Side modes

It came with the Winters' Expansion and is available from the first run on Switch 2. Ethan is shown from behind; cutscenes stay first-person. Capcom recommends it if you get motion sick.

• How to switch: quit to the main menu, go to Options > Camera > View Mode, then load your game. Two sources on two platforms say it cannot be changed mid-game.
• Camera reset: press both sticks together (Type A).
• Shadows of Rose is third-person only; The Mercenaries is first-person only.
• One PC player could not take the film from the Mia doll's mouth in House Beneviento in third person. If an examine prompt misbehaves there, save, switch view from the main menu and reload.

After the credits, accept saving your completed game. Then go to Load Game, pick that save and any difficulty (Village of Shadows included). Nothing on screen says "NG+" and there is no chapter select.

Carries over: inventory, Lei, treasures, upgrades and parts, cooked dishes, recipes, the Duke's stock, destroyed Goats of Warding, files read, challenge progress and anything bought with CP.

Does not carry over: key items, map completion, opened outhouses, broken castle windows and play time. That is why the window, outhouse and map challenges must be done in a single run.

Switch 2 has no trophies: the same goals exist in the game as Challenges, which pay CP for the Extra Content Shop. There are 94. The menu (Bonuses > Challenges) appears once you finish the story, but what you do in your first run already counts.

The big payers: Universe's Best Dad (finish on Village of Shadows, 100,000), Knives Out (close-combat only, 70,000), Legendary Cowboy (S rank on the 8 base Mercenaries stages, 70,000), Dense Dad (no crafting, 45,000), Thank you for playing! (3 clears, 39,000) and Don't Trust That Snake Oil (4 heals or fewer, 35,000). Doing every challenge buys the whole shop with 9,100 CP to spare.

Suggested plan: a first Standard run for collectibles; then one New Game+ on Casual for Knives Out, under 3 hours, 4 heals and under 10,000 Lei spent at once; then Village of Shadows.

Best in New Game+ with all 6 dishes cooked.

• Weapons: the S.T.A.K.E. with infinite ammo is the key; the GM 79 (its infinite ammo can be bought as soon as you finish your first run) is fine up to Moreau; for Chris, the Dragoon with infinite ammo.
• Lycan ambush: barricade yourself in a house and shoot the door.
• Bela: kill the 2 Moroaică first, break the second window and heal in the dungeon corridor.
• Mutated Dimitrescu: during the swarm phase, stand in the small rooftop watchtower.
• Heisenberg: machine gun on the red weak points, a rocket when he charges; you can guard in the tank. Even guarding, 3 hits kill you.
• Chris: guard and run to the laser section; halfway up the ladder at the red-chimney house nothing reaches you.
• Uriaș Străjer: stay by his left knee and use the laser every time it recharges.
• Miranda: shoot or block the orbs and sidestep when the screen turns grey.

A timed arcade mode, first-person only and without infinite ammo. On the Gold Edition it should be in Bonuses from the start; if it is locked, finish the story and buy it for 10 CP in the Extra Content Shop.

• Kill the target number of enemies before time runs out and reach the goal. Yellow orbs: more time. Blue orbs: pick 1 of 3 abilities, which last the whole stage and stack.
• Kill within the combo window to multiply the time bonus.
• Your score adds area, time and the money you hold: sell what you will not use before the end. If you die, you keep your score.
• The Duke appears between areas: buy, sell and upgrade.
• Base stages: The Village → The Castle → The Factory → The Mad Village (an A rank on each opens the next), plus their II versions. Rank targets are on the paper in the starting room; for example, The Village asks 420,000 for A, 630,000 for S and 756,000 for SS. SSS gives nothing.

Tips: on the first 4, buy and upgrade the F2 Rifle; get a B on each first (+5,000 starting Lei). On the II stages, the Masamune ability with the Knife and the GM 79's Flashbangs tear through everything.

It is in the pause menu. Pictures are saved to the console's storage. The Photographer challenge pops when you close the mode, not when you open it.

