Resident Evil Requiem: All Inventory Upgrades – Every Hip Pouch Location

Short answer: Grace has four hip pouches in Resident Evil Requiem. Each adds +2 slots, taking her from 8 to a maximum of 16. Three are in Rhodes Hill Care Center — the Parlor (1F West Wing), the Filing Room closet off the Dining Room, and Processing in the basement — and the fourth is in the ARK’s Bioweapon Repository 05. Leon gets a single attaché case expansion from the East Raccoon City camp shop. Locations are unchanged on the current 1.3.1 build (25 June 2026).

Below is the exact route, in the order the story lets you take it, plus the two pouches that are genuinely easy to lock yourself out of.

How Grace’s inventory actually works

Grace starts with a strict 8 slots. In practice that is:

• 1 slot permanently eaten by whatever key item you are carrying.
• 2–4 slots on ammo stacks and heals.
• 1 slot per extra weapon, grenade or bottle.

Which is why 8 feels unplayable and 12 feels normal. By the second pouch I stopped shuttling to the item box every other room; by the fourth I could carry a full combat loadout, a heal and several key items without going red. Sixteen is the hard ceiling — there is no fifth pouch, so stop looking.

Patch status – verified July 2026

The current build is 1.3.1 (25 June 2026). None of the post-launch updates — the 1.1.0 day-one patch, the 4 March PC update, the 9 March Switch 2 fix, or 1.3.1 — moved a hip pouch or changed slot counts. The March updates were progression unblockers (including a detonator key item that could stall PC runs) and the June update focused on the Leon Must Die Forever minigame. Every location below is current.

Hip Pouch #1 – Parlor, Care Center 1F West Wing

Gate: the Parlor door is locked behind the Red Jewel, which you take from the Chairman’s Office upstairs and slot into the indent on the door.

How you get it: inside the Parlor, along the wall by the roulette table, there is a row of glass coin cabinets. The hip pouch is a purchase, not a pickup — you buy it out of one of those cabinets with Antique Coins (most guides put the cost at three).

What I got wrong: I hoarded my first coins “for something better later.” There is nothing better. Two permanent slots this early are worth more than anything else those coins buy, and the whole next hour of Rhodes Hill gets easier immediately.

Before you push the story on, do a lap of the side rooms off the main corridors with the map open. Coins hide in drawers and lockers, and the map flags rooms you have not fully explored.

Hip Pouch #2 – Filing Room closet (West Wing)

Gate: the Level 1 ID Wristband, which you get through story progression. It opens the security door on the closet inside the Filing Room, which sits off the Dining Room in the West Wing.

Where exactly: once inside the closet, the pouch is on a sideboard or small chest at the back of the room — in plain sight, not hidden.

The trap: this is the first genuinely forgettable pouch. Nothing pushes you back here, and the game will happily let you finish Rhodes Hill without it. Tie it to a trigger: the moment you get Level 1 security, sweep the West Wing. Also clear the room before you loot — on my run a zombie that had not been there earlier wandered in while I was reading the shelf.

Hip Pouch #3 – Processing, Care Center basement (-1F)

Gate: the Forklift Key, which is on a body next to the forklift itself. This is the one that stumped me longest — I walked past the forklift three times without registering it as a puzzle.

Step by step:

• Head down to Processing in the basement. You pass through here during the joint plug and Star Quartz section of the story, so you will recognise it.
• Check the body beside the forklift for the Forklift Key. Pan the camera slowly; the prompt is small.
• Use the key to move the forklift, which opens the room behind it on the left side of Processing.
• The hip pouch is on a table inside, usually next to the Care Center Basement Floor Plan.

Clear the nearby enemies before you interact with the forklift. Getting grabbed mid-animation is a fast way to burn a heal you did not need to spend.

Missable risk: treat this as your Rhodes Hill exit check. Once the story pushes you on, coming back is at best inconvenient. Do not leave the Care Center until Parlor, Filing Room and Processing are all ticked.

Hip Pouch #4 – ARK, Bioweapon Repository 05

Gate: story progression through the ARK’s bioweapon storage sector. It is on the critical path, so you cannot miss the room — only the container.

Step by step:

• Follow the ARK objectives to Bioweapon Repository 05 (labelled on your map).
• Find the first white Umbrella container you can actually reach and interact with.
• There is a small square white switch on its side. Press it to open the container.
• The final hip pouch is inside on a crate, often alongside an empty glass bottle. That is 16 slots.

Careful here: this room has Lickers in it, and opening the container is loud. Crouch, move quietly, and deal with the room before you start pressing switches. This is also the same sector where the Ark collectible route wants you to sweep containers, so combine the two trips rather than backtracking.

Leon’s attaché case expansion

Leon has exactly one case upgrade, and it is a purchase rather than a pickup. You buy it from the supply boxes at Central Camp in East Raccoon City, once the camp is powered and the boxes go live. In our playthrough it cost 4,000 combat credits and expanded the case to roughly an 8×13 grid; we have not been able to corroborate those exact figures against a major published guide, so treat the number as our run rather than a verified constant, and check the price on your own build.

What is not in doubt: there is only one expansion, so once you have bought it there is nothing else to hunt for. Buy it early. Extra case space means more sellable loot and more ammo types carried, which funds the rest of your upgrades faster than delaying it does. On my first run I put weapon upgrades ahead of it and regretted it for hours.

The efficient route, in play order

Follow that and Grace spends most of the campaign at 12+ slots instead of 8, and Leon gets his maxed case right as his section opens up.

Pitfalls worth naming

• Hoarding Antique Coins. Pouch #1 is the best early coin sink in the game. Nothing you save them for beats two permanent slots.
• Assuming cleared rooms stay cleared. New spawns show up on backtrack runs, particularly the Filing Room. Move slowly when you return for a pouch.
• Missing the Forklift Key on the body. If you cannot interact with the forklift, you do not have the key yet. Look down, not around.
• Leaving Rhodes Hill at three pouches. Before any big story beat — a boss, a vehicle, a heavy cutscene — open the map and check Parlor, Filing Room, Processing.
• Delaying Leon’s case. It pays for itself in carried loot within an hour.

FAQ

What is Grace’s maximum inventory?

16 slots — 8 base plus four hip pouches at +2 each. There is no fifth pouch.

Can I get all four pouches in one playthrough?

Yes, comfortably, as long as you clear Rhodes Hill’s three before the story moves you on.

Are any pouches permanently missable?

The three Rhodes Hill pouches become impossible or impractical to reach once you leave the Care Center for good. The ARK pouch sits on the critical path, so only the container itself is skippable.

Has a patch moved any of these?

No. Every location above holds on the current 1.3.1 build (25 June 2026).

Bottom line

Three pouches before you leave Rhodes Hill, one in the ARK, one case expansion for Leon. Get them in that order and the game’s tension comes from the B.O.W.s instead of from the menu. If you are also cleaning up collectibles, our Mr. Raccoon locations guide shares most of the same route.