Overview:
- Estimated achievement difficulty: 8/10 [Achievement Difficulty Rating]
- Offline: 39 [1000]
- Online: 0
- Approximate amount of time to 1000: 40-50 hours [Estimated Time to 100%]
- Minimum number of playthroughs needed: 4 [6 recommended]
- Missable achievements: Several, but save files can stop this
- Does difficulty affect achievements: Yes
- Unobtainable/glitched achievements: No
 
Introduction:
Resident Evil 4 is back! This seminal classic has been remade from the ground up by Capcom, and as it turns out, you can make the game even better after all. Taking the franchise’s survival horror roots, and adding in a load more action, the game feels fantastic to play, improving on the original’s weaknesses, while still retaining the fun and slight goofiness that makes it so memorable.

It’s a game that plenty of us have sunk multiple hours and multiple playthroughs into, and if you’re looking to get the full 1000, then you’re going to have to be willing to do the same with the remake as well.

Walkthrough:
To get the full 1000, we’re going to have to play through Resident Evil 4 a LOT. The absolute minimum number of playthroughs required is four, and we wouldn’t recommend that, as you could end up spending even more time on the game restarting sections, and you won’t get a normal playthrough either.

As such, we recommend going for six playthroughs, including a first fun playthrough where you get to take your time, use whatever weapons you’d like, and collect all of the treasures and collectibles. Here’s our recommended runthrough and the achievements that each runthrough will unlock. Along the way, you’ll likely end up unlocking most of the other achievements, but we’ve got guides for each down below.

Standard Playthrough (on either Standard or Assisted difficulty)
Get all the treasures, take your time, find all the weapons, collect as much cash as possible, upgrade your weapons, collect all the Clockwork Castellons, and just generally have a fun normal first playthrough. Go on, enjoy it! The rest won't be this good.

Bandit (20G) 
Burglar (20G) 
Raider (20G) 
Jack of All Trades (30G) 
Revolution Wind-up (30G) 

Assisted NG+ playthrough
Start a second playthrough on NG+ on the Assisted difficulty setting. Only use handguns and knives, pick your preferred weapon in each of the two categories and make sure they are fully upgraded, and sell everything else.Try and continue to find treasures and money, or, if you missed any treasures on your first run, this is a great opportunity to grab them again for the trophy. Sell any leftover ammo and healing items that you find, skip cutscenes, and just attempt to complete the game quickly if you can (not necessary but makes the journey to 100% completion shorter).

By the time you reach chapter 16, you should have enough cash to buy the Infinite Rocket Launcher from the Merchant. Do this, but don’t use it on the final boss, keep using the handgun and knife. Don’t use healing items, just let your health refill, which will happen automatically when you're in the red on Assited difficulty.

We recommend using the Primal Knife on this playthrough, since it can be upgraded to be indestructable, but the choice of handgun is down to personal preference.

Frugalist (30G) 
Minimalist (30G) 

Professional NG+ playthrough
Professional is the hardest difficulty setting in Resident Evil 4. However, it's no match for the Infinite Rocket Launcher you picked up in the previous playthrough. Demolish everything in your path with your new toy, which should kill most bosses in 1-2 hits, and can even be used to destroy things like catapults and rock walls. Make liberal use of saves (we’re aiming for an A rank or an S rank here) and try to complete the game in under 5 and a half hours. You should be able to be able to easily complete in 3-4 hours using unlimited rockets, if we're honest, so there's plenty of wiggle room to be had. Skip all cutscenes and comms calls.

Doing this run helps us in multiple ways. Firstly, it unlocks the Chicago Sweeper in the process, which can be fully upgraded to have unlimited ammunition. Secondly, it unlocks the Armor outfit for Ashley, which stops her from being hurt or kidnapped. And finally, we also unlock the Gas Mask outfit item for Leon, which will be massively helpful for our future playthroughs, allowing you to turn on Aim Assist even on the highest difficulties, without impacting your rank.

Promising Agent (20G) 
Proficient Agent (30G) 
Peerless Agent (50G) 
Silent Stranger (30G) 
Sprinter (30G) 

Professional playthrough (no NG+ or bonus weapons)
At launch, there was only one way to get the Handcannon magnum, which was required to get the Gun Fanatic (20G) achievement. This was to beat a brand new game on Professional difficulty with no bonus weapons. Which is tough, and will likely take you around 10 hours, maybe even more.

However, since the release of the free The Mercenaries DLC, there's a much easier way to obtain the Handcannon, eliminating the need for this ultra-tough playthrough of the game. Instead, you can simply get an S-rank with any character on all three stages of The Mercenaries - Village, Castle, and Island. To get an S-rank, you need to get a score of 200,000 or higher, which is pretty easily done. You don't even need to use the same character on each stage - you just need to get an S-rank on the stage, regardless of the character you choose.

By the time you reach this step, you should be pretty good at Resident Evil 4, so you'll likely be able to get the Handcannon through The Mercenaries within 30 minutes, maybe an hour if you're struggling. That massively cuts down the time to getting a full 1000G, so if you've got access to the free DLC, it's definitely worth doing.

However, if for some reason you'd rather do things the hard way, here's our advice for the Professional playthrough.

