Mercenaries S ranks last 4 levels - just use the pistol

[GTAJJ]

I've SSS ranked all but Village II (That's at SS).

 

Done them all now. Zero reward for SSS. RIP

 

The first 4 levels are super easy to do. Use the Skorpion (VZ91) and sell everything else towards upgrading it. You can even sell your First Aid Kits as it's quite hard to even let any enemies get remotely close. Pick up abilities for the pistol and damage and you cannot lose.

 

As for the other 4, practice makes perfect. Max out the pistol damage and fire rate, choose how much you want on the other stats. I chose to spend money on pipe bombs compared to the walkthrough buying stats. It's all about what works for you.

 

I followed these routes.

 

 

Hope that helps.

Edited May 12, 2021 by GTAJJ

[DeclioDukes]

The worst part of this by FAR is the dealing with the slow upgrade/shopping menu every time you have to restart.  I really wish it would just restart you with your same loadout and have an option to completely reset.

[aarnettbraun]

11 hours ago, Sarsky said:

people here bragging and saying its easy to s rank yet literally its 2 hits then dead.... even if you remember the layout from previous missions, the strategies and approach needs to be done differently based on the lei you have and the perks you get...

while first stages are fine since it does give you  a lot of leniency, its more about just keeping a flow or combo easy to follow or copy from a guide and you can maybe make 1 or 2 combo mistakes, the 2 stages are a lot harder....

 

On the "2" stage versions you can skip enemies or just die to get the rank you want. However enemies are more aggressive and faster, if you lose a combo when skipping enemies you will lose a lot of points needed for s or ss rank. even if some people are better or worse at the game... to say its easy to maintain a perfect combo, kill all enemies pick up all necersary items and memorize everything instantly or perfectly copy a guide to get ss rank first try is just either pure luck or skill...

you wont always have enough ammo like the final stage where i had to perfect area 2 and maintain a combo and skip a majority of 3 and 4 to even get ss...

 

also factory 2 is really hard... you have to perfectly kill the 2 sisters when they attack together with a soldat, pistol kill the oncoming enemies with what little ammo and you will run out unless you perfectly picked up the ammo and if you want perfect kill bonus you will also have to kill motor boy who is another boss on stage while you have 4 or 5 soldats on that stage plus after you have to maintain a perfect ccombo and skip a majority of enemies or try with whatever little ammo you have to kill as many enemies while being swarmed with soldats.

 

castle 2 you literally don't again have enough ammo for area 2 i think, plus its hard to maintain combos cause you have soldats and wolf creatures bum rushing you, grabbed lose combo instantly, don't do enough damage and depending on perks will effect how they attack and appear at what speed, even if they have a pattern how fast they charge respond or how they attack is random...

 

factory 2 and the last stage took me like 4/5 hours or something to beat, i did struggle village 2 at first despite following shirakos guide however i do think with a guide some parts of stage 2 is doable first try or without too much hassle... however perks and attack patterns, wobbles and charges effect the ease of gameplay and combos...

The difficulty of each stage is probably based on skill among other things. What to some is easy may be harder for others and vice versa. The rarity percentage is already higher than other trophies in only four days since the release of Resident Evil 8: Village.

Edited May 12, 2021 by notandrebraun

[PhantomDreams]

I might have missed it but do you actually have to beat all the stages in an area to make your S-rank count? I died in the factory 2 but got S-rank

[Radford999]

2 hours ago, PhantomDreams said:

I might have missed it but do you actually have to beat all the stages in an area to make your S-rank count? I died in the factory 2 but got S-rank

No as long as you get S rank it’s fine. 

[g21122000]

Stuck on Castle 2.. hate this mode. Trying to do it before I start my other playthroughs so I can do the fun stuff last.. sigh

[g21122000]

Think i'm giving up, the last 3 levels are just not fun in the slightest. Such a tacked on mode.

[Sarsky]

21 hours ago, Radford999 said:

The first 4 stages and the final stage are pretty easy to be fair. But stages 5, 6 and 7 were pretty tough. Especially Factory 2. Think i spent 10 hours trying to do that stage lol. Although abilities do come into play, i wouldn’t change your playstyle because of the abilities. If you are doing a pistol run for example, just get all the damage abilities when you can. Sometimes luck comes into it as well though. There are 2 abilities that make the pistol strat a lot effective. Those are the handgun damage and the ammo capacity abilities. You also need the Magnum on the first area just to take out the heavies. You can also try and lineup 2 heavies and kill them both with one shot with save bullets. But once you get the handgun damage ability and you have maxed out the damage upgrade you can take down enemies really fast. The second area i bought lots of pipe bombs. This was because i had no magnum ammo left and i needed something to deal with the heavies. I could have bought the grenade launcher to be fair. But i upgraded the rest of the handgun instead. 
 

