Resident Evil 6

A shot to the head, an arm or a leg staggers the enemy: walk up and press ZR to strike. After a headshot you throw them from the front or land a coup de grâce from the side. A leg shot drops them to one knee. If the enemy hasn't noticed you, a strike from behind doesn't even need a stagger first.

Quick Shot (ZL + ZR together, 1 block of the combat gauge) is your panic button: it aims itself at the nearest enemy, even one behind you, and always staggers it. Follow it with a strike and you save bullets.

Each tablet (R) restores 1 health block and refills the whole combat gauge. Take it next to your partner and it heals them too. A First Aid Spray (picked with D-pad up/down, like grenades) fills health and combat gauge for both of you if you're close.

Group up before you heal. When you're both gassed mid-fight, a single tablet side by side resets both combat gauges.

Herbs aren't eaten: they turn into tablets (Health Tablet) that go in the case.

• Green Herb alone = 1 tablet.
• Green + Green = 3.
• Green + Green + Green = 6.
• Green + Red Herb = 6.

A Red Herb alone is useless: hold it until the next Green. Never convert a lone Green. The case caps at 17 tablets and refuses a mix that would go over (at 12, a Green + Red won't fit: eat a few first). R + Y mixes and stores whatever you carry.

Below your health sits the combat gauge (5 blocks). Strikes (the first hit of the 2-hit combo is free), Quick Shots and special melee spend it. Spend the last block before it has refilled and it turns red: you can't sprint, you only get a weak strike, you move 12.5 % slower and it takes three times as long to come back.

Standing still you regain 1 block every 3 s; walking or aiming, every 6 s; lying on the ground, 1 per second. After a fight, drop onto your back (ZL + stick back + B) in a quiet corner and it's full in about 5 s.

The inventory (X) and the COMs Device (−) run in real time: enemies keep attacking while you choose. Swap weapons, mix herbs and change skill sets somewhere quiet.

You can only pause with + when playing offline: in System Settings set Network Selection to Offline before you start. That also keeps Agent Hunt players out of your game.

At zero health you enter the Dying state: you can only aim and fire the weapon you had, with no reload or swap. Any hit while Dying kills you, and if both of you are down at once, it's Game Over.

To lift your partner: A next to them gets them up with no health (Treatment); R next to them spends your tablets, one per press, and gets them up healed (Revive). If nothing hits you, you get up on your own after 15 s. Also free a grabbed partner with A: it costs no combat gauge and earns Skill Points.

There's no shop and no money: your progression is skills, bought with Skill Points (SP) on the end-of-chapter screen or from Play Game → Campaign → Skill Settings. SP are shared by every character and campaign.

Buys that help any pair on Normal:

• Defense Lv1 (3,200) and Breakout (2,800).
• Critical Hit Lv1 (3,500) and Item Drop Increase (3,500).
• Zombie Hunter or J'avo Killer Lv1 (3,000 each; they unlock after 30 zombie or 30 J'avo kills).
• Then save up for Firearm Lv1 (12,000).

Don't buy Team-Up, Field Medic or Lone Wolf: they only affect an AI partner and do nothing in local co-op.

L shows the route guide: the marker and the distance to the objective. In Options → Game Settings, Icon Display: Auto keeps it on screen all the time (a Switch-only value).

In split screen you both want it handy: the game often sends you down separate routes, each with its own objective.

Many scenes ask you to press or mash a button (QTEs), and failing one usually means Game Over. In Options → Game Settings, Action Button Assist: Auto (Switch only) completes many of them for you on any difficulty. Picking Amateur offers to switch it on.

The Switch letter appears on screen: press what you see. The usual ones are B (action and mashing), A (partner actions) and ZR (strikes and counters). No source says the assist locks anything out.

There is no manual save. If you die, you go back to the last checkpoint (pin icon). But if you quit the game, you come back at the last main checkpoint (the "typewriter" ones, like the gun shop in Leon 1) and lose whatever you picked up since.

Before quitting, wait for the Saving... text to disappear. Serpent Emblems are the exception: they count the moment you break them, so you can quit right then.