Resident Evil 4 Remake small key locations

Resident Evil 4 small key opening a drawer
(Image credit: Capcom)
Resident Evil 4 Remake guides

The Resident Evil 4 Remake small keys are items that you use to unlock drawers in the village and castle regions, giving you some extra treasure to sell and spend on your precious guns. Unlike the village's Wayshrines or the castle's Square Lock Boxes, small keys are only single use, meaning you have to locate more if you want to keep opening locked drawers.

One thing worth noting is that treasure in the castle understandably seems to be a lot better than treasure in the village, but the game does provide enough small keys to open every drawer you come across based on how many I collected. Once you get to the island these keys are useless, so make sure you use them before you leave the castle. That said, here's every small key location I found while playing the game so you can filch them for yourself. 

Village small key locations 

These are all of the small keys I found in the village region: 

  • Small key 1: This is easily accessible during chapter two after you and Luis escape. Find it in the building at the far end of the Valley, inside the smaller of the two rooms, in a case on a shelf.  
  • Small key 2: This one is also easy to grab during chapter two, located in the corner of the dining room in the Village Chief's Manor.
  • Small key 3: When you go to get boat fuel from the Fish Farm, you can find this key in a drawer in a shack just next to the one where the boat fuel is located. 
  • Small key 4: Once you get the insignia key as part of the main story, unlock the symbol gate just next to the Lakeside Settlement to access the Forest Altar. Climb the ladder to the altar itself and you'll find the key off to the side on the back of a cart by a barrel.
  • Small key 5: When you unlock the Church in chapter four, this key is located on a table with flowers next to the altar.

Castle small key locations

There are a few more keys you can find in the castle to unlock drawers there:

  • Small key 6: Jumping to chapter eight, this small key is found lying on a book in a small room after exiting the Bindery. You'll know you're in the right place because you'll see a creature scuttle across the wall.
  • Small key 7: In chapter nine, you'll find yourself collecting three golden animal heads to place on a chimera statue in the Grand Hall area. The key is in a cupboard in the first room leading towards the armory where the lion's head is located. You can tell it's the right room because of the suit of armor at the far end that Ashley comments on.
  • Small key 8: During chapter twelve, you'll come up from underground to find a decorative gondola leading towards the Clock Tower, with a merchant nearby. The key is in a case just next to the gondola.

Once you arrive at the island you can sell any remaining small keys to the merchant.

Sean Martin
Guides Writer

Sean's first PC games were Full Throttle and Total Annihilation and his taste has stayed much the same since. When not scouring games for secrets or bashing his head against puzzles, you'll find him revisiting old Total War campaigns, agonizing over his Destiny 2 fit, or still trying to finish the Horus Heresy. Sean has also written for EDGE, Eurogamer, PCGamesN, Wireframe, EGMNOW, and Inverse.