What to sell to the Merchant in Resident Evil 4 and how to inlay gemstones
He'll buy that for a high price!
A hallmark of the legendary Resident Evil 4 Remake is brain-teasing item puzzles which combine objects you find around the world in sometimes esoteric ways.
But when some of the things you pick up could have important uses, it can easily lead to wondering what’s best to sell to the Merchant and what to keep hold of.
Resident Evil 4 tries to push you in the right direction with this, but the language it uses can be confusing - to the point of hoarding things you don’t need for fear of missing out.
The Merchant is an important partner for Leon in Resident Evil 4, not only fencing the valuables he finds, but serving him with blue notice requests as well. Here's how to get the most out of the items you’re selling.
What to sell in Resident Evil 4
In Resident Evil 4, there three main kinds of items you can sell to the Merchant: treasures, inlay items and gemstones.
Treasures are items you can happily sell to the merchant and are marked in your inventory with the text, “for selling only”. Treasures can be anything from solid gold to fancy items like ornate compasses and antique cameras.
Inlay items are very valuable treasures that can be made even more lucrative by slotting gemstones into their empty holes. These are marked with the text, “can be inlaid with certain gemstones”, and should not be sold to the Merchant until you’ve filled them with jewels.
Finally, there are the gemstones themselves. While it’s tempting to barter off any rubies and sapphires you find immediately, don’t sell gems to the Merchant on their own. They are always best kept for slotting into inlay items because you can get bonus money by making patterns in the jewellery.
You cannot sell key items accidentally in Resident Evil 4, so don’t worry. When a key item no longer has any use to Leon, it will appear in his sell inventory when you speak to the Merchant. This includes story-related keys and devices which open optional chests. Once they appear in the sell inventory, they’re good to give to the Merchant.
One edge case is healing items. One early-game side quest asks you to sell three vipers to the Merchant in exchange for Spinel. However, once this quest is completed, you don’t have to keep selling any vipers you catch - they can be eaten for a solid amount of health restoration.
This goes to show that even though some things are technically saleable, it’s not always a good idea to flog them without a second thought.
How to inlay gemstones in Resident Evil 4
Once you’ve collected some gemstones and valuable items to slot them in, you can start to mix-and-match different colors of gems to maximize the value of your sales.
There are two types of gems you can collect: circular and rectangular.
Most items have either circular or rectangular gem slots, but some very valuable items have both.
When you slot a gem into an item you can create patterns depending on how many slots there are. Different patterns give different bonuses to an item’s value and it’s always worth trying to make the best combination possible before you sell to the Merchant.
Here are the bonuses you get from each type of gem pattern:
With items that just have three or fewer slots, it’s always best to use all the same type of gem, since the trio bonus is best. However when you start to find items with more slots, more intricate patterns become more viable.
The different types of gems you can find in Resident Evil 4 are as follows:
| Resident Evil 4 Gems | ||
|---|---|---|
| Gem type: | Gem cut: | Gem color: |
| Ruby | Circular | Red |
| Sapphire | Circular | Blue |
| Yellow Diamond | Circular | Yellow |
| Emerald | Rectangular | Green |
| Alexandrite | Rectangular | Purple |
| Red Beryl | Rectangular | Red |
Rubies and Red Beryl are both counted as red gems. So if you had an item with two circular slots and one rectangular slot which was filled with two rubies and one red beryl, you would get the 1.3x trio bonus for three red gems.
How to sell an item for 100,000 in Resident Evil 4
If you’re a die-hard achievement hunter, or just love Resident Evil 4 so much that you’re shooting for the platinum trophy, you might have noticed that there’s a challenge which asks you to sell something for 100,000 or more to the Merchant.
The easiest way to do this is by fully inlaying an Elegant Crown with five different colors of gemstones.
An elegant crown has slots for three circular gems and two rectangular gems. To get the full five colour bonus, you need to use red, blue and yellow circular gems and green and purple rectangular gems, otherwise there’s not enough different circular gems because the ruby and red beryl are both counted as red.
You can find an Elegant Crown in the Depths in Chapter 10 as well as the truck park area after the Wharf in Chapter 12.