Resident Evil Reququum: How to Survive as Grace & Leon – 24 Tips

Why These Survival Tips Matter

After spending roughly 18 hours beating Resident Evil Reququum on Standard and then suffering through Classic with limited saves, I realized I wasn’t dying because the game was “too hard” – I was just playing it like the wrong character. Grace Ashcroft and Leon S. Kennedy reward completely different instincts, and the game quietly expects you to switch gears between them.

The breakthrough came when I stopped trying to kill everything as Grace and stopped turtling as Leon. Below are 24 specific tips that actually changed how often I died and how often I ran out of ammo, hemolytic injectors, and Reququum bullets. If I could claw my way through Roads Hill and beyond with resources to spare, you can too.

Grace – Stealth and Resource Survival (Tips 1-14)

Grace’s sections are all about information, positioning, and squeezing maximum value out of every drop of blood and every bottle. Think “thief with a medical kit,” not “action hero.”

Tip 1 – Use Lean and Peeking on Every Corner

I ignored the lean mechanic for my first hour and paid for it with surprise chef encounters. As Grace, stand close to a wall corner and hold aim – she’ll automatically lean and peek around. Use this:

• To confirm where the chef, cleaners, or the Girl are before committing to a hallway.
• To line up leg shots safely, then back off into cover.
• Later, as Leon too – the same cover system saves you in more firefight-heavy sections.

Don’t make my mistake of sprinting blind into intersections. Peek first, move second.

Tip 2 – Close Doors to Break Line of Sight

The game teaches you once that you can close doors, then never reminds you. Get in the habit:

• Duck into a side room as a zombie rounds a corner, then immediately turn and close the door.
• Use doors to buy time to reload, craft, or re-route around an enemy.
• Against slower zombies, one closed door is often the difference between a clean escape and a panic bite.

There’s no UI prompt, so this has to become muscle memory: enter room → spin → close door.

Tip 3 – Keep the Flashlight On

I wasted a few runs creeping in the dark because I assumed the flashlight would attract enemies. It doesn’t. Zombies don’t react to it, even though there is that one special light-hating zombie used as a setpiece. For 99% of encounters, keep it on so you can:

• Spot blood piles for your collector.
• Catch glints of items and lockable drawers.
• See environmental cover and furniture you can use to kite.

Invisibility in this game comes from silence and distance, not darkness.

Tip 4 – Don’t Kill Every Zombie (Avoid Blister Heads)

The hardest lesson: sometimes it is <emworse< em=""> to kill a zombie. Blister heads, the nastier, more aggressive mutations, only spawn from corpses that were already downed. You never know which bodies will pop back up as blister heads later.

• Prioritize disabling over killing – leg shots and staggers.
• Leave low-risk crawlers alone if you can route around them.
• Only fully kill zombies that are in high-traffic chokepoints.

Every unnecessary corpse is a lottery ticket for a future blister head. Stop buying tickets.

Tip 5 – Learn Zombie Jobs and Habits

Reququum’s zombies behave like twisted versions of their old lives. Once I started respecting that, routing got much easier:

• Cleaners patrol messes – kill a zombie and a cleaner may later be drawn to mop that gore instead of blocking a different hallway.
• But killing the wrong zombie can also pull a cleaner into a corridor you wanted to keep safe.
• IV-stand zombies hate noise and will home in on sound, smashing their poles into anything nearby.

Watch a room for 20–30 seconds before acting. Understanding one cleaner’s loop saved me more bullets than any upgrade.

Tip 6 – Use Central Furniture to Kite and Escape

Many rooms have a big centerpiece – desks, roulette tables, gurneys. These are not just decoration. If two or three zombies block the door you need:

• Run in, circle the central object until they commit to following you.
• When they’re all on one side, break away on the opposite side and bolt for the exit.
• Combine this with a closed door to completely disengage without firing a shot.

I’ve bypassed full hallways of enemies this way on Classic with zero ammo spent.

Tip 7 – Use Bottles as Stun Tools, Not Just Distractions

The game nudges you to use bottles as noise-makers or crafting mats, but their best use is direct stuns. A well-aimed bottle to the face will:

• Instantly stagger a zombie and open a melee prompt.
• Let you shove them into a second zombie, creating a gap to squeeze through.
• Save 2–3 bullets you would have needed for a safe knockdown.

Bottles are limited, so I reserved them for tight hallways and last-ditch escapes rather than casual distractions.

Tip 8 – Classic Leg-Shot Combo: Drop, Shove, Finish

Grace is squishy, but zombies are still slaves to their knees. My most ammo-efficient kill pattern:

• 1–2 shots to a leg to drop the zombie.
• Run up and use the shove prompt to push them flat.
• Finish with either a couple of close-range headshots or repeated knife stabs while they’re down.

