resident evil 4 (2005)

Here's an alternate strategy that may seem a little unorthodox but I found it incredibly effective

Summary

This strategy involves prioritizing weapon upgrades, allowing you to max out all your weapons by being frugal with money. The two major money-saving methods you'll use will be not upgrading the Attache Case until the XL version becomes available, and sacrificing the Rifle for the whole game. These two methods might sound daunting but they actually cancel each other out: without the Rifle you don't actually need to upgrade the Attache Case and saving money on Cases allows you to upgrade the Red9 much faster, which will be your makeshift Rifle.

Detailed

1) Don't upgrade the Attache Case until the XL version becomes available in Chapter 3 - 3. I know this sounds crazy but it's nowhere near as hard as you'd think.
As you probably know the Attache Case doesn't need to be upgraded sequentially. For example, you can go straight from Small to Large without purchasing Medium. My strategy is to avoid purchasing any Attache Case upgrades until the final upgrade becomes available in Chapter 3 - 3. This saves $64,000 you can put into upgrading weapons.

The prospect of going through half the game with the Small version of the Attache Case might sound daunting but it's surprisingly easy. To maximize space simply sell off some of your most expensive items to the Merchant when they fill up the case; First Aid Sprays, Incendiary and Explosive Grenades, 3 Green Herb Mix, even some ammo if you have enough, which you almost certainly will. Don't worry, you'll never be low on health items as this game practically throws them at you - every playthrough I have an abundance of unused Sprays and Herb mixtures by the end- these are all good cash for your weapon upgrades.

Mixed GRY Herbs are the most profitable, giving you a whopping $10,000 a pop, so once your health is maxed out start selling these - although you probably won't max your health out by the end of the game.

Also, avoid purchasing any weapon Stocks until you upgrade to the XL Case.

Remember to exploit the fact the Merchant refills your weapon's ammo every time you upgrade capacity. Speaking of which...

2) Prioritize Capacity and Firepower upgrades for all weapons. Don't bother with Firing Rate and Reload Speed until the first two are maxed out - then you can upgrade them all to get the special upgrade. Remember, the special upgrade also refills your ammo even if the upgrade isn't related to Capacity.

3) Weapons:
Go for the Red9, the Striker, the TMP and Broken Butterfly as soon as they become available. Sell your starting weapons as soon as their superior equivalent becomes available (if you're a greedy git like me you'll want to use up their remaining ammo first). Also, go for the Blue Ribbon quest thing to get the Punisher handgun and immediately sell it for $10,000.

Be smart. Don't BUY the Broken Butterfly, get Ashley to open the door in the castle for the free one.


4) Don't purchase a Rifle. At all.

I know, I know, but hear me out: I personally find the Rifle to be almost entirely unnecessary in this game. 95% of the combat in this game is close quarters. The Red9 and TMP can handle the other 5% almost as well as the Rifles, especially when you have the Stocks. It really is a superfluous weapon. The only time in the game where you actually 'have to' use it is the Regenerators, but here's the thing: you don't! With a Flash Grenade (which you'll almost certainly have several of by that point) you can simply run right past the bastards. This also means you don't need to bother obtaining the Infrared Scope which in turn allows you to avoid some Regenerators. Or, if you prefer, you can obtain it and sell it to the Merchant for more cash.

There's only one Regenerator that you absolutely HAVE to kill: the one with the keycard thing. Simply unload a full clip of the Broken Butterfly and possibly a grenade or a few rounds of the Red9 and it'll die. I find this small ammo sacrifice more than worth the inventory space and money the Rifle uses up. Remember, with this strategy every bit of Rifle ammo in the game = free money, and if you time your Broken Butterfly upgrades right you'll get a free refill immediately after this section with the Regenerator from the Merchant via Capacity upgrade.

5) Obtain as many treasures as you can. If you don't know where they are, for god's sake don't BUY an in-game treasure map from the Merchant - look one up online instead.

I just go from memory at this point, I miss a few here and there proving that it's not even necessary to get all treasures with this strategy.

Also, look up a list of treasures that can be combined and treasures that can be sold immediately.