After getting S rank on the Factory 2, i was gearing myself up for the final stage which i expected to be even harder than Factory 2. But it was so easy! It was pretty easy to keep a full combo of 41 throughout the stage as the enemies were close together. And you start with 12 magnum bullets for the final stage which helps take out the heavies in that area. I ended up dying at the very beginning of area 3 and already got S rank lol. If you get a full

combo on area 1 then you get around 460,000-490,000 points. You only need 650,000 ish for S rank. So you just basically have to have 2 good areas  with strong combos and you have done it. 

its been a while since i did the last stage but i remember i was following shirakos tutorial and i remember still struggling a little cause i needed to adapt and change, plus also enemies dont always move or go about the same places or attack the same way and upgrades that effect damage, combustion etc can effect how well you maintain or run a combo, my biggest issue was to do with maintaining combo... when i did this platinum, the hardest thing was even with following a guide i would lose combo, the whole upgrades are random and how fast you get to them, how acurate you are, how a enemy attacks or dodges and how enemies move was my biggest issue... even if spawns are same i always found myself on factory 2 not knowing which side witches will come or when soldat will come, on final stage i do agree your method is a lot better then mine since i was moron, i decided to get the minimum requirements and speed run through the stages.

 

i think i get how people are approaching this now but i wouldn't personally say it easy due to so many random factors and the fact you need to learn the map even if you copy or follow a video thats a lot of info to take in, i didn't first try any stage cause i was just straight diving in, first 4 arent bad the 2nd are a pain for maintaining combos and thats my biggest problem is maintaining combos to get the points... thats the huge difficulty especially if pistol has no bonuses or enough upgrades, you get grabbed or swarmed or bum rushed.

 

that said the games only been out a while and people are acting like its breeze without enough experimentation time, without guides or intense training, there are limited videos upon my completion which took my 3 days... would have been much shorter if i learnt how to do mercenaries better but i could only copy guides since i didnt want to drag out another 18 hours more of gameplay...

i honestly think that once a game has a a high achievement rate and a ton of videos only then can you say generaly its easy however, its been 3 or 5 days and its got a low rate out of percentage and people are acting like its a breeze... i know im probably being salty but when a games barely been out and people say how hard or easy something is without any actual research or content to back up, it always urks me little... cause there's always going to be things and updates that will hugely change the gameplay and mechanics and how we play. personal peeve.

[Lightsp33d1987]

This is my final trophy but it always seems no matter what i try i lose my combo a split second before my next kill really thinking about just deleting this game for now as i was loving this game until Mercenaries lol.

[proud2bNs]

I don't understand why they always have to include bonus modes / MP most people didn't ask for and also don't like. 

 

RE7: DLC...........

RE2 Remake: 4th Survivor / Ghost Survivors

RE3 Remake: Bad tacked on MP mode

RE8: Mercenaries / Upcoming RE:Verse MP

 

Not a single gamer i know enjoyed these bonus / MP modes. They buy the RE games for the single player experiences. Let's see if they push out more DLC for RE8 with bad bonus modes.

[aarnettbraun]

On 5/12/2021 at 0:37 PM, proud2bNs said:

I don't understand why they always have to include bonus modes / MP most people didn't ask for and also don't like. 

 

RE7: DLC...........

RE2 Remake: 4th Survivor / Ghost Survivors

RE3 Remake: Bad tacked on MP mode

RE8: Mercenaries / Upcoming RE:Verse MP

 

Not a single gamer i know enjoyed these bonus / MP modes. They buy the RE games for the single player experiences. Let's see if they push out more DLC for RE8 with bad bonus modes.

The only downloadable content that I enjoyed in Resident Evil 7: Biohazard was Bedroom, Daughters, End Of Zoe, and Not A Hero. Unlike Resident Evil 7: Biohazard, the downloadable content that was developed for Resident Evil 2 was more annoying than enjoyable. If all the time and effort that Capcom used to develop extra content such as Nightmare, Night Terror, Ethan Must Die, 21, Survival, Survival+, and Jack's 55th Birthday, was instead used for the development of the type of content aforementioned with Resident Evil 7: Biohazard, then the price of each add-on would be more understandable.

