Resident Evil 7 guide and walkthrough
In Polygon’s Resident Evil 7 guide and walkthrough, we’ll show you where to go, how to defeat your enemies and where to find the weapons, keys, collectibles — antique coins, files and Mr. Everywhere statues — you’re looking for.
How to use this Resident Evil 7 guide
Resident Evil 7 is both a departure from and a return to form for Capcom’s long-running survival horror franchise. Though it unfurls in a single, long campaign without any named levels, Resident Evil 7 does have landmarks that seem an awful lot like levels. We’ve organized our Resident Evil 7 walkthrough based on these geographical locations that divide the game into sections.
Follow our Resident Evil 7 guide, you’ll find the path from the first moments to the final boss battle, with required and bonus objectives in between. We’ve also included the locations of Resident Evil 7‘s collectible files, Mr. Everywhere statues and antique coins throughout.
Finally, we also have a collection of related Resident Evil 7 guides that will show you everything from how to get the dirty coin in the Resident Evil 7 demo to what you unlock after beating the game.
Update Feb. 20, 2017
We’ve updated our Resident Evil 7 guide with walkthroughs for the Banned Footage Vol. 1 and Banned Footage Vol. 2 downloadable content.
Update Dec. 28, 2017
We’ve updated our Resident Evil 7 guide with walkthroughs for the Not a Nero and The End of Zoe downloadable content.
Resident Evil 7 walkthrough
1. Guest house
2. Main house
3.
Old House
4. Testing area
5. Boathouse
6. Wrecked ship
7. Salt mines and the final battle
Other Resident Evil 7 biohazard guides
Resident Evil 7 DLC guides and walkthroughs
New game modes
Banned Footage vol.
1 walkthrough
Banned Footage vol. 2 walkthrough
Resident Evil 7 beginning hour demo walkthrough
Resident Evil 7 Not a Hero guide and walkthrough
0. All sections
1. The salt mine
2. The central cavern
3. Behind the red door
- Collect everything
- Get the cell key
4. Behind the green door
- Through the corridors and hallways
- Get the night vision device
- The basement, the puzzle and the elevator
- After the elevator and the turrets
5.
Behind the gray door
- The first room
- The rooms with the mine carts
- Getting the clown key
- To another operative
6. The red door (again) and Mama Molded boss fight
- Mama molded boss fight
7. The green clown door
8. The shield machine
9. The research facility
- The first floor
- The second floor
10. Mutated Lucas boss fight
Resident Evil 7 The End of Zoe guide and walkthrough
0. Learning combos
1. The beginning
2. Save points two, three and the Swamp Man
3. From the shack, through the gators and back to the shack again
4.
The ship
- Getting inside the ship
- Through the first door
- Through the second door
- Swamp Man boss fight
5. Crocs, bombs and the path to the abandoned church
- Getting through the water
- Back on dry land to the next save point
- Through the first building
- Through the second building
- Through the third building
- Into the water for more items
6. Abandoned church graveyard
7. The end
- The glove and the final save
- Final boss fight
Resident Evil 7 walkthrough: Guide and tips to surviving the horror adventure
Resident Evil 7 sees a welcome return to the series roots — slow-paced exploration, puzzles and item scarcity while exploring mansion-like environments — while refreshing it with a new first-person camera angle that’s perfect for ratcheting up the tension.
Our complete Resident Evil 7 walkthrough provides a complete step-by-step guide to the game’s many areas, while this Resident Evil 7 guide page will provide you with some useful survival hints that’ll we’ll continue to flesh out in the coming days as we cover more post-game content.
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Digital Foundry on Resident Evil 7 Ultra HD: PC vs PS4 Pro — Does Resolution Really Matter?
Resident Evil 7 walkthrough
As with previous games in the series, Resident Evil 7 follows a fairly linear progression, throwing increasingly challenging enemy types and puzzles into the players path, as well offering backtracking to optional areas for additional items and weapons.
The following Resident Evil 7 walkthrough provides a full guide to both critical path events and bonus objectives as you’ll encounter them, as well as pointing out collectibles along the way — though if you need dedicated lists, we have individual articles on Files, Mr Everywhere statues and Antique Coins locations.
Note that everything is described on the default Normal setting, and though main story events will be the same, some bonus consumables such as ammo and Herbs could differ according to your choice of difficulty. And while we’ve attempted to keep things story events a secret, location and general event spoilers will follow.
Guest House
- Guest House, finding Bolt Cutters and how to reach the Attic
Main House
- How to get to the Main Hall using the Hatch Key, Garage fight
- Dog’s Head locations, Clock Pendulum, Sky Hunter shadow puzzle
- Mia Tape and how to not get caught by Marguerite
- Processing Area, Incinerator Room handprint puzzle, Scorpion Key
- How to get the Shotgun
- How to get to the Dissection Room and survive the Morgue boss fight
Yard and Old House
- Yard, Old House explored, find the Burner flamethrower, Crow Key
- Mutated Margurite boss fight, how to get the Lantern for the Altar scales
- Where to find the Detention Room secret passage
Main House revisited
- How to get the Snake Key and Grenade Launcher location
- Kid’s Room, Attic Remote Control location, Judgement shadow puzzle
- Happy Birthday tape, cleaning the dirty telescope and light the cake
- Master Bedroom, how to solve the same time clock puzzle
Testing Area and Boat House
- Testing Area, finding the Lucas password and Party Room solution
- Mutated Jack boss fight, Boat House and who to cure with the serum
Wrecked Ship
- Wrecked Ship opener and where to find the Fuse for the locked door
- Old Videotape, how to find Eveline and follow her with the tracker
- Fix the Ship elevator, Captain’s Cabin Locker Key, Lounge painting puzzle
Swamp and Salt Mine
- Swamp, Salt Mine and the Lab, and surviving the final Molded onslaught
- Final boss fight
DLC
- Bedroom DLC solution — Painting locations, door password, Medusa and the Serpent
- Daughters DLC — True Ending and Bad Ending solutions explained
- 21 DLC — how to win Blackjack against Hoffman, beat Desperation in the final round
- Resident Evil 7 Not a Hero walkthrough
Resident Evil 7: Guide and tips to surviving the horror adventure
Safe rooms can be used as refuge and a way to bypass enemies
Safe rooms are a familiar feature in Resident Evil games; they’re a location where you can save your progress and swap out your inventory in Item Boxes.
