Resident Evil 4

yes
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fight 'em 'til you can't

no tatical vest
yes knife

no all the rest, but the upgrades.

but salazar's right hand can be beaten? or even salazar itself?? the last boss? will the ammo be enough?

i plan on using blacktail since it handles crowds better than the red9.
besides it can hold more ammo and it's super fast. even though the red9 would make easier for bosses. but i prefer the blacktail.
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my gaming life in a single HTML: http://www.gamefaqs.com/users/RaphaelBelmont/games?list_type=1&platform=0

I've not done a handgun only run myself, but I did a No-Merchant run, and I used some of the tactics below to beat (or avoid) the bosses:

- 2-1. The first Gigante is the toughest to beat using a handgun+knife, because there aren't any ladders and you can't avoid fighting him. The dog will help though.
- 2-3. The Gigante on the right-hand path is easy to avoid fighting by shooting the boulders, picking up the key, and running to the exit door.
- 2-3. It takes the explosive barrel + around 50 Red9 rounds to beat Mendez's first form. You can also knife the first form by using the ladder, but it's a bit tough (for me at least). The second form of Mendez (after you break his spine) is extremely easy to knife standing near the explosive barrel, so no need to use pistol ammo there.
- 4-1. Good luck with the Knights room. You'll need to save as much ammo as possible for this part and it will be a LONG fight.
- 4-1. You can avoid fighting Verdugo by using the "door trick" to keep him out of the elevator room. (Every time Verdugo "knocks" on the door, open it slowly --by pressing X only once instead of twice-- and retreat a bit to allow the door to close again. Repeat until the elevator arrives.)
- 4-2. Make one of the twin-Gigantes fall into the lava pit and, if you're short on ammo, then you can use the ladder to knife the remaining one...it'll take 10-to-15 minutes using the knife exclusively.
- 4-4. As it's already been said, Salazar takes a lot of handgun ammo to beat and AFAIK can't be knifed.
- 5-3. "It" is not that difficult to beat using only the knife but it'll take some 20 minutes, probably. The first form is tougher; the second one is actually really easy to knife. Remember that you can use L1+R1+X+S simultaneously for all QTEs during the battle with "It". (Including the containers part.) If you don't want to knife him, as a reference, a single 250 TMP magazine (1.8 damage) will kill "it" (if he cooperates), so I would estimate that you're looking at around 70 Red9 rounds (6.5 dmg) or 100 Blacktail rounds (4.5 dmg) to finish him off. It'll take even less ammo than that if you also use both explosive barrels.
- 5-3. For Krauser, just the knife..... OBVIOUSLY.
- Final-Chapter. Saddler will take a while but you do have the 2 explosive barrels and the 2 platforms in addition to the eyes on the legs to make him expose the "main-eye". Shooting the main-eye with the pistol AND using the climb-command to knife it will reduce Saddler's health quicker than if you only use the climb-command.


Also, two areas where you might miss the rifle are the 2 times where you have to protect Ashley by sniping Zealots: Sniping with a pistol is not very fun.

As for your question about the ammo, I think there should be way more than enough ammo: this game is just FULL of pre-placed handgun ammo, plus enemies drop it a lot too. And when you need to save ammo, there are many situations where you can use the knife or simply avoid fighting.

Good luck.


Edit --- P.S.: The damage values I talk about are while playing on Pro Difficulty.

^ You mean starting-handgun-only, with upgrades and using melee attacks, but without the knife?

Because without melee, I don't see it being possible on Pro... Actually scratch that...it would be obviously impossible.

With a knife I guess it would be very possible but incredibly tedious. Also, you would have to rely on killing enemies off ladders or by using a suplex whenever possible so they don't sprout a Plaga, since defeating Plagas with only a handgun+knife is hell.

^ So there we have it, maybe I should start one sometimes.