Guide

As in RE4, you can't move while aiming. The essentials:

• 180° turn: run + left stick back.
• Knife: knife button + fire; the right stick changes the slash direction.
• Locate partner: the locate button swings the camera towards them. Hold it and press aim to turn and aim their way instantly.
• Orders: hold the partner button and press the D-pad (Cover / Attack).
• Taunt: click both sticks (that's the PS3 input). It pulls Majini towards you.

There are 4 control types (Type A–D) and none can be customised. On PS4 the default is Type D (triggers aim and fire like a shooter). Capcom's web manual has no Switch version, so we can't confirm its button map. What we do know about Switch: a launch patch added gyro aiming, it runs at about 30 fps with drops, and split screen drops further. On Switch 2 you play the Switch version through backward compatibility (there's no native edition).

If your options menu has Action Assist (on by default on PS4), it eases the rapid-press prompts and makes your partner reach you faster when you're in HELP or DYING.

There are no typewriters and no save rooms. The game saves on its own when a chapter starts and when you quit from the pause menu. Inside a chapter there are invisible checkpoints: the word “Checkpoint” flashes on screen.

• Restart (pause menu) takes you back to the last checkpoint.
• After a game over, Continue: Yes takes you back to the last checkpoint.
• Either way you go through Item Management first: dying is a free trip to the shop.

Progress belongs to the profile, not a slot: money, weapons, upgrades and cleared chapters are the same on every difficulty. If a two-person mechanism gets stuck after a co-op session ends, use Restart from the pause menu.

Each character carries a 3×3 grid, one item per slot whatever its size: a Herb (Green) takes as much room as the Grenade Launcher. There are no expansions. Each vest also takes a slot.

• Ammo per slot (fan guides): handgun 50, machine gun 150, shotgun 30, rifle 30, magnum 12.
• Grenades: 5 per slot. Eggs: 5 per type.
• Commands: Equip, Use, Give (to your partner), Combine, Discard. From your partner's menu you can ask for an item (Request).

Weapons can't be passed to an online partner; solo and in split screen they can. The Item Management storage has 54 spaces and stacks up to 999 per space (Fandom, no second source).

There's no Merchant. The shop is the Item Management screen (Organize / Buy / Ready) that opens before every chapter, on Continue and on Restart. In co-op both players must pick Ready.

• First Aid Spray: ₦1,000.
• Melee Vest and Bulletproof Vest: ₦10,000 each.
• Proximity Bomb: ₦1,500 for a pack of 5.
• Grenade Launcher rounds, packs of 12: Explosive ₦4,800, Nitrogen ₦4,800, Acid ₦2,400, Flame ₦2,400, Electric ₦1,200, Flash ₦600.
• Rocket Launcher: ₦10,000 (after clearing 3-1).

A weapon enters the shop when you pick it up, or when its chapter is cleared if you missed it. Upgrade levels open as the story advances. Selling an unupgraded gun returns 10% of its price, and you keep the ammo that was loaded in it.

They're bought on the Organize screen, one level at a time. Every gun has Firepower, Reload Speed and Capacity, and some have a fourth stat: Critical, Piercing, Range or Scope. Upgrades live on that particular gun.

• Levels open by chapter: almost nothing at first, everything on sale from 6-2.
• The S&W M29 is the first gun you can max: at 3-3, or 4-1 at the latest.
• Late guns (H&K P8 in 3-1, SIG P226 and AK-74 in 5-1, SIG 556 in 5-2, H&K PSG-1 and L. Hawk in 5-3, Jail Breaker in 6-1) arrive with most of their levels already on sale.
• The Grenade Launcher, Rocket Launcher, Stun Rod, Gatling Gun and Longbow can't be upgraded.

The only “crafting” is combining herbs and merging ammo. There are just two mixes: Herb (G+G) and Herb (G+R). There's no G+G+G, no yellow herb, no max-health upgrades, no poison and no regeneration.

• Herb (Green) 25% · Herb (G+G) 60% · Herb (G+R) 100% · First Aid Spray 100%.
• Herbs and sprays heal both of you if you're together.
• Egg (White) 25% · Egg (Brown) 50% · Egg (Gold) 100%, only for whoever eats it.
• The Egg (Rotten) is a weapon: thrown, it kills a regular Majini outright and no Plaga comes out.

