WalkthroughRE Village Video Guide for Hardcore
WalkthroughRE Village Video Guide for Hardcore
As agreed, this walkthrough offers a comprehensive overview starting from a complete restart in Hardcore. It includes detailed explanations, item saves using the typewriter, weapon upgrades, loot trading with The Duke, and guidance on organizing and combining items for practical use and valuable finds.
The initial segment, presented through two videos, addresses the Prologue, the arrival phase (covering everything up to the front doors of Castel Dimitrescu), the first daughter encounter, and the Mask of Sorrow battle.
Key takeaways from the Prologue/Arrival include learning effective ammo management—using barricades, the pistol, and the knife safely—and observing expert strategies for saving resources. I especially relied on CarcinogenSDA’s narrated no damage Hardcore video to master this technique.
In the Arrival phase, a major lesson was the importance of patience during the Lycan attack; rushing after the barricades fell resulted in losing a shotgun round and a health vial.
Regarding Castle: Bela/Mask of Sorrow, I discovered a crucial tactic for dealing with Moroaicas in the dungeon. The method involves luring them past their scripted exit point, allowing them to return to their spawn location. This technique, termed “tethering” by CarcinogenSDA, lets you position yourself safely and strike without direct confrontation. Occasionally, if they don’t follow the path, they may turn back or vanish, requiring close proximity to maintain control.
Apologies for any oversight, but I overlooked an important tip in the narrated video: the optimal way to keep a knife-wielding foe non-stop is to press the block and knife buttons together simultaneously. Additionally, during the fight with Bela, I pushed too hard by firing multiple shotgun rounds before positioning myself, which cost me a health vial. Despite this, I understand the necessity of conserving resources, even if it means making mistakes.
This segment wraps up the Castle section of the game. It features encounters with the bosses Cassandra, Daniela, and Lady D, as well as the Masks of Pleasure, Joy, and Rage. It also covers placing the first flask at the Altar.
Castle: Bosses – Cassandra/Daniela & Masks – Pleasure/Joy/Rage
I managed to fit significantly more content into this video compared to the previous one, even though it’s a bit shorter now. This improvement comes from adopting a more effective knife-killing strategy this time. Much of the extra footage stems from the dungeons in the earlier video, which needed considerable time for lure kills, and the fact that the lure approach wasn’t suitable for many enemies in the wine cellar area.
Spoiler
I achieved a solid performance against the Samcas on the rooftops by applying a new lure method I discovered. Success requires dropping the ladder before entering the Rage Tower and staying low. I added a brief segment at the end to collect some items I had overlooked or couldn’t reach yet. Sorry if I missed verifying search completion in certain spots by showing the map, but I did finish everything before facing the boss.
Castle: Lady D & Altar – 1st Flask
This part demonstrates how to inflict heavy damage close to Lady D after sniping her from above. It explains how to evade her swarm without getting hit and shares tips for earning extra coins by shooting crows from a distance without scaring them.
Spoiler
Because I overlooked verifying search completion in some areas during the earlier video, I displayed every castle level via the map to show all cleared zones before confronting Lady D. The battle went smoothly overall; however, I made an error in the final tower phase by taking too many shots with a shotgun and being attacked by a dragon, which cost me a health vial. Fortunately, I still had three vials remaining after the fight.
Nice. I’m about to watch these videos now, as I’ve just begun playing this game. I had to pause gaming for a week or two because my 1080p monitor was showing signs of wear, which was distracting enough to focus elsewhere.
In the meantime, I just got a new Samsung monitor (FHD, QLED, 144Hz, AMD Freesync). I plan to upgrade to a better model once I upgrade my current AMD RX 480 GPU as well. Unfortunately, GPU prices have been excessively high for over a year now. It’s tough to buy any card at least near its actual MSRP.
Sorry for the off-topic comment, but please keep these gameplay and walkthrough videos coming.
I have additional useful insights from the videos I’m recording and editing now. There’s a spot in the central village where shooting a door lock from afar through a fence before arriving lets you skip around a group of Lycans—this includes an armored one—because the locked door opens a different path. You can still return quickly to the spawn area and collect everything since they vanish afterward.
