Reaper difficulty - DDO wiki (2024)

Reaper Difficulty or Reaper Mode, introduced in Update 34, is the highest difficulty in DDO. This game mode has ten sub-difficulties, known as "skulls," that can further increase the challenge rating. In this difficulty, many things are changed, so proceed with caution! Most notably, self healing in reaper mode is significantly reduced. Players will also find that they do less damage and take more of it, including attribute damage. There are special monsters only found in this game mode known as Reapers (see below) which have dangerous, powerful abilities. As a reward for braving this difficulty, players will earn more experience points, more named treasure (with increased chances Mythic Bonuses and exclusive chances for a "Reaper Bonus"), and Reaper Experience, which unlocks Reaper enhancements and cosmetics.

Update 34 Release Notes:

Reaper Difficulty offers a new challenge for the toughest adventurers! Reaper difficulty can be selected from the quest portal UI for many quests and raids throughout the game. When you select Reaper difficulty, there is also a drop-down list of between one and ten Skulls, which affects quest/raid difficulty and reward. Special Reaper Bonuses can be found on items acquired in Reaper Difficulty, there is an increased chance to get named items, and you'll earn Reaper Experience. Reaper XP will award a Reaper Point at certain thresholds that can be spent on abilities in a special Reaper benefit tree, among other things! Warning: Reaper difficulty is meant for players who enjoy a serious challenge. You have been warned!

Reaper is the fifth difficulty setting for quests, above Elite. Further, Reaper allows players to decide how much of a challenge they want by selecting an appropriate number of "skulls" (1 Skull = easiest vs 10 Skulls = hardest), adding further difficulty if the player so chooses.

A quest can be opened on Reaper difficulty by any character who can open Elite difficulty. This means VIP accounts can do so at any time, but Free-to-play and Premium characters must have already completed the quest on Hard, or have reincarnated at least twice (same as opening for Elite difficulty), or are in a party with a member who can open on Elite. (There is a level gate in effect, see Lockout below.)

The following applies to reaper mode:

Reapers[edit]

• See Reaper race article for more details.

Perhaps the most significant change that comes with Reaper difficulty is the chance to encounter Reapers themselves. Whenever mobs are spawning in a quest, or have been placed as setup for the quest, there's a chance for spawning additional wraith-like Reapers.

Spawn mechanics[edit]

Each time a monster spawns, there is a chance that a reaper may spawn as well. This chance is higher the more skulls you select. Their spawn locations are always the last location of the associated monster at the time the reaper spawns. Usually there is a significant delay (around 5 seconds) between the monster spawning and the reaper spawning. This can mean that the reaper may spawn after the party has engaged with the monster or even killed the monster if the monster spawned recently. The reapers have their own logic and will not follow the monster if it has some scripted pathing. This may cause reapers to be in inaccessible locations if the monster spawned there and then moved.

Racial traits[edit]

All Reapers possess the following traits:

• Lawful Evil Outsider (not undead, despite appearance)
• Incorporeal
• Permanent Deathblock: Protects against death spells.
• Floating: Cannot be affected by Trip, Grease, Earthquake or other ground attacks.
  • Of particular note, most crowd control works on Reapers normally. Despite looking very similar to wraiths, they do not have resistances that undead usually have and can be controlled by most spell effects except those listed above.
• Immune to Poison damage, for example from Alchemist's Greater Venom Vial.

Additionally, Regular Reapers also possess the following traits:

• Tremor Sense: They automatically 'hear' players (regardless of Move Silently) through doors, walls, and other obstacles at a range of 18 meters and will move closer to investigate.
• They automatically see players (regardless of Hide) at a range of 18 meters if they have line of sight, and share the player's location with any nearby mobs.

Regular-tier reapers[edit]

Carnage Reaper

• Deals extremely high melee damage. Even at low levels, Carnage Reapers can often kill targets in one or two hits.
• Inflicts a vulnerability debuff of 20% more damage. Stacks up to 10 times. As if many are going to last half that long.
• Likes to engage in melee.

Famine Reaper

• Casts various high-damage offensive spells, predominantly damage based.
  • e.g. Frost-lance, Magic Missiles
• Every 10 seconds, gains a stack of Doom Caster: This caster's spells will hit harder and fail less.
• Affects nearby characters with Reaper: Slowing Touch: The Reaper's touch gnaws at your form, slowing your movement and preventing tumbling. Bestowed automatically when you enter Reaper's melee range for 4 seconds. Combat log: −50% movement, −20 melee speed, −20 ranged speed
• Will teleport to player if it loses line of sight for long.

Fear Reaper

• Has an AoE stacking DoT effect, "Fear of Death", that damages all characters at certain range until the reaper is destroyed.
  • This is activated by a combination of Line of Sight and proximity.
• Has a radius around him where "Fear of Death" doesn't apply. Anyone within the radius of the fear reaper is safe from the effect.
• Doesn't like to come close to the players. Usually stays in initial position, but would like to have line of sight.
• Has a melee attack. Hits hard, but in line with champs.

