_
|_) esident Evil 4 /---------------------------------------------------------o
| \-------o--------\ The Mercenaries |
(00012) \--------------------------------------------------------o
Once the game has been completed a new option appears on the title screen.
"The Mercenaries" is a minigame which first appeared in Resident Evil 3 which
pits you against a ton of enemies with a time limit and rewards you based on a
point system. Basically it's just a mode to see how proficient a killer you
are. There are a number of things to unlock from playing this mode, most of
them only directly affect the Mercenaries game iteself, but you can also
unlock the Handcannon in the main game, which is an infinite ammo super
powerful magnum.
There are four levels, Village, Castle, Island and Waterworld. In order to
unlock the four characters you must perform well in all the maps, well enough
to get a minimum four star rating out of five. A four start rating is
approximately a score higher than 30,000. In each map you are started at a
randomly generated start point. The battles themselves are basically just big
free-for-alls so a comcrete walkthrough is pointless, however I can do my best
to outline the strategies to achieve the four star ranks on each map in the
order that I personally unlocked each one. Before that however I'll outline
the most basic on concepts that apply to each level.
The idea here is obviously to rack up as many points as possible within the
time limit. Points are accumulated by killing enemies, the more enemies you
kill the more points you get. Another system which is in place is the "in a
row" system which means the faster you kill enemies the more points you'll get
as well. At the top right of your screen keep an eye on the amount of enemies
you've killed in a row, when it starts to flash it means you've gone too long
without killing an enemy and you are about to lose your bonus. If you kill an
enemy while it is still flashing it will increase and go back to solid colour,
if you can't kill an enemy it will return to zero and give you a point bonus
based on how long your streak was. Each level is also occupied by a special
super hard enemy, these enemies when killed give you much more points than the
normal enemies and also usually drop helpful items. The final thing to note
is that your time limit is not a static unchanging value (besides going down
that is.) There are numerous time bonuses throughout each level that you can
go and pick up. Sometimes the time it takes to go find these bonuses is worth
it since they give quite good bonuses of 30 seconds and up. To locate these
in each level take a look at your map, they are marked with a white star. Be
sure to go looking for them when you're about to run out of time, you can rack
up a lot more points in thirty seconds. One more thing to note is that the
levels also contain special treasure boxes with bonuses inside that will
increase the score you get for every enemy you kill in the next thirty
seconds. Seek them out! Now for the individual levels, even if you didn't
choose the same character, most tactics still apply:
o------------o
| The Island |
o------------o
For this I chose the only character I had available to me at the start, Leon
Kennedy. Start off by using the Handgun and aiming for headshots, then
kicking the enemies as much as possible. This tactic should be used to start
but not very long. By the time about four or so enemies have appeared you'll
need to drop the Handgun and switch over the the Shotgun. You should be able
to use the Shotgun for the rest of the battle as long as you are willing to
take the time to pick up all the ammunition from the enemy drops. Do your
best to get the enemies to gather together and then aim a head level shot into
the crowd. Continue to do this while staying around the beginning area, soon
enough a gatling gunner will drop, he is the powerful enemy of this level so
you are going to want to take him out for the point bonus. Approach him close
enough to get a decent shot in, but not so close that he starts to use his
melee attack. Blast him in the head and while he is staggering, use the time
to make sure you aren't going to be attacked from behind. If you have any
grenades or access to red exploding barrels take advantage of it and use them
for extra damage. When you drop the gatling gunner now would be a good time
to start hunting for time bonuses. Drop down and follow the little tunnel
which will lead you up past a good two or three of them and maybe some
ammunition along the way. For the remainder of the time blast normal enemies
at a good contant pace. Try to position yourself in the long dead end tunnel
near the gate so that you'll have a big crowd of enemies which you can take
out with a single grenade. With this you should be able to get a four star
ranking at least, which unlocks the special Umbrella agent HUNK for use in
other Mercenaries levels.
o-------------o
| The Village |
o-------------o
I chose to take on the Village with HUNK, his plethora of grenades will be
helpful and you'll know why in a bit. HUNK is a great character because his
melee attack that replaces Leon's kick is a neck snap which has a 100% kill
rate. Combined with his submachine gun which is able to quickly snipe across
the villager's head level it makes the beginning of the fight rather easy.
