Q: How do you unlock the special weapons in Resident Evil 5, like the Gatling Gun, or the Longbow?
A: Most weapons in Resident Evil 5 are unlocked gradually as you progress through the game, but a few of them are only unlocked by fully upgrading specific weapons.
All of the special weapons are unlocked by fully upgrading the very first weapon in that particular group. For instance, the Longbow (in the rifle group) is only unlocked by fully upgrading the S75 Rifle (the first rifle available in the game).
I have noticed that most of these can not simply be fully upgraded automatically, some of the upgrades unlock as you progress through the story, so don’t expect to unlock Chris’ Gatling Gun in the first few stages of the game, it’s just simply not happening.
Here is a list of which weapons you get, and which weapons you have to upgrade to get them:
- Gatling Gun (Chris only) – VZ61 Machine Gun fully upgraded
- Longbow (Sheva only) – S75 Rifle fully upgraded
- Hydra Triple Barrel Shotgun – Itacha M37 Shotgun fully upgraded
- M93R Pistol – M92F Pistol fully upgraded
- S&W M500 Magnum – S&W M29 Magnum fully upgraded
If you’re trying to get unlimited ammo for all of your weapons, I would suggest starting with the S&W M29 Magnum, since the firepower when it is fully upgraded will kill about any regular mob with one hit. This combined with its unlimited ammo cheat and you have one hell of a weapon. Not only that but you’ll unlock the S&W M500 at the same time, so it’s a win-win.