diff --git a/.gitmodules b/.gitmodules
index 1b0e150ce..e69de29bb 100644
--- a/.gitmodules
+++ b/.gitmodules
@@ -1,3 +0,0 @@
-[submodule "tests/ef_tests/eth2.0-spec-tests"]
-	path = tests/ef_tests/eth2.0-spec-tests
-	url = https://github.com/ethereum/eth2.0-spec-tests
diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..d5517ed23
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -0,0 +1,31 @@
+TESTS_TAG := v0.8.3
+TESTS = general minimal mainnet
+
+TESTS_BASE_DIR := ./tests/ef_tests
+REPO_NAME := eth2.0-spec-tests
+OUTPUT_DIR := $(TESTS_BASE_DIR)/$(REPO_NAME)
+
+BASE_URL := https://github.com/ethereum/$(REPO_NAME)/releases/download/$(SPEC_VERSION)
+
+release:
+	cargo build --all --release
+
+clean_ef_tests:
+	rm -r $(OUTPUT_DIR)
+
+ef_tests: download_tests extract_tests
+	mkdir $(OUTPUT_DIR)
+	for test in $(TESTS); do \
+		tar -C $(OUTPUT_DIR) -xvf $(TESTS_BASE_DIR)/$$test.tar ;\
+		rm $(TESTS_BASE_DIR)/$$test.tar ;\
+	done
+
+extract_tests:
+	for test in $(TESTS); do \
+		gzip -df $(TESTS_BASE_DIR)/$$test.tar.gz ;\
+	done
+
+download_tests:
+	for test in $(TESTS); do \
+		wget -P $(TESTS_BASE_DIR) $(BASE_URL)/$$test.tar.gz; \
+	done
diff --git a/book/src/setup.md b/book/src/setup.md
index e53ca93d8..532de3fc0 100644
--- a/book/src/setup.md
+++ b/book/src/setup.md
@@ -9,11 +9,8 @@ See the [Quick instructions](#quick-instructions) for a summary or the
 
 1. Install Rust + Cargo with [rustup](https://rustup.rs/).
 1. Install build dependencies using your package manager.
-    - `$ <package-manager> clang protobuf libssl-dev cmake git-lfs`
-	- Ensure [git-lfs](https://git-lfs.github.com/) is installed with `git lfs
-		install`.
-1. Clone the [sigp/lighthouse](https://github.com/sigp/lighthouse), ensuring to
-   **initialize submodules**.
+    - `$ <package-manager> clang protobuf libssl-dev cmake`
+1. Clone the [sigp/lighthouse](https://github.com/sigp/lighthouse).
 1. In the root of the repo, run the tests with `cargo test --all --release`.
 1. Then, build the binaries with `cargo build --all --release`.
 1. Lighthouse is now fully built and tested.
@@ -37,13 +34,8 @@ steps:
 	  - `protobuf`: required for protobuf serialization (gRPC)
       - `libssl-dev`: also gRPC
 	  - `cmake`: required for building protobuf
-	  - `git-lfs`: The Git extension for [Large File
-	    Support](https://git-lfs.github.com/) (required for Ethereum Foundation
-	    test vectors).
-   1. Clone the repository with submodules: `git clone --recursive
-	  https://github.com/sigp/lighthouse`.  If you're already cloned the repo,
-	  ensure testing submodules are present: `$ git submodule init; git
-	  submodule update`
+   1. Clone the repository with submodules: `git clone
+	  https://github.com/sigp/lighthouse`.
    1. Change directory to the root of the repository.
    1. Run the test suite with `cargo test --all --release`. The build and test
 	  process can take several minutes. If you experience any failures on
@@ -63,3 +55,27 @@ Perl](http://strawberryperl.com/), or alternatively use a choco install command
 Additionally, the dependency `protoc-grpcio v0.3.1` is reported to have issues
 compiling in Windows. You can specify a known working version by editing
 version in `protos/Cargo.toml`  section to `protoc-grpcio = "<=0.3.0"`.
+
+## eth2.0-spec-tests
+
+The
+[ethereum/eth2.0-spec-tests](https://github.com/ethereum/eth2.0-spec-tests/)
+repository contains a large set of tests that verify Lighthouse behaviour
+against the Ethereum Foundation specifications.
+
+The `tests/ef_tests` crate runs these tests and it has some interesting
+behaviours:
+
+- If the `tests/ef_tests/eth2.0-spec-tests` directory is not present, all tests
+	indicate a `pass` when they did not actually run.
+- If that directory _is_ present, the tests are executed faithfully, failing if
+	a discrepancy is found.
+
+The `tests/ef_tests/eth2.0-spec-tests` directory is not present by default. To
+obtain it, use the Makefile in the root of the repository:
+
+```
+make ef_tests
+```
+
+_Note: this will download 100+ MB of test files from the [ethereum/eth2.0-spec-tests](https://github.com/ethereum/eth2.0-spec-tests/)._
diff --git a/tests/ef_tests/.gitignore b/tests/ef_tests/.gitignore
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..a83c5aa96
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/ef_tests/.gitignore
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+/eth2.0-spec-tests
diff --git a/tests/ef_tests/eth2.0-spec-tests b/tests/ef_tests/eth2.0-spec-tests
deleted file mode 160000
index ae6dd9011..000000000
--- a/tests/ef_tests/eth2.0-spec-tests
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1 +0,0 @@
-Subproject commit ae6dd9011df05fab8c7e651c09cf9c940973bf81
diff --git a/tests/ef_tests/src/handler.rs b/tests/ef_tests/src/handler.rs
index e5d175e11..e8c83e1f8 100644
--- a/tests/ef_tests/src/handler.rs
+++ b/tests/ef_tests/src/handler.rs
@@ -31,6 +31,11 @@ pub trait Handler {
             .join(Self::runner_name())
             .join(Self::handler_name());
 
+        // If the directory containing the tests does not exist, just let all tests pass.
+        if !handler_path.exists() {
+            return;
+        }
+
         // Iterate through test suites
         let test_cases = fs::read_dir(&handler_path)
             .expect("handler dir exists")