Weapons
Resident Evil 4 has quite the wonderful arsenal of weapons for us to use, and eventually we'll be able to use our hard earned Pesetas to upgrade them! I'll be doing my best to at least demonstrate every weapon in the game, but several of them will have fleeting presence within the playthrough since we simply don't have the inventory space or funds to use everything. So I'll use the rambling nature of an LP forum to go over them in detail that I can't show off in the videos!
Before we get into the nitty gritty, a couple points. One thing to know is that every non-new game plus weapon (save for one) has an Exclusive upgrade that's only available after purchasing all previous upgrades for the weapon. Some of these are just basic stat boosts in line with the weapons general progression via normal upgrades, but others can have some very interesting mechanical effects. The second point is that every weapon has a handful of hidden secondary stats that aren't reflected in its stat screen. These are Handling, Sway, and Raise Time. Handling is in relation to how quickly Leon can move the laser sight around while aiming. Lighter weapons like Handguns have very quick handling, while heavier weapons like Shotguns take much more time to sweep around and can cause unfortunate incidents when under pressure. Sway is how much a gun jitters in Leon's hand while he's aiming, and also ties into how much the gun's recoil will throw off his aim on continuous shots. This one basically doesn't exist in the Wii version due to its pointer aiming. Finally, Raise Time is exactly what it says on the tin, Leon takes longer to Raise or Ready certain weapons. Handguns and Shotguns raise very quickly, while things like Rifles and explosive weaponry have about a half second of delay before Leon can actually fire the gun, which can make these weapons hazardous to use in close quarters.
For the various tracked attributes of the weapon, I'll be listing the values at each level, how much each upgrade costs, and when you can actually obtain said upgrade. The latter is frustratingly absent in a lot of weapon guides, and it's pretty handy to know for many weapons in the game.
Handgun
You start with the Handgun, but it can also be purchased for 8000 Ptas starting from 1-2.
Firepower: 1.0, 1.2 (7000 Ptas, 1-2), 1.4 (10000 Ptas, 2-1) , 1.6 (15000 Ptas, 3-1) 1.8 (18000 Ptas, 3-2*), 2.0 (20000 Ptas, 4-1)
Firing Speed: 0.47, 0.40 (5000 Ptas, 1-2), 0.33 (12000 Ptas, 3-1)
Reload Speed: 1.73, 1.47(4000 Ptas, 1-2), 0.87 (10000 Ptas, 3-1)
Capacity: 10, 13(4000 Ptas, 1-2), 16(6000 Ptas, 2-1), 19 (8000 Ptas, 3-1), 22 (10000 Ptas, 3-2*), 25 (12000 Ptas, 4-1)
The Exclusive upgrade for the Handgun increases its Critical Hit rate by 5X, making it much more likely to land those juicy head exploding shots. It becomes available 4-3, and costs 57000 Ptas.
Full Upgrade cost: 198,000 Ptas
Your starting weapon, and it is about as weak as you'd expect. There are 4 different handguns you can wield in a fresh new game of Resident Evil 4, and your starting Handgun is probably the worst of them. It scales linearly and unimpressively, but also fairly slowly all things considered. It has the good handling typical of Handguns though, and it secures it's max fire rate relatively early, so slam firing with this can be pretty effective, if excessive in its consumption. The big reason to use this is its rather interesting Exclusive. This is a mechanical change Exclusive that greatly increases the chance that the Handgun will insta-kill on head shots, making it so that roughly 1 in every 3 shots will produce that satisfying head explosion. This is cool, and it's available a decent amount earlier than other exclusives, but I can't really say it's too practical. The odds of Criticals are still low enough that you can go several shots without landing one, and instantly exploding the enemy's head can be disadvantageous in certain circumstances. If you're going for a crowd control Roundhouse kick, this works against you. It's also possible to land a head explosion when an enemy is mid-strike, and in certain circumstances later in the game, this can result in the enemy still hitting you when a stunning head shot would prevent that! It can be fun to use this, but on a practical level I'd say trade it out the first chance you get.
*These are technically available at the final Merchant of 3-1, but it's the literal end of the chapter and you start the next chapter in the same room, so the upgrade is functionally available at 3-2.
Shotgun
This can be found in 1-1, and otherwise can be purchased for 20000 Ptas starting from 1-2. You start with this in Easy mode.
Firepower: 4.0, 4.5 (15000 Ptas, 1-2), 5.0 (20000 Ptas, 2-1) 6.0 (25000 Ptas, 3-1) 7.0 (30000 Ptas, 4-1) 8.0 (40000 Ptas, 4-3)
Firing Speed: 1.53 (No Upgrades)
Reload Speed: 3.03, 2.43(7000 Ptas, 1-20), 1.50 (NTSC-U GameCube, 15000 Ptas, 3-1) 1.67 (All other versions, same otherwise)
Capacity: 6, 8(8000 Ptas, 1-2), 10(10000 Ptas, 2-1), 12(12000 Ptas, 3-1) 15(15000 Ptas, 4-1) 18(20000 Ptas, 4-3)
The Exclusive upgrade for the Shotgun prevents it from losing damage due to distance, allowing it to land full powered shots at any ranged and extending the range it can knock down or otherwise disrupt enemies. It costs 90000 Ptas in the NTSC-U GameCube version and 40000 Ptas in all other versions and it is available 4-4, after the boss at the end of said chapter.
