Resident Evil 4/Chapter 4-1

Trap
You must now merge Leon's inventory with the items that Ashley picked up. If space is tight, then combine the healing items as much as possible. You can also combine two partial boxes of ammo into one if the total is small enough. When you're done with this Salazar calls again, but nothing very important is said.

The natural impulse at this point is to continue north to collect the last missing piece of the relief from the audience hall in Chapter 3-1. We've got two of the pieces now, the Goat Ornament found in the gallery in Chapter 3-2, and the Serpent Ornament found in the storage room in chapter 3-4. But there are some some optional paths we skipped before because they weren't open, and some the areas that were cleared earlier now have enemies in them again.

So we're going to backtrack for a while and you can skip the next couple of sections. Alternatively, you can wait until you reach the audience hall again and then follow the same route again to cover the optional areas from a different direction.

Assuming that you're doing the optional areas, go west back though the armory, and into the refectory.

Refectory (optional)
More zealots have appeared here and if you didn’t fight the garrador earlier he will be back for you to have another chance at him. Immediately go left as you enter and go to the area behind the counter; it a long passage where you should be able take on the zealots even though you're outnumbered. There may be more monks in the dining area, so take them out as well; use the doorway as a choke point if they start to surround you.

Follow the hallway south and get two remaining jars at the end. Then go through the door to another area.

Fountain (optional)
You enter a storeroom. Before moving, equip your rifle and carefully scan the ceiling ahead for one of the Novistadors, the invisible insects from the sewer. Snipe it before it can cause any trouble, then step forward a bit and scan the ceiling around the corner to the right for another one. When you're satisfied that the room is bug-free, explore for items. (You can avoid dealing with the insects by getting these items in part 3. You would then go through the hedge maze to avoid coming through this room now.)
 * 5000 PTAS from a cabinet on the left as you enter
 * A pot on a cabinet to the right of this
 * Two boxes on shelves in the next corner
 * A Green Herb on the table
 * Two barrels on the southwest corner
 * Two pots and a box on the north wall, the right pot has a snake.

Break the lock on the door and go through. You're now at the end of the long hallway you came down just after leaving the gallery, having come through the door that was locked before.

Go west to the fountain as before, but this time stop at the window to the north noted earlier. Piggyback Ashley here to have her go through the window above and unlock the door. Go in to discover four treasure chests, our main reason for this excursion.
 * 5000 PTAS
 * Red Herb
 * Broken Butterfly
 * Elegant Perfume Bottle

The Broken Butterfly was for sale from the Merchant since entering the castle, but it wasn't worth buying because we're getting it now for free. It uses magnum ammo, which is rare so be very stingy with it. Basically only break out the magnum for tough bosses where you'll be very grateful for the extra firepower.

Head back to the area where you reunited with Ashley and go north to the next area.

Trolley one
You enter a room with a lava pit on the far side. There is a passage to the left which leads to a trolley, but we don't need to worry about it for the moment. Get the two pots here though and check the cabinet on the right for Handgun Ammo. It's probably a good idea to save at the typewriter here. Get on the contraption at the edge of the lava to be carried across; Ashley will remain safe here for the moment. You are taken to the opposite ledge; go through the door to a new area.

Lava lake
You enter a large room where the floor is pool of lava. You're on a ledge and must cross a walkway to the far side.

Step out onto the ledge a bit and you will see a zealot take control of a machine shaped like a dragon. This periodically spews flame out of its mouth onto the path in front of it. Also the zealot can slide the dragon to get different sections of the path. If you can, snipe the zealot while he's sliding the dragon toward you; you only have a clear shot from the side. If you miss the first time then either go back to the start and wait for him to return to his starting position, or wait for a pause in the flame and rush past him to try from the other side. Once you kill the zealot the dragon will fall apart and a treasure chest will appear as a reward.

Continue on the path and collect 5000 PTAS from the treasure chest. Up next is a rotating platform and you must wait for the right moment to step through the gap in the fence. There are zealots waiting between two pillars on the next section of the path. Either snipe them from the platform or confront them where they are because another dragon is covering the path before and after the pillars. One of the pillars protects you from the flame as long as you're behind it. To defeat this dragon, wait for a pause in the fire and step past the pillars. The zealot will try to follow you, so quickly double back and shoot from the other side before he can react. If you go too far forward then a third dragon will appear and zealots start dropping down between the pillars, so try to take out the second dragon before that happens. Open the treasure chest that has appeared as a reward for the second dragon, you get the second Illiminados Pendant.

