Resident Evil 4: How to unlock the bonus weapons

If you're looking to get your hands on some of the Resident Evil 4 remake's more powerful weapons and items, you're going to need to put in some impressive runs. Here's how to unlock the bonus weapons in Resi 4...

As is typically the case in the series, the Resident Evil 4 remake offers a selection of bonus gear on top of what is available in the main game, and some of it is especially strong. Needless to say, spoilers abound. In previous games, some of these extras have locked you out of getting top grades if you use them, but with one exception, that's not the case here. Capcom has reworked most of these so that their infinite ammo perks must be unlocked by fully upgrading the weapon — an expensive process and one you may not even be able to afford if you're speeding through the game in search of an S+ grade which, as noted in our Resident Evil 4 review, must be done on a fresh file, since New Game+ locks you out of that top rank. That said, it is possible to activate these perks without fully upgrading a weapon by trading Spinels with the Merchant for Exclusive Upgrade Tickets to unlock infinite ammo a little earlier, so it may be possible to put these to use without falling short of S+ pace so long as you're efficient with which requests you fulfil.

On the flip side, while a lot of the outfits and accessories you can unlock for Leon and Ashley are purely cosmetic, a few others are absolutely worth going for as they confer useful gameplay perks that again don't appear to void top grades. We will cover a few of these here rather than all of the different cosmetic options (there are quite a lot), since these will likely be the ones you want to prioritise for use on future runs, although the S+ rewards also apparently have great effects if you're fast/skilled enough to unlock those — with S+ achievements for Standard and Hardcore, you'll need to do those for the completion anyway. The apparel unlocks are largely optional, mind, while the achievement for collecting every weapon means you'll need to unlock those bonuses for the completion, too. It will take multiple playthroughs to unlock all Resident Evil 4 achievements, so having these rewards unlocked will be useful on your later runs.

One other thing to mention is charms, as these can cut costs considerably when buying or upgrading certain items. While charms all come down to luck, you could stockpile tokens and save-scum the capsule machine until you get what you're looking for. Highlights from the ones we've seen are the Merchant one, which knocks 5% off all weapon upgrades (which adds up quickly if you can get it early), and Rocket Launcher Leon, giving a 20% discount on rocket launchers... and yes, this applies to the Infinite one in New Game+, saving you 400 grand. Charm effects cannot be stacked, since you can only equip one of each type at a time.

With that out of the way, let's get you armed with everything you need to know to become the master of unlocking...

Resident Evil 4 bonus weapons

Primal Knife

One of the simplest bonus weapons to get, this unbreakable knife only requires your to find and destroy all 16 Clockwork Castellans in the game. There's one in each chapter (including the few levels prior to the official introduction of these noisy little guys), and an icon after the chapter number on the Results screen will show you in which levels you've found these collectables. Unfortunately, there's no chapter select in the game, so if you miss one or more, you'll need to do another run or reload an older save file to find them. These do not all need to be found in one run, however, and aren't too hard to find once you recognise their telltale mechanical whirring sound.

The Primal Knife serves as pretty much a straight upgrade to the default Combat Knife with better damage and way higher durability as standard (attack speed is slightly slower, but it's worth the trade-off). Fully upgrading the Primal Knife, which will cost 260,000 Pesetas, gives it unlimited durability, and while it's not as strong as the Fighting Knife, being able to parry, stab, and emergency escape at will without worrying about your blade breaking is a godsend.

Chicago Sweeper

This tommy gun-style SMG is unlocked when you beat Professional difficulty with an A rank or better. Since difficulty can be changed for subsequent New Game+ runs, this can be unlocked quite easily once you've stocked up on cash and some of the other bonus weapons here — A rank on Pro has a target time of seven hours, but with infinite rockets, we managed to smash through it in a little over four hours for an easy S rank. Alternatively, once you know the game fairly well, you could attempt this on a fresh file without using any bonus weapons to unlock both the Sweeper and the weapon below in a single run, but that would be significantly more challenging.