Once I committed to leg shots as my default, my bullet usage per kill dropped dramatically.

Tip 9 – Treat Knives as Flexible Tools, Not Just Panic Buttons

I burned through my first knife on defensive stabs only, which felt safe but wasteful. Remember:

• You can swing a knife with a basic attack (no aiming) whenever you have one equipped.
• Use knives to finish downed zombies and to destroy Mr. Raccoon statues without spending ammo.
• Knives are crafted from two scraps and can be dismantled back into scrap if you change your mind.

I try to keep one knife in reserve for emergency grabs, but I’m not afraid to burn one on a dangerous choke-point room.

Tip 10 – Make Enemies Hurt Each Other

Armed enemies are accidental allies if you’re patient:

• IV-pole zombies wildly swing their stands and can one-shot weaker zombies if they’re in the way.
• Stalkers like the Girl and Chunk will plow through anything to reach you.

Pull a crowd, then weave so that the weapon-wielding enemy is between you and the pack. I’ve cleared entire knots of undead by just letting an IV-stand zombie have a tantrum.

Tip 11 – Save Hemolytic Injectors for Priority Targets

The game encourages you to try hemolytic injectors on a basic zombie early. Don’t follow that example. Injectors are:

• Grace’s only real “stealth takedown” option.
• One-hit kills for most regular enemies.
• Still require multiple uses on bosses like the chef or Chunk.

I now reserve them for:

• Blister heads.
• Big elites like the chef, Chunk, and singers (for their drops).
• That one zombie you absolutely cannot risk waking the whole ward for.

Tip 12 – Yes, You Should Kill Chunk (If You Plan for It)

Chunk looks like an unkillable wall, but three hemolytic injectors will do the job. On my first run I ran from him every time; on my second I specifically stockpiled injectors just to take him down.

The reward is huge: a powerful charm that boosts your chance to survive fatal hits (at the cost of an inventory slot). On New Game Plus, he instead drops antique coins, since charms carry over. Either way, if you can plan for three injectors, it’s worth the bloodbath.

Tip 13 – Don’t Waste Reququum Bullets (Especially on Regular Zombies)

Reququum bullets feel godlike the first time you fire one, which makes it tempting to “solve” a bad room with them. Resist that urge.

• Their primary purpose is controlling the Girl – you can’t kill her, but a Reququum shot will halt her and force a retreat.
• Rare scrap, found in lockpick-only drawers, can only craft Reququum ammo, so always convert rare scrap and store the bullets.
• If you absolutely must use one on regular enemies, line up as many zombies as you can and pierce the whole group.

For most of Grace’s campaign, I keep the Reququum itself in storage, only pulling it out when I know the Girl or a major encounter is coming.

Tip 14 – Prioritize Inventory and Blood Collector Upgrades First

In the parlor room, antique coins unlock four key upgrades from lockers: extra inventory, max HP steroid, aim stabilizer, and increased blood collector capacity. Across two playthroughs, my priority that felt best was:

• First: +2 inventory slots.
• Second: increased blood collector intake.
• Later: HP steroid or stabilizer depending on what you’re struggling with.

Extra blood capacity means less backtracking for crafting, and more inventory means you can actually carry what you craft. You’ll eventually find a lab sample that lets you craft more steroids and stabilizers anyway, so you’re not locked out of survivability if you don’t buy them early.

Leon – Controlled Aggression and Crowd Control (Tips 15–20)

Where Grace punishes loud mistakes, Leon punishes hesitation. He’s tougher, better-armed, and built for pushing through, but you can still burn through ammo and healing if you play him like a pure shooter.

Tip 15 – Use the Same Lean System for Safer Gunfights

That corner-lean trick from Grace carries over to Leon, and it’s critical in later, more combat-heavy sections. Use lean to:

• Pre-aim around corners before enemies fully see you.
• Chip at ranged threats while minimizing exposure.
• Abuse cover in arenas where enemies swarm from multiple angles.

Think of it as “RE4-style pop-and-shoot” built into Reququum’s engine.

Tip 16 – Learn the Parry Window and Don’t Mash It

Leon’s melee weapon (hatchet/axe) lets him parry many enemy swings. The first time I got it, I spammed the parry button and ate hits anyway. The timing is generous, but it’s still timing:

• Wait for the attack’s tell – arm fully raised, lunge starting – then press parry once.
• Successful parries often stagger enemies, opening them up for follow-up shots or kicks.
• Don’t waste durability on obvious misses; sidestep those instead.