Edited May 15, 2021 by notandrebraun

[Radford999]

36 minutes ago, Lightsp33d1987 said:

This is my final trophy but it always seems no matter what i try i lose my combo a split second before my next kill really thinking about just deleting this game for now as i was loving this game until Mercenaries lol.

Which one are you struggling with?

[AihaLoveleaf]

27 minutes ago, proud2bNs said:

I don't understand why they always have to include bonus modes / MP most people didn't ask for and also don't like. 

 

RE7: DLC...........

RE2 Remake: 4th Survivor / Ghost Survivors

RE3 Remake: Bad tacked on MP mode

RE8: Mercenaries / Upcoming RE:Verse MP

 

Not a single gamer i know enjoyed these bonus / MP modes. They buy the RE games for the single player experiences. Let's see if they push out more DLC for RE8 with bad bonus modes.

Would add Versus for RE5. Everything was great before those forced and ridiculous multiplayer trophies.

[Lightsp33d1987]

11 minutes ago, Radford999 said:

Which one are you struggling with?

I'm only on the second one i just really hated this mode in previous games and trying to even stay focused to do it is hard enough lol, It might be something i go back to when i feel i want to focus on it just doing it a few times and keep getting A is so tedious in a mode i have never enjoyed.

[Zeep_Xanflorp92]

I should be getting this game in the mail today, and I am already dreading mercenaries based on the comments and posts I’ve seen ? you think capcom would’ve learned by now that these tacked on modes are literally a waste of time & money on everyone’s part... if I find anything helpful once I start mercenaries, I’ll add more here.

[g21122000]

Castle 2 and Factory 2 have made me hate this game. Why make an extra mode with maps that aren't designed for it and then copy paste the same 4 maps and add a few layers of artificial difficulty? Who thought this would be fun? 

[Tsympil]

Got S / SS in the last 4 levels. Absolutely not enjoyed and will never return in this mode.

I used pistol tactics. The easiest levels for me was Village 2 and Mad Village 2. In Mad Village in the first stage it is not a big problem to get a 41/41 combo, the points will be close to S rank after the first stage.

Castle 2 is not a big problem too to get to S rank, the enemies are not armored and you usually have enough time to continue the combo. You just have to memorize the right path, be lucky with your abilities and try not to die lol. Surprisingly, the most useful ability for me was the "Out of Reach" ability, which significantly increases the damage, because anyway you need to keep distance. If you are lucky and you get "Out of Reach" 2-3 times the enemies will die very quickly.

Factory 2 was the hardest. Okay, you memorized the right path in this maze, but there are many large distances between enemies, armored enemies, it is easy to lose combos because of this. One way is to know where to use the magnum to continue the combo.

 

I'm sure that after some practice you can get S / SS rank without any problems, but really there is no fun for me.

 

 

[Radford999]

5 hours ago, Lightsp33d1987 said:

I'm only on the second one i just really hated this mode in previous games and trying to even stay focused to do it is hard enough lol, It might be something i go back to when i feel i want to focus on it just doing it a few times and keep getting A is so tedious in a mode i have never enjoyed.

What the second stage?

[PhantomFear94]

Update: Got it done reasonably easily (3rd attempt) with 1M+ when I realized how crucial rate if fire. I simply wasn't firing enough. You must prioritize rate of fire after the 1st wave, I'd argue even over power.

 

2nd stage of Castle 2. My christ, its impossible.

 

I spent longer on Castle 1 than the other three opening maps + Village 2 combined, and I then did Village 2 on my second attempt with this tactic. I just cannot get past the 2nd stage of Castle 2. I just get completely swarmed, and even with an upgraded pistol, I don't have the time or manpower to not get overwhelmed. Unlike Castle 1, the enemies from outside seem to come to you from the start which is weird. 

Edited May 13, 2021 by PhantomFear94

[Lightsp33d1987]

17 hours ago, Radford999 said:

What the second stage?

It's the castle stage but i have this weekend off so i will live on it even if it kills me trying lol.

[BestUsername----]

So just got the trophy for S ranks. (Actually have SS ranks though for the bonus)
 

Here was my strategy. First 3 I used the V61 upgraded damage, rate, and reload speed.

 

For the fourth I added in the shotgun no upgrades. The first four are actually harder in my opinion to get SS ranks because it wasn’t as forgiving and you needed to compete all areas. 