AI Sheva hands you a Herb (Red) when you're holding a green one, and gives you ammo when you run low.

RE5 has no block and no parry. You defend yourself like this:

• Dodge prompts on screen (two buttons or the stick) during certain attacks; the window shrinks on higher difficulties. On Professional the first press counts: a wrong button or mashing fails.
• The 180° turn to get out of a crowd.
• Invincibility while picking up items, climbing or dropping ladders and ledges, rescuing your partner and during melee attacks. You aren't invincible while held, but you are as you break free.
• HELP: when grabbed, mash the prompt. Your partner frees you with their button or by shooting the enemy.
• Vests: the Melee Vest halves physical damage and the Bulletproof Vest halves firearm and ranged damage. You can wear both (2 slots).

Each melee depends on where you stunned the enemy and where you come from:

• Head: Chris Straight / Sheva Roundhouse.
• Leg, from the front: Uppercut / Somersault.
• Leg, from behind: Neck Breaker / Throat Slit (instant kill, no Plaga).
• Arm: Hook or Kick / Twist Kick or Knee.
• On the ground: Stomp / Impale; over the head it's a critical.

Tag-team combo: after one partner's melee, the other adds theirs while the enemy is still reeling, and the first finishes. Chris's finisher (Haymaker or Backhand) does 3,000 damage; Sheva's (Skull Crusher or Spinning Back Kick) kills outright. Use it on the Executioner Majini, Chainsaw Majini, Big Man Majini and Gatling Gun Majini. Two simultaneous hits on a stunned arm or leg break the chain. The three-hit combo earns The Works.

Two stances (hold the partner button + D-pad): Cover stays close and protects you; Attack acts on its own and picks up more items. Use Cover in fights and Attack once an area is clear or against bosses.

• It aims very well, even with a handgun at long range, but burns ammo fast.
• It uses herbs and sprays when it sees fit and sometimes wastes them.
• Partner actions: boosts and assisted jumps, double kicks on doors, cranks, giving items and rescues.
• Press the partner button while far from them and you're stuck in a waiting stance: cancel it with the action button.
• On Professional, solo, enemies go almost only for you.

After clearing the campaign you can play as Sheva with Chris as the AI. Sheva is left-handed: the over-the-shoulder camera sits on the other side.

• Split screen: a second controller joins at any time by pressing START. The game returns to Item Management and reloads the last checkpoint. To stop, pick Quit from the pause menu.
• Online: the host starts from New Game or Chapter Select; whoever joins waits for the next checkpoint.
• Friendly Fire is a session setting: if you allow it, your shots hurt your partner and theirs hurt you.
• The guest can't buy, sell or upgrade in Item Management (from one Japanese guide); they can still pass items.

The guest trap: whoever joins mid-chapter gets no rank and doesn't mark it as cleared. If you later find chapters missing for the “all chapters” awards, infinite ammo or costumes, replay them as host or solo. Check Records or the Chapter Select previews.

The game splits you up on purpose in several places: the mines crank (2-2), the temple mirrors (4-2), the ship's cage (6-1) and the volcano (6-3).

Amateur, Normal and Veteran are open from the start. Professional opens after every chapter is cleared on Veteran. Treasure is the same on all of them.

• Amateur: plenty of ammo, longer prompts. The Chainsaw Majini doesn't get back up.
• Normal: the baseline, with a hidden adjustment based on how you play.
• Veteran: tougher, harder-hitting enemies, less ammo, shorter prompts and a faster DYING drain. The Chainsaw Majini always gets back up.
• Professional: you deal 85% damage; enemies' weapon attacks do 10 times the damage; any Majini attack puts you in DYING; under 3 seconds for the rescue; fixed ammo pickups are gone; enemies and crates no longer drop herbs; money pickups are doubled (a ₦3,000 gold bar gives ₦6,000).

Vehicle health also drops (such as the 2-3 turret or the boat) and some bosses change: the 1-2 Uroboros can survive one furnace trap on Veteran and two on Professional.

