Resident Evil Requiem: How to Get the Usual Talisman in the Sanatorium

Why The Usual Talisman Is a Big Deal in the Sanatorium

After spending my first run fumbling around the Sanatorium in Resident Evil Requiem, I kept asking myself the same thing: “Why do my knives feel like they’re made of glass?” Playing as Grace Ashcroft, every enemy felt like a damage sponge, and my blades were snapping after a couple of panicked swings. I burned through ammo I really wanted to save for later chapters.

The breakthrough came when I finally hunted down the talisman called “The Usual” (localized elsewhere as the Stakeout Takeout charm). It lives in a locked pantry in the Sanatorium’s West Wing, and its effect is huge: just by sitting in your inventory, it noticeably increases both knife durability and knife damage. From that point on, the Sanatorium stopped being an ammo sink and started feeling manageable.

The catch? To get it, you have to deal with a specific enemy: the cleaver-wielding cook in the kitchen. If you’ve been sprinting past him like I did on my first run, you’ve been leaving one of Grace’s best early upgrades on the table.

Overview – What You Need to Do

Here’s the short version of the process before we break it down step by step:

• Reach the Sanatorium West Wing as Grace.
• Find and pass through the kitchen for the first time (you can run through here at first).
• On a later pass, fight and kill the cook instead of fleeing.
• Loot the Pantry Key he drops.
• Use the key on the locked pantry door in the same kitchen.
• Grab the “The Usual” talisman and the extra loot inside.

This whole thing takes maybe 10–15 minutes once you know the route, but the benefit lasts for the rest of Grace’s Sanatorium section.

Step 1: Reaching the West Wing Kitchen

By the time you can get The Usual, you’re already in the Rhodes Hill Medical Center / Sanatorium segment with Grace. Progress the story as normal until your objective sends you toward the West Wing. This is still early in her campaign, when you’re heavily reliant on melee and low-tier firearms.

As you follow the main objective markers, you’ll eventually push through a set of double doors into a large, tiled kitchen area. You’ll know you’re in the right place if you see:

• A big central prep island counter you can circle around.
• Hanging pots and pans and metal surfaces that echo every footstep.
• A smaller, metal door at the back/side that’s clearly locked – that’s the pantry.

On your first visit, the game heavily encourages you to keep moving – there’s tension building and you probably just want to get through. That’s exactly what I did, and I completely ignored the fact there was a locked side room here. Don’t worry about it on your very first pass; the important thing right now is simply to register the layout of the kitchen:

• Where the entrances and exits are.
• Where that locked pantry door sits relative to the main island.
• What you can circle around or use as obstacles.

That knowledge will make the upcoming fight much easier.

Step 2: How and When the Cook Spawns

The cook doesn’t necessarily jump you the instant you enter the kitchen for the first time. In my runs, he reliably appeared when I backtracked through the West Wing after grabbing one of the early objective items (a patient file in my case). As I came back toward the kitchen corridor, I heard the metal-on-tile footsteps and his wet breathing before he actually stepped into view.

The key point is this: the game makes it feel like a “run away” encounter – the kind where you’re supposed to sprint, dodge around him, and push through the next door. And yes, if you just want to survive, that works. But if you do that, you miss both the Pantry Key and The Usual talisman.

Instead, when you realize the cook has spawned:

• Lure him into the kitchen itself. Backpedal through the doorway and into the open space.
• Make sure you have room to circle the central island – that counter is your best friend.
• Commit mentally: this is not a chase sequence for you anymore; you are here to kill him.

Step 3: How to Beat the Cook Without Wasting Your Arsenal

On my first attempt, I panicked, dumped half my handgun ammo into his chest, and still ate a cleaver to the face. On my second attempt, I tried to knife-duel him and got shredded. What finally worked was treating the kitchen like a mini-boss arena and using a mix of kiting, opportunistic shots, and melee finishers.

Here’s the approach that felt both safe and resource-efficient:

Here’s the approach that felt both safe and resource-efficient:

• Gear check before dragging him in:
  • At least 1 healing item.
  • A partially durable knife (don’t go in with one hit left).
  • A small stash of handgun rounds or a basic shotgun, if you have it.
• Use the island to control his path. Keep the prep island between you and him as often as possible. Walk him around the long way while you cut across corners.
• Bait his big swing. The cook has slow, telegraphed cleaver attacks. Get just close enough that he commits to an attack, then:
  • Step back or to the side.
  • Let the swing whiff and lock him in recovery frames.
• Punish with 1–2 shots, then reposition. Don’t get greedy. I found that:
  • 1 shotgun blast to the upper torso or head, or
  • 2-3 handgun rounds to stagger

  give you a safe window before you need to retreat again.

• Use melee only when he’s clearly staggered or on his knees. Running up for knives while he’s active is how I lost half my health bar. Instead:
  • Wait for a visible flinch or knee-drop.
  • Close in for a few quick knife slashes or a contextual stab if prompted.
  • Immediately back off and circle the island again.
• Block in emergencies. If you misread his range, a timed block will reduce the damage a lot. It’s better to lose a chunk of health than burn through all your ammo.