I’m also improving at dodging the swarm of Samcas near Luiza’s house by moving fast and grabbing loot there.
There’s a method to evade all enemies that appear when heading back from the Beneviento boss: simply pass by them and return later to loot, which works well because it’s straightforward. This approach also proves useful for the giant at the mill and its treasure, as it’s easy to steal without fighting.
Lastly, the Varcolac guarding the southern Village area is quite manageable once you obtain the unborn 4-winged key. Just climb the ladder, position yourself on the roof, stay near the chimney edge where it can’t reach you, and fire at it from the head with a pistol.
I also successfully stole the Moreau boss loot last time I played by experimenting. I avoided all the Samcas and Moroaicas there and used a mine on the footbridge, shooting the Varcolac with a sniper to draw it in before finishing it.
The only boss requiring a lot of ammo but still safe to tackle is the Varcolac Alpha. Its corpse loot is worth 80,000 Lei, so I might attempt it now. However, I’ll conserve my Magnum ammo for the final boss this time, as Sturm and Moreau could be challenging.
OK, now the beyond the Castle stuff. This includes pretty much everything you can do up until the save point just before the Moreau boss. About the only thing I missed so far was the 3 fish in the pond near the Castle gate, but I'll get those when I go back to the village to get the Pigeon Blood Rubies to make Lady D's necklace. Note, there's far more to each of these videos than their titles imply. I only listed some of the more recognizable items in their titles to signify what part of the game they're associated with.
4 Winged Key & Donna Boss
This starts with a lot of scavenging, and minimizes enemy contact via a clever shot to destroy a padlock on a door through a fence. To do this correctly, you must also avoid going left down the narrow alleyway (5:28 mark), and instead take the ramp through the hole in the brick wall. I'm not sure what makes the enemies in that alleyway disappear (you can definitely hear them when you pass by), but I believe it may be going through the door the lock was shot off of after entering through the hole in the wall, because that is not the intended path.
Spoiler
There's a scary battle at the 3:20 mark, with enemies I didn't want to leave behind, due to needing to return there for loot (well). I avoided killing the Samcas when raiding Luiza's house. The outhouse after going inside it is a good cover spot to take them out from no harm, but I didn't want to waste time and ammo on them, so I dashed through. I was able to clear House Beneviento a lot quicker this time just by picking up only the Winding Key from the mannequin, which is all you need if you know the lock code for the main door and dial codes for the cellar door.
Berengario's Chalice & Sluice Gate
This, again, is largely scavenging valuables and key items, but it also has a very handy cheese tactic against the Varcolac you encounter right after entering the South Village area with the Unborn 4 Winged Key (2:08 mark). It also shows a handy trick to get Berengario's Chalice (House Beneviento Treasure) without fighting the giant that guards it (8:15 mark). Lastly, one of the trickiest parts for me was attempting to kill all but the armored Lycan in the cave where you get the boat key, while also reducing my shotgun and sniper clips to 0, and my pistol clip to 2 (13:58 mark). The reason for this was to A) avoid wasting valuable explosives on the armored Lycan, which I'm saving for Moreau, and B) use the others to get my clips down to zero, so I get max free ammo when upgrading their capacity for the Moreau fight, while gathering their loot.
Spoiler
I accomplished my difficult goal of zero clip size, 2 on the pistol, gathering their loot, using no explosives, and taking no damage, using the ladder you enter from as a momentary escape a couple times. However, to my dismay, I wasn't thinking about the gemstone on the rock wall near the catfish pond (20:46 mark) Otherwise those 2 pistol rounds left would have been all I needed for shooting both sides of the collapsible bridge (23:26 mark).
Good. I have finally resolved that puzzle around Masks of Pleasure/Joy/Rage. I got stuck again when I progressed further, but I believe this time I will play and win better than before. Hopefully. Thanks for the advice and suggestions for each section of your walkthrough. It really helps a newcomer to overcome these games easily. Donna BOSS comes next, so I think we need to find the doll Angie multiple times in order to beat her first.
