Beginner’s Guide#
This is the beginner’s guide for Resident Evil Requiem. The game is the 9th mainline entry in the series and its 30th-anniversary title, launching worldwide on February 27, 2026 for PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC (Steam and Epic Games Store), and Nintendo Switch 2, with a GeForce NOW cloud-streaming version. As an entry returning to survival horror’s roots, building correct survival habits at the start matters more than any weapon.
This page collects only verified mechanics and opening information; controls defer to the official online manual (manual.capcom.com/requiem/), and no per-key mapping table is listed here to avoid mixing up layouts across platforms.
Three Things to Know at the Start#
- Dual protagonists, dual lines: the story weaves between FBI technical analyst Grace Ashcroft and DSO agent Leon S. Kennedy, alternating at key nodes. They don’t fight side by side — each advances their own mission.
- No numbered chapters: the main line advances through linked area missions, starting at the Wrenwood Hotel and pushing through the Raccoon City ruins to the ARK facility. Sync your save rhythm to areas, not to an expected “chapter” structure.
- Resources are the core gameplay: the game deliberately constrains ammo and healing supplies, turning “do I fight this one?” into a question every encounter demands you answer. The most important rule of this game: a fight you can route around is a fight you don’t take.
How the Two Protagonists Play Differently#
| Character | Identity | Combat resources | Recommended approach |
|---|---|---|---|
| Grace | FBI technical analyst | scarce resources; melee centers on the dagger | stealth and detours first; firefights are the last resort |
| Leon | DSO agent | ample firepower; buys and tunes weapons with Credits | firepower supremacy; parry first against tough enemies |
Grace is a rare “non-combatant” protagonist for the series: she starts as an analyst, not an agent, with limited means against enemies, making her segments the most horror-soaked part of the game. Leon is the series veteran — well-armed and forceful, with the Hatchet as his melee mainstay. The switch between these two rhythms is itself a narrative device: the evasion habits you build in Grace’s segments should be deliberately restrained in Leon’s — don’t waste ammo on enemies you can bypass.
On presentation, the game supports real-time switching between first- and third-person — its most free presentation feature. Beginners needn’t agonize over which is “correct”: first person makes details easier to notice while exploring, reading files, and looting; third person gives a wider view in combat and traversal. Both are switchable anytime — use whichever feels natural, with one suggestion: try each once during the hotel segment to find your comfortable default early.
The growth systems are worth knowing in advance. Grace’s line has the Charm system — for example, the Rugged Rookie Charm boosts firepower and the Trusted Companion Charm boosts penetration; equip whatever you find, no fine budgeting needed early. Manual-type items provide real functional boosts — the Matsuoka Master Manual, for example, raises the blood collector’s capacity by 50%. Leon’s line grows around Credits: buying and tune-ups both spend them, and a related challenge requires earning 200,000 Credits cumulatively — start saving from your first Leon chapter so mid-game firepower doesn’t stall.
Choosing a Difficulty#
| Difficulty | Unlock | Saving | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Casual | selectable from the start | frequent autosaves; unlimited saves for both Grace and Leon | series newcomers, story-first players |
| Standard - Modern | selectable from the start | frequent autosaves, no ribbons needed | the default for series veterans |
| Standard - Classic | selectable from the start | typewriter saves consume Ink Ribbons; very few autosaves | players wanting the classic survival horror experience |
| Insanity | unlocks after one clear | ribbon saves like Classic; very few autosaves | players chasing the ultimate challenge |
First-run recommendation: Standard - Modern — frequent autosaves, high margin for error, full experience of the dual-protagonist rhythm. Choose Standard - Classic for authentic resource pressure — on Classic, ribbons are a real consumable and one death costs far more than on Modern. Clearing Insanity rewards 40,000 Challenge Points, an important piece of the achievement route, but strongly not recommended as a first run.