Full Upgrade Cost: 312,000 Ptas NTSC-U GameCube version, 257,000 Ptas all other versions
'Ol reliable of the Survival Horror genre at large, and a considerable upgrade over the basic handgun for most situations. Sure, you can't set up melee attacks with it, but when you knock 3 enemies to the floor with one shot, how can you complain! Unlike the Handgun, there is some merit to committing to the humble starting Shotgun. It scales quite well throughout the game, and especially in the NTSC-U GameCube version, ammo is plentiful for it so you can make regular use of it. Most critically, the next Shotgun available after this one isn't really much of an upgrade over it, and the final Shotgun of the game is better at close quarters (the main place you'd want to use a shotgun, to be fair), this one can have some niche use with it's Exclusive upgrade. This is probably the most unique and useful mechanics change upgrade, greatly expanding the range the Shotgun can hit for its full 8.0 damage at, and making it better at disrupting enemies from afar. It doesn't retain its knockdown power over long distances with it, but slam firing the "Sniper Shotgun" can be a surprisingly useful and very fun way to play in the late game. I'd still take the final Shotgun of the game over this one if I was just focusing on practical attributes, but if I was just focusing on having fun, I wouldn't turn down this one out of hand.
Rifle
This is available to be purchased starting from 1-2.
Firepower: 4.0, 5.0 (10000 Ptas, 1-2), 6.0 (12000 Ptas, 2-1) 8.0 (20000 Ptas, 3-1), 10.0 (25000 Ptas, 3-2*), 12.0 (35000 Ptas, 4-1)
Firing Speed: 2.73**(No Upgrades)
Reload Speed: 4.00, 3.23 (8000 Ptas, 1-2), 2.3(18000 Ptas, 3-1)
Capacity: 5, 7 (6000 Ptas, 1-2), 9 (8000 Ptas, 2-1), 12 (12000 Ptas, 3-1), 15 (18000 Ptas, 3-2*), 18 (25000 Ptas, 4-1)
The Rifle is the first weapon to have an accessory for it, in this case a scope that allows for even better zoom over the one it comes with. This costs 7000 Ptas.
The Exclusive upgrade is another Firepower increase. In the NTSC-U GC version
only, this is a rather unimpressive increase to 18.0 Firepower. Starting from the NTSC-J release and retained for all future releases (which Americans wouldn't see until the PS2 version), this is a much more significant increase to 30.0 Firepower. It costs 80000 Ptas and becomes available in 4-3.
Full Upgrade Cost: 296,000 Ptas (289,000 Ptas without the scope)
The Bolt-Action Rifle, or just the Rifle, is our first sniping option and it's a somewhat dubious one. Requiring a bolt crank between each shot, this weapon is quite slow and also somewhat disorienting to use as Leon unscopes every time he cranks the gun. Its power also isn't overly impressive early on, only barely pulling ahead of the Shotgun but having considerably worse DPS. It's also very unsafe to use in close quarters as it has a pretty significant raise time. There are some pros here though. For one, Rifle ammo is somewhat commonly awarded by the game in fixed locations, and it doesn't have a terrible drop rate either. While the power may be unimpressive for most of the game, Rifles have a 100% critical hit rate on headshots, instantly killing any normal enemies should you land one in the dome***. Its incredibly effective range means you can also use it for pre-emptive strikes on unaware enemies, allowing you to pick off potentially problematic targets in complete safety. All that said though, there's nothing in the game that absolutely requires a rifle, and by the time we reach the point where the game strongly encourages us to have one, there's a far superior option available to us. I used to buy this but I realized there's just too few situations where I actually use it to justify the cost, and inventory space is actually pretty tight right now. I prefer to forgo it in any version of the game, but it is slightly more appealing in future releases. There are stronger guns than the fully upgraded Rifle, but their Firepower advantage isn't as much or as universally applicable as you might think, and the Rifle has much more plentiful ammunition throughout the game. In the NTSC-U GC release though, it's a hard pass for me. In fairness to it, 18.0 Firepower is enough to 1-shot MOST normal enemies in the game on a body shot, but the drawbacks hardly make that worth it. The competing Rifle also has a completely busted Exclusive in this version, so that small advantage hardly matters anyway.
*Technically these become available at the final merchant of 3-1, but it's the literal end of the chapter and 3-2 starts in the same exact room. This is the last time I'll specify for this situation when it comes up.
**The NTSC-U GC release erroneously lists this as 0.67 as it doesn't factor in the bolt crank for the firing speed. All future releases give the actual Firing Speed of the gun.
***There are a handful of specially designated enemies who look like more standard ones that have hugely inflated HP pools that can result in them actually surviving a Rifle headshot, but they're a very rare exceptions to the rule.
TMP
This is available to be purchased starting from 1-2. Note that in the NTSC-GC release, it is slightly more expensive, costing 15000 Ptas instead of 10000 like all future releases.
Firepower: 0.4, 0.5 (7000 Ptas, 1-3), 0.6 (14000 Ptas, 2-2), 0.8 (18000 Ptas, 3-1), 1.0 (24000 Ptas, 3-2) 1.2(35000 Ptas, 4-1)
Firing Speed: 0.10 (No Upgrades)
Reload Speed: 2.37, 1.93 (5000 Ptas, 1-3), 1.17 (15000 Ptas, 3-2)
Capacity: 30, 50 (7000 Ptas, 1-3), 100 (15000 Ptas, 2-2), 150 (20000 Ptas, 4-1), 200 (25000 Ptas, 4-3), 250 (35000 Ptas, 4-4 after the chapter boss)
The TMP has a purchasable stock for 4000 Ptas that considerably reduces Sway and the effects of recoil. The stock becomes available in 1-3 alongside the first wave of upgrades. In all GameCube versions of the game, the Stock also introduces an interesting glitch I'll be sure to demo later.
