Chadley's Battle Intel and the Summon Fights

Updated 2026-10-09

Full spoilers.

Chadley is the young researcher who builds materia out of your fights. You meet him in Chapter 3 in the Sector 7 Slums, where a side quest gives you the Combat Analyzer, and he turns up again in Chapters 8, 9, 14 and 16.

He works through Battle Intel reports: twenty small research goals. Meet the condition, report back, and he develops a new materia. Sixteen of the twenty unlock a materia you can then buy from him. The other four are VR summon fights, and those hand the summon materia over free when you win.

How the reports behave

They unlock in batches. Chadley offers a few at a time and adds more as you go. Progress made before a report appears still counts — if you have already assessed thirty enemy types by the time Monster Bio Pt. 4 shows up, it is already done.

Report 20 needs the other nineteen. The Bahamut fight only opens once 01 through 19 are complete.

Nothing is permanently missable. After the credits, Chapter Select takes you back to any chapter with Chadley in it, and the post-game is where most people finish the last few.

All 20 reports

#	Report	What it asks	Unlocks
01	Monster Bio Pt. 1	Assess 2 enemy types	Auto-Cure Materia
02	Magic Elements Pt. 1	Hit a fire-weak, an ice-weak and a lightning-weak enemy with that element	Wind Materia
03	The Stagger Effect Pt. 1	Build ATB by using unique abilities on staggered enemies, 10 times	First Strike Materia
04	The Stagger Effect Pt. 2	Stagger 15 different enemy types	ATB Boost Materia
05	Combat Simulation: Shiva	Beat Shiva in VR	Shiva Materia
06	Monster Bio Pt. 2	Assess 10 enemy types	Steadfast Block Materia
07	Magic Elements Pt. 2	Exploit the weakness of 15 enemy types	Steal Materia
08	The Manipulation Technique	Defeat two or more enemies with one attack	Provoke Materia
09	Monster Variants Pt. 1	Defeat 3 monster varieties	Synergy Materia
10	Combat Simulation: Fat Chocobo	Beat Fat Chocobo in VR	Fat Chocobo Materia
11	Monster Bio Pt. 3	Assess 20 enemy types	Item Master Materia
12	The Stagger Effect Pt. 3	Raise a staggered enemy’s damage bonus to 200%	Parry Materia
13	Refocus Analysis	Trigger Refocus twice	ATB Assist Materia
14	The Stagger Effect Pt. 4	Stagger 40 different enemy types	ATB Stagger Materia
15	Combat Simulation: Leviathan	Beat Leviathan in VR	Leviathan Materia
16	Monster Bio Pt. 4	Assess 30 enemy types	Enemy Skill Materia
17	Weapon Abilities	Master the abilities of 16 weapons	Skill Master Materia
18	MP Consumption	Max out one of each of the 12 magic materia types	MP Absorption Materia
19	Monster Variants Pt. 2	Defeat 10 monster varieties	HP Absorption Materia
20	Combat Simulation: Bahamut	Beat Bahamut in VR (needs 01–19)	Bahamut Materia

The ones that take work

12 — The Stagger Effect Pt. 3. You need a stagger bonus of 200%, which means stacking Tifa’s damage-bonus moves on a staggered target. The VR Fat Chocobo is the usual victim: stagger it, then run Tifa through her chi build-up, Unbridled Strength and True Strike. Aerith’s Ray of Judgment pushes the number up too.

16 — Monster Bio Pt. 4. Thirty assessed types is a lot. Keep Assess equipped and use it on every new enemy you meet. The reward, Enemy Skill Materia, starts its own hunt: four enemy skills for the Master of Mimicry trophy, one of which — Bad Breath — only a Malboro teaches, and the only Malboro in the game is in a Hard-mode simulator course.

17 — Weapon Abilities. Sixteen weapons’ abilities mastered. The report needs sixteen; the Weapons Expert trophy needs every one.

18 — MP Consumption. Twelve magic materia, each to max level. This is the last report most people finish. The standard way is the post-game Chapter 14 Colosseum, which pays generous AP; on Classic difficulty the party fights for you while the materia levels.

