Resident Evil is survival horror at its finest. Or its worst. It depends on who you ask and which style of Resident Evil they like best. Fans can’t seem to agree on gameplay and game design when it comes to Resident Evil, but fans do tend to agree on one thing: the series has a great cast. For as convoluted as the story is, these main characters are genuinely compelling.
And by main characters, we do mean main characters. Side characters and partners who are only playable for a bit are harder to gauge when it comes to survival skills. Plus, that means including Ada and she’s more death proof than Wesker.
8 Ethan Winters
It goes without saying, but the guy who gets his hand chopped off less than half an hour into his game because he blocked a chainsaw with his wrist doesn’t exactly have the same set of survival skills as his more experienced compatriots. Ethan notably even has to be rescued by Chris Redfield at the end of the game just to survive the events of Resident Evil 7.
To Ethan’s credit, this is absolutely the point. He’s meant to be your ordinary guy, more so than any other main character in the series. As a result, he’s something characters like Leon and Jill aren’t: relatable. Ethan gets his hand cut off with a chainsaw but, honestly, it’s weird he’s the first main character to lose a limb.
7 Billy Coen
Billy Coen loses a lot of points for willingly ditching his partner in the middle of the forest in the middle of a zombie outbreak that’s warn them both down considerably and is nowhere near close to over. There’s a reason Rebecca’s such a mess during the Mansion Incident and it has to do entirely with what happens in Resident Evil 0.
To Billy’s credit, he’s the better survivalist of the two from a gameplay perspective and he does actually manage to survive the events of the game. It just seems highly unlikely that he would have survived venturing into the woods, especially considering what happened to Alpha Team in the first game. He lived, but that move would seal his fate in real life.
6 Rebecca Chambers
Rebecca gets it worse than most characters in the series. She’s forced to stay awake through the events of both Resident Evil 0 and Resident Evil 1 just to stay alive, and by the former she’s out of healing items, food, and basically all of her ammo. Without Billy, Rebecca is forced to hazily walk through the Arklay Mansion with only Chris to save her.
While she gets some pass for being exhausted and traumatized, Rebecca still very casually goes through the moment without Chris. It’s only at the end of the game where they team up. Leading up to that point, she almost gets killed by a Hunter, gets shot by Wesker, and only contributes by providing a means of destroying the mansion. That said, Rebecca does survive and she had the foresight not to walk into a forest, so props there.
5 Claire Redfield
It’s hard to pinpoint where exactly Claire falls in relation to the other main characters. On one hand, she doesn’t have the service record the other three leads have and her daily life doesn’t revolve around zombie outbreaks on as high a scale. That said, she’s incredibly talented all around. Not only can she use a lockpick, she’s fast and was able to sneak into Umbrella France.
Granted, she was immediately captured, but she manages to survive the events of Code Veronica… with some help, of course. For as put together as Claire is, Chris does end up saving her in Code Veronica. She would later appear in Revelations 2, however, more mature and more competent than ever.
4 Leon S. Kennedy
A government agent, it’s hard to believe that Leon was ever a rookie cop. He’s matured so much by the time Resident Evil 6 hits that he almost feels like a different character. Of the four leads, Leon is the one with the clearest arc in terms of improving their survival skills. He goes from over his head rookie in 2, to an agent in his prime in 4, to a superhero by 6.
Leon’s not as ridiculously strong as Chris Redfield, but he’s come a long way since RE2. Considering how Resident Evil 2 recontextualized him into even more of a rookie than he was in the original game, we’ll see if Capcom doesn’t play around with Leon’s character a bit more. This is the same character who goes from scoring headshots in the OG RE2 like candy to needing to be saved multiple times.
3 Jake Muller
Raised as a mercenary from a young age and Albert Wesker’s son, Jake Muller is naturally going to be one of the better survivalists in the series. Just being in the mercenary game alone suggest that Jake has a considerable amount of both combat and survival experience. Being a protagonist in Resident Evil 6, he also has the benefit of being a literal ubermensch.
Which actually makes sense considering Jake’s background. He’s Wesker’s son, but he’s also posited as a foil to Wesker. Jake is an opportunity for players to get a taste of what Wesker is like in action (though we’ve already had that in multiple games.) Expect to see more of Jake.
2 Jill Valentine
Jill hasn’t been seen in action in quite a long time, but she’s usually treated with a great deal of respect whenever she does appear. She’s the “master of unlocking,” something of a prodigy, and competent enough to get herself out of a fully infected and infested Raccoon City, making her own ammo along the way. It’s kind of crazy.
But not nearly as crazy as Jill tackling Wesker out of window. She lived, but she ended up brainwashed as a result. Revelations 2 mentions Jill is still undergoing therapy, but she’ll likely appear Resident Evil 8 (and in 3’s remake.) When she does, she’s sure to impress yet again.
1 Chris Redfield
Chris wanted to stop Umbrella and Wesker so bad, he got strong enough to punch his way through a literal boulder. Nothing will stop this man from accomplishing what he needs to get done. He may not be a hero these days, but Chris is currently the only main character still active in the central plot. That’ll surely change with time, but it’s worth noting he played a key role in Resident Evil 5 through 7 and will likely do so again in 8.
Chris simply does not die. Even from a gameplay perspective, he’s built for survival. He’s fast, has more health than Jill in RE1, and is just a beast physically. 6 and 7 tone Chris down considerably, but the bulk he packed on for Wesker is truly breathtaking.
NEXT: Resident Evil 2 (2019): Every Boss From Worst To Best, Ranked
