Resident Evil 4 Remake: Mercenaries tips to get S++ ranks

Before you even start shooting any enemies, consider just avoiding them. You can run around the stage picking up time bonuses and ammo. Then, once you’ve got a crowd following you, you can take out a bunch at once with tactical melee strikes, or grenades. Plus, you won’t run the risk of losing your combo while grabbing items.

Your combo will make a huge difference to your final score. There are 150 enemies to fight total, meaning that is also your max potential combo. Of course you can still boost your score further with smart use of Mayhem Modem and your method of killing. When moving from place to place, you should look for stray enemies you can kill on the way.

There are golden bonuses laying around each stage, most of which will give you extra time, and some of them will also refill your Mayhem Mode gauge. You should aim to collect all of these, while saving your Mayhem Mode for tense moments or against bosses. If you can’t pick one of these up, that means it’s a Mayhem Mode refill, and you’re currently maxed out.

Melee strikes and even knife prompt kills will add extra time to your timer, meaning your potential score at the end of the stage is much higher. This makes using melee strikes a great way to get extra time, as well as extra points. Melee strikes almost universally take out standard Ganado enemies, or at least down them for a knife finish. Hunk’s is unique, as it can only hit one enemy at a time, but it is a guaranteed true one-hit-kill, at least.

If you’re in trouble, tap the Parry button. Remember, parrying is much more forgiving outside of Professional mode, and you can use it to negate loads of potential damage in Mercenaries mode. Even the Garradors in the Castle section give you a clear shot on their back if you Perfect Parry their swipes.

Each stage has an environmental advantage for you to use against the Ganados. The Village has a few explosive barrels and the like, but nothing too exciting. The Castle, meanwhile, has the cannon, which takes a long time to reload, but it can one-shot those pesky Garradors. Aim it down the path towards the cannon in advance, and wait for them to show up. The Island also has a mounted gun, on top of plenty of explosive barrels to use.

Grenades are universal, and universally useful. Gather a crowd of Ganados, toss your grenades at them, and watch your combo build. They’re great, but you should save your Heavy Grenades for when bigger, tougher bosses turn up, like the Garradors. Also, you can throw a grenade at the floor and negate all damage from it to yourself if you get into an animation, like stabbing a Ganado.

Flash grenades instantly take out plagas enemies, including those pesky spiders that crawl around the floor. If you’re at risk of losing your combo, you can always toss a flash grenade to take out any plagas instantly, saving your score. This will also stun all nearby Ganados, allowing you to melee strike them to get some quick kills.

Mayhem Mode will save your life and your combo. It affects each character slightly differently. Leon’s boosts his fire rate, attack power, and reload speed, allowing him to use weapons rapidly for a huge score boost. Luis throws down dynamite, and you can shoot it (it won’t hurt you) to detonate it early, allowing you to put down another dynamite – repeat until it ends. Krauser can use his mutated plagas arm to beat up or even one-shot enemies (very useful), and finally, Hunk unlocks infinite ammo for his SMG. 

You can get extra time from melee kills, knife kills, headshots, Mayhem Mode kills, and from picking up bonuses. You should get as much extra time as possible, even if you don’t need it, as it’ll all be turned into bonus points at the end of the stage – assuming you survive. This is essential for getting those S++ ranks. For an extra point boost, you can also collect eggs. To get eggs in Mercenaries mode, you need to kill chickens. Every egg you finish the stage with will give you a point bonus, bringing you closer to the S++ rank of your dreams.