Variant Scythe weapon overview.
Variant Scythe is a weapon with extremely long range and wide area of attacks. Its Extended Bite Mode’s Round Fang makes it hit a wide horizontal area just above the ground. Its Vertical Fang and Cleaving Fang focus on a centralized area and deal multiple hits worth of damage to the region. It has some very good Burst Arts that augment its damage and provide good meter gain.
Variant Scythe only deals Slash typed damage. The player cannot regain Stamina during Extended Bite Mode so you need to be careful of your Stamina gauge when dealing damage.
Strengths:
- Very long range
- Fairly easy to use
- Good Burst Art selection
- Has 2 Burst Arts that restore HP
- Round Fang is good at tripping Aragami
- Extended Bite Mode generally offers a high OP gain rate
Weaknesses:
- Stamina Hungry
- Struggles to target specific parts
Variant Scythe is for players who like attacking a wide area from far. Extended Bite Mode allows you to deal damage over a wide area and even re-position yourself with Steps in-between Round Fang attacks. Your Stamina can disappear very quickly though so keep an eye on it. Variant Scythe is also good at building OP and recovering HP, plus its not very difficult to use. Therefore, its a fairly beginner friendly weapon that offers good list of benefits and can take you far.
VARIANT SCYTHE BASICS
Show/Hide Weapon Basics
Ground Light Attack Combo | ◼>◼>◼>◼
Basic combo. 4 close range slashing attacks. |
Ground Heavy Attack Combo |
▲>▲>▲>▲ Basic combo. 4 long range horizontal slashes. |
Air Light Attack Combo | AIR ◼>◼>◼
Basic air combo. 3 wide upwards slashing attacks. |
Air Heavy Attack | AIR ▲
Basic air attack. Drops down and does an extended heavy overhead attack with the Scythe, |
Light Step Attack | Step+◼
Basic step attack. An upwards skewering attack. |
Heavy Step Attack | Step+▲
Basic step attack. A wide range extended horizontal attack. |
ROUND FANG | R1+◼ then ◼
A very long range horizontal attack in Extended Mode. You may step during this attack and continue attacking from Extended Mode. |
VERTICAL FANG | R1+◼ then ▲
Drops the extended Scythe down right in front of you. Very long range. |
CLEAVING FANG | R1+◼ then ▲ then R1+◼
Follows up from Vertical Fang. Activates the Extended Scythe and rakes the entire area in front of you in a vicious attack. |
VARIANT SCYTHE BURST ARTS
Show/Hide Burst Art Special Ability Key
ICON |
SPECIAL ABILITY DESCRIPTION |
![]() |
Allows you to perform air action follow-ups after executing the Burst Art. |
![]() |
Allows you to repeat the Burst Art continuously by pressing the attack button repeatedly until you run out of Stamina. |
![]() |
Allows you to ignore some incoming attacks during a portion of the Burst Art. You still take full damage, but you don’t get staggered out of the attack. |
![]() |
Allows you to absorb a certain amount of HP on hit. |
![]() |
Increases the amount of OP the Burst Art gains on hit. |
![]() |
Increases damage to Aragami weakpoints. You know you’ve struck a weakpoint when the damage counter turns yellow. |
![]() |
Increases damage when Aragami are downed. |
![]() |
Damage isn’t reduced when attacking an Aragami’s hardest parts. In other words, you won’t deal grey damage when using these Burst Arts. |
![]() |
Increases damage when using an elemental weapon and an Aragami is weak to that element. |
GROUND BURST ARTS
Show/Hide Ground Burst Arts
NAME |
DESCRIPTION |
SPECIAL |
Mercy Spiral 贖罪の輪舞 |
Ground Light Attack Combo Finisher Art
◼>◼>◼>Burst Art Spins the Scythe in place until your ST is drained or you stop tapping the attack button. Unable to change direction during attack. Compatible Burst Art Effect: |
![]() ![]() |
Reaper’s Call 冥府への誘い |
Ground Light Attack Combo Art
Adds oracle energy to the basic ground light attack combo. Compatible Burst Art Effect: |
![]() |
ソウルイーター |
Ground Heavy Attack Combo Art
Powers up the basic ground heavy attack combo with a vampiric aura. Compatible Burst Art Effect: |
![]() |
Slaughter Fang ジェノサイドファング |
Round Fang Art
R1+◼ then ◼ Powers up the Round Fang attack. Functions in the same way as the original but with increased damage. Compatible Burst Art Effect: |
– |
インフェルノラッシュ |
Round Fang Art
R1+◼ then ◼ A vertical rendition of the Round Fang. More proficient at focusing on specific Aragami parts. Compatible Burst Art Effect: |
