Author: Trafficblast

We’re quickly nearing the end of Final Fantasy 7 Remake, but there are more bosses to fight and secrets to find along the way as the story ramps up toward its conclusion. Our spoiler-free walkthrough can help you battle through everything Shinra has to throw at you as you approach the end of the game. Keep reading below to find strategies to beat every boss and find every secret.

Check out the rest of our Final Fantasy 7 Remake guides so you don’t miss a single secret or collectible. You can also read our FF7 Remake review.

Chapter 17 Walkthrough: Deliverance From Chaos

Make sure all four of your characters are outfitted with weapons and Materia before you leave Aerith’s room. Open the chest in the corner to grab the Reinforce Staff weapon for Aerith. As you follow Tifa and Aerith out of the room, be sure to check the cells on either side of the hallway for chests with an Enfeeblement Ring accessory and a phoenix down. There’s also a chest near the exit of this hallway with an ether.

As you move through Hojo’s lab, you’ll be blocked by debris and attacked by more of Hojo’s Unknown Entity specimens. Once the way is clear, cross to the east side of the exit hallway to find a break room with a vending machine and a bench.

Soon after, you’ll make your way through an area called “The Drum.” As you pick your way among the white pods, look for a path that leads north and then east. It hides a Poison Materia at its end.

Ahead, use the specimen pods heading north to reach a treasure chest with a phoenix down, before following the path south. You’ll find another break room here, so make use of the vending machine and bench before you continue.

You’ll rejoin Barret next and fight a slew of enemies–first Monodrives, then some Unknown Entities, and finally a M.O.T.H. Unit robot. This last one has a saw blade around its lower body that can tear you up if you get close, so when that’s spinning, hang back and use (ideally Thunder) spells to do some damage. Watch out for its powerful electrical discharge attacks, too. Double-back to the break room if you need to after this fight to heal up before pressing forward. Past the next door, open the chest to find the Twin Stinger weapon for Cloud. After you meet up with Tifa and Aerith ahead, check the room just past the test subject pods for a chest with 3,000 gil inside.

Switch groups and head up to the door to the Third Ward, where you’ll also find a break room. Use the switch to activate the test subject pods, then cross to find a chest with an ether inside before you switch back to the other group.

After fighting the Blast-Ray, look for a lever to extend a bridge to the central terminal. Head left across the bridge to pick up an orb of Time Materia. Open the door to the Third Ward and switch teams.

Inside the Third Ward, get ready to face some Unknown Entities. Be sure to interrupt their Thundaga spells to avoid major damage. In the room full of cages, go around the ones on the east wall to open a chest and get a mega-potion.

You’ll battle some Guard Dogs in the next room. When they’re dead, leave through the door and turn left to find a chest with 3,000 gil in it. Head the other way and you’ll find an enemy called a Zenene. Stay clear of it when it rolls up and charges at you, then close the distance to pummel it with a few of Tifa’s Unbridled Strength attacks. It won’t put up too much of a fight if you continually hit with ATB abilities, but dodge clear of its various attacks.

You’ll fight a pair of Zenenes in the next room. When they’re dead, use the switch on the west wall to open the door and reveal a chest in the cage just outside, which houses a Force Bracelet accessory. On the other side of the room, the ladder will lead to a chest that contains a mega-potion.

When you exit the Third Ward, go down the stairs and head south to another staircase to find a chest behind it, which contains an ether. Back above and in the other direction, you’ll run into three Sentry Launchers. Hit them with Thunder or drop one of Tifa’s Chi Trap ATB abilities on them to quickly stagger them. Continue to the end of the path to open the way the Second Ward.

Switch parties and head into the Second Ward. After you fight two Zenenes, you’ll pass through a hallway into Robotics Testing. Turn right to go east and duck behind the crates to find a chest with an Astral Cuff armor.

You’ll fight a M.O.T.H. Unit next, and in the room after that, a new enemy called a Sledgeworm. These guys pop up out of the holes in the ground to slug you with hammers, poisoning you and doing a bunch of damage. Your marching orders are to dodge clear of them when they pop out of the holes, then respond with Punisher melee attacks and Thunder spells to stagger them. When they pop out of the ground, be sure to get out of the way–among the attacks they like to drop on you is one that causes Stop, which freezes you in place to wait for more brutal moves.

When you get up to where Hojo was, turn around and head up north instead of pursuing him to the south. In the second room at the end of this path, spin around and check the southeastern corner for a chest with two remedies inside.

