10 Best (And Most SECRET) Unlockable Weapons, Armor Sets & Characters Of 2022

As 2023 looms on the horizon, we think back to the best stuff from 2022 — and in our never-ending quest to mine the darkest depths of every video game, we’re here to reveal (again) so of the best secret unlockables we earned this year. From armor sets to bonus characters and special weapons, 2022 continued to supply us with secrets to explore. God of War Ragnarok and Elden Ring were standard-bearers for secrets, but we’ve managed to find more hidden gems in games big and small. While the world is finally getting back to normal, we’re still stuck inside searching for bonus guns in games. If you’re a novice and want to see some of the most fun secret unlocks, we’ve got you covered with the list below.

Want more secrets in 2022? Don’t miss out on these 10 secret endings, or 10 best secret bosses.

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The Best of 2021:

Best Secrets, Unlockables & Weapons Of 2021 | Best Levels Of 2021 | Best Easter Eggs Of 2021 | Best Secret Endings Of 2021

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#1. Mantis Blades [Dying Light 2]

One of the most iconic weapons from Cyberpunk 2077 appears in the zombie apocalypse. The Mantis Blades are one of the hard-to-find Developer Weapons, along with a frying pan of doom, and pointing your left-hand index finger to fire it like a gun. Yes, these are all real weapons in the game. The Mantis Blades are called the Cyber Hands here — to get them, you need to glide from the VNC Tower to one of the other skyscrapers. Landing successfully and talking to a cryptic NPC will give you the blueprints.

Once you craft this weapon, you can enjoy dicing up undead hordes with these Cyberpunk-influenced arm-blades. They’re not an exact replica of the Mantis Blades, but they’re sharp knives sticking out of your wrists. The animations are pretty janky too — you’re mostly punching zombies instead of slicing them, but maybe that fits with the general janky nature of Cyberpunk 2077. As far as homages go, this is one of the most fun.

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#2. Ringed Finger [Elden Ring]

Elden Ring features the strangest weapons of the year — you can collect a mace built from planets in our solar system, or a sword wreathed in squirming bloody tentacles. Out of all the weird and hidden weapons, there’s one clear frontrunner. It might not be the best weapon in the game, but it is the most disgusting. The Ringed Finger is a really big, severed finger with a bone for a hilt. The finger is seemingly still alive, letting you perform a finger-flick attack that deals extreme poise damage.

As far as secret weapons, this is also one of the most hidden. To get it, you’ll need to enter the Gelmir Hero’s Grave, a trap-filled nightmare dungeon with deadly automaton carriages and lava. At the bottom of the steep ramp leading down, there’s a long river of lava. Any normal player would assume this is a decorative stream of liquid magma — but no, if you trudge all the way down the lava pit, you’ll find a room containing this finger-shaped treasure. It might not be a great weapon, but it is an incredibly weird find.

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#3. Decimal [Triangle Strategy]

Characters are your best resource in Triangle Strategy, a turn-based tactical strategy game that’s a spiritual successor to games like Tactics Ogre. Instead of unlocking jobs, you’ll gather different party members — and each party member is unique, with totally different abilities or magic spells. No party members are the same, and if you play long enough, you’ll start to unlock secret party members. My favorite unlockable hero has to be Decimal.

Decimal is a barrel-shaped robot — which is already a surprise in a generally grounded fantasy setting — built with an adorable personality and able to use calculations-based magic. For example, Decimal can unlock powers that deal damage to all enemies in the field with HP values that are a multiple of 3. He can raise the attack stats of all allies within range, or instantly kill all enemies with HP in multiples of 5. Decimal is the ultimate support character, able to attack from anywhere. If you loved the weirdo Calculator job from Final Fantasy Tactics, you’ll love Decimal.

