Resident Evil 3: How to Beat Nemesis

If you thought Mr X from Resident Evil 2 was already scary enough, Nemesis is on a whole other level. Not only does he stalk you throughout the entire game, he also has the ability to leap around and in front of you, and use weapons to obstruct your progress. Here’s how to beat Nemesis in Resident Evil 3.

Beating Nemesis in Resident Evil 3

First things first: it’s important to note that you cannot actually kill Nemesis when he’s stalking you all throughout Raccoon City. He’ll show up early on in the game and attack you when he sees you, and you can try to stun him with powerful weaponry, but you won’t be able to actually kill him.

No matter what you do, he’ll always show up again to make life hell for you. That said, there are four main boss encounters with him in Resident Evil 3, so here’s how to beat him all four times.

Rooftop Fight

Towards the end of the Raccoon City section, you’ll have your first boss fight with Nemesis in Resident Evil 3 on the rooftop. For this fight, bring your handgun, shotgun, and grenade launcher. You’ll be using the handgun for most of the fight, but the other two weapons will provide more firepower if you need it towards the end.

During this fight, your goal is to shoot Nemesis’ fuel tank on his back until it explodes. Whenever he stops to fire the flamethrower at you, you can keep your distance and snipe the fuel tank with your handgun. Alternatively, you can also kite him around the small generator in the corner and shoot it when he’s nearby to stun him with the electricity. This gives you a few seconds to get more shots off his fuel tank.

The generator does take a while to recharge though, so look out for the small green light to know when you can shoot it again.

After destroying his fuel tank, Nemesis will start to charge at you relentlessly. Your best bet is to kite him around the debris and construction materials to prevent him from swiping at you, and whenever his attack combo ends, turn around to blast him with the shotgun or grenade launcher. The flame rounds are the most effective here, but the explosive rounds will stun him as well.

You can still make use of the generator to stun him to get in a few shots, but just keep this up until he finally falls.

Clocktower Fight

About halfway through Resident Evil 3, you’ll have your second boss encounter with Nemesis right outside the clocktower. At this point, he becomes completely animalistic and will charge at you with great ferocity.

For this fight, you’ll want to rely on the grenade launcher and shotgun. Bring your mine rounds for the launcher, but save them for the second part of the fight. Flame rounds, explosive rounds, and regular shotgun shells will work for the first phase. This phase is pretty basic, and is simply a matter of running around the arena, waiting for Nemesis to finish his combo string, then turn around to shoot.

The second phase of the fight will see him start to dash across the roofs of the buildings around you. When this happens, equip your mine rounds and shoot at the roofs to try to intercept his path. Nemesis will hit the mine round, get stunned, and fall to the ground, allowing you to keep shooting him.

If you can’t stun him, he’ll eventually stop, and then jump down towards you. It’s possible to evade the jump, but it’s still dangerous, so try to use the mine rounds strategy as much as possible.

Lab Fight

Your last two encounters with Nemesis in Resident Evil 3 will be in the NEST. The first part of the fight is completely the same as the clocktower fight –kite him around, shoot when he stops attacking. Flame and explosive rounds will stun him for a bit with just one shot.

During the second phase, he’ll start dashing around the tanks above the arena, and once again, you can use mine rounds to intercept him and stun him. The only thing to be aware of is that zombies will spawn in the arena, so get your shotgun out to deal with them quickly –one shotgun blast should take care of each zombie.

Final Fight

The final encounter with Nemesis is very straightforward. As soon as the fight starts, run to the machine behind you in the middle and interact with it to get the rail gun. Jill will aim it, and you can hit the R2 button to immediately fire it at Nemesis.

After that, the rail gun will need to be charged up, requiring you to push back the red energy cells at both sides of the arena. Wait for Nemesis to get back up, then pop all the orange blobs on his body with your handgun. By destroying all the blobs, you’ll stun him, giving you enough time to push in one cell. Rinse and repeat, until all cells have been pushed back in, then use the rail gun to finish him off.

Do note that if you try to push back the cells without stunning him, Nemesis will kill you instantly.

That’s all you need to know about how to beat Nemesis in Resident Evil 3. Be sure to search for Twinfinite or check our guide wiki for more tips and information on the game.