Heading back the other way, enter the room with the test subject pods and turn right from the stairs. Head to the back of the room, behind some crates, to find a chest with a Chain Bangle armor in it.

You’ll hit a battle with the Brain Pod miniboss next. This thing likes to spew poisonous sludge in an area around it with its Noxious Whirl attack, so stay clear and hit it with Thunder and Barret’s ranged attacks as much as you can. After it takes some damage, it’ll replicate itself to make a whole bunch more Brain Pods. Keep yourself as healthy as you can as you try to whittle them down using abilities like Cloud’s Triple Slash and Barret’s Maximum Fury. The pods aren’t too tough, so once you start staggering and clearing them out with melee attacks and ATB abilities, you shouldn’t have too hard a time coming out victorious. You’ll leave the Second Ward right afterward.

At the door to the Fourth Ward ahead, you’ll find a break room where you can heal and stock up on items. Fight off the Unknown Entities, then switch teams for a big battle. These will all be enemies you’ve dealt with before, including Sledgeworms and Unknown Entities. Tifa is particularly good at driving up the stagger meter on Sledgeworms with her basic attacks, especially with Unbridled Strength. Use Aerith to back her up with Thunder spells and you should make short work of the robots, as well as the Unknown Entities.

You’ll eventually find your way back to the Central Terminal to open the door to the Fourth Ward and switch parties again. Inside the Ward, enter the big pipe, turn left, and follow it to its end to find a chest with a mega-potion inside.

Boss Fight: Swordipede

The Swordipede looks a lot worse than it is. Melee attacks are pretty ineffectual against this giant robot, which is basically all sawblades; Cloud’s sword will bounce off the sides of the creature, and it has a saw in its head that’s likely to mess you up if you’re in front of it. Forego melee in favor of big elemental spells: Thunder, surprisingly, doesn’t seem especially effective against the Swordipede, but Firaga and Aeroga hit for huge damage.

The Swordipede has a few big attacks you need to watch out for that’ll send it spinning around like a big saw blade, dropping electric bombs out of the air, and flying around trying to electrocute you. None are particularly dangerous as long as you move to avoid them. Concentrate on ranged attacks and landing big spells when the boss is floating around and you should hit it very hard, very quickly, without much danger.

Halfway through the fight, the Swordipede will blast through the wall and attack your other party. Take advantage of the prompt to hold Square and access the menu during the cutscene, which will allow you to swap high-powered Fire and Wind materia from one team to another, should you need to do so. Once you’re outfitted, repeat the process against the Swordipede at the Central Terminal. Move to catch it as it floats around the middle so you can hit it with spells–if you’re not careful, they’ll hit the pillar in the center of the room and get interrupted. A few big magical blows should put this one down for good.

When you’re done, follow the gooey trail. You’ll hit a bench and vending machine when you reach the roof.

Boss Fight: Jenova Dreamweaver

Fighting Jenova Dreamweaver is all about managing the battlefield and watching your positioning. The creature has two big tentacles sticking out of its sides, and your primary goal is to keep hacking those off to limit its attack capabilities and push up its stagger gauge. Avoid going behind Jenova, however–there’s a third big tentacle back there that’ll send you flying if you tempt it, and you can’t cut that one off.

Get in close with your melee team and start wailing away on Jenova, while keeping an eye on what it’s up to–if you see it readying its “Cast Aside” attack or start to see purple smoke swirling around it, dodge away and wait for the attacks to pass. Punisher counter-attacks are good for use against the tentacles, as is Tifa’s Omnistrike, which can nearly cut one off in one shot. When the tentacles are gone, go to town on the boss. Meanwhile, Jenova’s generally somewhat resistant to magic, so Aerith is best used as a support teammate here, although big spells will still hurt the boss as well.

Jenova has a lot of punishing attacks it’ll throw at you. Watch out for Vengeance, a laser beam that hurts quite a bit, after you kill its tentacles–get behind a column to avoid it, or guard through it, because it’ll knock you down otherwise. It’ll regrow the tentacles periodically, so keep cutting them off to pressure it and get more damage in.

In its second phase, Jenova will introduce more attacks to threaten you. Watch out for the swirling smoky pit that will move around the battlefield; if it catches one of your characters, it’ll hit them with Stop, freezing them in place for a time. You also want to avoid the Mourning Wail attack, which will catch any characters too close to Jenova in a whirlwind they can’t escape. Jenova will also add some ranged attacks and spells like Bio and Aero to its repertoire, so make sure to spend some time on healing and additional protection like Barrier and Manawall.

