The Chicken Hat is the goofiest accessory in Resident Evil 4 Remake — and one of the best. The Chicken Hat is basically a bonus set of armor, providing Leon with extra defense against enemies. This is critical for speedrunning Professional difficulty and one of the best pieces of gear you can unlock before attempting to earn S+ Rank. Luckily, the Chicken Hat is slightly easier to earn than some of the other unlockables. You’ll only need to complete a Hardcore S+ run.
That’s still no joke for regular players that haven’t mastered every tool in Leon’s arsenal. If you’re looking for tips to make one of the trickiest speedruns a little easier, we’ll break down some of the basic steps below. Completing a Hardcore run in RE4 is good practice for the harder difficulties — and for learning important skips that’ll get you through the toughest sections effortlessly.
More Resident Evil 4 Remake guides:
All Village Treasures | All Village Requests | All Castle Treasures | All Castle Requests | All Island Treasures | All Island Requests | Free Red9 Location | Free CQBR & LE 5 Locations | All Clockwork Castellan Locations | All Exclusive Perks | All Unlockable Weapons & Cosmetics
How To Unlock The Chicken Hat | Better Defense Accessory Guide
The Chicken Hat is a goofy accessory that gives Leon higher damage resistance. Very useful and can be used on any type of speedrun — NG+ or standard New Game.
- Chicken Hat: Complete Hardcore Difficulty with a S+ Rank. Requires completing in 5 hours and 30 minutes or less. No save limitations. Bonus Weapons are allowed.
Like with other speedruns, unlocking infinite ammo is incredibly important. The strategy is simple and gives you the biggest advantage. You can freely use Bonus Weapons and there is no penalty for dying. Exit the game and reload your save from the main menu to reset your timer. Focus on speeding through areas, skipping enemies and killing things fast.
- Making Hardcore S+ Runs Easier:
- Unlock the Primal Knife (Standard Completion) and upgrade durability first.
- Unlock the Chicago Sweeper and Ashley Knight costume by completing Professional Difficulty with an A Rank. This means you need to complete the run in under 7 hours. This can be made significantly easier with the Infinite Rocket Launcher — this Professional run can be done with NG+, so you can purchase the Infinite Ammo RPG for 2,000,000. If you start the game with enough gear, sell everything until you can get the RPG in Chapter 2. This makes the rest of the run much easier.
- Going for A Rank also does NOT require save limits, so you can save often and explore important skips.
- Unlocking the Chicago Sweeper and Ashley Knight costume will also make future Professional Runs much easier — but especially useful for Hardcore Difficulty.
- Complete Requests until you can also purchase the Exclusive Ticket on your Hardcore S+ run. Use it to unlock infinite ammo for the Chicago Typewriter (or Handcannon) to make the rest of the run much easier.
Using unlimited ammo allows you to focus on survival, skipping enemies, and quickly eliminating powerful threats and boss fights. Getting the Chicago Sweeper is a quick way to make this run much more manageable.
