It doesn’t take long for Ethan to scrounge up some bullet-shaped protection in Resident Evil 7, but to truly make evil bleed, you’ll want to swap out your dinky starting pistol for something less flimsy and more Evil Dead. In true survival horror fashion, the Baker residence hosts an arsenal steadily ramping up in potency as you continue your search for Mia. You can easily miss these handheld cannons in your travels, so use this guide to make sure your armory is fully stocked before escaping the Bakers for good.
Be warned, spoilers ahead!
Burner
You can acquire the Burner as soon as you step into the Yard area outside the Main House after collecting the three dog head door pieces (one of which involves a mostly straightforward boss fight).
Head to the Old House. From the Yard’s central trailer save room, move northeast and take the path to a rusted gate. Cross the cheerfully decorated wooden bridge beyond to get to the house’s front door.
A few oversized bugs will fly into your face and buzz their welcome to this new section of the Baker compound. Don’t bother expending precious ammo. A single slash from your pocket knife will splatter them.
If you’ve viewed the “Mia” video tape, this should be recognizable ground by now. Turn left and move along the walkway lining the room’s watery center. Head through the door to the north.
Glance at the warning hastily sprayed on the wall, but don’t linger—an insect nest in this room will continually spew bugs to peck away at your health. You can destroy the nest with the weaponry you already have, but it’s best to just sprint past and through the door on the opposite side of the room. Quickly close the door behind you to shut out any pursuing pests. If a swarm followed you in, just slash away with the knife until it disperses.
Use the right door in this corridor to enter the Dining Room. Exit via the northern door on the left wall past the sink. Be sure to check around for supplies, including both a strong and regular Chem Fluid in the spider-infested cabinet. (Inch close and slash away with the knife to clear the crawlies out.)
Outside, quickly sprint ahead and take the rightward walkway just before the insect nest to get to the Water Station jutting out of the swampy bog. Close the door after squeezing into the station’s cramped interior. The reward for your nimbleness is the Burner Nozzle, the first half of your new toy. It sits in plain view. Swipe it.
Backtrack to the Dining Room, and return to the corridor you first entered from. Continue straight to the door at the far end. Some bugs will crash through the windows on the corridor’s right side, but the narrow space makes it easy to take care of them with your knife.
Through the door is the Gallery room where you’ll soon solve another shadow puzzle to progress. Walk past it for now, and throw open the double doors leading to another exterior walkway.
Turn left after stepping outside, and you’ll spot the clearly visible Burner Grip carelessly discarded atop a trash bin. Haven’t any of these people seen MacGyver? You know what comes next: Combine both Grip and Nozzle in your inventory to create the Burner. Soon, it'll come in handy for an encounter with another Baker family member.
Grenade Launcher
The mighty Grenade Launcher can be yours for the low price of a short jog through familiar territory after nabbing the Crow Key from the Old House. Retrace your steps back to the Yard and the Main House. You’re heading for the Drawing Room, which you can get to either via sliding through the back wall past the Main Hall projector or taking the long route through the Monitoring Room.
The Crow Door awaits at the Drawing Room’s far end. Open it with the Crow Key, and reap your new fun-tube off the crates right in front of you. Grenade ammo will be quite scarce when you first pick up the launcher, so keep it tucked away until needed against strong foes such as the Greenhouse boss fight or the beefier Molded variants later in the game.
M21 Shotgun
With a wink and a nod to a classic Resident Evil puzzle, getting the M21 Shotgun entails a bit of a convoluted sequence of swaps and item sleuthing, but it’s well worth it in the end.
Your first step is to get the Scorpion Key from the Processing Area section of the Main House’s basement. It sticks out from a bag of flesh resting on a table in the center of the large room accessed past the corridor with the metal divider after the encounter in the Incinerator Room.
Return to the Main Hall and climb upstairs to the second floor. Head west and enter the Recreation Room via the first door along the exterior walkway to the right, but keep an eye out for a roaming Jack who might be blocking your way. Once inside, use the Scorpion Key on the door adorned with—surprise—a large scorpion to enter Grandma Baker’s room.
