The time has come to tackle the most difficult challenge in all Final Fantasy VII Remake — taking down the secret Pride and Joy Prototype boss and acquiring the game's ultimate accessory — Götterdämmerung. Are you prepared?
Our guide explains how we managed to overcome this feat.
How to Unlock the Pride and Joy Prototype VR Combat Simulator Challenge in Chapter 17
There are several prerequisites you need to meet before you can unlock the ultimate battle in Shina HQ's VR Combat Simulator:
- Finish every Corneo Colosseum challenge in Chapter 9 and Chapter 14.
- Finish every challenmge in the Shinra HQ VR Combat Simulator in Chapter 16.
- Unlock Hard Mode by completing the game, then head back into Chapter 17 on that difficulty. Progress as far as Chadley, who will tell you about new VR Combat Simulator challenges. Beat all of them.
It's easy here to miss certain challenges, such as Aerith's individual Corneo Colosseum challenge — which needs to be done before she leaves the party to get dolled up by Madam M. In these cases, replay them using Chapter Select.
Once you have met these prerequisites, Chadley will offer you a new challenge — Three Person Team Vs. Top Secrets.
Get ready, because this is a constant barrage of boss fights, including Shiva, Fat Chocobo, Leviathan, and Bahamut. And when all of those are down, you'll face the secret boss — the Pride and Joy Prototype.
Planning
Good preparation is going to be very important here, and you may have to make adjustments between attempts.
Likewise, we recommend that you collect as many Manuscripts as possible before considering this encounter, so that you can maximize Core activation on your weapons.
Our Group
- Cloud: Your main fighter, who will inflict great damage during stagger phases.
- Tifa: The martial artist who will constantly deal damage and generate stagger. The weapon abilities True Strike and Focused Strike from Purple Pain and Sonic Strikers respectively, are essential.
- Barret: The group's tank and healer. He must have the maximum possible MP and all the defensive and support Materia he can carry. Be sure to have Maximum Fury, the weapon ability gained from Big Bertha.
- You can use Aerith as a dedicated healer, but we found Barret's additional tankiness and survivabiliy too good to refuse.
Essential Materia
- HP Up and MP Up raised to maximum level. You'll need two per character if you want to reach 9,999 HP and 999 MP. It may not strictly be necessary on all your characters, but Barret certainly is a priority.
- The Elemental Materia linked with the relevant weaknesses on weapons should you wish to inflict greater damage (such as Fire for the Shiva battle) — or the affinity on armor should you prefer the elemental resistance (i.e. Ice for the Shiva battle).
- Any Materia you have that speeds up and charges the ATB gauge (such as ATB Boost) must be assigned to Barret and Tifa.
- Equip Healing Materia and Revive Materia on everyone, and have Magnify linked to Barret's Healing Materia for group heals. These are crucial as you won't have access to items throughout the gauntlet.
- Give Barret a maxed-out Steadfast Block Materia.
- Assign Shiva to a party to help deal with the unexpected Ifrit which drops during the fight against Bahamut.
- If you have space, a Level 3 Ice Materia will prove handy.
- Finally, equip Lightning Materia to target Pride and Joy's weakness.
All-Star Battle: Summon Edition
The summons you'll face in this gauntlet are much stronger than their VR Combat Simulator versions. Mistakes will be punished, especially as their attacks have new effects applied on hit, making matters even more difficult.
Aggro management in these battles is highly important. Remember that enemies primarily focus on the character you control, which is why your ranged character must also be a good tank — while a boss is busy with Barret, both Cloud and Tifa will keep inflincting damage and increasing the stagger gauge.
If you have equipped the Elemental Materia on your armor linked with Ice, Shiva shouldn't be too much of a concern as her damage will be reduced significantly. She will spam Sleep though, so you may want to equip a Headband.
The Fat Chocobo is non-elemental, however, and Leviathan is a threat due to a lack of Water element mitigation. Don't let your HP drop too much here!
Finally, Bahamut is manageable once you know how to cancel the countdown for his ultimate attack, Mega Flare. Once he appears, remember to focus Ifrit down until he disappears.
The Final Boss
And now, on to the one you were looking for to complete the Ultimate Weapon trophy.
First up, don't forget to Assess the boss to register its entry in the Enemy Intel log.
Interestingly enough, Pride and Joy Prototype might just be easier than the other fights in this gauntlet.
The real problem with this Shinra machine is that it has too many weak points, and targeting them may be pain. We recommend you focus on one leg at a time, as having it collapse to the ground means you can considerably increase its stagger gauge.
The best strategy is to attack from behind. You'll take damage from an expulsion of flames, but nothing that isn't manageable. Its attacks are close range, meaning they can be dodged simply by running away.
Watch out for a move called Catch, however. Similar to other incapacitating moves seen in the game, the Prototype will grab one of your characters. When this happens, focus all your efforts on the hand — if too long passes, it will use Brutal Tackle and instakill that character,
Finally, the one ranged move it has is called Beam Cannon. Prepare to evade/block appropriately, and heal if necessary.
As with all bosses, remember to manage your HP. Heal up often, and should any party member, have your healer cast Raise from a distance.
For the rest — attack, attack, attack. Get that stagger gauge up, and use Tifa's % boosting techniques to increase damage when it happens. Spam your Lightning spells too, taking advantage of its elemental weakness.
A final tip if you're battling the Prototype on Hard Mode — using Cloud's Ascension Limit Break Ascension when the stagger damage % has been raised to more than 200% thanks to Tifa will do phenomenal damage!
Good luck!
The Ultimate Accessory: Götterdämmerung
Your reward is a creation of true beauty. The Götterdämmerung is possibly the craziest, most overpowered item in Final Fantasy VII Remake.
What it does is fill the wearer's Limit Break gauge at each start of each battle, allowing you to pretty much end regular battles as soon as they've begun, or give you a massive advantage in the boss battles to come.
So, play around with each character's Limit Break to your heart's content!