When you cut off the tentacles, Jenova will be pressured and briefly vulnerable, but it’ll also use an attack called Rejection to hurt you if you get in close. Use ranged attacks and abilities like Tifa’s Chi Trap to do damage to the boss while keeping yourself safe.

The third stage sees Jenova at its most aggressive, with tentacles growing up out of the ground. You’ll want to eliminate these, even though they keep regrowing, because they’ll limit your movements; the good news is, Tifa and Cloud can cut them down quickly with moves like Triple Strike and Omnistrike, and Aerith’s spells are effective as well. Kill the tentacles as quickly as you can, though–Jenova will ready attacks like Dream of Vengeance, which turns every tentacle into a Vengeance laser gun, and Dreams of Quietude, which fires orbs that can put Stop on your characters, making it much harder to avoid those attacks. In the meantime, watch out for Jenova casting a Reflect spell on itself that will bounce your spells back at you; focus on the tentacles around the room instead.

Destroying all the tentacles quickly will further pressure Jenova and leave it open to attack. At this point, you should be close to staggering it, so lay into it with stagger attacks like Focus Thrust and Focus Strike to push Jenova over the edge and get in some serious damage.

When Jenova’s down to about a quarter health, you’ll hit its fourth and final phase. Jenova will now teleport around the battlefield, summoning up tentacles and attacking you with third-level elemental spells like Firaga and Aeroga. Keep up the same strategy as before–send Tifa or Cloud around to hack down all the tentacles around the room to cut back Jenova’s ability to fight. You’ll see the floor turn purple around the tentacles as you destroy them, indicating that acid will drop on you from the ceiling, so keep moving to get clear. When the outlier tentacles are all gone, close in and cut off its Left and Right Tentacles to pressure Jenova.

Watch out for the boss’s various big attacks: Quietude will send those pools of purple smoke that will Stop your team, while Vengeance will cut through you with powerful lasers, and Mourning Wail will trap you in a whirlwind. Jenova will sometimes alternate barriers, so check the icon next to its name to determine if you should hit it with physical attacks or magic. Just keep your team healed and maintain as much damage as you can to finish off the boss.

Boss Fight: Rufus Shinra

After some more story scenes, the son of Shinra’s president, Rufus Shinra, will appear to challenge Cloud to a one-on-one fight. This is a duel similar to the ones you fought against Roche and Rude, requiring a lot of blocking and a lot of well-timed attacks to get through Rufus’s defenses. The big outlier here is Rufus’s dog, Darkstar, which you’ll want to deal with first so you can take down the boss unimpeded. Darkstar heals Rufus whenever you do much damage to him, so until the dog is put down, you won’t make much progress.

Rufus and Darkstar have a bunch of tandem attacks, where the dog knocks you down or holds you up, and Rufus closes in for a shotgun blast and a lot of damage. Generally, try to stay back from the two of them, forcing the dog to extend its leash to come after you, so Rufus can’t close the gap easily to back it up. If you stay too close for too long, you run the risk of the team comboing you extensively for a lot of damage. Watch out for Darkstar casting Lightning on Rufus; when it does, Rufus will shoot a lightning blast called Thunderclap at you. You can dodge it, but you’ll need to pay close attention, because it hurts bad to get hit.

You can pressure Darkstar with Punisher attacks, but the best way to push up its stagger meter is to damage Rufus. Your best bet is to use Triple Strike when Rufus is reloading or between attacks. Hitting both the dog and the master will break Darkstar’s leash, giving you a chance to lay into the dog with melee attacks while Rufus is staggered. Don’t overcommit, however–Rufus will eventually start trying to shoot you, so get clear before he recovers.

Once you’ve hurt Darkstar enough, Rufus will add some coins to his repertoire of attacks, which will give him new ways to hit you. Watch out for the Bright Lights attack, which fires lasers your way, but which is very dodgeable. You’ll also want to be sure not to get caught in the hail of bullets from Guns Akimbo, as it’ll leave you vulnerable to a follow-up strike from Darkstar.

Repeat the strategy of baiting and damaging Darkstar until you can finish the dog off, leaving Rufus on his own. At this point, he’ll start using his guns to help him zip around the battlefield. He’s pretty much invulnerable in most situations and will counter just about all of your attacks. You need to hit him at a particular moment: when he reloads. All other strikes will leave you vulnerable to his counters.