Grab the Broken Shotgun that’s propped up against the door frame inside and to the left. Take it back down to the Main Hall and swap it for the working shotgun held by the statue in the well-lit room on the south end. (If you don’t have something to replace the shotgun, the room’s door will slam shut until you put it back.)
After the Dissection Room encounter and getting access to the Yard, head to the dark patch of vegetation in between the two sets of stairs leading up to the Main House porch. (It’s ahead and slightly left looking from the trailer door.) Crouch down and spot the loose metal panel covering up a crawlspace beneath the porch. Move it aside and grab the Repair Kit from the crate stored within. It’s best to store the kit in a safe room item box for now. You won’t need it quite yet.
Your M21 hunt is on hiatus until you brave the Old House and collect Marguerite’s lantern. That, in turn, serves as the first step to finding the Snake Key which you’ll need to get back on the M21’s trail.
To get it, return to the Processing Area in the Main House using the northeast steps beside the safe room to descend into the basement. Travel through the Boiler Room (if you’re lost, this is the same path you took to get the red dog head piece earlier on), continue down to the Morgue, head up the stairs on the room’s east side, and enter the first door on the right to reach the other half of the Dissection Room.
Here rests the deputy’s gruesome remains. Don’t be shy! Shove your arm down his throat to extract the Snake Key.
With Snake Key in gore-soaked hand, you can now unlock the second-floor Kid’s Room in the Main House. Journey back to the Main Hall, head upstairs, and take the west door. Turn south in the corridor, and unlock the room before you with the Snake Key.
Pick up the lamp from the cluttered table at the room’s right side and rotate it to spot a red button obscured by the shade. Press it to drop down a ladder in the corner.
Climb up into an attic area. Check the corner to the right of the ladder for a Model Shotgun resting on a shelf. Grab it. You’re now ready to get your hands on the M21 which, if you haven’t guessed by now, is the Broken Shotgun you used to get yourself a working boomstick from the statue’s cold, dead hands downstairs. Make sure you have your Repair Kit, too.
Backtrack downstairs to the Main Hall south room. Once again, swap the Model Shotgun for the Broken Shotgun to keep the door from sealing your fate. Combine the Repair Kit with the gun, and bask in the glory of your deluxe double-barrel beauty. It’ll pack a way stronger wallop per shell than the standard shotgun, but you’ll need extra precision to make both shots count before needing to reload.
P19 Machine Gun
You might’ve spotted the Machine Gun taunting you from a locked cabinet in the Captain’s Cabin during your travels on the wrecked ship. Luckily, pilfering the powerful weapon involves a relievingly short procedure with less headaches than the M21. To begin with, you need a key.
Drop down the elevator shaft on the Bridge’s southern side (or go straight and look right if you’re leaving the Captain’s Cabin). Use the Lug Wrench to yank open the hatch atop the elevator’s roof. Drop down to be presented with the choice of either climbing up to floor 2F or dropping further to 1F. You want 2F.
Climb up and turn right, heading down the corridor to the Guest Room ahead and slightly around the turn. If the Molded guarding the wall somehow detects you, simply step into the Guest Room and close the door—it’s a safe room, so the silly thing will instantly dissolve once you’re inside.
Pick up the Corrosive lying beneath the small end table straight in front of you. Return back down the corridor (saving at the nearby cassette player is a good idea), and walk past the elevator shaft to the sealed Bunk Room door at the other end. If you’re quick, you can use the Corrosive on the door’s lock and dash inside before the Molded shamble close; if not, scamper back to the Guest Room to clear out some breathing space.
Some Remote Bombs eagerly await your inventory’s embrace inside. More importantly, snag the Captain’s Cabin Locker Key beneath the lamp on the desk. Get back to the Bridge: hop back into the elevator from the corridor, and climb the ladder into the shaft. Climb the longer ladder to drop into the Bridge once more using the hole in the floor.
Be swift but silent, as Molded are now patrolling the Bridge area in search of you. Swing around to the Captain’s Cabin, and use the key to swing open the locker and claim the P19 Machine Gun to finally arm yourself with some real firepower.
There's still one powerful weapon left to obtain, the .44 magnum, but it's locked away behind a hefty coin ransom, nine of them, in the RV. Make sure to check every room for antique coins throughout the game so you don't miss out.