Two details for the indecisive: first, Casual also provides aim assist on top of softer enemies — players who have never touched survival horror can start there with zero story loss. Second, each difficulty maps to one difficulty trophy (the four-agent series — Rookie, Rising, Resolute, and Remarkable Agent), with Insanity’s Remarkable Agent being the gold trophy. In other words, Standard - Modern as a first run misses nothing — you simply learn the game at the most comfortable rhythm, and the other three difficulties can each be filled in on later runs.
The Opening: Wrenwood Hotel#
The game opens in 2026 at the FBI’s Midwest field office: supervisor Nathan assigns Grace to return to the Wrenwood Hotel and investigate a string of deaths — eight years earlier, in October 2018, her mother Alyssa Ashcroft was murdered in that very hotel. The Wrenwood Hotel is the game’s first large map and the classroom where beginners learn the “explore — collect — evade” loop.
Verified key nodes of the opening:
| Node | Essentials |
|---|---|
| Receiving orders | Nathan assigns the mission and briefs the string-of-deaths background |
| Officer Cole cordons the area | Wrenwood City officer Norman Cole seals the hotel’s perimeter — a story contact point |
| Room 204 | examine the pillar photo and other clues to get the old key, opening Room 204 |
| QTE ambush | an attack QTE triggers as the story advances — escape per the prompts |
| Emergency exit key | the key item needed to advance |
The hotel segment’s full walkthrough, key list, and file list are in the Walkthrough. Don’t rush the opening — read the files in every hotel room: this game’s puzzle clues hide almost entirely in files, and building the reading habit early saves enormous trial-and-error time later.
Files are the hotel segment’s most important collectible, and the first five files’ order is verified: the investigation report (carried from the start), the Wrenwood City guide, the hotel brochure, the closure notice, and Alyssa’s diary. The order is itself a narrative thread — shrinking from an official traveler’s guide to a mother’s private diary, as the truth behind the hotel’s closure peels open layer by layer. Read every file you find: codes, key locations, and backstory are all inside — closer to this game’s puzzle design than any guide.
Survival Basics: Three Systems You Must Understand#
Parries#
The parry is this game’s melee core: counter an enemy’s strike the instant it lands with the Hatchet or another melee weapon. Fights against the Super Tyrant, the Commander, and final boss Victor Gideon force parries — evasion alone won’t cut it, so learn it. No need to grind it early, but try a counter or two against axe-wielding enemies to learn the window; later tough fights get much easier. Mechanics in the Combat System.
Two pieces of parry-adjacent knowledge: an enemy’s axe can be knocked loose, picked up, and thrown — effectively disarming them for free; and while Grace’s dagger can parry in a pinch, reliable counters need the axe. The Untouchable achievement ties directly to parry performance, so drilling the window is a two-birds investment.
Ink Ribbon Saves#
On Standard - Classic and Insanity, Grace must spend ink ribbons at typewriters, with very few autosaves. When ribbons run short there is one officially verified supplement: collect infected blood micro-samples with the blood collector to synthesize ink ribbon tins. So Classic players shouldn’t treat the blood collector as optional — it feeds both the synthesis system and the save resource; details in the Collectibles Guide.
The achievement The Ol’ Fashioned Way ties to ribbon saving — Classic players earn it almost by default. Longer-term good news: one reward of the Speed Demon challenge (clearing with Release Elpis within 4 in-game hours) unlocks infinite ribbons — but that’s a post-mastery pursuit; on your first run, manage ribbons honestly and treat each save as a chance to re-plan your route.
The Item Box#
The item box sits in safe rooms and is the storage system shared across areas. Storing items in it for Grace corresponds to the achievement Out of Sight, Out of Mind. Before a new area, sort keys and ammo; deposit what you won’t use, and always keep emergency space in the bag.
The item box has one easily missed long-term use: reward weapons bought after clearing from the Special Content store (like the Kotetsu and RPG-7) must be claimed from the item box or supply crates in a new playthrough. So the “organize the item box regularly” habit from run one carries into every run after.
