How to Stealth Kill in Resident Evil 4 Remake

Sometimes it pays to be subtle, even in a game that’s as fundamentally unsubtle as the Resident Evil 4 remake. Right from the start, you can solve a problem like Ganados with a silent knife takedown. Here’s what you need to know about how to stealth kill in the Resident Evil 4 remake.

Knife to Meet You: How to Assassinate Enemies in Resident Evil 4 2023

As long as Leon has any kind of intact knife on him, you can perform a stealth kill on most standard enemies. This includes villagers, zealots, soldiers, and most other varieties of infected human.

To activate a stealth kill, creep up behind an enemy until a contextual command appears, then hit the corresponding button. Leon will take out the enemy with his knife, which drops them in one hit at the cost of a bit of your current knife’s durability. This will only work if an enemy hasn’t noticed you or if they’ve been stunned by a flash grenade. Your first stealth kill completes the ‘Covert Basics’ challenge.

It’s worth going for a stealth kill whenever possible. It saves ammunition, but more importantly, enemies that die this way typically won’t spawn Plaga tentacles or get back up as one of the tougher, neck-twisted Desnucados.

Notably, you don’t actually have to open a stealth kill from the stealth crouch. It’s entirely possible to run up and gank an enemy, as long as they’re yet to notice Leon by the time you hit them.

You can even backstab “mini-bosses,” like Dr. Salvador the chainsaw guy, his distaff counterparts the Bella Sisters, or the big hammer-wielding Brutes. Getting the drop on them might not lead to a one-hit kill on higher difficulties, but if it isn’t, it will at least do a lot of damage.

Garradors — the blind clawed enemies — do have a vulnerability on their backs that you can exploit. If you sneak up on one, Leon will jam his knife directly into the Garrador’s parasite to inflict serious damage. If you kill a Garrador by only stabbing it in the back, that unlocks the ‘Never Heard It Coming’ trophy/achievement.

If you’re looking for other knife tricks in the Resident Evil 4 remake beyond the stealth kill, you’ll no doubt be interested in finding out how to parry.