Herbs

Herbs are both a lore concept and the primary healing items in the series. Every game to date includes herbs, with some having no in-universe explanation. Generally, herbs are either found by picking them off the map or in later games dropped by enemies. They usually appear as small potted plants, and when mixed with other herbs take on a powder like composition.

History[]

There are many species of herbs which are native to the Arklay Mountains, the region of the American midwest where Raccoon City was located, and each kind of herb has a distinct color and medicinal quality.^[1] The green herb recovers physical strength and heals fatigue, helping to strengthen the natural healing process so that wounds heal faster while also having an active immune function that helps fight viral infection. The blue herb neutralizes natural toxins, while the red herb has no effect when used on its own.^[2]

The Umbrella Corporation created other species of the herbs that could grow on Rockfort Island and at the Antarctic Base by breeding the ones from Raccoon City.^[3]

By 1998, botanists had researched and documented the fact that the red herbs could in fact be mixed with other herbs in order to magnify their effects. An Asian medicine doctor specifically made the discovery that mixing blue and red herbs creates an effect that "strengthen one's constitution".^[4] Herbs became popular in Raccoon City and were being used in various products and home recipes such as in the Herb Cream and Herb Pie Recipes.

By 2003, these herbs were being widely used in the medical field and were recommended by botanists to be kept around to help protect individuals from the rising threat of bioterrorism. This led to them being used and cultivated all around the world.

Herbs typically come in different colors and individual and mixed herbs usually have similar properties across different games. Most of the games up to Resident Evil 4 has them function similarly with games afterwards having reworking them each time.

Video games[]

Herbs are a type of Health Item used to recover health or heal status ailments. They usually have the unique property of being able to be combined with other herbs to create "mixed herbs" which have additional effects or heal more. Most early games allow for three herbs to be combined and some later games only two such as Resident Evil 5 and Resident Evil 6. Some games do not feature mixing at all such as Resident Evil Gaiden and Resident Evil: Revelations. Some games allow herbs to used in other ways or are related to other mechanics.

Gaiden[]

Resident Evil Gaiden is much more atypical as it does not have herb mixing and instead has a yellow herb that heals more than green, and the red herb heals heavy damage. It also has Purple Herb that cures poison and heals a small amount of health.

Outbreak[]

Most games give herbs and mixtures additional or different properties. In Resident Evil Outbreak and File #2, herbs have many more uses. Red herbs can be used on their own to stop the Virus Gauge temporarily. Each kind of herb and mixed herbs can also be converted into a different kind of medicinal pill by George Hamilton and George-type characters using the Medical Set. These pills often have effects different from those of the herb used to make it; i.e. green herbs are converted into antidotes which cures poison instead of restoring health. Cindy Lennox and Cindy-type characters can heal other characters with herbs.

Resident Evil 4[]

Resident Evil 4 was the first in the series to not include the blue herb, instead it prominently features Yellow Herbs that increases characters' maximum life. They are only usable when combined with a green herb, or both a green and red herb.

Revelations[]

In Revelations, green herbs can be obtained by scanning enemies using the Genesis, with one being added to the inventory when the scanning percentage reaches 100%. A maximum of 5 can be stored at any one time.

Resident Evil 6[]

In Resident Evil 6, herbs aren't used directly and instead are converted into Health Tablets used for healing. A single green herb can be turned into 1 tablet, whereas combining two green herbs makes three tablets, combining three green herbs makes 6 tablets and combining a green and a red herb also makes 6 tablets. In the inventory, each herb and stack of up to 6 tablets takes up one inventory slot, however tablets need to be sent to the bottom in order to be used, and whilst there, there is no limit to how many can stack.

Revelations 2[]

In Resident Evil: Revelations 2, instead of making mixed herbs, combining a green and red herb makes three green herbs. Green herbs can also be combined with cloth to make tourniquets. They take up one inventory slot, but can be stacked up to three herbs.

Resident Evil 7[]

In Resident Evil 7: Biohazard they can be combined with Chem Fluid or Strong Chem Fluid to make First Aid Meds or Strong First Aid Meds respectively.

Gameplay[]

The following is a list of links to pages containing more specific gameplay information about herbs. In the earliest games, up to Code Veronica, herbs came in green, red, and blue. Beginning with Resident Evil 4, the Blue Herb was dropped and some later titles also dispense the red herb as well.

Herb / Mixture	Info
Green Herb	Appear in every game and is the most common to find. Usually heals a small amount of health or large amounts for games without herb mixing. In games that use the EKG to represent health, they usually heal enough to raise the player's condition by one rating i.e. yellow "Caution" to "Fine". In Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D they heal a specific amount for each character and costume.
Blue Herb	Appear in most games before Resident Evil 4 and are used to cure poison. Some creatures have scripted events associated with them where their poison cannot be cured by a blue herb such as Nosferatu in Resident Evil CODE:Veronica.
Red Herb	Usually have no effect on their own and are meant to be mixed with a green herb to produce a fully healing mixture.
Green+Green	Heals more than one Green Herb
Green+Green+Green	Fully heals or close to full
Green+Blue	Healing effect of one Green Herb, plus cures poison
Green+Green+Blue	Heals more than one Green Herb, plus cures poison
Blue+Red	Cures poisons. In the remake of Resident Evil 2, temporarily grants poison immunity in addition to giving a damage resistance. Once used, a small green shield will appear in the bottom right indicating a duration -Please confirm the amount of damage resist-.
Green+Red	Fully heals
Green+Red+Blue	Fully heals plus cures poison. In the remake of Resident Evil 2, it also grants temporary immunity against poison and damage resistance.

Games with multiple types of herbs
Game	Green	Red	Blue	Other	Mixed
Resident Evil 2 (2019)	Green Herb	Red Herb	Blue Herb		N/A	Mixed Herb (G+R) Mixed Herb (G+G) Mixed Herb (G+G+G)
Resident Evil Confidential Report				Green Herb PLUS
Resident Evil: The Deck Building Game	Green Herb (IT-001)	Red Herb (IT-004)	N/A	Yellow Herb (IT-002)	N/A

Games with only Green herbs
Game	Name
Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D	Herb (Green)
Resident Evil: Revelations
Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City

Further notes[]

A promotional food item called "CURRY OF THE BIOHAZARD" was released in 2005 based on the idea it was made from herb.
The "Resident Evil: Revelations 2 - Concept Teaser" has a green herb in the background as an easter egg and an article titled "Herb (Concept Teaser)" on Resident Evil Recollections mentions so.
Outside of healing items, the Purple Plant was planned as a key item in Resident Evil 0. The Outbreak games have multiple special items related to herbs.
Each herb has a real-life equivalent: green is matcha, red is hibiscus, yellow is turmeric, and blue is aronia.
- In-game, it is possible to grind the herbs into powders to mix with others. In real life, one can do this more simply by adding cornstarch to the herb's juice concentrate. The blue herb would realistically also be mixed with anti-caking agent and silica.