Plague Reaper

• Melee. Plague Reapers do similar damage as Fear Reapers but inflict a very strong healing debuff. Attempting to heal the person hit by the plague reaper is not advised unless necessary, as it will often prove unproductive until the debuff wears off.
• Will teleport if player is too far.

Boss-tier reapers[edit]

Update 42.4 announced additional types of reapers, some of which only appear on "Reaper Skull 5 and above" difficulty.

Despair Reaper

Orange named

This reaper will engage in melee. However, it also applies despair debuffs to the target player from far away.

Has a permanent aura circle effect that boosts saving throws.

Has a buff Cloak of Despair: Cloaked in your despair this reaper has great advantage to their saving throws.

Periodically applies a stacking effect to everything in the circle that buffs damage of monsters and debuffs damage of players. Both stack up to 5 times and have message text reading: "Your enemies grow stronger as you despair."

Seen in R5 and above.

Vengeance Reaper

Orange named

Mostly a melee combatant on line with Fear Reapers, although thought to cast spells on occasion

Spawns blue circles that explode in a few seconds for extremely heavy Evil damage

"Explodes" on death, buffing all enemies around them (they deal greatly increased damage)

Message on buffed enemies: "They Carry My Vengeance - This creature's offense has been greatly increased by Vengeance"

Seen in R5 and above.

Doom Reaper

Red named

Can use Binding Chain

Applies a stack of "Marks of Doom" every few seconds on target that has their aggro (they do not need to be in physical contact to do this), with each stack greatly increasing damage taken DDO Forums

Upon reaching seven stacks of this effect, the next successful melee attack by the Doom Reaper deals MASSIVE additional damage.

Seen in R7 and above.

See also[edit]

• U42.4 release notes
• Review of Reaper post patch
• Despair Reaper by Planky
• Doom Reaper by Planky

Creature entries (7)[edit]

Carnage Reaper •Despair Reaper •Doom Reaper •Famine Reaper •Fear Reaper •Plague Reaper •Vengeance Reaper

Monsters are stronger[edit]

• Monster damage is increased.
• Many monsters are Champions, often with multiple buffs. The strongest and most dangerous of the three tiers of champions, the red-crown, is only found in Reaper difficulty.
• All monsters receive bonus to saving throws (Tests in a level 2 quest have shown a +1.5 to saves per skull)

Players are weaker[edit]

(U59 Tests)

• Player damage dealt is reduced. Since U59, caster damage has an additional reduction in high reaper.
• Player damage taken is increased. This includes all sources of damage such as from monsters, traps, environmental effects, and other sources such as Twisted Talisman.
• Self-healing while in combat is dramatically weaker. (60% at 1 Skull; an additional 4% per Skull, up to 96% reduction at 10 Skulls.) This applies also to Lesser Restoration potions, making them fairly ineffective for restoring ability damage. Since U59, self-healing while out of combat does not have as strong a penalty as while in combat (it now has the same penalty as out-going healing).
• General-healing is weaker. (0% at 1 Skull; an additional 4% per Skull, up to 36% reduction at 10 Skulls.)
• As of U40, damage and healing values now have a minimum value of one due to Reaper scaling. If Reaper scaling would reduce a value for damage or healing that is above zero to zero, then the value will now be at least one.

• This does not include Ability damage to enemies.

• Crowd control effects have reduced duration (If CC is reduced, it is reduced to 6 seconds at a minimum. It keeps the shorter, single target CC relevant, particularly tactical stuns from enhancement trees.)
• Death timer: Dead players cannot be raised for a while (6 seconds per Skull).
• Incorporeality and Concealment (Blur/Displacement/...) have reduced effect. Reaper Difficulty introduces a flat 5% Concealment bypass, with a further 5% Concealment and Incorporeal bypass per Skull difficulty. This is performed through providing all targets belonging to the enemy faction with a bonus during the roll performed for bypassing Concealment or Incorporeal on protected targets. Beginning with combined total of 10% Concealment and 5% Incorporeal bypass at Reaper 1. Note: Based on the thread where this information originated, this bypass is capped at 30% Concealment bypass and 35% Incorporeality bypass.