– |
ナイトメアリッパー |
Cleaving Fang Art
R1+◼ then ▲ then R1+◼ An overhauled version of the Cleaving Fang. Compatible Burst Art Effect: |
![]() |
ヘルオアヘヴン |
Cleaving Fang Art
R1+◼ then ▲ then R1+◼ A very powerful Cleaving Fang. Has a very small activation window making it hard to use. Compatible Burst Art Effect: |
![]() |
咬刃双爪牙 [*Added in v1.30] |
Vertical Fang & Cleaving Fang Art
R1+◼ then ▲ then R1+◼ Restores Stamina on both sets of attacks. Compatible Burst Art Effect: |
– |
JUMP BURST ARTS
Show/Hide Jump Burst Arts
NAME |
DESCRIPTION |
SPECIAL |
Fanatic’s Scythe ファナティックサイズ |
Air Light Attack Combo Finisher Art
AIR ◼>◼>◼>Burst Art 3 Addition mid air slashes after the original attacks. Keeps you airborne for a long time. Compatible Burst Art Effect: |
![]() |
トリニティスピン |
Air Heavy Attack Art
Spins in place delivering 3 long range vertical attacks. Compatible Burst Art Effect: |
![]() |
ディストピア |
Air Heavy Attack Art
Drops straight down to the ground in a vertical spiraling attack that mauls Aragami. Compatible Burst Art Effect: |
![]() |
STEP BURST ARTS
Show/Hide Step Burst Arts
NAME |
DESCRIPTION |
SPECIAL |
Grim Reaper グリムリーパー |
Step+◼ Art
A two hit rising attack. Compatible Burst Art Effect: |
![]() |
ヘルズゲート |
Step+◼ Art
Jumps in with a heavy overhead strike that hits the ground hard. Compatible Burst Art Effect: |
![]() |
ラッディクロー |
Step+▲ Art
Adds an HP drain feature to the basic heavy step attack. Compatible Burst Art Effect: |
![]() |
RECOMMENDED BURST ARTS
Recommended Burst Arts are indicated with a in the tables above. Burst Arts that are recommended are due to them having appealing qualities such as good damage output, ease of use, low risk and good reward or good special passive effects. With that being said, I highly encourage all players to try out all of the Burst Arts and use what they like and feels natural to them. I also encourage players to change their Burst Arts according to what you will be fighting on the next mission to optimize mission efficiency.
Noteworthy Ground Arts:
- Soul Eater (ソウルイーター)
- Inferno Rush (インフェルノラッシュ)
- Nightmare Reaper (ナイトメアリッパー)
- Heaven or Hell (ヘルオアヘヴン)
Inferno Rush (インフェルノラッシュ) is a vertical rendition of the Round Fang. It doesn’t do the best job of focusing attacks on a single point, but its ease of use, long range and constant stream of unrelenting damage make it worth using.
Heaven or Hell (ヘルオアヘヴン) is a very strong Art if you can master its execution timing. You need to be able to activate it at least 8 out of 10 times and be able to activate it intuitively without seeing the small flash for it to be viable in your arsenal. If you mess up the activation, you lose a chunk of Stamina and can be out of commission when you tried to deal damage. A good alternative is Nightmare Reaper (ナイトメアリッパー) which has no activation requirements and decent damage.
The Soul Eater (ソウルイーター) art has a wide range and regain’s HP per hit. You can use it to regain lost HP very easily if you swing it around in a large group of mobs. A good option to have since Scythe has some high damage air Arts and Step Arts. The worst parts of this art is its relatively low damage and that you give up a slot that you could be using for one of the Extend Bite arts.
Noteworthy Jump Arts:
- Trinity Spin (トリニティスピン)
- Dystopia (ディストピア)
Trinity Spin (トリニティスピン) is an especially safe air art due to its long range and ability to chain itself. It can keep you airborne for a long time making it proficient against most floating Aragami.
Dystopia (ディストピア) has far range and deals high damage. It deals even more damage on downed Aragami and its recovery time is short so it can be spammed for high DPS.
Noteworthy Step Arts:
- Hell’s Gate (ヘルズゲート)
- Bloody Claw (ラッディクロー)
Bloody Claw (ラッディクロー) allows you to regain HP. The ground art, Soul Eater is better at recovering HP in most cases, but you can still use this art if you are using something else on your ground Art.
Hell’s Gate (ヘルズゲート) is a long ranged attack with a huge hitbox. Out of all the scythe attacks, its one of the only ones that’s efficient at targeting a single point. That being said, its hitbox is a little awkward and it struggles to hit any lower body parts since it hits from the top.
VARIANT SCYTHE SAMPLE PLAY
BURST ART EFFECTS
The complete list of Burst Art Effects can be found here: