Resident Evil Village

There is no chapter select and no free roam after the credits. The autosave is a single file that is overwritten at every checkpoint. Typewriters give you 20 manual slots, shared by every difficulty.

Use a fresh slot in each area: the village, the castle, House Beneviento, the reservoir, the Stronghold and the Factory. Those slots are your chapter select if you miss a treasure, a Goat of Warding or an outhouse.

Guarding with L cuts damage (it does not stop it) and makes you immune to grabs. Right after you block a melee hit, press L again: Ethan shoves the enemy back and you get a free head shot (challenge Push Comes to Shove).

It does nothing against a Soldat's drill, and the shove fails on almost every boss. On Village of Shadows one grab from a regular enemy puts you in the red: guard whenever something closes in.

There are two points of no return:

• The four-mask door (Hall of the Four, chapter 4): after it you never go back into the castle. The 19 windows, its Goats of Warding, the Flower Swords Ball labyrinth, the Treasure Map and the castle treasures are lost for that run.
• Heisenberg's Factory (chapter 11): finish all village business first: marked treasures, wells, animals, outhouses, the Vârcolac Alfa and Otto's Mill.

Save in a separate slot before each one.

Crates and barrels with yellow paint break: press the interact button next to one and Ethan pulls the Knife himself. They hold Lei, ammo or materials.

On the map (the − button), a red room still has items; blue means you emptied it; grey means you have not explored it. When you run short on ammo, go back to the red rooms.

Quality Meat, Juicy Game and Finest Fish each feed one dish, and there are no more in the run. Poultry is tight too: there is barely enough for the 12 the recipes need. Sell none of them.

Combinable treasures are worth more than twice as much together as apart. Read a treasure's text before selling it: if it says a piece is missing, keep it (treasures take no case space).

At the Vineyard (chapter 3) buy the Extra Baggage (S) for 10,000 Lei. Back from the castle, sell the Crystal Dimitrescu (25,000) and buy the Extra Baggage (M) for 30,000.

After that, upgrade only the guns you actually fire: the more damage each bullet does, the less ammo you use. Upgrades, parts and Lei carry into New Game+.

Health does not regenerate except near death: in the red it creeps back up to yellow, on every difficulty. Back off, wait and save the First Aid Med (a full heal; 1,000 Lei).

There are free scripted heals on entering Castle Dimitrescu (after the first cutscene) and during House Beneviento. Do not use a First Aid Med just before them.

From the YOU ARE DEAD screen you can open the Duke's shop and buy First Aid Meds before retrying. If the autosave left you in the red, load your manual save instead.

On Standard that screen also offers to drop you to Casual. It is one-way: you cannot go back to Standard afterwards.

A shot makes the Lycan howl and alerts the whole pack. Lycans crouched over a meal or watching from rooftops can be crept around: crouch with a right-stick press.

Lycans and Moroaică never drop ammo or healing, only Lei, materials and crystals. Every needless fight costs bullets you do not get back.

Rotate each item in the Key Items tab: several hide another. The Truck Key gives you the Screwdriver, Luiza's Necklace yields Luiza's Key, the Mounted Animal Skull gives the Animal Skull and the Maroon Eye Ring the Maroon Eye.

The Wedding Ring is engraved 052911. Safe and locker codes come from photos and notes in the same room: check the back of everything.