Lockout[edit]

• Characters cannot enter a quest on Reaper Difficulty if they are more than four (Heroic) / six (Epic) levels over the level of the dungeon or raid (based on Normal difficulty, not the modified level on Elite Difficulty).
• Characters also cannot enter a Reaper Dungeon if they are Epic Level (level 20) and the Dungeon is Heroic. This applies to level 18 and 19 quests, but not to level 20 heroic quests. Epic characters above level 20 can enter the heroic level 20 quests. Lockout removed in Update 59.
• Reaper dungeons lock their instance when a player leaves. No other player may enter (or re-enter) the instance again.
  • Tip: Dungeon does not lock if you close DDO (for example using Alt+F4) and party leader dismisses you while linkdead. (DDO Forums)

Other changes[edit]

• Defeated enemies can drop Lost Souls. One character in a party can consume them to recharge some of their spell points. The amount of restored spell points depends on quest level and is equal to 5 * (base quest level + 3)
  • Hirelings cannot interact with the Lost Souls, and so cannot regain SP in this method.
  • Interacting with Lost Souls breaks Invisibility, Stealth and Ki Finishers, much as interacting with a lever does. May or may not be WAI.
  • Since Update 42 Patch 4 the appearance of Lost Souls scales with party size and Reaper skulls. Fewer souls appear for smaller parties and on lower reaper levels.
• Upon entering dungeons on Reaper difficulty, characters are restored hit points and spell points equal to what's granted by their reaper enhancements.

Experience[edit]

Completing quests on Reaper difficulty provides more Heroic or Epic experience points (XP).

• Base XP is the same as Elite
• First-time completion bonus for Reaper difficulty is +95% (which is +50% more than for Elite).
• Bravery Bonus for Reaper difficulty is +100% (same as Elite).
• Saga quests run on Reaper give credit (and Saga rewards) for "Elite" completion of those quests.

Reaper quests award both regular experience and Reaper experience (RXP).

Reaper experience[edit]

In addition to the regular heroic or epic experience (XP), completing quests on Reaper difficulty yields Reaper experience (RXP).

• RXP grants you Reaper Points (to be invested in Reaper enhancements)
• RXP unlocks Reaper vendors (see below)

NOTE: RXP is only awarded when at least ten enemies are defeated in a quest. Killing 9 or fewer enemies still gives regular XP with bonuses for Reaper difficulty, but yields zero RXP. DDO Forums

Starting at Level 4, Reaper Points can be invested in any of three Reaper enhancement trees. There are 3 trees available, which are essentially:

• melee/ranged - Dread Adversary
• casting - Dire Thaumaturge
• defense - Grim Barricade

These work in a similar manner to enhancement trees, but are only actively applied to a character while within a quest on (any) Reaper difficulty. As with enhancement trees, these points are never actually spent, so a character can pay PP to re-allocate them as desired.

The base RXP reward (displayed at the top of the experience log) is the based on dungeon level and the number of skulls selected.

Base RXP = (50 + 3 × (quest level on Normal) × (number of skulls))

In dungeons with a base level of 30 or higher the equation becomes

Base RXP = (50 + 3 × (quest level on Normal) × (number of skulls)) × 2

This base RXP number is then multiplied by a quest length modifier before being used in any following calculations.

Modified Base RXP = (Base RXP × Length Bonus) (0.8 (short), 1 (medium), 1.2 (long), 1.4 (very long))

The final RXP total (displayed at the bottom of experience log) is modified in exactly the same way as "normal" xp is modified with the following exceptions: DDO Forums

• Bravery bonus does not count.
• Tome of Learning does not count
• First time completion of any given quest in Reaper gets a +200% first time completion bonus (followed by the normal established repetition penalties in subsequent runs) DDO Forums, DDO Forums
• Note that the completion of Optional objectives in a mission has no effect on increasing the amount of RXP you gain from that mission, so if you are purely focused on gaining RXP feel free to skip optional objectives to save time.

Regular experience boosts such as Heroic Inspiration, VIP boost, guild airship buffs, and experience elixirs also increase RXP granted.

These boosts are not reflected in the Experience Report for the quest, but are instead calculated based on the entire amount of XP gained from the quest and reported in the chat window upon completion.

A character continues to acquire RXP when capped for heroic or epic experience (i.e. after reaching the XP banking cap or level cap, quest completions will continue to award RXP).

RXP persists through reincarnation, but must be re-allocated once a character hits Level 4 (or higher).

See also:

• Reaper enhancements/XP per Point
• Reaper enhancements#Reaper XP needed per Reaper Point
• Reaper XP report math/rounding by Slarden

Overlevel penalties[edit]

For Heroic quests (only), there is an RXP over-level penalty. Since Update 42 Patch 4 the penalties are the same as for regular XP - namely, if the highest level player is four levels over the quest's base level, they are 2 levels over the effective level, and a 10% XP penalty applies to all characters. Further penalties are impossible, as characters five levels or more over the base level are locked out.

There are no overlevel penalties in Epic quests, just the six level lockout. (test)

Note: The over-level penalty also applies to hirelings, including gold seal hirelings. A particularly punishing example is summoning a level 20 hireling, such as the Onyx Panther (ML18) in heroic reaper. This prevents all RXP. DDO Forums

Legendary characters[edit]

Legendary characters (level 30 and higher) only get reaper XP in legendary dungeons (base level 30 and higher).

