The next horrifying installment of the Resident Evil series has finally arrived. Continuing the story of Ethan Winters following the events of Resident Evil 7, Resident Evil Village sees our titular hero venture into a mysterious eastern European town to save his kidnapped baby. During his journey, Ethan will come across all sorts of horrific monsters, eccentric characters, and some familiar faces. Pulling inspiration from previous entries, Resident Evil Village mixes both horror and action. One of the returning features that was missing in Resident Evil 7 is an upgrade system to improve your weapons, carrying capacity, and Ethan.
Here’s how upgrades work in Resident Evil Village:
How to Upgrade Weapons
There are two types of upgrades in Resident Evil Village, each of which are tied to slightly different methods., The first is by spending Lei, which is the new in-game currency. These gold coins can be found throughout the game in chests, destructible boxes, selling treasures, or just hidden away in the environment. However, the most common method is by killing enemies and selling games/treasures. Keep in mind, Lei isn’t always a guaranteed reward when you kill something.
After you have your Lei, visit The Duke and select the Gunsmithy option. From here you can purchase upgrades for your weapon of choice. The four categories are Power, Rate of Fire, Reload Speed, and Ammo Capacity, each of which can be leveled up multiple times. However, not every level will be accessible right away, so make sure to check back with Duke as you progress through the story. Additionally, you can find and purchase attachments for your weapons which will enhance how they perform.
Personally, I recommend upgrading your pistol, sniper, and shotgun first, as these will be the best weapons in your first playthrough. You also might want to consider purchasing the ammo crafting recipes so you can make rounds during your journey. This is something that’s definitely worth investing in early on, as you’ll constantly stumble across supplies you can use to make bullets.
How to Upgrade Ethan
If you are looking to get some upgrades for Ethan, you’ll want to start killing the local wildlife. Yes, really. Unlike weapon and inventory upgrades, you can improve Ethan’s stats by making some tasty meals. This is done by harvesting meat, poultry, and fish via killing the various creatures throughout Resident Evil Village. Once you have a stockpile of ingredients, head to the Duke and open up the Duke’s Kitchen tab at the bottom. This will bring up a menu where you can whip up some food that will improve various attributes.
One thing that the game doesn’t tell you is you can essentially store your food with the Duke. Say you want to get the Ciorba de Porc, but don’t have enough ingredients. You can click on this recipe and then deposit what meat you do have into the dish. Duke will save this, so whenever you return (even across repeat playthroughs), that dish will still have the amount you left already counted towards making the meal.
All upgrades to Ethan are permanent, so don’t worry about constantly needing to refresh any buffs or changes. This means you should always focus on killing animals to harvest their goods – especially if you are just starting out. Enemies in Resident Evil Village are quite aggressive so you’ll want every advantage you can muster!
