For those who got the platinum WITHOUT the DLC cheats…

[Vault-TecPhantom]

What will be the biggest obstacle to the platinum that I will face if I, like you, don’t purchase the DLC? I’ve got this game in my backlog and I’m thinking of taking it out after Alan Wake II gave me an unscratchable itch (despite thinking the game is heavily flawed lol). Apparently, the DLC makes the platinum a joke which I’m not too fussed about in horror games (for the sake of my blood pressure), and it is on a really good sale right now. However, I don’t want to purchase it on the principle that I’d be rewarding publishers for greedy practices like this, especially because going from a difficulty rating of 5/10 doing it legit to 2/10 with cheats is a pretty huge gap…

 

Also, I've heard that the game requires several forced replays which I'm also fine with. I often do replays by choice because I don't like pairing trophies with each other if it makes them needlessly harder to complete so I am happy to do multiple playthroughs if it alleviates stress. 

 

So again, what is the biggest challenge to face? What are the potential platinum blocker(s)? And finally what trophies, specifically, that I’d be at a massive disadvantage without the DLC? 

[Trophy-QTR]

nothing really that hard 

you can unlock infinite ammo handgun after completing normal difficulty a rating if i am not mistaken and that's makes hardcore run trophy a lot easier 

dlc not required at all but makes the platinum a bit easier and faster to achieve  

the hardest trophy by far is 

Grim Reaper
Complete "The 4th Survivor" extra mode.

[Vault-TecPhantom]

3 minutes ago, Trophy-QTR said:

nothing really that hard 

you can unlock infinite ammo handgun after completing normal difficulty a rating if i am not mistaken and that's makes hardcore run trophy a lot easier 

dlc not required at all but makes the platinum a bit easier and faster to achieve  

the hardest trophy by far is 

Grim Reaper
Complete "The 4th Survivor" extra mode.

 

Just did some brief research on this trophy and it sounds doable with a guide.

Would the DLC cheats/infinite ammo not make this "4th survivor" trophy easier or no? 

[MichMasteR]

15 minutes ago, Vault-TecPhantom said:

 

Just did some brief research on this trophy and it sounds doable with a guide.

Would the DLC cheats/infinite ammo not make this "4th survivor" trophy easier or no? 

 

No, the DLC doesn't affect this mode. There are rewards for the other missions but you have to finish every one first before you can start using them

Edited November 6, 2023 by MichMasteR

[Trophy-QTR]

13 minutes ago, Vault-TecPhantom said:

 

Just did some brief research on this trophy and it sounds doable with a guide.

Would the DLC cheats/infinite ammo not make this "4th survivor" trophy easier or no? 

No you have to get good 

a little practice and you will get the trophy a single run takes less than ten minutes 

[Viscera1900]

14 minutes ago, Vault-TecPhantom said:

 

Would the DLC cheats/infinite ammo not make this "4th survivor" trophy easier or no? 

I’m sure DLC/infinite ammo is not usable in ”4th survivor” mode, because you can only use DLC/infinite ammo in RE2’s main campaign and ”4th survivor” is a different game mode. RE2 platinum trophy is definitely doable without DLC.

[MichMasteR]

Also, I think No Way Out was way harder than 4th survivor

So that should be your main worry, even so, it's not that hard either

[Optinooby]

With this, its more dependant on if you plan on doing the Platinum blind and if not, then what guide or Walkthroughs do you intend to use (some are better than others).

 

If blind, i would say you could be looking at 4+ playthroughs as you are figuring everything out, though the absolute minimal for platinum is 2.7 playthroughs iirc

 

Also, a good walkthrough would have this as maybe a 3/10, though a bad walkthrough may make the game a 5/10 and completely blind maybe a bit higher.

 

Though watching guides/walkthroughs is a similar result to what the Items DLC would get you so guess it all depends on you and what is fair game.

 

If you want to increase that 2.7 minimal plays to 6+ as you say that would be better, sure that would make it easier, but a massive time investment.

 

Btw though, a good walkthrough on this actually makes doing multiple things at once relatively easy

Edited November 6, 2023 by Optinooby

[prismtank8792]

Agree with the others that the Grim Reaper Trophy is probably going to cause some trouble

 

Edited November 6, 2023 by prismtank8792

[Vault-TecPhantom]

36 minutes ago, Optinooby said:

With this, its more dependant on if you plan on doing the Platinum blind and if not, then what guide or Walkthroughs do you intend to use (some are better than others).

