Resident Evil 4 Remakepits Leon against an endless horde of parasitic monsters. The game’s combat has a unique rhythm to it that’s much more than just shooting enemies until they stop moving. Between managing limited resources, finding safe positions, and keeping the swarm at bay, you’ll have a lot on your hands in every fight.
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Mastering the flow of combat is essential to finishing the game, and each new enemy will present unique challenges. Use these tried-and-true tactics to survive any dangerous situation that the Los Illuminados cult throws at you!
7Melee Followups Are Key
If you master one combat trick in Resident Evil 4 Remake, it should be the melee followup. Nearly every enemy in the game can bestaggered by a sufficiently powerful attack- in most cases, a headshot - allowing Leon to deliver a roundhouse kick if he’s within melee range. This kick deals considerable damage (often enough to kill a basic enemy that’s already taken damage) and canpush back nearby foes as well.
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Kicking enemies frequently allows you to save a huge amount of ammo over the course of the game. It’s also your surest means of crowd control in close quarters. If you have an opportunity to deliver a melee followup,always take it.
6You Can Parry Now!
A new feature in the remake is the ability toparry enemy attacks with the knife.While there’s technically an indicator that appears just before an attack connects, it’sin the corner of the screen by your health and ammo icons, making it less helpful. You’re better off learning the correct timing from visual cues alone.
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It’s pretty surprising just how many attacks Leon can parry - even blocks that shouldn’t physically possible, likeparrying a chainsaw- can be pulled off. Just be sure to watch your knife’s durability! Speaking of which…
5Save Your Knife For Emergencies
Leon’s combat knife was a key element of pro-level play in the original game, so veteran players might be in for a shock when they discover thatthe knife can break now.Using your knife will erode its durability, eventually requiring you topay the Merchant for repairs.
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You can find kitchen knives with much lower durability than the main combat knife, but these are also used as crafting components, so you’ll need to decide how you plan to utilize them. At the end of the day, it’s best toreserve knife attacks for finishers and parriesso that you can extend its life as long as possible and minimize the need for repairs.
4Shoot Enemy Weapons And Explosives
Many enemies allow for trick shots that are both efficient and satisfying if you’re able to pull them off. The most basic is toshoot a thrown hatchet out of the air, but there are plenty of opportunities to flex your marksmanship as you fight the Ganados.
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If an enemy is carrying a stick of dynamite, a Molotov cocktail, or other combustible, you canshoot it in their handto cause it to detonate. This almost always kills the enemy outright, along with any others nearby. Just be sure that you aren’t too close to the blast yourself!
3Flash Grenades Kill Plagas
At their most basic, Flash Grenades are used tostun groups of enemies, allowing you to easily perform a melee followup or knife finisher. As fans of the original game know well, however, there’s a much more important use for Flash Grenades, making themone of the most important items in your arsenal.
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Usually once or twice per fight, defeated enemies will resurrect, their body controlled by the Plaga parasite. Plagas have lethal attacks and lots of resilience, making them a huge threat. Luckily, they’re extremely light-sensitive; a Flash Grenade willinstantly kill any and all active Plagascaught in its blast.
Flash Grenades won’t kill a Plaga that’s still inside a living host, so more may emerge from normal enemies that were exposed to the blast!
2Protect Ashley
Once you’ve found Leon’s target - Ashley Graham, the US President’s daughter - your mission becomes toprotect her at all costs.Unlike the original, Ashley no longer has her own health bar. Instead, shebecomes incapacitated if she takes damage.If she gets hit again while she’s down, she dies.
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Keeping Ashley safe meansknowing where she is at all timesand not straying too far from her. If she becomes incapacitated, you need to help her up, which takes a few seconds. The best strategy in these instances is tostand next to herand eliminate all nearby threats.
Los Illuminados also want Ashley alive, so the regular Ganado cultists will attempt to capture her instead of killing her. If a cultist picks Ashley up,shoot them to free herbefore they can escape. If Ashley dies or is abducted, you’ll receive a game over.
1Most Attacks Won’t Kill You Unless Your Health Bar Is Red
In most games, it’s good practice tokeep your health as full as possibleat all times. That’s certainly true in Resident Evil 4 Remake, but the relative scarcity of healing items and the amount of damage that even weak enemies can deal make it much easier said than done. Luckily, if your health bar is yellow or green, you’re (mostly) safe.
The majority of enemy attacks won’t kill Leon unless your health is already critical, indicated by the health bar glowing an angry red. This means you’ll usually have a chance to pull back and apply a quick heal - even a single Green Herb is better than nothing - to get yourself out of the danger zone.
Of course, there are still enemies that are perfectly capable of instantly killing you, usually bosses and elite Ganados like the chainsaw-wielding Doctor Salvador.
