RE4 Remake Matilda: Is the Burst Handgun Worth 22 Spinel?

The Matilda in the Resident Evil 4 remake costs 22 spinel, not 10. The Merchant trades you the pistol for 10 spinel from Chapter 8, but the three-round burst the 2005 version had built in now lives in a separate part, the Matilda Stock, and that is another 12 spinel he does not put on the table until Chapter 11.

Game8 rates the Matilda as not recommended on its spinel list, and Destructoid's guide says it is not worth even the first 10. For a normal first run they are right, and the request arithmetic below shows exactly how much it costs you. There are also three places where buying it is the correct call.

Everything here is the main campaign of the 2023 remake. The Resident Evil Wiki lists the Matilda for the main game only, so it is not part of Separate Ways or The Mercenaries.

The burst is a 12-spinel add-on now

In the 2005 game the Matilda was a reward for finishing. Per the wiki, the Merchant sold it only after a first clear, for 70,000 pesetas, with its stock permanently attached and burst fire out of the box. The remake moved it into the first playthrough and cut it in two:

Both item descriptions say the same thing: the stock is what lets the Matilda fire three-round bursts. Game8 and Destructoid agree. Without it, you are carrying a semi-automatic handgun with a big magazine.

The wiki's stock page adds two details. The stock reduces recoil and improves accuracy, and with it attached, holding the trigger fires the burst while a tap still fires a single round. A player in an April 2023 Steam thread on the Minimalist challenge reports the same thing: with the stock on, the gun does not force the whole burst. So the stock does not commit you to spending three rounds every time you pull the trigger.

One wording difference is worth knowing. The gun's Japanese item text, as the wiki records it, calls the stocked burst high-powered; the English text does not use the word. No source I found puts a damage number on the burst, so treat it as three rounds at the Matilda's listed power, fired close together, until someone measures it.

What it costs, chapter by chapter

The wiki and Destructoid put the gun at Chapter 8 for 10 spinel and the stock at Chapter 11 for 12. Game8's Matilda page gates upgrade levels 4 and 5, and the exclusive, behind Chapter 9.

Two things fall out of that. The Chapter 9 gate barely touches the Matilda, because it arrives one chapter before the gate lifts. And the remake has 16 chapters, so the gun is in your case for at most nine of them and the burst for six.

Stats by level and the upgrade bill

The wiki's upgrade chart and Game8's Matilda page agree on every figure here. Each track has four paid steps; the last column is the track's total.

Precision is fixed at 3.50 and does not upgrade.

• Power is about half the bill. 146,000 of the 298,000 in normal upgrades buys 0.70 power.
• Capacity is cheap. 52,000 takes the magazine from 18 to 30, about a third of what the Power track costs.
• The exclusive doubles the magazine, not the damage. Maxed, that is 60 rounds. An Exclusive Upgrade Ticket, whose item text grants an exclusive at any weapon level, would make a level-1 Matilda 36.

Ammo is where the burst costs you. Handgun Ammo is one Resources (S) and 5 gunpowder for 10 rounds, per the wiki and the crafting guide — 0.50 gunpowder a round, against 0.20 for SMG ammo (Resources (L) and 6 gunpowder for 30, per the wiki's SMG ammo page). A burst costs 1.5 gunpowder. Filling the 60-round exclusive magazine from empty takes 30 gunpowder and six Resources (S).

Against Leon's other handguns

Game8's weapon list gives Leon six handguns in the main campaign, one of them the DLC Sentinel Nine. Here is the Matilda against the other four, on the wiki's charts. Max power and magazine include each gun's exclusive where it changes them.

• Its maximum power ties the pistol you start with. The Red9 and Blacktail both have 1.5x power exclusives, which take them to 4.05 and 3.60 — 1.8 to 2 times the Matilda's 2.00.
• Its magazine is in a different league. 60 rounds with the exclusive against 16 for the Red9 and 13 for the Blacktail. Even without the exclusive, its 30 is more than any of the other four reaches.
• It is the second-least precise of the five. Only the Red9 is lower, at 3.00 before its stock.
• It arrives last of the five, and costs spinel twice. The Red9's stock is a single 9-spinel trade from Chapter 6 on Game8's list.

So the Matilda's argument is volume, not per-shot damage. Game8 says it works at close to mid range and can stun enemies for a melee follow-up, though that can take a while, or fail, on stronger ones. If you own the Deluxe weapons, the Sentinel Nine and Skull Shaker guide tables all six handguns, including the DLC pistol's 31-round magazine; the weapon upgrade guide makes the case for where long-term handgun money goes.

