Resident Evil Requiem: How to Kill Chef & Chunk Nemesis – Ammo vs Rewards

Why These Nemesis Kills Matter (and Why I Thought They Were Impossible)

After spending a few full evenings replaying the early hours of Resident Evil Requiem, I was convinced the Chef, the “baby” Chunk, and the female Nemesis were all completely invincible stalkers. I was dumping handgun and Magnum rounds into them, watching them shrug it off, and assuming Capcom had pulled a classic Mr. X / Jack Baker trick.

The breakthrough came when I stopped treating them as immortal set dressing and started treating them like real bosses with massive hidden health bars. The result:

• The Chef Nemesis can be killed (with a lot of ammo).
• The gelatinous “baby” Chunk can also be killed, in a couple of different ways.
• The female Nemesis cannot be killed early – you only finish her in a later boss fight.

Doing these optional kills unlocks very real rewards: the Cellar Key, powerful charms, and specific trophies. The catch is that you’ll burn through Magnum and pistol ammo that would otherwise carry you safely through several hours of the game. This guide walks you through exactly how to do it, when it’s worth it, and when you should walk away.

When You Meet Each Nemesis Variant

Before diving into tactics, it helps to frame where these enemies slot into your runs:

• Chef Nemesis (Kitchen) – Early-game stalker in the kitchen area. You’ll first deal with him as Grace, and later again when you’re playing as Leon.
• Chunk (the “baby”) – A huge, gelatinous humanoid “infant” you encounter with Grace in Rhodes Hill after a puzzle sequence.
• Female Nemesis – The tall, relentless pursuer that chases you from near the start. You’ll see her across multiple segments with both characters.

The key difference: Chef and Chunk can be permanently removed from your run if you’re willing to pay the ammo price; the female Nemesis cannot, no matter how much you shoot her, until her scripted boss fight.

Should You Even Kill Them? Trade-Offs You Need to Understand

On my first playthrough, I wasted an embarrassing amount of bullets testing whether these guys were mortal. In hindsight, I should have made a clearer decision upfront. Here’s how I now look at it:

• Kill them if:
  • You’re doing a trophy / achievement run.
  • You’re on New Game+ or a second playthrough with better game knowledge.
  • You’ve been diligent with ammo crafting and conserving bullets elsewhere.
• Skip them if:
  • This is your very first run, especially on higher difficulty.
  • You’re already scraping by with low ammo and herbs.
  • You’re still learning enemy patterns and tend to panic-fire.

Think of these kills as an investment: you’re trading early-game security (ammo) for permanent safety from a stalker plus long-term buffs via charms and extra resources from the Cellar.

How to Kill the Chef Nemesis

Killing Chef as Leon (Easier Route)

What finally made Chef feel manageable for me was waiting until I had Leon and his shotgun. With Leon, you don’t have to rely solely on Magnum and handgun rounds; the shotgun chunks away at him much more efficiently.

Recommended loadout for Leon:

• Shotgun with at least 15–20 shells (more is safer).
• Handgun with a spare 30+ rounds as backup.
• 1–2 healing items, just in case you mistime a dodge.

Basic strategy:

• Use the kitchen layout – Hug the outer counters and keep moving in a loop. Don’t get cornered between tables and walls.
• Bait his swing – Wait until he commits to a big overhead or side swing, then circle strafe around his weapon arm.
• Blast him in the head / upper torso with the shotgun at close range. Step in, fire, immediately back away.
• When he stumbles or kneels, use the downtime to reload or reposition, not to get greedy.

On my successful kill with Leon, I burned roughly 18 shotgun shells and about 20 handgun bullets. Your exact numbers will vary depending on difficulty and accuracy, but expect it to feel like an ammo sink.

Common mistakes I made early on:

• Trying to snipe from too far away – damage falloff makes it worse.
• Panicking and dumping handgun ammo into his body instead of aiming high.
• Backing into a corner and eating a one-shot swing.

Killing Chef as Grace (High-Risk, High-Cost)

You can also kill Chef during Grace’s section, but this is where the ammo cost really stings. When I did it with Grace, I had to commit to spending:

• Multiple Magnum rounds, and
• Several dozen handgun bullets.

Tips to make it bearable with Grace:

• Make sure you’ve already acquired the Magnum / Requiem sidearm and stocked at least a handful of bullets.
• Craft stabilizers beforehand to boost damage if you have the materials. The extra damage really matters here.
• Fight him in a space where you can kite him in circles and reset the distance constantly.
• Use Magnum shots for calculated headshots when his animation locks him in place, and fill the gaps with handgun fire.

Don’t make my early mistake of blowing Magnum rounds while you’re still adjusting your aim. I restarted from checkpoint a couple of times just to redo the fight with cleaner headshots and fewer wasted bullets.

Chef Rewards: Why the Cellar Key Is a Big Deal

No matter whether you kill Chef as Grace or Leon, the outcome is the same:

• You obtain the Cellar Key.
• You unlock a related trophy / achievement.
• You can access a secondary kitchen door leading to extra goodies.