The Exclusive upgrade for the TMP increases its Firepower to 1.8, bringing its DPS up from 12.0 to 18.0. It costs 100,000 Ptas and is available from 4-4 after the chapter boss.
Full Upgrade Cost: 335,000/339,000 (W/Stock) Ptas in the NTSC-U GC version, 330,000/334,000 (W/Stock) Ptas in all other versions.
The TMP is a non-standard weapon with its own dedicated ammunition type. A small machine gun, as you can tell from the stats it prioritizes quickly dishing out light damage. This weapon can generate an odd amount of bile in people, but I personally enjoy it quite a bit. It has a number of situations that it's quite good for, especially early on, and it's a nice supplement to the Handgun for setting up melee strikes. It can also quickly stagger enemies or blast incoming projectiles out of the air. While its Stock can double the amount of space it takes up in the case, it also makes it surprisingly accurate and perfectly fine for distance shooting. And there are some situations where that actually can come in handy! That said though, I wouldn't advise going all in on the TMP, and I will probably sell it later on to get half the money I spend on it back. Still, I'll be sure to use it for the situations it is good for, and in the Gamecube version of the game there are a couple fun glitches we can do with it. Note that the ammo drop rates for it in the NTSC-U GC release are kind of screwy. If you DON'T have a Shotgun, you'll get ammo for it pretty regularly, about is often as you do Handgun ammo. If you DO have a Shotgun, in my experience there seems to be some kind of reference error with the TMP's drop rate that causes the enemies to spit out Shotgun ammo at double the rate. Of course, as soon as I was sure of this over the course of my practice runs, we of course get a ton of TMP ammo when I finally get my hands on it. Regardless, I plan to make the most of the gun since I bought it anyway, and we'll be doing an unconventional approach for this playthrough because of it.
The Punisher
The Punisher is available from the Merchant for free in 1-3 provided you've shot at least 10 Blue Medallions. Otherwise, it is not sold until 2-3.
The Punisher has the unique property of penetrating shots: if two enemies are in the path of its bullets, they will both be hit. It can also shoot through thrown projectiles to hit enemies that may be in the bullet's path, and also punch through shields that enemies later in the game hold.
Firepower: 0.9, 1.1 (10000 Ptas*, 1-3), 1.3 (15000 Ptas, 2-2), 1.5 (20000 Ptas, 3-2), 1.7 (25000 Ptas, 4-1), 1.9(35000 Ptas, 4-3)
Firing Speed: 0.47, 0.40 (10000 Ptas, 1-3), 0.33(20000 Ptas, 3-2)
Reload Speed: 1.70, 1.47(8000 Ptas, 1-3), 0.83(18000 Ptas, 3-2)
Capacity: 10, 13(8000 Ptas, 1-3), 16(10000 Ptas, 2-2), 20 (15000 Ptas, 3-2), 24 (18000 Ptas, 4-1), 28 (24000 Ptas, 4-3)
The Punisher's Exclusive upgrade is a mechanical upgrade that increases the effectiveness of its penetrating power, allowing it hit up to 5 targets in a single shot instead of 2. It costs 40000 Ptas and is available in 4-4 after the chapter boss.
Full Upgrade Cost: 266,000 Ptas
The Punisher is a gun that is frequently maligned as one of the worst in the game, and pretty unfairly in my opinion. While it is technically weaker than the basic Handgun, it's a measly 0.1 difference at all Firepower levels, meaning it only loses a single point of damage for every 10 shots fired. Statistically it's otherwise identical to the basic Handgun save for a slightly higher capacity of 28 once that's fully upgraded. While both the Handgun and Punisher falter to the later obtained Handguns in terms of raw damage output, I do think the penetrating effect of the Punisher is much more widely applicable throughout the game than people give it credit for. It's fairly simply to bait enemies into choke points to double up on ever individual shot you fire, and being able to shoot down a projectile while still hitting encroaching enemies to stumble them is a semi-frequently useful trick to pull off. What really gives the Punisher some decent value though is its ability to punch through shields as if the weren't even there. Shield bearing enemies are a relatively common sight starting form 3-1, and the Punisher is a cheap and easy way to deal with those enemies, and also potentially faster depending on the situation. The penetrating effect is exhausted from going through the shield, but that's not really a big deal most of the time. Now to be clear, the 2 remaining handguns of the game are pretty much just better due to the insane damage differential between them and the Punisher, but it's not hard to find situations where the Punisher can be useful if you commit to it, and it's certainly more consistently practical than the basic Handgun's bonus crit rate upgrade. Speaking of Exclusives, I think people frequently misunderstand the purpose of the Punisher's exclusive. You're not trying to consistently hit 5 targets at once with this, because even the most cautious player abusing choke points will rarely ever see a situation like this, and instead you should consider it an uncapped penetrating effect for the gun. Now you can shoot through shielded enemies and still hit another enemy behind them. Hell, you could blast through two shielded enemies and still be able to hit a third!
*If you shoot all 15 Blue Medallions, this upgrade will be applied to the awarded Punisher free of charge
Red9
The Red9 is available from the Merchant starting from 2-2. It costs 14000 Ptas.