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#4. Morpho Knight Sword [Kirby and the Forgotten Land]

Kirby really kicks into high-gear after acquiring the all-powerful Morpho Knight Copy Ability. In Kirby and the Forgotten Land, Kirby can finally upgrade his copy abilities — you can make your sword bigger or enhance your double revolvers into space lasers. Almost every copy ability can be upgraded, and the Sword Copy Ability gets the most. To get it, Kirby needs to complete the post-game adventure. At the end of the remixed level path, you’ll do battle with Kirby’s most powerful and mysterious rival. Even fans of the Kirby franchise might not recognize Morpho Knight, even if he has appeared in multiple games — serving as the ultimate challenge for Kirby to overcome.

After defeating Morpho Knight in the post-game, you’ll gain the Morpho Knight Sword blueprint. Purchasing this upgrade from the shop gives you Morpho Knight’s sword; you can enhance the sword by charging it up, making the sword bigger and more powerful. Your dodge is ridiculously enhanced and dealing damage to enemies heals Kirby — this weapon might seem completely OP, but you absolutely need it to overcome the final challenges of Kirby and the Forgotten Land. For turning Kirby into a character action game, we’ve got to show some love to the Morpho Knight Sword.

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#5. Vault Suit [Ghostwire: Tokyo]

Want that retro-futuristic look while explored a magically ruined Tokyo? The Vault Suit from the Fallout series appears in Ghostwire: Toyko — it doesn’t really do anything, and you can’t see it because most of the game is set in first-person, but we love this unlockable Easter egg “armor” set. Everything about it feels wrong. There’s something quintessentially tacky about this suit that just doesn’t belong in the hyper-stylistic metro you’ll be exploring, all while unleashing magic attacks and exorcising demons. The Vault Suit is still our go-to set of gear for this Bethesda published game. Maybe we just can’t get enough of brand synergy. Especially when there is no logical connection between these two franchises — Fallout and Ghostwire are on opposite spectrums of the setting graph.

To unlock the Vault Suit, you’ll need to answer the payphone near the Construction Labyrinth, a maze of construction near the Shibuya Scramble intersection. After picking up the phone, you’ll need to visit three locations and collect readings on a strange lunar event for Ed, your operator that helps you navigate the spirit realm. Complete all three locations and the Fallout 4 suit will appear in your inventory under the Full Customization option. Shibuya is known for cosplay, so why not get into the vibes?

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#6. Segiri, Machine Assassin [Xenoblade Chronicles 3]

The hardest character to unlock in Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is also the coolest. For a game where you have six party members, you might think even more party members won’t be necessary. You’d be wrong, because XBC3 is packed with bonus heroes you’ll unlock as you progress through the story, or by completing side-quests, giving you a very good incentive to check out every nook and cranny of the vast JRPG world. Our favorite is Segiri, a soldier for the enemy wielding a powerful Machine Assassin suit. This character wears her weapon, summoning a mech with the ability to turn invisible and ambush the protagonists.

Unlocking Segiri is an extremely long and involved process that can begin very early in your adventure but can’t be completed until nearly the end of the story. By completing a side-quest to fully explore the world for a novelist, you’ll encounter a mysterious team of machine assassins, finally ending with an encounter with their Mobius leader. Defeating them frees Segiri to join your side — the first and only machine-type character you can acquire. She also unlocks the ability to explore poisonous areas, making her required if you want to fully investigate every area of the map.

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#7. Enhanced Bracer [Plague Tale: Requiem]

Here’s a fun little upgrade we didn’t expect to find. In Plague Tale: Requiem, you’ll visit a mysterious island for the latter half of the story. While searching for clues in an expansive, open-ended level, you can also complete a hidden side-quest. By manipulating the windmills on the island, you can unlock a secret smuggler’s lair. Each windmill is marked with a clue, and the entrance to the smuggler’s lair also has a small clue — figuring this one out can be tricky, but the solution is surprisingly simple. We’ve got it all explained right here.

