Final Fantasy 14's New Scythe-Wielding, Persona-Summoning Reaper Class Announced For Endwalker Expansion

With each new Final Fantasy XIV expansion, the team has been pretty good about giving new classes to keep the player pool spicy. We now know thanks to the ongoing FFXIV Fan Festival yet another new playable class: the Reaper, a scythe-wielding melee fighter. 

The new class features a two-handed scythe and some pretty wonderfully “edgy” aesthetic. In this new melee DPS class, our Warrior of Light teams up with a spirit, called an “avatar” from the void, in order to deal devastating blows. The aesthetic so far is pretty parallel to Soulsborne influences, with a cape and the obligatory wide hat that covers an eye.  However, as explained during the Fan Festival keynote, the armor “subclass” will be shared with the Dragoon, which means most Dragoon armor won’t be exclusive to Reaper, and vice-versa (likely with the exceptions of lore-related class-exclusive sets). 

Lore-wise, the player serves as a host for this avatar, which looks pretty frightening on its own. The avatar is called from the void, which is a concept with deep implications that, as players discovered through high-end Shadowbringers lore, turns out to be more than just a condition of aether-eating madness. Players, in turn, can use the void avatar’s abilities and those of voidsent to attack their enemies. 

With all these lore and aesthetic considerations, it looks like they’ve churned out a visually sick new class. The particle effects are stark and gorgeous, and the attacks are dynamic, which doesn’t disappoint for players who dreamed of slinging around a scythe. Already, there’s a scythe cosmetic available for real money that resembles that of a well-known deep dungeon boss, and it’s remained a popular buy for many players. Some players even use Botany to get the scythe aesthetic for their players. 

In order to dive in, there won’t be any prerequisite class. However, you’ll need to have the Endwalker expansion purchased, and you’ll need to have at least one combat class at level 70. Thankfully, though, the class will start at level 70 once you pick it up in Ul’dah, so you won’t need to grind through the way you do for Dark Knight or other “basic” classes. 

This is the second of two new classes to be introduced in the latest expansion, as well as the second class concept new to the Final Fantasy franchise. The other is Sage, a new take on a healer that includes almost Gundam-like peripheral laser pew-pew machines. In case you think this is an exaggeration of the Sage class, here’s a link to our recap from the Announcement Showcase.