Chapter 4-3

The merchant near the beginning of this level should have a number of new upgrades for you, so cash in your chips (or your jewels, at least) and upgrade whichever weapons you use most often. This chapter will feature a good number of Ganados, so your pistol and shotgun should be your first choices.

Cattle get owned by incendiary grenades.

Speaking of Ganados, there's a congregation of torch-wielding enemies near a bonfire further down the path. They look like they're preparing to storm Castle Frankenstein or something, so you'd better take them out before they cause too much trouble. There are two platforms with ladders leading to them; your best bet is to climb up one of them, get the cattle's attention, then start picking them off as they climb the ladder to get to you, being careful to avoid any axe-throwers. When they're dead, loot the bodies and the area (there's a Violet Blue in a well near one of the ladders, so don't miss it), then hop through one of the windows in the wooden hut near the rear and turn the crank there to reach the catacombs.

The Catacombs

The first room of the catacombs has a number of dangers, mostly coming from the bear traps - if you have the Striker shotgun, you should be able to get two or three of these at a time with it - and the chainsaw freak who's waiting for you in the room to the left. Before you head after him, though, make a detour and work your way into the small chamber down the steps to the west; you'll find a valuable Staff of Royalty there.

This area makes for a good back-up-against-the-wall stand, as you'll be able to cover both the stairs and the ladder.

Although you only hear one chainsaw, there are actually two freaks here; one in the upper level of the antechamber, one on the lower. If possible, it's best to go up the ladder to the second story and kill the upper chainsaw dude first; this will prevent you from having to deal with both of them simultaneously. Of course, as soon as you get close to the key up here, more Ganados will appear out of nowhere down below and immediately start climbing up the ladder to get to you, requiring you to either constantly push the ladder over, or just get into a corner and start blasting at the entire group as they come up.

When you have the Key To The Mine safe in hand and have disposed of all of your enemies, use the key on the locked door down below to move on. Next up is another crushy-ceiling room; it's stopped in the same manner as the last one, by shooting four targets on it, but you'll also have to deal with little rodentia-tentacle-things that'll accumulate around your feet as you do your deed. We found it best to shoot two targets, blast the rodents with your shotgun, then immediately get the other two targets before more beasts appear. When the ceiling stops, the beasts stop spawning, so it's a win-win situation. There's also a crypt on the side of this room that you can open; check it for a bunch of cash.

Indyyyyyyyy!

No trip through a mine would be complete without a trip in a minecar, and that's what RE4 delivers after you move on a bit. In order to get the car rolling, hop down into it, then shoot the lever nearby. You'll probably want to be in the rear car for most of this, but you can always jump from car to car as you see fit.

Video Walk-through

The chainsaw freaks are going to be the most annoying part of the minecar ride, but if you get up close and personal, they'll go down.

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As you roll along, numerous Ganados will attempt to jump into the three cars that you're riding in. If you manage to shoot them before they jump, they'll harmlessly fall into the path of the cars and get crushed, but if not, you'll have to deal with them as they try to throw axes at you and otherwise attempt to kill you. It's relatively easy to shoot them before they jump, though, especially if you upgraded to the wide-firing Striker shotgun, but if you do let them jump down into the cars, you might get extra cash and items from their corpses.

Eventually, you'll come to a roadblock, where a dozen or so Ganados and a chainsaw freak will jump into your ride. Obviously enough, you're going to want to be in either the front or rear car; we found the front one advantageous, because there's some handgun and shotgun ammo on either side of the tracks here, and if you're in the back, you might accidentally shoot the switch that'll restart your car before you can get to it. You can only restart the car after the chainsaw freak is dead, though, so whip out your shotgun while standing on one end of the set of cars and use it to knock everyone down. The flow of Ganados will soon cease after the chainsaw freak is dead, but be mindful of them while they're jumping down, as a few will inevitably sprout tentacles when you blast them, and you don't have much room to dodge their slashes.

Be sure to be in one of the end cars before you get here, or else you'll be surrounded by enemies.

When you've restarted the car, you'll have to start dealing with planks that are set in the middle of the path; you can either shoot these as you see them, or dodge them as they come along. It's much easier to shoot them, so try to stay in the rear car, which will let you look forward as you travel. Another chainsaw freak will eventually drop down into your vehicle; if you want the 10,000 pesetas that he drops, get in the same car as him and start blasting away. You'll soon be prevented from shifting cars, and there's nothing more agonizing than having to watch 10,000 cash fade away.

Or, more precisely, drop away into a chasm, which is what will happen shortly after your car starts rattling and picks up speed. You'll have to jump when it's about to fall - with either L+R or B+A - unless you want to go through the whole trip again. Pull yourself up when you reach the far side of the gaping hole, then grab the Stone of Sacrifice and move back out to the first part of the chapter. Put the stone in the door there to move on. If you want to upgrade, feel free to backtrack to the merchant here.