Now if you were expecting some by the numbers guide with exact damage amounts of the adaptive difficulties or the precise health of enemies, this ain't for you chief. We're going to play fast and loose here (much like your mother ahonhonhonhon) and information presented will be done so in a very informal way. If you want one of those guides for absolute nerds they exist tho, so that's cool ig.

Now if you want someone to talk to you like a man (don't worry ladies, evidently women can be men too) and give you the bare necessities to success then you've come to the right place. Trust me brah, I got all the achievements so I know what I'm talking about here. It's also my hope that this guide will be relativly short and easy to digest (like dis ♥♥♥♥, gottem)

Resident evil has a lot of zombies in it (who woulda thunk) and your little zoomer baby mind may equate this to Cawadooty zombies where you're supposed to kill them all. This is not the case.

Somehow the introduction in the streets of raccoon city where it was clearly presented that you can avoid enemies went right over your malnourished head, and somehow Marvin's advice about running from or putting them down did too. Well third time's the charge so listen up, DON'T TRY TO KILL EVERY ENEMY. Technically speaking it is possible to kill every enemy in the game with the abundant resources the game provides you if you know what you're doing and are a capable shot...but you're here because you don't/ you aren't.

That being said you have some options presented with how to deal with a zombie.
A: Use the map and your superior speed to run circles around your like-minded bumbling idiot without even using any ammo.
B: Disrespect them via a single bullet to the face. They will be briefly stunned by your audacity which will give you time to run by them.
C: If lacking in motor skills or confidence for option B; fully blow out their knees to drop them to the ground.

If you're also a bullheaded ♥♥♥♥ wanting to disregard my advice and kill a zombie (sometimes it's justified, don't worry) there are some things you should know.

A. If playing as Leon (chad) the shotgun will instantly kill a zombie if all pellets connect with the head, regardless of difficulty. If playing as Claire (bad ♥♥♥♥♥) her grenade launcher will also kill a zombie in one hit, tho not instantly like the shot gun. Both characters will also get access to some form of a magnum which will also instantly kill zombies, regardless of reticle tightness on headshots.
B. Oh yeah, reticle tightness. You've (hopefully, for gods sake) noticed that after a brief amount of time after aiming the reticle will tighten. Once it has done this your damage and crit chance has been increased, so unless you're in a dire emergency of your own making you should be waiting for that juicy tightness.

All this applies to the zombie enemies in the game, the reticle tightness applies to all tho

Now what about the few and far between none zombie enemies? The most notable probably being the late DMX, who intends to beat you much like he did women.

Well double down on what I already told you, don't try to fight him. The game explicitly shows and tells you this man is simply built different but I've seen people before give some ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ advice about how it's totally worth the ammo dump to briefly stun him. He may be built different but he's also built incorrectly, ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ can't even run. You can however, use that to your advantage.

You'll also encounter some weird ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ cat things (maw there's a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ cat in the police station, it looks ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ weird), these are known as "Lickers". Trick to these dudes is to simply disregard everything I said before don't run near them, what a twist. If you walk they'll only go into their alert stance when you're nearby and begin to slowly creep towards you (spoilers, don't let them touch you). Your walking pace is however still far beyond anything they can achieve so don't sweat it. Should go without saying but this is you we're talking about here so just a heads up, gunshots will also alert them.

You'll also encounter some dogs (wat da dawg doing) in different areas depending on the character you're playing. They're shockingly easy to duck and weave by but they're also laughably fragile, if there was ever an enemy to square tf up with it's these dudes. Three tight pistol shots should drop them, and they get stunlocked to hell and back during those 3 shots so no worries (no fake outs with these dudes either, once they fall over they're dead fr fr)

In the sewers you will encounter something that closely resembles a steam forum or discord moderator, these are known as "g adults" and holy hell are they greedy little ammo sluts. The saving grace is that if you know what you're doing you don't need to shoot a single bullet at them...but what am I saying, of course you don't know what you're doing. This is a bit hard to explain and you'll probably be better served just watching a speedrun and trying to mimic their moves but the general gist is to either use ledges on the map to get away from them and to also bait out one of two moves to run by them, a big slam or their vomit session. If however you're dead set on killing these dudes (pls don't) by this time you have access to the magnum, use it. They have a glaring and obvious weak point on their shoulder in the form of a big eye, though it will have a couple layers. Pop that ♥♥♥♥♥ and it will die. Claire will also gain acess to a weapon called the spark shot...after you've either ran past or killed the g adults but that weapon is also fantastic against them.

Lastly you'll encounter some weird bundle of sticks with a mouth that somewhat resembles my favorite snack, these are known as "Ivy". You'll notice 4 huge glowing obvious weak spots on them...guess what you're supposed to do? That's right! Shoot one of them to stun them and run by them, aren't you just special? Technically speaking you're supposed to pop all of them and then burn their bodies (flame thrower for leon, grenade launcher for claire) but why tf would you? You're sprinting through this short part of the game and never coming back so just briefly stun them and run by my dude.

Assuming you followed all previous advice you should be stocked up with enough ammunition to make any African child solider giddy with excitement, too bad you actually don't need any of it lmao.

The simple truth is pretty much every boss fight in this game gets absolutely shredded by a knife, who woulda thunk? For maximum shredding you should be running the game at 120 fps but if setting that up makes ur head urt somthin awful you can still do crazy damage with a knife, just not as much. Through out the game you'll get defensive items (grenades, flashes, and knifes) and imo unless you get caught by some insta kill move (Tyrant, most g stages, and ivy) you should just take the L and save the knifes and grenades for boss fights, flashes are also better when used normally but not to the same degree. Here's a quick lil run down of general ideas of some bosses.

