Broken Butterfly

"I see you have an eye for things. Gun's not just about shootin'. It's about reloadin'. You'll know what I'm talkin' about.

The Broken Butterfly is a magnum revolver that can be acquired from the Merchant for 38,000 pesetas. However, a free one can be obtained in the locked room next to the fountain in the castle. Leon will need Ashley's help to retrieve it. It takes up 8 spaces (4x2) of Leon's inventory.

Upgrade Chart

 * Cost is in parenthesis

The Broken Butterfly's exclusive upgrade increases its firepower to 50.0. This makes it the third most powerful weapon in the game next to the Handcannon and the Rocket Launcher. Although this weapon is quite powerful it has its downsides. This weapons ammo is quite limited, ammo is more then often rare to find. It is not advised to buy this weapon from the merchant due to the fact; as said earlier can be found in the "castle". If one is to aquire this weapon it is advised to keep the ammo for use on more powerful enemies rather than regular "Ganados". Not only is the ammo for this weapon rare but it is a great source of income. Some missions can produce up to 50 rounds of this ammo and others can barely scrap up 5 rounds so do not count on this ammo showing up.

Trivia

 * The Broken Butterfly is a fictional conglomeration of the Schofield Model 3 and Colt SAA. Both are infamous guns from the American West in the latter half of the 19th century. They are both, indeed, .45 caliber single action revolvers.
 * The gun is a top-break revolver meaning the frame is hinged at the bottom of the cylinder. It is reloaded by releasing the lock and pushing down the barrel revealing the rear of the cylinder. This reloading procedure makes the gun look like it's being "broken in half".


 * Leon puts only 3 shells in the cylinder when he reloads the magnum, which is questionable since the Broken Butterfly is obviously a 6 shot revolver. This is probably because the developers only made one reload-animation for the weapon instead of making more, possibly due to time-constraints.


 * If you look closely at the recoil shield on the BB, you'll notice that it has a small cutout on the right side, similar to what is found on cap & ball guns in the middle of the 19th century.
 * The BB also features a beaver tail grip tang. This is odd to find on any single action revolver, let alone revolvers of any type. Generally this grip tang is used on semi-automatic weapons to prevent the firer from placing his/her hand in the path of the traveling slide and in recent years to protect the shooter from "hammer bite." The existence of the grip tang on this revolver could indicate that, instead of being single action like the weapons it resembles, it is actually double-action.
 * The examine text for the gun includes the statement: "This gun will make anyone's day". This is a reference to the movie Sudden Impact. It's a line spoken by Dirty Harry, the movie character who popularized the magnum revolver. In the Dirty Harry films the magnum is shown as incredibly powerful, sending people flying into the air, a feat frequently replicated in Resident Evil 4.
 * The phrase "It's about reloadin'" that the Merchant says possibly refers to the thrill of reloading a revolver in the heat of battle, as reloading a revolver without a speedloader quickly in stressful situation proves to be a exciting race against time for those who like revolvers and a challenge of a lifetime
 * When you pick up the free BB in Resident Evil 4, The skin when you pick it up is very different from when it is actually in your inventory. When in your inventory it is Black and looks very modern. When seen while you are picking it up, it has a "Wild West" look to it, with mostly silver and a wooden handle