You don’t have to be flashy; slow and methodical wins this fight. Expect it to take a couple of minutes on your first try. When he finally drops, stay cautious for a moment – make sure there isn’t a surprise second phase or nearby add. Once the room is quiet, it’s looting time.

Step 4: Looting the Pantry and Grabbing The Usual

Walk over to the cook’s body and you’ll see a shiny item on the ground. This is the crucial drop:

• Pantry Key – the key to the locked pantry door in the same kitchen.

Don’t make my mistake of assuming it’s just generic loot and sprinting off to your next objective. Pick it up, then turn your attention to that locked metal door at the back/side of the kitchen you noticed earlier.

Walk up to the pantry door and interact with it. Choose the Pantry Key when prompted. Inside, you’ll find a surprisingly generous stash for such a small room:

• “The Usual” talisman (Stakeout Takeout charm) – the star of the show.
• Extra ammo and/or healing (varies a bit, but it’s “tons of loot” compared to most early rooms).
• Often a single Requiem bullet or other rare resource, which is a nice refund if you panicked and fired one earlier.

Make sure you physically pick up The Usual talisman – it’s easy to focus on the ammo boxes and walk out without grabbing the thing you came for.

What The Usual Talisman Actually Does

Once The Usual is in your inventory, you don’t have to “use” or actively equip it in a gear slot like a weapon. Its effect is passive as long as Grace is carrying it:

• Increases knife durability – knives last significantly longer before breaking.
• Boosts knife damage – each slash or stab hits harder, meaning fewer swings per enemy.

The game doesn’t spell out the exact percentages, but in practice I noticed:

• Enemies that previously took 6-7 panic swings were going down in about 3–4 measured hits.
• The same knife could now survive several encounters instead of shattering during the first bad pull.

For Grace, who is comparatively fragile and underpowered, that shift is massive. It turns the knife from “desperation tool you only use when cornered” into a primary resource-saving weapon.

How to Play Differently Once You Have The Usual

Getting The Usual isn’t just about having a nicer trinket in your inventory; it should change how you approach almost every encounter in the remainder of the Sanatorium.

• Finish enemies with the knife instead of bullets. My rule of thumb after getting the talisman:
  • Use 1–2 bullets to stagger or drop an enemy.
  • Close in and finish with knife slashes while they’re recovering or on the floor.

  This alone massively cuts your ammo expenditure.

• Lean into stealth when possible. If you creep up behind a lone enemy, a single strong knife attack with The Usual’s bonus often removes them quietly, especially on lower difficulties.
• Use the knife for environmental clean-up. Boards, weak obstacles, or minor enemies no longer feel like a durability tax. You’re not burning half the knife with every non-critical interaction.
• Stay disciplined. Even with the durability boost, knives still break if you spam wildly. Aim your swings and avoid slashing into walls or railings.

The net result is that you walk out of the Sanatorium with more bullets, more healing, and far less anxiety about every small skirmish – all because you took a few extra minutes to deal with one optional mini-boss.

Common Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

Based on my own botched attempts, here are the big pitfalls around this talisman and how you can sidestep them:

• Running past the cook every time.
  It’s natural to think he’s an unkillable pursuer. He isn’t. If you’ve already done one “escape” run, reload a slightly earlier save and plan to fight him in the kitchen.
• Forgetting to loot the Pantry Key.
  After a tense fight, it’s easy to bolt out of the room. Train yourself to always check unique enemy corpses for key items before leaving.
• Not realizing there’s a pantry door at all.
  On your first pass through the kitchen, take two seconds to scan the walls. Mentally tag the locked door so your brain goes, “Oh right, that’s what the Pantry Key is for” later.
• Overcommitting to knife-only on your first kill attempt.
  Yes, the talisman makes knives great, but you don’t have it yet. Don’t be stubborn; using a few bullets now to secure the kill is worth the long-term benefit.
• Going in low on healing.
  The cook hits hard. Entering the fight at “caution” health with no backups is gambling. Top up first; the pantry’s extra loot will usually more than repay what you spent.

Why This Is Worth Doing Every Run

On my first playthrough, I skipped this fight, didn’t get The Usual, and spent the entire Sanatorium sweating over every enemy. On subsequent runs, grabbing this talisman became part of my standard route. The difference in comfort is noticeable every single time:

• You conserve far more handgun and shotgun ammo.
• Grace feels less helpless in close quarters.
• You’re rewarded with extra supplies from the pantry on top of the talisman.
• The cook encounter itself is a nice skill check that teaches you to use space and bait heavy attacks – a lesson that pays off against later enemies.

If you’re struggling with the Sanatorium or just want to optimize your resource game, make the cook your priority the moment you reach the West Wing. Take him down, unlock the pantry, grab The Usual, and let your knives finally pull their weight. If I could feel the difference this strongly after one item, you’ll notice it too.