So, you’ve witnessed the horrific results of Umbrella’s heinous experiments first-hand as Jill Valentine and lived to tell the tale. You’ve earned a self-applied pat on the back for surviving the Nemesis’ relentless onslaught alone, but the story’s not over yet. In continuing a long-standing Resident Evil tradition, Capcom has seen fit to encourage repeated playthroughs of the third game’s reimagined campaign with the promise of various bonus rewards and unlockable difficulties.
Unlike previous installments, however – which usually award infinite ammo weapons and the like for hitting certain rank milestones – Resident Evil 3 lets players pick and choose which rewards they want first via an in-game shop available upon the first completion. Everything for sale, whether it be alternate costumes for Jill or a tank-busting rocket launcher, can only be purchased with points earned from completing challenges in the story.
You’ll have a bunch of these waiting for you upon your first visit, though you’ll need to achieve an S-Rank finish on every difficulty to start raking in the big bucks, so to speak.
Do note, however, that the parameters for recording a perfect run vary by difficulty and are as follows:
S-Rank Requirements (Per Difficulty)
- Assisted: Complete the story in 2.5 hours with 5 or fewer saves.
- Standard: Complete the story in 2 hours with 5 or fewer saves.
- Hardcore: Complete the story in 1 hour and 45 minutes with 5 or fewer saves.
- Nightmare: Complete the story in 2 hours with 5 or fewer saves.
- Inferno: Complete the story in 2 hours with 5 or fewer saves.
Thankfully, your rank is not affected by the use of any items already purchased from the bonus store and you’ll arguably want at least several of the stat-boosting coins in order to make it through Inferno in one piece. Save points are few and far between in Resident Evil 3‘s toughest difficulty and auto-saves are non-existent, so you’ll need to choose wisely when to burn one of the five saves you’re allowed to make. Good luck!
