Resident Evil Requiem has a mysterious challenge called 'The Final Puzzle' which is worth 20,000 completion points, but no one has yet solved it, and it's not for lack of trying. In fact, the community has pooled its knowledge into a dedicated subreddit with one goal: to get to the bottom of this bizarre rabbit hole.
Spoilers for Resident Evil Request.
The first step is evident when you escape from the basement of Rhodes Hill Chronic Care Center. Grace narrowly escapes the girl's clutches as the elevator falls and cuts off her hand, which you can pick up after the cutscene ends. It is not immediately clear what this hand is used for, but when you leave the clinic for water treatment, you will notice that it can be discarded, so it should be used in the first half of the game.
As broken down in a detailed thread by u/Naeloah on r/TheFinalPuzzle, the hand can be analyzed with a laser microscope to reveal a hidden message: “Let's play,” followed by the sequence 'GGC AAG AUA ACG UGU CAU'. It was then theorized that each letter corresponded to the sun, moon and star symbols used to open the various contractions around the clinic for the quartz blocks.
Synth Potato, who makes daylight as an aerospace engineer, noticed that Victor's office clock had another hidden message, “U = 380,000,” and that next to the blood analyzer was written “G = 150,000,000.” The final clue was discovered in Grace's blood analysis file, “C = 4.2 ly.”
As it turns out, “ly” stands for light years. A star is 4.2 light years from Earth, 380,000 km from the Moon, and 150,000,000 km from the Sun. This means:
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C = Star.
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G = Sun.
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U = Moon.
That leaves 'A', which is actually resolved much later in the game during Leon Kennedy's return to Raccoon City. After defeating Mr. X on the way to the orphanage, fans find the head of a toy Uncle Bobblehead in the middle of the basketball court, matching the body in the kendo shop. Interestingly, if you kick a basketball into a falling hoop, you can interact with the body to get another clue: “Ignore A.”
So, the sequence is now 'GGC GUC GUG UCU', which, when inputted into the principal investigator's office safe, plays the sound of a baby laughing. The only hint that The Final Puzzle gives you in the challenges menu is that you should “let the sweet couple hear the sound,” so the working principle now is that you bring two characters (or enemies) into this room and have them hear the baby laugh.
Other translations may provide insight into who this couple is; As noted by u/Map_Goblin, it varies from “adorable couple” to “little friends,” “funny couple,” “loving couple,” “couple of angels,” “two of us” (both female), “sweet couple,” and “cute two people.” This seems to reject Leon's view and Grace must complete the puzzle (in fact, Leon doesn't seem able to interact with it), but it's unclear who the “sweet couple” really are.
Some have tried to bring Emily along with Grace to trigger the laughs, but that doesn't work, and it seems impossible to get both singing zombies into the room. Another idea was put forward to see “kids” in the model audience after hearing laughter, but that didn't work either. However, laughter may only be part of the code, as the puzzle box can still be interacted with after listening. You can read a full list of everything the community has tried here.
A popular theory now is that laughter is connected to the orphanage later in the game, and may play an important role in solving the final puzzle; One idea is that, when children lie in bed looking for a little girl, they are doing it in a pattern. Some believe it may be Morse code, tying in to the 'let's play' clue, but it is unclear what significance it might have, if any. Then there is the rug, which has star, sun and moon symbols surrounded by letters.
Interestingly, when Leon falls into the sewers from the destroyed orphanage, there is an empty room for “no apparent reason” with panels of red, green and blue, sparking all sorts of ideas that this could be the next step in completing the challenge. Though again, no one is sure how it connects, if it does.
If nothing else, Capcom is really making us work for these 20,000 endpoints. But what lies on the other side of all these cryptic puzzles, no one knows – let's hope it's all worth the trouble.
- issued
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27 February, 2026
- ESRB
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Mature 17+ / Intense violence, blood and gore, strong language, in-game purchases
