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As you've probably noticed by now, we're pretty big fans of RE: Village overall. In fact, we'd even go so far as to suggest that it may well be the best PC release of 2021 yet. Not a small feat, to be sure. However, as with any major Resident Evil release, there's one last thing we need to assess before we can put the game to rest: the mini-games! Resident Evil Village Mercenaries Mode is here in full force, and we're here to tell you all about it.
There are some quirks to this iteration of Mercenaries that veterans of the franchise will notice right away. Further, some of you may never have played Mercenaries in the first place, and therefore have just about no idea whatsoever on what to expect. This article is going to dispel some confusion about RE: Village's Mercenaries, as well as tell you what weapons and perks you ought to grab.
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Resident Evil Village Mercenaries Mode: What is it?
First things first - Mercenaries Mode is not new to the RE franchise by any stretch of the imagination. Having made its debut back in 1999 alongside Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, Mercenaries became a smash hit with those who wanted to replay RE games, but with an arcade layer added on top, and with a focus specifically on gameplay, rather than on frights and/or the narrative.
To that end, Mercenaries has always been about chasing the high score. Players basically fight against the clock by combining enemy takedowns and chaining them into long killstreaks. The highest score wins, of course.
As has always been the case, Village too reuses main story content for its Mercenaries mode. You'll fight across a number of arenas you had already seen during the story mode, albeit slightly revamped, and duke it out with enemies that would otherwise not have been available at that location.
It's all good, arcade fun, and Village's interpretation of the mode is overall pretty stellar.
How to Unlock Mercenaries Mode in RE: Village?
To unlock Mercenaries, you'll first need to complete RE: Village on any difficulty mode, including 'Casual'. After doing so, you'll gain access to the Bonus Content Store, where you'll be able to purchase Mercenaries for a mere 10 CP. Afterwards, you'll access Mercenaries Mode via the Bonus Content menu, as it's pretty much a completely standalone experience from the rest of the game.
What's New in Village's Mercenaries?
As we suggested before, Resident Evil Village Mercenaries Mode took a few important steps forward when it comes to features and novelties. For one, this is the first time that there's only one playable character in Mercenaries - Ethan Winters himself. This is odd, to say the least, because it sure did feel like the Hound Wolf Squad was perfect for this job, especially with all the custom, completely unusable guns they come packing.
Further, since there are no characters to choose from, there aren't any loadouts, either. This does mean that Mercenaries lost some of its wacky flavor from before, but the pros do outweigh the cons, we feel.
For one, we got randomized Perks for the first time. By finding big blue orbs in Mercenaries Mode, Ethan can vastly upgrade his abilities by, for example, becoming totally invincible to damage while blocking. These are what now dictates your build during any given Mercenaries run, giving it a bit of that classic roguelike fervor.
Is there Mercenaries Multiplayer in RE: Village?
For better or for worse, there's no multiplayer of any kind in Resident Evil Village. There is a standalone multiplayer mode coming later this year with RE: Verse, however, so be sure to keep an eye on that.
Gear and Perks Overview
Now that you have a general idea of what's up and what's what, it's time to talk about itemization.
As we mentioned in our weapons guide not long ago, Mercenaries is actually strangely limited in regard to available weaponry. There are eight stages total, with four of them being harder versions of the baseline levels. Why are they harder? Well, primarily because the game limits you to using the baseline LEMI handgun, the grenade launcher, and the Wolfsbane magnum. That's all, plus the mines and grenades.
In practice, this means that it's way more fun to play around with the four starting stages, as they at least let you use the majority of weapons from your first playthrough. And, yes, that does mean that you can't use the genuinely amazing post-game unlocks, such as the assault rifles, the gyrojet pistol, or the custom magnums. It's... strange, to say the least. Now, it's entirely possible that Capcom intends to build on this iteration of Mercenaries with patches and content updates. Maybe even DLC!
We'd be all for it, honestly, even if only to be able to use the coolest guns in the game in what is, ostensibly, an arcade time attack mode.
What about the Perks, though?
Regardless, Perks are obviously the most exciting addition to the Mercenaries formula. There's a bunch of them available, and you can unlock more by completing set challenges!
You'll begin any given round of Mercenaries with no Perks. As soon as you start the match, though, you can go and look for big blue orbs hovering around the level. Find them and destroy them to get a randomized selection of three Perks to choose from. These range from highly specialized, such as the unlockable Masamune (greatly increases melee damage at the cost of reducing all other damage), to more generic, such as Healthy (increases your health pool). Find a comprehensive list of default Perks below!
- Out of Reach - Long-distance attacks do more damage.
- All Brawn - Attack increases at the cost of speed.
- Break Shot - Initial attacks to enemies at full HP inflict more damage.
- Thick Skinned - Decreases damage taken.
- Adrenaline - Firearm attacks increase HP recovery.
- Corpse Combustor - Chance for enemies to explode on death.
- Fickle Shooter - Switching between targets increases your damage output.
- Healthy - Max HP increase.
- Agile - Movement speed increase.
- No Brainer - Headshots inflict more damage.
- Super Guard - Take no damage while guarding.
- Gruesome Gourmet - Recover HP after defeating an enemy.
- Blade Master - Knives do 5x more damage.
- Masamune (Unlockable) - Greatly increases melee damage, but reduces your damage output with all other weapons.
- Shotgun Master - Shotguns inflict more damage.