Using the Cellar Key on the side door nets you:

• Additional resources – ammo, crafting materials, and occasionally healing items.
• Charms:
  • One for Leon that increases his firepower.
  • One for Grace that boosts her knife durability.

On higher difficulties, that extra knife durability for Grace is huge; it lets you finish off knocked-down enemies without burning bullets, which slowly pays back the ammo you invested in killing Chef.

How to Kill Chunk (the “Baby” Nemesis) with Grace

Chunk is the one that mentally broke me for a while. He looks like an invincible set-piece monster you’re only supposed to run from. But he can die, and you have two main approaches:

Method 1 – Hemolytic Injectors (Efficient Route)

On my third attempt, I stopped trying to brute-force him and switched to the “proper” method: Hemolytic Injectors. If you’ve been using the Blood Collector and manuals, you can craft these before the fight.

Preparation checklist:

• Have at least 3 Hemolytic Injectors ready (on Standard, 3 is the sweet spot).
• Optional but recommended: 1–2 damage stabilizers active on Grace.
• Enough healing items to survive a couple of mistakes.

Fight strategy:

• When Chunk spawns, immediately run to the lower floor and observe his pathing. He tends to follow a predictable patrol route.
• Wait for him to move past you, then approach from behind.
• Press the contextual prompt to stab him in the back with an injector.
• After the hit, back off and reposition. Don’t get greedy; Chunk can kill you very quickly up close.
• Repeat until you’ve landed 3 successful injector stabs (on higher difficulties, you may need a Magnum shot or extra injector depending on your build).

Once you get into the rhythm of baiting him down a hallway, looping behind him, and stabbing the back, the fight becomes surprisingly controlled. The first time I did it cleanly, he never even touched me.

Method 2 – Magnum & Pistol Ammo Dump (Brute Force)

The other way – the one I tested first because I didn’t have enough injectors – is pure ammo brute force. It does work, but it’s brutal on your stockpile.

What I used for the kill:

• Several Magnum rounds (aimed at weak spots as much as possible).
• Dozens of handgun bullets over a long, drawn-out chase.

The key is to keep your distance, use corners to break line of sight, and pop him with Magnum shots when he gets stuck in longer animations. Between those, you pepper him with pistol shots whenever you can safely line up the head or torso.

Personally, I don’t recommend this method unless you’re specifically trying to recreate the “I killed him with bullets only” challenge. The injector route is vastly more ammo-efficient, especially for a first or second run.

Chunk Rewards: Charm and Trophy

Killing Chunk with Grace rewards you with:

• A specific trophy / achievement tied to Grace defeating him.
• A powerful charm that lets you survive a hit that would normally kill you once.

That extra “free death” is especially valuable on higher difficulties and challenge runs. It saved my run more than once when I misjudged a Nemesis grab later in the game.

Important detail: this Chunk is not the same encounter Leon faces in the attic. The optional kill we’re talking about here is specifically during Grace’s Rhodes Hill segment.

Why You Shouldn’t Try to Kill the Female Nemesis Early

After successfully killing Chef and Chunk, I got cocky and tried the same with the female Nemesis – the tall pursuer that stalks you for a huge portion of the game.

I tested everything: Magnum rounds, shotgun blasts, even trying to stack environmental damage. The result every time:

• She can be staggered or briefly stunned by strong weapons.
• You can use those staggers to slip past her or reach objectives.
• But she will always recover, and you cannot permanently kill her until the scripted boss fight later in the story.

This means any ammo you pour into her before that boss is effectively wasted, beyond the minimum needed to create space. My rule of thumb now:

• Use just enough firepower (Magnum/shotgun) to get a stagger when you’re truly cornered.
• Most of the time, focus on dodging, parrying, and using the environment instead of shooting her.

Ammo Management Tips Around These Optional Kills

If you decide to go for Chef and Chunk, you need to compensate elsewhere. Here’s what helped me keep my runs stable even after burning all that ammo:

• Prioritize headshots and leg shots on regular enemies; don’t body-shot zombies unless you’re finishing them.
• Use knives and Leon’s hatchet to finish downed enemies instead of spending extra bullets.
• Stay on top of crafting bullets and Hemolytic Injectors via the Blood Collector as soon as materials allow.
• Buy or craft stabilizers when you can; they effectively turn every bullet into “more damage per shot,” which matters a lot in these huge health bars.
• Avoid wasting ammo on non-killable enemies (especially the female Nemesis) except for necessary staggers.

Wrapping Up: When It’s Worth It

Once I understood that Chef and Chunk were actually killable, my whole approach to Requiem’s early game changed. On trophy runs or New Game+ playthroughs, I now plan around these kills: I route my crafting, stabilizers, and ammo pickups so I can afford the big spend and enjoy the extra safety and charms.

On a blind first run, though, I’d honestly recommend:

• Skipping Chef and Chunk kills until you’re confident in the game’s systems.
• Never trying to permanently kill the female Nemesis before her boss fight.

If I can wrestle these monsters down with a combination of smart resource planning and some stubborn persistence, you can too. Go in with a plan, respect the ammo cost, and the rewards will carry you through the rest of the nightmare.