The Winters' Expansion story episode. 2037, 16 years later: a teenage Rose enters the Megamycete's realm of consciousness to find a Purifying Crystal that will remove her powers. It opens from Bonuses > Shadows of Rose, with its own menu; it does not need a story clear.

• 3 parts: Castle Dimitrescu, House Beneviento and the Deep Stratum down to Memories' Edge. Capcom estimates about 4 hours.
• Difficulties: Casual (health regenerates on its own, aim assist), Standard and Hardcore (one hit leaves Rose critical). No Village of Shadows.
• Third-person only. When you die you see YOU ARE LOST.
• No Duke, no Lei, no upgrades: everything comes from the world, from crafting and from the gifts of "Michael", who writes hints on the walls. Talk to him every time you see him.
• You cannot go back to a finished area, and its map is no longer viewable.
• 19 files of its own. There are typewriters and plenty of autosave checkpoints.

Rose is slower than Ethan and cannot guard. She only has the LEMI, the M1897 and Pipe Bombs; the LEMI takes the High-Capacity Mag. and the Compensator.

Power: hold R (Type A) while aiming; the right stick fine-tunes.

• Destroying sclerotia (red, veined cores that anchor the black mould): free.
• Freezing enemies: costs 1 stock.
• Mold Counter: R when grabbed; costs stock and fails on an empty gauge.
• The gauge starts at 3 stocks; RW-Variant Flasks 3 and 4 raise it to 4 and 5.
• Sprig of White Sage: +2 stocks. Bunch of White Sage: fills it.
• Rose must be standing to use it.
• Final fight: it adds a dodge (free, with invincibility), absorbing projectiles (refills stocks) and a 3-stock short-range root attack. The game shows the buttons when it starts; on Type A they should be B to dodge and L to absorb (not confirmed on Switch 2).

4 recipes, learned from two castle files:

• First Aid Med: Herb + Chem Fluid.
• Handgun Ammo ×8: Gunpowder + Chem Fluid.
• Shotgun Ammo ×3: Gunpowder + Rusted Scrap.
• Pipe Bomb: Gunpowder + Herb + Rusted Scrap.

Every material is in the castle, and there are only 3 Rusted Scrap in the whole episode. For the Craftsmaster challenge (craft all 4): save before placing the last mask (Gold Mask), craft one of each and reload to get the materials back.

Expands The Mercenaries with new characters and stages (reached from Bonuses).

• Stages: The Bloody Village (opens with an A rank on The Mad Village) and The Bloody River (A rank on The Bloody Village), plus their II versions. Each run lets you reroll the abilities a few times.
• Chris: available from the start. USM-AI, Dragoon, Karambit Knife, Target Locator, grenades, punches and the Onslaught gauge (L + R when full).
• Heisenberg: A rank on the normal stages. Sources disagree between the 4 base stages and all 6. Hammer, scrap and saw blades, Soldat Jet and a magnetic field.
• Lady Dimitrescu: S rank on The Bloody River. Claws, fly swarms and a Thrill gauge; she heals with Sanguis Virginis.
• The Village of Blood and River of Blood challenges only ask you to clear each stage: easy with Chris.

Included in the Switch 2 Gold Edition:

• Samurai Edge - AW Model-01: a handgun the Duke sells for 200 Lei from the first meeting. It cannot be upgraded, has no infinite ammo and is barely better than a stock LEMI.
• Mr. Everywhere Weapon Charm: a free charm for the LEMI. Once attached, it cannot be removed.
• RE7 tape recorders instead of typewriters, the RE7 Found Footage filter and the "Go Tell Aunt Rhody" music: turn them on in Options > Special tab.
• Village of Shadows unlocked from the start.
• The "The Tragedy of Ethan Winters" art set (120 pieces) and The Baker Incident Report.