- Infighter - CQB attacks inflict more damage.
- Assassination Dash - Movement speed increased while holding a melee weapon.
- Slow Motion - Greatly decreases enemies' movement speed.
- Pistol Master - Pistols inflict more damage.
What are the Best Weapons & Perks in Mercenaries?
That's a tough question, as the answer will depend on a variety of things. If you've decided to focus on shotguns for your current run, for example, it will make absolutely no sense for you to grab any of the pistol Perks available. Similarly, if you're intent on tanking damage, don't spend valuable Perk points on stuff that doesn't increase your health or survivability.
Our advice would generally be to focus on one weapon type, with a support armament available if you find yourself running out of ammo. So, back to our shotgun example - keep upgrading, say, your W870, and focus your Perks into shotgun viability stats, but maybe keep a LEMI at hand, too, just to be safe.
We've found that every weapon class has significant viability when upgraded. In fact, since Mercenaries weapon upgrades are completely separately balanced from those in the main story, expect your guns to be way nuttier here. We're talking extremely fast reload speeds and huge magazines, for example. We've had no trouble completing runs successfully with a fully tweaked 1911, either.
Mercenaries Mode Strategy
Now, it should be pointed out that each and every stage in Mercenaries Mode will have its own dedicated set of strategies for min-maxers to follow. That's just how these things go! Having said that, we do have some general strategies you can follow for success in Resident Evil Village Mercenaries Mode.
As we said before, focus on just one or two weapon types to carry you through the run. This might sound somewhat limiting at first, but there just aren't enough Perks for you to go after everything every single time. Due to the randomized nature of the Perk system, you might sometimes have to choose something that's less than ideal. By keeping a pistol handy alongside your rifle or shotgun, though, you greatly increase your build's long-term viability in Mercenaries.
If you'd like to try out a riskier, more intense combo tactic, try triggering as many enemies to spawn at the same time. Then, get their health down to a sliver, and start blasting only after you've already chewed them up. This should, in theory, allow you to build up some crazy combos, allowing you to get higher on the leaderboards and to get a better final score.
For the most part, every weapon type is pretty viable in Mercenaries. A fully upgraded pistol will easily keep up with a fully upgraded shotgun in most ways, while also affording you long-range capabilities. This will come in handy on certain stages, so be prepared for your first run to be a wash.
General Tips & Tricks
Now for some generally useful tips and tricks for successful Mercenaries runs. We've found these to be extremely handy in a pinch, and we're sure some of them will resonate with you, too!
Sell the extra ammo you don't need.
If you don't plan on playing with shotguns at all during your current run, consider selling all the extra ammunition you collect for them at the Duke's Shop. This will easily allow you to get an extra upgrade or two into the weapons you actually do intend on using, greatly increasing the odds of you making it through with a high score.
Don't reload weapons at the end of a stage if you don't have to.
Franchise veterans will know what this is about: whenever you upgrade your weapons' magazine sizes in RE games, they get fully topped off for free. With how expensive shotgun and rifle ammo gets, you'll be able to get way more mileage out of your guns this way.
You don't need to finish your run to get an S-Rank trophy.
This one's a bit less intuitive. If you're just looking to unlock all the challenges and achievements, and don't really care about the high scores and leaderboard positioning, don't be afraid of dying in your pursuit of the S, SS, and SSS ranks. As long as you actually reach them within a single run, you'll get your unlocks - no completion necessary.
The Wolfsbane Magnum is a trap.
We had to learn this the hard way, as the Wolfsbane is one of our favorite weapons in the story. Carefully plan your purchasing of the Wolfsbane in the four harder reruns of the baseline Mercenaries stages. You cannot buy or get more ammo for the magnum, far as we can tell. You're basically limited to five extremely powerful shots with this bad boy, so ignore it until you know exactly when the mini-bosses will spawn. The grenade launcher is a far better choice for regular playthroughs.
Keep some explosives at hand, preferably mines.
While most stages will have predefined explosive items spawn from time to time, you do not want to get close up and personal with a heavily armored lycan without a way to strip them of their armor. The grenade launcher will do short work of them, for sure, but in a pinch, don't forget about the grenades and mines!
Perks stack!
Resident Evil Village Mercenaries Mode has done a stellar job of introducing Perk synergies right off the bat. You know that unlockable Masamune perk that greatly buffs your melee damage at the cost of all other damage? Well, it stacks with Blade Master and Infighter, from what we could tell. Builds matter!
Be prepared to deal with mini-bosses.
We were very surprised to see Dimitrescu's daughters as mini-boss encounters in Mercenaries. They're tough cookies, but they seem to be more-or-less fixed spawns that you can and should be ready for. Some regular enemies may spawn as huge, hulking monstrosities, too. Pack some high-explosive ordinance and/or rifle rounds to deal with them quickly, because mini-boss encounters will easily derail a perfect run if you don't keep an eye on them.
Wrap-up!
That's about all we've got for Resident Evil Village Mercenaries Mode so far. It's already a pretty fun experience across the board, but there's heaps more potential on the table that we're hoping Capcom takes note of. From more weapons to more perks and stages, it straight-up feels like this particular iteration of Mercenaries is simply a stepping stone towards something even better.
If that happens, and if RE: Village gets updates to its Mercenaries, we'll be sure to update this overview, too. Check-in sometime down the line to get the latest scoop!
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