Resident Evil Village's titular small town isn't the ideal bucolic getaway. I'd advise doing the opposite and getting away from it, as far away as you can, but first we've got a family to rebuild. With lycans, stinky fish men, and a 10-foot tall vampire on your butt, it's not gonna be easy.
Here's a bundle of spoiler-free Resident Evil Village tips and tricks for getting through your nightmare vacation as smoothly as possible.
Enemies react based on where you shoot them
Popping lycans in the dreamer is the goal, but they're not going to line up and wait their turn for a shell to the skull. You'll need to manage whole crowds of these furballs, and letting your aim fall to a kneecap or hand can soften up the horde.
Shoot a lycan's hand and it'll drop its weapon, decreasing its attack range and lethality. Shoot 'em in the knee and they'll drop to the ground, which is effectively a lycan pause button that lets you focus on the nearest head. Some will shoot flaming arrows at you, and yes, you can shoot those out of the sky. Even cooler? Knock it down with a knife. Show them who the real leader of the pack is.
For a more classic RE survival experience, play on Hardcore from the start
Standard is tense but breezy. I only died twice and never felt like my resources were stretched too thin. Hardcore is probably the sweet spot for those familiar with survival horror games who don't mind running out of ammo and dying more often. If you get excited thinking about resorting to the knife, Hardcore is the mode for you.
PSA: I'd avoid playing on the hardest difficulty, Village of Shadows, the first time around. Not because I don't believe in you, but because it places more challenging enemies saved for dramatic reveals in the late game into earlier encounters.
Mouse and keyboard users, here's a grenade launcher PSA
This might've been fixed for release, but it took me a long time to figure out. In order to change ammo types while using the grenade launcher, you need to aim (hold right mouse button) and then press the F key. As of writing, it just says press F to change ammo. A bold-faced lie! But that's horror, you know? Can't trust your eyes.
Look ahead
In some areas you can spot enemies waiting in ambush, Dark Souls style. Get the jump on them, and by jump I mean shoot them in the head from very far away with your scoped rifle. Maybe lay out a mine or two if you're feeling saucy.
And look up
If you see a sparkle embedded in the wall, that's money. Shoot it and treasure will drop. You'll also see yellow birdcages in some parts of the world. Shoot them down for some money or ammo. It's almost always worth the ammo cost since that money's probably going towards better weapons or upgrades anyway. Why are shotgun shells hanging around in rusty old birdcages in some old evil castle, you ask? Shut up, nerd!
If the tight FOV is killing you…
Yeah, so there's no FOV slider in Village, which won't slide if you've got a certain monitor size and distance and limited capacity for motion sickness. I felt fine throughout, but if you need to broaden your perspective, read a damn book! Or just try out this RE8 FOV slider mod.
Sell your old weapons for newer, better ones
In my experience, every new set of guns was simply more powerful than the last. Village feels tuned towards pushing you into new weaponry on the first playthrough anyway, locking most weapon upgrades away behind piles and piles of cash. The new stuff will always do you well, and besides…
Don't craft items until you need them
Resident Evil Village bell puzzle: Ring all five
Resident Evil Village doll puzzle: Find every item
Resident Evil Village masks: Escape the castle
Resident Evil Village wells: Get the Well Wheel
I get it. You're topped off on shotgun ammo, but you've got the supplies to make some more. Why not make your bed, craft some more shotgun ammo just in case, you wonder? While you will need more eventually, it might not be what you need next. There's always some new scenario and strange monster lurking around the corner in Village and limited supplies to put 'em down with. Save your crafting supplies for making stuff on the fly. Chances are a landmine or pipe bomb or rifle ammo might serve you better in the next fight.
You can buy back your weapons, attachments and upgrades included
If you really miss your first shotgun (and who doesn't?!) you can buy it back, with all the previous upgrades and attachments. This is especially important in New Game Plus (see more on that below), since upgrading weapons completely unlocks the unlimited ammo option for purchase in the bonus store.
Prioritize inventory size upgrades
It can hurt to drop megabucks on a big bag, but you're going to have a lot of guns by the end of Village. And pipe bombs. And mines. And bags of raw animal meat. Don't risk leaving any valuable resources behind just because there's no room left between the trout filet and magnum.
Revisit old areas and make sure to explore thoroughly
Scan every location for stuff you might've missed. There are extra puzzles, hidden treasures, and secrets to uncover. And some of the secrets will try to kill you, so keep that shotgun primed. We're eating secrets tonight.
Stop! Combine before you sell
I get it. You're chasing that paper and you've got a huge haul of doll bodies to dump on the merchant. You might want to keep those doll bodies until you find the doll heads to match 'em though. The sell price on those suckers will soar. Before selling anything in Village, make sure it's not missing any pieces, denoted by a Combine option when you select it in the menu. If there's nothing to combine it with, well, get back out there and don't come back until you've got the doll heads to match. No one said life in the village would be easy.
Break windows, shoot crows, open outhouse doors! Follow your heart, child of chaos!
If you can break it or interact with it, chances are there's some kind of achievement attached. Break all the windows you can in the castle, shoot down five crows, open every outhouse door in the village—and plenty more, be sure to experiment! Dink around enough and you'll get a nice little bonus store currency payout once you've finished the game.
How to start New Game Plus
And you should, because it rules. You get to carry over all your weapons, weapon upgrades, items, treasure, and Ethan upgrades over to a brand new game, and on any difficulty you've unlocked. But like a man hiding in a closet from a horrific monstrosity sliming its way up and down the halls, New Game Plus does not leap out and make itself known.
To access the feature, you'll need to choose Load Game from the main menu, then scroll down to wherever your completed save game file is. Click it and you'll get the prompt to start a new game. Now breeze through Hardcore mode with all your powered-up gear and whatever wild, broken infinite ammo hand canons you unlocked in the bonus menu. Hardcore indeed.
