Played all night from Mr. X's second appearance with Claire B until the credits. Was 5:57 hour clear time vs. the 7:30 on Leon. Could've shaved an hour off but I did some backtracking to grab every item, including going back from the sewers to the mansion to clear up when Mr. X isn't around. But real world time was much closer to 6-7 hours whereas Leon was like probably 10-12 hours because of all the dying and losing progress. Was pretty fun and felt like I did alright. By the final boss item box/save I had so.much.ammo and life compared to Leon A. I had like 10 health sprays/red+green herbs, hadn't used the Spark Shot yet so had 14 shots of that, hadn't used magnum yet, so had like 14 shots of that, had 200+ SMG, and like 12 acid/flame rounds and 50-60 handgun bullets. I didn't remember about the mini-gun so I didn't need half that. Also had like 4 grenades and a couple flash grenades. The last 3 bosses were all pretty cake thanks to all the hoarding.
But I got a C rank in Claire B vs. a B rank in Leon A? Even though I beat it in less time and with fewer saves? Weird. I guess the ratings are stricter on the B runs?
I liked the B run and the changes to it. Wish there was a bit more different in the RPD and Lab. Claire's sewers seemed easier for some reason except the one walkway where you use the maintenance key on the two doors and there's like 4-5 fast fucking zombies that gang fuck you if you don't kill them.
I think part of adjusting to Claire's run is that she has very different weapons and figuring out what works best on what is key. Like at the plant part I was in a dilemma because with Leon it was easy, just use flamethrower on plant guys, but with no flamethrower and limited flame rounds that I was hoarding for the final bosses (since flame seems stronger than acid) was like do I waste flame rounds on plant guys or not.
If I played it again, I'd definitely use more of my non-pistol ammo on enemies. I'd use flame rounds on the plant guys, I'd probably use my spark shot on the big guys in the sewers that are left after you grab it since it's not like you need the spark shot for anything, maybe use the magnum shots on a couple of the licker spots.
I was able to sneak past the majority of the lickers and that was helpful this time around. I found them less of a threat than zombies because of being able to walk around them. BUT this doesn't work when there are zombies in the room. So like because I cleared out the hallway by the dark room at the start, when I went back to develop the hiding places film and grab the last security hip pouch I could just walk past the 2 lickers in the area no problem. But in the Plant wing by the server room I had to kill the 2 lickers because if I walked the fast ass zombies in that room would grab me and I couldn't avoid them. And for some reason, like the guy under the platform in the spark shot room, it doesn't let me kill zombies that wake up for certain events before the event is triggered, otherwise I'd kill the zombies by the server room and then just walk past the lickers.
Anyhow, I still hate Mr. X. I just play very, very badly when he is chasing me because I end up with a zombie blocking my path and he's behind me and I'm afraid to shoot the zombie and alert Mr. X to catch up to me or Mr. X is right behind me and I don't have time to shoot a zombie a bunch. In retrospect these parts would be good to use SMG or acid round to take out the zombie in your face with Mr. X behind you, but I do tend to hoard my ammo. I am fine with Mr. X in empty hallways and areas because yeah he's slow and easy to kite, it's just dealing with normal enemies I haven't killed yet while having him on my ass is the kind of not fun challenging for me. But yeah, almost all my deaths and hard parts I have in the game are when Mr. X is around. When he's not, I can take my time getting around the RPD and be strategic about what to kill, how to kill it, and how to avoid enemies. At least I know how to get around Mr. X most of the time now. Like with the library I cleared it out before he showed, then when I was ready to move the bookshelves I lead him to the fire escape rooftop and threw a flash grenade and than ran really fast to the library on the other side and was quiet and moved the shelves and grabbed the items on the 3rd floor before the clock tower.
Oh and Claire's box/save room in the chief's room is pretty helpful for some spots like after you grab the clock tower piece just going across the 3rd floor and down the stairs and your done, much easier than the whole jail stuff from Leon's run.
Anyhow, unlike my dozens of frustrating deaths on Leon A, once I got past the first hour on Claire B I only had one or two deaths the rest of the game and they were all from cheap shots insta-killing me like after you administer the plant-killer and pick up the Id and you run back in and a new plant guy is right there and jumps you if you don't know that, didn't have any sub-weapons on me so instant death. Also bits like in the room with the spark shot, there was no way to kill the fat zombie under the ledge and everytime I tried jumping down it goes straight into a cutscene of him biting me from the back which isn't good when running around on orange usually! Instant-died
Zombie hiding like right behind doors so when you exit you get instant-grabbed always irritates me even if it's pretty rare.
But yeah, now that I know what to do, where to go, what weapons to use, I feel like doing another run on either Leon or Claire would be pretty chill at this point. Is there any reason to do a Claire A/Leon B run now? I'm gonna try the 4th Survivor and DLC scenarios next (probably on easy since I hear they're hard af), but might do another A/B run since it should go quick and smooth now that I know what I'm doing.