Firepower (NTSC-U GC): 1.4, 1.7 (2-2, 15000 Ptas), 2.0 (3-1, 20000 Ptas), 2.4 (3-2, 24000 Ptas), 2.8 (4-1, 28000 Ptas), 3.5 (4-3, 45000 Ptas)
Firepower (All Other Versions): 1.6, 1.8 (2-2, 15000 Ptas), 2.1 (3-1, 20000 Ptas), 2.5 (3-2, 24000 Ptas), 3.0 (4-1, 28000 Ptas), 3.7 (4-3, 45000 Ptas)
Firing Speed: 0.53, 0.47 (2-2, 10000 Ptas), 0.40 (3-2, 15000 Ptas)
Reload Speed: 2.73, 2.20 (2-2, 6000 Ptas), 1.67 (3-2, 10000 Ptas)
Capacity: 8, 10 (2-2, 6000 Ptas), 12 (3-1, 8000 Ptas), 15 (3-2, 12000 Ptas), 18 (4-1, 16000 Ptas), 22 (4-4, 22000 Ptas)
The Red9 has a purchasable Stock, much like the TMP. This greatly reduces the sway of the gun and the effects of recoil, and is a highly recommended pick up if you plan to use this gun.
The Exclusive for the Red9 is a Firepower upgrade, costing 80000 Ptas. In the NTSC-U GC version, this was the decent but slightly underwhelming Firepower of 5.0. Future releases buffed this to a much more considerable 6.5. This upgrade is available in 4-4, after the chapter boss.
Full Upgrade Cost: 335,000 Ptas(w/ Stock)/ 331,000 (W/O Stock)
The Red9 is the most powerful of the Handguns in the game by sheer Firepower and it is a substantial upgrade of the basic Handgun and the Punisher if that's the only thing you care about. With its stock, it is also extremely accurate, though obviously it's very shakey without it. The Firing Speed is much worse than the other Handguns though, its maximum being the same as the mid-tier Firing Speed of the Handgun and Punisher, and it is substantially slower than a fully upgraded Blacktail. If you want the most bang per shot fired though, the Red9 is easily the most economical Handgun in that regard, particularly in the late game where its Firepower greatly exceeds that of the early game guns. Now in the American GC version, I'd actually say this almost straightforwardly worse than the Blacktail. Its DPS is actually worse than the Blacktail without its Exclusive, and 80k is not a small chunk of Pesetas. Come the late game, you're also going to have more Shotgun ammo than you know what to do with, so a super powerful Handgun isn't exactly something you need. The Blacktail's Exclusive also sucks in this version, so it's perfectly fine to stick with it without purchasing that. In the HD version, the relative difference between the guns is greater despite both being buffed, and the 6.5 Firepower is actually a pretty appealing proposition. I still prefer the Blacktail due to its superior handling and less awkward space requirements (with the Stock, the Red9 takes up the most space of any Handgun at 11 spaces, and an awkward odd number of spaces to boot), but the Red9 is also a truly fantastic late game option in future releases. Not to say it's bad in NTSC-U GC though! The tremendous Firepower is still much appreciated and its perfectly good gun to commit to for the whole game if it's more your speed. With its Exclusive, it takes out most normal enemies in 4-5 shots, so it's certainly efficient at what it does. Just keep in mind that you absolutely do want its Exclusive in any version of the game if you choose to commit to it, so be sure to earmark that 80k in your budget for when the time comes.
Blacktail
The Blacktail is available from the Merchant starting from 3-1. It costs 24000 Ptas.
Firepower: 1.6, 1.8 (3-1, 10000 Ptas), 2.0 (3-3, 15000 Ptas), 2.3 (4-1, 20000 Ptas), 2.7 (4-3, 25000 Ptas), 3.0*/3.2 (4-4 After Chapter Boss, 35000 Ptas)
Firing Speed: 0.47, 0.40 (3-1, 10000 Ptas), 0.27 (4-1, 20000 Ptas)
Reload Speed: 1.70, 1.47 (3-1, 8000 Ptas), 0.87 (4-1, 15000 Ptas)
Capacity: 15, 18 (3-1, 8000 Ptas), 21 (3-3, 10000 Ptas), 25 (4-1, 15000 Ptas), 30 (4-3, 20000 Ptas), 35 (4-4 After Chapter Boss, 25000 Ptas)
The Exclusive upgrade for the Blacktail is a Firepower increase, much like the Red9, costing 80000 Ptas. In the NTSC-U GC release, it is a front runner for worst Exclusive in the game, being a nearly worthless bump to 3.4 which is definitely not worth the cost. Starting from GC Biohazard 4, this is instead an increase to 4.5, which might actually be worth it depending on your finances by the time it becomes available.
Full Upgrade Cost: 362,000 Ptas.
Where the Red9 has raw power, the Blacktail has speed. Or at least, that is the intent. If you compare the stats of the two guns, especially in the original GC release, the Red9 is only marginally stronger than the Blacktail at all levels. In fact, it"s actually weaker at levels 1 and 2 in the GC release, only overtaking it at Firepower 3, which at the very least is available at the same time the Blacktail goes for sale. The Blacktail also boasts the best handling of any gun in the game, with Leon being incredibly fast in how he draws and aims this gun. Outside of its Firepower, the Red9 does have the advantage of superior accuracy should it have the Stock, though that does eat up considerably more Case space than the Blacktail. Now this is something that will always come down to preference, and my preference is for the Blacktail. At most stages of the game, the Red9 and Blacktail have such a marginal power difference that I generally find the better overall attributes of the Blacktail to serve Leon better. Its also worth noting that once you get the final Firing Speed upgrade for the Blacktail, its DPS is actually considerably better than the Red9, if less ammo efficient. The Blacktail has an absolutely horrendous Exclusive in the NTSC-U GC version, but that can almost be a positive as you're not really obligated to buy it, whereas you absolutely want to buy the Red9's. Future releases made the Exclusive a fair deal more worth your cash, though the Red9 was also buffed considerably there, so it kind of ends up being a wash. Timing is ultimately a big thing for why I prefer the Blacktail. Its only at the final act of the game that the Red9 genuinely overtakes it by a meaningful amount, spending most of the game being considerably weaker in all areas but Firepower and Accuracy, and the advantages in those two areas aren't as big as you might assume. You'll only have the Red9 at its best for about an hour and a half, and within that hour and a half there's many moments where a Handgun is unhelpful while Handgun ammo is also shockingly uncommon. That said, it's not that big a deal. I've beaten the game mainlining every single Handgun, and they all have their uses and moments of greatness. The Blacktail is just the most dependable to me, so I tend to go for it when it unlocks.
