Three Ways To Survive The Village In Resident Evil 4

I suppose I'm a little late to the party with this guide. Even if you ignore the imminent remake, Resident Evil 4 is still an 18-year-old game; every possible glitch, cheat, skip, and walkthrough has already been explored. However, after researching chapter progression guides in particular, I noticed that there was a lack of coherence. The information is certainly out there, though it's not easy to find all in one place.

Below are three quick, handy tips to help newbies pass the game's village survival section found in Chapter 1-1 — an area that's certainly one of the most challenging for new players. To complete said area, you must either survive for three minutes or kill 15 enemies.

1. Running In Circles

This is exactly what it says on the tin: stop fighting and start running. It can be applied anywhere in the game, but works particularly well here. This super-simple strategy requires the player to run around the main village area, in a looping circle, until the mandatory three minutes have passed, all the while dodging enemies.

You can head in a clockwise or anticlockwise direction; it really doesn't matter, provided that you don't stop running. Once the villagers are disturbed, the survival begins, and you need to act quickly. Enemies will bunch up and then begin to follow you very quickly and will attack you if you pause for longer than a second or two. Note that, due to how the game is programmed, any enemy positioned behind the player will never throw their weapon; enemies can still swing their weapons though, so be careful to keep out of their reach.

The village centre has the burning policeman, and it's these surrounding houses where you will need to kite enemies. Don't run directly around the policeman in the centre, as this area is far too small; remain on the outer edge of the village and run around the backs of the houses instead. As you go, do not stray up any branching paths and simply stick to the main area.

Approaching the game this way allows you to conserve supplies, and if done right, you shouldn't have to fire a shot nor use a healing item.

For more clarification, see this map. Follow the yellow line in either direction.

2. Camp In The Tower

This technique is probably the most straightforward because once you're in the necessary spot, you can just wait out the attack.

Much like the previous strategy, this also allows you to complete the section without wasting ammunition. However, you'll only have one HP once it's all over, so you'll need some healing herbs or an egg.

From the village entrance, run straight ahead, directly towards the small chapel with the iron door, evading all the enemies. Now, turn left, and you'll see a large tower, and an opening in it. Head into the tower, climb the ladder, and sit back in the corner nearest the ladder. You're now safe... mostly. No enemies will follow you up here, but they will start throwing Molotov cocktails through the open windows. Don't try to dodge these Molotovs, it's almost impossible. Simply embrace any damage with open arms and stay where you are; when your health reaches a single point, you will no longer take damage from any further Molotovs. When three minutes have passed, you can munch down a herb and carry on.

For more clarification, see below image.

3. Speedrunning It (Yeah, Probably Not Actually Ideal For Newbies)

Now, you may have noticed the previous two strategies rely on the hidden timer to pass the section, but maybe you want something a little quicker. Well, this speedrunner method needs only two grenades and a handful of seconds.

Firstly, you must pre-plan before using this strategy because you'll need to acquire the first grenade from a crow earlier in the game. It's this crow perched on the red post, immediately before the bear-trapped dog, at the beginning of the game. If you miss this grenade, it'll be impossible to proceed this way. (If you're on New Game+, you might find that you already have the required grenades. If so, lucky you!)

After collecting this first grenade, you can continue to the village as normal, as the second grenade is found in a house there — the same house that spawns the chainsaw-wielding Ganado, Dr. Salvador.

Once you reach the village, head forward, and you'll see a Ganado clad in a brown waistcoat, who is pushing a small wooden wheelbarrow. You need to kill him first; it may take nearly a full clip of 9mm ammunition on Professional. After he has been killed, hop the fencing to your left and head into the house through the open door. A cutscene should now play out where the chainsaw Ganado spawns and attempts to break into the house you're in.

This is where the most demanding part of the strategy occurs, as you need to throw your first grenade through a tiny window. When you regain control after the cutscene, without walking, spin Leon round to face the tiny window to the right of the entrance door. Equip the grenade and aim it at the window and adjust your aim downwards slightly (this is difficult to do due to the camera positioning and lack of aiming arc when using grenades). When you throw the grenade, it should land outside and kill several enemies, and if you did it right, this should initiate a second cutscene where more enemies appear. That's part one.

After this cutscene, spin around and run up the stairs. Turn left and take the grenade from the display cabinet. From here, head back downstairs and jump out the open window that you coincidently blew out with the first grenade. This window is to the right of the stairs. After vaulting outside, run around to the front of the house, and you'll see a large amount of enemies gathered together. With the second grenade equipped, run into them, throw the grenade at the fencing in front of you and then immediately leap over the fence. Doing this allows the many surrounding Ganados to be eliminated by the blast while you are saved by the invincibility frames granted by the vaulting animation.

This may seem a long-winded method, however, in practise it's incredibly fast. For more clarification, see this video.

I hope you found my quick guide to surviving “Village” useful. Know of any other Resident Evil 4 quick skips, cheats, or guides? Drop them in the comments below, I'd genuinely love to discover more!