Go forward a bit and trigger the next dragon, then go back between the pillars to take care of the zealots that appear; better to do it now than have them sneak up on you.

For the third dragon you need to use the same kind of fake out maneuver as with the second one. There are two walls you can safely wait behind. Pop out on either side during a lull in the flames and wait for the zealot to aim at you. Then dash to the opposite side and snipe him before he can turn again.

When the third dragon is defeated a bridge is raised so you can reach a chest. This contains the Lion Ornament. The area is now clear so you just have to get back and rejoin Ashley.

Trolley one (cont.)
We now have all the parts of the relief so it's tome to go back to the audience hall and use them. We're nearly done with this section of the castle, so if there were items you've been putting off collecting because of space issues, e.g. the Rocket Launcher, you should collect them now.

Fortunately there is a quick way to get back to the audience hall, namely the trolley mentioned earlier. Get in and it takes you to a room next to where you want to go.

Get two pots at the trolley's destination, then unlock the door (no key required) and go through to the audience hall.

Audience hall
Place the three ornaments into the relief; the wall sinks into the ground revealing the passage beyond. But don't go into the next area too quickly. There is a stairway on the right that leads to a balcony; on the landing get a pot and check Saddler's portrait to get 5000 PTAS. Now go back and continue to the next area.

Trolley two
This is just another trolley, but this time it takes you to a whole new area of the castle. When the trolley reaches its destination check the platform for two more pots. Also check the painting on the left (not Saddler this time) for 5000 PTAS. Go through the door to the next area.

Royal suite
This is the long since abandoned quarters of the King and Queen. To the left is a door with a royal seal, but we'll come back to that. Go forward and get the Flash Grenade from the chair, then continue to a long hallway with open windows on the right. Shoot the sparkling objects on the statues to the left to get two Spinels, a Velvet Blue, and the second Purple Gem; you should now be able to complete the second Elegant Mask.

Check the statues of the King and Queen at the end of the hall to learn that they are missing drinking vessels of some kind, so finding them is going be the goal for the rest of the chapter.

Go back and explore the passage to the east. Get a Spinel from a cabinet and Yellow Herb from the table. Also pick up "Sample Retrieved"; it's by Salazar and it mentions his plans to recapture Ashley and eliminate you. There is a brown door at the end of the passage but we'll return to it. Meanwhile, go back and enter the door next to the entrance. You find the Merchant, a new shooting range and a typewriter where you should probably save. Find Handgun Ammo in the cabinet and a pot on the table.

At this point he have two new areas to explore and they can be done in either order. We'll start with the one one to the west, so go back to the main hallway and go through the door with the royal seal.

Queen’s chamber
You enter a room with a tiled floor and various shields and insignias on the walls. Check the door on the right for a clue; what you need to do is hold down the four colored plates in the corners of the room. First move the two statues in the middle of the room onto two of the plates, then have Ashley stand on one of the remaining plates while you stand on the last. This opens the door.

There is a short cutscene where Salazar starts the ceiling, covered with spikes of course, to lower down on top of you. Stop it by shooting the four red lights in the ceiling; you should have plenty of time if your aim is good enough to have survived so far. There is some Handgun Ammo on the floor if you’re out. Don’t bother trying to escape through the door Salazar went through since it closes when you reach it. In this case the door opens again when you stop the ceiling.

Go on though the hallway to the next room. Bars drop down separating you and Ashley and two monks driving a heavy machine with rotating blades in front start driving toward her. Snipe them quickly to open the doorway so Ashley can escape.

You're now in a storage room. Search to find Handgun Ammo, three barrels and two boxes. Get the Elegant Chessboard from a cabinet. Finally, open the treasure chest to get the goal for this area, the Queen’s Grail. Break the lock to get back to the first room and return to the previous area.

You may want to save again at this point. Continue east to the brown door and go through.

King's chamber
Head down the hallway and get the Handgun Ammo from the statue of the sleeping lion. You need to follow the passage to the left but there are suits of armor here like the ones Ashley had to deal with. Leave Ashley at the corner and press the buttons on the screen to avoid being hit while you get to the other end.

Call Ashley but have her wait in the hall while you go into the next room. Check the walls to get Shotgun Shells and a Green Herb, then get the King’s Grail from the chair in the middle of the room. This triggers a battle with walking suits of armor like the ones Ashley met. There's no escape this time though since the door closes, so you need to fight them.

Fortunately they move slowly and their attacks are easy to dodge, though if they do get you it will hurt a lot. The armor is tough so the idea is to shoot at their heads until the parasite controlling them comes out. If you have a Flash Grenade then do this two or three times and use the grenade to instantly kill the parasites. Otherwise keep blasting the parasite until it's gone. Another wave appears when you're done with the first one, but then the door opens and you can get out again.

