Resident Evil Village is an awesome contiuation of the undead-filled survival horror franchise, now set in an unknown remote European village. It takes cues and pays homage to various previous Resident Evil games, perhaps most notably Resident Evil 4. Similarly to RE4, Resident Evil Village has a merchant who will trade currency called Lei for various upgrades and supplies.
Getting Lei can be a bit tough, especially to start with, so we're sharing some tips on gathering it throughout the game, to supplement our range of Resident Evil Village Beginner Guides.
Say hi to the Duke
Resident Evil Village's vendor-in-chief is the Duke, a mysterious gent who seems to be profiteering from all the chaos in and around the village. Here are a few tips on using the Duke effectively, and information on how his stocks change throughout the game.
- The Duke's inventory is tailored to your progression in the game. You can't grind tons of Lei and buy 5,000 healing potions, for example. There's a limited number of certain consumables in stock at any moment.
- You shouldn't buy consumeables from the Duke unless it's an absolute emergency. The game offers more than enough ammo and health to survive every encounter on normal difficulty.
- You should save your Lei for weapon upgrades primarily, focusing on power to start with to make your shots more efficient.
- You should also consider focusing your Lei on fully upgrading a small handful of weapons. If you upgrade a weapon fully, you unlock unlimited ammo for your next Resident Evil Village playthrough, making higher difficulties more manageable.
- Do not sell meat from killing pigs or goats, etc, unless you've finished upgrading all of your stats with the Duke. If you've got all of the stat upgrades already, then you can sell any meat you get for a bit of extra cash.
- Later in the game, you can find special "Treasures" to sell to the Duke for massive profits. More on that in the next section.
Finding all the Lei
Resident Evil's Lei currency can be found all over the game's sizeable map in various different incarnations. It can drop from enemies, you can find it in drawers and cupboards, and you can get it by selling items to the Duke. Here are some tips for maximizing your Lei earnings.
- The amount of Lei you can get in a playthrough is somewhat fixed, given that there is a set amount of enemies in the game.
- Each enemy has a chance to drop Lei, as do animals like crows. You can shoot crows to earn a fairly decent amount of Lei, but they fly away, so your aim better be pretty good!
- Sometimes enemies drop unique "treasures" like crystal skulls, which can be sold for extra Lei.
- When searching the map, rooms will turn from red to blue when they have been fully looted. Sometimes, crystals that can be sold for Lei can be hidden as a flickering object on walls. Look up for shinies.
- Some treasures are combinable, and can be worth up to four times more after finding all of the objects to make an item whole. Don't sell combineable treasures by themselves unless you accidentally sold another part previously. It will say on the item if you can combine them, with a square slot noting how many combineable items you need to complete the object.
- A few key items can be examined and dismantled for extra treasure items, so be sure to examine everything you grab.
- If you're focusing on a couple of weapons for upgrades (shotgun and magnum get my recommendation), you can potentially sell ammo from weapons you're not actively using for a bit of extra Lei.
- Bosses often drop unique crystal formations that can be sold for a huge amount of Lei.
- There are some optional bosses too, but those are spoilers, so skip the next section below if you don't want to read about them just yet.
Killing optional hidden bosses in Resident Evil Village
The next section has some minor spoilers, so you may want to skip this if you're playing for the first time.
Resident Evil Village has a few hidden and not-so-hidden optional bosses that can be worth a decent amount of Lei. They become accessible after completing certain parts of the game. Each of these is worth anywhere up to 15,000 Lei and beyond, making upgrading weapons a lot easier.
The first "hidden" boss is in the graveyard area, outside Lady Beneviento's area. The boss spawns when you bring a Broken Slab from the central graveyard near the drawbridge to Dimitrescu's castle. The Broken Slab becomes available when a mausoleum opens up at a certain point in the story, spilling attacking zombies in your direction. When you bring the Broken Slab back to the Beneviento grave area, an ogre-like boss will be there. The boss drops 15,000 Lei treasure. The Slab can also open up Claudia Beneviento's grave, giving you another treasure item to sell to the Duke.
The second "hidden" boss can be found via a hidden path before meeting Heisenburg. After completing Moreau's dam section, you'll be called to do battle with Heisenburg, who will lure you to his factory. Up the steps to his area, there will be a sign saying "Good Luck." If you ignore the sign and head to the left, you will find the Otto's Mill area. Inside is another another ogre-like boss, a bunch of hidden meat and fish, and other goodies to sell to the Duke.
That's a wrap!
Those are our main quick-and-easy tips for getting more Lei in Resident Evil Village. Lei isn't too hard to come by, but you can maximize how much Lei you can earn by playing efficiently, avoiding buying consumeables, and exploring every corner of each room.
For more Resident Evil Village guides, hit the links below. Resident Evil Village is available now for Xbox Series S/X, PS5, and PC, and is quite probably one of the best Xbox games of the moment, and certainly one of the best Xbox horror games. You should definitely give it a go.
- Resident Evil Village Guide: Where to find all the Goats of Warding
- Resident Evil Village Guide: 5 beginner's tips and tricks
- Resident Evil Village Guide: How to unlock infinite ammo
Slay Resident Evil Village will these top tips and guides.
- Resident Evil Village guides