• Survival Resources Pack: free at the Duke once per run started from New Game: 30 Handgun Ammo, 5 Shotgun Ammo, 1 First Aid Med and 1 Lockpick. You need free space when you take it.
• Mr. Raccoon Weapon Charm: a free M1897 charm; it cannot be removed either.
• Street Wolf Outfit: a jacket with the Hound Wolf Squad logo for Rose in Shadows of Rose. The manual does not say where it is switched on on Switch 2; look in the episode's menu.
• Not on Switch 2: VR mode (PS VR2 only) and RE:Verse (no longer supported).

The charms are cosmetic and do not appear in The Mercenaries.

• Extra Content Shop (Bonuses): paid in CP. Whatever you buy appears at the Duke in any save, even old ones. CP cannot be refunded.
• Challenges, more Movies and the Concept Art and Figures viewers.
• The Mercenaries, if you did not have it yet.
• New Duke stock in New Game+: the S.T.A.K.E. (300,000) with its High-Capacity Mag. and Improved Grip, the V61 Custom - Drum Magazine, the SYG-12 - Long Barrel and SYG-12 - Drum Magazine, the WCX parts and the Magnum Ammo and Rifle Ammo recipes.
• The RE7 recap was already in Movies from the start, and the Gold Edition opens Village of Shadows from day one.

Bought with CP, then collected from the Duke for a little Lei:

• WCX (assault rifle): 30,000 CP; then 200 Lei.
• Karambit Knife: 10,000 CP; then 100 or 200 Lei (sources disagree).
• USM-AI (Chris's handgun): 20,000 CP; 350 Lei.
• Dragoon (Chris's rifle): 30,000 CP; 400 Lei.
• Handcannon PZ: 60,000 CP. Game8 says it needs a Hardcore or higher clear; another source says any difficulty. 1,100 Lei.
• Rocket Pistol: 80,000 CP, after a Village of Shadows clear. 1,500 Lei.
• LZ Answerer: 70,000 CP, with an SS rank on every Mercenaries stage (it is unclear whether the Bloody stages count). An energy blade: red attacks, blue defends and green heals on hit (it does not count as a heal for Don't Trust That Snake Oil).

Best value for a second run: the Dragoon and its infinite ammo.

Each gun has its own Infinite Ammo in the Extra Content Shop, but you can only buy it after you have fully upgraded it and fitted all its parts at least once. The GM 79, USM-AI and Dragoon only need to be owned; the Handcannon PZ only needs its levels.

Prices in CP: LEMI 10,000 · M1911 40,000 · V61 Custom 60,000 · M1897 20,000 · W870 TAC 50,000 · SYG-12 70,000 · F2 Rifle 80,000 · GM 79 80,000 · M1851 Wolfsbane 95,000 · S.T.A.K.E. 120,000 · WCX 60,000 · USM-AI 40,000 · Dragoon 50,000 · Handcannon PZ 90,000 · Rocket Pistol 100,000. The Samurai Edge has none.

Turn it on in Options > Game Settings, story only; you still reload. Trick: save, buy every upgrade and part, save in another slot, buy the infinite ammo with CP and load the earlier save: you get the Lei back and the infinite ammo stays available.

• B rank on the first 4 stages: +5,000 starting Lei on that stage.
• Ethan's exclusive abilities join the orb pool: Magic Magazine (The Village), Execution (The Castle), Lightning Speed (The Factory) and Masamune (The Mad Village). Sources disagree between A and S rank; aim for S.
• Heisenberg: A rank on the normal stages. Lady Dimitrescu: S rank on The Bloody River.
• LZ Answerer for the story: SS rank on every stage.
• Legendary Cowboy: S rank on the 8 base stages (70,000 CP); Gun Slinger: A rank on all of them (50,000 CP).
• SSS rank gives nothing.

• Figures: 76 models, 63 at 100 CP and 13 at 200 (boss forms, Heisenberg, Miranda, the WCX, the Handcannon PZ and the Rocket Pistol): 8,900 CP. Move the cursor over each one in Bonuses > Figures to clear its red marker: that is what counts for Doll Collector.
• Concept Art: 120 pieces at 100 CP: 12,000 CP (Art Collector, same method).
• The whole shop: 1,285,910 CP across weapons (300,000), infinite ammo (965,000), figures, art and The Mercenaries (10).
• There are no costumes for Ethan in the story. The only outfit is Rose's Street Wolf Outfit.

