In Resident Evil Village, almost everything that the player comes across will try to kill them in one way or another. Whether it's typical zombies, giant vampire ladies, werewolves, or something far worse, they all seem to want Ethan dead. For this reason, it can come as something of a shock when players meet Duke and discover that he doesn't seem to have an immutable desire to harm the protagonist. Taking this a step further, he even offers help in the form of a shop. With all that in mind, the only logical thing to do is to see how Duke reacts when hit with a pipe bomb.
For those readers that don't understand the logic there, the reason for doing such a thing lies in the reward. Surprisingly, Resident Evil Village devs Capcom actually put in separate animations for how Duke reacts if the player throws a pipe bomb at him, and they are honestly kind of funny.
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Players may be familiar with the fact that Duke reacts to being shot in Resident Evil 8, as he claps his hand and offers up a laugh. In some cases he even gives Ethan some advice, telling him to be careful about wasting ammunition. Rather than simply reusing this animation and these dialogue lines for when Duke is hit with a pipe bomb, Capcom saw fit to create not one, but two entirely new animations for that seemingly uncommon occurrence.
If the player throws a pipe bomb at Duke, he doesn't seem to react to the initial throw. Instead, once the bomb goes off and smoke fills the area around him, Duke will wave his arms to blow the smoke away. Sometimes he coughs as he's clearing the smoke and other times he'll make comments about the destructive power of the pipe bomb. In all cases, the pipe bomb doesn't seem to deal any actual damage to him, even if his reactions to this are a bit stronger than when the player shoots him.
Astute players pointed out a potential reason for why Duke is so okay with Ethan throwing pipe bombs at him that makes the situation even funnier. If the player wants to make more pipe bombs and replenish their stock, they are going to need the pipe bomb recipe. This is obtained from Duke by purchasing it for 3000 Lei. Pipe bombs can also be purchased directly from Duke for 2500 Lei each. It's basically as if Ethan is throwing money at Duke, so his mild mannered reaction is somewhat more understandable.
Resident Evil Village is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.