This spray-and-pray weapon can be upgraded to have infinite ammo, but it's very expensive, setting you back a cool 660,000 Pesetas, or 500,000 if you use a Ticket — on top of grabbing the unlimited ammo perk early, this also auto-upgrades capacity and reload speed since neither matter when ammo is bottomless, meaning you only need to upgrade its damage, which starts out pretty pathetic but ramps up very quickly. Even if you don't plan on upgrading it, it's still a free 50-shot SMG in your item box from the start of the game, which proved a great help in speedrunning through the big village showdown on a fresh Hardcore run for us.

Handcannon

This bottomless magnum can be yours if you beat a fresh Professional difficulty run without using any bonus weapons, and Pro mode is no joke without NG+ upgrades or bonus stuff to help you out. Thankfully, there's no rank requirement here so you can really take your time and stock up on things like treasures and request rewards if you need to.

We're still working through our fresh Pro run to unlock this so can't offer any details in terms of upgrade costs and the like, but we'd expect a similar story to the previous two weapons, with unlimited ammo again locked behind the exclusive upgrade. And just like with the Sweeper, even if you don't want to use this thing for a full run, having a free magnum in your storage box from the start of the game will let you take down several problem enemies very quickly if you're smart with its initial limited ammo.

Infinite Rocket Launcher

The bottomless bazooka works a little differently to the other special weapons, and must be bought from the Merchant in New Game+ for 2,000,000 Pesetas, so you might want to start saving up early. It has no upgrade path and just deletes whatever you fire it at — it's a one-shot 'kill' on anything (certain multi-part boss fights are forced into the next phase rather than ended outright), but splash damage from its huge blast is very much a concern. If you have body armour, it will allow you to tank a couple of accidental close-range blasts without taking damage, but you'll easily blow yourself up without the vest.

It isn't just Leon you need to worry about either, as Ashley getting caught in an explosion will result in an immediate game over, so be careful where you point this thing. While you could in theory sell your other weapons to fund this ultimate blaster, it's worth keeping something a little more sensible on hand as well for situations like stopping Ashley getting carried off... this can be done with the launcher but it's incredibly precise if you don't want to blow up Ashley in the process, which you probably don't. Unlike the other bonus weapons, this can't be used on S+ runs since it is only purchasable in NG+, and S+ ranks require a fresh file.

Resident Evil 4 bonus outfits

Gas Mask (Leon)

Get your Hunk on with this snazzy gas mask for Leon — 'all' you need to do is beat the game on Professional difficulty. You can make short work of this on NG+ with the help of some of the gear above, or do it on a fresh save without any of those to combine getting this with unlocking the Handcannon (and the Sweeper, if you manage to get it done in under 7 hours). One of the handful of pieces of apparel to offer an in-game benefit, equipping this gives you the full aim assist from Assisted difficulty on any mode, letting you effectively auto-target enemies just by aiming close to them and snap to heads or other body parts when aiming near enough. This can be a bit finicky so might not be as useful as it first appears, although accessories like this can be freely changed in-game from the Extras menu, so you can toggle the effect on the fly should it interfere with certain encounters, which you may well find it does due to how the auto-targetting works.

Armor (Ashley)

One of the most useful unlocks in the game, honestly, and can be purchased from the Extra Content Shop after you beat Hardcore difficulty (or higher) with an A rank or better. This costume for Ashley makes her immune to damage, with the added benefit of prevent her from being carried away by enemies. They'll still grab her and interrupt anything she may have been doing, but they'll collapse under the weight of her shiny full plate suit if they try to make off with her. This removes all bar maybe a couple of extremely specific Ashley-related fail states and can trivialise encounters where the two of you are separated, since you can afford to play safe and clear out Leon's surroundings first without fear of enemies harming or abducting your charge, plus it makes her playable section impossible to fail. There's basically no reason to not use this once you have it, especially if you're running the infinite launcher.

Which of these excellent extras will you be going after first? Let us know!

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Written by Luke Albigés

Luke runs the TA news team, contributing where he can primarily with reviews and other long-form features — crafts he has honed across two decades of print and online gaming media experience, having worked with the likes of gamesTM, Eurogamer, Play, Retro Gamer, Edge, and many more. He loves all things Monster Hunter, enjoys a good D&D session, and has played way too much Destiny.