Resident Evil 4 No merchant/ no saving typewriter Professional challenge.

[Dos]

Knifing Mendez on any difficulty level is hard, but on pro it's almost suicidal because obviously to knife him you need to go right up next to him, and Mendez's hits on pro are nearly all one-hit kills, just because of the enormous amount of damage each hit gives. As I've said, some people may call me crazy for even attempting the challenge I'm doing, but compared to a knife-only (only using Handgun when mandatory) Pro challenge, I'm positively sane...

The Butterfly's power is still only 13, true, but compare that to my unupgraded Handgun (firepower of 1.0) and Shotgun (4.0) and it's a fair monster by comparison.

Anyhow, I'm going to attempt Chapter 4-4 now. Hopefully I survive!

 

[Dos]

Have finished 4-4. The first bit, in the statue of Salazar room, went really well, so well in fact that I used the handgun just six times, and one frag grenade- the rest was all knifing. As I said previously, the fact that you know no Plaga heads will emerge in this bit is a huge help. The next bit, inside the tower, was okay but the lift ride up to the top was a little tricky- had to use four flash grenades there, luckily I had found a few scattered around earlier in 4-4. So flash and melee meant I could kick a few of the zealots off the lift altogether, and take care of Plaga heads that emerged- about six or seven of them sprouted a Plaga.

Then came the battle with Salazar. Now, by the time I'd got to Salazar I had 24 Butterfly bullets, 332 Handgun bullets, 63 shotgun shells and 2 full healing items. I had no grenades at all since I figured they are absolutely useless in the battle against Salazar anyway. The shotgun isn't exactly that useful either- because Salazar is a long range battle and the unupgraded Shotgun ISN'T a long range weapon, it's usefulness isn't fantastic.

Nevertheless, you can run right to edge of the platform and shoot the swollen eye from there, which is what I did- and every time he opened his mouth to do his instant kill, I either moved to the side or jumped down to the bottom level. So I used the handgun and shotgun to shoot the swollen eye, and saved the butterfly for Salazar himself once that bud-like structure he's hidden in opens up. It took patience- but remarkably enough I didn't take one hit during the entire battle- maybe I just got lucky, but his side tentacle just kept missing me.

I ended up using 19 of the 24 Butterfly bullets on Salazar's body, and used 259 (yes 259!) Handgun bullets and 23 shotgun shells on the swollen eye. This suggests that Salazar's body itself takes around 250 points of damage (19x13= 247) and the swollen eye around 350...so almost exactly 600 points of damage all up...which sounds a lot, and is, but when you consider that Verdugo is most likely around the 1200 mark on pro, you start to get a comparitive picture.

So once I passed Salazar and picked up the various items on the floor and then in the last couple areas of the Castle, my attache case was still looking a little lean, but not too bad considering the battle I had just fought. Nevertheless, Chapter 5-1, and in fact the whole island really, will have to be about ammo conservation.

Anyway, stats for 4-4
Accuracy: 98%
Kills: 46
Died: 0 times

Overall stats for end of Chapter 4

Accuracy: 90%
Kills: 601
Died: 11 times

I'm very glad and surprised to have not died since Chapter 4-1, I have to say! Island here we come!

 

[hobojoe521]

Nevertheless, you can run right to edge of the platform and shoot the swollen eye from there, which is what I did- and every time he opened his mouth to do his instant kill, I either moved to the side or jumped down to the bottom level. So I used the handgun and shotgun to shoot the swollen eye, and saved the butterfly for Salazar himself once that bud-like structure he's hidden in opens up. It took patience- but remarkably enough I didn't take one hit during the entire battle- maybe I just got lucky, but his side tentacle just kept missing me.






you know you can just run all the way to the right and his mouth cant even touch you. you only have to worry about i his tentacle

 

[Dos]

Yeah but the problem if you stand really wide is that targeting the swollen eye of the Left Hand Man is quite hard from there...where I stood was just slightly left of centre on the platform, and although the tenticles were doing their usual crashing back and forth, they never hit me- I never even got prompts to dodge the tenticles...

