There’s a lot of love already for the newest installment in the Biohazard franchise, Resident Evil Village. The game has overwhelmingly positive reviews on Steam, the more action-oriented gameplay is a lot of fun, and the cast of villains are all so campy and memorable.
That said, we do have to mention the biggest downside which is, of course, the length. But, for a speedrunner, a game with a short starting length is a dream! And to be honest, most of the Resident Evil games are short anyway. So, for all of you out there looking to get your clear time as low as possible, here are some of the best speedrunning tips.
12 Set Your Difficulty And Other Standard Options
To start with, Resident Evil has a lot of the same obvious speedrun tips as many other games do. So, to save time, we'll just say that all the standard common sense speedrunning stuff applies. Playing on the easiest difficulty, avoiding taking damage, and so on.
However, Village is a bit unique in how your speedrun starts, namely that it should be on NG+. You can pick a new difficulty before starting NG+, and Ethan brings over all the weapons and ammo he was carrying at the end of the last campaign. This can make a big difference in how you approach the first Lycan attack, and it's a godsend for anyone running a category that doesn't use infinite ammo.
11 Just Experience The Game First
This next one might seem like common sense, but you’d be surprised how many speedrunners attempt to speedrun a game without fully immersing themselves in a couple of casual playthroughs first.
Experience the game before you turn it into work, you know? Plus, doing this helps build up a foundation of experience so you’ll feel more comfortable with all the mechanics as soon as you start the actual speedrun.
10 The Speedrun Category Vastly Changes The Route
Next up, pick a category and learn the differences between them. The speedrun strategies for a Hardcore any % run are so vastly different from a Village of Shadows run with unlimited ammo disabled.
For example, in Village of Shadows, even if you were to save almost every single bullet for the boss fight, it would still be a dice roll as to whether you’d have enough to actually kill them, especially with Moreau. The category you choose to attempt will totally change the way you approach your route.
9 Get Comfortable With The Movement
There are some slight differences, but for the most part, the movement in RE8 works almost exactly like RE7. It’s first-person, turning is exceedingly slow, the auto-aim is aggressive, and Ethan runs about as fast as a turtle. There are a lot of comparisons being made between the two, but mechanically they're just about identical.
So, if you want to speedrun RE8, you’ll need to get familiar with using the Quickturn for everything, hugging walls to save time turning, and navigating the menus as quickly as possible.
8 Figure Out When To Run And When To Fight
In an unlimited ammo run, it might seem like it would be faster to just kill every enemy in every room before moving on. But, remember, this is a speedrun.
There will still be a few circumstances where you’ll just want to try and run past enemies instead of killing them, such as in Heisenberg’s factory or the Stronghold.
7 Each Boss Has Their Own Unexplained Gimmick
While most of the "mini-bosses" can be damaged as soon as they’re visible, the Four Lords work a little differently. Some of them, namely Dimitrescu in her gigantic dragon form, have certain triggers before they’re able to be hurt.
- In Alcina’s case, it’s after she destroys the two arched areas of her boss arena.
- Donna's horrifying sentient doll Angie always hides in the same three spots in the same order.
- Moreau is by far the tankiest boss, but takes three times the amount of damage if you hit his "tongue".
- Lastly, Heisenberg is the most straightforward, as long as you're shooting him, you're hurting him. But, you can use the cannon to interrupt any of his attacks if he gets too close, and if you aim at the red spots well enough, Heisenberg is essentially stun-locked for the entire first phase.
6 Learn Block Canceling
Again, another mechanic that carried over from RE7, it’s the Block Cancel! Basically, when Ethan puts his hands up, it cancels most other animations but still applies their effects. This means you can get out of the First-Aid Med animation quicker, reload quicker, and you can even use it to eliminate the time between knife swings. But, be careful, as it can be a bit finicky and sometimes just cancels the animation without doing anything.
Typically, we just wait until the animation is about a third of the way over before blocking, and that seems to work just fine.
5 Plan Out Ammo And Capacity Upgrades
Here's a neat little trick that has worked since the days of Resident Evil 4. If you run out of bullets in a clip for any gun and then upgrade its ammo capacity at Duke’s shop, it’ll fill the clip up to the brim with free ammo.
Now, sadly, Capcom knew fans used this trick to get a free Magnum magazine in RE4, so they didn’t give it any capacity upgrades in this game. But, later on, Duke offers a Cylinder upgrade for the Magnum (one of the best guns) that gives it a larger magazine, essentially serving the same purpose anyway.
4 Skip Every Possible Ladder
One of the slowest and most agonizing parts of RE Village is the ladders. Luckily, you can easily avoid them (most of the time) by simply walking off the edge to either side, since there’s no fall damage.
The ones that have no edges to exploit are usually well ladders that only lead to optional items anyway. Sadly there's no way to speed up climbing ladders, but this trick will at least save a minute or two in the course of the run.
3 Shoving Is A Lifesaver
We’ve already talked about how there are certain situations in RE8 where avoiding the enemies is faster than just simply killing them. And, for those moments, and just for positioning in general, the Shove mechanic can be incredibly useful.
To pull it off, all you need to do is block an attack and press the block button again directly after to shove an enemy. Doing this can knock enemies down, cause them to drop their weapons, stagger a group of enemies, and more. It’s always faster to block or shove an enemy than to tank a hit, and it makes getting through a lot of these intentionally claustrophobic encounters a lot easier.
2 Mini-Bosses Are Easy To Exploit
The two Giant Axe bosses are probably the most susceptible to this, but almost every single one of the bosses can be taken advantage of in one way or another. In regards to the Axe Giants, you just need to get them to follow you to an entrance they can’t fit through. Once you're on the other side of an area they can see you in, but can't follow you, the Giants just stop at the door before turning around and going back to their default position after a few seconds.
It's very similar to what Lady Dimitrescu does when you walk into a Save Room, though, even if she's charging at you full-speed like a train. Thankfully, they're susceptible to damage 100% of the time, so you can unload on them as they reset and they won’t regenerate their health. It might seem cheap, but that's sort of what speedrunning is all about.
1 Memorize Or Write Down Puzzle Solutions Beforehand
Lastly, while the puzzles in RE8 might seem absurdly simple, they do still take a bit of time to actually complete each time around since you have to move stuff around or switch things.
If you go into your speedrun with all the codes & solutions to the mandatory puzzles memorized or written down, it can save a ton of time overall.