The Grim Reaper, or Death, has appeared in practically every Castlevania game out there. He's Dracula's right hand man, always around to do his bidding. He usually appears as a skeleton wearing a cloak, and wielding a scythe. In the games that keep track of hit points, he always has 4444 HP. This requires a bit of explanation about the Japanese language. The original word for "four" is "shi", but "shi" also means "death". Therefore, four is considered an unlucky number (and many Japanese use the alternate word "yon" when referring to the number four.) It's vaguely comparable to 666, the unholy number in Western civilizations. Also, the small scythes Death is infamous for using are an actual weapon called a "Kama" in Japan, usually wielded with one in either hand, sometimes chained together.)

Faces of Death

If Frankenstein didn't make you break the Nintendo controller in frustration, this guy will. Death will just float around the screen, stopping every few seconds, while making three scythes materialize. Good luck. Here's some nice tips from Rob Strangman: To beat Death in Castlevania, your best bet is to get Holy Water and a Triple Shot (earlier in the stage.) When you enter Death's chamber, go to the center of the screen to get him to enter, then march back to the right hand side of the platform that you are on. Make sure that you're standing at the very end of the platform (you'll know you're there because Simon will have one leg on the platform and one off). When Death comes down from the ceiling, immediately jump up and throw a bottle of Holy Water right on the spot where he will land. This will stop him dead in his tracks. Keep jumping up and throwing Holy Water (don't throw all three bottles at once - try and space your throws evenly). He'll be defeated in no time - and he won't even have been able to fire a single shot at you! Crazy, huh? Don't underestimate him, though - one tiny lapse in your concentration is all he'll need to get out of your trap and kick your ass!

In Castlevania 2, the Grim Reaper wins the official "Weanie Boss of the Game" award. Not that any of the bosses in CV2 were much better, but Grimmy just sort of appears in the middle of the screen, hovers towards Simon and occasionally moves his scythe. Boo. If you have a Morning Star whip or especially the Flame Whip, just keep hitting him till he dies (don't be an idiot and walk into him...he DOES do plenty of damage.) If he gets too close, take advice from Monty Python and RUN AWAY. The Gold Dagger can also be somewhat helpful.

Jonathan Tung sent in this info for beating Grimmy... In beating Death, it is best to grab the holy water from the room previous, that holds the two blobs and the two axe lords. remember; it's pretty stupid to get anything else. It's usually best to have a triple shot, but a two will also do. Before you actually fight Death, you will have to pass a falling bridge. Important note; unless you are completely familiar with the candles, don't get them unless you know what's good for you to avoid accidently getting something that sucks; like the last candle which holds a dagger. Once you traverse the bridge; go to the far right middle level platform. the Grim reaper will begin to blink in and so will his scythes. By this timeyou sould throw one or two holy waters towards the center of the room and fall down the right side of the platform you are standing on. This will make the scythe miss your head. Death should descend righton top of your burning flames. Unload holy water onto him until he dies. The beauty of this is the fact that he can't move and he just sits there while you kick his ass. He will soon die. His second form is a little more scary looking but a real cinch. There will be enough time for you to walk to the left of the screen to get ready for a huge flying face that floats in circle around the room; clockwise. Just before he comes to you, unload holy water onto the groud where he will run into it, sapping his health like no tomorrow. My best time for beating death like this was 6.43 seconds.

The best strategy against Death is to have the longest whip. This can easily be done by grabbing the stuff in the candles right before going into his room. There will be two platforms low to the ground. Death will fly back and forth across the top. Stay behind theleft platform and whip upwards when he is above you. Hold onto the whip after hitting him, using it as a sheild. As death moves back and forth, he will throw little scythes, but by having your whip out and held up will stop the scythes. After he moves across and back, he will lower himself to the ground and throw his big scythe. Just duck behind the platform on the left and your safe. Then the pattern begins again. Easy. Thanks to Darkmoon Firelyte for this method.

