RE7 walkthrough: a complete guide from the Baker house to the ship
The Baker house swallows the screen for the first hour of Resident Evil 7, and most players who look for a walkthrough at this point are not lost because the game is unclear. They are lost because the game uses a layered design that deliberately hides a simple spine behind a lot of environmental noise. This guide is built around that spine. It walks every chapter, the major item chains, the boss fights, the antique coin and Mr. Everywhere locations, and the surviving crew sections on the ship, then finishes with the design decisions that make the campaign feel like a single connected horror structure rather than a series of escape-room vignettes.
Resident Evil 7 is a first-person survival horror game published by Capcom in January 2017 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC, with later releases on Nintendo Switch, PS5, and Xbox Series consoles through the cloud and updated native versions. The campaign follows Ethan Winters as he searches a derelict Louisiana plantation for his missing wife, Mia, and then deals with the consequences of that rescue. Three difficulty modes change the experience substantially, and the unlockable Madhouse mode is not a simple damage slider; it changes item placement, enemy behavior, and save rules. The walkthrough below assumes Normal difficulty unless stated otherwise, and it calls out the moments where the design itself demands a different approach.
One short framing note before the per-chapter detail. The instructions here describe the intended path, the items the design expects you to find, and the fights you are meant to fight on the way. Random encounters, missed pickups, and route choices do exist, especially on Madhouse and on New Game Plus, and the guide flags the points where the design hands you a small safety net, a real choice, or a punishment. It does not assume you have played the game before, and it also does not assume you want every secret on a single pass.
Understanding the campaign structure before you start
Resident Evil 7 is divided into named chapters that map to real place changes, not just difficulty spikes. Each chapter has a clear beginning, a clear ending, and a small number of mandatory item chains that the game expects you to solve in roughly the order it presents them. Inside a chapter, the game gives you limited resources and limited saves, then resets those constraints when the next chapter opens. That rhythm is the design’s way of putting pressure on a short segment without punishing the entire run.
Three difficulty tiers matter for any walkthrough, because the campaign simply plays differently on each:
- Easy. Lower enemy damage, more healing items, fewer ambushes. Most deaths on Easy come from ignoring a clear telegraph rather than from resource starvation.
- Normal. The default tuning the designers balanced around. Enemies hit hard, healing items are limited, and the early chapters will drain you if you fight every encounter.
- Madhouse. An unlockable mode that is not simply a damage increase. Item placement is shuffled, enemies are faster, save tapes replace auto saves, and a small set of new environmental hazards appear. Walkthrough advice written for Normal can mislead you here.
Two other choices sit alongside the difficulty. You can play the game in 4K with HDR on capable hardware, and you can choose between a standard control scheme and a comfort-focused scheme that reduces camera sway. Both affect pacing but do not change item locations, so a walkthrough remains valid as long as you do not switch mid-run.
A useful design lens is that Resident Evil 7 is built around three repeating loops. The first is the inventory loop, where a small bag, a few weapons, and a small set of healing items force you to decide what to carry, what to drop, and when to backtrack to a safe room. The second is the save loop, where a save room is a hard reset for the encounter state around it, so the game is constantly asking you to think in terms of “what is the next save going to look like?” The third is the information loop, where audio logs, video tapes, and environmental notes slowly reveal what is happening in the Baker house. A walkthrough is most useful when it explains how these three loops meet at each chapter, not just where to find the next key.
What you need to know before chapter one
The game opens with a short playable sequence that is separate from the main campaign. Treat it as a tutorial, but do not skip the audio cues. The first real chapter is one of the tightest in the entire game, and a lot of players burn healing items during it because they expect a normal survival horror opening rather than a sequence designed to feel trapped.
- Inventory size. Your bag is small. Healing items, ammo, and keys all share the same limited slots, and on Normal you will not be able to carry everything you find.
- Saves. Save rooms use a tape recorder and a small box of supplies. You can save at any save room at any time, but resources spent before a save room are not refunded.
- Weapons. A single handgun is your main tool for most of the game. Shotgun, grenade launcher, and a small set of environmental weapons appear as situational tools rather than upgrades to a loadout.
- Enemies. The molded are not aggressive hunters. They are area-based, and avoiding them is often cheaper than fighting them.