Anywhere in the game that has a cassette player save point is a safe room, and a place where enemies cannot get to you.
An interesting trick with safe rooms in Resident Evil 7 is if an enemy is chasing you, or has simply spawned nearby, it’ll disappear as soon as you enter. You can see this happening by walking through a safe room door backwards, with enemies literally melting into the ground (or in the case of invincible enemies, becoming temporarily disinterested).
You can turn this quirk to your advantage. If you’re aware of a safe room you can retreat to, or if you follow our walkthrough to know where one is about to come up, you can avoid combat altogether and simply sprint to the nearest one. This is useful because…
Be conservative with the items you use
One constant with Resident Evil games is one of item scarcity, where curatives such as Herbs and Ammo is of limited supply. The same applies here, so it’s wise to only use items whenever you can.
Use the above trick to avoid enemy encounters, learn enemy weak points and where possible, combine Herbs with Chem Fluids to increase their potency and then use them when you’re health is at its lowest to stretch them out as much as you can. Additionally, while the Knife isn’t of much use in combat, it can save you using ammo when smashing Mr Everywhere statues and opening crates.
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Watch out behind you and cover your tracks
While Resident Evil 7 firmly sits in the mould of a more traditional old school Resident Evil game, something new to the series is the introduction of a first-person camera. An obvious (but nonetheless enjoyable) repercussion of this is you can no longer see enemies behind you.
The game’s sound design will always notify you when something is near, but where possible always face your adversaries during combat, to be aware of their approximate position when fleeing, and be prepared to spin around on the spot with a quick turn when exploring any seemingly empty areas.
Another thing that helps is learning to close doors behind you between areas, as the majority of the game’s enemies will no longer follow you. You can do this by pressing X on PlayStation or A on Xbox as you walk backwards through a door. As mentioned in the first tip on this page, you won’t have to do this with safe rooms, as they’ll instantly protect you as you cross the boundary.
Learn the tricks and nuances of combat
Combat has a few little tricks that are worth knowing to help you survive a little better:
- With the exception of boss battles, the weakspot of all enemies is the head, so aim there for maximum damage.
- You can shoot off the limbs of standard Molded enemies to slow their progress, but we’d only recommend it in a pinch — again, aim for the head for the fastest way to take anything down.
- There will be times when you’re going to be hit by an enemy — if so, hold the left bumper / L1 to guard, which will decrease the amount of damage you take.
- Press down and B on Xbox / Circle on PlayStation to do a 180 degree quick turn, which is perfect for fleeing enemies.
- You can reload while your sprint, which is particularly useful during boss encounters.
- There is no splash damage in the game, so feel free to fire Grenade Launcher rounds upclose or lay Remote Bombs at your feet if you need to.
- Again, to repeat the first point at the top of this tips section because it is incredibly useful — use safe rooms wherever possible to bypass enemies entirely. You can do this more often than you think, especially as you enter or leave the B1 Processing Area.
VHS tapes are optional, but you should play them at least once
Throughout the game you’ll pick up VHS Tapes, which you can use on a VHS player to play special scenes. With the exception of one late in the game, these are mostly optional. While we’d highly recommend playing them all as soon as you can — they both flesh out the story and provide hints for puzzles and areas to come — feel free to gloss over them during future playthroughs.
Don’t worry about missing anything (up to a certain point)
As you play through the Main House section, there will be many items and doors you cannot open yet. Don’t sweat it too much, as you’ll have the chance to access almost everything on the critical path, whether it’s through finding Lockpicks or Treasure Photos. course additional secrets you could miss — such as Files, Mr Everywhere statues and Antique Coins — and there is a point of no return to be aware. Without spoiling specifics, the area which will take you away from the house requires two Key Cards, so make sure you get everything you need before they are used and you move on.
Resident Evil 7 features permanent upgrades
There is the chance to permanently increase your maximum health, inventory size and other abilities — at least for that playthrough — by collecting certain items. Some of these are locked behind Antique Coin purchases (which you can spend from the Trailer at around a third of the way through the adventure) while others can be found in certain locations.
Our walkthrough will describe where you can get these as soon as you can. But if you miss out on one or two, don’t sweat it — the game is perfectly completable without them.
There is an incentive to replay
If you do miss anything, then there is an incentive to play the adventure once more. You’ll unlock a harder ‘Madhouse’ difficulty upon clearing the game, and for those who want a tougher challenge, there are Trophies and Achievements for completing the game in under four hours, as well as by only using curatives and Item Boxes are certain number of times in a single playthrough, as well as two slightly different endings based on a mid-game choice.
In short, this is a game that encourages you to learn its puzzles, areas and systems if you want to get that Platinum or 1000 Gamerscore, and we’ll be delving into the best way to approach them for these challenges in the coming weeks.
And once you’re done with everything, then there’s DLC, with the PS4 timed exclusive Banned Vol.