6) This is more just a useful tip that applies to all playthroughs and strategies: every 'loading' door you go through (when the screen goes all blurry instead of Leon kicking it open) is a free checkpoint. This can be exploited massively and is incredibly useful in some of the more difficult and larger battles. For instance, when you're in a room with lots of heavily armed enemies - like the bridge rooms in the castle - and you manage to kill several enemies without getting hit, exit through one of these doors (usually the one you came through) and immediately re-enter the room. Now, if you die, or lose a lot of health, you can just reload the last checkpoint and you won't have to start from scratch.
You can use this tactic to get perfect victories against hordes of enemies without losing a pixel of health.
This means you'll never have to start a room "all over again" when you get down to the last few enemies only to have one kill or seriously injure you.


Also, it goes without saying to use the Special Costumes 2 making Ashley immortal. This means you don't need to upgrade her health, allowing you to maximize yours much faster.

Conclusion


That's about it. With this strategy you can actually get a fully maxed out Red9, TMP, Striker and Broken Butterfly as soon as their max upgrades become available. I've done this myself and not only was it surprisingly easy, I STILL had an abundance of health items, grenades and unused ammo AND cash by the end of the game. :)

Right! I did this in about 20 hours or so, on my first attempt at a professional run. I did read a few tips here and there first, and combined these ideas, plus put my own spin on it a bit too. I honestly think, this should be the easiest method/strategy to get through this, so if you're struggling - please give this a read and try it. Then let me know how you get on.

General Strategy
The biggest issue you face in a 'Professional' run is running out of bullets. You get a steady trickle of health items throughout the game and things often kill you in a one to three hits at the worst of times anyway, so generally health won't be your issue. Especially if you use the loading doors to set continue points regularly and save often. If you get killed you can always reload and try again. However, if you get to a big boss and find you're dead out of ammo - then basically you're screwed and will have to go back several save points to try and do the last bit more efficiently. So, in your strategy FOCUS on preserving ammo! It's also key to use the 'Special 2' costume you are awarded for completing 'Separate Ways' scenario. Ashley is invulnerable in the armour and allows some powerful strategies for knifing ganados who try to pick her up.

How to preserve ammo

1. Preserve pesetas and use them to buy ammo.
So, first things first. Forget upgrading your attache case until late in the game. You CANNOT afford to buy the medium, or large cases. Just save your money for the XL case you can get later in the castle. Also, don't buy the treasure maps. If you want to 100% the treasure look it up online. Here's a guide:-
Also, combine your treasures for max pesetas. There are lots of guides for this, here's one:- https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=24046...

1.a How to manage a small inventory
It sounds like a pig getting through the village and a chunk of the castle with no inventory space, but it isn't actually that hard. The first thing you have to do is accept you are NOT buying a stock for any weapons until you have the XL case later. This saves a ton of space and they don't do much anyway. Secondly, accept you are NOT buying the rifle. The bolt action is annoyingly slow to load and takes up too much space. You can manage without the rifle - trust me. Don't sell the rifle ammo, unless you're desperate for space, because it IS worth buying the semi-auto rifle later. There's actually a lot of running back and forth at the start of the game, so if you can't fit some ammo or a heal in your box, just leave it and pick it up later. Combine your herbs to save space and if you have more than one stack of ammo for a weapon try to use that weapon for the current enemies to get it down to weapon + 1 stack of ammo. Grenades take up a lot of space, so consider using them if there's useful bunch of enemies to take out. Particularly if you have a lot of ganados with exposed plagas and a flash grenade. That will save serious ammo. An exception is incendiary grenades at the start. For some reason these seem to big damage to chief Mendez so save as many as you can to save wasting too much ammo on that boss fight.

1.b Saving Pesetas
Make sure you collect every dropped box of pesetas. If you're running out of inventory space consider selling surplus grenades or heal items. Of the grenades, I'd be inclined to prioritize, normal grenades first, then flash bangs, then incendiary (Mendez boss battle aside). Grenades are useful, but take up a lot of space. The standard grenade does a lot of damage to anything, flash bangs are great if you have a room of ganados with exposed plagas. They can save you a lot of ammo and that's important. Make sure you pick up the free shotgun from the upstairs room when you first enter the village, the free Broken Butterfly Magnum from the castle after you've re-united with Ashley:-
AND the free Rocket Launcher!