 

If blind, i would say you could be looking at 4+ playthroughs as you are figuring everything out, though the absolute minimal for platinum is 2.7 playthroughs iirc

 

Also, a good walkthrough would have this as maybe a 3/10, though a bad walkthrough may make the game a 5/10 and completely blind maybe a bit higher.

 

Though watching guides/walkthroughs is a similar result to what the Items DLC would get you so guess it all depends on you and what is fair game.

 

If you want to increase that 2.7 minimal plays to 6+ as you say that would be better, sure that would make it easier, but a massive time investment.

 

Btw though, a good walkthrough on this actually makes doing multiple things at once relatively easy

 

I plan on doing one blind playthrough for Leon and one blind playthrough for Claire just for story purposes (the latter possibly with a collectible guide). After that it will probably be all guides from there on out for any story element that's not new. I'll take your advice though and check out some good walkthroughs to see if I can minimise the time where possible.

 

OK, thanks for the responses everyone. You guys have convinced me!  I'll give it a go without cheats, especially as it sounds like the hardest trophies in the game can't be exploited with the DLC cheats anyway. Worse case scenario, I suck at it and I just simply move on to a different game.

 

I might tackle this after the sale for the DLC has ended so that I won't be tempted to purchase it. (I know I wouldn't pay more than £2.00 for that nonsense lol)

[BestUsername----]

I don’t know, I must be in the minority, but I thought Leon’s hardcore campaign was harder than Hunk’s scenario. Leon has tougher sections compared to Claire, as well as the fact Hunk has easily repeatable and consistent strats that can be used to beat it. 

So for me…

Hardest for Plat - Hardcore Rookie - Complete Leon’s story on Hardcore. 

Hardest for 100% - Hell of a Sheriff - Complete No away Out

 

Personally I would rate it a high 4/10 without DLC. Hardcore is very doable without the unlocks as long as you know what to do going in. One guide here states 5/10 which I can see some people would agree. But I would say the 6/10 is a little high. 

 

The DLC unlocks basically makes all the trophies a cakewalk. The exceptions being the collectables and miscellaneous weapon trophies. 

[Vault-TecPhantom]

@Optinooby

 

I have some questions for you if you would kindly, please.

 

I’ve beaten both Leon and Claire Scenario A (standard, no S rank). I did Leon A completely blind (with clean-up at the end, utilising my manual saves). 

Then I did Claire Scenario A semi blind, with more attention paid to miscellaneous trophies and collectibles. At this point, I think I’m ready to go full guided playthrough - as I hear there aren't many story differences between the A and B scenarios - and I've come across your walkthroughs on youtube. 😃

 

Initially, my plan was to just play Leon Scenario B on Standard while going for his remaining collectibles, not worrying about S rank or Hardcore. Then I was going to S rank Claire Scenario B on Standard in order to get the infinite hand ammo. Then Claire Scenario A, going for S rank on Hardcore (using infinite pistol) to get infinite machine gun ammo. And finally (not including the no item / no recover run) Leon scenario S rank & Hardcore using infinite machine gun ammo.

 

However…it seems there are very few guides with S rank on Standard. The most efficient walkthroughs seem to be on Hardcore S+, including yours… I will try to give this a go as after two playthroughs I feel more confident (even though I know B differs slightly in some areas), but before I do, I have some questions regarding collectibles:

 

1.I still have 1 racoon plus the 4 files for Leon’s B Scenario left. For Claire’s B scenario I have just two collectibles to grab. Will I still be able to follow your video guide and get these remaining collectibles?  

 

2.Some of the collectibles are in the STARS office which I’ve heard triggers Mr X when you go near it in scenario B. Does the walkthrough account for this? I would rather keep Mr X off my back for as long as possible before needing to get the collectible. For your reference, this is a list of the files and their locations: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1862266225 

 

3.Finally, do cutscenes factor into time? I keep seeing conflicting reports about this. I would like to watch the cutscenes that have differences, just for story purposes.

 

Many thanks!

[Optinooby]

1 hour ago, Vault-TecPhantom said:

@Optinooby

 

I have some questions for you if you would kindly, please.

 

I’ve beaten both Leon and Claire Scenario A (standard, no S rank). I did Leon A completely blind (with clean-up at the end, utilising my manual saves). 