While you won't be killing mass amount of enemies at the start, shotting them
in the head and breaking their neck will give you consistency which can easily
maintain your number of kills in a row for quite some time. Forget about the
grenades that you have for now and use this tactic for awhile, however at some
point you are just going to be too overwhelmed with enemies for this to remain
practical. At this point back yourself in a corner and just let loose
everything you gun has into the crowd. It may seem like a good time for a
Hand Grenade, and in fact it probably is but it's preferable not to use any.
If you have to just use one. When you've thinned the crown a bit start
running around the map and collecting the time bonuses, the one in the
Northwest house in particular is great because it give syou 90 seconds, and
the red barrel beside it gives you means to eliminate any followers. About
this point or maybe even before this you are bound to hear the roar of
chainsaws. This is why you've been saving grenades. Not one, or two but
three crazy chainsaw ladies are running around here. You're not likely to
find them all in the same place but be careful. The best tactic is to run to
the Southwest path which is quite tight even though it leaves you open in the
back. Lead the chainsaw ladies and any villagers who follow about halfway up
this path and then let loose a grenade. Check your back and if there's no one
there wait until they get up to throw another. This should leave you fairly
safe. With that much damage, unload about half a clip of your TMP into one of
the chainsaw ladies on the ground, then try the same for the other but you may
have to do it while she runs at you. If you've maintained consistency you
should have quite a big bonus by now and the four star ranking will be
achieved. For this you unlock Ada Wong to use in the Mercenaries.
o------------o
| The Castle |
o------------o
For this next assignment I chose Ada Wong from Resident Evil 2. She comes
equipped with a TMP just like HUNK, but unlike hunk she also has a Rifle
(Semi-Auto) in her inventory at the expense of a crappy melee attack, which is
okay because you won't be using it. At the beginning of this battle to be
honest I would recommend whipping out the Rifle. Find yourself a corner where
you are safe, assuming you're on the lower floor, to upper corner near the
barrels works well, then just start sniping enemies as they come. Try and hit
rows of them since the Rifle bullets can penetrate more than one, but never
aim for the head since many of the enemies who chase you will be the armoured
skull cultists. Like the other two levels it probably won't take long for
them to come in either overwhelming numbers, or for your to run out of ammo.
Or both. Now take advantage of all those Incendiary Grenades you have in your
inventory, they should serve as one hit kills for these enemies so don't throw
more than one at a time. After a couple of these you'll probably notice most
of the enemies are gone and unlike other levels, you'll need to go looking
youself. CLimb the stairs to the upper level and position yourself against
the castle wall in the far corner. The reason you want to do this is that
there is a crossbow wielding cultist above and unless you've killed him he's
just going to keep hitting you. From here pick up any available Rifle ammo
and snipe the enemies as they keep coming up the stairs. Soon the super enemy
of this level will appear, one of the blind prisoners. He will make a mad
dash right for your position which is fine, run out of the way and start
around the middle area, as long as the platform isn't overrun with enemies you
should be safe. With Ada's Rifle it only takes a single hit to the parasite
on his back to kill him so as he is swinging his arms wildly, he is exposing
his back with every torso twist. Fire at the sides of him where the parasite
will be visible and on at least one of your shots you should manage to hit it.
This will rack up the big points, especially going along with all the combos
you got from continuous sniping. For the remainder of the fight, spend it
searching for time bonuses and blasting enemies with the TMP or using
Incendiary Grenades on groups, forget the Rifle at this point unless you want
to snipe that crossbow guy. For getting a four star ranking on this map you
unlock Jack Krauser for use in the Mercenaries.
o----------------o
| The Waterworld |
o----------------o
This is the one original map that you didn't see anywhere in the main game,
quite a nice place too. I wouldn't select anyone other than Jack Krauser
here, it's exponentially harder than all the other levels and is almost an
entirely separate experience. Jack Krauser is an incredible character, not
only does he have an awesome bow which does not require long reload times,
it's also an instant kill weapon 95% of the time. Since it's his only weapon
just about every item you pick up is ammo for it, so you'll rarely have to
worry about ammo. If this isn't enough for you his melee attack is virtually
an instant kill as well, and since it's a kick it hits multiple enemies.
