With players everywhere now going full steam ahead through Resident Evil 4 Remake, plowing through zombies and reliving all of Leon’s cheesy one-liners, per tradition with the franchise there are a select few who also enjoy the true challenge of getting a perfect rank at the end of a playthrough. If you’re someone who wants to take a stab at such a feat but aren’t sure how to go about it, don’t fret. Here is our guide for how to achieve an S Rank in Resident Evil 4 Remake.
What Is the Rank System in Resident Evil?
Ever since the very first Resident Evil game first debuted in 1996, there has been a hidden ranking system within each game that isn’t initially known to the player, and doesn’t provide any visual prompts for how to achieve it. Only at the very end of your playthrough does your rank display along with stats such as your play time, enemies killed, etc.
Sort of like an academic grade it uses a letter-based tier system from C up to S+ (even S++ in some games). C is the lowest rank while S and S+ are the highest, representing essentially a perfectly played campaign. Through trial and error players have figured out what exactly goes into achieving these ranks, and the thresholds you must meet that mean the difference between one rank or another.
Resident Evil 4 Remake S+ Rank Requirements
There is one main requirement when it comes to acquiring an S+ Rank in Resident Evil 4 Remake, and that is your playtime. Dying does not demote your rank, nor does the number of enemies you kill. Time is your one main concern.
Note that getting an S+ Rank CANNOT be done on a New Game Plus file. Doing so will automatically impact your rank, therefore you must start fresh on a new save file.
Luckily, you can achieve an S+ rank on ANY difficulty, the time requirements will simply be different. The higher the difficulty, the more time you have to finish your playthrough. Vice versa, the lowest difficulty will require you to finish much quicker.
If you’re looking to get 100% trophy/achievement completion, and thus want to go straight up to getting S+ rank on Professional, you need to be especially mindful of your time management and resources. Consider the following:
- We highly advise against doing any side missions, or going off to look for treasures. This all can easily eat up lots of time.
- On Professional difficulty autosaves are disabled, thus try to avoid dying as much as possible as you’ll be forced to start back at your last manual save point. Also, you’re only allowed up to 15 saves throughout the entire playthrough. Anymore than that will demote your rank, so choose your save points wisely.
- Always opt for stealth anytime you’re able to. This allows you to clear checkpoints quicker without having to fight dozens of enemies, and also saves a great deal on ammo and healing, which you’ll definitely need for boss fights.
- Before tackling this challenge consider practicing your speedrun on an easier difficulty, so you can get plenty of target practice and memorize the best routes and shortcuts through every area of the game.
With all of this in mind, here are the required playtimes for an S+ rank on each difficulty.
- Assisted Difficulty: Approximately 4 hours or less
- Standard Difficulty: Approximately 5 hours or less
- Hardcore Difficulty: Approximately 5 hours and 30 minutes or less
- Professional Difficulty: Approximately 5 hours and 30 minutes or less
That concludes our guide for how to achieve an S+ Rank in Resident Evil 4 Remake. We hope this helps you beat the ultimate challenge of the game, and let us know if there’s anything we’ve missed. Do you feel getting an S+ rank is easier or more difficult this time around?
Be sure to check out all of our other guides for everything in Resident Evil 4 Remake, including when the new Mercenaries Mode DLC is due to drop.
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