Insanity Chapter Walkthrough — Resident Evil Requiem (RE9)

Insanity is RE9's hardest difficulty — enemies hit twice as hard, healing is scarcer, and there is no auto-save. This RE9 walkthrough is a chapter-by-chapter playbook covering every boss, every save room, and the ammo discipline that separates a clean run from a wipe at Victor Gideon.

Prerequisites and unlock

Insanity is locked until you complete the main campaign on any difficulty. After credits, the option appears as a third difficulty tile on the NG+ menu. Full unlock details and prep checklist are in our Insanity difficulty unlock guide.

Before starting, run the Insanity readiness check — it confirms you have the carry-forward weapons (Marksman 1A, Mortal Edge Hatchet, infinite-ammo bonuses if earned) and at least one save slot dedicated to a fresh Insanity run.

Chapter 1 — Care Center West (preserve ammo, parry practice)

The opening Care Center West Wing chapter is your low-stress runway for learning Insanity's new damage values. Conserve ammo aggressively — you will need 15+ S&S M232 handgun rounds banked for The Chef.

// AMMO DISCIPLINE

• Skip every avoidable zombie — most Bar & Lounge encounters can be sprinted past
• Practice knife parries on lone zombies — parry stagger lets you knife-execute without ammo
• Pick up every gunpowder for crafting — see crafting recipes
• Save the Hemorrhetic Injector — single-use heal, do not waste before Chef fight

End of chapter brings you to The Chef encounter in the Care Center kitchen. See Chef boss guide for the freezer corner exploit that works on every difficulty.

Chapter 2 — Care Center East + Basement (Chef, Chunk #1, blood specimen puzzle)

The middle Care Center chapter is the first Insanity wall. Chunk #1 (the larger variant) appears in the East Wing 2F corridor and one-shots you if you panic-shoot instead of parry-rolling.

// CHUNK ROUTE

1. Lure Chunk into the Examination Room. Tight walls cancel his charge attack.
2. Use W870 Police shotgun shells, not S&S M232 handgun. Five W870 Police shotgun rounds drop him; thirty S&S M232 handgun rounds barely scratch.
3. Reserve the Pharmacy's First Aid Spray for this fight only — do not pick up early.

Full Chunk strategy in the Chunk boss guide. Basement section requires the blood specimen puzzle — solution path is in the quartz puzzle solutions page (same mechanic, different shrine).

Chapter 3 — Courtyard (Blister-borne, sewer routing)

Courtyard opens with the Blister-borne ambush. On Insanity, three Blister-borne spawn simultaneously instead of two, and their pustule burst has a 1.3× larger radius.

// BLISTER-BORNE STRATEGY

• Stay on the high planter wall — Blister-borne cannot climb it
• Marksman 1A headshots from elevation pop pustules safely
• Do not melee — pustule burst on contact deals 60% HP on Insanity

Full strategy in Blister-borne boss guide. After the fight, sewer routing splits — take the East tunnel for the second save room, skip the West tunnel (dead end + ammo trap).

Chapter 4 — Water Treatment (The Girl boss strategy)

Water Treatment is Grace's solo chapter and the second Insanity wall. The Girl is genuinely fast on Insanity — her dash covers ¾ of the arena in under a second.

// THE GIRL — INSANITY DELTA

1. Pre-load the upper catwalk with Hand Grenades before the fight triggers.
2. Use the pumping station valve — turning it floods the lower deck, forcing The Girl into a 4-second stun.
3. Empty Requiem Revolver during the stun window. Three Requiem Revolver rounds = 60% of her HP gone.

Full strategy + arena map in The Girl boss guide. After the kill, take the maintenance lift up — do not backtrack through the flooded floor (you'll lose 15% HP per second to contamination).

Chapter 5 — RPD + Orphanage (Mr. X chase, evidence room safe)

You return to Leon for the RPD chapter. Mr. X stalks the building from cutscene one — on Insanity, his hearing radius is roughly doubled. Walk, do not run, except during scripted chases.

// RPD ROUTE

• Evidence room safe — combination in safe codes guide; rewards 1× First Aid Spray + 6× Requiem Revolver rounds (vital for Tyrant phase)
• Orphanage detour — file #41 + Mr. Raccoon #14 are in the orphanage attic; both Mr. Raccoon and file guides have full coords
• Super Tyrant arena — see Mr. X / Super Tyrant boss guide

Chapter 6 — Raccoon City Square (Titan Spinner)

Raccoon City Square is the largest open arena in the game. On Insanity it spawns 12 Hunter Gamma between the RPD exit and the Titan Spinner boss arena.

// SKIP THE HUNTERS

Hunters are not required kills. Sprint the inside-perimeter of the fountain, drop down into the subway access on the south side. This saves 40+ S&S M232 handgun rounds for the Titan Spinner fight. See Titan Spinner boss guide for the leg-shot stagger pattern.

Chapter 7 — ARK Facility (Plant 43, Commander, Victor Gideon)

The final chapter is three bosses back-to-back. Full chapter routing is in our ARK Facility walkthrough; below are the Insanity-specific deltas.

// PLANT 43 INSANITY DELTA

Side bud HP scales ~2× on Insanity. Bring Hand Grenades — two grenades destroy both side buds in one throw each. Truck-canister finisher window shrinks to ~2.5 seconds; do not hesitate. Full guide.

// THE COMMANDER INSANITY DELTA

The Commander's cleaver one-shots Leon even with full armor on Insanity. Stay in the southwest corner — there's a pillar that blocks his wide-arc swing entirely. Parry timing widens by 4 frames on Insanity, ironically making the parry slightly easier if you have the timing. Full guide.

// VICTOR GIDEON INSANITY DELTA

Phase 2 Victor regenerates HP if you fail to land a hatchet hit within 4 seconds of stagger. You need 5 hatchet hits instead of 3 on Insanity. Bring the Mortal Edge Hatchet at minimum 80% durability into the final chamber. Full guide.

What comes next

Beating Insanity unlocks the "Through Madness" gold trophy. If you also collected all 22 antique coins, 25 Mr. Raccoon dolls, and 75 files during this run, the Platinum drops on credits. Roadmap in platinum trophy guide.

For NG+ unlock content beyond Insanity (secret ending + final RNA puzzle), see NG+ RNA puzzle solution.