You're standing in the Raccoon City Police Department. The rain is lashing against the windows, a Tyrant is stomping somewhere on the floor above you, and all you want to do is open a door. But you can't. Because in the world of survival horror, a simple door handle is never just a door handle. It's a riddle involving a missing jewel, a stone medallion, or a circuit board that looks like it was wired by a madman. Solving a Resident Evil 2 puzzle is basically the tax you pay for surviving a zombie apocalypse. Honestly, it’s what makes the game iconic.
Most players remember the stress. That frantic feeling of trying to align symbols on a statue while you hear the heavy thud-thud-thud of Mr. X approaching. It’s a specific kind of tension that Capcom perfected. If you’re playing the 2019 remake or even revisiting the 1998 original, the logic remains the same: find the weird object, put it in the weird hole, and pray you don't get bitten in the process.
The Goddess Statue and the Medallion Hunt
The centerpiece of the RPD is that massive Goddess Statue. It’s your ticket out of the lobby and into the deeper, darker parts of the station. To trigger it, you need three medallions: Lion, Unicorn, and Maiden. Simple, right? Well, not quite. The solution changes depending on whether you’re playing the "A" scenario or the "B" scenario (Second Run).
If you're on your first playthrough, the Lion Medallion is found right on the second floor of the Main Hall. Look at the notebook you got from Officer Elliot. The symbols are Lion, Branch, Bird. Easy. But if you’re on a Second Run, Capcom decides to mess with you. The symbols change to Crown, Flame, Bird. It’s a subtle way the game tells you that your previous knowledge is useless here.
The Maiden Medallion is usually the one that trips people up. It's behind a gate in the West Storage Room on the third floor. You need a battery and an electronic gadget to make a detonator. Once that C4 goes off, you’ve got a limited window to grab the medallion before the locker falls and blocks your path—or worse, the noise attracts unwanted company. For the Maiden puzzle, the 1st Run solution is Woman, Bow, Snake. In the 2nd Run? It's Ram, Harp, Bird.
That Infamous Sherry Birkin Block Puzzle
Switching perspectives to Sherry Birkin is a massive tonal shift. You’re no longer a super-cop with a shotgun; you’re a terrified child in an orphanage. The block puzzle in Sherry’s room is arguably the most "classic" Resident Evil 2 puzzle because it relies on visual pattern matching under pressure.
You find a missing block in the room, add it to the toy chest, and then you have to rotate and move them until the shapes on the front and top match up. Here’s the trick: don’t overthink the internal logic. Focus on matching the patterns that are already fixed on the far left and far right. Once you align those, the middle two usually fall into place with a couple of rotations. If you’re fast, you get a scissors item to escape. If you’re slow, Chief Irons is coming for you. It’s a masterclass in using a simple mechanic to create genuine dread.
The Lab Greenhouse: Herbicide and Temperature Control
Once you hit the NEST laboratory, the puzzles get more "sciencey." The Greenhouse Control Room is where most people get stuck. You have to input codes into a terminal that looks like a keypad with weird, alien-looking symbols.
To get the codes, you actually have to explore the ivy-choked hallways. One code is on the bottom of a DNA trophy, and the other is on a hatch in the ladder area. But the real headache is the Dispersal Cartridge. You have to fill a cylinder with a precise amount of liquid. It’s a classic "water jug" riddle. You have three different sized containers and you need to move the green goop between them until the large one hits the red fill line.
A lot of people just mash the buttons. Don't do that.
In the 1st Run, the sequence is: Red, Green, Blue, Red, Green, Blue, Red, Green.
In the 2nd Run, try: Blue, Red, Green, Red, Blue, Red, Blue, Green, Blue, Red, Green.
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It feels rewarding because it’s a purely logical hurdle in a game that usually rewards twitch reflexes and ammo management.
Why the Chess Plug Puzzle Ruins Everyone's Day
We have to talk about the Sewers. Everyone hates the Sewers. It’s dingy, the G-Adults are disgusting, and then you hit the Chess Plug puzzle. This is the peak Resident Evil 2 puzzle experience because it requires you to read a series of riddles pinned to a wall and translate them into spatial placement.