While you're in the village, if you're feeling low on cash and don't mind sinking some time into it, you can effectively get infinite money by running around the farm area with the chickens and cows, collecting all the eggs, brown eggs and gold eggs, then exiting and re-entering the area and doing it all again. Don't shoot any chickens! Eggs are 300 pesetas, Brown eggs are 600 pesetas and Gold Eggs are 3000 pesetas. This video explains it better:-

2. Preserving bullets & Buying Bullets
One major annoyance you'll find with this game, is that though the Merchant is always well stocked with weapons, heals and upgrades, however the idiot NEVER has any bullets in stock! Personally It think this is seriously bad businessmanship as there have been times when I'd have happily cleaned him out of several different bullet types. He DOES however stock capacity upgrades, which is a bit like bullets. Unless you know you need to have your guns loaded for a tough battle, don't reload them! Keep them with zero or a minimal number of bullets actually in the gun. Then when you get to the Merchant, check your inventory. If there's a gun you can buy a capacity upgrade for, which has no bullets or only a couple in it - buy the capacity upgrade. Over the course of the game this will add a massive amount of bullets to your arsenal. Take the TMP, if you buy the last capacity upgrade when it has zero bullets loaded, you are adding 250 TMP bullets to the game. This is especially true of the Magnum. When you maxed out the capacity of the Broken Butterfly and emptied it of bullets - try to avoid using it any more. Switch to the Killer7 and start buying capacity upgrades to get more bullets.

2.b Preserving Bullets: Knife strategies
Now I'm not expecting you to attempt a knife-only run. Technically this is impossible in RE4. However, there are many times when it's possible to use the knife to save a lot of bullets without putting yourself at risk. If there's a lone ganado approaching, knee-cap him, with the handgun. When he drops, run over and start slashing. If you keep at it the stun lock will mean he can't get a hit in on. One bullet, one death, no risk.

Another example is the ladder strategy, if you're up high and melee gandos are climbing a ladder to get to you - stand at the top and slash every time they get near. This is a quick and easy way to save bullets, just be weary of ganados sneaking up behind you.

If a mob of ganados is in a tight space, smash them once with something like the Stiker, if they all fall into a neat pile, you can run and slash your way through the lot with little to no risk.

Another key knife moment is Krauser. There is NO REASON to use bullets against him. Certainly not for the final tower-top battle. I used a few bullets in the run-around bit getting the first two insignias. When I was on the tower, after Krausers insignia I had a few tries and found myself running out of bullets and time. I recalled someone saying it was easier to knife Krauser so I checked again and tried it for myself. I killed him knife only on my second go. It was a doddle. You just have to be close, persistently slashing and ready for the odd set-piece button press. Knifing Krauser saves you a ton of time and ammo. For some reason being slashed with a knife seems to be Krauser's weakness:-

You can also use the environment to kill several enemies. So if they are queueing up behind a door to attack you kick the door open. It'll do damage and can knock them down so you can run in with your knife. If you see exploding barrels or oil-filled lanterns where ganados are standing, one bullet can kill several enemies at once.

Earlier in the guide I mentioned Ashley wearing the armour in the 'Special 2' costume? You can really use that to your advantage. For example, if when you get to the water room, you run past the ganados into the little room down the stairs with the two pressure plates, ganados will enter through the door or drop through the ceiling. Tell Ashley to wait near the centre then wait by one of the pressure plates. A ganado will grab her, then fall over, so you can run in and knife him to death before he can get up. You can use Ashley to save a ton of bullets this way.

3. Weapon Loadout
Lots of gamers recommend the Red9 handgun, and for good reason. In terms of firepower it outclasses all of the others. Firing speed in Professional isn't necessarily a big deal as you need max damage per bullet purely because of the scarcity of bullets. Pick up the free shotgun in the village. Don't buy the rifle. Get the TMP as soon as you can. Save as much rifle ammo as you can for later. In the Castle buy the semi-auto rifle, but don't buy the improved scope. I say this, because aside from a flash bang the rifle is the best for killing exposed ganados. Having the infrared scope for the regenerators will make your life easier too. One rifle shot to an exposed plaga in a normal ganado will kill it. When you can get the Striker, use the remaining shells in the shotgun up, then sell the shotgun and buy the Striker - it's great for crowd control. Make sure you pick up the free Broken Butterfly. keep upgrading the capacity to buy more bullets. You can upgrade the fire-power a bit too if you want. When you can't upgrade the capacity anymore, (Level 4 [12 Bullets]) unlocked at Chapter 5-1) sell the Broken Butterfly and buy the Killer7. Then start upgrading capacity to get more bullets.