Such characters can still enter epic reaper dungeons but get 0 reaper XP.

Quest length multiplier[edit]

As of Update 34 Patch 2, RXP is modified based on the length of the dungeon/raid:

• Short - 0.8
• Medium - 1.0
• Long - 1.2
• Very Long - 1.4

Reaper Vendors / Rewards[edit]

Reaper Vendors are available in the Hall of Heroes. They sell Creature Companions and potions that grant special cosmetic feats.

Very high totals of Reaper Experience are rewarded with special cosmetics or a creature companion. There are three different vendors, each with a different Reaper Experience requirement that must be met before they will talk with you. The platinum costs are high; buy these items when you have high haggle.

Note that the eyes and wings last for a single life and need to be purchased again after you TR.

• Raven Queen Messenger (625,000 Reaper Experience), or 25 reaper points
  • Cosmetic eyes, base cost 1M Platinum.
• Raven Queen Augur (2,500,000 Reaper Experience), or 50 reaper points
  • Reaperling creature companions
  • Access to Reaper Forge
• Raven Queen's Herald (5,625,000 Reaper Experience), or 75 reaper points
  • Cosmetic wings (confirmed), base cost 2M Platinum

Items[edit]

The contents of chests and end-loot, including the presence of named items, have (slightly) improved chances of better results on Reaper difficulty, often with higher reaper difficulty (aka "most skulls") resulting in slightly higher percentages of that better result.

Benefits

1. Higher treasure level in randomly generated loot
2. More Monster Champions = more Mysterious Remnants
3. Increased chance of dropping named items: +1% per skull level. DDO Forums
4. Increased chance of named items having Mythic bonus.
5. Chance of named items having Reaper bonus.

Notes

• Each of these chances increase in likelihood for each reaper skull.
• Applies to static named items from quests. Crafted items or end rewards don't have this benefit.
• Some dev quotes available here.

Non-reaper quests[edit]

Certain quests are not available on Reaper difficulty:

• Korthos quests (Lvl 1–2):

  Heyton's Rest •Misery's Peak •Necromancer's Doom •Redemption (quest) •Sacrifices •Shipwreck Shore •Shipwreck Shore quests •Stopping the Sahuagin •The Cannith Crystal •The Collaborator •The Grotto •The Storehouse's Secret •Wavecrest Tavern quests

• Solo only quests (various levels):

  An Explosive Situation •Arachnophobia •Hall of the Mark •Home Sweet Sewer •Raiding the Giants' Vault •The Grotto •The Miller's Debt

• Protect Baudry's Interests (Lvl 2)
• Stop Hazadill's Shipment (Lvl 2)
• Tangleroot Gorge quests (Lvl 3–7):

  Doom of the Witch-doctor: The Way to Zulkash •Doom of the Witch-doctor: Zulkash, Herald of Woe •First Strike •The Deadly Package: Agent of the Darguul •The Deadly Package: The Stronghold Key •The Hobgoblins' Captives •The Last Move: The Way to Yarkuch •The Last Move: Yarkuch's Last Stand •Whisperdoom's Spawn •Yarkuch's War-plans

• Mask of Deception (Lvl 16/30)
• Precious Cargo (Lvl 25)
• Any and all Challenges (as these do not offer difficulty options)

Note: Hound of Xoriat and its legendary equivalent were disabled on reaper difficulty in Update 41, and later reinstated in Update 42 Patch 4.

Development[edit]

Prior to Lamannia Update 33, Reaper Mode was a whiteboard idea for a dungeon difficulty harder than elite in development internally and mentioned to the Player's Council. Some of its simple text leaked onto the Lamannia preview server while Update 27 was being previewed.

• DDO Forums

Quote:
Originally Posted by (executiveproducer)Severlin I can neither confirm nor deny that we have been discussing the possibility of a Reaper mode with the player's council or that we have been looking into some sort of proof of concept for a new difficulty above elite. Nor are we committing to nor announcing another difficulty level at this time.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Lamannia Update 33 Release Notes Reaper Mode The Dungeon Master is trying to kill you. Check it out! Available for quests within two levels of your character. (NOTE: This is an EARLY preview of Reaper Mode, and does not include any rewards or benefits from running it. That'll come later. Reaper Mode will not be arriving with Update 33.)

Quote:
Originally Posted by Cordovan (Contribs • Message • Email • Cordovan) We don't want to formally commit to an update until it's ready, but it is definitely possible that Reaper difficulty will be in U34.

External links[edit]

• Reaper Mode Differences Tests done on U59
• Reaper Experience Calculation chart (google sheets) updated by Zunzyne 12/11/2017 (original author unknown).
• Severlin's post about reaper XP (note: does not match in-game reality)

YouTube[edit]