Resident Evil 4 – Difficulty Setting Differences

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This is a guide for Resident Evil 4 – Difficulty Setting Differences.

Survival is just the beginning. Six years have passed since the biological disaster in Raccoon City. Leon S. Kennedy, one of the survivors, tracks the president’s kidnapped daughter to a secluded European village, where there is something terribly wrong with the locals.

Drop Mechanics

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Without the game’s code, I can’t be sure how the drops actually work. But, after a dozen games, I can make educated guesses.

Randomized Loots and Crafting are Core Features of Gameplay

 

Modern Resident Evil games rely heavily on random loot. After you break into a container or open up drawers on side tables, an algorithm runs which attempts to give you something useful based on what’s been broken open – for instance, if your Handgun Ammo supply has run low. The algorithm often provides this commodity than expected in subsequent boxes you open.

 

Resident Evil’s later games also heavily emphasize crafting. Gunpowder can be found throughout the game and combined with herbs – Green, Red, and Yellow as well as Resources – to produce ammunition, healing items, and grenades. Furthermore, an algorithm may decide to give you gunpowder, Resources (S), herbs GRRY as well as knives instead of bullets for your Handgun Ammo instead of bullets; this may seem odd at first but provides more flexibility; maybe you would rather take out your Shotgun to make Shotgun Shells? Crafting materials give more options while Handgun Ammo only provides limited ammunition options, whereas crafting materials do not.

 

The Algorithm

I wish I could explain how it worked but here’s a list of what I think it considers when deciding what to give to you:

  1. Things you really need (for example a Green Herb when you’re running low on both health and healing items).
  2. Items will be dropped based on whether you have an Attache Case equipped (for instance, having a Silver Attache Case with you will encourage the loot algorithm to make Handgun Ammo drop in the loot box regardless of whether it is something that you actually need or not).
  3. Pesetas Velvet Blues Spinels

I conducted an experimental to try to understand how the algorithm works. I used the mod to give me a billion Pesetas. I also got full stacks each type of ammunition. I wanted to know how the algorithm reacts when the player already has all they could ever need. I also used an additional mod to remove any effect that the Attache Case had to see how it affected the algorithm. I then defeated El Giantante in Chapter 4 twice, using different Attache Cases for each attempt (Silver for more Handgun Ammo & Modded with No Effect). Here are my results:

  • Silver Attache Case. Each breakable container has given me Handgun Ammo even though I had hundreds of Bullets and did not need them.
  • Modded Attache case: I got nothing for every container that broke. Not even pesetas.

It was a surprise to me that the Modded Attache Case didn’t give me any money. I thought it would. This leads me into believing that randomized loot is available in three varieties:

  • Strategic Boxes only provide what you really need (such as ammo, gunpowder or other supplies). If you don’t need anything then it will default back to what your Attache Case is focusing on.
  • Money Boxes. These boxes give you only Pesetas.
  • Mixed Boxes are a mix.

I believe that the developers placed boxes in the arena for the El Gigante fight to provide you with what you need to survive. They were probably marked as “Strategic Boxes”, which means they had no chance of containing money or treasure.

Drops That Look “Randomized”, But Aren’t Usually Randomized

The game developers are very intelligent. When I played it for the first time I thought that the breakable containers and items found inside drawers, cupboards, etc. were all randomly generated. Fixed. I thought the second one was true as I ran through the intro many times and noticed a Green Herb was always in a cabinet in Hunter’s Lodge. And that Handgun Ammo would always be in a table drawer nearby. Then I began writing down the “guaranteed” things I found hidden in drawers and cupboards.

Midway through the Professional difficulty game (a real run), my eyes were shattered by the truth. After being beaten to a pulp by the Garrador, I was on my return journey to him. I collected loots I had previously acquired along the route. I was ecstatic when I found Gunpowder inside a cabinet I had noted earlier contained Handgun Ammo. This cabinet in particular:

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This cabinet will be forever known to me as “Shoobadoop’s wrath” because I learned here that all the information I had gathered was useless. My day was ruined. This revelation was made even worse because there was another cabinet next to this one that always had a Yellow Herb within it (which further reinforced the belief that cabinet loots were always fixed). I had never known that the game put certain items into specific cabinets, but allowed other cabinets to be randomly generated.

What about the breakable containers, then? You may think these are all randomly selected, but surprise! – they’re not. You will find a Molotov armed Ganado standing atop a structure after you have left the Church in Chapter 3 to head towards the Quarry. On the top of the structure is another container. Each one of these is guaranteed to drop. The drawer in the game will always be filled with 3 Gunpowder. Boxes inside buildings will always have a Viper. Boxes on top of buildings will always hold a Hand Grenade. This guide was created after multiple playthroughs. I carefully recorded and analyzed every drop of the game to determine if it was random or guaranteed.

Fixed Drops Consist of the Same Quantity

As I was creating this guide, I also learned that all the items located in fixed locations had the exact same quantity. For example, Shotgun Shells are always found on a specific shelf. Initially I thought these items will be fixed (i.e. Shotgun Shells were always present, but their amount was randomized. That way, people playing on the easier difficulties received more, and those who played on the harder difficulties received less. This isn’t true. If you find three Shotgun Shells at a store while playing on Assisted difficulties, you’ll also find those same three Shells when you play on Professional difficulties.

This Guide isn’t Perfect

Pesetas. Despite my best efforts to ensure that every guaranteed drop was accurate, I could not get it perfect. There are breakable bottles that I’m positive will always drop a specific amount of Pesetas. After you escape the Hunter’s Lodge there is a barrel that always contains 150 Pesetas. There is no chance that I will open each and every box in this game five times to make sure they drop the same amount. But I was insane enough to try it. I did this once for every box in Village. I was convinced that a certain box always dropped the 400 Pesetas. However, on my 5th try (i.e. After loading a save from the Farm to the box then running all the distance back and breaking the box, 500 Pesetas appeared. After that, I stopped trying.

There are some locations I know will drop or contain a specific amount of Pesetas. I’ve included these in the guide.

It’s been a pleasure sharing Resident Evil 4 – Difficulty Setting Differences with you, inspired by an engaging article by Shoobadoop. If you have any ideas on how we can refine this content, please let us know in the comments. Wishing you a fantastic day, and be sure to bookmark us for more fresh content and updates!


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