Resident Evil Village: 13 Essential Tips for Getting Started

Video Guide – 13 Essential Tips

Get Every Advantage in Combat

• Resident Evil Village will often throw small groups of enemies at you, and unlike the shambling zombies of games past, lycans move in quick to stalk, strafe, and lunge at you. Make sure you utilize everything around you to even the playing field – look for shelves to push in front of openings or bags of flour you can hit to blind opponents, giving you more time to get off precise shots on distracted foes.

• Many enemies can wield weapons that will deal even more damage than usual – but you can shoot them in the leg to knock them down and give yourself a bit of breathing room, or permanently disarm them with a shot to the arm.

• Ethan’s new combat training means you can not only block incoming attacks, but briefly holding block when an enemy strikes – instead of just tapping the button – will stop their advance for a moment, allowing you to tap the block button once more to push the enemy back, which usually stuns them just long enough to line up a headshot.

• If you’re having trouble aiming, try adjusting the settings for camera and aim acceleration in the options menu. It will feel different for each person, but we found turning it all the way off makes aiming accurately much easier.

Explore Everywhere

• Yellow is the most important color in Village. Not only does it signify interactive objects, it can also help point the way forward or to helpful items and areas – so keep your eyes peeled. Breakable crates, ladders, switches, even birdcages will all have splashes of yellow, and if you see a yellow rope on the ground, it may lead you to pools of water with fish you can hunt.

Making the Most of Inventory Space

• Your inventory works a bit differently than in previous Resident Evil games. While it’s similar in style to RE 4, you don’t have to worry about juggling keys or crafting components. With this in mind, grab every gunpowder, herb, and resource you can find – if you’re worried about running out of actual inventory space, just wait until you need to heal or reload to start crafting.

• Speaking of inventory management, you’ll eventually find alternate pistols and shotguns to use. If you like one variant over the other, don’t be afraid to sell it to The Duke to make a tidy sum and free up some space. He’ll even pay more if you’ve upgraded it a bit first.

• That said, if you are going to sell your extra pistol or shotgun, be sure not to waste ammo by using up the entire clip first before swapping to your new weapon. Every bullet counts!

• One thing that does take up inventory space is animal and fish meat you can start harvesting a little ways into the game. You can unlock permanent upgrades from The Duke with enough ingredients, but the good news is he doesn’t need all the ingredients at once, so offload your meats to him often to free up room.

Know the Real Worth of Treasure

• There’s a lot of treasure to be found in Village, but be sure to take a moment to inspect it all. Sometimes treasure can be combined to increase its value by a huge amount, so it’s worth waiting until you find the other part before combining and selling it as one item.

• Some treasure can be harder to spot than others, so be sure to inspect the environment carefully. If you see a glowing spot on a wall or ceiling, shoot it down to collect valuable crystals. You can also listen for the faint creaking noise of bird cages twisting in the wind to shoot them down from the trees.

Enjoy Your Stay in The Village

• You’ll be returning to the Village itself several times over the course of your adventure, but it will be at least a little different each time. Be sure to revisit previously explored areas to find new enemies, animals, and pathways to travel that you weren’t there before.

• Unlike the bulk of the Village, there are certain contained areas of the game you won’t be able to return to for various reasons. Some are small like Luiza’s house in the village, and others can include much larger regions – we won’t list them all here for obvious spoiler reasons, but always be sure to make one last sweep of an area before leaving to get any last hidden treasures, or you may miss out on some good loot that will be forever out of your reach.