 

[Leon_S._Kennedy]

I alluded to this in another thread, but thought that since there isn't a huge amount of activity in the RE4 forum (compared to the RE5 one anyway), it might warrant a little thread of its own...

I recently decided to take up a new challenge! As the title suggests, I've decided to do a run (starting from scratch of course) on Professional mode, and there are two rules I'm applying: I'm not allowed to interact/do business at all with any Merchants whatsoever, and I'm not allowed to save at typewriters found in the middle of chapters. I'll still save on completing each chapter (so eighteen times in all), but that's it.

So I'll be 'living off the land', so to speak. Therefore this means:
-No upgrades of weapons
-No upgrading of attache case size
-No purchasing of new weapons or first aid

Until Chapter 4-1 (when I can pick up the Broken Butterfly) I'll be limited to an un-upgraded Handgun, un-upgraded Shotgun and whatever grenades I can find. What about the free rocket launcher in 3-3, I here you ask? Simple. As much as I would like to take it, I will not have room in the attache case. The base attache case is only 60 squares in size! I will need to hoard ammo as much as possible, way more than on a typical Pro playthrough, mainly because, with un-upgraded weapons and basic weapons at that, ammo will get used up ridiculously quickly.

Because I won't be visiting the Merchants, I'll have no need for the treasures held by some beasts- I'm thinking especially of Verdugo and the Crown Jewel here. So basically I won't be even attempting to kill Verdugo- and on pro he is undoubtedly the toughest boss in the entire game if you don't have a rocket launcher. Likewise, I'll have as little to do with Regenerators/Iron Maidens (they will be almost impossible to kill) as is possible! I'm dreading the one in 5-1 that I have no choice but to kill...really dreading it.



A lot of you may be wondering what the purpose of the no typewriter part of the challenge is. Basically, I guess it's to increase the challenge when confronted with a long/hard chapter- this probably doesn't apply so much in the village , as none of those chapters are overly long and none of the individual scenes/battles are THAT hard even on pro, with the notable exception of the cabin fight and then Mendez himself.

But it really does become a factor when you get to Chapters 3-1, 3-2, 4-1 and all of Chapter 5. Let me put it this way, if you're fighting Verdugo on this playthrough, right at the very end of 4-1, and he kills you for the umpteenth time because he's just too fast and quick, you'll probably feel like giving up and turning the game off right? Sure, but if you do that on this playthrough you'll go right back to the very start of 4-1...and as anyone who has played the game will know, 4-1 is one long b*tch of a chapter so you really don't want to have to go through all that again! Making it harder for myself? Definitely, but more challenging equals more enjoyable.


Anyway, right now I've just finished Chapter 1-2...haven't died yet, although I came very close to doing so twice- once in the village centre in 1-1 and then once in the mountain fortress in 1-2...luckily I was able to heal myself up both times...just.

Shall keep everyone updated here. Feel free to ask me any questions or share your thoughts!

Cheers

hmmmm im gonna give this a shot

 

[Dos]

Good luck with it! Undoubtedly the most frustrating thing is not saving at typewriters. There are some chapters where you want to so badly! Trust me, if you do this challenge, you'll get halfway through a chapter like 3-1 or 4-1 and want to save so badly. Or pretty much before or after any really tough area. But because I'm crazy and want to make this hard and frustrating for myself, I resist the urge!

I'm finished with Chapter 5-1. Unfortunately I died once- my first death since 4-1. It was at the hands of the Iron Maiden in the laboratory area- which out of the ten Regenerators/Iron Maidens in the whole game is the only one that is compulsory to kill because it holds the key to Ashley's holding room.

