Resident Evil Village: Exploration and Looting guide Resident Evil Village guide, walkthrough

Last update: 01 June 2021

This page of the guide to Resident Evil Village contains tips on exploring the game world and collecting loot. You will learn how to explore the village and other locations, how to unlock access to new places on the world map, where to find loot and what use the collected treasures can have.

• General rules of exploring the world map
• Main and optional locations
• Revisiting old locations
• Items helpful in exploration
• The map system
• Collecting loot and its purpose

General rules of exploring the world map

First and foremost, Resident Evil Village does not have a fully open world. You can't immediately go everywhere you want, because the main locations are visited in a pre-determined order imposed by the authors.

Instead, the game features something like a central hub - Ethan will return to the main part of the village multiple times, and every time he returns, there will be additional things to do and new passages to more quest locations to unlock.

Main and optional locations

Most of the locations in RE8 are mandatory, meaning you must visit and explore them as you progress through the main storyline. Naturally, it will always be up to you to decide how much time you want to spend in a given location, and if you want to explore it 100%.

There are also smaller optional locations on the world map. These can include mini-boss lairs, or areas where you can come across unique loot, mini-bosses, or collectibles. You have to look for such places on your own, because there is a big chance that you might miss them and, e.g. lose the option of getting a valuable item or getting a trophy.

Revisiting old locations

You must be aware that many of the main locations cannot be revisited later in the game. The Dimitrescu Castle is a perfect example of this type of location. After you have dealt with the main boss of the castle and left this location by returning to the central part of the village, the game will not allow you to go back to the castle - the drawbridge on the main path to the castle will be raised and you will not be able to bring it back down.

Try to make a habit of searching the visited locations as you go. It may be a good idea to create manual saves on typewriters, optimally just before leaving a location. This will allow you to easily return to a given location for missed collectibles or trophy-related activities. You won't have to go through the campaign all over again.

Items helpful in exploration

As you explore the game world, you'll probably notice that Ethan can't get everywhere right away. In most cases, the blockade forces you to obtain the appropriate key (the name of which is displayed when you hover over the blocked passage on the map) or solve a puzzle. However, numerous items in the game can help you get to inaccessible places and obtains the previously inaccessible treasures. The most important items of this kind are:

1. Well Wheel - You will be able to interact with wells with this wheel. Various items (including unique ones) are hidden in the wells. Additionally, you can go down into one of the wells and explore the mini-dungeon. The wheel can be found during the second visit to the village.
2. Crank - It allows you to interact with the Mechanical Door and the mechanisms in the Windmill and Drawbridge. In each of these cases, you will unlock a passage to new locations.

Disposable lockpicks are also featured in RE8 , and their only use is to open locked chests, containers or drawers. Moreover, these will never contain any unique items. It will always be "merely" some ordinary loot.

The map system

We discuss using the neighborhood maps in detail on a separate page Using the Maps. At this point, it is worth only recalling the most important assumptions:

1. You can rely on the color coding on the maps to determine if a location has been 100% explored.
2. You may want to examine the icons that appear on the maps, which may inform you e.g. about a puzzle to solve or an item required to unlock a particular passage.
3. You can find pre-made maps of given areas, but most of the time you have to keep uncovering the map on your own.

In general, using the map frequently is highly recommended, because it will increase your chances of finding all the treasures and optional passages. Additionally, the game pauses the gameplay while you browse the map, so you don't have to worry about e.g. a sudden monster attack. You unfortunately have to use only the full-screen map, as there is no mini-map in the game.

Collecting loot and its purpose

Loot in Resident Evil Village mostly lies in plain sight or drops from enemies. You can find primarily:

1. Ammo
2. Disposable items - These may include meds, mines, or pipe bombs.
3. Lei - used to buy items and upgrades from Duke.
4. Crafting Ingredients - These are used to craft items based on unlocked recipes.
5. Key Items - These can include various types of keys or items needed to solve puzzles.
6. Treasures - can only be sold.

Try to always look around carefully. Even if an item seems useless to you, you can save it for later or sell it to Duke as a last resort.

Keep in mind that some items are not out in the open, but rather hidden inside various containers. These can be breakable boxes, display cases or vases (any objects marked as Breakable), or e.g. various types of drawers and cabinets.

It's worth noting that Ethan's inventory has a limited capacity, but you can buy suitcases that increase it permanently. Conveniently, quest items and treasures don't take up space in your inventory and you can collect them without any limitations. We have discussed inventory management in more detail on the Inventory - how to expand? page.