From a design perspective, the campaign is also the first place where Resident Evil 7 signals that it is no longer using the third-person camera of Resident Evil 5 and 6. The first-person view is a deliberate choice. It lets the designers hide threats at the edge of the screen, time scares to head-bobbing footsteps, and turn inventory management into a diegetic event. When the walkthrough tells you to move slowly through a corridor, that is not filler. It is a design instruction that the game gives you through animation and audio, and the chapter structure is built to reward that pacing.
Chapter 1: The Baker house, the guest room, and the dining room
The Baker house is the main tutorial zone for the whole game. You start locked in a guest room and need to find a way out of the upper floor, down to the main hall, and into the dining room where you meet Jack Baker for the first proper boss fight. Items here are staged so that the first handgun, the first healing, and the first save room are all reachable in a short loop.
The intended path is roughly:
- Search the guest room for the remote, use it to disable the TV, and pick up the pistol on the table.
- Move to the door, follow the corridor, and use the lever in the save room to unlock the next section.
- Pick up the handgun ammo in the corridor and the first aid med in the bathroom.
- Return through the upper hallway, drop into the main hall, and enter the dining room.
The first boss fight against Jack Baker is a teaching fight. He is large, slow, and tells you when he is about to swing. The intended tactic is to shoot him in the legs when he charges, dodge the overhead swing, and then punish the recovery. The fight ends when a cutscene triggers, and the game telegraphs the cutscene with a clear audio cue. If you are low on ammo, running around the table is valid, but on Normal you should aim to spend a full magazine to learn the pattern.
Chapter 2: The yard, the greenhouse, and the first true choice
Chapter 2 opens the game up. You get access to the yard, the greenhouse, the old house, and a longer stretch of the Baker plantation. This is also where the game introduces the antique coin and Mr. Everywhere collectible sets, both of which are optional but useful: antique coins unlock three weapon upgrades, and Mr. Everywhere statues unlock a bonus mode at the end of the run.
Item priorities in this chapter are clear. You need a bolt cutter to reach the greenhouse, a dog head key to access the locked upper rooms of the old house, and a set of batteries for the flashlight. On Normal, the game will not let you miss any of these, but the order in which you collect them is up to you. The walkthrough below uses the order the designers built around, because it keeps you near a save room between each new tool.
| Objective | Location | Reward or unlock |
|---|---|---|
| Find the bolt cutter | Yard, near the greenhouse | Access to the greenhouse item chain |
| Find the dog head key | Main hall, upstairs corridor | Access to the old house upper floor |
| Find the car key | Inside the greenhouse after the puzzle | Access to the second half of the yard |
| Defeat the second boss | Old house, second floor | Cutscene and chapter transition |
The second boss is also a teaching fight, but a different one. It is the first time the game locks you in a small arena with limited healing and asks you to read a multi-phase pattern. The pattern is deliberate: the first phase punishes aggression, the second phase rewards it. Players who try to brute force the entire fight usually run out of ammo halfway through. The intended approach is to spend the first phase dodging and learning the tells, then to commit to offense once the second phase begins.
Chapter 3: Mia, the laboratory, and the second boss chain
Chapter 3 is the shortest chapter in the campaign. It shifts perspective briefly to Mia, the missing wife, and is a sharp change in tone: the lighting is clinical, the enemies are slow but relentless, and the save room is hidden behind a small puzzle. From a design perspective, this chapter is the bridge between the Baker house and the rest of the game. It gives the player a moment of relative safety and then ends with a revelation that reframes the entire story.
Players often have two questions about this chapter. The first is whether to fight or run from the molded in the laboratory. The intended approach is to run, and the design makes that clear by placing a single, slow healing item and a very small ammo cache. The second question is whether to pick up the player-selectable weapon that appears in this chapter. On Normal the weapon is worth the inventory slot; on Madhouse it is a judgment call that depends on your run state.