*This is the only stat aside from the Exclusive that got buffed after the NTSC-U GC release.
Riot Gun
The Riot Gun is available from the Merchant starting from 3-1. It costs 32000 Ptas.
Firepower: 5.0, 5.5 (3-1, 20000 Ptas), 6.0 (3-1 Second Merchant, 24000 Ptas), 6.5 (3-3, 28000 Ptas), 7.0 (4-1, 32000 Ptas), 8.0 (4-4 After Chapter Boss, 50000 Ptas)
Firing Speed: 1.53
Reload Speed: 3.03, 2.43 (3-2, 7000 Ptas), 1.50[NTSC-U GC]/1.67 (4-4 After Chapter Boss, 20000 Ptas)
Capacity: 7, 9(3-2, 10000 Ptas), 11 (3-3, 12000 Ptas), 13 (4-1, 15000 Ptas), 15 (4-2, 20000 Ptas), 17 (4-4 After Chapter Boss, 25000 Ptas)
The Exclusive upgrade for the Riot Gun is a Firepower increase. It costs an absolutely ludicrous 120,000 Ptas and bumps the Firepower to 10.0. This is a front runner for worst Exclusive upgrade in the NTSC-U GC version and is definitively the worst Exclusive in all future releases where the Blacktail and Rifle got buffed while a similarly crappy Exclusive got a massive price cut.
Full Upgrade Cost: 415,000 Ptas
As a society we don't shit on the Riot Gun nearly enough. Okay let me start with the positives for this thing, since it does have some! For starters, it has the best handling of any Shotgun in the game, allowing Leon to swivel and aim with it much faster, almost on par with a non-Blacktail Handgun. It also has a tighter choke for its spread shot, allowing it to stumble or knockdown enemies at considerably greater distances than other Shotguns, and it also loses much less damage over distance though obviously not at all to the same degree as the basic Shotgun's Exclusive. What's so bad about it then? Well it is a serious financial boondoggle to invest in this thing, especially if you directly trade out the standard Shotgun for it. Assuming you took the Shotgun from the house in 1-1 and have upgraded it as much as you can to this point, you'd have spent 112,000 Pesetas on it. This would result in a stat spread of 6.0/153/1.50(1.67)/12. By contrast, if you buy the Riot Gun and its two weirdly staggered Firepower upgrades in 3-1, you'll have a gun that's 6.0/1.53/3.03/7 at 76000 Ptas, a considerable downgrade in all stats and only matching Firepower for not that much money saved. And the Shotgun is already capped out on 2 of its stats at this point! In general the Riot Gun gets its upgrades in a very sporadic manner, and it isn't until its damn Exclusive is purchased right before the final act of the game that it actually overtakes the Shotgun. And keep in mind, it is 100-150k cheaper depending on the version of the game to fully upgrade the regular Shotgun if you're truly committed to it. And it's not like you can skip around Capacity upgrade or anything to just get the Firepower advantage because all upgrades must be purchased to unlock Exclusive upgrades. It is commonly advised that you sell the basic Shotgun to transition over to the Riot Gun, and having done a half dozen playthroughs of the game in prep for this LP, I can tell you this is a terrible idea and a huge waste of money. Literally the only time the Riot Gun is stronger than the Shotgun in terms of core stats before getting its Exclusive is from 3-3 to 4-1 where it enjoys a pathetic advantage of 0.5 Firepower until the better scaling of the Shotgun kicks in and it immediately matches it at the 4-1 Merchant. Seriously go back and review the upgrades for the Shotgun I wrote up earlier and see how much better it is at all stages of the game. Adding insult to injury, the final Shotgun of the game is flatly superior to both of these guns in terms of all its core stats, and while it has the worst choke of the Shotguns its handling is otherwise almost as good as the Riot Gun. It is astonishing to me that this gun did not get any buffs in ANY of the ports and remasters of this game, and actually suffered the global Reload Speed nerf every Shotgun got. Literally the only reason I'm using this gun in the LP is because I sold off the basic Shotgun for flavor early on and the Castle is very annoying without a Shotgun so it's an excuse to at least demo this gun outside of Mercenaries. We will not be upgrading it anymore after this video and will be selling it off as soon as the Striker becomes available. Just to bring this back to SOME positives, while the Exclusive is way overpriced and does nothing to make this gun better than the Striker (which has a superior Firepower stat of 12.0 at max!), the 10.0 Firepower is at least enough to double-tap most nomal enemies in the game, which is a very small advantage over the fully upgraded basic Shotgun. And while I do think this gun is comparatively bad, it's not like committing to it makes the game way harder or anything, its still a Shotgun at the end of the day with all the perks that entails. If you do commit to it though, I would just skip the Exclusive, it is NOT worth that price tag compared to other Exclusives that are way more powerful while being cheaper.
Semi-Auto Rifle
The Semi-Auto Rifle is available from the Merchant starting from 3-1. It costs 35000 Ptas.
