Resident Evil Village guide: Wells and well handle key item location

Starting very early in Resident Evil Village, you’ll start finding wells. Their locations will get marked on your map, but you won’t find the key item you need — the well wheel — until much later in the game.

In this RE8 walkthrough, we’ll tell you where to find the well wheel key item, every well, and tell you how to clear out the well with ladder room.

Resident Evil Village well wheel key item location

After you defeat Lady Dimitrescu and escape the castle, you’ll find your way to the Altar area. While you’re completing the “Find the house with the red chimney” objective, you’ll fight an armored lycan near an Iron Insignia Key gate.

Use the Iron Insignia Key to open the gate.

Graphic: Jeffrey Parkin | Sources: Capcom via Polygon

Go through the door to the left of the ladder. To the right, you’ll find the well wheel (finally).

Resident Evil Village well locations

There are six wells scattered around RE8’s village.

The first four wells in the village are immediately accessible once you pick up the well wheel.

• West Old Town. The well behind the very first house you saw in West Old Town has a lockpick inside.
• Maiden of War. The well to the southeast of the Maiden of War statue has a wooden animal (head) treasure.
• Church. The well behind the Church has a Necklace with Two Holes treasure.
• Fallow Plot. The well in the southeast of the Fallow Plot — it’s behind the house where you met the survivors just before Luiza’s House — has a pipe bomb inside.

The next well you’ll find is on the way back from House Beneviento after defeating Donna and Angie. On the north side of the Garden area, you’ll find a well with the Madelina (head) treasure. (This is the same house where you’ll find the second labyrinth puzzle.)

The final well is a little trickier both to find and to clear out. It gets its own section.

Well with ladder location and items

After you defeat Moreau and return from the Reservoir, you’ll have both the boat key and the crank key item. Take the crank to the drawbridge along the Lone Road. Lower the bridge, cross it, and you’ll find another boat.

Take that boat north along the Mountain Stream. At the north end of the stream, you’ll find another drawbridge. This one leads you back to the Carpenter’s House — the first house you found after escaping Castle Dimitrescu.

Using the well wheel here will raise a ladder. At the bottom of the ladder, you’ll find a room with a few easy-to-miss items.

Graphic: Jeffrey Parkin | Sources: Capcom via Polygon

In the room with the hanging death panels, check the right side for a mine. Climb up the panels along the right to reach a path above you. Turn left for a pipe bomb.

Interact with the control panel to turn all the lights green. Cross to the southwestern corner and shove both of the carts out of the way. Don’t drop down yet, though — grab the shotgun ammo from the rocks in the corner.

Drop onto the cart in the center of the room, and use it to climb over to the west. Smash the crate for an explosive round. Drop through the hole in the floor.

Grab the magnum ammo and flashbangs, and then open the chest for a large pigeon blood ruby.

Unlock the gate and head back out. Check the green water(?) at the bottom of the ladder for a lockpick.