Apart from that the chapter went smoothly enough- my tactic to use JJ's trigger happiness to my own advantage in the initial fight at the start of the chapter worked perfectly- I hid behind the rocks, let the soldier Ganados approach me, and when JJ let fly with a round from the chain gun, I hid behind the rocks. And watched as he gunned down a good number of the Ganados pursuing me! It was quite funny. JJ himself was tough to beat, but with a combination of a couple flash grenades, knife attacks while he was stunned and then shotgun blasts, I was able to nail him. Most of the other regular soldiers don't hold too many terrors- though I have to say the hammer soldiers (the large, fat, partially armoured ones) are a real pest and very dangerous.

My tactic with the Regenerators was fairly simple- one headshot with the Butterfly so as to temporarily disable their ability to bite- another Butterfly shot to the leg to knock them over (DON'T, I repeat don't, do it the other way around, or they'll bounce off the floor and bite Leon on the neck, and possibly bite through his jugular and cause him a gruesome death)- and then run, run and run. I will not even consider taking them on- on pro you would need at least 200 unupgraded Handgun bullets, or 50 shotgun shells, to kill them, or 5 Incendiary grenades- basically, in this sort of playthrough, where money is of no consequence, they are just not worth the ammo and effort expended. Indeed, if I tried to kill all of them I would have no ammo left at all.

Anyway, so to my battle with the Iron Maiden. The Iron Maidens, though typically described as upgrades of the Regenerators, are actually easier to take on than ordinary Regenerators on Professional, for one main reason:

-All Regenerators have a fifth parasite on their backs on Professional, not just the Iron Maiden variant- that removes the 'harder to kill element' that is present in Easy and Normal mode.

There's also another factor- unlike the ordinary Regenerators, the Iron Maidens don't have a bite attack (in any mode) because their mouths are so severely deformed. The bite attack is probably the most devastating and health consuming of all Regenerator/Iron Maiden attacks. Combining these two factors, I actually believe the Iron Maidens are easier than the ordinary Regenerators to deal with on Pro.

Nevertheless, the Iron Maidens aren't exactly nice creatures. Because of the amount of ammo they swallow, I decided to kill the one in the lab area by using just a couple bullets here and there to blow up the gas canisters, and mostly just knife the monster to death by using the broken window, getting a couple slashes in and then hopping back over the other side- don't you just love the way it can't impale you on its spikes through the open window? BUT I made the mistake of trying to slash him one too many times- never try to slash the Maiden more than twice after it has slithered onto your side of the window. I tried to slash it a third time, and got skewered to death- with 8/10 full bars of health- that's how health consuming their attacks can be on pro.

So when I repeated the fight, I made sure to limit myself to two slashes before I jumped over the other side- and eventually, after much slashing, the Maiden was history! The rest of the chapter after that was fine- just used common sense, and knife and kick, as much as possible!

Chapter 5-1 stats
Accuracy: 87%
Kills: 63
Died: 1 time

Now for 5-2, which will no doubt be a horrible chapter. Eeek.

 

[La Femme Fatale]

]My tactic with the Regenerators was fairly simple- one headshot with the Butterfly so as to temporarily disable their ability to bite- another Butterfly shot to the leg to knock them over (DON'T, I repeat don't, do it the other way around, or they'll bounce off the floor and bite Leon on the neck, and possibly bite through his jugular and cause him a gruesome death)- and then run, run and run. I will not even consider taking them on- on pro you would need at least 200 unupgraded Handgun bullets, or 50 shotgun shells, to kill them, or 5 Incendiary grenades- basically, in this sort of playthrough, where money is of no consequence, they are just not worth the ammo and effort expended. Indeed, if I tried to kill all of them I would have no ammo left at all.

You could always knife them too if you wanted to kill them (at least if they are alone). You just have to shoot their leg to get it to fall down and keep slashing at their head/torso continuously until they die. It takes about 15 minutes on pro, but it's quite easy. But I guess for this run-through running is the better choice.

