Resident Evil Requiem

There is no chapter select and no free roam after the credits, and almost everything is missable. You get 12 manual slots and 3 autosave slots: use a fresh one for every area (Wrenwood, Care Center, basement, courtyard, water plant, East Raccoon City, R.P.D., ARK).

The points of no return that hurt most:

• The VIP Suite elevator podium (chapter 6): locks the whole Care Center and courtyard.
• Blowing the East Raccoon City gate (chapter 9): locks the 3 BSAA containers and their Tracking Modules.
• The hole in the floor of the ruined orphanage (chapter 12): locks the R.P.D., Gun Shop Kendo and the downtown streets.
• The big console at the end of the Archives (chapter 14).

Files and Mr. Raccoons count across every save file: if you missed one, load an old slot, grab it and come back. Coins, charms, weapons and parts only count in the save you carry on from.

Grace has no parry and no block, and every bullet counts. Killing every zombie costs more than it gives back: go around, sneak crouched and use light and doors.

When you do kill, finish the job. Any zombie that dies with its head intact (no Hemolytic Injector, no finisher) can get up later as a Blister Head: faster, tougher and with a lethal grab. Don't leave 3 corpses in a room you will cross again, such as the Bar & Lounge after you take the S&S M232.

Antique Coins exist only in the Care Center and only Grace can pick them up. There are 22 and the Parlor's 4 lockers take 17:

• Hip Pouch: 3 coins, +2 slots. Buy it first.
• Override Manual: 6. Raises the Blood Collector's capacity from 100 to 150.
• Stabilizer: 4.
• Steroids: 4.

The Override Manual is more urgent than it looks: crafting a Stabilizer or Steroids from an Empty Injector costs 110 blood the first time (and 10 more each time), and only 100 fits without the manual. You can feed coins into the lockers a few at a time; no need to carry the full price.

The Requiem is the strongest gun in the game and has almost no ammo (12.7×55mm Ammo: each Rare Metal + 80 blood = 2 rounds). Keep it for The Girl, Blister Heads, Zombie Singers and three zombies in a line: the round pierces (challenge Bang for Your Buck).

Grace's hands shake: wait for the reticle to close before you fire. A centred shot hits harder and staggers more. Against an enemy that hasn't seen you the damage goes way up: with Stabilizers, one Requiem head shot can kill the Chef if he hasn't spotted you.

The Girl hunts by sound, won't enter lit rooms and backs away from light. She can't be killed until the Water Treatment Plant (chapter 8).

• Stay in lit rooms and cross dark ones crouched.
• Throw an Empty Bottle to send her elsewhere.
• The Lighter and the flashlight light the way but draw her in: switch them off when she is close.
• One Requiem shot or a Molotov Cocktail stuns her for a few seconds: use it to escape, not to fight.

Press L just before the hit with the Hatchet: the parry stops swipes, grabs, weapons and almost every boss melee attack. A perfect parry (at the very last moment) stuns and opens a finisher with ZR, which beheads: that zombie won't come back as a Blister Head.

The Hatchet dulls with use and a dull Hatchet can't parry. Sharpen it with L + Y when nobody is close: it's free, unlimited, and the axe never breaks for good. Kill armed zombies first and throw their own axes back at them with A.

The first Supply Box is at Central Camp (chapter 9), with the Tactical Tracker on top. A proven order:

• Case Upgrade (8×13): 4,000 credits. (IGN puts the Body Armor Lv.I first, and buys it on the way back from the Logistics Warehouse with the Distributor.)
• Sell the Alligator Snapper (1,000) and buy the Silencer 9 (5,500).
• Sell the MSBG 500 (2,500) and buy the 990-TAC (7,000).
• Body Armor Lv.I (8,000) and Body Armor Lv.II (15,000) before the Cedarbrook mortar roof.

Kill credits only register when you open a Supply Box. Selling a gun refunds only its base price; buy it back and it returns with its upgrades. Don't upgrade what you plan to sell.

Both are optional and missable:

• Chef (Kitchen, chapter 3; or as Leon in chapter 4): drops the Pantry Key. The Pantry holds Grace's Stakeout Takeout Charm (stronger, longer-lasting knives) and, in its Warped Closet, Leon's Connoisseur Charm. A Hemolytic Injector from behind kills him in one go. Challenge Order Up!.
• Chunk as Grace (he appears when you take the ID Wristband (Level 1)): 3 Hemolytic Injectors kill him and he drops the Eye Spy Charm (better odds of surviving fatal damage). Last chance: his return to the East Wing after you open Emily's cell.
• Both Zombie Singers (Bar & Lounge, and the lab next to the Conference Room): one Antique Coin each and the Deadly Duet challenge.

Difficulty is picked at the start and can't be changed. The one exception: on Standard (Modern), after several deaths, the Game Over screen offers to drop to Casual. Accept and it's permanent for that save, and it changes which difficulty challenge you earn.

If you want Rising Agent, say no and change tactics. Casual isn't a trap: health refills on its own up to yellow and items are in the same places.

The only choice that changes anything comes at the end of chapter 15. Release Elpis (password "Hope") is the true ending: it has the final boss, gives Hope and Requiem, is the only one that counts for Speed Demon and, per the wiki, unlocks Grace's Report (Game8 says any clear does).

There is an autosave just before Grace finds Leon: finish with Release Elpis, then load that autosave to watch the other ending.