The trick here is to avoid all the big attacks, while guarding through the smaller ones. Bright Lights shooter a laser at you that you can dodge; Think Fast turns a handful of coins into bombs, so dodge backwards to avoid them; and Up In Smoke will stall you up if it catches you in its smoke cloud. You can avoid the fire of Guns Akimbo if you run sideways, but it’s a riskier endeavor than just guarding. You want your guard up most of the time to stop Rufus’s quicker, smaller gunshots, while staying ready to dodge the big ones.

Try to stay close to Rufus so that when he steps back to reload, you can close the gap quickly to attack him. Hit him no more than three times; when you see a sphere of distortion surround him, that means he’s ready to counter your next blow. Three strikes lets you hurt him without getting attacked back. But the better move is to save up your ATB and use Focused Thrust on Rufus when he’s reloading. That’ll put him down on one knee and give him a bunch of damage, slowing his next move and giving you a second to breathe or hit him again.

Keep repeating the pattern of avoiding his big attacks and catching him with Focused Thrust until you get your Limit Break. Use it on Rufus while he’s reloading and you’ll stagger him instantly. You’ll need to be patient, but keep up the damage while protecting yourself and your sword should win this gunfight.

Boss Fight: The Arsenal

The fight against the Arsenal isn’t about dealing damage right away–it’s about accomplishing a few steps to open the Arsenal up to attack. The good news is, there’s plenty of cover in the first part of the fight, allowing you avoid damage while you wait for your moment to attack. Stay back in cover when the Arsenal does its Saturation Fire, Homing Laser, and Voltaic Discharge attacks. When the boss readies its “Primary Fire” attack, step out and shoot its cannon, the weak point.

As soon as you blast the cannon, Red XIII will use the opportunity to stagger one of the drones projecting the barrier on the Arsenal. Hit it with your strongest attacks to destroy it, then repeat the process to take down the other two. Breaking down the barrier allows you to hit the Arsenal directly to do damage and push up its stagger bar.

Keep moving and blasting away at the Arsenal, while hiding behind debris and cover to avoid most of its attacks. When it activates its Physical Defense Protocol, start hitting the boss with Lightning attacks, particularly when it starts to fire up its Pulse Cannon. A big bolt of lightning will knock it out for a second, allowing you to continue attacking. That should prompt the boss to switch into a Lightning Defense Protocol, allowing you to continue with physical attacks. Watch for its wheels to stop being protected by a barrier, then attack those and try to cripple them to further stagger the boss.

In the next phase of the fight, the Arsenal will get more aggressive, blasting through the cover debris in the room and using its Firewall attack to trap you between two walls of flame. Keep an eye out for the Primary Fire attack, which you can interrupt by attacking the Arsenal’s main cannon, just like before.

Once you damage the Arsenal enough, it’ll create Firewalls to trap your team and charge up an attack called Cry Havoc. Turn around and duck behind the piece of debris behind you to avoid the attack, then lay into the boss with as much damage as you can manage. When it starts to charge up Cry Havoc again, you’ll only have a few minutes to destroy the boss once and for all. Use Lightning spells to do serious damage and finish off the boss before it finishes you.

All five episodes of Cursed Films can be streamed on Shudder with a subscription (or free 7-day trial).

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Shudder’s new unscripted look at harrowing horror film productions, which were labeled as “cursed” by the media because of their genre (while PR wizards sometimes simultaneously exploited said rumors) is an engrossing dive into the some of the most famous on and off set tragedies to ever happen in cinema. Over five 30-minute episodes, the iconically ghoulish legacies of The Crow, Poltergeist, The Exorcist, The Omen, and Twilight Zone: The Movie are laid bare in stunning and intriguing fashion.

Now, even at a short episodic run time, not every film being showcased here contains enough conversation fodder to fill up a full chapter. This is where Cursed Films falls a little short. The series works best when we’re hearing from those who worked on the film or from those who study horror films today (Linda Blair, Richard Donner, Fangoria’s Phil Nobile Jr., film critic April Wolfe, etc) and focuses on the outlandishly taboo takes the press, both mainstream and tabloid, presented in order to assuage the public’s anxiety over coincidence and happenstance tied to these maligned movie sets.

Cursed Films even works well when that type of psychological coddling is probed more and experts are introduced who can explain why people think projects and objects can carry and nurture dark energy. The docuseries stumbles slightly though when it brings in black magicians and their ilk to explain how a “real” curse would work. Or to give their opinions on how Satan might have, in fact, been protecting these films. It’s here the the show, surprisingly, feels like it doesn’t have that much to say overall and is reaching out into the fringe aspects of YouTube for some clunky clock-watching.