• Dynamic difficulty (Normal): playing well raises a hidden value; that's why the Chainsaw Majini gets up on Normal only if you haven't died. Its full table isn't known.
• Emergency drops: when you're struggling, enemies drop extra herbs or ammo. Professional removes this.
• What drops: it favours ammo for the guns you or your partner carry and are short on. Machine gun ammo only appears if someone carries a machine gun without infinite ammo; with only infinite guns, handgun ammo drops.
• Plagas: a Majini killed on the ground doesn't become a Duvalia; a Kipepeo carrier killed indoors just loses its head.
• Base Majini: if it's covered in bubbles, it's turning into a Duvalia; if it swells up, clutches its head and smokes from the back, it's about to explode (one more shot and it blows at once).

Each chapter is graded on accuracy, enemies killed, deaths and time, each from S to C. For an S: 70% accuracy and 0 deaths everywhere; kills and time vary per chapter. Examples: 1-1 = 20 kills and 12:00; 2-3 = 40 and 9:00; 5-3 = 30 and 38:00.

The rank pays Exchange Points (EP) for Bonus Features. On Normal: S 1,500, A 1,000, B 800. On Professional: S 2,500, A 2,000. The Mercenaries pays far more: SS = 5,000 EP.

Every continue counts as a death. One Steam guide says choosing Quit, then Continue from the Play Game menu, returns you to the same checkpoint without counting the death (no second source).

• Quick reload: open the inventory and combine ammo with the gun. It skips the animation; you notice it on shotguns, rifles and magnums. It even works during a melee, a ladder or an item pickup.
• Reload cancel: start a reload and immediately press the melee prompt. The gun stays reloaded and you save 30-80% of the time.
• Capacity = a free full magazine when you buy it.
• Selling a gun gives you back the ammo that was loaded in it.
• With infinite ammo on there's no reloading.

Give Sheva a handgun (the commonest ammo) and a machine gun, such as the H&K MP5, with its ammo. A shotgun in her hands is good for knocking down groups. Carry the First Aid Spray and the Herb (G+R) yourself; give her only loose herbs so she doesn't waste your best healing.

The unarmed partner trick: take away all her firearms (the Stun Rod can stay) and use her as 9 extra storage slots. She won't spend your ammo and she hides more. The cost: less firepower, and in some places you need her to shoot (the turrets, Wesker and Jill in 5-3, the laser against Uroboros Aheri). Treat it as an option, not a rule.

• Don't use the same ammo type. Give passes fixed chunks (20 handgun, 100 machine gun, 10 shotgun, 10 rifle, 6 magnum, per a fan guide) and stacks don't split evenly.
• Both carry a shotgun: it's what knocks down the Big Man Majini, the Giant Majini and the Gatling Gun Majini.
• Time your shots: a hit to another spot on a stunned enemy breaks your partner's melee.
• Heal together: one herb serves both.
• Cover each other's blind spots and check your partner's inventory now and then.
• Use the send-out order and the laser sight to point at a spot; don't spam Call.

A Majini killed by damage can burst into a Plaga (Cephalo, Duvalia, Kipepeo or Bui Kichwa). You prevent it by killing with the rear melee, the Stun Rod, the Rocket Launcher, a Nitrogen round or an Egg (Rotten).

The Flash Grenade and the Flash round kill any exposed Plaga outright, including a split-head Adjule and Bui Kichwa swarms (two kills with one grenade = Go into the Light). They don't work on gas-mask Base Majini, the Giant Majini or the sunglasses-wearing Gatling Gun Majini. Up close the flash blinds you too.

Back away from a Cephalo (it has a long reach) and shoot the Plaga, not the body. Climb a ladder to escape a Duvalia: it can't follow.

• Big Man Majini: shotgun blast → he blocks → melee and tag-team combo. Drops a Jewel Bangle (₦1,000).
• Chainsaw Majini: never up close. Lure him onto a Proximity Bomb, hit him while he's down, repeat. Fire (Incendiary Grenade or oil) stuns him. If he gets back up, two grenades as he rises.
• Executioner Majini: the Hand Grenade, the Proximity Bomb and most Grenade Launcher rounds always drop him to his knees; then melee.
• Gatling Gun Majini: shoot him before the barrel spins up (you can't hurt him while he fires). Against the 6-3 pair, one rocket at the ground between them.
• Giant Majini: its head is bulletproof. Shoot the torso, back or legs; handguns and machine guns do very little.