Return to the previous area.

Royal suite (cont.)
You may want to save again, then go to the north hallway. This time there are zealots standing guard at the end, so have Ashley wait at the start and move forward until they notice you and attack. Back up to the doorway and use it as a choke point. An Incendiary Grenade or two will be a big help here.

Place the two grails in the corresponding statues to open the door and go through.

Dome
You enter a hallway similar to the one you just left. There are four pots on cabinets near the start; a snake is in the one second from the right. Get 1800 PTAS from a cabinet on the left, and there is another pot at the end on the right.

Before going through the next door, hop through the broken window to a balcony. Get the Red Herb here, then climb the ladder there and follow the ledge to the end. Open the treasure chest to get the second Butterfly Lamp.

Climb back down and go on into the next room. (It's also possible to jump down through a window.) There is a large dome with a scary looking thing hanging from the ceiling, but it seems to be inactive at the moment. Go on a bit to get a cutscene.

Giant insects appear, similar to the ones in the sewer but instead of being invisible they can fly. One of them scoops Ashley off the ground and carries her off, then others start to attack you.

Back toward the door so you don’t get attacked from behind and start firing your shotgun until all the bugs are gone. For a bit of extra payback, check the nest hanging from the ceiling for a few more bugs and snipe them. For even more payback, if you have spare ammo, start shooting the nest and keep at it until it falls down, then collect the drops.

Ashley needs rescuing again but all we can do for now is to press on. You need to lower the bridge on the left so you can cross. First go to the far side of the room and operate the lever; this lowers the bridge some but it malfunctions a bit. There are still chains that prevent it from lowering so shoot them and it will fall into place.

Cross the bridge and go on to the next area.

Bridge
You enter a corridor; the Merchant and a typewriter are here, so tune up and save. Get the Handgun Ammo from a chair nearby. The follow the passage and go through the door at the end.

Get two barrels here and go on a bit to get another call from Salazar. He asks if you can see him and sure enough when you hang up you see Ashley in the distance being led off by Salazar and his minions.

Cross the bridge; as you do monks far to the right will start attacking with catapults as when you arrived at the castle. There’s not much you can do about them except to keep moving so get to the other end of the bridge as soon as you can. The door to the tower on the far end is locked so start following the ledge left which will, at least, get you out of range of the catapults.

There is a stair here leading to a balcony above. Defeat the monks that start coming down for you and a few more waiting at the top.

Follow the ledge right to the nearest corner, from the higher vantage and with partial protection from the tower you can snipe the monks manning the catapults. There are two barrels around the corner, or there were at least because they were probably destroyed by the catapults.

When there's no more danger from the catapults, circle around to the east side of the tower and go through the door there to get inside.

Clock tower
The interior of the tower is filled with gears, only some of which serve to run the clock. There are multiple floors and you come in above the ground floor. There are no enemies in here for the moment so we can explore in peace. Cross to the southwest corner and drop to the ground floor.

The door leading to the bridge you just crossed is nailed shut. The other door has bars that might be raised. Get one box in the northeast corner and two more near the steps in the northwest corner. Climb the ladder up to the next floor, go around to the opposite corner and up another floor. The path on this level is blocked in the southeast corner by a pile of crates; get Handgun Ammo from the west side of the crates and another box from the north side of them. Continue up to the top floor and follow the path clockwise.

Get a Green Gerb and “Ritual Preparation” from the table. There is a bit about a ritual to turn Ashley into one of Los Illuminados, but more importantly for now there is something about the gears being jammed in three places to prevent you from catching up. There is a switch just ahead and when you press it you can see where a block of wood is keeping the machinery from turning. The first block was just shown to you, just to the right of the switch. Shoot it to get rid of it.

Go around to the west side of the level and look down about 45 degrees to spot the second block. Finally, drop back down a floor and circle around to the east side of the level and look down, about 45 degrees again, to see the third block. When all three blocks are gone, get back to the lever and pull it, but you should know that once you do there is no going back to the rest of the castle.

The bridge outside will swing around to the east and the door will be unbarred. Archers come in so defeat them on the way down to the ground floor. If you exit the door above ground level you'll find more zealots have appear around the ledge; you can hunt them down for drops but it's purely optional.

As you get close to the ground floor another wave of zealots appears, some of them above you. Either run past them or quickly get back to an upper level so you can fight them from top to bottom. You can get quite a few at the tops of ladders with your knife.