3.a Weapon Upgrades
Spend most of your money on upgrading capacity. Only buy it when your gun is empty or nearly empty though. You can also improve firepower as this will save you ammo in theory too. The reload speeds and special upgrades are entirely optional. I personally hardly bothered with any of them, except I maxed out the TMP near the end because I had money to burn. You SHOULD end up with a good wedge of money in the final chapter. At that point, and that point only, sell the semi-auto rifle just before you meet Saddler for the final time and buy a Rocket Launcher. It makes the last boss fight a lot simpler. Save the free Rocket Launcher for Salazar or Verdugo as it makes these otherwise tough fights a doddle. Once you have the XL case, buy stocks for the TMP and Red9. You won't have the space before then.

3.b Which Weapons to use where
Red9 should be your staple, go to gun. If it's a lone ganado one shot, then knife them. The shotgun is your crowd control weapon. Shoot crowds of ganadoes, if they all go down run and knife them. You can use the Red9 to snipe until you get the semi-auto rifle. Once you get the rifle, use it to snipe, head shot and take out exposed plagas. The Magnum should be saved for bosses and tough enemies. Flash bangs are great for hoards of exposed plagas, expose as many as you can then throw. Grenades are great for crowd control and clearing a room also. Incendiary grenades are okay, but they are super effective against the big cheese of the village - Mendez. Try to save half a dozen for him and it'll make that fight super easy. The TMP is a great all round weapon. Try to save it for when you need it.

4. Health
The game pretty much throws health at you. If Ashley is wearing the armour she won't need any. So combine your herbs and give them all to Leon. Try to mix two green herbs together rather then eat two green herbs one after another as the mixed ones are always more efficient at healing. The only exception here is early on in the game where you have hardly any health. At that point never mix as it wold be a waste.

5. Boss guide
The first boss you'll meet are the chainsaw ganados. They aren't really a proper boss, but can deliver a one-hit kill. Keep your distance, try to put them on the floor then knife them to death. The ladder strategy with the knife works well on them at times.

5.a Del Lago
There's no particular clever strategy to this. Try to avoid being knocked out of the boat and hit him with as many harpoons as possible.

5.b El Gigante

Keep your distance, unload bullets into him until he falls to his knees. At that point, you can either jump on his back and knife the plaga, or shoot. If you have a powerful gun like an upgraded TMP or Shotgun at the right range I'd go for that. If you're down to handgun bullets jump on and start slashing. When you meet two of these later in the game it's possible to kill one with a trapdoor over lava. You miss on some pesetas this way I think, but it's worth it as he can be a bit of a bullet sponge.

5.c Mendez
The village big chief can be a beast, However, he seems very susceptible to incendiary grenades, so save as many as you can for him. Strategy wise cclimb the ladders to collect extra herbs, ammo and a grenade and keep as much distance as you can from him. He's tough, but he's not worth a rocket.

5.d Garrador
These are the blind guys with Wolverine blades on their hands. They hunt by sound so walk, don't run. You can sometimes use bells to get them to charge, but you only do damage when you hit the plaga on their back. Early on in castle these guys are worth a few rifle rounds. Later on if you have a surplus of Magnum ammo it might be worth dropping a few rounds on them with that. Otherwise go shotgun.

5.e Verdugo
Salazars right hand... Man? Well, whatever he is, he's tough. You can only damage him when he's been frozen by having a liquid nitrogen cannister toppled over him. One shot with a rocket launcher will finish if you freeze him first. Otherwise it'll be several freezings and a lot of ammo. If you have the cash, consider buying a rocket for him to save ammo.

5.f Salazar
Salazar is a tough fight. I would say, he's another boss that is worth a rocket to save ammo. However, I actually think the free rocket is better spent on Verdugo. To kill Salazar shoot his eyeball on a tentacle thingie to open the bit where the guy is. Then unload something juicy into him, like a few Magnum rounds? Again, if you have the cash and you used your free rocket on Verdugo, maybe but a rocket for this guy.

