Tl;DR: Just Turn Off Your Freakin' Engines!

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(All testing done on PC. Your mileage may vary. Use at your own risk.)

Good News Everyone!

After extensive testing, one thing is clear:

Much like that girl you crushed on in highschool, Reapers Just Aren't That In To You.

That's because you will never gain aggro if the engines are off.

Lights won't cause aggro. Sonar won't cause aggro. Nothing will.

And if you already have aggro? You will lose aggro if you turn off the engines.

You'll only take one hit, or once in a long while you'll take two hits.

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So turn off your engines, wait for Sammy to bugger off, fix the one or two holes in your hull and carry on.

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And if the Reaper stays close, I promise Silent Running is your friend.

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It Can't Be That Simple

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I said extended testing, didn't I? Ok here's some more for you.

• Losing Aggro - Didn't we just cover this? Yeah, but there's more. Not to belabor the point, but Turn off your freakin' Engines! . I keep driving home this point for one simple reason: Running Does Not Work. That's not to say it can't work, but if you try to run from every Reaper you'll lose your Cyclops pretty quickly.
  

What does work? Well, Turning Off Your Engines. Also, Creature Decoys are effective.

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• Avoiding Aggro. Here are the simple rules that will let you travel safely through Reaper-infested waters:
  

"Hear a Reaper" - Ahead Slow. At slow speed you should see the Reaper on your radar before it aggroes.

"See a Reaper" - Rig for Silent Running. Silent Running is great for avoiding aggro at the cost of battery power. With silent running on you should only aggro if you're moving, and only if the Reaper is right on top of you( inner sonar ring ).

"Speak Aggro a Reaper" - Turn off Engines. Noticing a theme yet?

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• Never Use Flank Speed. It excites the Reaper and make it even happier to chase you. It'll also catch your ship on fire and sink it. Even the Fire Suppression System is a bad joke that locks down your entire ship for a long time on a long cooldown. Which made me sad, I really wanted to jet around at flank speed and just turn on the sprinklers once in awhile.
  

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Mods and Why They Are Useless Against Reapers

• Sonar. Useless because it costs a full 1% of energy per ping. You can repair a hit to your cyclops for a fraction of a battery. That said, the sonar is useful when trying to find Reapers for killing or testing purposes.
  
• Shield. Useless because it costs 4-5% just to activate. Just use the repair tool. That said, it's psychologically satisfying to shield a Reaper hit.
  
• Improved Decoy Tube. Useless because you could just go out and repair a point of damage instead of using resources on decoys. That said, they do help you be lazy and not bother slowing down for Leviathans.
  
• Fire Suppression System. Useless because running is a terrible strategy. Awesome because you can run around at flank speed and just turn on the sprinklers once in awhile.
  

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