Resident Evil 4/Chapter 1-2

Valley

Fangirls rejoice.

This chapter begins with a cutscene. This cutscene is interactive though, so make sure you're ready to perform whatever actions appear on the screen. In what seems like a dream, a man in hood injects a purple liquid into your neck. Then you wake up chained to the man from the cabinet. He is Luis Sera, formerly of the Spanish police. While he seems to know all about the Ashley being kidnapped, he doesn't explain why he happens to be in the village. He does mention though that Ashley is being held in a church. Meanwhile a wounded villager is approaching with the intent to kill you. Dodge by pressing the button combo shown on the screen and the villager ends up breaking your bonds. You then use some judo to dispose of the villager when he attacks again. Luis makes his escape and you hear from Hunnigan. You fill her in on recent events and let her know you're heading back to the village.

Check the map to learn you’ve been moved all the way to the other side of the village. Get the Handgun Ammo from the shelf and head down the hall. You spot someone through the window who motions for you meet him. This is the Merchant and from this point on he is open for business. He'll appear in specific places as you move through your adventure. See the Characters page for details. There is a new type of ammo, Rifle Ammo, on the shelf in the next room and a typewriter to save your game if you want.

Head out the door, and go left to the back of the house to find the Merchant. Talk to him to start shopping. Sell the Spinels and Pearl Pendent to raise some additional cash, but be sure not to sell the Beerstein or Catseye though, since they are part of a set and won't yield as much they will when the set is complete. There are other items like this where you get the main item, but have to collect additional items to complete it, and you can tell which ones require some additional work by examining them.

If you've never played the game before then it can be hard to decide what to get. You don't have a lot to spend and even if you did you would run out of space in your attache case to hold everything. Here is a breakdown to help you decide.

Attache Case M

If you've been playing carefully and conserving ammo and health items then you're probably running out of space by now, so the upgrade to the next size, though pricey, will be a welcome option.

Treasure Map (Village)

This shows the locations of the most valuable pieces of treasure. It will probably pay for itself if it allows you to find one missing item, but you have at least until the end of the chapter to find everything so there's no need to get it right away. This guide should enable you to find everything on the map so you may not need it anyway.

Handgun

You already got this at the start of the game. The game won't let you have two so this will only be available if you've sold or discarded the one you had.

Shotgun

You should have gotten one of these for free in the village, but you can get one here if you didn't for some reason.

Rifle

The Rifle is almost always a good choice; it's useful for picking off enemies at a distance, and is very powerful. It's very slow however so it's best used from a safe distance. It uses the Rifle Ammo that you picked up next to the typewriter. It comes equipped with a zoomable scope which can be useful in its own right.

TMP

This is a basic machine gun. Each TMP round does a bit less than half the damage as a handgun round, but the higher firing rate and the larger amounts in refills make up for that. Opinions vary on this weapon. Some hold that it's an inferior weapon and not worth the cost in money and space and you should sell any ammo you get for it to the Merchant. Others claim it's very effective when fighting a group or a boss. If you are low on space and/or funds then you should probably hold off buying this, at least for now. If however you're low on ammo and have the space then do get it when you can afford it. For what you get for the ammo you sell you almost might as well just throw it away, which seem silly if you're hurting for ammo otherwise.

Rocket Launcher

The hefty price tag and the large size should dissuade you from getting this for the time being. There is no ammo for it since you get just one shot and it disappears. But it does give you a way to buy yourself out of a tough boss battle if you're too low on ammo or health items to win it otherwise. There won't be a boss like that for a while yet though.

Scope (Rifle)

Increases the maximum zoom of your rifle scope by a factor of 3 and adds a laser sight as well. Combine it with the Rifle to put it to use; the game doesn't put them together in the attache case but you will see the difference when the gun is in your hand. A nice-to-have at this point but not a need-to-have.

First Aid Spray

Restores full health just like the one you got at the beginning of the game. Get this only if you're hurting for health items.

Tune ups

Most of the weapons in the game can be upgraded to make them faster and more powerful. But before you start spending all your cash be aware that there are better models of weapons to be had later in the game, and if you get the better model then half of what you spend on your current model will be lost. On the other hand there are a lot of battles and some tough bosses between now and when a better model becomes available, so some tune ups may be justified even on a weapon you're not going to keep.

Once you're done shopping, continue past the Merchant to the end of the passage and get the barrels at the end. Then come back to the front of the house and get another barrel in a corner.

When you get close enough to the wall between the house and the valley beyond, a cutscene will play showing you your surroundings.

A dangerous valley.

There is a complex of buildings with guards patrolling the area. The wall has a large gate on the left and two gaps through which you can snipe some villagers if you have the Rifle.

Now you need to do some close-range fighting so put the Rifle away and equip something more suited for it, then head through the gate. You will be spotted by a villager and scary music will start if it hasn't already. There are actually quite a few more enemies here than there appears to be. Getting spotted, firing a gun, or entering a new area may draw additional attention, which will alert previously hidden villagers who start heading in your direction. So you need to keep watching for new enemies as you explore.

The villagers will be equipped with the usual farm implements, but some will by carrying dynamite sticks. You can use this to your advantage though; if you see a villager with lit dynamite then disable him until the dynamite goes off, blowing him up along with any nearby enemies. If you have attackers between you and a villager with dynamite then just back away since when he throws the dynamite it will often take out the other attackers for you. In a pinch just shoot the dynamite with the shotgun to make it explode.

The best place to stand to take on the first wave of attackers is at the top of the slope behind the wall. The height advantage will help keep stray sticks of dynamite from landing near you. If you get overwhelmed, head back to the house where you started; the gates will slow down the villagers and will give you some time to recover. From the path behind the gate you can go left to a storage building, right to a ledge, or over a bridge in the middle. We'll start by going right.

