to defeat but it is now more annoying rather than difficult...this is not a coincidence. Reaper is also definitely buggy because he can just heal himself to full (more on this later).

First point, latest patch did not make the fight harder, it just make it more annoying to fight but also easier at the same time. Reaper no longer tries to melee you or use his jump/whirling attack. His most common attack is submerge & jump attack from underground.
This has 3 effects:

• 1.) this makes the fight more annoying because the lock-on system is bad and you now regularly and frequently lose lock-on;
  
• 2.) this makes the fight also easy because his emerging attack is easy to dodge and punish with dodge-attack;
  
• 3.) this also makes the fight much shorter because he no longer tries to melee you, which you need to dodge or chase you while submerged. He submerge and immediately attack, which you dodge, punish and repeat. The only challenge is to manage your stamina.

Second point, Reaper is definitely bugged. It seems to me that his buggy healing is related to your targeting/lock-on. I fight him in front of Adyr's shrine, which is relatively flat area without any obstacles that could get him stuck or force him to reset. I could kill him 6 times in a row in my latest test run. However, he healed multiple times on my previous run for no apparent reason. The only difference I could observe was that on my successful kill streak I solely focused on the Reaper and did not actively target, ie. tried to lock-on any other enemies that were spawning. Once I focused just on the Reaper, engaged lock-on as soon as he appeared and constantly attacked him, he did not heal again.

I'm saddened a bit by the latest patch as Hexworks seemed to genuinely care to make the game better and more enjoyable for broader player-base. Latest patch wasted a lot of goodwill built up in previous patches because it introduced changes such as this.

appreciate the additional input and investigation. The lock-on trick sounds like a workaround but hella annoying to maintain with the adds that pop in.