 

[Dos]

You could always knife them too if you wanted to kill them (at least if they are alone). You just have to shoot their leg to get it to fall down and keep slashing at their head/torso continuously until they die. It takes about 15 minutes on pro, but it's quite easy. But I guess for this run-through running is the better choice.

Yeah, you're right, I could do that, and if I was doing an ordinary pro walkthrough without the special conditions attached, I would for their money. I'm actually considering doing this for at least one of the two Regenerators you encounter straight after the wrecking ball room in 5-2. And the reason for that is, I've known a few people who've tried to run past both of them by using the tables in the meeting room, but when they've come to opening the door to the truck room, the time delay while waiting for the door to open has seen one or even both the Regenerators catch up and murder Ashley.

Luckily, if you are quiet enough you should be able to get the first Regenerator far enough away from the second one that the second one won't hear any initial gunshots, so they can be fought/negotiated one at a time- which is absolutely essential, you really do not want two Regenerators after you at once. It's what will make the bit in the waste dump with the two Iron Maidens so horrible..

And just a general note, if anyone ever does attempt to shoot out the leg of a Regenerator then knife them to death, it's essential, before you close in to knife them that you give them a pounding on the head with a strong weapon- preferably a shotgun, rifle or magnum, because if you don't they'll leap off the floor and bite you on the neck- and this attack takes off a minimum of four bars of health on pro (so if it happens to you when in the yellow or red zone of health, death is unavoidable), and that's if you shake them off straight away. Take longer and you'll lose 5, 6, 7 or even the full 10 bars of health, and be dead.

Note that you don't have to worry about being bitten by Iron Maidens, as their severely deformed mouths deprive them of this form of attack.

 

[Dos]

So I'm done with Chapter 5-2. But it was hard and I died (or failed the mission) three times. I ran away from the two Iron Maidens down in the dump, and I reckon I escaped Leon and Ashley being skewered there by a split second as I escaped. The wrecking ball room saw Ashley get killed twice before I figured that getting her to wait (and therefore not jump down into the room straight away) when you first arrive buys a few vital seconds so that you can use an incendiary and then a frag grenade to clear out a large number of the original Ganado mob. So did that, then called Ashley down, then just ran aroun, and used headshot and melee combos (aiming to knock them into the lava pool)- that worked fairly well. And of course a few flash grenades to knock out the many Plagas that sprout here, but keeping a couple in reserve for the upcoming truck ride. So eventually on the third try I got past that hellish room.

Next were the two Regenerators in the narrow corridor and meeting room area. Normally, these two Regenerators are the least threatening two encountered in the game because they have less Plagas than the others, but on this particular walkthrough, without a rifle and a infrared scope they are among the most challenging, simply because it is very hard to run from them because of the narrow spaces, the fact that you'll likely have two after you at once, and the fact that you get delayed while waiting for the door to open at the end of the area- so if you haven't put enough space between them and you before that, they'll likely catch up and murder Ashley.

So I decided to take the slow approach...I knifed the first one to death. This I did by luring him from behind the shutter with a very quick "Wait/follow" command, then made him come after me into the side room with the dog cages. There, I shot his head off with the Butterfly, then took out a leg with another shot, then knifed...and knifed...and knifed. It took him thirteen minutes to die!*** Once that was done, dealing with the one further down the corridor is pretty easy, I pressed the switch in the meeting room to open the last shutter, let the Regenerator come after me (I'd left Ashley parked next to the dog cages), then lured it back into the dog cages room, gave it one blast in the head to slow it down, then called Ashley to follow me and ran. And made it out easily.

The truck ride was the final bit, and it was hard as expected! I made it to the very last bit- literally the bit where you have to shoot the oncoming truck- but then got attacked by a Ganado when I thought I had killed them all- and if you get attacked or otherwise interrupted while trying to shoot that truck, death is unavoidable. Wasn't too happy at that...but on the second time I was a little more careful. And made it through

So died three times in the chapter unfortunately- my second worst chapter of the game after 3-1 in terms of deaths/ mission failed. So I've 'died' fifteen times in total now- and by my count five or six of those have actually been Ashley dying, which of course is still a failure on my part, but is REALLY annoying nonetheless.