5.g U-3
Saddler calls this thing 'It'. For the first part of the fight, you can't kill it. I don't even know if any damage you do in the cages is carried over to the second phase. So save your ammo and only shoot him to stun him so you can run by and hit those switches. Once you're on the final phase, use the barrels in the arena to do big damage, then run through the tunnel and close the gate behind you. Before he can smash through the grate use the Striker to stun lock him over and over and if you're lucky he'll be onto the last 'burrowing' phase. When he's doing this keep your distance, be ready for the set pieces and shoot the parasite on his back. You'll probably empty your Magnum and most of your other guns on this guy as in professional mode he is a serious bullet sponge.

5.h Krauser
For the first part of the fight when he's dodging around and shooting arrows use the TMP and shotgun. He's very good at dodging, but if you spray and pray you should get some hits in. There are points where you can run away from him and others where you have to fight. Don't waste too much ammo on him at the start though as again, I'm not sure damage is carried over to the finale. During the final battle, at the top of the tower grab all the ammo and heals first then pick up the insignia. Now, here's the weird part. Your instinct is to start shooting, but don't! Get your knife out, dodge around and when he's in range slash as fast as you can with your knife. If you're close enough and fast enough you'll stun-lock him, cancelling all his attacks. I know this sounds counter-intuitive, but I've tried both methods and he has a serious weakness to being slashed. It saves a mountain of bullets AND takes less time! Put your guns away, use your knife.

5.i Saddler
This isn't actually that hard a fight. Before you meet him sell your semi-auto rifle and any remaining ammo for it to the last Merchant. Use the money to buy a Rocket Launcher and any other upgrades you can get. When the fight starts run past him, then hit the exploding barrel when he's near it. Next, run back, climb the steps and hit him with the crane. Now run past again and spray away at the eyes with the TMP until he drops. While he's down quickly hit him with the Rocket Launcher. This should be enough for Ada to throw you the special rocket launcher. You CAN kill him without it, but it'll take forever so aim carefully, make sure you hit him and BOOM! You've won! (Jet ski set piece aside! Good luck!)

6. Conclusions
That's all I've got. Using these strategies you should have a reasonably easy time of earning this high-ratio achievement. In summary, use Ashley's armour. Use your knife as much as you can. Don't buy any attache cases until you can get the XL. Don't buy the stocks scopes or bolt-action rifle. Knife Krauser to death. Maximise the bullets in the game by buying capacity upgrades when your gun is empty or nearly empty.

Hope this helps someone out! If it does, please let me know with a comment! :)

Martyn Stanley

This is just a heads up for anyone trying this on s/x consoles with quick resume features, do not use quick resume every time you come off the game close it, I played the entire thing and didn't unlock the achievement had to play it all again lucky I got the rewards to make it 10x easier, do not use quick resume

Watch any Pro Run Speedrunner on Youtube, for the best tricks on how to skip hard parts and easily kill the bosses.

I recommend Phaer0, he has the world record run time.
He uses some PC only glitches, but just do as much as you can the way he does. Buy Rocket Launchers for bosses, use the "restart from checkpoint " liberally as health is more scarce and you take more damage.

Always use whatever gun you are comfortable with and try to do the shooting practice for easy money. Try to skip as many areas as you can, no need to waste ammo or health on areas not necessary to fight through.

Use Special 2 Costume, at least you won't need to waste health on ashley, and can use her as bait to lure enemies and lob grenades or use the Shotgun.

A couple boss Pro-tips (because it's on Professional; get it?)

**SALAZAR**

Buy the Rocket Launcher from the merchant right outside the boss fight.
TMP his moving-target eyeball that's all in your face when this fight starts. You know, the insect face.
When Salazar comes out line up the crosshairs on him and let that rocket go. Easy peazy. You may not have even taken damage from this fight, turning a frustrating item-draining battle into a lovely walk in the park.



**JACK KRAUSER**

You MUST have the Broken Butterfly upgraded to EXCLUSIVE (so yeah, fully) or you will never do enough damage to Krauser on Professional difficulty to kill him. I tried with my TMP exclusive level (200+ shots) and some full firepower (but not exclusive) Riot Gun plus 6 magnum rounds without exclusive and never once took him down.

