The Resident Evil franchise is host to tons of different weapons, of varying degrees of applicability to different situations. The game usually tosses the player into some sort of sparsely populated area filled with hordes of various kinds of zombie-virus-infected people with just a handgun and maybe some green herbs.
As the game progresses, the player can unlock everything from shotguns to rocket launchers (although the games also almost always feature a knife to be used in a pinch). Today, we’ll be looking at some of the best and most iconic weapons the games have to offer.
10 10. Spirit Blade
Resident Evil 7: Biohazard has a pretty good range of weapons, occasionally including things like crowbars, which definitely makes sense considering the fact that the game is a pretty big departure from anything released between Resident Evil 4 and itself. The Spirit Blade is a weapon that works about as well as the combat knife, although it does recover some health when it hits an enemy. That being said, it looks really cool despite how it’s really not much of an upgrade after all.
9 9. Circular Saw
Appearing in Resident Evil 7: Biohazard, (which is, funnily enough, the name of the entire franchise in most other countries) the circular saw is a bonus weapon that’s unlocked when the player completes the game on any difficulty in less than 4 hours. This weapon is pretty much better than nearly any melee weapon featured in previous games in the series, which makes sense given the difficult prerequisites. It also has a pretty limited playstyle, given the range and all.
8 8. Lightning Hawk
The Lightning Hawk has made a few appearances during the duration of the Resident Evil franchise, but the most recent one of its appearances was in the Resident Evil 2 remake. As cool as the Lightning Hawk was in that instance, it can’t hold a candle to the version in Resident Evil 6.
It’s one of the most powerful weapons in the game, handgun or not, that is if it’s used by a good shot.
7 7. Broken Butterfly
The Broken Butterfly is one of the only weapons in Resident Evil 4 that isn’t purchased but is instead picked up out in the world, making it a great idea to upgrade early on into the game rather than using the default pistol. It’s a decently powerful magnum, despite the fact that magnum ammo is much rarer than handgun ammo. That being said, it’s the third most powerful weapon in the game shot for shot, which means as long as the player makes the shot count, it’s worth it.
6 6. Red9
The Red9 from Resident Evil 4 is an absolutely iconic fan-favorite not just in the confines of the game, but across the entire series. It’s a beautiful gun, which looks like it’s straight out of a 007 film. Aside from the fact that it looks great, it’s one of the more powerful handguns in the game, despite the fact that it has a pretty slow reload time and doesn’t hold nearly as many bullets as one would hope. Either way, the unparalleled love for this gun alone makes up for it (the damage helps too though).
5 5. Pale Rider
This is an incredibly powerful magnum pistol appearing in both Resident Evil Revelations and Resident Evil Revelations 2.
It has pretty awful stats in comparison to a lot of the other pistols in the game, but that all that being said, it packs a wallop the likes of which aren’t otherwise seen in either of the Revelations games. It also has a rather um… distinctive design, in that it’s a pistol with a barrel the length of about half of the height of the average human body.
4 4. Railgun
The FINGeR, the Railgun, the Demon Sword of Paracelsus, whatever you want to call it, this gun absolutely wrecks any enemy is unfortunate enough to wander into its line of sight that day. While the Railgun was slightly nerfed in the Resident Evil 2 remake, in the original game, it was powerful enough to take out Nemesis in a single shot. It’s not a weapon that can be used throughout the game, but it’s nothing if not climactic when it has its time to shine.
3 3. RAI DEN
The RAI DEN exists in both the Resident Evil 2 remake and in Resident Evil: Resistance. The weapon is technically classified as a magnum, despite the fact that it’s very clearly an energy weapon.
The gun doesn’t do a ton if the player isn’t aiming for the vital points of their enemy, but that’s kinda the whole point of killing anything in the Resident Evil franchise. Once the target’s acquired and the winning shot is all queued up, the RAI DEN lives up to its god-like name.
2 2. Chicago Typewriter
The Chicago Typewriter is a good ol’ fashion Tommy-gun, right out of one of grandpa’s old bank-robbing movies. The Chicago typewriter has infinite ammo, doesn’t even require a reload, and does 100 damage every second, killing a normal Resident Evil 4 zombie in 2 or 3 shots (or .2/.3 seconds) and mowing down entire crowds where they stand in the blink of an eye or shredding bosses This gun is positively broken, and that’s the beauty of it.
1 1. RPG
Over the course of the Resident Evil franchise, there’s been plenty of weapons that fall under the umbrella (no pun intended) of heavy ordinance. There are anti-tank missiles, grenades, even the aforementioned Railgun, but there really isn’t much more one could ask for than an RPG that delivers a hail of missiles thanks to the fact that there are a few throughout the series that have infinite ammo, like a big thank you from Capcom for dealing with these stressful games.
NEXT: Resident Evil: The 5 Longest & 5 Shortest Games In The Series, Ranked
