The eighth entry in Capcom’s long-running Resident Evil franchise is here. Resident Evil Village picks up where Resident Evil 7 left off, with protagonist Ethan Winters once again in over his head. This time, Ethan must muster his strength and survivability to rescue his missing daughter.
Resident Evil Village is serious business. It’s a survival horror game, so you’ll need your wit, your aim, and a considerable amount of ammo to survive. If you need assistance, check out these tested tips. This guide doesn’t contain puzzle solutions or walkthroughs; just some helpful suggestions from us to you.
Ready to face the village’s horrors? Castle Dimitrescu’s haunted hallways and Karl Eisenberg’s brutal factory await.
1. Keep Moving
Resident Evil Village is a first-person shooter, but it’s not that kind of first-person shooter. You’ll fight monster hordes, but there’s little cover to hide behind. Certain areas have moveable objects that can block doorways, so you should use them to slow the monster flow toward your position, instead of ducking behind them.
Keep moving and shooting. Most enemies have stop-and-start attack patterns, meaning you can get some distance and safely do damage from range. In addition, many encounters take place in combat arenas with ammo and traps strewn around the playfield, so keep your eyes open and don’t stand still.
2. Choose Your Weapons Wisely
Storage space is at a premium in Resident Evil Village. While ammo and consumable items tend to take up one or two slots in your inventory, weapons can take up anywhere from six to twelve slots. There’s no item stash in Village, so the only storage space available is what’s in your personal inventory.
Beyond that, weapon upgrades cost Lei, the in-game currency. You’ll get Lei by selling the crystals you find around town and the crystalline body parts you retrieve from monsters and bosses. Weapon upgrades are prohibitively expensive, so you will only have enough money to upgrade a few weapons on each playthrough. Pick two favorites that suit your playstyle and focus on their upgrades.
In addition, you shouldn’t upgrade the starting pistol and shotgun. You’ll get better versions of those weapon types later, and weapon upgrades do not transfer from weapon to weapon.
3. Buy Storage Space Upgrades and Recipes
The Duke is Resident Evil Village’s version of the mysterious Merchant from Resident Evil 4. He’ll pop up from region to region, offering his wares and a convenient save spot. Although the Duke sells ammo, healing items, and weapon upgrades, your first purchases should be crafting recipes and more storage space.
Crafting recipes lets you craft additional ammunition from scraps and other materials. As a result, you won’t need to rely on finding specific ammo scattered around the village. You should also purchase at least the first storage upgrade. It’s expensive, but it’s well worth it.
4. Sell Treasure
Your best way to get more Lei for upgrades and other purchases? Sell treasure. You’ll find crystals, trinkets, and crystalline body parts on dead monsters. Most of these can be sold with little issue. There’s no reason to hold onto it.
Certain items will be listed at “Combinable” in their descriptions. In these cases, you must find the other items that can be combined with them. Once combined, you can sell the resulting treasures. For example, you can combine the head of a creepy doll with its body. You could individually sell either item, but you’ll get more money for a complete doll.
5. Leave Your Food With the Duke
One way to get permanent upgrades in Resident Evil Village is to bring the Duke various types of meat to cook. You’ll get the meat from killing pigs, goats, fish, and chickens. The Duke has several recipes that give you permanent health and speed boosts, as well as recipes that reduce the damage you take from enemies.
The meat takes up space in your inventory, which is never good. That said, you can give the meat to the Duke, and he’ll hold it. You don’t have to complete a recipe all at once; it’ll still be there if you leave and return. So get rid of that meat, it’ll only attract the undead.
6. Save Your Ammo and Explosives for Big Fights
As previously mentioned, ammo is at a premium in Resident Evil Village. You’re thrust into heavy combat situations that require a great deal of gunfire. So don’t waste your handgun bullets on breaking open boxes or hunting animals—use the knife. Save the shotgun or your explosives for crowded situations, not one-on-one fights. And once you get the very powerful M1851 Wolfsbane Magnum, save those valuable bullets for boss fights. Ammo management is key in this game.
7. Consult Your Map
Resident Evil Village’s map gives you a lot of information. Not only does it have icons for major treasures, it also lets you know when you’ve completely cleared a room. Rooms are colored red when you first discover them, but they turn blue once cleared. To clear a room, you must find all the interactable items within the environment. Use this as a handy way to scour rooms for every bit of useful material.
8. Play It Again
You’ve beaten Resident Evil Village? Great! But you’re not necessarily done with the game. On your first completion, you’ll unlock the Extra Content Shop, which will be available under the title menu’s Bonuses section. As you play through Resident Evil Village, you’ll get Content Points (CP) for completing objectives, such as beating the game on any difficulty level, collecting achievements, and upgrading weapons to their maximum capacities.
Once you have CP, you can unlock new perks in the Extra Content Shop. These perks include new weapons, infinite ammo on certain weapons, and the entire Mercenaries multiplayer mode. You won’t be able to unlock all the items via a single run, meaning you must play through the story campaign multiple times in order to unlock everything.