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That said, the two episodes where the most metaphysical theorizing occurs, the installments about The Omen and Poltergeist, also happen to create an interesting back-to-back story. 1976’s The Omen, which featured a sinister story centered on the Antichrist, had a production that was surrounded on all sides, pre and post, by suspicious phenomenon and disturbing violence (including a freakin’ decapitation). With this episode, Cursed Films takes the most liberties with regards to the film possibly being an actual jinxed endeavor.

Then however, Poltergeist, which some fans enjoying thinking is a “cursed” franchise since two of its stars (including the famous poster girl, Heather O’Rourke) died off-screen over the course of three movies, represents a prime example of social psychosis working over time to try and make sense of the senseless. In fact, one of the best moments from Cursed Films comes from Poltergeist’s Special Make-Up Effects Artist, Craig Reardon, taking the cursed rumors (which often stemmed from the film’s use of real skeletons), and those who entertain them, to task because they’re an insult the two young actresses who died. The Omen chapter feels a touch loosey-goosey with reality while the Poltergeist episode is a harsh dressing down – almost a scolding to those who too easily endorse macabre myths.

Then there are the actual awful on-set deaths that occurred, infamously, during The Crow and Twilight Zone. These episodes are the true standouts of the series because of sheer shock-and-awe and devastating sadness. Brandon Lee’s death on the set of The Crow not only represented the apex of an already ill-fated film shoot but it got swept up in the whirlwind of conspiracies that surrounded his famous father’s demise two decades earlier.

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On the flip side, Twilight Zone’s terrible and calamitous helicopter accident that claimed three lives, two of which were young children (and – warning – the actual footage is shown), is an infuriating instance of a stunt gone wrong that just might not have an easy culprit to blame. Though, between Twilight Zone and The Exorcist, Cursed Films does examine the type of chaos a reckless “auteur” (like John Landis and/or William Friedkin) can invite to their set when caution is constantly thrown to the wind. To contrast the exploits of Landis’ notorious set, Troma Films’ Lloyd Kaufman is given a small spotlight as the example of someone who places everyone else’s safety and well-being far above the movies he’s making.

Cursed Films hits you from a lot of angles. You definitely get a panoramic, and cross-time, view of these films, though some expert opinions resonate better than others. Once you hear from a few of the people who were there though, and who were part of some of the tragedies, and watch them have to relive some of that agony, it makes the occultist “talking heads” seem more silly and reductive.

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Materia is one of the most important elements of Final Fantasy 7 Remake. These magical orbs of condensed mako are vital for making your characters stronger. Each one allows you to perform new attacks, improve your defences, or even summon mythical creatures to aid you in battle. All materia is useful, but some are more useful than others, and there’s plenty of good materia that’s not so easy to acquire. So let us be your guide to seven of the best materia you could easily miss in Final Fantasy 7 Remake.

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Elemental

Elemental is one of the most useful support materia in the entire game. Linking it to a magic materia will cause your attacks to deal damage of that type, as well as protect you from that element. For example, if you’re battling enemies weak to fire, then slotting Elemental with Fire materia will make each of your regular attacks deal extra fire damage, and you’ll take less fire damage yourself. Leveling up the materia buffs the amount of damage you deal, and even prevents or absorbs that element when it’s used against you. If you need to know what an enemy is weak to, be sure to use Assess materia to scan them and discover what you should slot with Elemental.

There are two Elemental materia orbs in the entire game, and you’ll definitely want both. The first can be found in Chapter 6 when the party is turning off the Sun Lamps above the slums. If you’re not sure how to get there, be sure to check out our Final Fantasy 7 Remake walkthrough. In Section H of the Plate Interior you’ll find a ladder near some containers. Climb down it to reach an area with two Queen Grashstrikes. Defeat them and then use the control panel to lower a walkway which allows you to cross the gap to the next area. This is where you’ll find your first piece of Elemental materia, indicated by a purple Discovery marker.

The second piece of Elemental can be found at the end of Chapter 14, just before you go over the wall and ascend to the Shinra HQ. It’s attached to a letter from the Guardian Angel, found in the Urban Advancement District of Wall Market, but you need to have completed every single side quest in the game for the letter to appear.

