weapon shopping guide

some basic stats and my personal opinions on the various available firearms.

pistols

1. Handgun

damage
base: 1 max: 2

fire rate
base: 1.73 max: .87

capacity
base: 10 max: 25

exclusive
5x headshot damage

pros:
you get one for free when you start the game. the exclusive is very effective (I know this because wesker uses it in mercenaries).

cons:
nothing special about this weapon aside from the exclusive (all other upgrades are required to purchase the exclusive). the other pistols are all superior in their basic stats one way or another.

verdict:
I usually trade this out as soon as the merchant makes his free upgraded Punisher available. it's just a very basic pistol. the increased headshot damage might make it really useful in the hands of an expert sharpshooter, but I prefer other weapons for pulling off headshots.

generally, you will want to ignore upgrading this gun, and trade up for one of the other pistols when they become available. it's not a terrible weapon, it's just not as fun as the others.


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2. Punisher

damage
base: .9 max: 1.9

fire rate
base: .47 max: .33

capacity
base: 10 max: 28

exclusive
bullets penetrate 5 enemies at a time.

pros:
by default, the Punisher can punch through two enemies at a time, or penetrate wooden shields. this weapon and one damage upgrade are free if you do the merchant's entire side quest (all 15 targets) before buying it. available almost immediately after the game begins. the exclusive enhances the penetration effect.

cons:
similar to the default pistol, this weapon doesn't do anything else special aside from the bullet penetration ability.

verdict:
definitely worth getting if you get one for free. the ability to punch through enemy shields is very helpful around chapter 3, but ultimately I would still trade up for one of the two superior pistols when they become available.


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3. Red9

damage
base: 1.6 max: 3.7

fire rate
base: .53 max: .4

capacity
base: 8 max: 22

exclusive
increase damage to 6.5

pros:
highest damage per shot capability. available very early in the game. purchasable stock allows for added stability, and is optional. also, very cool looking.

cons:
takes up more inventory space, even without the stock. slower rate of fire and lower capacity.

verdict:
this is a really good end game weapon for people who like precision pistol shooting, and being that it's for sale early in the game makes it a good choice for a main pistol. however, some people do prefer the Blacktail over this, which I will explain below.


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4. Blacktail

damage
base: 1.6 max: 3.2

fire rate
base: .47 max: .27

capacity
base: 15 max: 35

exclusive
increases damage to 4.5

pros:
very high rate of fire and capacity, with a higher base damage than the default pistol. the necessity to upgrade every aspect of this weapon is not as important compared to other weapons. stability is strong, and recoil is low.

cons:
nothing too important.

verdict:
it's sort of like the counterpoint to the Red9. this is a great pistol for spraying lots of ammo in a short amount of time. because of it's increased rate of fire, as well as superior reload speed and magazine size, one might argue that the damage per second of the Blacktail is as high or higher than the Red9. ultimately, this is a matter of personal taste, and I have used both weapons to great effect.


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5. Matilda

damage
base: 1.5 max: 2.5

fire rate: .47

capacity
base: 15 max: 30

exclusive
increases max capacity to 100

pros:
ignore the fire rate. the 3 shot burst pretty much allows you to fire this pistol non stop. the exclusive allows you to store many boxes of ammo in the magazine.

cons:
requires that you complete the game once and start from a completed save. burns through ammo faster than any other pistol.

verdict:
the stats don't really tell you just how powerful this weapon is, in fact it's a bit of a cheat weapon. I prefer this to all the other pistols, mostly because it still allows me to use pistol ammo without having to carry extra ammo boxes in my inventory. the massive fire rate allows for an extremely high DPS as well, it's like a second TMP.


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summation

sell the default pistol once the free Punisher is made available. after the other two pistols show up at the shop, sell the Punisher and decide on either the Red9 or Blacktail, depending on whether you want to conserve pistol ammo or not. personally, I almost always go with the Blacktail, since I prefer to snipe with the sniper rifle or magnums. when I do use the Red9, I ignore the optional stock. once I beat the game, I take the Matilda and stick with it forever.

otherwise all of these are opinions, and you can go with whatever pistol you want. you get pistol ammo all the time so this will be your bread and butter. before the Matilda was introduced (the playstation 2 version iirc) the Blacktail was my preference because it burns through pistol ammo, and by the time it's available you should already have a shotgun a rifle and the TMP as well as maybe another gun and a handful of grenades, so the choice of pistol becomes secondary.

