Once you finish Resident Evil Village’s bats*** insane story campaign, you’ll get a chance to unlock the game’s extra mode: The Mercenaries. It’s a fun arcade mode where you aim to get the highest score and rank by killing enemies and racking up combos without getting hit.

This guide will talk about how to unlock the patented RE mode, how it works, and how to get S-rank or higher.

How To Unlock The Mercenaries

Simple: Just finish the game and unlock it in the Extra Content Shop. You can buy it for 10CP, which is way cheaper than the rest of the bonuses in the shop.

How Does The Mercenaries Work

• You start by purchasing any equipment or weapons you need from the shop. Then, when you go out into the field you need to defeat as many enemies as possible within the time limit. Get a good rhythm going and build up combos for extra points!
• Once you’ve defeated a certain number of enemies the goal will appear. Touch the goal to finish and to move on to the next area, Complete more areas to rack up even more points for each stage!
• You can also touch the yellow orbs for bonus time and keep the action going.
• There are also blue orbs that give you special abilities. Each one has three random abilities to choose from. Check out all the cool moves that match your fighting style.
• You keep abilities between areas and there’s no limit to how many you can have, either. Also, if you equip the same ability multiple times it will become even more effective. So keep an eye out for all those orbs.
• Any money or time left over when you reach the goal will be counted towards your final score, along with enemies defeated and combos. Your final score determines your rank. The higher your rank at the end of the stage, the better the prize you’ll get.

There are 8 stages in the game, but really, the last 4 are just amped-up versions of the existing 4 stages. You’ll need different strategies for both versions of the stages though.

The Mercenaries Ability List

You can get these from the Blue Orbs during a round. These bonuses stack up and are permanent for the stage you’re in, so collect as many of these abilities as you can!

Healthy – Max HP increases.

Thick Skinned – Damage taken decreases.

Assassination Dash – Movement speed increases when knife is equipped.

All Brawn – Attack increases but speed decreases.

Infighter – Close-combat attacks do more damage.

Adrenaline – Gain a bit of health whenever you attack with a gun.

Fickle Shooter – Attack increases when switching between enemies.

Agile – Speed increases.

Slow Motion – Enemy movement decreases.

Blade Master – Knife deals 5 times more damage.

Corpse Combuster – Enemies will likely explode when they are defeated with a gun.

No Brainer – Headshots do more damage.

Super Guard – Take no damage when guarding.

Shotgun Master – Shotguns deal more damage.

Pistol Master – Pistol does more damage.

Gruesome Gourmet – Recover a little HP when an enemy is defeated.

Masamune – Knife attacks are 10 times stronger, but damage from other weapons greatly decreases. Acquired by getting A-Rank in a stage.

How To Get S-Rank Or Higher In All 4 Stages

What To Buy: Sniper rifle.

What To Sell: Shotgun shells, handgun bullets.

Recommended Abilities From Blue Orbs: Anything revolving damage, like more damage from the initial hit, more damage when enemy health is low, enemies explode when hit, and more damage when the enemy is far away.

When you’re starting out, it’s best to get B-rank for a level so that you can get an additional 5,000 Lei at the start of another level. This mode is meant to be replayed, so your first time out in a stage is to get the lay of the land and enemy placement/spawn locations.

Your basic tactic is to find a nice pathway to kill enemies from a good distance so that you can keep the combo as high as possible. So far, the sniper rifle is the best pick for this due to its range, damage, and its synergy with the blue orbs perks.

In-between rounds, spend the money on upgrading the sniper rifle further. Also, do not reload the sniper rifle at the end of a stage or at Duke’s before the next area. Upgrading the capacity will give you a free magazine, meaning free bullets.

One last thing: for the Mad Village, don’t sell your shotgun shells. For the last round of the Mad Village, we suggest buying a shotgun to get rid of the final boss more effectively.

How To Get S-Rank In The Modified 4 Stages

Your guess is as good as ours, as this is the revved-up tougher version of the bonus game. We’ll do our best.

What To Buy: Grenade Launcher, Flashbangs, remaining cash goes into healing items and explosive grenade rounds.

What To Sell: Handgun, Handgun Bullets.

Recommended Abilities From Blue Orbs: Masamune, Blade Master, defensive skills, initial hit does more damage, more damage on low health enemy.

These modified stages are way tougher than the previous ones because of the new enemies. Also, the inventory at Duke’ shop is different now. You can no longer buy a Shotgun or a Sniper Rifle so you have to think of something else.

Buying the Magnum would be pointless because you will never have enough ammo to kill enough enemies with it. Same goes for the very expensive Grenade Launcher. What is a mercenary to do?

One effective strategy (via PowerPyx), while being a bit luck-dependent and situational to set up, was the knife. It’s the weakest weapon initially, but with the skill Masamune, you can make the knife the ultimate killing machine. You can unlock the Masamune skill by getting an A-rank on one of the earlier stages, so you should have it by this point.

Masamune skill will make your knife attack 10 times stronger but all the other weapons will do low damage afterwards. The knife doesn’t need ammunition, so you will not run out. Additionally, it stacks with the Blade Master skill, so with some luck, you get both skills from the Blue Orbs and it will make you basically one hit everything in this mode.

This only works in combination with another weapon– the Grenade Launcher. Flashbang grenades are super cheap (200 Lei a piece) and are the perfect synergy for the knife. Flashbangs stun every enemy in the game instantly for long enough time to kill them with a knife, with only a few exceptions:

• The Lycans with metal cages on their head – you will have to shoot the metal cage twice with a regular grenade to destroy it. Afterwards, you can stun them just like every other enemy.
• Bela, Daniela and Cassandra – you can stun them, but you will not have enough time to kill them while they are stunned with just one Flashbang. You will have to stun them a few times (watch out, they keep slicing even when blinded).

Here’s the bad part: you are not guaranteed to get the Masamune skill each time you start an attempt. You have about a 14% chance of getting the Masamune skill of a blue bubble. So your tactic will be to run to the closest bubble in each level and check for the skill. If it is not in there, just restart.

This method is a bit tedious because of the many restarts and having to go through the selling and buying process each time.

While most guns are fine if your aim is true and you know the ins and outs of each RE Village enemy, the following methods are not recommended:

• Relying on the Magnum alone – only low amount of ammunition available, not enough to finish a stage with a high combo.
• Using the Handgun – slow killing, combo breaks fast, horrible crowd control, extremely bad for stronger enemies.
• Using regular Grenades with the Grenade Launcher – expensive ammunition, not enough ammo to deal with the starting area of Factory 2 for example.