Magnify

Magnify turns a linked magic materia into an area-of-effect spell, and may be better known to Final Fantasy 7 veterans as All materia. Linking it to cure, for example, allows a single cast of the spell to affect all party members in range, allowing for a mass heal. Magnify inflicts a penalty on the effectiveness of the linked materia, but leveling it up reduces the restriction. If you’re struggling with a boss and need regular mass cures, then linking Magnify with Healing materia on a character that also has ATB Boost materia can ensure heals come much faster.

There is just one piece of Magnify materia in the whole game, and it can be found in the Collapsed Expressway. It’s located in the area of the third mechanical arms puzzle, just in the rim of a large pipe. It’s actually easy to spot, but unless you take the time to rearrange the crates to allow Aerith to cross to it, it’s easy to speed on past it. Yes, the arms are a rubbish puzzle, but it’s worth doing a little extra work to get this materia.

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EXP Up

Levelling up is the foundation of making your characters stronger, and you need to earn experience points to do it. As such, you’ll definitely want to get hold of EXP Up, a materia orb that increases a character’s earned experience by 100%. That’s double XP!

This materia can be earned as a reward for completing the Three-Person Team vs Team Ragbar fight in the Shinra HQ Combat Simulator. This can be accessed during Chapter 16, or if you miss it, you can use the Simulator in Chapter 17 after you get the Chapter Select option.

Pedometer / AP Up

At the start of Chapter 14 you will basically trip over a piece of purple materia by the steps as you leave Aerith’s house. This is Pedometer materia, which at first glance seems entirely useless. However, you should slot it to a character immediately, as after you have taken 5,000 steps it will transform into the incredibly useful AP Up materia.

Linking AP Up to any other materia will double the rate at which it gains Ability Points, which are used to level materia up. This is incredibly useful for fast tracking Chadley’s 18th Battle Intel Report, which requires you to max out every piece of magic materia in the game. We also recommend using it to boost your Auto-Cure materia, as when levelled up this will allow ten healing spells to be automatically cast per battle, something that’s super useful in long boss fights.

Warding

Status effects can be a big problem in battles; getting poisoned, slowed, or silenced can entirely ruin your strategy. Warding materia helps reduce or even nullify these debuffs. Just slot it with poison, time, binding, or subversion materia for extra protection from that magic.

There are two orbs of Warding to be found in Midgar. The first is in the Aquaduct area of the Sector 7 sewers, which you explore during Chapter 10. Just before you exit the stone tunnels of Aqueduct 1 to get to the Inter-Aqueduct Passage, if you head south you’ll find an area with some metal bars and assorted junk. On top of a crate you’ll see an orb of blue Warding materia.

The second piece can be found in Chapter 13, while exploring the Underground Test Site. After reuniting with Tifa you’ll soon find a room full of cages. Head up some stairs and use Barret’s gun to blow the door off the cage on your right. Inside you’ll find a Warding materia orb.

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Chocobo & Moogle

Chocobo & Moogle is a summon materia, which calls in powerful creatures to help you turn the tide of boss battles. In this case, that creature is literally a Chocobo with a Moogle on its back. If you’re a veteran of the original game, you’ll know this better as Chocomog.

You almost certainly won’t miss seeing this materia, as Tifa literally points it out to you in Chapter 6. Getting to it, however, is trickier, as it is stuck behind a fan vent in the mid-level of the Underplate. Remember this location, as you’ll need to come back when you’ve reactivated the power by turning off the Sun Lamps.

With the power on, you can activate a platform to travel west towards a ladder, which will take you up to a room containing a rest bench and vending machine. A panel here will activate a one-minute timer. In just 60 seconds you’ll need to go into the next room, kill the Grashstrike enemies, and then activate the next terminal. This unlocks a door to the maintenance tunnel, where you can pick up the red summoning Materia.

Bahamut

The strongest summon in the game is Bahamut; a huge dragon that casts the powerful Megaflare ability to decimate your enemies. As you’d imagine for something so powerful, you’ll need to put in a lot of work to get it. Unlocking Bahamut requires you to complete 19 of Chadley’s Battle Intel Reports, which unlocks the final, 20th challenge: a fight against the dragon itself. Defeat Bahamut, and the summon materia is yours.

Bahamut is a tough fight, so you’ll want to make sure you use your strongest characters. If your characters are too weak, the Megaflare attack will KO your entire team. You can get around this by equipping Revival Earrings, which will automatically resurrect your characters. They break after one use, so you’ll need to defeat him before he casts Megaflare a second time. Bahamut prepares a countdown before it casts Megaflare, which gives you time to use every ability and Limit Break you have. Stagger it, and you’ll stop it from casting its most devastating attack.

