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Resident Evil 3 - Defend Jill encounter strategy

How to survive the waves and stop zombies overrunning the hospital.

Defend Jill is an encounter at the end of the Hospital section as Carlos, which sees you face off against waves of zombies.

On paper this sounds fairly straightforward - but there's a few curveballs, such as limited supplies and the appearances of Hunters which can make things difficult.

Looking for something else? Visit our Resident Evil 3 walkthrough for more help.

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Defend Jill encounter strategy

After the cutscene, you have an objective of defending Jill. This is one of the toughest parts of the game, and requires some quick reactions and some planning to succeed.

Cover image for YouTube videoResident Evil 3 Defend Jill strategy

Before you head out, make sure you have a few clear slots in your Inventory, and have fully healed and reloaded your weapons.

Head out, and after the cutscene, you need to defend the door against the zombies coming in through the windows.

The best place to generally stand is around the counter, giving you a good view of the windows and the door.

You have two goals - thinning out the zombies, and stopping any from approaching the door into Jill's room. If a zombie starts trying to enter, the containers blocking it will collapse, so you need to keep them away.

Shoot zombies coming in through the window, and with a few rounds they will die when they hit the ground. In general, when any zombie is downed, they will stay that way and their corpse will disappear - so no need to worry about them springing back to life during this encounter.

Repeat this until the lights go out. Now stand to the side of the doors behind the counter, as it will burst open and a Hunter will enter.

Now quickly enter this room. There is a container in the corner with Flash Grenades and regular Grenades. Quickly throw a Grenade into this room to kill the Hunter, which will follow in after you. Now clear out the rest of the items in here - there's some other consumables, and a Hip Pouch on the side.

Then, to continue, make sure you flip the circuit breaker switch on the wall.


Our full Resident Evil 3 walkthrough explains every aspect's of Jill's, including the Shotgun location, Bolt cutters and Lockpick locations, how to reset the Circuit Breakers to restore power in the Substation, find the Drugstore safe code solution and Aqua Cure clue, Police Station Safe, Locker codes, Hospital safe code and courtyard box for the Magnum explained.


While this has been happening, chances are a zombie will be attacking Jill's room. Make sure it's clear, and chip away at the zombie numbers in the main room. If you are running low on ammo, there are various boxes with some inside you can collect.

Nemesis-infected zombies will also start appearing, as well as another Hunter will appear through the window. Because of this, stay around the counter as much as you can, so you can get back in that room and throw another Grenade when the Hunter enters. If you are injured at all by a zombie or Hunter while a Hunter is present, immediately heal, as you can easily get hit again and taken out for good.

At the end, a cutscene will play where the room will be overrun. You now have to place the Detonator at the C4 at the base of the column where indicated, and last 30 seconds.

Our tip, especially if you have run out of ammo, is to lob Flash Grenades regularly to immobilise all the zombies until the timer is up.

Congrats on surviving! With that done, you'll play as Jill again - allowing you to reach the Courtyard box and get the Magnum before moving onto the Underground Storage section.