Secrets and Easter eggs have been a part of gaming since time immemorial. Developers love sneaking cheeky tidbits into their games that can be quite a joy for diligent gamers to discover. Everything from weird secrets to custom weapons are candidates in this regard, with some developers going above and beyond when it comes to integrating secret weapons in their video games.
As a result, certain video game weapons become so secretive that most players don't even find them, which is quite a shame indeed. The following weapons are great examples of great and powerful secrets hidden in the game that players didn't really find, either because their criteria are simply too hard to complete, or they're so well hidden that most people didn't even bother to check.
8 Excalibur II (Final Fantasy 9)
The Final Fantasy series is notable for having secret weapons that can be an absolute pain to find, with some requiring their full potential to be unlocked as well. One of the toughest weapons to find in gaming comes in the form of the Excalibur II from Final Fantasy 9.
To get this weapon, players need to speedrun the game and reach the final dungeon within 12 hours. Given how long Final Fantasy 9 is, it goes without saying that most people weren't able to accomplish this, especially since the game doesn't provide any hints either.
7 Golden Gun (GoldenEye 007)
GoldenEye 007 is one of the most important video games ever made. It cemented the fact that shooters didn't need to reside solely on the PC, with its great single-player and revolutionary split-screen multiplayer letting gamers enjoy this title for hours.
During one of the levels, players can find a Golden Gun behind a case that's locked unless a tough tile puzzle is completed. There's no solution for this puzzle hinted at anywhere in the game, and players will be locked out from getting this gun while a bunch of enemies drop in out of nowhere.
6 Rakuyo (Bloodborne)
Out of all the weapons on this list, the Rakuyo is a weapon that most players have attempted to obtain at some point. However, the difficulty involved with trying to acquire this weapon is so massive that a ton of players give up instead of putting themselves through this torture.
To get the Rakuyo, players must fight two Shark Giants at once, who are easily the toughest regular enemy in the game. Fighting just one of them is as challenging as can be, but trying to get two of them is downright impossible and forced players to give up in their quest of getting Lady Maria's incredible weapon.
5 Balder Side Sword (Dark Souls)
It seems that FromSoftware games have a penchant for making certain great weapons downright impossible to acquire. Such is the case in the original Dark Souls, where the coveted Balder Side Sword can only be obtained as a rare 1% drop from a Balder Knight.
This causes many players to try and grind out this weapon, only for this process to become infinitely frustrating after a point. The fact that some players just got lucky and got this weapon in their very first run makes the rarity of the Balder Side Sword even more hurtful for Dark Souls veterans.
4 Peacekeeper (Battlefield 1)
The requirements to unlock the Peacekeeper in Battlefield 1 are absolutely ridiculous, and show why so many people didn't even bother to try and get this weapon. The grind is simply too much to bear.
Players need to decode eight unique Morse code messages before running through all the maps to try and get this homage to Metal Gear Solid. The Peacekeeper might be a cool weapon to flaunt, but players will need to put in a ton of time and effort to get this flashy sidearm.
3 Hand Cannon (Dead Space 2)
Dead Space 2 isn't a game that many people can stomach playing over and over again. This is especially true in the case of the game's highest difficulty, where players will witness more gory deaths than they have the stomach for.
Players need to unlock the Hard Core difficulty by playing through the game once, and finish another playthrough on this nightmarish setting with their sanity intact. This gives them access to the hilarious Hand Cannon weapon, which absolutely obliterates the necromorphs in the game with a single shot.
2 Onion Knight (Final Fantasy 10)
Onion Knight is Lulu's Celestial Weapon that can be obtained in Final Fantasy 10. However, it's pretty useless early on and needs a bit of work to unleash its true potential.
While the tasks required to unlock each character's Celestial Weapon power can be pretty arduous, Lulu's task takes this to a whole new level. Players need to tediously dodge lightning bolts in the Thunder Plains a whopping 200 times in a row to get the Venus Sigil. Since there's no in-game counter, players need to count each individual dodge and not miss a single beat.
1 Hadouken (Mega Man X)
The Hadouken is more of an ability than a technique, but it still makes the list given the way combat works in Mega Man X. Considering how ridiculous the steps are to unlock this weapon, it more than makes up for this minor technicality.
To get the Hadouken, players need to collect all upgrade capsules, heart tanks, and sub tanks in the game, which is already a Herculean task in itself. All bosses prior to Sigma need to be defeated too before players head to a secret location in the Armored Armadillo stage. Players need to grab the health capsule here four times, and reaching this area with full health on the fifth try will lead to the Hadouken spawning instead.