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Matt Purslow is IGN’s UK News and Entertainment Writer. You can follow him on Twitter. 

Call of Duty Mobile has continued to evolve and morph since it launched last year, and in its latest community update, the development team addressed free-for-all mode’s removal and took aim at cheaters who could ruin the experience for everyone else. The team’s policy is clear: If you cheat, you will be banned.

Writing in the game’s official Reddit community page, the development team said it has received several reports of cheating over the past few weeks and they have resulted in “enforcement.”

“We don’t want cheaters in our game, and we don’t want them ruining your experience, manipulating our systems, and destroying the balance of the game,” the team said. “If we see cheating we will enforce on it with our [Call of Duty Mobile] Security & Enforcement Policy in mind.”

This policy includes a tiered offense system, ranging from minor offenses that don’t cause harm to the game’s community or an individual player all the way to extreme offenses. These include both committing acts on one’s own or organizing others to do so.

For those caught using third-party software to mod or hack their game, the first offense will cause a temporary suspension. An additional offense will result in permanent suspension and removal from the leaderboards.

Call of Duty Mobile’s development team touched on several other topics in the Reddit post, including upcoming events and bug fixes. One of the biggest recent changes was free-for-all mode’s removal from the permanent playlist. It’s currently in the game again for a limited time, and it could potentially return as a permanent mode again if it has enough players. A multiplayer snipers-only event is currently running through April 22, as well, and Gun Game Team Fight will arrive the following day.

If you’re looking to read the greatest stories featuring Spider-Man nemesis Venom that are available on ComiXology Unlimited, then you’re in the right place. The digital comics subscription service offers over 25,000 comics for a monthly fee (and as of this writing, you get the first 60 days free when you sign up for ComiXology Unlimited), so we’ve combed through the offerings to find the very best Venom comics and graphic novels for you to sink your eyeballs into.

Venom is a tricky character to get right, which is why there are not as many top tier Venom stories as there are for characters like Batman. (Speaking of Batman, here are the best comics on ComiXology Unlimited featuring the Dark Knight.) But when a creative team truly cracks what makes the duality of the man/symbiote relationship so fascinating, and pits them against villains that provide both a physical and philosophical challenge, all while maintaining the character’s anti-hero vibe, the result is always something unforgettable… and a little disturbing, in just the right way.

These are those stories.

Spider-Man: Birth of Venom

By various artists and writers

This is the one to read for the classic origin story of the symbiote, Spider-Man in his black costume, and the first appearance of Venom proper. The story began in the Secret Wars crossover event, where Spider-Man found a strange new black costume, and spread across several different Spidey titles, eventually leading to the creation of what would become a toothy, slobbering Marvel Comics icon. The various plot threads are all collected here to tell one singular story. Take yourself back to a time when nobody knew what the black costume would become and enjoy watching the characters explore its mysteries and dangers for the first time.

Ultimate Spider-Man Vol. 6: Venom

By Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Bagley

Venom has been around so long that we’ve seen many takes on his origin. The one in Ultimate Spider-Man is especially interesting because it throws out the whole alien host aspect in favor of creating a more personal tale between Peter Parker and Eddie Brock. In this modern reboot known as the Ultimate Marvel Universe, the symbiote was a cure for cancer created by Peter and Eddie’s fathers. As they discover the shared work of their parents, the story shows the two young men form a bond, only for the experimental symbiote to create a rift between them when it becomes a waking nightmare. It’s an emotionally rich tale that mines the symbiote for all the horror and drama it’s worth.

Marvel Knights Spider-Man Vol. 2: Venomous

By Mark Millar, Frank Cho and Terry Dodson

While this is the middle chapter in a three-part Marvel Knights Spider-Man arc, it’s something any dedicated Venom reader will want to pick up. (Although, Mark Millar’s full Marvel Knights Spider-Man story is available on ComiXology Unlimited if you want to read it.) This story is notable for doing something a little different with the symbiote, including starting the trend of the symbiote switching hosts to someone other than Eddie Brock, so if you feel like you already know the Venom basics and want to be kept on your toes, this one’s for you.

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Venom By Rick Remender

By Rick Remender and various artists

Speaking of swapping hosts, Rick Remender’s saga starring Flash Thompson in the symbiote is hands down the best Venom story ever told. ComiXology Unlimited offers the complete run spread across two volumes for your reading pleasure, and they’re some of the hardest hitting comics around. The US government is in control of the symbiote and they offer disabled veteran (and old pal of Peter Parker) Flash Thompson the chance to get back in action by bonding with it to become Agent Venom. It may sound like a cheesy ‘90s gimmick, and in a way it kind of is, but watching Flash battle his personal demons while dealing with an actual space-demon that encourages his worst behavior makes for one hell of a comic book.