shotguns

1. Shotgun

damage
base: 4 max: 8

fire rate
base: 1.53

capacity
base: 6 max: 18

exclusive
firepower is no longer reduced by distance

pros:
you get one for free, in fact it's the first weapon you find in the game. good capacity and exclusive.

cons:
nothing really wrong with it to call a con.

verdict:
to be perfectly honest, I have never used the exclusive on this weapon, so I have no idea how effective it really is. one thing's for sure, it's an extremely valuable part of your arsenal. like the other shotguns, this one is extremely effective when dealing with tight corners or really powerful enemies. if the exclusive does what it claims, then you could clear the whole game without needing to trade out for a different shotgun. however, in my opinion, I usually do sell this as soon as the Striker becomes available.

also keep in mind for all shotguns, the reload speed is always the same no matter how many shells need to be loaded. Leon loads a pair of shells then primes the weapon. conveniently speedy.


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2. Riot Gun

damage
base: 5 max: 8

fire rate
base: 1.53

capacity
base: 7 max: 17

exclusive
increases damage to 10

pros:
claims to have the best range of all the shotguns. true or not, it does have the highest potential damage. also, it's pretty cool looking.

cons:
will not be too significant of an improvement if you have already upgraded the default Shotgun. also, is not free.

verdict:
it's a very middle of the road shotgun. you don't get one for free, and it doesn't do anything special, even with it's exclusive. I used this for a whole playthrough once and could not really tell the difference between this and the regular Shotgun, so I would say you can/should ignore it unless you really want a pump action shotgun with the highest possible damage per shot. the general stats on the gun are about comparable to the regular Shotgun, but the exclusive might be a critical difference that I once again have to admit I never full tested. again, like the default Shotgun, it's a necessary weapon, but you only need one or the other.


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3. Striker

damage
base: 6 max: 12

fire rate
base: 1.1

capacity
base: 12 max: 28

exclusive
increases capacity to 100

pros:
wider shot spray. very high capacity, and good damage. takes up less inventory space. also, that exclusive.

cons:
the wider shot spray does tend to reduce the damage at anything other than point blank range. this gun is not made available until somewhat late in the game. upgrades are more necessary and therefor more expensive.

verdict:
despite the cons, I prefer this shotgun for two reasons. the first is the superior rate of fire as well as the reload speed. the other reason is the exclusive, which allows you to store all your extra ammo inside the gun. the other two shotguns are very typical shotgun style weapons, while the Striker is a bit more fun to use. it's great all the way to the end of the game, and continues to benefit in a plus game. keep in mind that the Striker is also not free, so if you desire it you should trade out your other shotgun weapon as soon as this shows up in the store.


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summation

all of the shotguns are useful, but in general the default Shotgun and Riot Gun are very similar, while the Striker is vastly different. that said, I prefer the Striker because it allows me to compact my shotgun ammo into a small space without sacrificing anything. the increased fire rate also makes it easier to recover at close range in case I somehow miss. shotgun weapons are made for close range emergencies and you will absolutely want to make sure you have one ready for rounding corners.

oh, and if you are playing the game for the first time while reading this guide, make sure you picked up the first shotgun in the town with the church. it's the first big combat event, which is ended by the ringing of the church bell. the shotgun is hanging on a wall inside one of the houses on the second floor. you can buy the shotgun after this point but it will cost you money.

TMP

1. Tactical Machine Pistol (TMP)

damage
base: .4 max: 1.2

fire rate
base: .1

capacity
base: 30 max: 250

exclusive
increases damage to 1.8

pros:
available at the first mechant. massive fire rate and capacity. plentiful ammo. inexpensive upgrades. effective at close and medium ranges, slightly less effective at long range. optional stock increases stability.

con:
eats ammo.

verdict:
the first time I played the game, I assumed this was balanced against the other weapons available like the pistol, and so I ignored it. that was a mistake. the TMP is unique in that there is no alternate weapon type available which uses the same ammo. you can use the TMP for the entire game on pretty much everything. sometimes I spray into crowds of enemies. sometimes I pick off someone's head with a few taps. sometimes I fight the last boss in the game using it. even counting the one con I listed, there really are no weaknesses to the TMP.