Firepower: 7.0, 8.0 (3-1, 15000 Ptas), 9.0 (3-2, 18000 Ptas), 11.0 (4-1, 24000 Ptas), 13.0 (4-3, 30000 Ptas), 15.0 (5-1, 40000 Ptas)
Firing Speed: 1.43
Reload Speed: 2.33, 1.90 (3-1, 9000 Ptas), 1.33 (4-1, 18000 Ptas)
Capacity: 10, 12 (3-1, 10000 Ptas), 14 (3-2, 12000 Ptas), 17 (4-1, 15000 Ptas), 20 (4-3, 20000 Ptas), 24 (5-1, 25000 Ptas)
Like the standard Rifle, the Semi-Auto has a purchasable Scope attachment that costs a rather excessing 10000 Ptas.
The Exclusive for the Semi-Auto is a Firing Speed upgrade that costs 80000 Ptas. In the NTSC-U GC release, this is an absolutely ludicrous upgrade increasing its firing speed to 0.40. That's the same as a fully upgraded Red9 for triple the damage, 100% crit rate, and Piercing! All future releases nerfed this to 0.80, which is much more reasonable but still very good and worth saving money for.
Full Upgrade Cost: 361,000 Ptas W/Scope, 351,000 W/O Scope
The Semi-Auto Rifle is a flat upgrade over the Bolt-action in literally every area that matters. More Firepower, considerably better speed with the added bonus of no disorienting bolt crank, faster reloading AND it holds more shells for less reloads and less wasted space in the case. This is even worse in NTSC-U GC where the bolt-action has a pathetic Exclusive upgrade of only 18.0 Firepower, which is absolutely not worth all the drawbacks that gun has. Future releases added the 30.0 Firepower Exclusive for that gun while nerfing the Semi-Auto's Exclusive, but that exclusive is still fairly late into the game and is far too situational to really matter given that head shots on normal enemies are instant-kills anyway. In fact unlike the Riot Gun, you also aren't losing any potency in trading out the bolt-action if you've been purchasing all its upgrades, the Semi-Auto will immediately match or overtake it if you buy it along with its upgrade when it becomes available. Needless to say, this weapon is pretty good. Rifle ammo is fairly common, and you can often leverage its long range to eliminate foes well before they're even aware of you. Leon does take awhile to raise this gun though, so it's precarious to use it in situations where enemies can close the distance between you, and against enemies with their own ranged option that kind of lag can leave you more vulnerable than you expect. Still, it's a fantastic weapon with an overpowered Exclusive that the game is often expecting you to use, so its almost a form of challenge to NOT buy this gun. Definitely grab it when it becomes available!
Mine Thrower
The Mine Thrower is available from the Merchant starting from 3-1. It costs 28000 Ptas in the NTSC-U GC version, and a ridiculously low 9800 Ptas in all future releases.
Firepower*: 2.0, 4.0 (3-3, 25000 Ptas), 6.0 (4-2, 45000 Ptas)
Firing Speed: 1.33
Reload Speed: 3.43, 2.57 (4-1, 18000 Ptas)
Capacity: 5, 7 (3-1, 25000 Ptas), 10 (4-4 After Chapter Boss, 40000 Ptas)
The Mine Thrower has a goofy scope attachment you can buy for 8000 Ptas.
The Exclusive upgrade for this gun becomes available 5-1 for 30000 Ptas, and it is the strangest Exclusive in the game. This upgrades gives the Mine Darts homing properties, causing a fired dart to gravitate towards the nearest enemy in the path of its shot. This actually makes the gun fairly unwieldly and makes setting traps somewhat difficult. People who enjoy using this gun generally skip this exclusive due to it often making the gun worse, though at least in contrast to other crappy exclusives it is really cheap.
Full Upgrade Cost: 219,000 Ptas W/Scope/211,000 W/O Scope for the NTSC-U GC version, 200,800 Ptas W/Scope/ 192,800 Ptas W/O Scope for all other versions
The ultimate of gimmick weapons in this game. The Mine Thrower chucks out exploding darts that will go boom after about 3 seconds, doing about a Hand Grenades worth of damage to things caught in their detonation range. There is exactly one fixed ammo pick up for this in the game, and otherwise you're dependent on RNG from enemy drops to get more darts, though thankfully the drop rate is actually fairly solid if you're using it consistently. There's a lot of fun applications of this gun if you're willing to keep inventory space open for it. Much like grenades themselves, the damage falls off and the usefulness of this gun diminishes as it loses the ability to insta-kill a crowd of enemies, but the disruption this causes and the ability to stun boss enemies still keeps this gun relevant throughout your playthroughs. You also get way more darts than you do Grenades, so all the times I use grenades for stunning enemies, you can similarly slot in the Mine Thrower for similar usage. Now I wouldn't recommend taking the Mine Thrower if you've already committed to the TMP and plan on getting a Magnum later, as it just takes up way too much space. If you're trimming things like a Shotgun or the TMP from your arsenal though, this can be a fun way to spice up your playthrough! Note that this gun is also ridiculously cheap in most versions of the game, barely more expensive than the basic Handgun. A goofy but not necessarily strat you can use with this is to sell off the Mine Thrower once it's empty and the buy a new one which will come in fully loaded. This essentially lets you buy grenades, and while it's not something I'd personally do, it could be a fun way to clown around on repeat playthroughs. You could also buy a Mine Thrower not for actually using it, but spawning in its ammo more often. Each dart sells for 500 Pesetas, so you could make back your money plus a decent chunk extra by just selling Mine Darts. I don't think this is a particularly good money trick though, and it's definitely not worthwhile in the NTSC-U GC release where the gun is way more expensive.
