Resident Evil 4 Remake has a little trick that lets you stop the village fight early

Resident Evil 4 Remake has only been out for a few days, but players have already found a trick that lets you skip the village fight in its entirety.

The Resident Evil games are practically designed for players to speedrun them, encouraging you to learn them inside out so you can get as short a time as possible – after all, why else would it tell you how long it took to play the game? But it turns out that some ways to cut down on time come only in the remake’s new game plus mode, with one specific thing you can do in the game’s village section. Mild spoilers for that section below, if you haven’t played the game.

For those that haven’t played the game, in the village section you mostly just have to survive for as long as possible, and eventually a church bell will toll and the villagers will leave you alone. Some players seem to have had the thought, “what if I just ring the bell myself?” And it turns out that if you manage to shoot the bell just right, it does in fact ring early, letting you finish the section early.

Now it should be noted that you can only do this if you have the sniper rifle, a gun you get later on in the game, which is why this can only be done in new game plus. It’s a neat lil trick, and one of those “well this would make sense,” kinds of things that can make discovering secrets in games so fun.

While some players have already managed to beat the game, there’s still more to look forward to. Next month will see the release of Resident Evil 4 Remake’s Mercenaries mode, on April 7. The mode will be available as free DLC, and it sees you facing off against hordes of enemies, trying to fend them off until you die or until time runs out.