The best 15 save points to make achieving that S+ ranking so much easier.
The Village Saves
All credit goes to joshkgw !
1st Save
- After defeating Del Lago and collecting the church gate key, just before the first El Gigante boss fight, by the merchant.
2nd Save
- At the windmill by the merchant, just before the cabin fight, by the merchant.
3rd Save
- Inside the shack just before the twin chainsaw sisters boss fight inside the fort.
4th Save
- Outside the sawmill, just before the Mendez boss fight, by the merchant.
The Castle Saves
5th Save
- Before water hall, in the room next to the tram.
6th Save
- After finding Ashley and solving the maze puzzle, in the room next to the tram with the merchant.
7th Save
- At the start of chapter 10, after playing as Ashley.
8th Save
- Before the Verdugo boss fight, by the merchant.
9th Save
- Immediately after the minecart section, in the cavern with the Novistador nest
10th Save
- Before entering the main room inside the clocktower, after the tram ride over.
The Island Saves
11th Save
- At the start of chapter 13, after defeating Ramon and leaving the castle by speed boat with Ada.
12th Save
- At the start of chapter 14, after rescuing Ashley, by the merchant.
13th Save
- Towards the end of chapter 14, just before the final Krauser boss fight, by the merchant.
14th Save
- Directly after the Krauser boss fight, by the merchant.
15th Save
- Before the Saddler boss fight, by the merchant.
Bonus Tips
- The hardest part of the run will be making it to the first save point, which means surviving the village fight, the farm, the ravine, the fish farm, Del Lago, and the lake area. I strongly recommend watching a guide at least for this first part, such as this.
- As each boss is especially difficult on professional difficulty, make sure you upgrade the sniper rifle as much as possible to deal maximum damage. In my opinion, this is the only consistent way to defeat the first El Gigante.
- To make the Ramon boss fight easier, ensure you collect and do not sell the golden egg found at the lake – this deals significant damage.
- To make the parts of the game with Ashley as a companion much easier, complete the game on hardcore in under 10 hours to unlock the armoured suit outfit. This makes her invulnerable to any damage, which is vital especially on higher difficulties.
I think the first 2 saves are a bit too close to each other. Might as well skip the first one and save it before the cabin fight. The El Gigante is surprisingly easy even on professional. With level 4 power upgrade on bolt rifle that thing melts quickly. I’m still currently on my first attempt at S+ Professional working with my own save pattern. I skipped 3 chapter in castle without saving only to be killed by mutated wolf in the maze yard with one bite
It’s true, El Gigante is a piece of cake when you use an upgraded sniper rifle but if you use any other early game combination of weapons and upgrades he becomes near-unbeatable (based on 3 hours of suffering), so I decided to recommend a save there purely based on my own estimation that people are not likely to focus upgrades purely on sniper rifles up to that point (even though I do advise it as a bonus tip!).
you can totally sacrifice the golden egg found at the lake if you’re short on 30 pinels by the castle. With any of the double gate skips, the time you’ll make up will pay for the detour to the throne room for the second one. Or, if you’re in a hurry, you can forego the egg entirely. The bullet vomit of the Chicago can deal with Saddler.
Personally I front loaded the Pro+ saves more. A lot of the village sections are really difficult because you don’t have access to cheese yet.
I took a save right before the eagle emblem dash (the RNG tnt spam and enemy spawns is infuriating, and you really don’t want to redo all the village survival again), then another right before taking down the wild mutt.
A lot of the later saves can be skipped using speedrun strats like the Mendez Skip, castle double door skip, and Chapter 14 double door skip. Plus, the infinite chicago typewriter trivializes 90% of the end game fights with the damage upgrades, so long as you can jam yourself against a wall and hold the shoot button. RPG for Krauser + Saddler and you’re golden.
I completely advocate attempting skips wherever possible, especially as it allows you to make saves earlier on (and even skip some).
As for making a save at the ravine, I think it’s perfectly acceptable as long as you substitute it for a later save (obviously if you use skips you don’t need to). Just bare in mind the more saves you make earlier on the harder you make the end of the game for yourself, especially if you choose not to use bonus weapons, so try not to front load as much as possible!
Which bonus weapons will prevent you from getting an S+ rank? I’ve never heard that mentioned anywhere.
Bonus weapons are the following: Hand Cannon, Primal Knife, and Chicago Sweeper.
You cannot use infinite rocket as that is a NG+ exclusive weapon. Therefore, you will not have access to it on the first play through.
I believe that you can use bonus weapons that you unlock with CP, just not NG+ weapons like the infinite RPG.