We must have interrupted Death while he was at some gala event, otherwise I can't explain the top hat he's wearing. I took a cross to this battle, but I'll note that I took it only for the item crash, so you can also take the axe or the holy water in its place. When you enter into the boss area, run over to the left side of the center, after Death materializes, he'll float off the top then back down onto the screen. Here, I like to whip him two or three times so he's nearly off the right side screen, then let him float around back to your left side, give him what for with your whip. Use your back flip if you really don't like being hit by the small scythes, they don't do much damage, and its not like his second form is going to even connect so I don't worry too much. One thing of vital concern though, above all else, do NOT touch Death! He curses you so you can't jump or attack, and that's really just not kosher. After you knock off about 3/5's of his health, Death's blue wardrobe evaporates and he drops down from the center top of the screen with legs, a big scythe, and a tan colored cloak. This is easy, whip him as soon as he lands, his immediate next move is to slash twice with his scythe, just stand a pace or so away and duck, and whip away, when Death jumps up in the air it means he's going to use his nearly undodge-able spinning attack, this is where the use of item crashes come in. I'd say stock up for 2 - 3 item crash uses, conservatively of course, and whenever he hops up to do his spin, let him have it. After you land, just duck and whip away. If he attempts to normal slash, item crash if he spins again. It shouldn't take too long, and once you poof him, it's on to the horribly designed throne room of Dracula, lots of luck to you.

Death appears in Bloodlines near the end of the last stage to test you. He appears surrounded by a circle of cards that produce different effects when hit, and you have to clear them all to face him. There are three cards that take you to previous bosses (Gargoyle, Golem, and Gear monster) and three other cards, determined by your difficulty setting. On easy, you will get two food cards and a Death card, on normal you get one food and two Death, and on hard and up you get three Death cards. Food gives you a large mass of porkchops, while Death causes him to shoot an energy blast that can be avoided by walking across the screen. When all the cards are cleared, you will face Death head on. Walk across the screen to avoid his sickles, hitting him with axes or whatever else you can hit him with as you go. When he heads to the upper corner, walk towards him and leap over him when he tries to fly through you. If he summons several sickles, keep running, or as Eric use your super jump to avoid them. Your best chance to get licks in is when he throws his scythe and pulls you in. Keep your distance and duck his scythe, then move in close and wail on him. Walk away as his scythe returns and jump over it to avoid damage. Keep it up and you'll beat Death, then you can face Countess Bartley!

Death shows up early in Symphony of the Night to take away all of Alucard's weapons, but you'll actually get to fight him in the Inverted Castle. Arf has said that the best strategy is to take a Resist Dark potion in. In his first form (the one in the picture) just turn into mist to dodge Death's projectiles and hit. As for the second snake form, just jump over his bone cutters and attack. Easy as pie, idn't it?

You know something? It never fails; you turn in this direction or that one to get over to death and what happens? You get hit in the ankle by a lil scythe… I hate that! Fortunately, despite the antics Konami could've cooked up with a 3D Death, we get this guy, who… isn't really hard at all. The only annoyance, as if it needs to be listed, is his lil scythes flying all over the place, they actually home-in and strike at you this time around though, which is annoying. They don't do much damage however, just make Reinhardt pause for a moment while he's hit. Death's two other attacks are to come at you swinging his big scythe a lot, and to summon up that demon fish (insert Dragon Knights "varawoo" reference here manga readers). Spend the fight just running, this'll pretty much keep you from getting hurt ever. Whenever Death's close enough, just whip the hell out of him, of course having the highest level whip is recommended. When he flies off to any given extremity of his circular area, just run after him. When running, if you really hate the lil scythes, make a sort of zigzag pattern, that should help to alleviate the problem some. Personally, I don't think I've ever been hit by the summon fish, so I couldn't say how dangerous it is, just run, that's all, just don't be stupid while fighting, if you hear/see the pentagram, start moving, tis' much of simple.

No conversation AND an easy fight?! Konami does not do Death justice anymore! In his first form, Death has two attacks, and he still has his lil floating scythes. The scythes aren't that annoying (hey… where's his big one?) as they're fairly slow and easily dodged. Death will float around the room lazily and on occasionally stop. If he stops and crosses his arms over his chest, it means he's going to shoot out three long bone spikes from himself, remember the succubus in Symphony? Yah, dodge it the same way, his second attack he'll stop and hold his hands out to each side, creating balls of energy which will semi home-in on Nathan, just run away a bit, then turn around and dash jump double jump over them. I'm giving no DSS recommendations, everyone fights they're own way, so deal the damage however you see fit, my only word of caution is when summoning, remember you may come down from it right onto a scythe or attack, so be discreet. This form is just ugly, when Death's robed self kicks it, this weird… turtle of death appears, it has two attacks and one non-lethal ability. Its first attack is pretty obvious, he raises his sickle arms and slashes at you, this has no range so just back off a few steps, probably the best time to attack him is now. His other attack always seems to catch me off guard, but he raises himself up, then slams into the ground, if your standing on the ground you take subsequent damage, just jump as he's about to hit and you'll be fine. His "ability" is interesting, and meant, I'm sure, entirely to make you get hit by the lil scythe's still occupying the room. He creates a magic circle between his sickle arms and now Nathan's speed get cut to almost nill. Thankfully, the effect doesn't last too long.