Chapter 4: Return to the Baker house and the Marguerite boss
Chapter 4 brings Ethan back to the Baker house, but the house is no longer the controlled tutorial zone from chapter 1. The Molded now spawn in the corridors, the lighting has changed, and the safe rooms have moved. This is also the chapter where Marguerite Baker becomes the main boss, and she is a very different fight from the two earlier bosses.
| Boss | Area | Phase count | Key tactic |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jack Baker, first encounter | Dining room | One | Shoot the legs, dodge the overhead swing |
| Jack Baker, second encounter | Old house, second floor | Two | Learn the first phase, commit in the second |
| Marguerite Baker | Greenhouse and yard | Two | Burn insects with fire, avoid the area-denial |
| Jack Baker, final | Main hall, after the yard sequence | Three | Manage distance, watch for the chain attack |
The Marguerite fight is a good example of how the game uses environment as a weapon. The greenhouse opens up vertical space and a clear set of cover spots. The yard closes it in and removes those covers. The intended answer is not to fight the design but to play inside it: burn insects with the lighter or flamethrower, force her into a small arena, and only then commit to a real damage phase.
Chapter 5: The birthday party and the second Jack Baker fight
Chapter 5 is short, scripted, and one of the most discussed sections of the campaign. It is essentially a single encounter with Jack Baker in a confined space, and it is the part of the game most affected by Madhouse mode. On Normal it is a tense, well-telegraphed fight. On Madhouse it is a resource check: a single missed dodge can cost you the run if you have not stockpiled healing items.
For a reader who is interested in the series as a whole, the official RE7 disambiguation page is the cleanest summary of how the abbreviation is used across games, books, and other media, and the broader history of the Resident Evil franchise is described on the franchise’s main page if you want to follow the series from its 1996 release through the 2017 redesign and into the later native re-releases. For readers who want to keep the horror and development lens together, the practical horror design notes in the best horror games on Roblox roundup cover a very different platform but use the same vocabulary of safe rooms, resource pressure, and design intent.
The intended approach is to stay near the door, use the table for cover, and only attack when Jack is recovering from a swing. The game gives you a small cache of healing items in the room, but it also telegraphs the moment Jack is about to become temporarily invincible, and players who ignore that cue tend to waste ammo on invulnerable frames.
Chapter 6: The Wrecked Ship, the crew, and the longest chapter in the game
Chapter 6 is the longest chapter in the campaign and the one most players use a walkthrough for. The setting shifts to a beached cargo ship, the enemy type changes to a faster, more aggressive molded, and the chapter introduces the first real stealth sections. The design intent here is to slow the player down and reward route knowledge over raw aim. A blind run through the ship is survivable, but it usually costs a lot of healing items.
The chapter is built around three large rooms, each gated by a different item chain, and a fourth area that ties them together. A clean walkthrough keeps the player in roughly this order:
- Reach the infirmary, find the first tape, and learn the basic crew layout.
- Find the cargo key, unlock the cargo hold, and pick up the grenade launcher parts.
- Return to the infirmary, restore the power, and unlock the third deck.
- Reach the bridge, trigger the mid-chapter cutscene, and prepare for the boss fight at the end of the chapter.
The boss at the end of the chapter is the first fight in the game where the player is expected to use a heavy weapon. The grenade launcher and the burn damage from a specific environmental weapon are the intended solutions. Pure handgun play is possible on Easy but punishing on Normal and near-suicidal on Madhouse.
One of the design decisions that shows up in this chapter is the way the game handles stealth. There are no dedicated stealth mechanics. Instead, the ship is built with three clear states: a safe state, a warned state, and a combat state. A walkthrough is most useful when it tells you which state you are about to enter, because the state determines which items are worth using and which you should save.
Chapter 7: The final return to the Baker house and the last boss
Chapter 7 returns the player to the Baker house one more time. The house is now in a partially destroyed state, and the chapter is essentially a small dungeon leading into the final boss. The intended path is short, the resources are limited, and the design uses a single final save room to set the tone of the closing fight.
The final boss is a multi-phase fight against Jack Baker in his most aggressive form. The first phase is a learning phase, the second phase is a damage phase, and the third phase is a close-range burst phase that punishes greedy play. The game gives the player a full heal just before the third phase, but the design expects you to spend the first two phases efficiently so that you still have a healing item left for the third.
Chapter 8: The ending, the end credits, and the unlockable epilogue
Chapter 8 is short and is treated by the game as an epilogue rather than a true chapter. The first-time playthrough ends on a final cutscene that closes the main story, and the game unlocks a small set of post-game modes only after the credits roll. Two of these modes matter for a walkthrough:
- Madhouse mode. A rebalanced campaign with shuffled items, faster enemies, and save tape rules. Walkthrough advice written for Normal does not transfer cleanly.