So on to 5-3 I go, which thankfully won't need much ammo to be used. Not compared to the ammo drain that 5-1 and 5-2 were anyway. I'm going to attempt knifing U3 as well as Krauser- call me crazy- but I think it can be done.

Chapter 5-2 stats
Accuracy: 85%
Kills: 81
Died: 3 times

*** If attempting to knife the first Regenerator to death like I did, it is VITAL that you lure it well out of earshot (the dog cage room is a good option) from the second Regenerator further down the corridor before you shoot its head and legs out- otherwise, the second beast may just hear the commotion and you'll soon have two after you at once- and in those narrow spaces, it could get ugly very quickly.

 

[La Femme Fatale]

And just a general note, if anyone ever does attempt to shoot out the leg of a Regenerator then knife them to death, it's essential, before you close in to knife them that you give them a pounding on the head with a strong weapon- preferably a shotgun, rifle or magnum, because if you don't they'll leap off the floor and bite you on the neck- and this attack takes off a minimum of four bars of health on pro (so if it happens to you when in the yellow or red zone of health, death is unavoidable), and that's if you shake them off straight away. Take longer and you'll lose 5, 6, 7 or even the full 10 bars of health, and be dead.

It doesn't work for you just to take a few steps back? The handful of times I've knifed a regenerator, I just shoot him in the leg, immediately backed away as much as I could, and so when he jumps up to bite your neck, he ends up doing a belly flop on the floor instead. Which, how that alone doesn't kill him I don't understand 'cause that sh!t hurts. :lol:

 

[Romero]

You could always knife them too if you wanted to kill them (at least if they are alone). You just have to shoot their leg to get it to fall down and keep slashing at their head/torso continuously until they die. It takes about 15 minutes on pro, but it's quite easy.

It doesn't work for you just to take a few steps back? The handful of times I've knifed a regenerator, I just shoot him in the leg, immediately backed away as much as I could, and so when he jumps up to bite your neck, he ends up doing a belly flop on the floor instead. Which, how that alone doesn't kill him I don't understand 'cause that sh!t hurts. :lol:

You girl, I almost think you're a pro in disguise, you make it sound like a walk in the park!! All your talk about not at all being good at the game must be a big understatement! I'm very confident in my RE4 surviving/fighting skills, but I would be a little bit intimidated if I got you as opponent in multiplayer, or some kind of contest. :ninja:
I must add that I have not seen these monsters, but I've read about them and they can't be called mini-bosses for nothing.

Luckily, if you are quiet enough you should be able to get the first Regenerator far enough away from the second one that the second one won't hear any initial gunshots, so they can be fought/negotiated one at a time- which is absolutely essential, you really do not want two Regenerators after you at once. It's what will make the bit in the waste dump with the two Iron Maidens so horrible..

If you had normal firepower and was not short on ammo, would you need to deal with them one at a time? First some rifle rounds, then many magnum rounds? That should floor them and eat up their health quickly, right?
I'm gonna find this out on my own though, when I get there.

 

[Dos]

If you had normal firepower, there isn't a need to deal with them one at a time, no. If you equip the infrared scope on your rifle and take out their Plagas quickly, they should die pretty rapidly. As I said the two straight after the wrecking ball room are the weakest two in the game (especially the first one), so they shouldn't be too hard to deal with. With normal firepower!

And yes, I probably could use the tactic La Femme Fatale suggested, but I guess on this sort of playthrough, with health items getting used fairly quickly anyway, I'm just not willing to take the chance of getting it wrong because I'll lose a lot health, and possibly die, if I do stuff it up. Shooting their head off as well as the leg is a safe way to ensure they can't even attempt to jump up and bite me.