I tend not to use the stock tho. as is typical of a bullet hose, wasting ammo for the TMP is not a big deal.

rifles

1. Rifle

damage
base: 4 max: 12

fire rate
base: 2.73

capacity
base: 5 max: 18

exclusive
damage increased to 30

pros:
available at the first merchant. very accurate, very easy to aim, good damage. the slim shape makes it easy to fit in your inventory since it only takes up a single line of space. able to attach the IR scope for destroying Regenerators.

cons:
very low rate of fire which also requires you to unscope between shots. reload speed is also slow.

verdict:
entirely optional, but undeniably effective. I will leave this to personal taste, but you can definitely skip this weapon, altho you will end up having to sell a lot of sniper ammo until the Semi-Auto sniper rifle is made available (that can also be a positive). I did find a lot of good opportunities to instantly kill enemies from a massive distance early in the game, so if you do buy this weapon early you will get some use out of it. also, while the exclusive does increase the power tremendously, the basic attributes of the Rifle make it very ineffective at anything but extreme long range, so having the magnum and the shotgun make it obsolete while the Semi-Auto fills every role the bolt action already serves. for big boss fights, the enemies don't stand still long enough and are too close for a really slow sniper rifle like this.

this and the Semi-Auto have the option to attach an extra powerful scope, but I found it to be unnecessary and a waste of money and inventory space.



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2. Semi-Auto

damage
base: 7 max: 15

fire rate
base: 1.43

capacity
base: 10 max: 24

exclusive
fire rate increased to .8

pros:
higher base damage values compared to the bolt action Rifle. does not unscope between shots. increased rate of fire. able to attach the IR scope.

cons:
somewhat expensive. not available until halfway through the game.

verdict:
I definitely prefer this rifle, but I also have to admit that the standard Rifle's exclusive upgrade would be very useful. still, the ability to fire more often is more important to me. decide for yourself which you would prefer.


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summation

technically, even when you take regenerators into consideration, neither of the sniper rifles are required to finish the game (assuming you have the kind of heavy weapons needed to destroy a Regenerator without taking out the individual weak points). I still tend to end up with a Semi-Auto rifle by the end of the game, because the ability to splatter some heads before they can react is always helpful.

I should also add that the optional scopes from the merchant serve no useful purpose. you already have an effective zoom with the unaltered weapons themselves.

magnums

1. Broken Butterfly

damage
base: 13 max: 28

fire rate
base: .7

capacity
base: 6 max: 12

exclusive
damage increased to 50

pros:
you can get one for free if you know where to look (a locked area that requires you to piggyback Ashley). extremely high damage. partial bullet penetration (I forget how much exactly).

cons:
low capacity. ammo is rare.

verdict:
this is my boss killer. even without the exclusive, all of the really hard enemies go down in only a few hits. I could also use it to smear a pack of enemies with one shot, but I prefer not to waste the ammo on small time baddies. PSH!



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2. Killer7

damage
base: 25 max: 35

fire rate
base: .7

capacity
base: 7 max: 14

exclusive
none

pros:
higher base damage and upgraded damage values. better reload speed.

cons:
it's not free.

verdict:
since I usually have the Broken Butterfly before this becomes available, I never bother with it. it's not a bad weapon, and in fact it's damage beats the Broken Butterfly until you get that exclusive. this just seems to be a more generic weapon in comparison. I suppose you could take the Broken Butterfly and sell it, if you only intend to use it for a single playthrough.



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3. Handcannon

damage
base: 30 max: 60

fire rate
base: 1.17

capacity
base: 3 max: 10

exclusive
increases damage to 99.9 and ammo capacity to infinite.

pros:
even without any upgrades, you can still deal insane amounts of damage. does not cost money to purchase.

cons:
very scarce ammo. fire rate is much lower due to the huge recoil. upgrades are expensive. requires a lot of prerequisites to be met in order to purchase.

verdict:
technically not a magnum, since it uses it's own type of ammo. I have it here because it's easier to compare to the other magnums.

anyway, this weapon also requires you to finish the game once as well as get 5 star ratings on all the mercenaries maps with all the characters. if you do that, you get this awesome gun that will destroy all bosses and minibosses with minimal effort, even without upgrades.

one of the things I really like about this weapon is that it's actually sort of balanced. the fire rate is low enough and ammo can be rare enough that it makes for a perfect replacement for your other magnum. so it's not quite a cheat weapon, until you get infinite ammo.