I had to reload at the merchant right before Krauser, sell my Red9, buy the Broken Butterfly exclusive (thank you 12 rounds) and pick up the 6 extra magnum rounds in the level before Krauser fights you for real-real. Using only the Broken Butterfly exclusive level I took him down first try and had 5 shots left.

If you have to do this, chances are you can still buy back your Red9 and re-upgrade it a little with your leftover money. That's what happened to me, at least.

I did not try to use the knife on him during the final fight. It is however extremely effective in your something-like-four-skirmishes before he really means business and goes all freak-arm on you. Instead I employed the distancing method where I gave myself a lot of space to retreat and wait for him to come to you. Then when he comes forward back away so he whiffs his attack and blast him preferably in the face. He has a variety of attacks but the double roundhouse kick leaves him most open as far as I can tell and he loves to use it.. the only drawback is that it cannot be button-dodged.

Repeat this until he has backed you up to one end of the rooftop and the sprint past him, then turn around and start the process over with lots of room behind you. However if you used that full-power butterfly magnum well it might not even come to that

Right I'm going to leave my hints and tips for this.
So to start off beat the game and separate ways and pick special costume 2, Ashley will be invisible making her a useful distraction.
Now for the bosses, just before every boss is the merchant and for most bosses the rocket launcher is your friend. So the first el giants, the path after the hold-up with Louis, pick the with with the giant again, most bosses drop half if not the whole amount of the cost of a rocket launcher. The village chief, now I rocketed him for stage 1 for stage 2 climb behind you and go left behind a lillar, he can't touch you. For the right hand of salazar freeze him by knocking over a nitrogen tank and rocket launcher. Salazar shoot him in his weak point with the broken butterfly to get him out then rocket launcher. For krauzer fully upgraded broken butterfly, money management will be key to for this, and don't use any magnum bullets you pick up in the game except for this boss fight and the last. For the room with 2 giants use the trap on 1 and a rocket launcher on the other. For the last boss use the magnum to shoot the weak points on the legs then fave after 5 or 6 shots ada will throw the rocket launcher.
Now the important part about the game money management and weapon choices. So weapons to use its the broken butterfly, the red 9, the tmp, the striker, and the auto rifle. Now through the game before you get these weapons do not waste any money on other shotguns or pistols. Another handy trick is when you buy a magazine upgrade you get a free clip, this is useful for managing ammo to especially on the magnum. Use the magnum throughout the game to take of the guys with claws but only before you get the last clip upgrade. To make sure you have enough money for the magnum ultimate upgrade you need 2 save up some money, if you don't have enough sell the red 9 as ammo for pistol at that stage in the game is low. Now throughout playing feel free to upgrade the red 9, tmp all the way to the max without the ultimate and the auto riffle and striker a bit. Just take note on the first playthrough how much money you need for the upgrade. Overall it isn't too bad, in the village area also you can shoot the legs of single guys and knifes them to death. Final tip for some good supplies is when you see a group of crows, use a flashbang, good stuff. The merchants side mission also gives out alot of money.

Final tip, my achievement glitched initially so when you beat the game and save do it on a new save file just incase, so that if it doesn't unlock you have the save right before the final boss to flu through it again and hope it unlocks

Here are some tips i figured out while playing the game on professional. I will perhaps edit this article so it's worth looking several times if you have problems:

If you managed "Separate Ways" with Ada its recommended to use Ashleys armor outfit. As mentioned, nothing can harm her and she can be used as a distraction. Another good tactic is letting the villagers/sect members/soldiers pick her up. Because of the heavy armor, they fell down and you can kill them easily with your knife. If there is a group with more infected, let one pick Ashley up and shoot anonther one into the knee followed by a kick. If you're lucky, you will knock out others. If you don't, just try it again. You can save a lot of ammo and health with this method, but you may need to practice it a bit.