- New Game Plus. Carries over weapons, unlocks the Albert-01 hand cannon, and changes a small number of item locations. The walkthrough still works, but expect at least one surprise.
The unlockable 21 mode, reached by finding all Mr. Everywhere statues, is a small, separate challenge. It does not need its own walkthrough but it is the kind of bonus that a careful reader will want to know about before they finish the main run.
Collectibles, item chains, and where the walkthrough overlaps with the secrets
Resident Evil 7 has four main collectible systems. The walkthrough covers the mandatory items in the order the game expects them, but it is worth listing the optional sets in one place so a reader can decide how much of the side content to chase.
| Collectible set | Total in game | Purpose | Walkthrough cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Antique coins | 18 | Unlock three weapon upgrades | High; many are off the main path |
| Mr. Everywhere statues | 20 | Unlock the bonus 21 mode | High; some require precise route choices |
| Files and tapes | Many | Lore and one bonus weapon | Low; most are on the main path |
| Hidden unlock tokens | A few | Unlock extra weapons and armors | Medium; tied to specific moments |
From a design perspective, the collectible systems are not random. They are a way for the designers to give a careful player a reason to move slowly through the chapters, which in turn makes the horror pacing work. A walkthrough that ignores the collectibles therefore gives the player a faster but more stressful run, while a walkthrough that includes them gives the player a slower but better-resourced one.
Combat, healing, and the inventory decisions that decide a run
The inventory is small on purpose, and the game punishes hoarding as much as it punishes waste. The design’s intent is that the player should arrive at a save room with about one healing item left, not a full bag. A walkthrough is most useful at the moments where this balance breaks. The list below is the set of decisions that decide whether a run survives the ship chapter and the final chapter.
- First aid med vs. strong first aid med. Strong heals cost more inventory slots. On Normal, the intended answer is to carry one strong heal and several first aid meds, not the other way around.
- Handgun ammo vs. shotgun shells. Shotgun shells are rare and should be saved for scripted moments. Burning them on random molded costs the player a real boss later.
- Grenade launcher parts. The grenade launcher appears in pieces. Picking up the first piece is mandatory. The second piece is optional, and the design’s intended answer is to wait until you have already used one heavy weapon before picking up the second.
- Burn weapons and chemicals. Some areas are designed around burn damage. A walkthrough that does not flag those areas is asking the player to waste chemicals on the wrong fights.
From a design point of view, the inventory system is the most underrated part of the campaign. Players who learn the bag’s constraints early tend to enjoy the rest of the game much more than players who treat the bag as a checklist.
Madhouse mode: what changes and what the walkthrough still covers
Madhouse mode is not a difficulty setting in the usual sense. It is a rebalanced version of the campaign with three real changes:
- Item placement is shuffled. Many safe pickups move, and many pickups that were guaranteed become conditional.
- Save rules change. Auto-saves are replaced by save tapes, and the player is expected to plan save use carefully.
- Enemy behavior is faster. The Molded react more quickly, and a small set of new traps appear in the ship chapter.
Because of the item shuffle, a Normal walkthrough is a guide, not a map, on Madhouse. The chapter-by-chapter spine still applies, but the exact location of the bolt cutter, the dog head key, and the car key can vary. The walkthrough above notes the moments where Madhouse is most likely to differ, and that is the level of detail Madhouse players actually need.
How Resident Evil 7 is designed as a single connected horror structure
Most walkthroughs describe a game as a series of levels. Resident Evil 7 is a useful example of a game that was designed the other way, as a single connected horror structure that uses chapters to manage pacing rather than to reset the world. Three design decisions show up in the walkthrough above and explain why a chapter-by-chapter guide still feels coherent.
First, the chapter transitions are always triggered by a story beat, not by a level exit. The cutscene that ends the first Jack Baker fight is the same cutscene that opens chapter 2. The cutscene that ends the Mia chapter is the same cutscene that reframes the rest of the campaign. The player never feels that they are crossing a load boundary, and the walkthrough can lean into that by describing what the player sees, not just what they pick up.
