Manage Your Inventory
Now that inventory management is back in Resident Evil 7, you’ll have to be extra careful with the items you want to take with you. First things first, it’s important to note that you can save a bit of inventory space by assigning items to the shortcut buttons on the d-pad. When you open your inventory menu, move key items like weapons and herbs to the shortcut spaces at the top of the menu. A larger item like the shotgun will only take up one inventory spot when it normally takes up two.
As a general rule of thumb, you should never carry around puzzle pieces or key items around with you unless you know exactly where to use them and are planning on utilizing them immediately. If you pick up a new puzzle piece and have no clue where to use them, make a note of it, and put it into the item box at a save room. You can always come back later to retrieve it when you finally find the puzzle itself, but you can never have too many healing items or ammo on you.
Fairly early on in the game, you’ll receive a pocket knife. I recommend keeping this with you at all times and assigning it to a shortcut button as it’s your only means of executing a melee attack during those early hours. Every so often, you’ll come across breakable crates that might contain useful items. Instead of wasting ammo to shoot them, use the knife instead.