Then I did Claire Scenario A semi blind, with more attention paid to miscellaneous trophies and collectibles. At this point, I think I’m ready to go full guided playthrough - as I hear there aren't many story differences between the A and B scenarios - and I've come across your walkthroughs on youtube. 😃

 

Initially, my plan was to just play Leon Scenario B on Standard while going for his remaining collectibles, not worrying about S rank or Hardcore. Then I was going to S rank Claire Scenario B on Standard in order to get the infinite hand ammo. Then Claire Scenario A, going for S rank on Hardcore (using infinite pistol) to get infinite machine gun ammo. And finally (not including the no item / no recover run) Leon scenario S rank & Hardcore using infinite machine gun ammo.

 

However…it seems there are very few guides with S rank on Standard. The most efficient walkthroughs seem to be on Hardcore S+, including yours… I will try to give this a go as after two playthroughs I feel more confident (even though I know B differs slightly in some areas), but before I do, I have some questions regarding collectibles:

 

1.I still have 1 racoon plus the 4 files for Leon’s B Scenario left. For Claire’s B scenario I have just two collectibles to grab. Will I still be able to follow your video guide and get these remaining collectibles?  

 

2.Some of the collectibles are in the STARS office which I’ve heard triggers Mr X when you go near it in scenario B. Does the walkthrough account for this? I would rather keep Mr X off my back for as long as possible before needing to get the collectible. For your reference, this is a list of the files and their locations: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1862266225 

 

3.Finally, do cutscenes factor into time? I keep seeing conflicting reports about this. I would like to watch the cutscenes that have differences, just for story purposes.

 

Many thanks!

 

I have so many video guides for it, I cant say as it depends which you are following. Though if you follow my most recent Platinum Vids for PS5, you can get platinum from scratch using a 4 hour guide, maybe that will be sufficient as it will cover everything anyway. I also have a gamplay guide here that has information on all the collectibles and stuff, that will be better than the steam guides (though my newer vids are not linked in that).

 

Its story related to go in that office, my guides will show the optimal time to enter.

 

I cant recall with cutscenes sorry mate, but you cam easily check yourself or have a search for the info

[Vault-TecPhantom]

1 hour ago, Optinooby said:

 

I have so many video guides for it, I cant say as it depends which you are following. Though if you follow my most recent Platinum Vids for PS5, you can get platinum from scratch using a 4 hour guide, maybe that will be sufficient as it will cover everything anyway. I also have a gamplay guide here that has information on all the collectibles and stuff, that will be better than the steam guides (though my newer vids are not linked in that).

 

Its story related to go in that office, my guides will show the optimal time to enter.

 

I cant recall with cutscenes sorry mate, but you cam easily check yourself or have a search for the info

 

Thanks for your response. I just took another look. I believe your most recent platinum walkthrough uses the bonus weapon acquired from S ranking achieved in Claire A run, so that wouldn't be available to me for my remaining B runs as I've already played both A scenarios without S ranking (although I will acquire infinite knife early on in my Leon B run upon shooting the final racoon):

 

 

 

 

The Leon B run I was referring to earlier was this one but I do not believe you factor in collectibles in this one:

 

 

[Vault-TecPhantom]

Once again, thanks to everyone who chipped in with advice in this thread. You saved me from buying the DLC cheats and so my money (and dignity) remains in hand, as I now have 100% in Resident Evil 2. 

 

I created this thread because pay-to-win microtransactions evoke instant suspicion regarding a game’s balancing (as the difficulty would need to be unfair in order to frustrate players into purchasing them).  In truth, RE2 is completely doable without them. I would even go as far as to say that the DLC cheats would absolutely ruin the experience because the central conceit of this game is the short-term and long-term decision making that stems from limited resources. I unlocked the infinite pistol from S ranking a Leon run but only really used it in the early game for later runs (barring the 'no items' run).   Mid to late game it was just back-up in case I ran out as it’s not that useful against tougher enemies. 