Thank you for your kind words. It's true, Donna isn't a strong leader—more of a player who avoids the giant slug baby and spends time in hide-and-seek with Angie. That's quite a letdown, especially since Lucas' puzzle boss encounter in RE7 included some challenging encounters.
I also found an answer to a recent discussion thread I started about a specific Magnum Ammo location, believed to be the final one in the game (as mentioned on a guide page from Evil Resource). I hadn't noticed picking it up before, and it wasn't something anyone else seemed to encounter in their gameplay clips. The area is located at the Altar, where The Duke takes you back there in his carriage before the climactic battle.
Last night, I completed a test quest from my Altar save just before facing the Stronghold. My goal was to see if I could defeat all optional bosses, thinking it might be possible even after starting fresh in Hardcore mode. This decision was influenced by the remaining Magnum Ammo at various locations and the fact that you can obtain 7 rounds when upgrading its capacity later in the game.
This conclusion also came from CarcinogenSDA's recent Hardcore video, where he defeated Miranda with minimal ammo—just a few rounds of Magnum, a couple of sniper shots, some mines, a few explosives, and a handful of pipe bombs. The 1911 pistol was used sparingly, mainly for the initial phase, while the upgraded pistol (with maximum power and fire rate) handled the final stages. When Miranda grapples you at the end, you need a fast-firing weapon to avoid being overwhelmed, and you don’t require much ammo since most of it is tied up in an interactive cutscene where your current weapon has unlimited rounds.
Other options include selling your shotgun for its full ammo or any excess from other weapons. There are also safe methods to eliminate all optional bosses, such as shooting them from point blank range with the pistol. Collecting their loot, ensuring your magazine slots are empty during upgrades, and managing your cash helps secure the necessary ammo for tough encounters.
What others say about tackling optional bosses in New Game+ isn’t entirely accurate, especially on Hardcore. It might hold some truth in certain modes like Village of Shadows, but even then, I’d likely tackle at least two. My last test run ended under six hours, which is impressive for a fresh start with all bosses defeated and optional ones handled safely.
Now I’m getting back from that Altar save to secure the Stronghold this time, refining my approach. Yesterday night, I finished the killing of the Beneviento Giant and Varcolac Alpha without taking any damage—earning 110,000 Lei. The next target is the Stronghold assault.
The average duration of these two videos is around 42 minutes, with a total of six boss encounters.
This continuation picks up where it left off at the Reservoir Gatehouse following the opening of the Sluice Gate and the removal of Moreau's "precious water." Naturally, it begins with the confrontation against Moreau. I struggled to switch weapons quickly between the shotgun and sniper rifle to boost damage output while the creature was stunned by an explosion, and the various key settings didn’t assist much.
After saving at the Windmill Shack, I reclaimed the previous save after defeating the Varcolac that guards the Moreau treasure (Wolfbane) with two Magnum rounds. I even uploaded it to YouTube. I revisited that save to restore everything, which required some time and effort—especially since I had already removed the original footage. The final result looked quite solid once the clips were trimmed from the compressed video.
Spoiler
I successfully defeated Moreau without sustaining any damage and ended up with sufficient resources. I’m still uncertain if I managed to save a mine, as he activated one during his Godzilla sequence and it didn’t affect him at that stage. Still, this time I explored the area near the boat dock after his defeat, which revealed an expanded zone accessible once the water was drained (something I hadn’t noticed before). This section holds flash grenades, a treasure chest, and a pond with two catfish. The main goal for revisiting the Moreau segment was to preserve my Magnum rounds, using a sniper and retreat strategy from the foot bridge. The fight lasted about five minutes but was definitely worthwhile. I also ensured my sniper and shotgun magazines were empty before heading back to The Duke, aiming to maximize free ammo during upgrades.