Start a new game on Professional Difficulty (you can’t use NG+ unfortunately) and play through to completion. There’s no time limit on this playthrough, unless you want to attempt to combine this run with a Professional S+ rank run, but that will be much more difficult without the bonus weapons.

This playthrough is going to be very tough, especially in the opening chapters, when you have fewer poweful weapons. To help make things as easy as possible, make sure to equip Leon with the Gas Mask that you unlocked during the previous playthrough, and turn on Aim Assist in the settings. Additionally, you'll want to equip Ashley with the Armor so you never have to worry about her again. Finally, since you can't use the Primal Knife or Chicago Sweeper (these are the bonus weapons mentioned) you might as well sell them to the Merchant as soon as possible, for a nice extra 50,000 in total, to invest into your current arsenal. You'll be using your Combat Knife a lot here, so make sure to quickly upgrade its durability.

To finish this playthrough, you're just going to have to get pretty good at Resident Evil 4. The aim assist should help you land more of your shots, but beyond that, it's your knowledge of the game from previous playthroughs that's going to help the most here. Oh, and make sure to save all the time on any typewriter you see, and don't be afraid to backtrack to an old typewriter if you know you're about to hit a tough section, or if you've just cleared an area of enemies but you've still got a while until you hit the next save point. Perseverence will be your friend here, but we believe in you.

Gun Fanatic (20G) 

Standard S+ playthrough
You can’t obtain an S+ rank on a NG+ playthrough, so you’ll have to start this from scratch. However, you can use bonus items like the Handcannon, Chicago Sweeper, and Primal Knife, so make sure to grab them all from the Typewriter as soon as possible. Additionally, make sure to equip Leon with the Gas Mask and then switch on Aim Assist in the settings, and equip Ashley with the Armor so that she becomes basically invincible. To get an S+ rank, you’ll need to beat the game in under 5 hours, which is a tough ask.

The early stages will be the hardest, until you’re able to invest some money into upgrading your three bonus weapons, especially the Chicago Sweeper. Once this is fully upgraded, you’ll have unlimited ammunition, which means you can mow down basically any group of enemies ahead of you. The Handcannon’s massive damage is useful for bosses, while the Primal Knife getting fully upgraded to be indestructible means you can parry most attacks that come your way. Save liberally, and if you die, DO NOT CONTINUE. Quit out of the game and reload your save, rather than continuing, in order to keep your completion time down.

There is also a trick to make both this run and the Hardcore S+ run a little easier. A couple weeks after launch, Capcom has added new "Resident Evil 4 Weapon Exclusive Upgrade Ticket" items to the Microsoft Store. These tickets allow you to add the exclusive upgrade to any weapon once you first meet the Merchant in Chapter 2, at no additional cost.

These new microtransactions make getting these last two playthroughs completed so much easier, which feels a bit crappy in our opinion, especially since unlocking the infinite ammo upgrades for the Chicago Sweeper and Handcannon early make the game significantly more fun. But if you do want to give Capcom a bit more of your money, then you can buy a three-pack of the Weapon Exclusive Upgrade Tickets, and use them on the Primal Knife, Chicago Sweeper, and Primal Knife, to unlock infinite ammo for all three. This makes the game significantly easier, and you should be able to complete a playthrough on either Standard or Hardcore in around 4 hours.

Mission Accomplished S+ (30G) 

Hardcore S+ playthrough 
Same as the Standard S+ playthrough, but much harder, and has to be separate as they don't stack. Luckily, you get an extra 30 minutes to complete this run, meaning you need to beat the game in 5-and-a-half hours. You’ll be starting on a brand new save file, no NG+, which will make the opening few chapters the toughest part of this run.

Grab the Handcannon, Chicago Sweeper, and Primal Knife from the Typewriter as soon as possible, and invest any money you grab into upgrading these three weapons, starting with the Chicago Sweeper. You won't be able to unlock its Unlimited Ammo upgrade until Chapter 9, about halfway through the game, but once you do, the rest of the run should be significantly easier.  Additionally, make sure to equip Leon with the Gas Mask and then switch on Aim Assist in the settings, and equip Ashley with the Armor so that she becomes basically invincible. Save liberally, and if you die, DO NOT CONTINUE. Quit out of the game and reload your save, rather than continuing, in order to keep your completion time down.

Make liberal use of your bonus weapons, and as soon as you fully upgrade the Chicago Sweeper, you should be able to make up for lost time in the earlier chapters.

As mentioned earlier in the guide, you can make this run significantly easier by purchasing the "Resident Evil 4 Weapon Exclusive Upgrade Ticket" items from the Microsoft Store. As exploitative as it is, buying three of these tickets (with real world money) means you can get infinite ammo for the Handcannon and Chicago Typewriter once you meet the Merchant in Chapter 2, as well as making the Primal Knife unbreakable. From this point on, the game becomes much easier, and as long as you run through areas quickly, you should be able to easily get a time under 5-and-a-half hours.

S+ Rank Investigator (50G) 

Conclusion:
A remake full of changes and adjustments that stays true to the spirit of the original, Resident Evil 4 can't be seen as anything but a complete success. Some may malign what's missing, but the areas that have been added or expanded more than make up for what's been taken out. This is brilliant stuff.