Elden Ring - Reapers

The smallest and most specialised class in the game: all five bleed and all five punch through shields, so you take a Reaper to beat guarded enemies, and the fact that it also has the highest raw attack rating (AR) of these four classes is a bonus.

Combat

Pros

• Class-wide anti-block modifier: light attacks ignore 50% of a block's damage negation, and heavy and charged attacks ignore more. Nothing in the other three classes has this property.
• All five carry innate blood loss at +0: Scythe, Grave Scythe, Halo Scythe and Winged Scythe at 55, Obsidian Lamina at 68. You get a status weapon without spending the infusion slot.
• Highest raw physical of the four classes: Grave Scythe 144 at +0 and 352 at max standard, ahead of the best halberd (340), spear (301) and great spear (301).
• The damage leader is also the flexible one: Grave Scythe and Scythe both take ordinary Smithing Stones, accept Ashes of War, and can be weapon-buffed.

Cons

• Five weapons total, and only two are infusible. Halo Scythe, Winged Scythe and Obsidian Lamina take Somber stones with fixed skills and, per their pages, cannot be buffed with magic or consumables.
• No Strength ceiling at all: max Heavy tops out at Grave Scythe with B Str (324) and Scythe with B (282). A Heavy halberd reaches S. If you are a Strength build, halberds are strictly better here.
• No fire and no lightning option in the class. The only elemental splits are holy (Winged Scythe 104 at +0 / 254 at max, Halo Scythe 76 / 186); everything else has to come from an infusion on the two infusible weapons.
• Expensive swings for the reach: 's max-standard stamina column reads 120 for Grave Scythe and 110, 114 for the others, against 68 to 88 across the whole Spear class, and Grave Scythe weighs 9.5.

Builds

Three viable directions, and one is clearly the peak.

• Arcane/bleed is the ceiling: Occult Grave Scythe reaches 310 physical with B Arcane and 50 bleed, or Blood Grave Scythe 296 with 100 bleed, and recommends exactly this, pairing its high attack rating (AR) with Spinning Strikes, Spinning Weapon or Black Flame Tornado to smear the bleed.
• Dex/Quality is the safe default: Scythe hits A Dex at max Keen (264) and B at max standard (306); Grave Scythe is B/B at max Quality (282).
• Faith is the early-game route: Winged Scythe at 24 Fai (213 physical / 254 holy, C Fai) or Halo Scythe at 15 Fai (289 / 186).
• Obsidian Lamina asks 25 Dex / 17 Arc.
• Strength is the one direction not worth taking here.

Best Weapons

Weapon	Image	Attack	Weight	Str	Dex	Int	Fai	Arc	Why Take It
Grave Scythe		144	9.5	17	13	-	-	-	The hardest-hitting weapon in any of these four classes: 144 physical at +0 and 352 at max standard, plus 55 innate bleed, and it is fully infusible and buffable on ordinary Smithing Stones. it 'high attack rating (AR) amongst polearms, making it a great option for Skills such as Spinning Strikes, Spinning Weapon, and Black Flame Tornado for applying bleed or black flame'. A 2% drop from Skeleton Grave Keepers, so it is farmable from early Limgrave and stays relevant to endgame.
Scythe		125	7.5	14	14	-	-	-	The Dex chassis: A Dex at max Keen (264) and B at max standard (306), two full weight points lighter than Grave Scythe at 7.5, and infusible. its unique R2 is a double-hit windup rather than a basic sweep, which 'makes it better at applying status effects', two bleed applications per heavy. Looted from a corpse guarded by four Imps in Cliffbottom Catacombs, Liurnia.
Obsidian Lamina		120	7.5	12	25	-	-	17	DLC. Highest innate bleed in the class at 68, joint-lightest at 7.5, with C Dex / D Arc and 294 physical at max standard. it shares the regular Scythe's double-slash R2, so it inherits the double-application heavy. The problem is timing: it comes at the end of Sir Ansbach's questline in Enir-Ilim after Promised Consort Radahn, which is the last thing in the DLC, it is a New Game+ weapon in practice.
Halo Scythe		118 + 76 holy	8.5	13	16	-	15	-	The only Reaper with a ranged option. describes Miquella's Ring of Light as chain-castable as long as FP and stamina hold, and notes that after the 1.07 buff the blade itself also connects at close range for about 55% of a light attack plus bleed buildup, on top of the projectile. The limitation is also documented there: the halos stop tracking once the projectile reaches full speed. 2% drop from scythe-wielding Cleanrot Knights; Somber, fixed skill.
Winged Scythe		87 + 104 holy	7.5	16	16	-	24	-	It 'a great early game weapon for Faith builds, especially DEX/FTH builds'. It sits in a chest in the Tombsward Ruins cellar in the Weeping Peninsula, needs only 16 Str / 16 Dex / 24 Fai, and carries 104 holy at +0 (254 at max standard, C Fai). Its skill Angel's Wings prevents a hit player from using their Flask of Crimson Tears for 30 seconds. Somber, no infusion, no buffs, and the lowest physical of any class leader here at 213.

Notes

• Anti-block (class-defining): light attacks ignore 50% damage negation from blocks; heavy and charged attacks ignore more. Stated on the Reapers page and repeated on each individual weapon page.
• All five have innate bleed: the only one of these four classes where that is true. Obsidian Lamina 68, the other four 55.
• Only Scythe and Grave Scythe accept Ashes of War, weapon buffs and ordinary Smithing Stones. Halo Scythe, Winged Scythe and Obsidian Lamina are Somber with fixed skills and cannot be buffed.
• Scythe and Obsidian Lamina share a double-hit windup R2 instead of a single sweep, which lands two status applications per heavy attack.
• Patch history: 1.08 increased the speed of some attacks and reduced recovery time; 1.14 increased the attack speed of the uncharged first heavy attack.

All Reapers

Name	Image	Physical	Magic	Fire	Light	Holy	Crit. Boost	Weight	Str.	Dex.	Int.	Fai.	Arc.	Sell Price	Skill
Grave Scythe		144 49	0 33	0 33	0 33	0 33	100 33	9.5	D 17	D 13	0	0	0	100	Spinning Slash
Halo Scythe		118 42	0 29	0 29	0 29	76 42	100 31	8.5	D 13	D 16	0	E 15	0	200	Miquella's Ring of Light
Obsidian Lamina		120 42	0 28	0 28	0 28	0 28	100	7.5	E 12	C 25	0	0	D 17	500	Dynastic Sickleplay
Scythe		125 45	0 30	0 30	0 30	0 30	100 30	7.5	E 14	C 14	0	0	0	100	Spinning Slash
Winged Scythe		87 30	0 25	0 25	0 25	104 55	100 30	7.5	E 16	D 16	0	D 24	0	500	Angel's Wings