Licker β: walk with your weapon lowered and don't shoot, and it won't notice you. Its pounce kills outright if you don't dodge. Against groups, use a shotgun, a magnum or Acid rounds. Knocked onto its back, the heart stab kills it (Heart Stopper). It can drop a Lion Heart (₦2,500).

Reaper: its weak spots are the glowing belly sac and the two sacs on its back. Grenades, Explosive rounds and the Proximity Bomb don't kill it but leave it at 1 HP: finish it with any bullet to a weak spot. Electric rounds work, fire doesn't. In 5-2 you can lead it into the incinerator. Its grab kills outright: keep your distance. It drops a Power Stone (₦5,000).

• Shoot the dynamite, Molotov or grenade in a Majini's hand: it blows up among his group (Fireworks).
• Rockets fired at you can be shot out of the air.
• A placed Proximity Bomb goes off if you shoot it, and you can pick it back up.
• Explosive barrels, oil canisters and downed transformers kill groups (Baptism by Fire, Stop, Drop, & Roll, Ride the Lightning).
• A thrown Egg (Rotten) kills a Majini; the other eggs do 300 damage and can stun.
• Shoot a biker's arm while he holds a Molotov: he drops it on himself.
• Wooden doors break under gunfire.

• Using a lone Herb (Green) or Herb (Red) instead of combining it.
• Healing away from your partner: you lose the double heal.
• Letting the AI hold your only healing or spend your rare ammo.
• Opening the inventory mid-fight thinking it pauses.
• Spreading your money across every gun.
• Selling or eating an Egg (Rotten) without thinking: it's worth ₦2,000 and kills a Majini in one hit.
• Shooting a Majini dead when a Plaga could come out.
• Knifing like in RE4: Majini recover fast and surround you.
• Answering “No” when quitting and losing everything you picked up.
• Expecting an egg to heal you both.

Maxing every gun costs a fortune. The best farms from Chapter Select (quit with Yes and repeat):

• 4-1, start of the caves: about ₦8,000 in gems before the first door. The full route to the Popokarimu (Soul Gem, ₦10,000) nets ₦35,000-40,000 in about 15 minutes.
• 3-1: about ₦10,000 in gems and beetles, plus a free Rocket Launcher in the sunken boat.
• 5-1, Progenitor Virus House (the opening garden has no enemies): the Licker β drop Lion Hearts; a 6-7 minute run leaves ₦7,000 to ₦10,000. The 5-2 Licker passageway pays better: about ₦12,500 a run if you quit and save before crossing the door.
• 5-3: the safe up the first ladder, to the left, holds a ₦3,000 gem.

On Professional, money pickups are worth double.

• Skip cutscenes (SELECT on PS3).
• Kill lone Majini with the rear melee: it's the fastest and leaves no Plaga.
• In the 1-1 horde, the section ends when Kirk's helicopter blows open the second gate.
• Against Wesker in 5-3, break his line of sight in the corridors: when he can't see you he walks slowly.
• The infinite Rocket Launcher takes out almost every boss in one hit.
• If a run goes wrong, don't continue: quit and restart the chapter.

Target times from a Steam guide (they add up to 4:00): 1-1 10:00, 1-2 7:00, 2-1 13:30, 2-2 11:00, 2-3 13:30, 3-1 13:30, 3-2 13:45, 3-3 12:15, 4-1 17:15, 4-2 12:30, 5-1 7:00, 5-2 18:00, 5-3 30:00, 6-1 20:00, 6-2 20:00, 6-3 20:00.

• Bring guns with infinite ammo, and the infinite Rocket Launcher if you have it.
• Stay glued to your partner: the rescue window is under 3 seconds.
• Press the exact button on every prompt; mashing fails.
• Herbs no longer drop: buy First Aid Spray and wear both vests.
• Any Majini hit puts you in DYING: don't let them get close.
• Many players rate the Ndesu (end of 2-3) as the hardest fight: you're stuck on the vehicle's turret while Majini hit you from the sides.