Village has no choices and no alternate endings. There is no secret ending for completing challenges either. The results screen shows only play time and difficulty, with no grade.

After the credits, accept saving your completed game: it is the door to New Game+ and the Extra Content Shop. If you decline, you will have to replay the final boss from a manual save.

None of this changes the ending, but it is easy to miss:

• The files in Miranda's lab (chapter 12): Miranda's Diary, the four lords' medical reports and Spencer's Letter. Read them before you break the padlock on the far door: after that they are gone.
• Mia's radio messages in House Beneviento (chapter 6): they foreshadow the big reveal about Ethan.
• Heisenberg's calls and signs (chapters 8-10) and his monologue in the Factory.
• Killing Uriaș in the chapter 2 ambush (challenge Timber) does not change the story.

During the credits the "Village of Shadows" tale ends, and then a storyboard tells of a family who came to the village during the Spanish flu: the father accepts Miranda's "cure" and becomes a Lycan.

The post-credits scene always plays: years later, a teenage Rose visits Ethan's grave; an agent calls her "Eveline", she threatens him and leaves with him. As the car pulls away, a lone figure walks toward it; the game never confirms who it is. The closing line: "The father's story is done."

Rose drains her power with the Purifying Crystal, then takes it back to save "Michael", who turns out to be her father. She destroys Miranda's archived consciousness, says goodbye to Ethan and keeps her powers. The ending leads into the grave scene from Village's post-credits.

No source documents anything unlocked by finishing it.

The Duke echoes the Merchant from Resident Evil 4 ("What are you buying?") and credits it to "an old friend". When Ethan asks what he is, he says even he cannot quite answer that. At the end he drives Ethan to the last battle in his carriage.

"Village of Shadows", the tale Mia reads to Rose in the prologue, foreshadows the plot: the girl meets the Bat Lord (Dimitrescu), the Dark Weaver (Beneviento), the Fish King (Moreau) and the Iron Steed (Heisenberg, the one who turns on her), and a witch (Miranda) traps her in a mirror. The father dies fighting the witch so mother and child can escape.

The tale returns as a film strip in House Beneviento's projector puzzle, and its ending plays over the credits.

• The four-houses crest (the one on the Giant's Chalice) inspired Umbrella's logo: Spencer's Letter, in Miranda's lab, says so.
• Ada Wong is not in the game. She only appears in "The Tragedy of Ethan Winters" concept art: a cut, mysterious masked character who saved Ethan.
• Bonuses > Movies has an RE7 recap from the start.

• 052911, engraved on the Wedding Ring: holding exactly 52,911 Lei gives Anniversary Present. Countdown asks for 54,321.
• Lucky Number 7 (777, 7,777 or 77,777 Lei): crafted Rifle Ammo sells for 7 Lei a round. Get down to 0 Lei and sell 111 rounds. Reload afterwards to get your money back.
• Goooaaal! (prologue): after carrying Rose upstairs, push the yellow ball from the baby's room into the study next door.
• Squawk Shot: shoot down 5 crows; on the second village visit there are 4 in the Graveyard.

• The Uriaș Drac at Beneviento's Grave will not cross an invisible line halfway up the stairs: hit its head, back off, repeat. The one at Otto's Mill: open with a head shot while it butchers meat.
• Your own Mines do not hurt you: the blast only throws you.
• Mutated Moreau takes damage while walking from the sluice to the arena: lay Mines on the way (they do ×3.0 to him).
• In the tank against Heisenberg you can keep guarding while you drive.
• Angie's hiding order has two variants: if you get the one you do not know, reload.
• Lady Dimitrescu does not enter the Merchant's Room or the Atelier: they are safe spots while she stalks you.