Resident Evil Requiem is a tough game, with plenty of challenges for series veterans and newbies alike. It’s packed with various environmental puzzles, locking you out of rooms in your travels. It’s also absolutely stuffed with zombies and mutated beasts, all of which require new tactics to defeat.
You can certainly figure out this game’s nuances on your own but if you’d like a head start, read on. In my time with the game, I’ve experienced everything it has to offer, and earned plenty of wisdom along the way.
Here’s all my best advice for surviving the perils and pitfalls of Resident Evil Requiem, with your best foot forward.
Resident Evil Requiem survival tips – quick links
1. Prioritise picking up scraps and green herbs
In your travels through Resident Evil Requiem, you’ll pick up an array of items, each with their own special uses. Unfortunately, you’ll only have limited space to store these items, so you will need to pick and choose what you keep, and what you combine.
If you’re running out of space, you should focus on picking up two key items: scraps and green herbs. Scraps can be combined with gunpowder or infected blood to create ammunition, so they’re essential to have in your inventory. Green herbs, as in other Resident Evil games, can heal you, and be combined to create more powerful healing items.
In your journey, these will be the most useful items. You should pick them up and fit them into your inventory whenever you can – and if you come across them, but don’t need them or can’t fit them, leave them until you can.
2. Get any pouch upgrades as a priority
As mentioned, you’ll have limited space to store items in Requiem. But this can change, as you discover various pouch upgrades in your travels, which can add in extra slots. Early into the game, you will stumble across a Parlour in the Rhodes Hill location. It contains various machines housing upgrades, including a pouch upgrade. As you gather coins to unlock these machines, focus on upgrading your pouch first.
It’s the most necessary and useful upgrade offered, and will set you up for success.
3. Unlock each and every safe in Resident Evil Requiem
Each and every safe in Resident Evil Requiem contains a useful item. One contains a pouch upgrade. Others contain healing items and ammunition. You should make time to unlock each and every safe you discover, even when it requires some backtracking.
While all of the game’s safes are locked when you encounter them, you can find the solution to each combination lock hiding on scattered documents. Search widely for this information, and you should get by.
If you’re less fussed about doing the legwork, you can also check out ScreenHub‘s complete guide to the game’s safes, complete with safe code solutions for each location.
4. Always keep a full tank of infected blood on you
Mid-way through Grace’s story, you’ll gain the ability to use a tool to absorb infected blood from the ground. You’ll find it in various puddles and buckets, in various volumes. While it seems fairly icky, it’s a very useful tool. Combining it with items including scraps, you can craft ammunition that might just save your life.
While you can’t use infected blood on its own, you’ll want to keep a full tank of stock as you roam, because if you encounter any useful items for combination, you’ll be able to stock up on bullets, and protect yourself in a pinch.
5. Focus on upgrades for Leon’s body armour in his gameplay segment
Avoiding spoilers entirely, there is one segment in Resident Evil Requiem where Leon is able to unlock upgrades by dispatching enemies. You get access to an array of options here, with points able to be spent on gun upgrades or item purchases.
Before you spend your well-earned points on guns, you should actually check out the main menu of this upgrade system, and grab two levels of upgrades for Leon’s body armour. This will serve you very well as you take on the zombie hordes.
6. Grace only needs one pistol, keep her inventory open
In your journey as Grace, you’ll pick up an array of weapons, including multiple pistols. In my playthrough, I found only one pistol was ever necessary for my fights. Any more will clog up your inventory.
As you find new weapons, it’s best to test them out and decide on a favourite. Then, only keep that weapon (and potentially another, of a different kind) on you. You’ll really want more space for healing items when you have a small inventory, so you need to make clever choices about what to store.
7. Yes, all monsters are killable in Resident Evil Requiem
This is a lesson you’ll only learn after have defeated some of the bigger bosses in Requiem. At various points in the story, you’ll encounter grotesque, towering enemies that appear to be bulletproof. You’ll keep firing, and firing, and they won’t go down.
This is a brief piece of advice to say you can and will defeat them… eventually. All of the game’s larger bosses, even the ones that seem optional, can be put down with enough firepower. You don’t need to be wandering Rhodes Hill, terrified that you’ll run into a towering, door-blocking beastie. Take time (and many bullets) to defeat them, however long it takes, and you’ll have a much better time exploring.
8. Be patient if you’re locked out of rooms, there is a flow to be observed
At points in Resident Evil Requiem, you will be locked out of certain rooms. Either the door will be closed, the entrance point will break, or there will be some obstacle in your way. You’ll always make your way back to that space eventually, but patience is typically needed.
You won’t usually find the solution in the nearby area. Instead, you’ll need to pursue leads in other corners of the map. While this means some backtracking is necessary, it does also build anticipation for what’s next.
9. Revisit all areas as soon as you get key items (and use the map)
The Requiem map is very useful for figuring out where you’ve been and where you can’t yet reach. It’s also very useful for finding your way once you gain new, key items. These are found throughout the game (they’re typically marked by a logo of a bin with a cross through it, indicating you can’t discard it) and they all serve various purposes.
If you’ve gotten stuck at any point, and you discover a new key item, it’s best to finish up your latest task and then use the map to figure out where to go next. Interest points are marked with an exclamation mark {1} and a description that will indicate which key item may help.
For one example, if you discover a pristine metal wheel, you’ll likely find it useful to open a door that has a missing or broken wheel.
10. Pace yourself for a much longer Resident Evil game
On concluding Resident Evil Requiem, I was fairly surprised to note its length. This game is significantly longer than Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 3 (which are core inspirations) and I didn’t expect this.
The best thing to do, as you embark on your journey, is to prepare for a longer adventure. While you can mistake the highs and lows of tension for a grand finale, note that the game has various ebbs and flows, and that what you think is the ending might not actually be so.
Take your time and enjoy the ride. It’s a long one, and it’s entirely brilliant.