Venom by Donny Cates Vol. 1 and 2

By Donny Cates and Ryan Stegman

While Remender’s Venom is more grounded with its espionage angle, Donny Cates goes in the opposite direction. His Venom run embraces the cosmic aspect of the character to weave a new mythology for the symbiote that is grand in scale… and actually pretty confusing if you think about it too much. But the story moves from one bonkers beat to another so fast that it’s best to enjoy it like you would a wild roller coaster ride.

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To get even more out of your ComiXology Unlimited account, check out these longer comics perfect for binging:

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Joshua is Senior Features Editor at IGN. If Pokemon, Green Lantern, or Game of Thrones are frequently used words in your vocabulary, you’ll want to follow him on Twitter @JoshuaYehl and IGN.

A little over a month ago, when folks were in the first stages of self-isolating, Guardians of the Galaxy writer/director James Gunn took to Twitter to share 10 of his favorite lesser-known films, some cult gems, for people to watch while in quarantine – from The Wanderers to Bong Joon-ho’s Mother to Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans.

Now Gunn is back with even more movie recommendations. This time though, the genre is “Action” and the list is…substantially longer.

Titled “A+ Action Movies to Watch in Quarantine,” Gunn lists off 54 cage-rattlers, from ’80s classics like Die Hard and Robocop to Tom Cruise’s Edge of Tomorrow and Mission Impossible: Fallout to South Korea’s Oldboy and Lady Vengeance.

Here’s the first part of Gunn’s Twitter thread, followed by the full list below…

A+ Action Movies to Watch in Quarantine (a thread):
Kung Fu Hustle (2004)
The Matrix (1999)
The Bourne Ultimatum (2007)
Die Hard (1988)
Edge of Tomorrow (2014)
JSA: Joint Security Area (2000)
Elite Squad: The Enemy Within (2010)
Lady Vengeance (2005)
(cont’d)

— James Gunn (@JamesGunn) April 17, 2020

• Kung Fu Hustle (2004)
• The Matrix (1999)
• The Bourne Ultimatum (2007)
• Die Hard (1988)
• Edge of Tomorrow (2014)
• JSA: Joint Security Area (2000)
• Elite Squad: The Enemy Within (2010)
• Lady Vengeance (2005)
• Mission: Impossible – Fallout (2018)
• Bullitt (1968)
• North by Northwest (1959)
• The Yellow Sea (2010)
• The Raid: Redemption (2012)
• Hero (2002)
• Night Watch (2004)
• Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)
• Taken (2008)
• The Heroic Trio (1993)
• The French Connection (1971)
• Robocop (1987)
• The Killer (1989)
• The Legend of Drunken Master (1994)
• The Legend (Fong Sai Yuk) (1993)
• Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)
• Kill Bill: Volume 1 (2003)
• The Villainess (2017)
• Revenge (2018)
• Crank (2006)
• Kingsman: The Secret Service (2015)
• Escape from New York (1981)
• Battle Royale (2000)
• Full Contact (1992)
• Oldboy (2005)
• Thunderball (1965)
• La Femme Nikita (1990)
• Leon: The Professional (1994)
• Magnum Force (1973)
• Speed (1994)
• Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
• ’71 (2014)
• Payback (theatrical cut) (1999)
• Equilibrium (2002)
• John Wick (2014)
• Mesrine: Killer Instinct (2008)
• Mesrine: Public Enemy #1 (2008)
• Where Eagles Dare (1968)
• Ms. 45 (1981)
• Green Snake (1993)
• Captain Phillips (2013)
• Seven Samurai (1954)
• Rolling Thunder (1977)
• The Wild Bunch (1969)
• V for Vendetta (2006)
• Brotherhood of the Wolf (2001)

Have you seen all of these films? Of the ones you have seen, which do you recommend? Let us know below!

In other action flick-related news, San Diego Comic-Con 2020 has officially been canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic. This is the first time in the con’s 50-year history that SDCC has been canceled. The event is slated to return to the San Diego Convention Center from July 22-25, 2021.

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Matt Fowler is a writer for IGN and a member of the Television Critics Association. Follow him on Twitter at @TheMattFowler and Facebook at Facebook.com/MattBFowler.