In the world of Resident Evil 4, it isn’t just the existence of viruses and parasites that turn normal people into crazed zombies that differentiates it from our own reality. In this ream, most homes and buildings don’t just simply lock their doors, but secure them using obscure puzzles, such as the one you will find early on when you reach the Village Chief’s Manor. This small home has two major roadblocks preventing you from moving on and pursuing your goal of finding the president’s daughter. While there is a clue to the first puzzle, it is still somewhat cryptic and easy to miss, while the second is much less clear on what you’re even being asked to do. Don’t let these early puzzles stump you for too long — use our help in solving the Village Chief’s Manor puzzles in Resident Evil 4.
How to solve the cabinet lock puzzle
After entering the manor and dealing with a lone enemy in the bathroom, the first puzzle you need to solve is on the ground floor. Around the back of the house, down the hall with a Red Herb, is a large cabinet. The lock has three symbols you need to correctly align to open, and those symbols include things such as wheat, animals, babies, and birds. You won’t be able to guess this one, so instead, you need to go up to the second floor and examine a book on a table in the hallway. This document, called “Illuminados 4:3, spells out the solution. The important part is the middle paragraph with the highlighted text that reads: “The old farmer, his finest crop./ The Slight swineherd, his stoutest pig./ The beggarly grandam, her own beloved babe.”
Naturally, this means the solution will be the symbols of wheat, a pig, and the baby (not a second pig if your mind went to Babe like ours did). Inside, you will collect the Crystal Marble, which is required to open the second locked door on the second floor. However, don’t let your guard down, as that villager you took out in the bathroom has gotten back up to attack you on the way.
How to solve the marble puzzle
Taking the Crystal Marble upstairs and slotting it into the locked door will trigger the second and final puzzle in the Village Chief’s Manor. This one, however, is much more difficult than the first.
You will be presented with a zoomed-in image of the marble, which is full of air bubbles, and the symbol of the cult in the center. Your goal is to orient the bubbles so that they all line up and form the shape of the symbol behind them. The tricky part is that you need to move the marble in 3D space — side to side and forwards and backwards — to get it lined up. Since there’s no clear way to direct your movements, the best strategy we found was to “face” the bubbles so that they are as flat as possible. From there, you should only need to determine if you need to spin it to line it up, or rotate the entire marble if it’s backwards.
Once you get it set, the door will finally be open, and you can investigate the final room in the manor.