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summation

for a first playthrough, I always demand to have the Butterfly with some ammo ready for the Right Hand fight so I can nab his crown jewel. after that point, you can go with either magnum as your main boss killer because the Butterfly's exclusive doesn't become available until very late in the game and will probably cost more money than you have. I recently played through pro mode with the Killer7 and got plenty of use out of it's improved damage values all the way to the end, so it's certainly a viable magnum for a first round of completion. after that, the Handcannon just beats everything, and I immediately sell any magnum and it's ammo to make space.

misc

1. mine thrower

damage (in this case, it means the blast radius)
base: 2 max: 6

fire rate
base: 1.33

capacity
base: 5 max: 10

exclusive
homing mines and larger blast radius

pros:
easy to use. very powerful, they're like little sticky grenades. optional scope, you can snipe with explosive mines (!!!!).

cons:
takes up a lot of space. ammo is very rare, and indeed only begins to drop after you purchase the weapon. reload speed is very slow.

verdict:
this is a really strange, but undeniably effective weapon. some people don't like it too much, but I am not one of those people. it's a particularly useful weapon when starting a game on professional difficulty, sort of like a reusable rocket launcher. actual damage is equivalent to a single hand grenade. you will want to be careful not to stick these to an enemy that is rushing toward you at high speed, because the blast radius will harm you.


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2. Chicago Typewriter

damage
base: 10

fire rate
base: .1

capacity
base: infinite

exclusive
none

pros:
infinite ammo, high damage, high fire rate.

cons:
requires completion of the game once, plus assignment ada. costs 1,000,000 PTAs.

verdict:
totally cheese. I actually don't like using this gun because the entire aspect of ammo scavenging and weapon upgrading goes out the window. it's fun to use for maybe a map or two, anyway.


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3. PRL 412

basically just a gun that kills everything on screen in one shot. even more cheesed out than the Typewriter. however, this one costs no money, you just need to beat the game once on professional difficulty and load a completed save.


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4. Rocket Launcher/Infinite Rocket Launcher

the rocket launcher is a one shot weapon with an explosive warhead that detonates on contact. the game does not state the exact damage, but I believe it's around 100 per hit, with a decent sized splash radius.

as for the infinite launcher, it's the same thing as the regular rocket launcher, but it costs a million PTAs and can be used over and over. honestly, whenever I got a rocket launcher I would hold onto them until I could sell them at the next merchant. I hear they do a lot of damage. then again, so does my magnum, and it takes up way less space.

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5. Hand Grenade

a standard explosive grenade, if you have ever heard of a grenade you know what these do, but to make it clear you throw these from your hand in a short arc (they don't go very far in RE4) and after 3-5 seconds they explode. similar to other explosive effects and weapons in this game, the splash radius has more effect on enemies than on you so unless you are standing on top of your own grenade after you throw it you are likely to take no damage while liquefying nearby enemies.

6. Flash Grenade

might sound useless at first, since it doesn't seem to do damage. this is not entirely true. when a standard enemy with exposed plagas is anywhere nearby, the blast from a flash grenade instantly kills them. something has to be said for the ability to stunlock an entire crowd of enemies too. unlike the standard hand grenade, this one detonates on contact with any surface. I would also like to believe these are effective against the blind wolverine claws guys (forgot the name) but I have run into a nasty situation where they will sometimes run directly towards me after I throw the grenade, let me know in the comments if you have that issue.

7. Incendiary Grenade

a fire version of the hand grenade, this one also detonates on contact. the actual effect of this grenade can be a little unpredictable, usually stunning and knocking enemies to the ground but not outright killing them unless they were very weak or already injured. again, similar to the other grenades, the impact radius is fairly large altho probably the smallest of all explosives. a mid range effect between the other 2 grenade types.

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Grenades overview

grenades are one of the few weapon types you can only acquire from the environment. I am trying to remember if the merchant ever lets you buy any and I don't recall, but if he did it was probably only one max. otherwise, you are dependent on observation and a bit of luck, some grenades drop in specific areas, and some drop at random from crates. I think the game always tries to make sure you have at least one grenade on you, not really sure about that tho.

late game runs I will sometimes begin selling excess grenades, because in an emergency they can be tricky to handle (enemies running at full speed can evade the blast radius). in that case, I still keep one flash grenade to instant kill exposed plagas enemies in an emergency. I also tended to favor incendiary grenades over regular hand grenades for the crowd control effect, despite hand grenades being vastly superior in damage. they became emergency weapons in case I was low on a favored crowd management weapon, or bosses and minibosses.