*The Firepower stat for the Mine Thrower does not represent its damage, which is static across all upgrade levels, but instead the explosion radius of the darts. I believe at 4.0 it's identical to a Grenade's range, with 6.0 making it slightly better.
Broken Butterfly
The Broken Butterfly becomes available from the Merchant in 3-1 for 38000 Ptas. Alternatively, you can find a free one in 4-1 by backtracking to the balcony leading to the Hedge Maze and having Ashley Piggyback into the large window along the way.
Firepower: 13.0, 15.0 (3-1, 25000 Ptas), 17.0 (3-3, 30000 Ptas), 20.0 (4-1, 35000 Ptas), 24.0 (4-3, 50000 Ptas), 28.0 (5-3, 70000 Ptas)
Firing Speed: 0.70
Reload Speed: 3.67, 3.00 (3-3, 15000 Ptas), 2.33 (4-3, 20000 Ptas)
Capacity: 6, 8 (3-1, 15000 Ptas), 10 (4-1, 20000 Ptas), 12 (5-1, 25000 Ptas)
The Exclusive upgrade for the Broken Butterfly is a Firepower upgrade. For a whopping 150,000 Ptas, you can boost the Broken Butterfly to an equally tremendous 50.0 Firepower, the highest of any weapon that isn't a New Game + Bonus. It is available VERY late in the game though, 5-3 after the first boss of that chapter. You only get about a half an hour of the game left to enjoy this.
Full Upgrade Cost: 455,000 Ptas/417,000 if you got it for free.
The world is a vampire. Anyway, the Broken Butterfly is of course the primary Magnum of the game though it's not the only Magnum in the game. It is the Hand Cannon of choice, excepting for the literal Hand Cannon you unlock if you get all 5 Stars in Mercenaries. As is typical for Magnums in the series, it is the ultimate in single target punching power, its firepower far exceeding other options available at the cost of having extremely rare ammo. Unless it's Resident Evil 2 where Magnum ammo is everywhere, but this isn't that game. The Broken Butterfly also benefits from Penetrating shots, allowing it to mulch multiple lined up enemies in a single blast if you're using it for general purposes. For the most part though you'll likely be saving it for difficult boss encounters. Which it's darn handy to have for! The free Broken Butterfly is grabbed at just the right time where you can upgrade it into a serious boss killer and there's multiple upcoming fights where it'll come in handy. It's a very good idea to grab it and funnel upgrades into it for these encounters, though whether or not it's worth it to fully upgrade it is actually pretty debatable. While 50 Firepower is incredible and literally only outclassed by a Rocket Launcher on a fresh file, it's both very expensive to take the Broken Butterfly to this point and incredibly late in the playthrough when that option even becomes available. Like I said, you get about a half hour of time to enjoy that incredibly powerful Magnum, if you even have the ammo to use it for anything besides the literally 2 remaining boss fights it'll be present for. In recent playthroughs, my strategy with the Broken Butterfly is to grab the free one and upgrade it as far as I can for the boss encounters that come up while I have it, and then sell it off for the alternative Magnum we'll get in Act 5, which is weaker at its max upgraded stats, but it becomes stronger earlier and cheaper than the Broken Butterfly. I'll probably skip the second Reload Speed upgrade and 24.0 Firepower upgrade for this playthrough, as they won't be all that helpful at a pretty hefty cost if I go for them. One niche thing you can do with the Broken Butterfly is actually purchase one before you get the free one, allowing you to have two of the gun at once (The Merchant won't allow you to buy another Broken Butterfly if you already have one). This allows you to exploit capacity upgrades for both of the guns, getting considerably more ammo off of the incidental refills than you would just by finding it normally. Granted, for both guns to be useful, you'd have to be funneling upgrades into the both of them, but you can eschew Reload Speed upgrades since you'd just be swapping between the two Magnums when one is empty. It's a bit of a goofy strategy to be sure, but if you're not using the TMP and are just committing to the standard 3-gun loadout of a Handgun, Shotgun, Rifle, it can be a fun little gunslinger loadout to play around with.
Striker
The Striker becomes available from the final Merchant in 4-1 for the cost of 43000 Ptas.
Firepower: 6.0, 7.0 (4-1*, 25000 Ptas), 8.0 (4-3, 28000 Ptas), 9.0 (4-4 After Chapter Boss, 32000 Ptas), 10.0 (5-1, 40000 Ptas), 12.0 (5-1 Second Merchant, 60000 Ptas)
Firing Speed: 0.73/1.10 (Post NTSC-U GameCube versions)
Reload Speed: 3.00, 2.40 (4-1*, 8000 Ptas), 1.50/1.67** (4-4 After Chapter Boss, 15000 Ptas)
Capacity: 12, 14 (4-1*, 10000 Ptas), 16 (4-3, 12000 Ptas), 20 (4-4 After Chapter Boss, 16000 Ptas), 24 (5-1, 18000 Ptas), 28 (5-1 Second Merchant, 28000 Ptas)
The Exclusive upgrade for the Striker is a capacity upgrade, boosting the maximum number of shells it can carry to a staggering 100. As all Capacity upgrades do, this has the fringe perk of fully loading the gun, effectively generating 72-100 extra shotgun shells for the cost of the upgrade. Speaking of, this costs 60000 ptas.