Second, the save system is a diegetic device. The save rooms are not abstract rest points. They are locations in the world, with a tape recorder, a small set of supplies, and a consistent visual identity. The walkthrough above treats the save rooms as part of the design, which is the only honest way to describe how the game is balanced.
Third, the inventory is a narrative device. The bag is small because Ethan is a normal person, and the walkthrough above is honest about the fact that the game is more fun when you accept that constraint instead of trying to break it. The game is at its weakest when the player treats the inventory as a problem and at its strongest when the player treats it as a character trait.
Those three decisions are also why the game continues to be discussed as a turning point for the Resident Evil series. The design team used the first-person view, the limited inventory, and the save room system to build a single connected horror structure rather than a series of independent horror set pieces, and the walkthrough is the most direct way to see that structure in action.
Frequently asked questions
How long is the Resident Evil 7 main campaign?
On Normal difficulty, a first-time playthrough of the main campaign takes around 10 to 12 hours for a player who is not chasing every collectible, and around 14 to 16 hours for a player who is. Madhouse mode adds another few hours because the random molded and shuffled item placement make the run longer. A focused New Game Plus run with carried-over weapons can finish in under 6 hours.
Is Madhouse mode worth playing for a first run?
Madhouse mode is best left for a second run, not the first. The shuffled item placement, the save tape rules, and the faster enemies change the way the game wants to be played, and a player who starts on Madhouse without knowing the campaign will end up with a very different experience than the one the design is balanced around. Play the campaign on Normal first, learn the chapter spine, then start a Madhouse run with a walkthrough open.
What is the best weapon in Resident Evil 7?
The handgun is the workhorse of the campaign and remains useful through the final chapter. The shotgun is the right weapon for tight corridors and small boss phases. The grenade launcher and the burn weapons are situational tools for scripted moments. There is no single “best” weapon, and a walkthrough that recommends one weapon for the whole run is missing how the design actually works.
Where do I find every antique coin?
Antique coins are scattered across the campaign, with the heaviest concentration in the Baker house and the ship. A small number are in the yard and the old house. The collectible is the gateway to three weapon upgrades, so it is worth chasing on a first run, but the walkthrough above does not list every coin because the locations are easier to read from a map than from a chapter guide.
What does the 21 mode actually add?
21 mode is a short bonus challenge that unlocks after the player has found all 20 Mr. Everywhere statues. It is a small, separate arena with a single set of rules and a leaderboard. It is not required for the main ending, and it does not need its own walkthrough, but it is the kind of bonus that gives a careful player a reason to clean up the collectible set.
Are there missable items in Resident Evil 7?
Yes, but fewer than players expect. A small number of weapons, upgrades, and unlock tokens can be missed if the player runs past a specific moment, especially in chapter 4 and chapter 6. The walkthrough above flags the moments that are most likely to be missed, and the chapter-by-chapter structure makes it easy to check those points without reloading an entire run.
Should I use the grenade launcher parts as soon as I find them?
Not necessarily. The grenade launcher is powerful but the parts are scattered, and the design’s intended answer is to pick up the first part, learn the rest of the chapter, and only then commit to the second part. Using the second part early usually means a stronger mid-chapter fight and a weaker late-chapter fight, which is the wrong trade for most runs.
Is Resident Evil 7 still worth playing in 2026?
Yes, especially on a current platform. The native re-releases on PS5, Xbox Series, and PC include the full campaign, the Banned Footage DLC, the End of Zoe and Not a Hero expansions, and the survival-based Ethan Must Die mode. The base game also still benefits from the 2017 lighting and audio work, which has aged well and is one of the reasons a horror walkthrough still feels useful.
What is the difference between the Banned Footage DLC and the main campaign?
Banned Footage is a collection of short, separate horror vignettes that use the Baker house as a setting but do not continue the main story. They are best played after the main campaign, both for the gameplay reasons and for the story reasons. They are not required for the main ending, and a walkthrough of the main campaign does not need to cover them.
Does New Game Plus change the walkthrough?
New Game Plus carries over weapons and unlocks a small set of new items, including the Albert-01 hand cannon. The chapter spine does not change, but a small number of pickups shift, and the player can approach the early chapters with a much stronger loadout. The walkthrough above is valid for New Game Plus, with the caveat that the first Jack Baker fight is no longer the resource check it was on a first run.