 

Special shout-out to @Optinooby - your guides are amazing; I used them for my S rank runs. It must have taken you countless hours to come up with the most optimal playthrough for each scenario. You clearly studied the enemy behaviour meticulously. In the end I did 6 playthroughs of the main campaign (as both guides on this site recommended). I know that you can technically platinum the game in less runs than this but 6 proved to be the sweet spot for me, enabling me to have fun while also being time efficient. My platinum path went as follows:

 

Leon A Standard

Claire A Standard

Leon B Standard S Rank (enabling me to unlock infinite pistol ammo with ease)

Claire B Hardcore

Claire A Standard S rank, 14000 steps, no items, no recovery 

Leon A Hardcore

 

Hunk’s scenario wasn’t as intimidating as I was led to believe; I got it on the second try. If you’ve already S ranked the game and/or played on Hardcore beforehand you will know how to handle this, it’s just about memorisation. Also, the scenario is quite obviously on a very low difficulty by default because you can seemingly tank infinite hits. Even the zombies in No Way Out - despite the game claiming that it has a 5 star difficulty rating - are still clearly weaker and slower than the ones in Standard mode. At least that’s what it felt like to me but I could be wrong. Anyway, got Hell of a Sheriff on my third go.

 

I agree with @BestUsername---- that the hardest part of the platinum journey is Leon’s Hardcore run because his weapons are objectively weaker than Claire’s. Claire can kill a licker with two shots of her grenade launcher and can stun the G monsters with the charger if they’re in her way (should it prove difficult to exploit their animations). In fact, in Claire’s case I often ran out of inventory space because I had so many resources due to enemies going down so quickly.  I’d say that if you can beat any Leon run on Hardcore then all remotely challenging trophies thereafter is perfectly doable by comparison. 4/10 is about right as difficulty rating goes.

 

 

And as a side note. I must say Resident Evil 2 has to be one of my favourite platinum experiences, as well as just being a great game. I can’t remember the last time when a platinum got my adrenaline pumping as much as this. During the 6 playthroughs I somehow never got bored or needed to take an extended break because with each run and trophy requirement I noticed something clever about the game’s design. The entire police station level is fantastic and reminded me of Prey (2017) in just how seemingly complex it felt from a level design perspective. With each run you see how authored the enemy encounters are and, as a result,  you learn when to fight and when to flee. Most of the game’s challenge relies on you making silly mistakes, for instance, panic shooting a zombie whose standing still minding their own business when you could just walk slowly without ever alerting them. 

 

The puzzles are fun and, as someone who explored everywhere I could, I somehow always landed right where I needed to be to progress further without ever getting lost. It also helps that the collectibles are actually useful beyond world building, often serving as tips that will help you later - a very old-school approach to tutorials.  Also, the fact that collectibles are saved to your profile so that any you missed can be acquired simply by reloading an old save without having to continue from that save for it to count is just *chef’s kiss*

 

I appreciate how short these written notes were. Unlike a lot of modern games that expect you to read entire in-game novels to get a sense of world building, Resident Evil 2 does it with well directed cutscenes, a couple of letters that tell you more about the characters and some clever environmental storytelling. A game where the writing takes advantage of the medium!!! I was actually surprised at how much I cared for Claire and Leon in such a short space of time.

Spoiler

Also, I know that Leon and Ada are supposed to be a thing but I audibly yelped when she kissed him. It came out of nowhere and he clearly has more chemistry with Claire!!!

 

Other excellent quality-of-life features that every game like this should have is the map showing when you’ve cleared it and what items you’ve discovered but not collected. This may seem like a hand-hold at first glance but the map actually adds to the game’s sense of fear because every time a location is marked blue (as opposed to red) and you’re running low on something you know there’s nothing in that location that will help you…

 

The graphics and physics are great, especially the gore effects and character animations. Load times on PS5 are very quick. The game is extremely polished -  not a single technical issue. Not one. No visual bugs. No progression bugs. Not a single crash. Not a single framerate drop. Not a single stutter. 6 playthroughs and Not. A. Single. Technical. Hiccup. Let that sink in.

 

Ultimately, what I'm trying to get across is that Resident Evil 2 is the perfect platinum experience because it does exactly what a platinum trophy should do: it improves your understanding of the game’s mechanics. You can tell it was made with trophies and challenges in mind and that it was play tested to death because it’s fun and challenging while being respectful of your time. My background with the Resident Evil series is that I’ve only ever played some of the latter games and quickly had to abandon them because they were too scary for me. 😂 I also never played the original Resident Evil 2 so I can’t speak to how good this game is as a "remake". All I know is that this one was clearly made with love and I would happily re-do the platinum for the PS4 version in the future. 

 

One last thing: I own the Resident Evil 3 remake and can't wait to play that. I’ve heard it’s shorter with stuff cut from the original but seeing as I never played the original I probably won’t even notice. 😁

Edited February 26 by Vault-TecPhantom