Prioritizing Collectibles#
The easiest beginner mistake is grabbing everything. This game’s collection is sizable (75 files, 25 Mr. Raccoon statues, BSAA containers, ancient coins, and every safe), but the pieces aren’t equally valuable:
| Collectible | Priority | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Files | high | unlock a collection achievement and often hold codes and progression clues |
| Mr. Raccoon statues | high | destroying all of them unlocks the Advanced Tuning extra weapon upgrade tier |
| Safes and chests | medium | safes have their own achievement; ancient coins spend at Supply Boxes |
| Containers | medium | achievement-related; pick them up en route |
Don’t hoard ancient coins — they spend at Supply Boxes, so use them when they help. Full collection scale and routes are in Collectibles.
Each of the four categories has its own achievement: safes correspond to No Safe is Safe, containers to Crate Expectations, files to Case Closed, and Mr. Raccoon statues to You Little Rascal!. No need to memorize the list — remember one principle: files and statues first, because their payoffs (code clues and Advanced Tuning) loop back into your survival quality, not just achievement progress.
The Easiest Beginner Traps#
- Spending ammo on enemies you could bypass: most encounters can be routed around; regular enemies drop nothing worth a firefight — heavy firepower belongs to real tough enemies.
- Forgetting ribbon management on Classic: when ribbons run out with no typewriter in sight, long stretches of progress hang on rare autosaves with almost no margin.
- Fighting The Girl: this light-sensitive stalker (the shadow ghost) can only be evaded in Grace’s early line — only the Requiem revolver can stun her. Don’t force a fight before that.
- Skipping weapon tune-ups in Leon’s line: Leon’s chapters buy and tune weapons with Credits; skipping tune-ups to save money visibly starves mid-game firepower.
- Making Insanity your first run: Insanity raises enemy health and counts, moves some item placements — it’s built for players who already know the flow.
- Brawling the Super Tyrant inside the R.P.D.: the encounter in Raccoon City downtown’s R.P.D. cannot be won; the real fight is at the basketball court — retreat as the story pushes you, don’t linger.
- Parrying Blister Borne’s charge: the chapel boss’s charge cannot be parried — one of the few attacks that beats the counter. The right answer is footwork and distance: wait out its stagger window, then focus fire the 4 cyst weak points on its body.
NG+ and Long-Term Planning#
After clearing any difficulty, the Bonuses menu unlocks on the main menu; inside, the Special Content store sells reward weapons, outfits, and assists with Challenge Points — the unbreakable Kotetsu knife, the RPG-7, infinite ammo, and more. Note that weapon upgrade levels and carried resources do not carry into a new playthrough, while challenge progress accumulates across runs. The full inheritance rules and price list are in New Game+.
The beginner phase has exactly one goal: experience both main lines once at the most comfortable difficulty, and get the three systems — parries, crafting, item box — into your hands. Achievements, speedruns, and full collection can all build on that first-run familiarity; there’s no need to rush.
Pace Expectations for Run One#
Finally, a time expectation to help pace yourself: main line only about 12 hours; main line plus light exploration about 11–16 hours; full collection about 25–40 hours. Treat run one as a 12–16 hour experience. The flow strings area missions together: after the Wrenwood Hotel come Elbridge (Leon), the Wrenwood streets, the Rhodes Hill care home, the water treatment plant, Raccoon City east district, Raccoon City downtown, the orphanage, and Blackthorn station, before finally reaching the ARK facility. Knowing the area order in your head means knowing “how far to the next safe room” — which makes it much easier to judge whether now is the time to clear out the bag.
One word on endings in advance, to spare you anxiety: there are exactly two endings, decided by the single choice at the story’s terminal — Destroy Elpis or Release Elpis — with no hidden numeric conditions anywhere. Emily in Leon’s line is one of the few characters needing player attention: she can be saved, with specifics in Characters and All Endings. Enjoy the story on run one; leave speedruns and full collection until familiarity is established — that’s the most comfortable way to open this game.