Resident Evil Requiem has only been out for a few days, but players have already uncovered one of its biggest secrets, and it might be one of the strangest Easter eggs the series has ever seen. Hidden in the game’s challenge list is something called “The Final Puzzle.” When you first look at it, it just looks like a typical secret objective. But as players quickly discovered, this puzzle goes much deeper than anyone expected.
The following article may contain SPOILERS, so make sure you have already completed the game, or are well advanced, before you keep reading!
It All Started With a Severed Hand
The mystery began when players noticed something odd early in the game. After escaping the basement, you can pick up a severed hand that remains in your inventory. Normally, once you finish the Rhodes Care Home section, items that have served their purpose get a checkmark in the inventory. The hand, however, still seemed to have a hidden use.
Players eventually discovered that scanning the hand in a blood analyzer reveals a secret message: “Let’s Play.” Along with it comes a strange sequence of letters. That clue eventually led to something even stranger.
A Puzzle Hidden in Scientific Clues
After digging more and more into it, players found several odd values scattered around the Rhodes Care Home area. One file referenced C = 4.2 ly, other objects contained values like G = 150,000,000, and U = 380,000. At first, none of it made much sense, until someone realized the important detail: “ly” stands for light-years.
4.2 light-years happens to be the distance to Alpha Centauri, the closest star system to Earth. Once that made sense, the other numbers started to fall into place as well.
- C = Star (Alpha Centauri)
- U = Moon (roughly 380,000 km away)
- G = Sun (around 150 million km away)
This discovery revealed that a mysterious machine hidden in the Rhodes Care Home area could be interacted with using a sequence based on Sun, Moon, and Star symbols. Entering the correct sequence triggered the creepy sound of a little girl laughing.
But that was not the end of the puzzle.
The Real Solution Is Absurd
After days of searching, players eventually uncovered the full solution to the puzzle, and it is honestly wild. According to the players who cracked it, completing The Final Puzzle requires performing a bizarre chain of actions across the whole game:
- Waiting 15 minutes in the basement of the meat processing plant to reset the game’s flag tracking back to 0
- Do not kill any zombies when you are in the processor sequence in the basement
- After the basement, do not pick up the severed hand, and flush a toilet eight times in the West Wing (you can find this clue through a photo of a toilet with the number 8 on the wall)
- Continue the story until you reach Victor’s Office basement
- Get the Pilot’s Key in Victor’s Office basement, and when you escape, take Marie’s doll from the staircase and store it in the item box
- Finish the entire game with the doll in your item box
- Start a new playthrough afterward and play up to past the basement, pick up the severed hand this time
- Scan the hand and head to the East Wing
- Enter the Sun/Moon/Star code while carrying Emily
Once all of those conditions are met, the game should recognize that the puzzle has been completed.
Was It Even Meant to Be Solved?
Interestingly, players involved in solving the puzzle have admitted that parts of the solution were discovered through datamining, rather than pure player discovery. This has made some players angry, as complex puzzles like this often involve players cooperating, sharing theories, test runs, and more. Some players think that datamining part of the solution ultimately ruined the fun for everyone who wanted to work on this for a few weeks.
Given how specific and frankly random some of the required steps are, it is possible that solving it on your own or by multiple players cooperating would have taken an extremely long time. It can definitely be solved without datamining any part of the solution, since most clues can be put together by looking attentively at records, photos, and files. You might just need more than one run to figure it out.
This ultimately raises the question: can it really be considered solved, or should it be considered cheating?
Still, the discovery has already earned its place as one of the weirdest secrets in the series. And knowing Resident Evil, it probably will not be the last hidden mystery or Easter Egg players uncover in Requiem!
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