Successfully Speedrunning Resident Evil: Village

If you’re going to speedrun Resident Evil Village, then there are a few crucial tips you’re going to have to keep in mind. Fortunately for you, I’ve done the grunt work of testing these methods in-game so that I can inform you about them in the most efficient way possible.

Keep in mind that before we get into the good stuff, from here on out it will be assumed that you’ve beaten the game before (at least once). This is so you will have weapons, resources, and knowledge of in-game mechanics that will enable you to have a healthy speed run.

This was specifically designed for Village Of Shadows difficulty, so this guide will discuss it as such. With that being said, it’ll also be assumed that you have the S.T.A.K.E (Piledriver) fully modified with Infinite Ammo (available via the Bonus Content Shop).

Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way… let’s begin.

Step One to a successful speedrun experience is to use what I refer to as the Step-Block.

With this method, fights can be halved or completely avoided when done correctly. To step block means that you want to take a step whenever you’re near an enemy, then block. So in-game it will be as if after every movement, you activate the block mechanic to protect yourself.

This method is more efficient than just holding the Block button because with a step block, you can keep your momentum so you don’t slow down and you can see your enemy’s positioning.

Even though you’re on Village Of Shadows difficulty with the most powerful gun, you are still an easy target! Since this is a speedrun, you won’t be able to just run around constantly re-positioning yourself while in battle so you can gain some distance and switch to an offensive playstyle.

Unless it’s on a mandatory boss fight (Like the 4 Lords, Mother Miranda, etc.), you’ll need to use a defensive playstyle to either walk past enemies or protect yourself while picking off only the enemies that are blocking your path.

The goal is to avoid fights as much as possible during a speed run since fighting is one part of the game that takes up so much time.

With that said, sometimes things do happen unexpectedly. So if you ever find yourself heavily surrounded or in any other situation where step-blocking is too dangerous, then you will need to refrain from using the step-block and instead just hold the block button while shooting when you can.

If you’re holding the block key while shooting, then you won’t get to see what you will be hitting when you shoot, so expect your accuracy to drop significantly. This method is slower & less efficient than the Step-Block method, so you should only use it when step blocking is too dangerous otherwise the step block technique is what you should be using to get past your enemies as fast as possible.

The second step to a successful speedrun experience is to only do what you have to do, as fast as you can do it.

This will get harder as you progress through the game, seeing how the further you make it the better the loot and treasures you’ll be eligible to find. But this playthrough isn’t meant to get you rich, so don’t pick up anything but heals you know you need since if your health is too low then you’ll move slower and we do not want that.

That means no picking up LEI drops from dead enemies or from locations that served as weapon spawns during your first playthrough. This may seem a bit excessive, but when you’re trying to beat the game as fast as possible, you cannot afford to waste time picking loot.

Grabbing loot takes up too much time and impacts your overall completion time of the game. That’s very bad!

The hardest part about speedrunning this game isn’t beating it as fast as possible, it’s learning how to beat it as fast as possible. In the beginning, you will make mistakes. Searching a cabinet that has nothing in it, or getting lost and forgetting where you should be heading are 2 of many things that are likely to go wrong. As long as you’re learning from your mistakes, you’ll gradually decrease your completion time, bettering your results. 

The last step to a successful speedrun experience is to increase your experience in speedrunning it.

Do it multiple times, and watch as your overall completion time steadily decreases with each game completion.

There will be times where enemies you once easily ran past are just constantly in you’re way, and you will have to decide to either fight them or load back. You shouldn’t be wasting time at the merchant, since there’s nothing you’ll need to buy or sell. That stuff can wait until after the speed runs.

Resident Evil Village does have an actual leaderboard with rankings (on Resident Evil Village.NET) that you can use to compare your completion time to others around the planet.

Currently, the 100th spot has a Village Of Shadows completion time of “02:08′33″034”, so any time longer than that won’t even be in the top 100! That’s why you need to speedrun it multiple times, so you can build experience with it and decrease your overall time.

Beating the game fast will be fun, since beating a game like this in under 2 hours will seem so unreal considering how much you go through. However, beating the game fast enough to get in the top 100 of the global rankings will be so satisfying and it will put you on page 1 of the Global Ranking.

Regardless of the number of times it takes you to get there, once you make it, you’ll always have that satisfaction inside you and that victory makes the whole experience worth it!

If you fail, try again. And if you fail again, then you try again. Keep trying and failing until you succeed, and never give up on your endeavor. Only those who know they can’t do anything about it, “don’t care”.