The remake of Final Fantasy VII isn’t short on bosses to begin with, but there are three secret fights hidden away within its darkest corners. They come with equally decent rewards, too, as well as the occasional trophy for your collection.

Let’s talk about how to unlock and take on all three optional bosses in the remake.

Final Fantasy VII Remake Secret Bosses

The easiest of the three to reach, so to speak, is good old Bahamut. The notorious super-dragon can be found via a special battle simulator if you play your cards right, but it requires that you complete a seemingly-unrelated side quest first.

You can first meet Chadley in Chapter 3, in the Sector 7 Slums. He promises to reward you with rare Materia in exchange for filling out his Battle Intel Reports, which occasionally involves taking on a VR boss fight in exchange for a Summon Materia.

Chadley has 19 requests up front. When you finish them all, the twentieth is a VR mission to deal with Bahamut. Notably, you don’t need to be playing on Hard Mode to take him on.

The other two secret bosses are only available near the end of a successful run through Hard Mode, and will require a great deal of preparation before you have any chance of victory.

One is Malboro, the subject of a hidden trophy, who shows up as the final challenge in a boss gauntlet in the Shinra Battle Simulator. This fight, Three-Person Team vs. Monsters of Legend, pits you against a Bomb, a Tonberry, a Type-0 Behemoth, and a Bomb & Tonberry team-up before siccing a Malboro on you.

Like a lot of boss-gauntlet fights in FF7, the Malboro is arguably the least dangerous fight here. The Tonberries will inflict at least a couple of one-hit kills on you unless you’ve prepared appropriately, such as with Revival Earrings or using a rank 3 Warding Materia to become immune to death effects. You can also hedge your bet against the Bombs by linking Fire to your characters’ armor with Rank 2 Element Materia, in order to make them immune to fire damage.

Finally, the last big hidden boss in FF7 is, of course, the notorious Pride and Joy Prototype, a giant robot that’s the final challenge of a hidden mission in the Shinra Battle Simulator.

Play on Hard Mode, and be sure to clean out all of the fights in Don Corneo’s Colosseum and the rest of the Battle Simulator. This unlocks a 7-star fight, Three-Person Team vs. Top Secrets, which pits you against a five-round gauntlet of some of the toughest fights in the game.

The run up to fighting the Pride and Joy Prototype will first take you through battles with Shiva, the Fat Chocobo, Leviathan, and Bahamut, who will summon his buddy Ifrit when he hits 50% health.

This is also how you get the Gotterdammerung, the best accessory in the game, because there’s nothing like earning overpowered equipment by demonstrating that you no longer need it. If you’re interested in more details about how you pass this fight, check the Gotterdammerung guide elsewhere on our site. If you can get past this, you’ve genuinely mastered the FF7 remake.

Of course, there’s a lot to do before that point. You can check out Prima’s FF7 game hub for more articles and information about FF7, ranging from trophies to cosplay, such as:

• Here’s how to find the game’s handful of hidden trophies
• The locations of all Manuscripts
• How to increase your Luck stat

The secret bosses in the Final Fantasy 7 remake are easily the toughest fights in the game, but how do they stack up against some of the optional bosses from series history, like good old Emerald Weapon? Start an argument with us about it on Twitter, because that’s what Twitter is for, at @PrimaGames.