Every summon, and when it opens

Summon	How you get it	When
Ifrit	Story. Jessie gives it to you	End of Chapter 3
Chocobo & Moogle	Chapter 6, off the main route: take the small elevator and clear the timed room within 60 seconds	Chapter 6
Shiva	Report 05, VR fight	From Chapter 8 (Sector 5 Slums)
Fat Chocobo	Report 10, VR fight	From Chapter 9 (Wall Market)
Leviathan	Report 15, VR fight	Chapter 14
Bahamut	Report 20, VR fight, after 01–19	Chapter 14 at the earliest; Chadley in Chapter 16 also offers it
Ramuh	Chadley’s VR fight for Yuffie in INTERmission Chapter 1	INTERmission only
Cactuar, Carbuncle, Chocobo Chick	Edition and pre-order bonuses, claimed from the extra content menu	From Chapter 2

The Chocobo & Moogle room also pays the Cleanup Crew trophy. Beating any summon in VR — your first chance is Shiva — pays Summon Slayer.

The summon fights in brief

Shiva. Ice, so bring Fire and Ifrit. Aerith’s Arcane Ward, which casts every spell twice, makes short work of her. Keep healing ready for Diamond Dust.

Fat Chocobo. No useful weakness. Bring your high-stagger moves — Focused Thrust, Braver — and kill the Bombs and Tonberries it calls in before they pile up. Barrier helps.

Leviathan. Weak to lightning. Barret shoots the head while your melee fighters work on the dorsal fin. Chocobo & Moogle is a good summon to bring.

Bahamut. It only opens once the other nineteen reports are done, so you arrive with every materia Chadley sells available to you. Use that.

After the reports: the summon gauntlets

Two simulator courses string the summons together into a single run. Both are post-game.

Three-Person Team vs. Top Secrets — Chapter 17, Hard mode, Shinra Combat Simulator. Shiva, Fat Chocobo, Leviathan and Bahamut back to back (Bahamut calls Ifrit in partway through), then the Pride and Joy Prototype. The course only appears once you have cleared every Corneo Colosseum course, every other simulator course and all 20 Battle Intel reports. First clear pays Götterdämmerung and the Gold trophy Ultimate Weapon.

A setup that works: Cloud with the Champion Belt and his Legacy limit, Tifa with the Supreme Bracer and Dolphin Flurry, Barret as healer with Prayer and Healing. Barrier and Manawall on someone, and Fire and Lightning for the two elemental summons.

Yuffie & Sonon vs. Top Secrets — INTERmission’s simulator, after you have cleared both INTERmission chapters and the two earlier Yuffie and Sonon courses. Bahamut, Ifrit and Ramuh, then the Pride and Joy Mk 0.5. First clear pays Götterdämmerung x2 and the Silver trophy Ultimate Weapon 2.0.

Trophies

Trophy	Grade	What
Summon Slayer	Bronze	Beat any summon in VR
Cleanup Crew	Bronze	Get the Chocobo & Moogle materia
Intelligence Agent	Silver	Complete all 20 Battle Intel reports
Ultimate Weapon	Gold	Beat the Pride and Joy Prototype
Ultimate Weapon 2.0	Silver	Beat the Pride and Joy Mk 0.5

Game Notes

Battle Intel is the game teaching you its combat system and pretending it is a side quest. Assess, exploit weaknesses, stagger, push the stagger bonus, Refocus: every report is a mechanic the tutorials mention once, and Chadley pays you to actually use it. If you do the reports as they come instead of saving them for the post-game, you come out of the story a noticeably better player.

The rewards are uneven, and that is fine. First Strike, Steadfast Block and Parry are build-defining; Wind is a stopgap. The summons are the real prize, and the VR fights are the best boss fights the game does not put in the story — Shiva in particular is the first time the game really asks you to plan a party.

The one to plan for early is MP Consumption. Twelve maxed magic materia is a grind no matter how you do it, and every hour you spend with a magic orb equipped in the story is an hour you do not spend in the Colosseum later. Spread your spells around the party from the start.