Furthermore, if you have problems solving the end of chapter 2-2: I advise you to upgrade the Shotgun, Red9 and the TMP as good as you can at first. After the cutscene, immediately barricade yourself and pick up everything (even go upstairs and collect the grenades and herb). position yourself in front of the first step and wait for the infected to break through the barricade into the house. Use your shotgun and keep the villagers away from you. If there are 2 or more Las Plagas growing (that will definitely happen) watch out for Luis to help you or use a flashgrenade to eliminate them at once.Try to collect ammo and herbs but dont leave your spot for more than a few seconds. After Luis is telling you to move upstairs, run quickly into the right corner (there is a closet near by and 2 windows) and continue to get rid of the infected (burn them with your grenade(s) if there are two many of them in front of you). If you have a few seconds to breath deeply, knock over the ladders behind and besides you. This will make sure that you cannot be attacked from behind. Continue to kill the infected coming from the opposite side and keep in mind that the ladders are positioned again very fast on professional. If necessary, knock them down again. Don't lose your cool and keep in mind that chapter is almost done.

Note: It's doable with 2 first-aid sprays and 1 complete herb mixture (you can even find all 3 sorts of herbs inside of the cabin). Good luck!

I just found out something which might be new for some of you: Right after chapter 2-2 you are able to choose a path: The left one leads you to the Bella sisters while the right path is concluding an El Gigante. It's very important that Ashley has her armor for this tactic, otherwise it won't work. Choose the part with El Gigante and shoot the chains off the first door before El Gigante appears. After the Cutscene, stop him with the huge rock above you and then run immediately into the second cabin. Take the key and run to the door to escape. Right after this, return and run together with ashley to the area in front of the cabins. Give her the "wait" command and step behins her. El Gigante will be busy with grabbing Ashley. This is you chance: Collect everything you can find (Don't forget the treasure above you and you will find lots of ammo in this section!) After Ashley rescued herself just give the "follow me" command and run to the door again and escape. If necessary, repeat this until you got everything you want. With this tactic, you don't need to fight El Gigante but you're able to collect every item in this section.

Fighting the Red Gaitling-Gun Guy to get the gallery key: in the early section of the castle you will head to a room where 2 archers, 2 sect members with golden masks and 1 red member are standing on a plattform above you. If you don't have the automatic rifle yet, buy it from the merchant. Proceed until you are on the second floor of the hall. It's almost impossible to kill the red guy before he will run through the door so don't get nervous if he does. Kill all of the other infected and jump down at the end of the floor. The door will open and the red guy tries to run to the gaitling gun which is located in the middle of that room beneath you. This is your chance: He will stop and you're able to shoot him with your rifle. After the first shot he runs away again. If you're a good shooter you can kill him right before he's entering the door which leads him downstairs but it's not easy to manage it here. If you didnt' get the job done yet, you will have another chance to kill him. Run after him and after opening the door, a infected with a wooden shield is trying to attack you. Don't pay any attention to him and concentrate on the red guy again. Pick up your shotgun and shoot him right into the knees. He will fall to the ground and you can finish him off getting the gallery key before he's able to attack you with the huge gaitling-gun.

Another tricky situation might be purchasing the grail of the king. After you picked it up, 3 knights will appear and attack you. Run away and shoot them with your shotgun. After the las plagas are visible, throw a flash grenade and they will die at once. Repeat that with the coming black knights again and you can save lots of health and ammo again in this section.

Fighting the two El Gigantes: It's highly recommended to get rid of one El Gigante while pushing the trigger very early. He will fall into the lava and you just have to worry about the remaining one. Run to the ladder and climb it. Wait until El Gigante is very close and jump off! He will start to shake the scaffold and you can attack him with your shotgun or even with your knife (this will last longer but it is very effective). Climb the ladder and jump off again until he starts to shake the scaffold again. Repeat this several times and El Gigante will be gone without taking damage!

Fighting U3: In Chapter 5-2 you have the pleasure to face that huge monster called U3. During the first part of the confrontation while you're in the container, don't shoot it because you can't kill it there. Push the buttons at the right time to avoid U3's attacks. If you can't run away, throw a flashgrenade and focus on the buttons to escape that section as soon as possible. Now it comes to the real fight: Choose your magnum and shoot it several times (Use the fire barrels too!). After a few shoots, it starts to dig and trys to attack you from beneath. Just push the buttons and wait for U3 to show again. Shoot again with your magnum or TMP, if you don't want to waste too much magnum ammo here (Keep in mind to keep a good distance while using the TMP). It will soon be gone.

Note: If you have enough space left in your briefcase, buy a rocket launcher and beat U3s ass even faster!