And as for those belly flops- the way Regenerators in general move- and especially the way they almost snap themselves up in ways that would break the spine of ordinary humans..it almost suggests the Regenerators lack a skeletal system as such and are just pure muscle!

 

[La Femme Fatale]

You girl, I almost think you're a pro in disguise, you make it sound like a walk in the park!! All your talk about not at all being good at the game must be a big understatement! I'm very confident in my RE4 surviving/fighting skills, but I would be a little bit intimidated if I got you as opponent in multiplayer, or some kind of contest. :ninja:
I must add that I have not seen these monsters, but I've read about them and they can't be called mini-bosses for nothing.

Honestly, I'm completely rubbish at video games. It's just... when you waste 60% of your bullets on walls and other inanimate objects during your first play through and you have nothing left to destroy those buggers with, you have to think of different ways of getting the job done, haha.

 

[tequila]

Of course. I had mis-read something you said.



But the Bellas isn't impossible? On normal mode, each of the sisters have about 20 health points (HP) on their heads. Maybe it's 30 on hard mode. 30 x 2 = 60 HPs to make. A grenade can take some of their HPs.

When you are done with the Bellas you can knife the rest. There's a large gang of Ganados in the last part, but it's possible to lure them to come one by one. At least on Normal mode.

How could you tell how much HP they have? I couldn't find that out in the games, both GC and PS2.

 

[LordGolbez]

I Wish You The Best Of Luck Man. That Sounds Hard.

 

[Dos]

How could you tell how much HP they have? I couldn't find that out in the games, both GC and PS2.

Just by counting how many shots it takes to kill to an enemy, and multiplying that by the firepower of the gun used to kill them.

So for example, if it takes five headshots (which do full damage) from a fully upgraded Red9 (firepower of 6.5) to kill a Dr Salvador, it's safe to assume that the Salvador had somewhere between 26 (6.5x4) and 32.5 (6.5x5) health points.

 

[Dos]

The end is in sight- Chapter 5-3 is done and dusted. Went very well..the Ganados in the boiler room aren't much of a challenge. Managed to get all the button sequences right in the knife fight with Krauser.

U3 was tough, but ultimately I nailed him with a few Butterfly rounds, three incendiary grenades- and many knife slashes. Also naturally took advantage of the two oil barrels so generously provided to inflict some damage on him. Same goes for the Ganados between the U3 and Krauser fights- don't you just love the way the oil barrels are so well strategically placed?! The mobile robot shooter things Krauser employs were annoying but easily brushed aside.

Krauser himself was a total walk in the park. If you get it right and corner him in the final fight, he is a total sitting duck- he cannot escape, and you can just knife him to death with total ease, taking care to avoid any sudden attacks he may attempt to launch.

Chapter 5-4 next. Won't be easy by any means, just because of the sheer number of Ganados, and those chain guns and two JJ's will be a major annoyance. Mike the helecopter pilot hardly does anything at all on pro, so you can't depend on him to kill half the Ganados, unlike in easy and normal modes. I won't bother with the final Regenerator. Ammo conservation will be the key here, so I've plenty left for old man Saddler.

The end is near!

Chapter 5-3 stats
Accuracy: 99%
Kills: 27
Died: 0 times

 

[La Femme Fatale]

For Saddler's fight, will you be able to pick up the special rocket launcher - or does the smallest attache case not leave enough room?

 

[Dos]

For Saddler's fight, will you be able to pick up the special rocket launcher - or does the smallest attache case not leave enough room?

Yeah well if worst comes to worst I can always discard a weapon, like say the Shotgun, when the special launcher is thrown- they both take up 16 spaces so it'd just be a direct swap.

 

[hobojoe521]

man im surprised, i started a game on pro mode(with merchants and saving) and i cant even get passed 2-2, your good very good