Though Resident Evil Village is not an open-world exploration game, it is filled with secret treasures and hidden areas. Much like the games before it, Village rewards eagle-eyed players for paying close attention to their surroundings with loot of all kinds. Valuable treasures, vial bullets, and cool collectibles are just a few items jam-packed into the frigid confines of the Village and its surrounding locales.
Many secrets and hidden areas will become more obvious through a second playthrough, but many players will overlook some of the better-concealed stuff. As a result, many players are missing out on making money, upgrading weapons, or completing their lists of collectibles. Resident Evil Village offers an abundance of secret content that many players might just overlook!
10 The Goat On The Suspension Bridge
The Resident Evil series is no stranger to breakable hidden collectibles. Going as far back as Resident Evil 4 with the blue medallions, Capcom has made hidden breakables a staple for fans to hunt for. These collectibles take the form of wooden goat statues in Resident Evil Village. They are fairly small in size and their dull brown color can make them easy to miss in most environments.
Luckily, the goats have a little wooden rocking sound associated with them. Players who can't spot them visually can often figure out their position via the subtle wooden sound effect the statues give off. There are a few goats that take this advantage away though, making their collection even more difficult. One of the harder-to-spot goats can be found on the series of suspension bridges leading to the Beneviento House. There is no sound cue and players won't spot the little goat unless they look to the suspension bridge to their left. The goat can be spotted near the middle of this smaller bridge.
9 Moreau's Magnum
Nearly every Resident Evil game ever features a magnum, with some featuring more than one. The magnum is often hidden behind a few puzzles, as it is the most powerful weapon in the games save for any type of rocket launcher. Village hides its magnum inside a fairly easy-to-forget area just outside of Salvatore Moreau's main territory.
After fighting through the entire reservoir area, players will be able to return to the Duke with yet another Rose flask. Many players will be eager to push ahead, as the end of the game seems nearly in sight. As a result, they may miss the magnum entirely! Players should be sure to backtrack to the first windmill they come across before entering the reservoir and use their newly obtained crank to open a new side path. After following this path and defeating some enemies, players will eventually come across Moreau's mountain laboratory, where they will find the magnum.
8 Heisenberg's Hidden Walls
Karl Heisenberg acts as the final of four Lords that players must battle through to reach Rose and Mother Miranda. His domain is quite different from any of the other Lords. Heisenberg is holed up in a dark factory running twisted experiments on villagers. Most will die, but many more are transformed into the intimidating Soldat enemies. The Soldats are most similar to monsters faced in Resident Evil Revelations 2 and can easily drain a player's ammo and health.
Running from these enemies is often a better choice than fighting them all off. While this saves ammo and sometimes healing items, it can lead to easily missing secret walls inside Heisenberg's factory. These walls can be found on the B4 level of the factory and are marked by yellow paint and a large crack. Breaking them requires an explosive of some sort, but many land mines can be found across the factory, so opening them shouldn't be a problem.
7 Heisenberg's Hammer (Treasure)
Heisenberg is arguably the most popular villain in Resident Evil Village aside from Lady Dimitrescu and her daughters. His slick design, control over metals, and intimidating hammer made him an interesting adversary liked by many players. Interestingly enough, players never have to face Heisenberg while he's wielding the wicked gear hammer, and it instead becomes a valuable treasure for Ethan to sell.
The hammer isn't easy to find though. It's broken into two combinable treasure parts found across the B4 level of the factory. Players will need to do some backtracking through Soldats in order to complete the hammer and sell it to the Duke. After obtaining the key mold and crafting Heisenberg's key, players shouldn't immediately return to B1. Instead, they should search for Heisenberg's quarters and unlock them with their newly acquired key. This will get the second piece of the hammer, assuming players have already destroyed the broken wall on B4 to get the first piece. With both pieces in hand, players can craft Heisenberg's Hammer inside the treasure menu and sell it for a hefty 45000 lei.
6 The Resident Evil 7 Orange Box
Fans who played Resident Evil 7 will remember the numerous orange tin boxes spread across the Baker Estate. Some contained useful items like lockpicks while others contained nothing but squirming heaps of maggots. They were always bright and noticeable against the otherwise dark and dreary backdrops of the Bakers' home.
