Resident Evil 4 Remake: How to Skip the Entire Opening Village Fight

The opening village fight in Resident Evil 4 Remake can be a massive difficulty spike. If you do it the normal way, you need to avoid the mobs of infected villagers for several minutes until the church bell rings. At that point, every enemy will stop attacking, and you can progress following a cutscene. However, you can skip the fight entirely with a difficult but doable precision shot. Here’s how to do so in RE4 Remake.

Skipping the Opening Village Fight in RE4 Remake Explained

Screenshot by GameSkinny

The key to skipping the opening village fight in RE4 Remake is the thing that ends it normally: the ringing of the bell. Doing so can get you further along in a playthrough to unlock some accessories faster. 

The bell is a physical object in the game world, and while it’s outside of the reachable area, your bullets can still hit it, forcing the bell to ring and making all the enemies head for the church.

In short: shoot the bell to end the fight.

Related: How Many Chapters are in RE4 Remake?

Where to Find the Bell in Opening Village Fight

The bell is effectively invisible if all you have is the starting pistol, and it’s still almost imperceptible with a scoped rifle.

No matter what you have, here’s how to ring the village bell:

• Enter the two-story building to the left of the burning police officer. A cutscene will play where Leon forces the door closed and locks it.
• Take a moment to barricade the window with the bookcase, then head upstairs and kick down the ladder.
• Jump out the window next to the stair railing and look toward the church tower with the weathercock in the distance. There’s a dead tree between you and the bell.
• Aim for the small opening near the top of the tower, a few relative feet beneath the tip of the roof.

If you manage to hit the village bell, it will begin to ring almost instantly and continue until the cutscene plays.

While it’s possible to hit the bell with your starting pistol, between Leon’s shaky hands and the threat of enemies swarming you, you’ll only have a few chances before you have to run, die, or run out of ammo.

We also don’t recommend skipping the opening village fight if you’re doing a first playthrough. This first encounter is incredibly useful for learning the basics of Resident Evil 4 Remake, from avoiding attacks, breaking grabs, parrying, and general combat, some of which you’ll need to understand to get all of the trophies and achievements (if you’re into that sort of thing).

That’s about everything to know about skipping the opening village fight in Resident Evil 4 Remake. Like most of the early parts of the game, there’s a lot of learning to do here, and if you’ve gotten stuck at other sections, we probably have a way to help with that. Check out our guides to the Stone Pedestal puzzle, the Church Stained Glass Window puzzle, and much more at our RE4 guides hub.

Featured image via Capcom.