Inside the smuggler’s hideout, you’ll find a one-time-only upgrade. There’s an upgraded piece of armor that improves your main character’s recovery time after taking damage. This is the only upgrade like this in the entire game, making it a weird little anomaly that I can’t help but love. Whenever a game throws a curveball and does something I don’t expect, that means the developers are going the extra mile to give us an unforgettable experience. You might be small, but you’re still important to me tiny armor upgrade.

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#8. Nitro Express Rifle [Signalis]

We’re going from the tiny to the ridiculously huge. The Nitro Express Rifle is an oversized super-gun you can only equip by unlocking a hidden door in the nightmare world of Signalis. Inspired by classic survival horror games like Silent Hill and Resident Evil, Signalis drops you into different environments with multiple directions to explore and tricky puzzles to solve — all while dealing with respawning twitchy flesh-monsters. Late in the game, you’ll enter an extremely weird world called Nowhere. The doors don’t connect logically. There is no map. Everything is completely confusing and makes no sense.

After fighting a pile of writhing flesh in a cage (yes, that’s a boss fight) you’ll rescue one of your fellow cyborgs. She’s completely unconscious, and only a unique item will wake her up. Traversing Nowhere, you can return to a previous area — after the boss fight, a new door will appear — and collect a cure. Use the cure on your damaged cyborg friend, and she’ll gift you with this overpowered super rifle. If Nowhere wasn’t so complicated, this little side-quest would be a cinch. But because you’re stuck in a world where rooms don’t logically connect, you’re stuck without a map, and entrances just randomly appear, this is one weapon plenty of players missed out on.

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#9. Alruna Whip [Bayonetta 3]

Bayonetta 3 can’t go 10 minutes without giving players some new absurd weapon. You’ll unlock a train as a weapon. One of the weapons is a magic top hat. You’ll gain a witch mech you can rampage with later in the story. We’re not talking about any of those weapons, because on top of the weapons you’ll earn for story completion, there are also secret bonus weapons Bayonetta can add to her repertoire. One of these bonus weapons is a returning tool from Bayonetta 2 — the Alruna Whip. The whips can be equipped like guns to Bayonetta’s hands or feet, giving you even more versatility for your build. And it’s a returning weapon with a completely revamped and reworked moveset.

To unlock the Alruna Whip, you’ll need to collect all three Umbran Tears of Blood in Chapter 3. The Alruna Whip isn’t just a copy of the weapon from the second game, Bayonetta will also gain a Demon Masquerade form like with all her other weapons. The whip is themed after the sharp stems of a flower, generating thorned vines to attack enemies. For an easy-to-miss extra, this is a pretty major find. Unlocking it isn’t that difficult, but getting to use it for the rest of the story is a very nice bonus.

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#10. Steinbjorn Armor [God of War Ragnarok]

What many consider the best armor in God of War Ragnarok is also one of the most secret sets in the game, requiring Kratos to solve an ancient mystery hidden throughout the realms. The armor is awesome — it has the highest defense in the game — but the quest to get it is one of the most interesting secrets of 2022. To get started, Kratos must travel to Midgard and collect the Mystic Heirloom relic. Relics are special powers you can unleash in battle — these relics can stun enemies or enhance your abilities. The Mystic Heirloom seemingly does nothing. Seemingly.

The Mystic Heirloom has one use. Using the heirloom near a statue will bring it to life. On Dragon Beach, you can fight an additional dragon for their scales. The real prize is the trolls. There are three frozen troll statues hidden in three separate realms — if you bring them back to life and defeat them in a mini-boss bottle, you’ll earn each piece of the Steinbjorn Armor Set. Defeat them all to craft three pieces of Steinbjorn Armor. With a few upgrades, you’ll easily outpace all your other armor sets, making this one of the most useful for taking on post-game bosses like the Berserker King and the Valkyrie Queen.

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That’s all the best secret weapons, outfits and upgrades we loved unlocking in 2022. Got some of your own? We’re mostly focused on singleplayer games, so we missed anything from the year’s biggest multiplayer update and online games. We’re always looking to learn more, so drop us a line if you’ve found anything unbelievably awesome in 2022.