You can unlock Sephiroth in Smash Bros Ultimate right now, but first you have to beat him

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The Sephiroth Challenge tests your skills and rewards you with an early player unlock

Smash Bros. Ultimate
(Image credit: Nintendo)

Update: Nintendo has revealed the Smash Bros. Ultimate "Sephiroth Challenge," which rewards you by giving you Sephiroth if you manage to beat him in a fight. The challenge is live now, and it'll stick around until Sephiroth is officially added to the Smash Bros. roster five days from now. Of course, you'll still need to pay the $5.99 charge for Challenger Pack 8.

The rules are simple: just beat Sephiroth in a one-on-one HP match and he's yours. You can pick your difficulty and try multiple times with different difficulty settings. Though, it wasn't originally the plan to give players other chances if they failed.

"In the initial plan, if players couldn't win with the difficulty they selected, they wouldn't be able to use Sephiroth until the official release date," Smash Bros. series director Masahiro Sakurai revealed during a presentation Thursday. "This was to make it challenging for players who chose Very Hard. But in the end, we canceled that idea."

Smash Bros. Ultimate's second fighter pass has already added Min Min from Arms and Steve from Minecraft to the roster of playable characters. With Sephiroth being the third new character included in the fighter pass, we still have three unknown fighters still to be added, as well as new stages and music. 

Challenger packs always add the fighter's own unique level and selection of music, and we got a good look at Sephiroth's level and music in the reveal trailer. We also get to see some of Sephiroth's moves, which mostly involve him swinging around his massive sword and slinging energy blasts at foes. Check out the trailer for Sephiroth in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate below (and don't worry, Mario doesn't actually get impaled):

If you haven't updated your Smash Bros. Ultimate client in a while, the first Fighter Pass added five new characters to the roster including Joker from Persona 5, Hero from Dragon Quest 11, Banjo & Kazooie, Terry Bogard from Fatal Fury, and Byleth from Fire Emblem. The first DLC can be yours for about $25, while the second DLC costs a bit more at $30, presumably because it's slated to add an extra character.

If you need a brush-up, don't miss our essential Smash Bros. Ultimate tips - your friends will never see you coming.

Jordan Gerblick
Jordan Gerblick
Staff Writer

After earning an English degree from ASU, I worked as a corporate copy editor while freelancing for places like SFX Magazine, Screen Rant, Game Revolution, and MMORPG on the side. I got my big break here in 2019 with a freelance news gig, and I was hired on as GamesRadar's west coast Staff Writer in 2021. That means I'm responsible for managing the site's western regional executive branch, AKA my home office, and writing about whatever horror game I'm too afraid to finish.