As it turns out, Resident Evil Village gives a nod to these old boxes inside Donna Beneivento's house. The majority of time spent in the house will be centered around the doll of Mia Winters that players have to take apart for clues and puzzle items. Connected to this room is an operating room with a locker to hide in and a few items to snag. On one of the shelves, a large orange box can be found looking rather out of place among all the other items. Players who played Resident Evil 7 will immediately recognize it as an old orange box from the Baker Estate, complete with the floral pattern on top.
5 The Finest Fish
Hunting makes a return in Resident Evil Village and it's much more expansive than it was in either Resident Evil 4 or Resident Evil 5. Previously, crows, snakes, and chickens could be hunted for small amounts of money, eggs, or other minor loot items. Village rewards the player with actual meat ranging from poultry to fish. There are "quality" versions of all the types of meat in the game, and the fish variant can be tricky to find.
Players will have to lower the drawbridge North of the Duke and the Altar hub area. To lower the bridge, players must defeat Moreau and get the crank. After all of this is completed, players can find a boat docked in the river below the bridges and pathways. The boat can be taken all the way downstream to another small dock. From the dock, players can choose to go left or right. Both paths lead to something useful, but the left path leads to a small pond with a golden fish that can be hunted for "Finest Fish." With this high-quality meat in hand, players can return to the Duke and make Sarmale de Peste, a dish that permanently increases Ethan's movement speed.
4 The Origins Of The Mold
Resident Evil Village's story is closely tied with the previous main installment in more ways than Ethan Winters being the protagonist. As players progress through the game, they will begin to learn about the mold infection of the Village and how Mother Miranda is using the mold and Cadou to her advantage. Players keen on learning lore should be careful not to miss the vital information found in a cave across the way from the "Finest Fish" pond.
Players can take the river found below the Northern drawbridge to a small dock where they can then find a cave. The cave is home to another workstation of Chris Redfield and his team, and the files found on the computer reveal that this Village seems to be the source of the mold that caused the Dulvey Incident to occur three years before. The mold in the village is a near-perfect match with what Eveline (Resident Evil 7's final boss) was creating. Players will also learn that "The Connections" (Mia Winters' old organization) probably got samples of the mold from the caves underneath the village.
3 Heisenberg's Information Dump
Ethan is invited to the factory by Heisenberg under the idea that Heisenberg has a possible deal to make. Though he seems hard to trust, Ethan makes his way to the factory and discovers Heisenberg's hideout. The large room is filled with rusted piles of metal and has a few items, but perhaps the most interesting piece of information can be found behind a large orange curtain.
Players can crouch down to look at the board in some detail before a cutscene where Heisenberg rips parts of the board apart. On the board, they can see other Lords with red X's over their portraits and pictures of Mia, Chris, and Rose. Interestingly, Mia's picture doesn't have an X over it, implying that Heisenberg himself knew that Mia Winters wasn't actually dead. Though this secret doesn't get revealed until the endgame, keen-eyed players will spot hints of this information early on through Heisenberg's info board.
2 The "Fast Reflexes" Achievement
Resident Evil Village is chock full of achievements and trophies to earn. While many of the challenges are fairly simple to follow and complete, there are a few harder ones that can be easy to forget or overlook. Players will face lycans throughout the entire game and many of these lycans will use weapons to take the player down.
There are a select few who shoot at Ethan with bows and flaming arrows. These arrows can be shot of midair with a gun similar to arrows in Resident Evil 4 & 5 but doing this will cause players to miss out on an achievement. The achievement is fairly easy to get once it is focused on, but in order to get "Fast Reflexes," players must knife an arrow out of midair. Only 3.8% of Steam players have gotten this achievement!
1 Completing The Beneviento Tomb
Each boss has their own treasure. Most are hidden in some fashion, but Donna Beneviento's treasure requires some careful searching and backtracking. Players will find the Beneviento tomb with a broken nameplate. The slab that marks the tomb is split in half, prompting players to insert a key item.
This key item isn't found inside the Beneviento House but is instead found near the beginning of the game in the village graveyard. Players should keep an eye open for a large tomb with iron doors. It won't be marked as a building on the map, but it can be entered. Inside the tomb is the other half of the Beneviento grave marker. Players can return it to the tomb and combine it to reveal the Beneviento treasure. Be warned though, there may be more monsters lurking for players who return with the slab!