The 22 spinel comes out of your second ticket

The 19 Merchant requests pay 84 spinel between them, per Game Rant's request table, which also lists each one's reward; PowerPyx's list puts every request in the same chapter. Game8's trade list sells the Exclusive Upgrade Ticket for 30 spinel from Chapter 7 and 40 from Chapter 13. Run the request spinel against the Matilda's two trades:

• Buy the first ticket in Chapter 7 and you cannot afford the Matilda in Chapter 8 on request spinel. You arrive with at most 6. The fourth Blue Medallions request, in Chapter 9, covers it: it pays 5, taking you to 11. More Pest Control is also posted in Chapter 9, but PowerPyx puts its third rat in Chapter 10, so its 3 spinel arrive a chapter later.
• Take the ticket, the gun and the stock, and you leave Chapter 11 with at most 4 spinel. The remaining requests pay 28, so you finish the campaign holding at most 32 — 8 short of the second ticket.
• That is before anything else on the list. The Laser Sight is 10, the Red9 Stock 9, the TMP Stock 8 and the two attaché cases 20 between them.

The wiki says spinel also turns up rarely in hanging pots and from some enemies, so the gap is luck rather than a wall. But on request spinel alone, the Matilda package and the second ticket do not both fit. The attaché case guide finds the same squeeze between both tickets and both cases, and the Merchant requests guide has every request's location.

For scale: 22 spinel is more than either attaché case (8 and 12) or the Laser Sight (10), and about 73% of a first ticket. Game8's trade priority list groups the Punisher and Matilda together in sixth place of seven, above only treasures and gunpowder.

Three places it earns the spinel

1. Minimalist. The challenge pays 1,500 CP and a silver trophy for a main-story clear using only knives and handguns, with specific battles excluded. The wiki classes the Matilda as a handgun and its stock as a weapon part. A Minimalist run rules out SMGs, rifles and shotguns, and the wiki's gameplay notes on the Matilda call it a pseudo-submachine gun that fires as fast as you can pull the trigger. That is the kind of gun the challenge otherwise takes away. In the April 2023 Steam thread on the challenge, players suggest the Matilda for boss damage, and another warns about its ammo use. I found no report of the stocked Matilda voiding the challenge, and none of a clear that names it, so treat this as a reading of the challenge text rather than a tested guarantee.
2. Gun Fanatic. It asks you to obtain every weapon. It is a bronze trophy and a 0 CP challenge, and 7.3% of Steam players had it on October 25, 2026. The wiki's Matilda page lists the gun as needed for it, and Destructoid's Gun Fanatic guide includes it and says you only need to have owned each weapon at some point. The challenges guide covers the rest of the challenge list.
3. Parts Enthusiast. It asks you to obtain every weapon part, for 500 CP. The wiki lists the Matilda Stock as needed for it, alongside the Laser Sight. So a completionist pays the full 22 sooner or later; the only question is on which save.

If you only want the gun for Gun Fanatic, you can trade, then sell. The wiki lists base sell prices of 10,000 pesetas for the Matilda and 3,000 for the stock, and PowerPyx's trophy-guide author, answering a reader, says selling weapons is fine for that trophy. The wiki and Game8 also list a 20,000-peseta buying price for the Matilda, but neither says when it applies, so treat a sale as final.

Which players should buy it

• A first run where you are playing for the story: skip it. 22 spinel is most of a ticket, and a ticket's 1.5x power exclusive on a Red9 or Blacktail does more for a normal run than a 2.00-power pistol with a big magazine.
• A Minimalist run: buy both. If you took the first ticket in Chapter 7, trade for the Matilda in Chapter 9 once the fourth Blue Medallions request pays, and add the stock in Chapter 11. Put money into capacity first: 52,000 buys 12 more rounds, about a third of the Power track's bill.
• A completion run: you need both anyway. Gun Fanatic needs the gun and Parts Enthusiast needs the stock. Buy them on the save where you are not chasing the second ticket, or trade and sell the gun back if you only need to have owned it.
• Do not spend a ticket on it. On a level-1 Matilda, a ticket buys 18 extra rounds and still charges the 70,000-peseta exclusive. The capacity track buys 12 for 52,000 pesetas, with no spinel involved.

For the rest of the arsenal, the best SMG, best rifle and best knife guides run the same kind of comparison for their classes.

Quick Action Checklist

• Matilda: 10 spinel from the Merchant, from Chapter 8. Main campaign only.
• Matilda Stock: 12 spinel from Chapter 11, 3 case slots. Without it there is no burst.
• With the stock, hold the trigger to burst; a tap still fires one round.
• Maxed: 2.00 power and 30 rounds, or 60 with the 70,000-peseta exclusive. Every upgrade plus the exclusive is 368,000 pesetas.
• Levels 4 and 5 and the exclusive open in Chapter 9.
• The 19 requests pay 84 spinel. Two tickets plus the gun and stock is 92.
• Buy it for Minimalist, Gun Fanatic or Parts Enthusiast. On an ordinary first run, keep the spinel for tickets.