again, like most of this guide, these tend to be my personal observations and they can change depending on how I feel like playing. also, if you are reading the grenade section, welcome to 2023, the resident evil 4 remake is almost here and I just played the demo which was nice. I'm gonna wait and see, withhold judgement on the complete game until it's been out before I drop the money on it.

notes

for this guide, I went by my personal viewpoints based on memory, but I also used weapon stats provided by the RE4 weapon guide on gamefaqs.com written by Zack Scott.

ultimately, a lot of this guide is just based on my personal opinions about the weapons. you can hopefully use this information to decide on a weapon before you purchase it, or otherwise decide on how to upgrade it, but it's really up to you how you want to play the game. as you can probably tell, Resident Evil 4 gives you a lot of options on what guns to use, and many of them serve different useful purposes.

[⌖]

you did your homework stranger

[ThePlayzPaidOff]

(Sorry I split these up, character limit is 100.)

General information is nice, although as someone who has played RE4 for 10 years the advice is not great.
If anything the Mitilda is the worse gun, it is the most average of all of the pistols. More damage allows you to kill more Ganados, much like with more ammo. The difference is, using more ammo takes more ammo and says nothing for how many shots it takes.

[ThePlayzPaidOff]

The Shotgun and Riot Shotgun have night and day differences in terms of damage and range. I do not understand how you didn't notice that, it shines most vs bosses and certain subbossess. Its greatest weakness is how long it takes to cycle shots in my opinon.

Striker shotgun is likely the worse shotgun in the entire game, and the best gun in the entire game. What I mean is, using the Striker as it is intended is not as effective as the other shotguns due to its range reduction being so terrible however using it as utility with the Ditman glitch then it allows for a major increase to nearly every action while it is active and is easy to use.

[ThePlayzPaidOff]

One tidbit of additional information for the TMP for certain versions of the game, such as Gamecube's, you can shoot locks on the other side of doors with both the TMP and it's stalk equipped. This allows for a few skips. Also if you collect its ammo, you can sell it for a really good amount as it is found in large amounts commonly.

The Killer7(gun) is a refence to a different game called Killer7. I would also never reccomend buy any of the magnums for a first time playthough, they are very expensive to upgrade, and only a handful of fights will you even be able to get use out of it when you could of just bought a RPG which is infinately better at boss killing as it kills nearly every boss in one shot for SIGNIFICALLY less money.

[ThePlayzPaidOff]

I made sure to check the difference, as I have bought every upgrade to every gun in the entire game and I remembered how expensive magnums really were. RPG costs 30,000 and if we assume you use it for every boss (skipping the free RPG) in it will cost 180,000 in total. Compare that with just the upgrades alone for Broken Butterfly's 493,000 for its upgrades and it really sets into picture how much more expensive magnums really are. If someone insisted on buying a magnum first playthrough then it would likely be best to get the Killer7 as it costs 337,700. Furthermore, as a direct refutation of OP's inventory space point with the RPG, while it is true that RPG's require space, you typically only carry one in a brief timespan for a boss, RPG's instantly kill nearly every boss, and with inventory space upgrades you should always have more than enough room for everything you would need.

[21stCenturySchizoidM@n]

The rocket launcher carried me through boss fights on professional. Same with the mine thrower. The more weapon variety the better

[No Fox Given]

I agree on most of the points, except the parts where you said Handcannon and Minethrower ammo was rare. Handcannon ammo drops relatively often (drops are random. In some playthroughs I had to sell/discard ammo because the game gave me too much, and in others it dropped a little less). Minethrower darts caps at 10, and won't drop any more if you have that much.

[= Fish Discovered]

blacktail HERETIC

[Tyrant (My Vision is Augmented)]

Wow... a RE4 weapon guide where I actually agree with every single recommendation and note.

Coming up on my 11th playthrough across 3 different systems. Blacktail for life, Broken Butterfly all day, and Striker for the win.

[mylittledota]

So it's been almost 6 years and no one commented on handgun exlusive upgrade. There is no bonus headshot damage, with 10 damage you would kill any Ganado in one headshot. Every. Single. One. What this upgrade actually does, you ask me? It amps up crit-chance on headshot by exactly 5x. Making it actually the best late-game pistol for "snipers".
Funny thing about magnums: you don't need it at all. Just buy a rocket launcher before every major boss-fight, or stock-pile some grenades (for Big Cheese for example). It would cost you less money than buying and upgrading any magnum.