If you’re a Resident Evil fan, you know how important the Magnum is. Like the Doom Slayer’s BFG, the Magnum is typically one of the last guns to find because it’s usually the most powerful. Magnum ammo is hard to come by (it can only be crafted with two High-Grade gunpowders) and every shot out of the Magnum’s sizable barrel is like a cannonball that tears through zombies. It’s the very last gun Jill acquires in Resident Evil 3, and it’s also the easiest weapon to miss.
Where Is The Magnum In Resident Evil 3?
The Magnum, also known as the .44 AE Lightning Hawk, is in the hospital. Carlos finds Jill unconscious after her fight in the park with Nemesis and rushes her to the Racoon City Hospital for treatment.
When Carlos first enters the interior of the hospital, the location of the Magnum is actually called out right away, though it’s in the hospital’s courtyard and seemingly inaccessible. It’s also the only gun the player can’t see before collecting it as it’s hidden inside a box, making the player likely to forget about it.
The only way to access the courtyard is by jumping down into it from the hallways on the second floor. The broken windows wrapped in yellow caution tape are the access points where Carlos can jump down into the courtyard. However, Carlos does not have access to the section of the courtyard where the Magnum is located. There are three ways to get down into the courtyard and Carlos can only access two of them. But there’s a valuable Assault Rifle upgrade for Carlos in a planter in the courtyard, so it’s still worth exploring the areas that are accessible to Carlos.
After retrieving the vaccine and defending Jill from the horde, Carlos leaves to “tell the government about the cure” and player control switches back to Jill. With lockpick in hand, it can be tempting to take that first door on the right and continue Jill’s journey into Nest 2, but doing so will forgo her opportunity to obtain an essential weapon for the last act of the game.
Instead, take the time to backtrack through the hospital and open up all of the doors and boxes that require the lockpick (they’re all marked on the map) before heading upstairs to collect the Magnum. The broken window Jill can jump through is on the bottom right corner on the second floor of the hospital (circled in the below image).
After exiting the roof access, head straight down that middle hallway and turn left. There’s a pile of debris in the way, but as Jill approaches she’ll get down on the floor and crawl under it. On the other side is the broken window where she can jump down and collect the Magnum.
Where Is The Magnum Barrel?
The upgrade for the Magnum is also easy to miss. You’ll find the barrel in the next area after leaving the hospital. Jill has to locate three fuses in a large warehouse area filled with scissor lifts while Nicholai watches and collects combat data. After finding all the fuses and taking the elevator, the player can find the barrel in a box near where Nicholai was standing, between the console and the window. The barrel reduces recoil while increasing bullet velocity, thereby increasing the damage on an already exceptionally-strong gun.
Why Is The Magnum So Important?
The Magnum is a late-game weapon, meaning it’s designed to handle late-game threats. A lot of the monsters Jill’s faced throughout the game make a comeback at the end. It’s great to have some extra firepower to stop them quickly, but the number one most important reason to collect the Magnum is for the Pale Heads.
The Pale Heads are a new type of monster that were actually first introduced in the “Ghost Survivors” DLC for Resident Evil 2 (2019). Pale heads maintain their human form but their skin is all but rotted off. They’re hideously deformed creatures, with faces that… well, take a look:
Not only are they horrific, they’re super strong and resilient thanks to regenerative abilities. That means the regular pistol is practically useless. The shotgun will take three or more shots to put one down, even when aiming for their heads.
Enter: the Magnum. The magnum (with the upgraded barrel) has the force and stopping power to one-shot Pale Heads in almost any situation, even if the player only lands body shots. Nest 2 is filled with Pale Heads and at one particular point, there’s a room with 4=four of them roaming around. The Magnum is the only way to get through this sequence without unnecessarily burning tons of ammo.
Our recommendation is to save the Magnum ammo for Pale Heads and use up your shotgun ammo on everything else as it’s not especially useful against the last boss. Then, right before the end, ditch the magnum to make room for more explosive rounds in your inventory. The magnum can be useful for targeting Nemesis’ weak spot, but the Grenade Launcher is far more valuable.