These two clips wrap up the tutorial, guiding us to the final part of the game. They cover everything from the bridge all the way to the factory where we previously ended, ending with the last segment. The only omission here is a few instances where I arranged inventory locations. I played at well over 100 FPS this time, realizing the game doesn’t actually require Vsync. The only moment you notice screen tearing is when the massive vent propeller detaches, but it’s quite short-lived.
Heisenberg's Factory
This session allowed me to pack the entire Factory experience, including the start of the escape, into a single video. I successfully eliminated most Soldats and many Haulers more efficiently than before. The higher frame rate removed much of the aim-related hiccups, making my strategy with Haulers and Soldats smoother. I also took a different path to bypass the initial Panzers, which was safer and quicker.
Spoiler
Instead of firing two shotgun rounds per Hauler as before—often ineffective—I tried shooting their visors off with a pistol, then taking them down at close range with one shotgun round, finishing with a pistol shot. Ideally, this could be done with just one shotgun round and three pistol shots, which I frequently achieved. I nearly killed all the Soldats by luring them into a close-range attack and hitting their vulnerable spots. The only miss was a single shot at a weak point on the first Soldat Zwei, whose tougher build makes it harder to eliminate. I narrowly avoided a Hauler in the Engine Room, but escaped just in time. No damage occurred during the Factory section.
Sturm/Heisenberg/Urias Strajer/Miranda
This time I completed all these encounters within about 32 minutes. I adopted a more efficient approach on Sturm and secured the entire Redfield area without interruption. The only challenge was with Urias Strajer, mainly because of the confined space. The battle against Miranda went smoothly.
Spoiler
For this round, I switched tactics from using two shotgun rounds per Hauler to shooting their visors off with a pistol, then taking them down at close range with one shotgun round and finishing with a pistol shot. Ideally, this could be done with just one shotgun round and three pistol shots, which I often succeeded in. I nearly eliminated all the Soldats by luring them into a lunge and striking their weak points. The only close call was with a Hauler I almost missed until I was very near him in the Engine Room, but I escaped just in time. No damage was taken during this segment.
Spoiler
This round against Sturm, I opted for a shotgun instead of the Magnum and used flashbangs more effectively than before. I also managed to trap him in tight areas before he deployed the flame thrower, reducing the risk from ground flames. I misidentified one of Urias Strajer’s moves as a leap rather than a swing, taking minor damage there but never needing a health potion. Although I had less ammunition during my fight with Miranda compared to my previous encounter, I quickly defeated her thanks to pipe bombs and an upgraded pistol at the end—making it the fastest weapon in the game when its fire rate is fully boosted.
As before, I was surprised to find that defeating all optional bosses on a clean start was not only achievable but also safe with ample ammo and resources, and with minimal risk. Although I used some tactics from CarcinogenSDA’s video, he advised against killing Varcolac Alpha or the Beneviento Giant. For the Moreau Treasure boss, I chose my own approach since his Magnum ammo was wasted.
Reflecting on this run, I realized it was much simpler than I initially thought—especially with plenty of ammo and resources—and far less daunting. Although I incorporated some strategies from CarcinogenSDA’s video, he didn’t suggest eliminating Varcolac Alpha or the Beneviento Giant. I also decided to apply my own tactics against the Moreau Treasure boss, feeling his overused Magnum was inefficient.
Looking back, I noticed it was surprisingly easy to complete all optional bosses on a fresh start, with plenty of ammo and resources, and very little danger. The goal wasn’t to struggle harder but to play smarter. Thanks for watching and commenting. I’ll resume my GRID 2019 walkthrough, then dive into a realistic Monster Energy Supercross 3 session, followed by finishing my Doom Eternal Ancient Gods run (still pending a DEAG walkthrough). Eventually, I plan to attempt beating RE Village on the Village of Shadows difficulty with a fresh start, and if successful, I’ll create a walkthrough for that as well.
It's great to hear you're enjoying the game. You're definitely catching up fast. A PRO and Hardcore player, that's awesome! I'm still adjusting to the slower pace though. I took a quick break too. I haven't played any RE games before either. This franchise is massive—there are some classic RE titles worth checking out, like RE 2 and 3 Remakes.