Full Upgrade Cost: 392,000 Ptas
I get that balance between the guns shouldn't be a particularly big focus since this is a single player adventure type game, but the Striker is still probably the most egregious example of late game guns being flatly superior to the earlier guns available. The Striker has the heftiest price tag on initial purchase, but its base stats are head and shoulders above the base stats of the Shotgun and Riot Gun for no extra upgrade costs. When you DO start upgrading it, it scales incredibly quickly and boasts even more Firepower than the Riot Gun with its Exclusive. For a much lower total price at that, as the Firepower of the Striker is not its Exclusive and it is not required to purchase any other upgrades to get it to that point. If that wasn't enough, the Striker has numerous fringe perks. For starters, it's very compact for a Shotgun, taking up a 5X2 space in the case instead of the 8X2 the other options do. Its high capacity and quickly unlocking upgrades also allow you to store more Shotgun ammo directly in the gun, in addition to making the Merchant into a regular reload stop for it. That second point is particularly funny as if you're routing those Capacity upgrades efficiently, you'll find yourself drowning in Shotgun ammo by the end of the game. The Exclusive upgrade gives you all the shells you could possibly need for the remainder of the game on its own. It's pretty safe to say this gun is overpowered. It does have at least one drawback though! Its distance shooting is awful, with anemic damage and almost no stagger power once you get about 5 feet out from where Leon is standing. The Striker plays the Short-Range Shotgun trope to the hilt. But for me and many others, that's perfectly fine. You have plenty of other viable distance shooting options so this could only ever be a consideration in some kind of goofy Shotgun Only self-imposed challenge. The Striker creates a cone of death that'll pop 3 skulls of enemies in Leon's face, and what more could you possibly ask for? Since I pointedly limited my cash expenditure on the earlier Shotguns, we'll have plenty of spare cash to bring this gun to its full potential, and we'll be so much better off for doing so. I'm guessing someone on the Dev team also thought this gun was a little overtuned, as it got a pretty significant (though not ruinous) firing speed nerf starting from Biohazard 4 on the GameCube.
It's come up multiple times already, but beyond just being a fantastic gun in its own right, the Striker is also the source of the most famous and useful glitch in RE4: the Ditman glitch. So named for the GameFaqs message board poster who brought it to light, the Ditman glitch occurs when you open the case while going to raise the Striker but before the aiming laser sight appears. Should you switch Leon's equipped weapon during this brief but easily hittable frame window, Leon will gain a roughly 33% speed boost to all his animations, including his general movement. You really zip around with this glitch in effect, and it is the main reason, even more so than the overpowered New Game + weapons, that New Game + speedruns of RE4 are WAY faster than fresh file playthroughs. The speed boost also produces a number of clipping and airwalking glitches, as while some canned animations reset Leon's speed to normal, there are a number that don't and these lead to even more funny skips and speed tech with the glitch. I'll do my best to demonstrate the more useful ones I know of going forward.
*Due to either a bug or an oversight, these upgrades are not available in 4-1 in the NTSC-U GameCube version and they do not unlock until 4-3. The Striker ends up being the only gun in a New Game file where multiple levels of upgrades are unlocked off of reaching a single specific Merchant.
**Like the other Shotguns, the final Reload Speed level got a fairly insignificant nerf to make these guns a bit riskier to use.
Killer7
The Killer7 is available from the Merchant starting from 5-1. It costs 77700 Ptas to purchase (cute).
Firepower: 25.0, 30.0 (5-1, 62000 Ptas), 35.0 (5-3, 78000 Ptas)
Firing Speed: 0.70
Reload Speed: 1.83, 1.53 (5-1, 20000 Ptas), 0.93 (5-3, 30000 Ptas)
Capacity: 7, 10 (5-1, 20000 Ptas), 14 (40000 Ptas)
The Killer7 has no Exclusive upgrade.
Full Upgrade Cost: 337,000 Ptas
May the Lord smile, and the Devil have mercy. The Killer7 is definitely an odd duck, the only other Magnum in the game and it comes in super late. The truly funny thing about it is that in almost every area, it is flatly superior to the Broken Butterfly. Faster firing speed (even if it is a narrow advantage), considerably faster reload speed, higher capacity, less recoil and better handling. Where it is worse though is raw firepower when considering the Broken Butterfly's Exclusive. 35 is pretty good, but it's hard to beat the appeal of a flat 50. That said, the Killer7 is stronger sooner than the Broken Butterfly, and more prominently, it is at its strongest in time for a tough boss fight where you'd really like to have a powerful magnum at your disposal. And really, how much of a difference does that 50 Firepower actually make? The fights you can use it in have pretty unique structures that result in the Broken Butterfly not really getting anymore mileage than the Killer7 does. There's one more J.J. to blast down between getting the BB Exclusive and finishing the game, but that might be like... one less bullet used. Given all the advantages the Killer7 has in literally every other area, I've recently found myself just swapping out the Broken Butterfly with it for all my Magnum needs. I don't really mess around with New Game + all that much, and the unlockable weapons completely invalidate the Broken Butterfly anyway. And like I pointed out in the videos, the Killer7 basically just hands you an extra 31 magnum rounds to use with its capacity upgrades, so it has some decent value for your late game cash just off of that. This does funnel into another way you could go about it: similar to the dual Broken Butterfly strategy, you could just keep your Broken Butterfly and have the Killer7 in addition to it. There'd be one more capacity upgrade for the BB available by the time you get this gun, so you can load it up with that and then swap between the two as needed. Not particularly practical in my experience, but hey it is an idea. Also, yes this weapon is indeed a reference to the Suda51 game of the same name, which was also published by Capcom and was a part of similar push to get new games made for the GameCube (most of which ended up getting PS2 ports within a year lol).