Go through the east door on the ground floor to get out of the tower.

Bridge (cont.)
A small group of shield carrying zealots come to greet you as you cross the bridge. Take them out but don't use your heavy firepower yet since this is just a warm-up.

Cross the bridge a bit further and another wave attacks. There may be a zealot carrying a rocket launcher with them and if so attack him before doing anything else; an Incendiary Grenade should stop him from firing and slow down anyone near him. Zealots also approach from behind so try to get past them and make a stand at the start of the bridge.

The zealot leader will hang back at the other end of the bridge and drops the Gold Bangle when you get to him.

Go through the next door when the area is clear. Normally we'd say go back and save your game here but it's not really an option now.

Escape route
You enter another building and up ahead there are two zealots and two, yes two, garradors waiting for you. There are more zealots waiting out of sight so this is going to be a tough battle. Fortunately this is a big area and you can use that to your advantage. The front room has pillars which you can use as barriers. Up some steps there is a second room and there is a corridor making a loop next to it. Both these features can be used to dodge or avoid enemies.

Start things off by sniping one of the zealots, then evade the garradors and get to the other room into the corridor. This makes a good place to fight zealots since they can't surround you as long as you keep moving. But beware of the garradors coming in since they are harder dodge here and move quickly when aroused. Defeat the zealots first; more appear when the first few are gone but they stop after a while. Then take on the garradors as in the earlier battles with them. They can come at you in different directions at the same time, so always try to avoid them completely if they're in the same room. There are bells in the far room you can use to distract them, and most of the area is carpeted so they'll have a hard time finding you if you don't fire your weapon.

Nevertheless, be prepared to use some continues on this battle. Try not to use up too many hand grenades or magnum rounds as these may be needed later. One of the monks should drop a First Aid Spray which you will probably end up using. The garradors drop 15000 PTAS each which will be handy.

Items to be found here include a Green Herb in a corner near the entrance and three pots in the back room. Go through the door an the far end and check the statues to get two Spinels, then continue east.

Pit
A cutscene starts. You see Ashley being held prisoner, and Salazar there as well. As you come closer Salazar releases a trap door and you fall in, be prepared to press a button combination to do a saving move. Salazar keeps listening for the sound of you being impaled on the spikes below but gets the sound of a bullet smashing his listening device instead, so now he gets really mad and send one of his scary looking bodyguards after you. You get a call from him on your communicator; he says he's sent his “right hand” after you.

You end up at the bottom of a pit among the remains of some other people that Salazar wasn't happy with. This is in a new section of the castle on a different map. The Merchant is down here along with a typewriter, and a save at this point is highly recommended. The Merchant has a new shotgun so consider an upgrade.

Search the area and the corpses for items. The Crown has two places for attachments so don't sell it yet.
 * Incendiary Grenade
 * TMP Ammo
 * Magnum Ammo
 * Yellow Herb
 * Velvet Blue
 * Crown

Climb the ladder and follow the passage. Check the pipes on the left for a Velvet Blue and a Spinel. Also find a Red Herb on the right. Along the way you get a monster’s eye view of something tracking you. Continue through the door at the end.

Laboratory
This is a long corridor connecting rooms that seem to have been used for research at some point. As you enter the area you get another monster eye view. Salazar's minion is now following you under the grated floor or above the ceiling. Every once it a while it takes a swipe at you so you need to keep an eye out for button combination moves to dodge them in time. Keep moving unless you want to do this several times in a row. Fortunately you can usually see dust being stirred to warn you when this is about to happen.

Explore the area, there is a side passage to the right leading to a room with an elevator. Get First Aid Spay and Handgun Ammo from the table. The elevator isn't working because the power it out, so you need to look for a way to turn it back on. Make a special note of the liquid nitrogen canister here.

Return to the main corridor and continue to a side passage on the left leading to another room. Get TMP Ammo on the floor here and make note of another nitrogen canister.

Continue down the main corridor and find a third canister. Keep going until you reach a control room at the end. There is a fourth canister here an notice that the aisle makes a loop. There are Shotgun Shells and a Green Herb to find here. Find the power lever in the far corner and pull it. This will start the elevator but it will take a while to arrive. Go to the door of the control room but you will find that it’s locked for a period of time. Meanwhile the monster appears in the control room. It turns out to be Salazar’s right hand without its hood and looks like what would happen if Predator and Alien had a baby.

Get in the elevator and start it to get a cutscene. Saddler has had enough of Salazar’s attempts to kill you and order a new person, Krauser to handle it.