Fighting Jack Krauser: Well guys, if you made it this far it comes to a very frustrating and hard battle with Jack Krauser. In the first part, you have to collect 2 pieces for the main door. I recommend to use your knife and your TMP to get rid of Jack Krauser. If he's close to you, knife him and if he has a certain amount of distance, switch to your TMP. After he disappeared, collect everything you can find. Repeat this until you face him at the top of the tower. Krauer on professional is very annoying and very offensive so be careful all the time because he can kill you quickly even with full health. The Rocket Launcher will not help you because you can only damage but not kill him with it. Use your magum (fire power fully upgraded!) and your knife to take him out. If he's close to you (that will happen almost al the time) knife him and while he's on his knees, shoot him with your magnum in the head. Be careful and stay alert because you have to do a lot of fast button smashing too in this battle. If you feel crampled, run away and wait for the right moment to shoot him in the knee. If he's doing his jumping attack, you can hit him even several times with your magnum. Don't worry about the time, 2 minutes are very little time, but if you fight offense and thought out, you can get rid of him in 40-50 seconds. After he's gone, collect everything you can find (if you have enough time of course) and get through the door to finish this hard chapter.

The final chapter: After i defeated Krauser, i thought it will be easy to get to Saddler because Mike will help you through this huge section with lots of soldiers with his helicopter. Unfortunately, this isn't the case. Of course he will help you but you have to to the work almost by yourself, because Mike needs very very long to take out the machine guns. On normal, he kills almost everyone but on professional it's up to you to move to Saddler step my step. The semi-auto rifle and patience is the key to success here. Kill the archers and rocket launcher guys with your rifle from a good distance and watch out for the soldiers on the ground. In the first section you can use the ladder to your advantage but i recommend to run away because you can be surrounded very easily. After the section you have to climb several ladders (right before J.J), the game will save. After you died, you can return to the previous section and collect every item. Surprisingly, there are no soldiers anymore. Head back and get rid of the soldiers coming down the steps before taking care of J.J. Use your rifle here to shoot him in the head to kill him quickly. After you opened the door, the game will save again. The next and last section can be very frustrating because there are a lots of soldiers coming from everywhere and even 3 machine guns!. Immediately turn left and climb up the ladder. A guy with a wooden shield will appear soon, so make sure to kill him very quickly. Now focus on the ladder and kill the soldiers, who try to climb the ladder. Unfortunately it isn't as easy as it sounds, because another soldier with dynamite will appear right in front of you. Kill him quickly with your shotgun and continute knifing the soldiers who climb the ladder from beneath. After you killed all of them, catch a breath and focus on the first machine gun on the left. Pick your rifle and shoot him in the head while he needs to reload (you have very little time to kill him). (If you're lucky, Mike will take care of the machine gun guy on the right, but don't bet on that). If he doesn't it's up to you. There is still one machine gun guy on the right and one beneath you so run as fast as you can to the house next to the machine gun guy. He cannot attack you here, so just use your TMP. From this part, kill the rocket launcher guy too who's standing on the opposite site of you. Reload and heal yourself if necessary and run back and climb down the ladder (Beware of soldiers who may appeared again). Run back to the entrance and move left. Hide until the last machine gun guy needs to reload and run quickly to the elevator (on the ground where you can find the green herb too). Choose your rifle again and wait for your chance to take him out with a headshot (Same tactic as mentioned before). After you get the job done, collect everything, pulling the 2 switches and go through the door to finsih the last difficult part of the game.

Fighting Saddler: The final boss of the game isn't even half as hard as Krauser was so don't get nervous. If you have a rocket launcher, you can beat him within seconds. After the fight has begun, shoot the eyes on his legs and wait for him to show his huge eye. Pick your rocket launcher and shoot him. He's not dead yet, so run away to the next platform. Ada will throw another rocket launcher to you, finish him off and you've beaten the game on professional!

Note: If you don't have a rocket launcher, use your TMP and magnum to kill him. Shoot his eyes on the leg and shoot with the magnum on his huge eye. If you don't have any mangum ammo left, you can push the buttons and Leon will knife him automatically. Repeat this several times (use the fire barrels too!) until Ada is throwing the rocket launcher. Continue as mentioned above.