Follow the zigzag path and once you reach the top, an additional wave of enemies should come at you from behind. The sandbag barriers should slow them down a bit and you get style points for using the exploding red barrel here to get at least one of them. When the enemies stop coming, get the barrels here and open the treasure chest to get the Emblem (Left half). This is a good vantage point to snipe more villagers on towers and rooftops, but watch for additional attackers this may draw.

Go back and head toward the storage building to the west. The door in front is tempting bu there are enemies inside, so you may want to circle around the outside and fire at them through the windows first. There is a barrel in the side corner and another in back. You can use the ladder to reach the roof where there may be a villager waiting; another barrel and a treasure chest with the Emblem (Right half) are here. There are two doors, two windows and a hole in the roof you can use to get into the building. The inside is divided into a small section and a large section. Get Shotgun shells on a shelf in the small section. In the large section you'll find Handgun ammo on a box and a Flash Grenade in a locker.

Follow the path east to a hut. If you're still getting attention from villagers then climb the ladder to the roof and another ladder to a tower. This is a great place to do the ammo saving ladder trick, namely wait at the top of the ladder and slash at enemies with the knife to knock them down. the ladder. In fact you may want to descend to the valley floor to lure more villagers into this little trap. There is a ledge below the east cliff where you can try this as well.

There is a barrel on the tower, and there are two more next to the hut. Be sure to go inside the hut and check the lockers to get 1000 PTAS and a Yellow Herb. Beware of more villagers in here though.

At some point you will run out of enemies and the scary music will stop. You can now explore and collect any items without fear of being ambushed. The door to the next area is behind the hut, but it's locked. Combine both halves of the Emblem to form the Hexagonal Emblem, then use it near the door to unlock it. The Emblem will disappear in the process and nearly every key in the game works the same way.

Village Storage

Follow the passage to another large door, but don't go in yet. Check the side path to the left for two barrels hidden around the old equipment and check to the right for another barrel.

Go through the door into the next room. There is a barrel in the left corner on the far side. You can see a shiny object through a window here, but you can't reach it now so just make note of it. There is another door to the right so use it.

Your brief vacation from enemies is over now as villagers attack. The scary music doesn't stop when they are gone though, so more a waiting up ahead. The hallway winds a bit and there is a barrel at the end.

You need to jump through the window to get to the next room; there are more enemies there behind some sandbags. You might be able to snipe one of them before going through the window, but this is probably more trouble than it's worth. Some of them have dynamite so try to make it explode in their hands from behind the metal bin. If one of them does throw dynamite then crouch to avoid damage.

Don’t move forward before disarming the bear traps on the floor; use your pistol to do this quickly if needed. More enemies are waiting behind the next door and will come in and you approach. Get the barrel in the far corner, then collect Handgun Ammo and a Spinel from the ovens.

Continue through the door behind the sandbags to the left. There is a boarded up window to the left and, if you've been keeping track, behind it is the room with the shiny object. Use your knife to break through the boards, then hop through window and collect the Elegant Mask. This is another treasure you should hang onto until you can get the attachments that go with it.

Go back through the window and get two barrels in the corners of the room. Then continue through the next door. There is a downward sloping passage leading to a pool of water guarded by a villager. Once he's gone the scary music will finally stop, so he's the last one. Jump into the water and look for the halos to collect Handgun Ammo, a Flash Grenade and 1000 PTAS. You can shoot the fish here and they turn into health items. They may be too big to carry with you if you're low on space, but there's no reason you should leave the pool with less than full health. Note that even the small ones restore 4 units and at this point in the game that almost equivalent to a full health. Climb the ladder out of the pool and another ladder to a new area.

Chief's House

You are near the village again. There are crows in front of you, but just shoot the nearest one since the rest will die when you trigger the tripwire mine behind it. Get the spoils but be careful to avoid the bear traps under the mine; it seems that the villagers are starting to get paranoid. To the left is a well similar to the one in the farm; use the same procedure to the Brass Pocket Watch in good condition. Get a box and a barrel in the shack next to the well.

Follow the path to a very large house, this turns out to be the home of Mendez, the village Chief. Go up the stairs to a locked door and you'll be presented with a puzzle to solve in order to get in. Check the crystal ball and then start rotating it to get a certain symbol. You will have seen the symbol several times by now but it's decorating the door just in case. You can rotate the ball in four directions; up, down, left and right. There are actually only 12 different positions for the ball so even if you just move at random it shouldn't take long to get the right position by chance. But to do it in two moves:

1. Choose the UP arrow.
2. Choose either the LEFT or RIGHT arrow.

When you solve the puzzle the door opens into Mendez's bedroom. Check the wardrobe to get 1000 PTAS, the desk drawer to get Handgun Ammo, and the bed to get "Chief's Note". In it, Mendez speculates about why his boss, Lord Saddler, ordered him to take you and Luis alive. He thinks that Saddler is trying to draw out an unknown third party. In any case it explains why Mendez didn't just kill you when he had the chance.

The most important item to get is the Insignia Key located in a decorated box on a cabinet. Go through the door to start a cutscene. (The cutscene only occurs if you got the key.)

You hear a muffled conversation in Spanish the gist of which is that the "jefe" (Mendez) will take care of the "extranjero" (you) because his "la plaga" (plague) is very strong. (It's never very clear how much Spanish Leon knows, but even if he were fluent the phrase "la plaga" would have little meaning.) Mendez grabs you from behind and starts to choke you, but he sees something in your eyes and lets you go with a warning since you have the "same blood".