 

For levels 5 and 6 I tried the knife strat and it wasn’t working so I went handgun. Upgraded just the damage, fire rate, and reload speed. Clip size didn’t really matter to me as the reload speed negated the need for a bigger magazine. 
 

7-8 I knew that I didn’t really need to compete the whole area. So I also bought the magnum and used it liberally on the sub boss type enemies and the daughters. Same for mad village just used that thing on every big enemy. Died on stage 2 or 3 and still got SS. That being said I did have a full combo at the end of each area. Don’t be afraid to use the magnum on a weak enemy if you think you’re gonna lose your combo. 
 

For abilities I mostly used handgun master, Lightning Speed, and any of the defense and healing buffs. 
 

I would also like to say to save your pipe bombs and mines. As they can get rid of the armor on armored enemies pretty easily. Also, also if you can get past Factory 2; you can 100% get an S rank on mad village.
 

 

Edited May 13, 2021 by BestUsername----

[h4mx0r]

Man I wish I could enable aim assist for mercenaries.

 

I'm primarily a PC gamer, but Playstation trophies are my hobby (I know, weird right?) Normally I don't have a problem playing 3rd person games like the other RE games but I'm a terrible shot for console FPS games. I almost want to invest in one of those M+KB adapters just for fps game trophies. (Don't worry, I have no interest in online pvp for FPS games as I normally play those on PC)

 

I'll probably manage to get these anyways with enough trial and error but it doesn't feel good when I can't nail a target in time to keep the combo going.

[PostGameBlues]

I was dreading doing Factory 2 based on everyone's experiences but I managed to get an SS rank on my second try with an upgraded pistol + magnum combo + pipe bombs/mines for soldats. The combo timings are definitely tighter in the Factory but you just need to be quite mindful of when to use the magnum. They give you like 8 rounds which is imo more than enough. Village 2 was also quite easy with the pistol + magnum loadout.

 

Mad Village 2 was even easier in my opinion, I almost killed Miranda but one of the clawed lycans got me in the end but I still got an SSS rank lol. Castle 2 was the only one where I hit the jackpot when I got Masamune + 2x Blade Master + Perfect Guard. I never relied on getting Masamune/Blade Master on my runs though since I'm not a fan of resetting if I dont get them. It just builds up unnecessary frustration even more. 

 

So basically, just go with Pistols and Magnum plus some pipe bombs and mines for tougher, armored enemies and crowd control. Masamune/Blade Master build is not worth it due to RNG. You at least get a solid degree of consistency when it comes to upgrading your Pistol and buying the Magnum.

Edited May 14, 2021 by PostGameBlues

[Morphiar]

For anyone struggling with Factory 2:

 

I got an S rank by not defeating all the enemies. On the first level I didn't kill about 8, and on the second level I left about 15 enemies (including many of the armoured ones and the huge armoured guy by the foundry). Make the magnum shots count and spend money on mines/bombs. 

 

For Castle 2:

 

I found the slow enemies ability really helped with this. Those fast ones that jump at you really annoy me so with this ability they were much easier to deal with. Again use your pipes and bombs, with the magnum. I had the S rank secured after the first three levels and didn't need to do anything on the fourth level.

 

Village 2 and Mad Village 2 are fairly easy compared to the two above. For Mad Village 2 I had the S rank after the first 2 levels so don't worry about having to deal with the boss!

 

Found this mode really stressful in the end and glad it's finally over.

[proud2bNs]

6 hours ago, h4mx0r said:

Man I wish I could enable aim assist for mercenaries.

 

I'm primarily a PC gamer, but Playstation trophies are my hobby (I know, weird right?) Normally I don't have a problem playing 3rd person games like the other RE games but I'm a terrible shot for console FPS games. I almost want to invest in one of those M+KB adapters just for fps game trophies. (Don't worry, I have no interest in online pvp for FPS games as I normally play those on PC)

 

I'll probably manage to get these anyways with enough trial and error but it doesn't feel good when I can't nail a target in time to keep the combo going.

I was literally doing the same thing  But the M+KB adapters are quite expensive and they don't work well with PS5. This mode would probably be so much easier with M+KB for people used to it.

 

Having shitty aim due to controller usage is absolutely fine for the SP campaign. I think it adds to the tension. Ethan doesn't have 10+ years of military training and being mostly a "survival horror" game missing a few shots now and then makes the game more intense and more fun overall. But keeping up the combo in mercenaries... damn. Unless you're a controller aim god this is much harder on console.