G1-Immediately rush towards him and start slashing, hug his tumor arm and keep pivoting to keep behind him while swiping. If running at 120 fps should kill him with one knife, if not you may need to top him off with like 7 bullets to his big arm eye.

G2- Start the crane and bait his big jumping slash move by running towards the corner of the big crate (you'll hear him make some weird gurgling/roaring noise if he's jumping), then move in and start swiping. Once he's down you can swipe for more damage to hopefully get his health low enough to get him down with one crane swing (this requires a bit of messing around with the adaptive difficulty) or just repeat the motion of baiting a big move and swiping to hit him a second time.

G3- Pop the obvious weak spot eyes to get to drop to his knees, and shockingly ignore his big weakspot that opens up on his chest and instead circle around to his back and swipe at his shoulders. Seems dumb but when you do this you're actually hitting the doofus 3 times per swipe, now that's maximum swiping. You can circle around and slash his tummy once he starts to get up, but after this he should be in his second stage where his tummy eyes are always out and red and he's on deaths door. Do whatever you want to finish him off.

(leon only) Super Tyrant-Not sure what's so super about him, bout to get ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up by a knife like anyone else. My boy has a disgustingly weak left arm (the tiny one) and if you hug it he can do nothing to you. Slash away just enough to get him to stumble 3 times, afterwards any further damage is pointless and you just have to wait for the Ada Wongussy deus ex machina to save you.

(claire only) G4-You get a minigun and nothing else to use it on, go crazy. Also takes crazy damage from a knife but other than sneaking in here and there after a big move from him he's not as stupid easy to abuse with it.

(B run only) G5- You really gotta try to lose at this, or you went for the speedrun knife strat and ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up (this guy, ha). He actually takes more damage the further in he gets, don't ask me why, and you should have a full runs worth of equipment to use at this point. If you're stuck on g5 I don't think I can help you.

Thunder and Lightning ain't so frightening, and neither is hardcore. Hardcore mode has 4 things that sets it apart from standard, and if you've mastered standard you'll quickly realize none of these matter.

1. Enemies hit harder, two zombie bites will kill you for example. Only thing is gee golly shucks I don't give a ♥♥♥♥ if I'm not taking any damage to begin with, gnomeimsaying? Now is this to say you'll never get a cheeky lil bite landed on you here and there? No, but you also shouldn't be waddling your juicy ass into any awaiting mouth. If you do get bit use one of the fifty thousand (slightly hyperbolic) healing items the game gives you and you won't have to worry about dying to that second bite.

2. Enemies take more hits to kill. You member that whole "don't kill every enemy you see thing"? I member. On hardcore the zombies are just as slow, just as susceptible to stuns and knee popping, and heads are still just as vulnerable to buckshot and magnum rounds.

3. Less inventory slots. 3 whole less pouches to be exact (all the freebie ones, the ones gained via puzzles are still around). Easily the most annoying part imo but once you get more familar with the game you'll know what you need to be carrying at any given time, can get a lil frisky and not even carry around herbs or stacks of ammo once you get really comfortable.

4.Ink ribbons. Probably what intimidates the most people when it comes to hardcore and probably the least of your concern. If you don't die you don't have to worry about losing a bunch of progress obviously but more so than that the game is constantly ramming the damn things down your throat. This is because the ink ribbons typically replace an item (such as herb, ammo, or hip pouch) from standard and is the worst part about them.

Now you're ready for hardcore and can quickly realize all those elitist who constantly brag about beating the game on hardcore or saying it's the only way to play are basically congratulating themselves for putting on pants and keeping them ♥♥♥♥ free.

Are you still being an insolent child and stuck in your ways of killing every enemy you come across, including lickers? So be it, but at least follow this advice: Use the knife. You may have noticed the licker's brain is exposed (assuming you weren't distracted by the similarly exposed ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥) and while this strange wrinkly organ may seem alien with all it's none smoothness it's worth noting it's quite vulnerable. Swipe at it with your knife, and keep swiping, until the Licker topples over and writhes a bit before dying. It may try to intimidate you by preparing to swing, keep swiping. Congratulations, you have now killed an enemy that you easily could have just walked by (It's okay if the thought of a Tyrant and licker in the same hallway doesn't appeal to you).

Having similar thoughts about the Ivy enemies? ♥♥♥♥ you, you bumbling idiot. So after you shoot all the lil bulbs (just use a pistol, damage doesn't matter as they pop in one shot) and for some reason you want to ensure they don't get back up, even though you really don't need to, you will now need to burn their body. It will take a couple spurts from the flamethrower for Leon or one grenade from the grenade launcher with Claire to accomplish this, or until you see their body visibly blacken as they lose credit score and memories of a childhood with a father. You could also just skip the bulb popping phase and use these flame weapons from the get go.

You can shoot of Mr.X's dumb little hat. This will make him angry and markedly faster but are you really going to let a dude walk around with a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ fedora?

Is there some zombie getting in your way but a licker is also nearby? Claire gets access to a silencer for her sub machine gun, which on top of improving recoil and generally making the gun better also does what you'd expect a silencer to do. As a little side note while talking about the sub machine gun, this thing is the knee popper champion.

So it's my hope that all this advice if followed well keep you from making some discussion thread about how bad you are at the game (pretty embarrassing, ngl). If there are some other aspects of the game which still prove to be too much I may touch up this guide with more advice, or if other chads have other lil tidbits I'll throw them in the misc section as well.

If you'd like to boohoo about the general tone of this guide instead of soaking in this KNAWLEDGE that would also be welcome.

Sucking ass should be reserved for your loved ones though, not for games.