Once the rhythm clicks, you’ll save tons of ammo by turning close-range threats into melee opportunities.

Tip 17 – Prioritize Armed or Fast Enemies First

In Leon’s bigger fights, target priority matters more than pure DPS. From my runs, this order felt safest:

• Fast, lunging enemies and anything that can grab from range.
• Zombies with weapons (poles, blades, guns).
• Slow shamblers at the edge of the arena.

Drop the enemies who can rush or chain-stagger you, then clean up the rest with measured shots and melee follow-ups.

Tip 18 – Leg Shots + Melee Finish Still Rule with Leon

Leon may feel like he’s built for headshots, but the classic leg shot combo is just as efficient for him as for Grace:

• Shoot a leg to stagger or knock the zombie down.
• Move in and use his melee follow-up (kick, stomp, etc.).
• Save shotgun and magnum ammo for bosses and elites.

On my second run I treated headshots as a luxury and legs as my default. My ammo economy instantly improved.

Tip 19 – Use the Environment: Explosives and Funnels

Leon’s arenas are often littered with breakable or explosive objects. Before you trigger a fight (or as you die and retry), mentally mark:

• Explosive barrels and gas canisters.
• Narrow chokepoints or staircases you can funnel enemies through.
• High-ground positions with good sightlines.

I try to corral enemies into one lane, blow the barrel when 3–4 are clumped, then mop up stragglers. It’s the difference between barely surviving and finishing with spare ammo.

Tip 20 – Treat Healing Items and Grenades as Panic Tools

It’s tempting to start big encounters with a grenade or keep health topped off. Don’t. On Classic I started surviving more once I:

• Kept at least one healing item and one “oh crap” tool (grenade, flash) in quick reach.
• Accepted fighting in yellow health rather than auto-healing to green.
• Saved grenades for when I was cornered or needed to interrupt a dangerous elite.

Think of these as insurance policies, not standard openers.

Maps, Crafting, and Saving Smart (Tips 21–24)

The last chunk of mistakes I made weren’t in combat at all – they were on the map screen and in save rooms.

Tip 21 – Sweep Rooms and Let the Map Work for You

Reququum doesn’t auto-reveal every item in a room. You usually have to get close or look directly at something before it shows up on the map. My habit now:

• Hug walls and scan shelves with your flashlight before leaving.
• Open the map and check whether any icons (items, blood piles, locked drawers) appeared.
• If your inventory’s full, mentally mark those icons and backtrack later.

The map also marks blood and gore piles you can harvest with the collector, which is huge for planning crafting routes.

Tip 22 – Craft for Survivability First, Damage Second

Blood is your universal crafting fuel. Early on, I blew too much on damage upgrades and paid for it in deaths. Now my crafting priority looks like this:

• Healing injectors and basic survival items (ink ribbons on Classic, knives).
• Upgrades that increase max health and aim stability once I’ve found the lab sample for steroids/stabilizers.
• Only then, offensive items and extra ammo beyond what I naturally find.

Grace especially benefits from a bigger “safety net” more than from marginal DPS spikes.

Tip 23 – Use Light and Safe Rooms to Handle the Girl

The Girl is unkillable and terrifying, but she’s also predictable once you respect the rules:

• Know your nearest safe room before triggering loud events.
• Use Reququum bullets sparingly to stop her in her tracks when escape routes are tight.
• Stick to well-lit, open spaces when you know she’s active; tight, dark corridors are where panic deaths happen.

I treat any area where she can spawn like a stealth puzzle first and a combat zone second.

Tip 24 – Manage Saves: Ink Ribbons, Autosaves, and Backup Slots

On Classic difficulty, ink ribbons look brutally limited at first, but they’re more forgiving than they seem:

• Empty ribbon canisters are common, and you can craft ink ribbons from them with blood.
• Always check when the last autosave happened before spending a ribbon – sometimes you can risk a bit more.
• Keep a rotating set of manual saves, especially at the end of each major area, so you can return later for missed files or Mr. Raccoons (collectibles persist across runs).

Once I stopped hoarding ribbons out of fear and started using them strategically, Classic stopped feeling impossible and started feeling fair.

Closing Thoughts

Resident Evil Reququum only really clicked for me when I embraced Grace as a stealthy, blood-fueled survivor and Leon as a precise, aggressive cleaner. If you lean on these 24 tips – peeking, door control, enemy baiting, careful crafting, and disciplined use of injectors and Reququum bullets – you’ll find yourself finishing chapters with resources left over instead of scraping by on empty chambers and red health.

Stick with it, play to each character’s strengths, and let the game’s systems do the heavy lifting. If I could turn my early disaster runs into confident clears, so can you.