4-2 · Mine · Lava · Two Gigantes · RE4

Chapter order: Mine Entrance: Merchant, typewriter and shooting range Game C → Mine Tunnel → mine: switches, dynamite (Dr. Salvador, 10,000pts) → Melting Furnace: two Gigantes (lava trapdoor) → Novistador cavern (two switches) → Stomping Stone Passage → Royal Insignia → stone lift.

BUY: Merchant, typewriter and shooting range at the start; it’s the last Merchant until 4-3. Nothing new: raise Rifle/TMP if you’re flush and keep 30,000pts for Salazar’s rocket. Don’t sell the Crown: the Royal Insignia completes it at the end of the chapter.

You’re still Leon, alone: Ashley has been kidnapped. The elevator at the end of 4-1 takes you down to the mines under the castle. It’s a short, combat-heavy chapter: a mine with villagers and a Dr. Salvador, a furnace where two Gigantes come at you together (you can drop one into the lava), a cavern full of flying Novistadors and a passage of crushing stones. It ends when you take the Royal Insignia, the last piece of the Salazar Family Crown, and ride its platform up.

Before you start

Merchant and typewriter: only at the Mine Entrance, at the start. There isn’t another one until the start of 4-3.
Chapter cash: 2,800pts + 5,000pts in the mine, 10,000pts from Dr. Salvador and 15,000pts for each Gigante you gun down. A Gigante that dies in the lava drops nothing. All told, up to 47,800pts, plus 35,000pts if you complete shooting range Game C.
Ammo: arrive with the shotgun (or Striker) full for Salvador and the Novistadors, and the TMP or rifle for the Gigantes. The furnace has a First Aid Spray, a Flash Grenade and shells.
Novistadors: in the cavern they keep coming. Don’t try to clear it: push on.
Point of no return: the Royal Insignia sits on the stone platform that takes you out of the mines. Once you take it and ride up, the chapter ends and you can’t go back to the entrance Merchant.

Mine Entrance: Merchant and shooting range Game C

The elevator drops you in a room with sandbags.

Merchant on the east side. In the barrels beside him, a Hand Grenade and a Spinel.
Typewriter and Handgun Ammo ×10 on the NE table. On the sandbags next to it, the file Luis’ Memo 2.
Green Herb opposite the elevator, in the SW corner.

Shooting range Game C. It opens here: 6 caps (the Merchant, the scythe, shield and crossbow zealots, the Leader Zealot and Don Pedro) and 35,000pts for the full set. Games A and B are still available.

What to buy: nothing new. Sell any treasures left over from 4-1, raise the firepower of whatever you’ll use on the Gigantes and save. Shop and upgrade before you go through the blue metal door.

Mine Tunnel

Go through the blue metal door. In the clearing in the middle there are 2 villagers. Velvet Blue in the right-most minecart and Handgun Ammo ×10 in a barrel by the minecarts. At the far end you drop down into the mine.

The mine: dynamite and Dr. Salvador

A huge boulder blocks the furnace door. To blow it up you need the dynamite from the minecart. There are 8 villagers spread around (2 by the furnace door).

Trolley switch (north side): pull it. The cart jams halfway, and one more villager shows up.
Circuit breaker (south side): to your right, up the stairs. Restore the power. As you head back to the switch, 5 villagers come in from the tunnel along with Dr. Salvador.
Kill Dr. Salvador: a shotgun blast to the face puts him on the floor; keep shooting while he’s down and back off again before he gets up. Never let him reach you: his chainsaw kills in one hit. He drops 10,000pts.
Pull the north switch again: the cart arrives. Take the Dynamite.
Set the dynamite on the boulder and move away. (A rocket also breaks it, but don’t waste one here.)

Pick up before moving on:

2,800pts on the boxes on the west side.
5,000pts on the ground in the far south corner.
Shotgun Shells ×5 on the boxes in the NW.
Velvet Blue in the minecart on the north side, next to the switch.
Magnum Ammo ×5 and a Hand Grenade in the barrels by the furnace door.

Boss — El Gigante ×2 (furnace)

Two Gigantes appear as you reach the middle of the room. One is a regular one; the other wears a mask and metal plates that stop part of your shots: aim for flesh. In the middle of the floor there’s a trapdoor over the smelter. On one side is a scaffold with a zipline, and on the other the trapdoor lever (north).

Before you start, pick up: a First Aid Spray on the SW rocks, a Flash Grenade on the south rocks and Shotgun Shells ×10 to the right of the lever.

Option 1: the lava (saves ammo, costs you 15,000pts).

Climb the ladder onto the scaffold. As soon as the Gigantes start shaking it, don’t wait: take the zipline over to the lever side.
When one steps onto the central trapdoor, pull the lever: it falls into the smelter and sinks.
Keep away from the edge while it sinks: it can grab Leon and drag him into the lava.
It only works once, and the other Gigante always walks around the pit. A Gigante that dies in the lava drops no money.

Option 2: gunfire (15,000pts each). The classic routine:

TMP or rifle to the head until it kneels and the parasite bursts out of its back.
Climb on (action button) and knife the parasite by mashing the prompt.
It usually takes three climbs; mash the prompt fast enough and two will do. You can also shoot the exposed parasite instead of climbing on.
With both of them at once, don’t get caught between them: use the scaffold and the zipline to open up distance so only one can reach you.

Killing both with gunfire gives 30,000pts. With the lava, only 15,000pts. After the fight the area by the cavern door opens up: an Incendiary Grenade and Shotgun Shells ×5 in the wooden crates.

Novistador cavern (Large Cave)

A tall cavern with a path that climbs along the sides, from platform to platform. Flying Novistadors keep coming for as long as you’re here.

One hit kills them in the air: shotgun or handgun while they fly. Kill the ones blocking you and keep climbing.
They drop Eyes at random (Red, Green or Blue): your chance to finish the Butterfly Lamps, especially the second one if you’re missing the blue.

The wax door. The central door is sealed with wax. Two switches in side caves light two beams that melt it:

Head up the path into the cave on the right (East Cavern): switch on the wall and a Green Herb on the east side. Novistadors ambush you on the way out.
Keep climbing to the cave on the left (West Cavern): second switch and a Green Herb in the NW. Another ambush on the way out.
With both beams lit, the door to the Stomping Stone Passage opens.

Pick up along the way: Green Herb in the east corner of the lowest level (by the furnace tunnel), Flash Grenade on the western path up, Shotgun Shells ×5 on the western platform, TMP Ammo ×50 in the NE of the long platform, Handgun Ammo ×10 by the East Cavern entrance and a Red Herb left of the wax door.

Stomping Stone Passage

Three stone blocks rise and fall to crush you.

Run under each stone just as it starts to rise.
After the second, pull the lever on your left: the middle stone stays put.
Shelter in the gap in the middle and pass the third as it rises.

South Cavern: the Royal Insignia (point of no return)

The Royal Insignia sits on the stone platform on the east side of the cavern. Taking it and riding the platform up ends the mines and the chapter: there’s no way back to the entrance Merchant.

Combine it with the Crown: with Verdugo’s Crown Jewel, the complete Salazar Family Crown is worth 48,000pts. Without the jewel, Crown + Insignia is worth 27,000pts. Sell it to the 4-3 Merchant, not piece by piece.