You have six plugs: Pawn, Knight, Rook, Bishop, Queen, and King.
The clues tell you things like "the Rook is next to the Knight" or "the Bishop isn't at the end."
In the 1st Run (Leon/Claire A), the layout on the right wall (facing the door) is King, Queen, Pawn. The left wall is Knight, Rook, Bishop.
In the 2nd Run, it’s completely overhauled. Right wall: Knight, Rook, Queen. Left wall: Bishop, Casework, King. (Wait, the Bishop actually goes where the Pawn was... you get the point).
What’s interesting is how this puzzle forces you to backtrack. You can't even start it until you've wandered through the muck to find the King and Queen plugs in the Supplies Storage Room. It’s a test of your mental mapping as much as your logic.
The Art of the Shortcut: Portable Safes and Lockers
Not every Resident Evil 2 puzzle is mandatory for the credits to roll, but skipping them is a death sentence for your inventory. The Portable Safes are those little plastic cases that require you to press eight buttons in a specific sequence to light up a circle.
There is no universal code for these. They are randomized every single time you play.
The best strategy? Treat it like a memory game. Number the buttons 1 through 8 in your head. Start clicking until you find the first one in the sequence. Then find the second. If you hit a wrong one, the lights reset, and you start over. It’s tedious, but those spare keys for the locker room give you the hip pouch. And in Resident Evil, two extra inventory slots are worth more than gold.
Then there are the dial locks. Most of these are hidden in plain sight.
- NED, MRG, DCM: These are the codes for the desks and lockers in the RPD.
- SZF, CAP: These are for the lockers on the upper floors.
You’ll find these scribbled on whiteboards or hidden in film rolls you have to develop in the darkroom. It’s a great bit of world-building. These weren't put there for a protagonist; they were put there by panicking cops who couldn't remember their own passwords during a catastrophe.
Navigating the Logic of Survival Horror
The genius of these puzzles isn't that they are particularly difficult. If you sat down with a pen and paper in a quiet room, you’d solve them in seconds. The difficulty comes from the context. You aren't in a quiet room. You're out of handgun ammo, your health is on "Caution," and you can hear a Licker chirping in the vent above you.
That’s the nuance of Capcom’s design. They use puzzles to slow you down. They force you to stand still in a world where standing still usually means dying.
Actionable Strategies for Your Next Run
To truly master the puzzles in Resident Evil 2, you need to change how you approach the environment:
- Examine Everything: Every item you pick up should be rotated in your 3D inventory. Many items have buttons, hidden keys, or codes written on the bottom. If an item "functions," the game will usually let you interact with it in the menu.
- Check Your Map: If a room is red on your map, there is still an item or a puzzle element there. If it's blue, you've cleared it. This saves you hours of wandering.
- Read the Files: Almost every solution is written down somewhere. The game rarely expects you to guess. If you find a note about a "confiscation report," it probably has a safe combination on it.
- Prioritize the Darkroom: The darkroom in the RPD is your hub. Developing film rolls provides visual clues for some of the most obtuse puzzles in the game, including the hidden items needed for the Magnum or SMG upgrades.
- Don't Fear the Guide: There is no shame in looking up a plug sequence if Mr. X is breathing down your neck. The tension is the point, but getting stuck for an hour kills the pacing.
The Resident Evil 2 puzzle design is a bridge between the old-school "moon logic" of the 90s and modern, streamlined gameplay. It rewards the observant. It punishes the reckless. Next time you're staring at a statue of a unicorn, just remember: the answer is probably right behind you, written in blood on a wall you were too scared to look at.
Now, get back into the RPD. Those medallions won't find themselves, and that hallway isn't getting any safer. Make sure you've grabbed the tool from the Operations Room first, or you're going to be doing a lot of unnecessary running. Check your ammo, keep your back to the wall, and always, always keep a spare herb in your pocket.