Overview
Generic tips and common sense for Resident Evil Revelations 2 “Countdown” Mode.
Introduction
Greetings, T-Phobos test subject.
Of all the modes RER2 contains, Countdown has been one of my favorites. During normal play, you have the luxury of exploring the land, revealing all the secrets, searching for resources and keeping a well managed inventory.
“Countdown Mode” throws all that away, forcing you to keep moving, spending little to no time doing anything other than getting from A to B – limiting your options, resources, and adding tension into the mix. There’s hardly enough time to even manage your inventory as every second can be precious.
Some of you have already perfectly cleared Countdown Mode – others may be finding it a bit daunting, so here’s a collection of tips to help you make some progress – though bare in mind, it is not a ‘walkthrough’, more a collection of common sense and generic pointers.
Video: Episode.4 [Barry] – Full Countdown Clear [S-Rank]
A full clear of Ep.4 [Barry] with S-Rank.
If you have not completed the game, then this video will contain [Spoilers]. Otherwise, you can see the majority of the tips from this guide being put into motion.
Basics: Movement
You’ll finally discover just how frustrating your characters stamina can be.
You will be out of breath for 75% of the game, which is where the first tip comes in.
If you find yourself out of breath, or have to endure parts of the campaign where your character automatically ‘walks’ or disallows ‘sprinting’ in order to chit-chat, this is where you replace sprinting with evasion spam to keep moving faster. You can see me doing this at the start of the above video, seeing as the Barry/Natalia ‘chit-chat’ at the beginning of Ep.4 removes your ability to sprint until they stop talking.
Anytime you run out of breath, evade 5 times in your chosen direction (rather than walk) then resume sprinting. This is about as long as it takes for your character to catch their breath.
In addition, try to keep going in as straight a line as possible, as the AI loves getting stuck occasionally if you take twisty paths. You can see me lose a LOT of time at the start of the video thanks to Natalia AI getting stuck 20 meters away when trying to jump down the first ledge towards the Crane, losing valuable time.
Basics: Combat
Avoid everything you do not need to kill – and kill only what you have to.
Yes, killing enemies generates time – though more often than not, you’d be better off getting from A to B and skipping enemies instead of dedicating time to killing them. If you’re in desperate need of time and see an opportunity to kill multiple enemies at once (and have bottles to spare), then feel free to blow up/burn a group of enemies at once — but for the most part, you should be saving as many bottle weapons as possible for the finale.
As a general rule of thumb, force yourself to use your weakest available weapon for the majority of your journey. There should only be a few rare circumstances (such as boss fights) where bigger weapons are required – and having no ammo for them at these critical moments can lead to failure.
Certain Medals give an example of how skipping enemies is beneficial. For example, by avoiding most enemies in Claire Ep.1, you can gain a lot of ‘free’ time by having the spinning blades take care of the pre-trash compactor Afflicted & Iron-Head that are located there.
In addition, make sure to swap to Natalia when dealing with Revenants as she can often fluke-kill them with as few as 1-2 brick throws. Failing that, a brick throw will usually open up their weakspot automatically – but if bricks aren’t an option, you can still pin-point the location of their weak-spot so that Barry can take them on with the Pistol if needed, saving ammo for higher-end weapons for tougher battles.
Smokescreen Bottles can also be abused in order to stealth-kill Revenants, or even force Dhurlga into a passive state indefinitely (if you decide not to stealth-attack them). A good example of this is Barry Ep.3, where a Dhurlga will leap down while you are transporting the power-cube to the final lever to exit the chapter. By using a smokescreen (after killing the Revenant & Slinger that also spawn at that time), you can casually ignore the Dhurlga and proceed to the end of the chapter.
During Episode 4, however, this is not an option – so in any similar circumstances, make sure to use and abuse any terrain (electro-boxes, exploding canisters etc) to take down enemies and preserve your ammo.
Basics: Inventory
Your resources will be scarce, seeing as you don’t have the time to loot every available item.
Spending 10 seconds tidying up/sorting items out is risky. Pick up things along the way, but don’t deviate too far from the path in order to grab extras, as this may be the difference between success and failure.
Give support items to your support character, with exception to a few herbs for your main character – and ensure your main character is hoarding all the ammo.
There will be certain times where you have some breathing space to tidy up your inventory, such as elevator rides, or segments where waiting is the only option – and during this time, you should be making sure each character is carrying the right items, dumping what you don’t need, passing items around – and making sure all your weapons are fully reloaded.
If you do this at any other point in the run, you’re wasting time.
Advanced: Content “Skipping”
There are segments in the campaign where time-consuming moments can be skipped entirely.
Ep.1:
The most common example is Ep1 [Barry] — having max-evasion perks gives you the opportunity to dodge past the spinning blades that block your path to the fire-exit, though this is only beneficial if you did not use the Flame-Bust as Claire. This invariably saves you up to 5-6 minutes of running around to turn off the spinning blades, allowing you to break out into the open well ahead of time.
Ep.1:
There is a video example online showing how the Claire/Moira ‘You need a gun too’ dialogue can be skipped, saving you about a minute of downtime.
There are many more situations like this, though these are often unessecary and mostly an option for those primarily looking to clear episodes in the shortest possible time. When you are truly stuck with dialogue (such as Ep.2 Cabin sequence, or Ep.4 Alex Dialogue with Claire/Moira), then use these opportunities to sort out your inventory and prepare for the battles ahead.
Good luck – and enjoy the Bubble Gun reward for completing Countdown Mode!