… …HE'S EFFIN PINK! Purple is okay, purple is a color associated with royalty, but he's PINK, like he was in Simon's Quest… it makes me cry. Well not really… but still. Again, two forms, in his first… PINK form, Death has a very annoying habit of teleporting after you strike him with your whip, however annoying this is, you can put it to your advantage. Every time Death teleports, he appears next to you, and attacks with his scythe, just back off and throw a boomerang/cross if you've got it, then move in and hack away. Once his life is low enough, Death will hold out a hand and make a weird little orange thing appear, afterwards energy beams will shoot up from the ground. However, if you've been hacking away at him the entire time, you'll probably kill him before the beams ever get to you. I absolutely hate the second form, as Death becomes this long serpent-like skeleton (super bone dragon?) with a human skull and sickle arms attached at the neck. He takes up a good chunk of space, and his entire combat strategy is to just keep moving around the room, and when you're in range, swing at you with his sickles. You can walk along his back though, so no worries when he's moving along the ground. His tail will damage you if you come in contact with it, and he flails it around randomly, usually clipping you while your trying to maneuver to his opposite side when he's moving from floor to ceiling or back again. His movements are random, which causes the most hassle, but his big skull is easy to hit, so just make sure you utilize that back/forward dash Juste has.

The art of conversation and form changing was lost from Death in this incarnation, though personally, I find him to be at one of his coolest points in this game visually, especially once his first attack pattern drops and he summons his TRUE scythe (yah, that double ended monster you see up there). His first pattern has been drilled into your CV playing brain since game one : little floating scythes, float around, swing big one occasionally. Watch out though, when enough wood's been knocked off his weapon, Death will occasionally stop, hold out a hand, and summon beams of energy from the ground - just run in one direction or the other and they won't hit you. Notice that Death himself is kind of transparent? You've got to strike at his big scythe during this attack pattern (a novel idea for once) to do damage, once you've struck down that pathetic stick of wood, Death decides your worthy of his true weapon. I don't think I've ever been really whomped by Death as I was here in Aria (at least not until Death up and made himself a last boss in Lament that is), thankfully this is an RPG, so if you find yourself felled, merely reload your game, find a comfy spot somewhere in the castle, and level up. Even then, Death is a hardy fella (at least during this point of the game, obviously when your level 90 he's not much of a threat), he has three attacks instead of two, and due to the size of his weapon, they can be a little tricky to avoid. The basic attack of his is to throw his scythe out boomerang/cross style, and have it return to him, since Death does this low enough to the ground to hit you, this is the best attack to strike back during, merely duck (his scythe passes right over you) and hack away. Death's second attack is to dash attack with his scythe, what's interesting here is that, while you might think bodily touching Death would be a huge no-no, the best way to deal with this is to slide THROUGH him, you'll do damage, and take none, as well, you'll end up on at his backside for more attacks! His final attack is to throw his scythe in a full circle around the room, time your double jump well, because this is the attack that kills the most. Defeating Death nets you something I'm sure made a lot of players jump for joy: now YOU can materialize little scythe's in mid-air! Good soul to use in this fight: medusa heads.

Death is the true last boss in Lament of Innocence. When you fight him, he'll transport you to his demon realm or wherever, which is a circular platform, and he'll hover around the edge. Don't bother with special weapons, because they'll bounce right off. His first attack is to throw his scythe at you - once you get the timing down, this is easy to jump over. On rare occasions, he'll take a swipe at you with it, so just back away. His second attack is to summon a small army of flaming skull minions to attack you. These won't directly damage you, but when they come close, they'll turn red and explode. Either run away before this happens or attack them at a distance. In between these attacks, run close to Death and attack like a madman. Once his life meter is half gone, he'll resort to his most powerful attack: he'll summon two huge blasts from the sky, one right after another. The tricky part is jumping over the shockwave of the first attack while not getting hit by the second. It's tough to get the rhythm down, but with enough practice, you can do it (if you're Joachim, feel free to use a magic attack to remain invincible for a few seconds.) Otherwise, just keep attacking and healing, and you're bound for victory.