Aside from this the best part still remains, he has another instant kill
attack! As time passes his arm will begin to charge into a red colour, when
it does press the X button and it transforms into a giant blade. Use the
analog stick to aim him and press A to do a lunging death attack that smashes
all in his path. Now that you know how to use the character we need to get to
the level itself. It's huge compared to the other maps and full of time
bonuses and other items on three different altitudes of play. Ladders are
everywhere and so are explosive red barrels. With all these advantages
there's some painful disadvantages too. The enemies here wield shields,
dynamite and even rocket launchers! If you stand in one spot for too long you
risk being rocketed from halfway across the map. Secondly the super hard
enemy of this area is one you never even saw in the main game, it's a
gargantuan seven foot tall chainsaw maniac, with a dual bladed chainsaw.
Unlike the other chainsaw enemies he doesn't even have any attacks, his
running animations is an attack, he swings the thing so wildly and so fast
that even standing in the same room as this guy could mean instant death at
any point. On top of this there are two of them, however I've never had to
face both of them at the same time, they start on opposite ends of the map.
Killing these enemies will take all the cunning you have, the instant kill bow
is reduced to nothing when used on this guy, it usually takes two or more
shots to even stun him. If you knock him down fire arrows at him like there's
no tomorrow, but these still remain poor ways to deal with him. The best ways
involve explosives, Hand Grenades can be found on this map, and so can red
barrels all over. Surprisingly one of the best ways to deal with him is to
kill a nearby dynamite enemy so that he blows up in chainsaw mans face. All
the while you have to be concentrating on firing at the enemies surrounding
you, don't expect to see an end to their attacks. Fortunately this dynamite
principle extends beyond the boss to another great way to rack up combos.
Even if you are nowhere near the enemies if they blow themselves up you get
the kills for it. Use this to your advantage and try to kill them in large
groups for big combos. There are time bonuses all over the place and at least
three chests with kill bonuses, use all of these to your advantage and
remember to use your X attack almost immediately when it becomes available.
If there's a large group of enemies it can boost your score by outrageous
amounts, and if the chainsaw guy is running toward you, what better way to
deal with him than a flaying blade lunge. For managing to get a four star
ranking (using Krauser I got 85,000 after only a couple tries) you get to
unlock the infamours Albert Wesker for use in the Mercenaries.
The four characters that can be unlocked are Ada Wong for beating the village,
Jack Krauser for beating the castle, HUNK for beating the island and Albert
Wesker for beating the Waterworld. To unlock the Handcannon in the main game
you must successfully get a five star rating on every level, with every
character! For the mathematically challenged, that's a total of 20 five star
ratings you have to get. Good luck.
Each bonus character has their own unique melee attacks and some even have
unique weapons like Krauser's bow or Wesker's silenced pistol. The equipment
you start with for each character is as follows:
Leon Kennedy Ada Wong
- Blacktail - Punisher
- Riot Gun - TMP
- Handgun Ammo (30) - Rifle (Semi-Auto)
- Shotgun Shells (10) - Scope (Rifle Semi-Auto)
- First Aid Spray - Handgun Ammo (30)
- TMP Ammo (100)
Jack Krauser - Rifle Ammo (5)
- Bow - Incendiary Grenade (3)
- Arrows (30) - First Aid Spray
- Flash Grenade (4)
- First Aid Spray HUNK
- TMP
Albert Wesker - TMP Ammo (75)
- Handgun - Hand Grenade (3)
- Handgun Silencer - First Aid Spray
- Killer7
- Rifle (Semi-Auto)
- Hand Grenade (4)
- Flash Grenade (3)
- Incendiary Grenade (1)
- First Aid Spray
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